Over the course of the past week, they’d talked about a few things, and one of them was how they’d be introducing each other to friends and family.

“Are you really going to introduce me as your girlfriend?” she’d asked a bit skeptically.

“Of course,” he’d answered, trying not to sound as terrified as the thought had made him.

He hadn’t even thought that far ahead when he’d made his all-or-nothing declaration last Saturday night. Being holed up in her apartment that whole weekend then having her in his bed all week, the entire thing felt a bit surreal still. But it didn’t get more real than going out and introducing her to his colleagues as his girlfriend and meeting her friends and family.

At first, he’d wondered if he was going to regret this. But once he heard her introduce him to Antonio and the other guys as her boyfriend, as weird as it felt, he was glad they’d had that conversation.

Fortunately, Brandon had one less thing to worry about when it came to this sudden enormous change in his life. Rodriguez had been sent out of state to cover for another sergeant. He’d be gone at least a month. He knew how hypocritical that would look. Although Brandon was very hard-nosed about the rules being followed at work and Rodriguez’s comments about being willing to risk his job were off the charts stupid, Brandon’s reaction had been a bit over the top. So while he’d had no intention of keeping his relationship with Regina a secret from anyone, he certainly wasn’t looking forward to that conversation with Rodriguez.

To his relief, Regina had been right about one thing. His not having friends in his life was not for lack of personality and being able to hold a conversation with someone. He was way more comfortable having her in his life and even staying in his place than he’d ever imagined he would be.

Saturday morning, Brandon started to slip out of bed to go make her coffee. As much as he hated the stuff, he loved seeing that smile on her face when he brought it to her. Since being on the receiving end of Regina’s grateful and breathtaking smiles, he was beginning to understand what the allure was for her daddy and possibly most of the men she’d ever met to want to spoil her. Making her happy and taking care of her had quickly become his first priority. It was the weirdest phenomenon. He’d always heard that giving was so much more satisfying than receiving, and this entire past week had been proof of that. He’d never felt as satisfied as when he saw that content smile on her.

Just as he got up, her phone rang by the chair where she’d left it, and it woke her. Frowning, he walked over to pick it up and bring it to her. He glanced at the name on the screen. C. Devereux.

“Your friend Chris from New York,” he said, making sure she knew he remembered what the “C” stood for.

Her eyes widened, and she took the phone but didn’t answer him. Brandon waited for her to comment, say something, anything that might explain her strange reaction to this guy. But she offered nothing, so he had to ask. “Aren’t you gonna answer?”

Looking up at him, she started to say something then seemed to change her mind and answered the phone instead. “Hey, Chris.” She smiled, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes, I got it. Thank you so much. That was very sweet of you. No, no, everything is fine. I meant to call and thank you, but this week has been so crazy it totally slipped my mind.”

Brandon stood there, watching her, his jaw tensing at her telling this guy how sweet it was of him. Did all her guy friends go out of their way to do sweet things for her? This was exactly why he didn’t believe for a second that men and women could be friends. So this guy sends her a book, and she never responds. Can’t he take a hint? He has to follow up and call her and pretend he was worried because she hadn’t bothered to call him and thank him? Brandon could already tell he wasn’t going to like this old friend of hers, if, in fact, that’s all they’d ever been.

“In a few weeks? Yes, I’d like that. We can do coffee or dinner or something.”

Oh, hell no. She wasn’t going to start this shit. She had to know that unless she was planning on bringing Brandon along for that coffee or dinner with this guy this would never work. Panic crept in him slowly because things had been so perfect all week. Even when he’d brought up Antonio and her relationship with him, it had gone smoothly. He didn’t want to ruin things by getting into an argument now, but there was no way he could begin to hide what he was feeling.

“No,” she said, her voice going a little strange. “I have had my moments when I’ve been very tempted to call you.”

She glanced up at Brandon and cleared her throat, sitting up a little as he struggled to remain calm and not glare at her. Very tempted to call him?

“Listen, I gotta go, but it was really good to hear from you, and, again, thank you so much for the book. Call me when you’re in town.”

She hung up and smiled at him. “Were you going somewhere before the phone rang?”

“To get you coffee,” Brandon said with no intention of letting her brush the subject of her friend away again as she’d done before. “Your friend’s gonna be in town?”

She nodded, bringing her legs to the side of the bed. “In a few weeks.”

“And you two are getting together?”

“Most likely,” she said, getting up. He reached his arm out to help, but she motioned that she had it.

She hadn’t worn the splint all day yesterday, and she was actually walking on her ankle now. She said it didn’t hurt to step on it anymore, but Brandon had still warned her to take it easy.