“You could help it if someone was in you.” Maggie laughed at her own joke while someone knocked on the door.
As if on cue, Kenzie’s stomach growled. Setting her glass down on the coffee table, Kenzie smoothed her hands down the back of her green cotton shorts. Since she and Maggie weren’t attending the rehearsal dinner tonight, there was no need to concern herself with the dozens of buttons on the back of the skintight black dress. The sexy dress lay across her bed, next to the outfit Kenzie planned on wearing tonight—her bathrobe. Kenzie’s stomach growled again. She hadn’t eaten since the cupcake earlier this morning. The box of desserts she’d left upstairs on the second floor of the post office had been lost in the rubble. Thankfully the pizza she’d ordered ten minutes ago came earlier than expected.
“What am I going to do with you?” Kenzie asked as she opened the door.
“Dressed like that, you can do anything to me you want,” answered a deep baritone voice.
Kenzie realized she hadn’t bothered peeping through the peephole. No one knocked on her door other than delivery men. “Ramon?”
“Ramon?” Maggie repeated, leaning off the couch so far to peer down the hall she fell over. Kenzie heard glass break and winced.
Ramon Torres stood before her, dressed in a black suit and crisp white shirt sans a tie. Gone was the manbun from earlier and now his hair hung loose around his neck. A lavender box protruded from his hands with The Cupcakery logo on the top. In his other arm he held a bouquet of flowers—daisies. So he decided to pop up at my place with the wrong flowers?
Kenzie rested her hip against the door frame to block him from entering. So many questions ran through her mind right then. How did he know where she lived? Last year their fling took place at Magnolia Palace, while she’d stayed for the week and where Ramon had never formally picked her up for a date. Why was he decked out on a Friday night? Why hadn’t she cleaned her apartment? Kenzie hated having to clean. Considering she lived alone, one would think Kenzie could keep up with her own mess. Her project this week had been painstakingly combing through the old photo albums of Southwood High and scanning the pages to archive. But she chose sleeping in a few extra minutes over than tidying up every morning. Irritated with herself, Kenzie blew out a sigh. “Why are you here?”
The thick black brows hooding his eyes rose as if in question. Visibly taken aback by her annoyed voice, Ramon maneuvered his gifts under his arms and pressed his hands together to make the international sign for time-out. “I thought we moved on from the animosity.”
Remembering how the afternoon went between them, Kenzie nodded her head and rolled her eyes. “Habit, sorry.”
“No worries.”
When Ramon flashed his million-watt smile Kenzie’s insides felt all warm and fuzzy...something she did not need. “What brings you to my place?” It dawned on her Ramon might have come to the conclusion of her being in need of an escort tonight for the rehearsal dinner. “Oh, God, wait a minute. I hope you didn’t get any ideas earlier. It’s presumptuous to think I needed a date tonight.”
“Whoa, I am about to go on a date but it’s not with you,” Ramon clarified.
Kenzie felt a draft of cold air sweep against her tongue as her mouth gaped open. “Oh.”
To recover from her embarrassment Kenzie narrowed her eyes. “How are you going to propose taking me to all of my events when you’re not available?”
“I am going on one date, Kenzie, not getting married.”
To add insult to injury, Maggie cleared her throat as she shuffled down the hallway in time to witness Kenzie’s embarrassment. “Are you getting some paper towels to clean up your mess?”
“That and I came over here to see who the sexy voice belonged to,” Maggie cooed and extended her hand as she approached. “Swayne. Charmed, I’m sure.”
Kenzie cut her eyes at her sister. “The stain?”
“I am getting to it.” Maggie said but she kept a firm grip in Ramon’s hand.
“Maggie,” Ramon said with a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you. How are you doing this evening?”
“I’m better now,” Maggie flirted with a goofy smile.
Kenzie’s grip on the doorknob tightened. Her other hand went to her hip. “The wine, Maggie.”
“I was just heading to the kitchen,” Maggie tried to explain but Kenzie pointed to the left, where her kitchen was.
“It’s over there.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. “She’s bossy, isn’t she?”
“No comment,” replied Ramon.
“Maggie, go.” Kenzie ordered her sister out of the way and stared at Ramon. “So what brings you to this side of town?”
“I realized I’ve been outside your building but never been in your place,” Ramon began with a sly grin. Kenzie read his mind immediately. They’d slept together, several times, yet he’d never been to her apartment. Ramon cleared his throat. “I wanted to replace the cupcakes you bought today.”
“Technically you bought them,” Kenzie clarified and accepted the cupcakes. “But thank you just the same.”
His large foot kicked a box into the doorway. “I also went back inside the post office and grabbed one of the boxes of old Southwood memorabilia you were fascinated with.”
Excited, Kenzie knelt and squealed. “I can’t wait to go through this stuff.”
“I figured,” said Ramon. “I’m also having those ballots reviewed.”
“Cool,” Kenzie breathed. “I love a good mystery. Maybe somewhere in this box is justification for keeping the post office as a historical site.”
“Have you thought about my offer?”
Coming to her feet, Kenzie pressed her index finger against her chin to dramatically ponder his question. “Remind me again?”
Ramon shook his head from left to right. Dark strands of his hair spilled over his shoulder. “I know you know. You’re struggling whether or not preserving the building is worth spending ten events with me.”
“Ten?” Kenzie repeated.
“Three weddings mean three rehearsal dinners or at least receptions, along with the sesquicentennial gala and the pageant, right? Plus the times we need to spend together getting me up to speed.”
Kenzie pressed her lips together. “What do you know?”
“I come from a large family myself, Kenzie.”
“You never told me.”
“Well, we never got around to talking when we were alone,” Ramon declared with a wink and a lopsided smirk.
A feverish chill crept down her spine. Intimate moments flashed in her mind, of being tangled in the black cotton sheets of his bed. Kenzie cleared her throat and replaced the wanton thoughts with remembering how she’d sat at her window waiting for Ramon to show up and the humiliating way she’d smiled blankly at everyone at the after party who’d asked of his whereabouts or stated how they’d expected to see the two of them together that night.
“Either way,” she said, finding her voice, “I appreciate your offer.”
“But your pride and ego won’t allow me to help you?” Ramon asked. “I’m not the same guy as last summer.”
“Pride and ego?” Kenzie forced herself to scoff. It was easier than believing him.
Ramon nodded his head. His hair was loose around his shoulder and brushed back. The open