Laidey watched as he approached, devoid of his badass leather jacket and ripped jeans. No longer appearing as the havoc-wielding roughneck she’d encountered continuously over the past several days, Xavier Wright was cleaned up and polished. A shiny new penny glistening in the evening sun. Long and fit, wearing a dress shirt tucked into a pair of fine trousers.

   Damn, the man looked good in his clothes.

   Gone were the construction boots, replaced by a stylish pair of woven loafers. Laidey’s eyes traveled from his shoes to the leather belt at his waist, up the buttons of his dress shirt—pale blue with the cuffs rolled up—and kept going over his collar to his Adam’s apple, right there in the center of his neck, and up past the way-too-cool scruff where his perfectly straight teeth were being shown off by a crooked grin. Eventually, her gaze came to a halt on the mirth glistening from the gray of his eyes.

   “Do I pass inspection?” he asked.

   Oh, man.

   When she didn’t respond—because, yeah, what could she say?—he said, “Tweets. You just eye-fucked me.”

   “What!”

   “Don’t try to deny it.”

   “I don’t even know what that is,” she stammered. “And who are you calling Tweets?”

   “You, Tweety Bird. I’m calling you Tweets.”

   “Why?”

   “Because you resemble a cartoon character. Big expressive eyes over a tiny, little body. Like Tweety Bird.”

   “Tweety Bird is blond.”

   “The dress you wore Monday was yellow. So were your kindergarten Keds.”

   Her lips slammed shut. She whirled around and grabbed a satchel, pulling it over her shoulder.

   “You got a pen and paper in there in case you have to take notes?”

   “Of course,” she snapped, coming out the screen door and letting it bounce closed behind her.

   “I’m guessing that was a stupid question,” he said as she stomped past him—in pink Keds—heading toward the car. “You strike me as the kind of girl who always has pen and paper at the ready.”

   “This is a business meeting. I assume even you brought a notebook.”

   He opened the passenger door and said, “Nope.” When she was seated inside, he gave her a brazen grin. “Why would I bother when I’ve got you?”