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been doing just a minute ago, but he’d decided not to worry about it. He wanted to be with her, and he was going to choose to believe it had nothing to do with the way her top molded to her curves.
    “I’m not . . . pfft. I’m not
letting
myself spend time with you. You’re here, I’m here, we’re people, we need to eat. And also, we have a working connection.”
    “You’re doing it again.”
    “I’m not—” She shut her mouth, cutting herself off. “I usually work over lunch. Maybe that’s what I’m justifying.” Because there was no point in her pretending she wasn’t justifying something. They both knew that.
    “I don’t think that’s it.”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lucas, do you practice being this obnoxious in the mirror?”
    “Right after I finish practicing my pickup lines,” he said. “How long have you known me now, Carly? More than a decade?”
    “Eleven years,” she said. Interesting how quickly she knew the answer to the question.
    “Right. And still you have to come up with a million excuses for why having lunch with me is okay.” He opened the door to the bistro and held it for her, the little bit of chivalry his mother had imparted on him before she’d left him and his dad.
    Carly walked in past him and went straight through to a table in the front corner. “My spot,” she said, taking a seat.
    “A regular, are you?”
    “Well, I don’t go to the bar for lunch.”
    “Neither do I. I’d run the risk of running into my dad.”
    “Or mine,” she said.
    “True enough.”
    “My dad and a companion even,” she said, her tone brittle.
    “We have awesome parents, don’t we?”
    “If nothing else, we’ve all proven that you can have success regardless of where you start out in life.”
    “You sure have, Ms. City Councilwoman.”
    She toyed with the edge of the menu that was already sitting on the table. “You like my title, don’t you?”
    “I’m impressed with it,” he said, the honest truth.
    “Well, thank you.”
    “You got yourself into college, and through it. You got yourself elected, when your family’s reputation was pretty damned abysmal. I’d say I’m very impressed with you and what you’ve done.”
    Her brow wrinkled. “Thank you.”
    “I’ve never seen anyone look so distressed over a compliment.”
    “I’ve never gotten a compliment quite like that from you.”
    “Well, I’ve never gotten a compliment from you,” he said, badgering her because everything had been too sincere there for a second.
    “Fine. I’m impressed with you too. You’ve done well for yourself. You did great in the rodeo, obviously, considering the size of your ranching operation, and you helped Mac too.”
    “Mac helped himself. He had a great idea, I just helped him start up. And I’m a better investor than I was a bronc buster. I’m practically an accountant, actually, you just wouldn’t know it.”
    “Are you serious?”
    He shrugged. “Turns out I’m better at investing than riding.”
    “I just thought . . .”
    “That I was a dumbass who did a good job of holding on to a horse?”
    “No. I never thought that.”
    “Yeah, you did.”
    “I have total respect for riders,” she said. “It’s a skill. I can’t tell you the last time I was on a horse.”
    “I can’t imagine you riding in one of your prissy little suits.”
    “It’s just not really my thing.”
    “What’s not?”
    She shrugged. “The whole . . . physical thing. I’m not big on sweating.”
    A very clear, dirty picture flashed through his mind of just what it might take to make her sweat and like it. He blinked, trying to will it away. “You used to like it. I have a very clear image in my head of the first time I saw you. You had mud up to your elbows, and the skin on your face was peeling from a sunburn. You’d been out catching frogs, I believe.”
    Her cheeks turned a delicate shade of pink. “Well . . . I’ve changed.”
    “I’ve noticed.”
    “Hi,