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Until Kyle’s voice carried around the barn.

“Mac! You find those hinges?”

They broke apart and froze.

Mac rested his forehead against hers.

Jodie bit her lip, trying not to laugh.

“Yeah!” Mac called back, his voice noticeably rougher. “Got ’em, Boss!”

“Bring ’em around!”

“Yep.”

Neither moved.

Finally, Mac exhaled. “There’s one more thing.”

Jodie’s stomach fluttered. “Okay.”

“I made dinner reservations. At Lavender. Before you asked me for pizza.”

“You did? Lavender, huh? Wow. That place is like, for a date-date.”

He nodded. “I was going to ask you after the range. Then you said pizza, and then you called it a friend dinner, and I…” He glanced away, actually looking nervous. “I didn’t want to presume.”

“I thought maybe I imagined all of that.”

Mac looked back at her. “You didn’t.” He chuckled. “Obviously.” He ran his fingers through her ponytail.

“Obviously.” Jodie laughed softly. “Good.”

His smile returned. “So, may I take you to Lavender?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah?” He brushed the tip of his nose against hers.

“Yes, Mac. You may.”

Kyle shouted again from the other side of the barn. “Hinges!”

Jodie and Mac both groaned, and reluctantly stepped apart. Jodie picked up Mac’s hat, stretched as high as she could, and jammed it back onto his head.

“Come on, cowboy. Apparently, civilization depends on us.”

Mac grabbed the box, still smiling.

Jodie followed him around the barn trying to look like she had not just spent the last several minutes making out with a coworker behind it.

From the heat in her cheeks, she suspected she was failing spectacularly.

EIGHT

Jodie turned sideways in front of her bedroom mirror, smoothed both hands over her little black dress, and smiled.

Well, hello there.