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before I had a chance to come up with a response. “I don’t want to make any promises to you right now—”
    I held up my hand. “I’m not askin’ you to. I don’t expect that.”
    His face turned serious. “I don’t want you to think I’m using you.” I shook my head in protest but he went on. “I like you, Felicity. I really do. It’s just…with Penny and everything that’s going on, I don’t know if I can commit to anything right now.”
    I offered him a comforting smile, trying to reassure him. “Why don’t we just take things slow for now? We don’t have to talk commitments or anything serious, okay? We’re havin’ fun, right?” The corners of his mouth quirked up in a grin and he gave a small nod. “So, let’s just leave it at that until it stops workin’ for us.”
    It probably wasn’t the best plan in the world, but it was the only one I could come up with to ease both of our anxieties. The truth was I didn’t want to stop whatever it was we were doing. And if he didn’t want to take the next step, I was fine with staying where we were. For now.
    Sure, I had developed feelings for him a long time ago, but it wasn’t like he needed to know that right away.
    This time when he smiled, he flashed all of his teeth and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I think I can do that,” he replied.
     
    ##
     
    I had made it sound so easy, the whole “staying where we were at” thing with Gabe.
    The problem with that was that the only times we were ever around each other on purpose was for work, meaning at his house or at my office. And now that his house was pretty much completed, there weren’t a lot of reasons for us to have regular conversations or meetings. Meaning, there weren’t frequent calls or texts. Nothing to sate my need to be around him or at least hear his voice.
    It really sucked.
    I hadn’t thought about the fact that us working together was about to come to an end when I had said that to him and he probably hadn’t either. I wanted to contact him so badly, but the last thing I needed was to make him think that I had changed my mind and did want that commitment from him.
    That was the quickest way to lose a man you were trying to reel in.
    I had even added an extra hour to my evening yoga ritual every night, in addition to my morning sessions, to distract myself from my urge to chase Gabe down. So far, they hadn’t done jack to tamp down my lust.
    The doorbell of our townhouse rang and I went to answer it since Bea was still in the shower. Our friend Gwen’s gorgeous smiling face greeted me in a flash of long blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
    “Hey, hon,” I said as she stepped forward to give me a hug.
    “Hey, girl,” she said and I closed the door behind her. “How are you?”
    Sad and pathetic because I want Gabe and can’t have him.
    “Peachy. Whatcha got there?” I asked, looking down at the two bottles of wine in her hands.
    She held them up with a big grin. “Figured Bea would appreciate this. Clay and I went wine tasting last weekend and found the cutest little winery in West Virginia. This stuff is pretty potent.”
    I chuckled and took one bottle from her, reading the label. It was one I had never heard of before. “You sure you didn’t purchase moonshine instead? Those West Virginia boys know how to brew some strong stuff.”
    She giggled and headed for the kitchen. “No, it’s definitely wine but it’ll get you good and tipsy. Clay and I found that out pretty quickly.”
    As she collected the wine glasses and bottle opener, I took a moment to appreciate the progress our friend had made over the past several months. She had been in a pretty bad relationship with her ex-fiancé William Callahan, until last summer when she met Clay Masterson during the mayoral election campaign when William was running against Clay. She and Clay had become close during that time, fell in love, and William hadn’t appreciated it. Needless to say, he went psycho when she left