“Oh yeah, you can’t give it back,” Kelsey said quickly. “Dad had to write an essay to win that!”

Jane felt her eyes widen. “An essay?”

“Yeah,” Kelsey said. “I wrote it but they were his words. And it’s awesome.” She grinned at her father. “Very mushy. All about how happy he is that his daughter found true love and how he couldn’t have picked a better guy and how he knows Dax will be there for you through all the tough times to come.”

Jane felt her throat thicken and a stinging behind her eyes. There were tough times coming. Probably. Eventually. No one really knew. But no matter what happened with his condition, there would be a time when Jane would have to deal with losing Jack. And having Dax beside her for that sounded amazing.

He couldn’t fix everything that happened or went wrong, but he made things better. Facing things with him was infinitely better than facing them without him, no matter how it turned out.

“You totally used that wheelchair to get this win, didn’t you?” Jane teased her dad, blinking back her tears.

Jack nodded. “Y-yes. This thing sh-should have some p-p-perks.”

Jane laughed. He had a point. “Okay.” She looked up at Dax. “I guess we have a grand prize to collect.”

Everyone in the room applauded as Jane and Dax made their way to the stage. They hammed it up—it was Dax, so of course they did—with him raising their clasped hands high overhead as if they’d just been crowned the heavyweight champions and then dipping her back to give her a big, sweet kiss.

Jane was laughing when he righted her and accepted the huge basket of goodies and gift cards. She found her dad and Kelsey at the back of the room and could see, even from the several yards between them, that Jack was beaming.

He loved being in on the joke, and she could see that he’d had a great day.

Dax had been right. Getting Jack out had been a good thing. A great thing. And with Dax along, it had been much easier than other outings. He handled the chair and assisted Jack without even pausing in whatever funny story he was telling and didn’t even blink when Jack tripped over his words. He’d thought ahead about how to avoid anything that might have been an obstacle, and he’d done it all with humor and a laid-back charm that made Jane once and for all sure she was madly in love with him.

With their big win in hand, they headed back for the car and back to Appleby. They dropped Jack off first. The girls kissed him goodbye and stepped into the hallway, when Jack said, “D-D-Dax.”

Dax turned back. “Yeah?”

“S-St-Stay for a m-minute.”

“Okay.” He glanced at the girls. “Meet you at the car,” he said to Jane.

“Uh, sure.” She looked at her father. Oh boy, they were going to talk in private? “I’ll walk Kelsey out.”

Dax came strolling out ten minutes later.

Jane was leaning against her car the way she had been the day before in the Hot Cakes parking lot. She had her sunglasses on and her arms crossed. The perfect picture of nonchalance.

She hoped.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Totally.” Dax gave her a smile, coming to stand directly in front of her.

“Was that all about me?”

Dax grinned and tucked his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “The part about how much he liked me and knew I’d be good to you? Yes. The part where he asked me to help him into his chair? No. The part where I asked him to look up a couple of things for me and give me his thoughts? No.” He gave a thoughtful, totally fake, frown. “So one-third of the conversation, yes. Which means, the majority of it, no.”

Jane’s frown was real. There were lots of things she wanted to know more about there. Like what Dax wanted her dad to look up for him. Jack had access to a computer in the community room and certainly knew how to Google things. But why would Dax ask him to look something up? Something like what? But the thing she was most focused on was that second one. “He asked you to help him into his chair?”

“He did.”

“That’s pretty… amazing.”

“Is it?”

“He sometimes lets me help him, when he’s feeling strong enough that it’s not a lot for me to do. He never lets Kelsey or Cassie help him. He’s almost always already in his wheelchair when we get here. He doesn’t like people to see him weak or incapable.”

Dax nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Did you have to give him a lot of help?”

He took a breath but then nodded again as he blew it out. “He said he’s tired from the outing. I had to lift him and did a lot of the work getting him into the chair.”

“Wow, but he let you.”

“Yeah. I didn’t realize that was a big deal. I’m humbled.”

“He trusts you.”

“That’s awesome.” Dax seemed very pleased.

Jane just stood looking at Dax for a long moment. Her dad did not have great taste in women, that was for sure. But as she thought about his friends and the men he chose to spend time with, she had to admit he did well there.

“Your dad is a good guy,” Dax said.

“So are you.”

“You think so?”

“I do.”

“That means a lot to me.”

He said it so sincerely that Jane felt a little hitch in her breathing. “I’m glad.” She waited a beat then said, “Dax?”

“Yeah?”

“Get in the car. The whipped cream is melting, and we have a long drive to your hotel.”

Heat flickered through his eyes, and he gave her a sexy little smile, but he simply rounded the back of the car and got into the passenger seat.

He didn’t dare touch her.

During the forty-five-minute drive from Appleby to his hotel he didn’t touch her, though his palm itched with the desire to run up and down her thigh.

He’d never seen her in a dress, and the one she’d worn today left her shoulders bare and hit above her knees showing lots of smooth, creamy skin. That plus all the fork licking and laughing today had him wound tight.

He wanted to lace her fingers with his. Or rest a hand on the back of her neck. Something. Some kind of contact. But he couldn’t. If he touched her, he’d be demanding she pull the car over and they’d have sex in her front seat again.

This time if he had her naked, he was keeping her that way for a solid twenty-four hours. She wasn’t leaving his hotel room until Monday morning when she had to leave to go to work. Unless he could talk her into playing hooky and calling in sick.

He knew the chances of that with this woman were probably a thousand to one. But there was a chance.

So he kept his hands to himself during the drive. And as they walked into the hotel and across the lobby toward the bank of elevators. And as they rode up in the elevator without touching. And as they walked down the hallway to the suite without touching.

He waved his key card in front of the sensor and pushed the door open for her, standing back so she didn’t even brush against him.

But the second he stepped into the room, set the pie down on the table just to his left, and the door thudded shut, he pressed her against the wall and kissed her.

He slid his hands up to the tie at the back of her neck holding the dress up. He pulled it loose and tugged the bodice of the dress down.