Final Score

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“Why do I get the impression you don’t like feeling trapped?” she said. He could hear the smile in her voice.

He thought about that. How could a woman who barely even knew him throw out a comment like that? Was he giving off some kind of vibe? So he asked her. “What makes you say that?”

Once more the sponge stopped moving. “I don’t know. I get the sense that you like to keep things loose. And Serena told me you won some kind of eternal-bachelor contest with your friends.”

“Not eternal,” he corrected her. “Last Bachelor Standing. I’ll get married.” Though even saying the word caused a constriction in his throat. “Someday.”

“So I was wrong?”

Was she? Now his rag stopped moving as he took a moment to think about whether or not he felt easily trapped. “I don’t know. I don’t spend a lot of time contemplating the lint in my navel. I’ve been in the same job for ten years.” Though he might not have it for much longer if he wasn’t careful. “I’ve got the same friends I’ve had since I was a kid. That’s commitment. Right?”

“Absolutely.” But she didn’t sound completely convinced. Sure, most of the guys he knew who were his age and even younger were married. Some had kids, and he always imagined he’d do it, too. The time had never been right. The woman had never been right. Or maybe he’d never been ready.

“People change,” he said. “Adam and Max were as bad as me six months ago. Now they’re both headed for the wedding chapel.”

“You don’t sound envious.”

“I think Serena’s a great gal. And Claire seems like she suits Max. But no, I’m not envious. Except that I figure they’ll both have a lot less time to spend playing hockey and hanging out with the guys once they’re hitched and start having kids.”

“You’ll have to find some younger guys to hang out with.”

She said it perfectly seriously, but he got the idea that she might be suggesting he was immature. Which was probably true.

“How about you? Do you feel like buying a house is permanent?”

“I think I do. Even though I understand that people change houses on average every five to ten years, my folks are still in the same house they bought when they got married. I bought a place I could grow into.”

“You planning to fill it with a husband and babies?” He didn’t mean to sound sarcastic but he thought it might have slipped out.

“Sure. I hope I meet the right guy. But if I don’t, I’ve got a good career, and I’ll have a nice home as soon as you finish renovating it for me.”

It was weird that it sounded a little lonely when she described what was essentially his own existence: a house he was fixing up, a great career and no plans to outfit a nursery any time soon.

He climbed down off the ladder, picking it up to move it to the next quadrant of the ceiling. He heard the swish of the bucket, not registering that the swishing sound was much closer than before until he collided with a warm back. Dylan always moved fast. He was one hundred and eighty-five pounds of impatient, so when he struck an object it tended to fly.

Cassie was no exception. With a startled cry, she tumbled. He grabbed her, all his training and instincts kicking in before conscious thought, and he tossed her to the bed, his own momentum carrying him in the same direction.

They fell to the bed. She somehow ended up underneath him, the sponge still in her up-flung hand so a fan of water sprayed out onto the plastic-covered canvas drop sheet.

He glanced down into her face, surprise and shock registering. Then he noticed that she was warm and soft beneath him on the bed and all the attraction he’d been pretending he didn’t feel roared to the surface. He didn’t even think, because if he thought before he acted he wouldn’t do half the things in his life that he did.

He leaned down. Not too fast, not wanting to take his mouth where it wasn’t wanted. But he’d felt the answering attraction and he felt it now. She didn’t roll away or push him off. She opened her lips in a kind of breathless sigh. When he kissed her he felt the moment their lips touched that it had been inevitable from the second he’d walked into her house.

She was gorgeous, sweet, single, and they were together a lot in a small house. He kissed her, going deeper than he’d intended until she moaned deep in her throat. When she started to move against him, he felt his arousal shoot up.