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forward to it. See you soon Jonathan.” She quickly hung the phone and tried to contain her smile.
    When Makenzie turned to make her way back outside, she saw Ryler standing in the kitchen looking at her.
    Makenzie was certain that he could read her like the back of his hand. After all, reading people is what he did for a living. The air became instantly thick. Neither of them addressed the call, but from the way he looked at her, she sensed that he knew she’d just made a date.
    From what he had discovered from David and Veronica at the hospital, Mak wasn’t married, nor did she have a boyfriend since moving here. He also knew that to win her he had to be the best, and the last man standing. Mentally, he started devising a plan. Unbeknownst to Makenzie, she was in for a very different and romantic ride.
    “Dinner’s almost ready. Would you like some more wine or can I get you something else?” He was already reaching for the bottle of wine.
    “Wine would be great,” she said, handing him her empty glass. She needed liquid courage to spend time with him and still not get too attached. There was a pull between them that she couldn’t quite understand. Close quarters with him was risky, yet she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to be near him.
    The hardest part would be making sure that she didn’t create any future plans with Detective Buchanan. To keep him off the topic of herself, she began to roll out twenty questions on him.
    “Are you originally from here?” she asked him before he could interrogate her.
    “Yes, born and raised here and my parents are still close by. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.” He began plating up their dinner, waiting on her to wear herself out asking questions.
    As they ate, he humored her and answered all of her questions on why he chose the police academy and tidbits about his family. He waited for the divorce question, but it never came.
    “My dad wanted me to go into our family’s financial business that was started by my great-grandparents. I went to SMU and got my MBA, but crunching numbers wasn’t my style. I needed more excitement than that. My parents were not happy when I left the company and went to the police academy. My second year, I made detective. I wasn’t certain about the detective work, but once I got into the role, I loved it and can’t imagine any other job. Problem was, Cindy, my ex, couldn’t handle all the long hours and countless nights away from home. We met in college and became inseparable, but she thought that I was unfaithful to her and our marriage. I wasn’t and the truth eventually came out, but by then, her tolerance had spread thin. She ended our marriage and moved to the Seattle area to be closer to her family. We haven’t spoken since. She left with her things and never looked back.” He paused and extended his hand toward the room. “I hired an interior decorator and ripped every girlie detail from this house that I could. The only reminder, which is a constant one, is the back yard. It’s a beautiful reminder of something that wasn’t so beautiful. The signs of her co-dependency on me were there, I just didn’t see them until it was too late.” His face showed the years of pain that he had struggled with.
    “Ryler, you have to forgive yourself for her leaving. It was her choice not to stay and work through things. You can’t make someone stay if they don’t want to.”
    “True. Is that what happened to you? You chose to leave?” His question was direct and punctuated with a quizzical look in his eyes. He’d seen right through her.
    “Yes, I left. But not like you think. My family was too controlling. They wanted to pick everything that my sister and I took part in. True Italians.” She laughed and picked up the plates to do the dishes. He tried to stop her, but she persisted.
    He agreed to let her help with the dishes and they did them together. There was some hip music playing on the iPod dock and he twirled her