Like my front porch with its white posts and railings, latticework at the edges of the posts where they meet the porch roof, its swing and wicker furniture with mismatched cushions and pillows that said what my grandmother's porch furniture said.

You're welcome here, so sit back and stay awhile.

I lived there, and again, like my grandmother, when it was warm I was out on my porch in my swing, sitting back and staying awhile.

Like now.

"What do you think this means?" KC asked in my ear.

"I think it means Mrs. Miller told her son to check on Grams, and he's a good guy so he's going to mow her lawn," I answered.

"It does not," she returned and I smiled.

"It does, KC."

"How about this scenario?" she began. "He got a load of you being cute and goofy and he's into that, so he popped by your Grams on a day when every-freaking-body knows you go over there to get another fix of Hanna-Style Cute and Goofy."

I burst out laughing, and after I did this for a bit, still laughing, I told her, "Seriously, I'm not his type."

Silence then, "You know his type?'

I had also not shared that I saw him with the pretty, cool s.k.a.n.k. That had been too painful to share, and further, I adored KC, and even though she was married that didn't mean she couldn't crush, and I didn't want to pollute her fantasy either.

Now, however, was the time to share.

Forcing nonchalance, I answered, "Yeah. I saw him making out with someone a while back. Lots of hair. Lots of chest. Lots of tight clothes. Skinny-minnie and short."

More silence then, "That's d.a.m.ned disappointing."

It was.

But whatever.

"Anyway, half of Willow troops to Grams's and offers to help out. It was a Miller's turn," I told her.

"I prefer to think Raiden Ulysses Miller is into cute and goofy, not skinny, short, big-b.o.o.bed and big-haired," she retorted.

I preferred to think that, too.

Incidentally, like every girl who knew him way back then, KC thought of him with his middle name. That made a cool name doubly cool, and thus we frequently referred to him as such in spoken conversations.

Like now.

"Well yeah, but he isn't and whatever," I said. "Helping Grams out is just a cool thing for him to do. Now Grams can pocket Dad's yard money and blow it on mah jongg."

"She's got an extra twenty bucks to bet, she's going to own half the town. My Gram says she's kills at mah jongg."

I blinked at my wool. "She tells me she's always losing."

I could hear KC's laughter in her next words, "She lies."

I then heard a car approach and I looked from my wool to the drive.

I lived in a wooded area about a five-minute drive from town that looked half-Colorado, half-someplace else. This was because my Dad planted a bunch of trees all around, so we had conifers, we had aspen and we had everything else under the sun that would take in the arid climate. We also, which meant that now I also, owned an acre all around.

So with trees and land, my two-story, three bedroom, two and a half bath farmhouse was cozy, isolated and quiet.

Exactly the way I liked it.

Except for right then as I was sitting on a porch swing, having taken off my white going-into-town outfit. I'd put on a pair of red knit shorts that said "USC" in yellow across the b.u.t.t (my brother's alma mater) and a shelf-bra camisole that left little to the imagination. My face was clean of makeup. My hair was in a messy knot on top of my head. And my wits were partially washed away as I was well into my third gla.s.s of wine.

But I was going to need them.

And I was going to need them because a hunter green Jeep was approaching my house.

"Holy Moses, KC," I whispered into the phone. "I'm watching a green Jeep drive up to my house."

"No s.h.i.t?" she whispered back.

She knew what this meant. Every girl in town, I figured, knew that Jeep.

"None at all." I was still whispering.

"OhmiG.o.d, is it him?" she asked.

The Jeep stopped close to my front walk.

I could see through the windshield.

This meant I stopped breathing, so I had to wheeze out my, "Yeah."

"Holy f.u.c.k!" she shouted.

Raiden swung out of the Jeep.

My heart flipped over.

"I think I gotta go," I told KC.

"You think?" she asked.

I didn't answer.

I couldn't.

Raiden Ulysses Miller and his big gorgeous body were walking up to my house.

"Report back the minute he leaves," KC ordered.

"Righty ho," I muttered the instant his boot hit the first step up to my porch.

I beeped the phone off and watched him climb the next four steps. Then I watched him saunter five paces to me where he stopped.

He did not speak.

I didn't either.

His eyes moved from my hair to my feet to my hair again.

My eyes stayed glued to his eyes.

He turned his head around a bit and took in the porch.

I kept my head stationary and took in him.

Then his eyes came to mine. "Are you s.h.i.ttin' me?"

I blinked.

"Sorry?" I asked.

He crossed his arms on his chest, making the muscles in his biceps bulge and the veins in his forearms pop. I was concentrating on taking in all this fabulousness so I might have missed the full o.r.g.a.s.m, but I was relatively certain I had a mini one.

Then he smiled.

There it was.

The full o.r.g.a.s.m.

It was a wonder I didn't moan.

"Honey, you look straight out of a chick flick," he remarked.

Again, I blinked.

Then, again, I asked, "Sorry?"

"Cute outfit. Gla.s.s of wine. s.e.xy, messy hair. Cute house that looks out of a magazine. Not a lick of makeup and you look prettier than any woman I've seen for over a year. Gabbin' on the phone like you look this good, in a place that looks this good every day when that s.h.i.t's impossible." He paused before he concluded, "Chick flick."

Did he say s.e.xy, messy hair?

And that I looked prettier than any woman he'd seen for over a year?

"Sorry?" I repeated yet again.

"Say that again, I'll kiss you."

Oh my G.o.d!

Did he say say that again, I'll kiss you?

Kiss me?

I stared.

Then I swallowed.

What I did not do was speak.

Raiden was silent. So was I.

When this went on an uncomfortable while, I broke it.

"Can I ask at this juncture what you're doing here?"

His lips twitched and he answered, "Yeah, baby, at this juncture, you can ask that."

He said no more.

But he called me baby.

I didn't look to confirm, and I was glad he didn't either, seeing as I was relatively certain my nipples were now hard.

Cripes!

When he remained silent, I asked, "What are you doing here?"

"You doin' anything for your grandmother tomorrow night?" he asked back.

"Uh... no," I answered.

"You hangin' with that pothead and his pothead girlfriend?"

My head jerked at the way he referred to Bodhi and Heather, not to mention his knowledge of them and me spending time with them, but I replied, "No."

"Then you're free to go out to dinner with me."

My chest compressed like Spot was lying on it and my lips parted.

Raiden's eyes dropped to my mouth and his lips muttered, "I'll take that as a yes."

"Uh..." I mumbled, then stopped mumbling.

"I'll take that as a yes, too," he declared.

"I-" I started to say something. I had no clue what, but got no more out.

"I'll be here tomorrow, six thirty. Not f.u.c.kin' around with all the cute that's you, we're goin' to a steak place, so you'll wanna dress nice."