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to think about the end just yet. “Then just you. Let me take care of you, Tammy. Let me make you dinner.”
    “I can’t,” she said and at least she sounded truly sorry about it. “Mom works the night shift and I don’t think Tara will watch him. She doesn’t like this.”
    “I’m not going to let Tara dictate us ,” he said with more force than he meant, but it was true. “This isn’t about her. This is about you and me. If you can’t do dinner, what about lunch?”
    “Mom would watch him, as long as I was back before she had to go to work.” She took a deep breath. “All right. Lunch.” Then she cracked open one eye. “Can you cook?”
    “I get by.” A five-course meal wasn’t going to happen but food that tasted good—plus maybe a bottle of wine? Yeah, he could pull that off. “Eleven-thirty?”
    “Okay, eleven-thirty. It’s a date.”
    A date. He hadn’t had a date in a hell of a long time. It was almost as if he was twenty again, young and stupid on shore leave for the first time in months.  
    He opened his mouth to say something—what, he didn’t know. Did men thank women for agreeing to a date these days or what?—when Mikey called out, “Mr. Carwence? Wanna see my pictures?”
    Tammy raised an eyebrow at him in what looked a hell of a lot like a challenge. “Coming,” Clarence called out. Then he gave Tammy a quick kiss before he went to get the coffee.  
    Saturday seemed like both a long way off—and not nearly enough time to get ready.

Chapter Five
    Tammy paused long enough to take a deep breath, because she wasn’t sure she was going to continue breathing on a regular schedule.  
    She was really doing this. Well, this was just lunch with a work friend. A work friend she’d kissed a couple of times, but still. It’s not like she was running off to Vegas with Clarence or anything. Just having lunch.
    Alone. With a man who’d held her in his arms and whispered in her ear that he wanted her. A man who had made her coffee every single day since. A man who treated her son well and told her he wanted to take care of her like it was a point of personal pride.
    It’d be so easy to just let Clarence take care of her. It’d be a relief, honestly, after three plus years of trying and trying and trying so hard to make things work.
    But it wasn’t just her. She had to keep Mikey in mind. Clarence was being thoughtful and attentive to both of them, but she didn’t want Mikey to get attached if this wasn’t going anywhere.
    She didn’t want to get attached if this wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t want to fall for sweet words and empty promises again.  
    This was just lunch.
    If she kept repeating it, it was bound to be true, right?
    Clarence opened the front door before she got halfway up the walk. “Hiya,” he said as he came to greet her.
    She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t seen Clarence in scrubs but today he was in a gray t-shirt that fit him well and a pair of blue jeans. His close-cropped hair was neat and he just looked good.  
    Yeah, this wasn’t just lunch and they both knew it.
    “Hiya,” she tried to say, but it came out as a whisper. She tried to clear her throat, but there was this lump stuck about halfway down that was making talking almost impossible.
    “It’s good to see you in the daytime,” he said as he slipped an arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m glad you came.”
    She felt self-conscious standing here in broad daylight with Clarence’s arm around her. What did it matter if someone saw them? Her mom and her sister already knew—or thought they knew—what was going on. Her mom was actually kind of on board with it, too.  
    “He’s a good one,” Mom had said when Tammy had managed to tell her why she wanted Mom to hang out with Mikey. “And good ones are hard to come by.”
    “I don’t know that this will go anywhere,” Tammy had replied, feeling her face grow hot. “This is just lunch.”
    Her