And to my utter surprise, she shocks me stupid by turning around and flouncing toward my office door. I watch her retreating form, my eyes dropping to her ass that is molded nicely in those jeans, stunned she’s leaving.

Worried she’s leaving because she’s clearly concerned about my daughter, as am I.

Disappointed she’s leaving because as much as I’m loath to admit, I’ve felt more alive these last few minutes with her trampling all over my carefully ordered world than I have in, well, forever.

“Wait,” I blurt out as I come around my desk and start walking toward her.

Thankfully, she pauses with her hand on the doorknob and flips her long, curly hair from over her shoulder to her back as her head snaps my way. “What?”

“Do you like Mediterranean food?” I ask as I put my hand into my pocket and grab my car keys.

“Does moonshine put hair on your chest?” she shoots back at me, her southern drawl peaking to its most acute sound yet.

“I’m going to have to assume so,” I say carefully, not having ever had moonshine.

She nods in agreement, turns the knob, and opens my office door. “Then assume I like Mediterranean food.”

With that she walks out before me and stalks down the hall, and I can’t tell if she’s still angry at me or not, but I do enjoy the view of her ass in those jeans as I follow her out to the lobby.

—

“So how about telling me what’s got you worried about Lexi?” I ask Georgia as I watch her cut up her lamb kabobs. She had informed me when we placed our orders that she normally likes to eat tabbouleh, but she didn’t want to risk getting parsley in her teeth on our first date.

I didn’t even know how to respond to that, so I’d ordered lamb as well.

Georgia puts a small piece of lamb into her mouth, and I try not to focus on her lips as she chews it daintily while she stares at me thoughtfully. When she swallows, she stabs her fork in the air at me and says, “You tell me. Since she went to that game with you and Gray last week, something’s absolutely wrong with her.”

“I know,” I admit with a heavy sigh, dipping a piece of pita into my hummus. “I’ve noticed it too. She’s been avoiding me this past week.”

“Well, what in the hell happened at the game?” Georgia demands.

“Nothing,” I say with a shrug. “Not anything that was obvious, at any rate.”

“All I know is that she’s sullen and crabby as hell with me, and if you know Lexi, which I know you don’t yet as well as I do, that is absolutely not like her. That child is the most effervescent, easygoing, and adaptable person I know. She’s been handling all of this with you and Gray with incredible maturity and optimism. And now she seems to be defeated, and all I know is you were last in her presence when this happened.”

“She was reserved at the game,” I say as I remember that night. I’d expected her to be jumping up and down in her seat, but she had no enthusiasm. “Not like when I saw her down near the family lounge before…”

My words trail off.

Lexi was fine then. When Gray and I saw her standing in the hallway, both pleased and surprised at the same time to see her there, she was genuinely happy to see us both. She accepted my hug easily. It was all good, until a singular moment of some awkwardness when she admitted to us that she was there by invitation of Roman.

I was surprised, of course, as I didn’t realize she knew him, but really didn’t think much of it. I was just happy to see her there.

But Gray had questioned her about Roman with a little more diligence, and was probably still doing so when I left for the locker room to wish the team good luck.

Had something happened then between Gray and Lexi?

I can’t imagine what it could be, because they were talking it up in the owner’s box as we watched the game. While Lexi was definitely a bit reserved as she watched the game, she wasn’t completely mute. She sat between Gray and me and talked with both of us. I didn’t sense anything bad between them at all, but still…something had to have happened between the time I saw her in the hallway and when the game started, because that’s when the change was noticeable.

“I need to see Lexi,” I say abruptly to Georgia.

“Of course you do,” she says with wink. “She’s at the coffee shop and she’ll be there all afternoon. I knew you’d jump into dad mode.”

“You did?” I ask, momentarily distracted from my worry by my curiosity.

“You’re a great dad,” Georgia observes. “I watched you that night at The Grind, watching Lexi. I’ve seen how you’ve accepted her at face value and with open arms. I’ve seen—through the media, of course—that you’ve already raised an amazing daughter. So yeah…I knew you’d jump right on figuring this out.”

Georgia smiles knowingly at me and turns her gaze back to her plate, cutting off another piece of lamb to put into her mouth. With no other way in this moment to solve my daughter’s problems, I contemplate this curious woman before me. Clearly she has my attention, but I can’t figure out if I should explore something or turn tail to run.

“What’s your story, Georgia?” I ask casually.

She lifts her eyes to mine as she chews, then swallows, a wide smile gracing what I’m thinking is a near perfect mouth. “It’s about time you got around to showing interest in me.”

I ignore her rebuke, starting to figure out she likes to try to work her way under my skin. Well, she’s firmly embedded there now, so I don’t take the bait, instead just cocking an eyebrow at her. “Well?”

Georgia dabs at her lips, which amazingly still have a perfect sheen of lipstick on them, and pushes her plate a few inches away so she can rest her forearms on the table. “Well…let’s see. I’m from Savannah, Georgia, originally. Came to Raleigh for my undergrad and decided to make it my permanent home.”

“What did you study?” I ask her.

“Nuclear engineering.”

Because this woman has point-blank told me some whopper stories before, I can’t help but say, “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not,” she says firmly. “I’m really smart.”

“Then how did you go from nuclear engineering to owning a coffeehouse?” I ask incredulously.