Mitch drank the bottled water his brother handed him.

“Where’s Sissy and Ronnie going?” Bren asked, frowning.

“Home, I guess. I’m taking Sissy on a date.”

It was like the world stopped. All the players gaped at him. Even Sissy’s brothers. Which seemed odd since everyone seemed to know he and Sissy were fucking.

“What?”

“You’re taking Sissy out on a date?”

“Yeah.” Mitch shrugged at Travis’s question. “So?”

“To be honest, I don’t think she’s ever been on a date.”

“And it’s not like you have to wine and dine her to get what you want,” Jackie said laughingly…until Mitch slammed his helmet into Jackie’s face. Jackie went down crying, holding his nose, too.

“Anyone else got anything to say?” Mitch asked lightly. The team shook their heads. “All right then. I say we get back to practice since I have to get ready for my date.”

Sissy walked out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. She quickly combed her hair and stepped into the hallway.

“Okay, Ronnie, let’s…” She stared down the length of the hall. Her aunts were at the other end, and they were waiting…for her.

“Wha…what are you guys doing here? Where’s Ronnie?”

“That nice young man wants to take you out for a nice meal,” Francine explained calmly. “And we wanted to make sure you didn’t walk out the door looking like the local ho.”

Sissy blinked. Then she tried to make a run for it.

Mitch stepped out of Ronnie’s car and cracked his neck, his gaze focused on the house. It kind of amazed him how this all had come about. Sitting in the pie shop, eating and talking to Sissy’s aunts, telling them things he’d never told anyone—not even Sissy. He blamed the pie. The more they fed him those delicious pies, the more he talked. But they were so sweet and understanding. It really made him feel better.

And when they had sent him off, they told him, “Make sure to ask Sissy out on a date. She deserves it.” And she did, too.

Mitch reached back into the car and pulled out the bouquet of red roses. He knew it was breaking Sissy’s boundaries, but she’d have to get over it. You simply didn’t go to pick up a woman for a first date empty-handed. His mother would have his ass.

Taking a deep breath, Mitch walked up the porch stairs and to the front door. He raised his hand to knock, but he heard glass breaking and cursing.

“Sissy?” he said through the door.

And like that, all the noise coming from inside the house stopped.

“Sissy?” Mitch said again and reached for the doorknob.

“Hold on a minute.” That sounded like one of her aunts. Darla maybe?

Leaning close, Mitch could hear whispersand what sounded like a scuffle.

Then he heard Sissy say, “No, no, no!”

Mitch stood back to kick the door in when it opened on its own and Sissy’s aunts shoved her out onto the porch. Sissy spun around to get back inside, but they slammed the door in her face and locked it.

Taking another step back and looking Sissy over, Mitch said, “Sissy?” Slowly, she turned around, and he smiled. “God, it is you.”

“Not a word, Mitchell Shaw. Not. One. Word.”

“You look—”

“What? I look what?”

Mitch shrugged. “Adorable.”

Sissy’s eyes narrowed. “You bastard,” she hissed before she stormed off toward the car.

“Wait.”

“No!”

He caught her hand on the car door before she could yank it open. “Look, don’t be mad. I’ve just never seen you”—Mitch dragged his gaze from her head to her feet—“in a sundress before.”

A white sundress no less, with tiny blue polka dots, blue sandals with straps and three-inch heels, and—the killer—a matching blue headband to hold her hair back.

She looked as far from the Sissy Mae Smith he knew as humanly possible.

“You never have before, and you never will again. Now, get me out of here before I start kill—” Sissy turned back to him, but her body froze when she caught sight of the flowers in his hand. “What are those?”

“Flowers. For you.”

Sissy stomped her foot and made that damn outline of a box again with her forefingers. “Boundaries,” she hissed.

Imitating the box outline with his own fingers, Mitch snapped back, “Date. Now get in the friggin’ car.”

She snatched the flowers out of his hand and got into the passenger side of the car. Chuckling, Mitch walked around the vehicle and got into the driver’s side.

Once inside, he smiled and said, “I do have to admit, you look pretty hot in that I-was-a-thirty-year-old virgin outfit.”

“Shut up.”

“All I wanna do is dirty you up with my love nectar.”

Sissy finally smiled. “Stop calling it that!”

Sissy didn’t know what was more awkward. The shoes, which were tragically a size too small? The sun dress with the tiny little ties that kept untying? The motherfucking headband?

Or this goddamn conversation?

For thirty minutes, they’d sat and tried to find something to talk about. Sissy couldn’t believe it. This was Mitch. Mitch who she’d had eight-hour-long conversations with while watching really bad late-night cable, only to realize it was dawn so they’d head out to the local diner for breakfast and another two-hour conversation. That Mitch she suddenly had nothing to say to.