Page 32 of Fierce-Colson

“And you open up. You need that. We all do. It’s a free zone for you.”

Regan winked at him. That was what Bella’s therapist called it. Free zone.

He sure the hell needed it now.

But not with Regan. To confess that he had his eye on her sister-in-law.

“Yep,” Bella said.

“Make your appointment, then I’ve got to get you home and go back to the office.”

“Oh, you’re not done for the day?”

“Sorry. I’ve got to take care of a few things. I’ll try to be home by six.”

It was almost four now. If he had to finish up work at home, he would later when she was in bed.

“Can I cook dinner then?” she asked. “I promise not to burn anything. I want to make stuffed peppers. I can do them in the air fryer and use the Spanish rice Jane sent us home with on Sunday. I looked that up.”

“Sure,” he said. “That sounds good.”

“It’s fun to try new things. Regan said I should keep exploring things like that. Even if they are scary, I should take the step.”

“Can I ask what you’re afraid of or would you rather keep it to yourself? Or I should say, I hope it’s nothing you’re afraid you can’t tell me if you want to.”

“Nothing that has to do with you.” They got in the elevator. “Just that I wanted to try a club at school.”

“If you’re interested in it, go ahead. We’ll figure out how to make it work.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” he said.

“I’m glad. Because I really want to try more things. You should too. Or we can together.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Trying new things is good.”

He dropped Bella off and pulled back out of the driveway once he knew she was in the house and the garage door was shut.

It only took his sister’s counseling session for him to finally get the kick in the ass to text Marly.

8

ALL THE TINGLES

Marly walked back to her closet the next day and looked over her clothing choices again.

A Friday dinner date.

Not something she’d had in a while. She felt old, but rushing home after work, changing, then going back out wasn’t something she’d been looking forward to for years.

But when the text came in from Colson last night asking if she could do dinner tonight, there was no way in hell she was turning it down.

Dinner at seven. He had a teen at home, so she was expecting an early night and maybe that was for the best.

Start slow. Start sure.

Though she wasn’t sure of a damn thing right now.