Mag grinned and said, “Owe you.”

“Yeah, you do,” Auggie replied, turned to me, kissed the side of my head again then bid, “Later,” pivoted, and walked back out the door.

I heard the lock go.

“He still has his key,” I told Mag.

He grinned, this time at me, and then murmured, “C’mere, baby.”

Seeing him stretched out like that in the light of the television, I could no sooner stop myself from walking to him than I could stop myself from eating a Toll House cookie fresh from the oven, no matter how hot it was and knowing it would burn my tongue.

I dropped my bag and the envelope of cash on his coffee table on my way and watched him shift before he executed a cool move, which included him pushing up, grabbing my hand, tugging me down so I landed on him but somehow ended up mostly under him.

It was far from lost on me how good it felt, having his weight on me.

But I’d just danced, it was three o’clock in the morning, and in order to let Auggie off the hook, I hadn’t showered, just toweled down and cleaned my makeup off before I put my clothes back on and we took off.

I was tired, not exhausted.

But I’d just danced, I felt icky, and I didn’t want to go where Mag was clearly taking me.

I also had this niggling disappointment he was intent to take me there.

I’d thought he’d stayed awake to make sure I was home safe, which was sweet.

It seemed he did.

But also, so he might get himself a little somethin’-somethin’.

“So,” he murmured, his gaze moving all over my face and hair, and I knew what that meant.

Then he surprised me.

His eyes came to mine and he asked, “Gert?”

“If you pass inspection, she’ll love you.”

“She treats you right, I already love her.”

He wasn’t going to make a move.

He was talking about Gert.

He was being Danny.

God.

What was I going to do with Daniel Magnusson?

“So what’s the drill after you dance?” he asked. “Are you jazzed and need to chill out watchin’ TV or somethin’ or do you just crash?”

I noted in those choices he did not offer a heavy make-out session, which would probably lead to a little somethin’-somethin’.

Yeah.

What was I going to do with my Danny?

“I see my Prius is back in action,” I noted.

“Yeah, saw to that probably around the time you were shouting at Aug in a Target,” he teased.

He saw to that.

While his friend was watching out for me.

“You know, I had a plan,” I whispered.

His head cocked as he asked, “Sorry?”

“Yesterday. I’d formed a plan,” I told him. “I was going to let you do what you had to do, and then I was going to exit your life, finding a way to do that permanently.”

He had been relaxed and mellow.

At my words, he was no longer relaxed and mellow.

“I didn’t think I was good enough for you,” I went on.

“We had this conversation this morning, Evan,” he said irritably.

I lifted a hand and ran my finger along his jaw, a lot like he’d done to me the day before to soothe me when I was having bad thoughts.

His expression shifted from annoyed to alert at the same time it was gentling.

“I’m getting the sense,” I said softly, “that would have been the biggest mistake of my life.”

“Baby,” he whispered.

“Too soon?” I asked.

“No,” he answered quickly.

At the swiftness of his answer, I was beginning to know what I was going to do with Daniel Magnusson.

“Sometimes, I’m tired and I need to crash,” I answered his earlier question. “Sometimes, I’m jazzed, and I need to hang to chill out. But I didn’t shower before I left tonight so I could get Auggie home and that means I feel kind of ick, so I need to shower and then go to bed. The girls are meeting me at my place tomorrow at noon to sort through some stuff.”

“Which girls?”

“Some of the girls from work.” I grinned. “The Dream Team. Pepper, Hattie and Ryn.”

“Lottie’s fix-ups,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “They’re my friends and I really didn’t…until tonight, when they got in my face, hurt that I didn’t call on them when things got crazy, I realized that I hadn’t put that together. They gave me their tips tonight. Because of them, in one night, I have enough to set myself back up.”

He didn’t appear as elated as that news should make him.

“It was super nice,” I told him.

“Have you done that for them before?”

My gaze moved to his forehead.

“You’ve done it before,” he said.

I moved my eyes back to his. “We look out for each other.”

“So, it was just your turn.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“I gotta say, I’d hoped you had the day off so we could relax and do somethin’ fun, like go see a movie and then I could finally take you out to dinner. I figure it’ll suck, but in the end, it’ll put your head in a good place, if you know what’s goin’ on with your pad.”

“I’ll treat you to a movie and dinner after we sort through my pad.”

“You’re such a brat,” he returned. “I’m paying.”

“Danny—”

“And I’ll obviously be with you so I can look these women over for the sole purpose of giving the guys shit about them.”

I stiffened. “They’re awesome.”

“Yeah, and the boys are dragging their feet, like I did, and as it panned out,” he gave me a bit more of his weight before he took it away, “that was a stupid mistake.”

“Well, I made it too.”

“You so did. As you can see, I’m a nice guy.”

I started laughing.

He touched his mouth to the laughter on my lips.

Then we were both off the couch because Mag made that so.

And as was his way, he walked me to the door to Mo’s old room, holding my hand.

He stopped outside it, let go of my hand, but took me in his arms and brushed his lips against mine again.

That wasn’t the goodnight kiss I’d wanted but considering how it went with us, it was probably the wise choice.

“Shower, crash, I’m on breakfast duty tomorrow,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m on breakfast duty tomorrow.”

“Compromise, we’ll go out and hit brunch somewhere before we meet your friends.”

That was totally doable.

“Deal,” I agreed.

He grinned at me, bent and touched his lips to mine again, gave me a squeeze, murmured, “Sleep well, baby,” then he let me go and walked back to the living area.

“You too,” I called right when the TV went off.

I went into the bedroom, through it, right to the bathroom.

And during my shower, I didn’t think of all that had befallen me.

I didn’t think about the girls at the club and how much it meant, what they did tonight and how they made it clear what they felt about me.

I didn’t think about arguing with Auggie or how I belatedly realized he’d given me my first brotherly hug that did not come attached to gratitude that’d I’d done something to earn it.