Free Bellissimo Rilascio (Beautiful Release): The Family Series #3 by Leigh Ann Lunsford

murmurs while staring at the pattern garnishing the floor of her entryway. I nudge her chin with my free hand. When she makes eye contact with me, I hand her the flowers and wine.
     
    “For Thursday nights with Maura.”
     
    “Thank you. How did you know she comes over for wine?” Insert foot in mouth.
     
    Honesty. If I’ve learned nothing in the past year, it’s that honesty and facing shit head-on is the way to go. “I have a confession. The walls here . . . they’re very thin.” Her mouth gapes, and her eyes widen. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have eavesdropped.”
     
    “Y-y-y-yo-you heard everything?”
     
    “No, sometimes you don’t talk that loud.”
     
    “Oh, God. I’m mortified. You should be ashamed of yourself for listening. I can only imagine what you heard. Shit, I’m so embarrassed. We should probably postpone. For eternity. Yeah, I don’t think this is going to work.” Her incessant rambling is cute as hell.
     
    “Lisa, we aren’t cancelling. I should be ashamed, but I’m not. You aren’t exactly forthcoming when I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to get to know you. Nothing I heard should have you embarrassed, but I’m thinking your friend needs an intervention of sorts.”
     
    “For what?”
     
    “She’s funny, I’ll give her that, but she has no filter. That can’t be healthy.”
     
    Her smile breaks through and then disappears. “You did not just insult my best friend and then ask me to go out with you. I don’t care how fucking hot you are, you can’t insult a girl’s best friend.”
     
    Fiery. I like this side of her. “I didn’t exactly insult her, but you two are polar opposites. I’m sorry, can we start over?”
     
    Her eyes close and she inhales, “Sounds like a plan. I have a few conditions.”
     
    “Name them.”
     
    “You don’t ever insult Maura again, and you act like everything you overheard didn’t happen.”
     
    “Deal. But I guess the present I got you for the end of the night is out then.”
     
    Her eyebrows rise, “Why?”
     
    “It’s an industrial pack of D batteries.” Her face turns beet red as she bends over, laughing so hard tears stream down her face. “Kidding, but glad that ended all the awkward talk.”
     
    “You got me good, but that’s your only mention of the conversations you never heard.”
     
    “Got it.”
     
    “Shall we go?”
     
    “Your chariot awaits.” I take her arm, and once she looks up, I place my hand at the small of her back and lead her to my car.
     
    “Where are we going?”
     
    “Emeril’s.”
     
    “Holy hell, Dakota Hyatt, you’re pulling out the big guns.”
     
    “Well you’ve been kind of standoffish for a while, so I’m trying to impress you.”
     
    “I’m really like that?”
     
    “Lisa, I don’t even know what you’re in school for.”
     
    “You never asked.” Hmmm. I thought I did. “You have this aloofness about you. Like look but don’t touch. Don’t get to close, or you’ll get burned.”
     
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a dick.”
     
    “I didn’t say you were a dick. Although, the first day we met you were. I’m just saying maybe we’ve both been avoiding any depth for our own reasons.”
     
    “So let’s end that tonight.”
     
    “Nothing off the table?”
     
    “I’m an open book.”
     
    “Me too.”
     
    Funny, we don’t speak a word the entire way to dinner, each silently building a list of questions to fire at one another. Or at least I am.
     
    Once we order, I dive in. “So, what are you going to school for?”
     
    “I’m actually going back to school. I have my nursing degree and practiced for a year in ICU. I’m going back for my nurse anesthetist license.”
     
    “Your what?”
     
    “Nurse anesthetist. Providing anesthesia. Knocking people out legally.” She laughs at my cluelessness.
     
    “Wow. Impressive. How old are you?”
     
    “I just turned twenty-four. You?”
     
    “Just turned twenty-six, and you