No, that wasn’t entirely true. I was thinking about Brock and Fiona Apple but mostly I was thinking about how great his ass looked in his faded jeans.

Once I quit thinking of this (around about the time he disappeared), I looked around for my glasses, saw Brock had taken them off and put them on the table at the side of the sofa, I nabbed them, slipped them on my nose, got up and walked to the kitchen.

I was at the sink filling the coffeepot with water when he made it into the kitchen.

It took a bit of effort but I didn’t drop the glass pot into my ceramic sink when I saw a smokin’ hot, clothes disheveled, usually sexy, unruly-haired now sexier, unrulier-haired (due to sleep and my hands running through it), heavy-eyed Brock Lucas saunter into my kitchen.

Whoa.

I’d never woken up with Brock but just looking at him in the morning was nearly as good as one of his kisses.

Nearly.

I turned off the water and moved to the coffeemaker covering this reaction by asking, “Do you not like Fiona Apple?”

His response was, “Is this a deal breaker for you?”

I’d flipped up the top of the coffeemaker and turned to him while I poured the water in seeing he was preparing to open the fridge.

That was when I said, “I’ll take that as a no.”

He stood, fingers curled around the fridge’s door handle and his eyes leveled on me.

“Babe, I listen to Credence, the Eagles, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Thorogood, shit like that and pretty much anything country if a chick ain’t singin’ it. Does that sound like a man who’d like Fiona Apple?”

“No,” I replied. “It sounds like a man in dire need of a crash course in three decades of music. The boys are back from Vietnam, Brock, follow me into the new millennium.”

He grinned at me and muttered, “Smartass,” before he opened the fridge door and stuck his head into it.

I was feeling warm gushiness in my belly due to his grin and seeing his head stuck in my fridge when I heard my cell ring.

I shoved the coffeepot under the coffeemaker and moved to my purse on the kitchen counter wondering who was calling me at that ungodly hour and why. Then I pulled out my phone, looked at the display and saw it was Martha.

Damn.

I hit the button on the screen to take the call and put it to my ear.

“Hey, honey,” I greeted. “What’s up?”

“His filthy, rusted, beat up, in desperate need of a trade up truck is still in front of your house, that’s what’s up,” was Martha’s greeting and my eyes moved out the kitchen doorframe toward the front window which was still covered by closed blinds.

Then I asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because I swung by your place on my way to work to check and see how crazy, stupid you’re being with a smokin’ hot guy and I found out you’re being off-the-charts crazy, stupid with a smokin’ hot guy.”

“Martha!” I snapped.

“Am I wrong or did his truck not start last night and he hitched a ride home?” she asked.

My eyes went to the microwave then they went to the kitchen counter. “I cannot believe you. You are the one who’s crazy. First, you don’t leave for work for an hour and second, my house is thirty minutes out of your way to get to work.”

“I am committed to the mission of stopping you from making another very bad mistake,”

she returned.

I heard the fridge close but I didn’t need to hear it to be very aware that Brock was in the room and he could hear every word.

“I can’t talk about this now,” I told her. “Come by the bakery tonight after work. We’ll have a cupcake and a chat.”

“Girl, I’m single and my best friend just dropped ten pounds and got a three hundred dollar hairstyle. There is no way I’m eating one of your cupcakes because eating one means eating four and I don’t need those cupcakes on my fat ass when I’m out on the prowl with you. No one looked at me before, what with you and your bodacious ta-ta’s and the look on your face that says to all comers, ‘Isn’t it sweet, the whole world is like Disneyland!’ I eat your cupcakes which never fail to settle on my ass, I’ll become invisible.”

“That isn’t true,” I told her.

“Which part?” she shot back.

“All of it,” I answered instantly.

“Girl, wake… up. ”

I sighed. Then my eyes moved to Brock to see him, h*ps against the counter, open jug of milk in his hand and I was pretty certain I missed him drinking straight from it.

A drawback.

He grinned at me and I felt the sweet hum in the air, saw his eyes dancing and knew he was grinning in order not to burst out laughing.

Okay, cancel drawback. He could drink straight from the milk jug all he wanted as long as he filled my kitchen with that great vibe and grinned at me while looking all morning hot guy.

“Hello!” Martha snapped in my ear and I jerked my eyes away from Brock.

“I’m here,” I told her.

“Ohmigod, he’s right there muddling your head,” she muttered.

She wasn’t wrong about that.

Time to get serious.

“Martha, really, honey, we need to talk.”

“Shit.” She was still muttering.

“It’s important,” I whispered and felt the amused Brock vibe flatten but the kitchen filled with warmth.

Martha heard my tone, read it and immediately gave in. “All right but we’re not meeting at the bakery for cupcakes. You’re coming over and I’m making salad.”

I blinked at the counter. “You’re making salad?”

“I’m making salad.”

“Honey, the last time I had dinner at your house, you fried celery.”

The warmth in the room remained but the hum came back and it was heralded in by Brock roaring with laughter.

My eyes cut to him and I bugged them out but he ignored my hint, kept laughing and did it shaking his head.

“I hear he found that amusing,” Martha noted irritably.

I looked away from Brock and pointed out, “Martha, babe, you fried celery. Anyone would find that amusing.”

“I’m an experimental chef,” she fired back.

This was true. But she was not an altogether successful one.

I sighed again.

Then I suggested, “How about you come over here and I’ll make salads.”