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asked hesitantly.
    “Yes, Lainey?” Dev sounded happy.
    Laine looped the coils in the cord around his finger, undid it and coiled it again. “Uh, this is going to sound really stupid, but what’s your last name?”
    “It’s Johns. What’s yours?”
    “Campbell.” Lord, that voice was sultry. Laine pushed away from the wall, turning to glance around the room. Maybe he could lock the door and have Dev talk dirty to him.
    “Lainey, I think I found a great place to build a house. I’ll take you to see it after dinner tonight.”
    Oh! Dev wanted him to see where he was going to build his home. “Sure. I’d love to see it.”
    “If you like it, we can put a bid on it and then start talking to architects. Be thinking about what you want in a house.”
    Laine twirled around, barely holding in a gleeful squeal. Dev wanted his help. “You mean you want me to help design it?”
    “It’s going to be your house too, Lainey.”
    Laine turned, doing a little happy dance. He didn’t even try to keep the giggle in this time.
    Dev chuckled. “What about your grandmother? Is she going to have dinner with us tonight?”
    “Yup. Grammy says dinner would be lovely. She’s really excited to meet you. That’s what got me thinking about your last name. Grammy wanted to know what it was. I felt like a real doofus not knowing. I mean it seems like something we should know, yeah? Hey, how’s your meeting going? Did you like the office building on the inside as much as you did the outside?”
    “I’m still looking, but so far so good. I think the office building is going to work, I just need to check out a few more things in it.”
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    “Oh. Am I bugging you? Oof.” Laine was walking—okay spinning—around and the next thing he knew, he was smashed up against the wall by the phone. “Shoot.”
    “Lainey?”
    “Yeah, I’m here.” He looked down at the cord pulled tight across his chest. How had he managed to get tangled up this bad? He turned the other way and nearly fell on his butt. “Crap. Serena!”
    “Lainey, you aren’t bugging me, love. I like talking to you, but if you’re sure everything is fine, I should get back to the realtor.”
    “Yeah, yeah. I—I—yeah, I’ll um…crap.”
    “Laine, is something wrong?”
    Laine heaved a sigh. He was going to sound like a goober telling Dev what he’d done. How did he get himself into these situations?
    Serena’s laughter interrupted any explanation he might offer.
    Laine frowned. “Stop laughing and help me, Serena.” Maybe if he shimmied out… Now, how had he managed to get the darn thing in a knot?
    “Lainey?”
    “Uh, I sort of got hung up in the phone cord.”
    “You, uh, don’t have a cordless?”
    “No, we have one of the old wall phones with the long cord in the back of the shop. I was sort of, er, twirling.” Laine flinched.
    “Twirling?” Dev whispered, humor evident in his tone. To give Dev credit, he held it in as long as he could—which was about five seconds—then he started cackling.
    Laine groaned. “It’s really not that funny, Dev.”
    “Yes it is funny. I’m never going to be bored am I, babe?”

Chapter Five
    After putting a bid on the office building, Dev headed back to Flower Lane. He hadn’t had lunch and it was only two o’clock. Maybe he could talk Laine into leaving early and grabbing a bite to eat. Perhaps he could even take Laine to see the land, so they could make a bid on that too…if Laine liked it that was.
    Halfway there Dev’s phone rang. The caller ID read, Cole’s Cell. “Hey, buddy, what’s up?”
    “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Was Cole laughing?
    “Try me?”
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    “I told Caroline that you found your mate, so we took the first flight out of DFW we could find—”
    “Whoa, wait a minute. Are you telling me you’re