Nothing this morning had gone to plan. It started with her inability to get to sleep, anticipation and anxiety about today swirling around in her mind like a fireball tsunami. Apparently, she had fallen asleep at some point because her alarm jolted her awake and she'd knocked her phone off the side table and under her bed. Then she'd stubbed her toe on the corner of the dresser on the way to the bathroom. Now, the jacket she'd paired with the black pencil skirt and teal camisole felt too tight across the shoulders. Had she gained weight since the last time she'd worn the jacket to an interview last spring?

Too nervous to eat or drink, she paced the kitchen and focused on what was going right. The chance to create her own menu. On the counter, her phone rattled against the granite. She glared at the notification. "No."

"Something wrong?"

She turned at the sound of Max's voice and the bad news in her hand faded at the sight. Framed by the patio door, the early morning sunlight acted like a highlighter along the ridges of Max's pectorals where his T-shirt clung to him. Sophie's cheeks heated and her fingers longed to trace the deep lines. It didn't help the muscles flexed and rippled with each deep inhale and exhale Max took, seemingly out of breathe. Since arriving last week, Max had joined Finn for his pre-dawn runs, despite the ever chilling weather. Today, Max had added a beanie to his running attire, but no coat and a slight sheen caused Max's tanned skin to glow.

Her phone buzzed again in her hand, dragging Sophie out of her Max-induced stupor. "My rideshare just canceled." She glanced back at the phone. "Now I'll be late."

"First day at the winery, right?"

Sophie's finger paused over the screen, stunned Max had remembered the detail. Despite living in the same house, she'd only seen him at breakfast yesterday. By the time she returned from Mary's place, he'd already been in bed. Or at least in his room. She had heard no sounds of life as she brushed her teeth in their shared bathroom. Not that she'd had her ear to the door to his room or anything.

"Simon's meeting me there—" she glanced at the time "—in twenty minutes." She tapped on the screen, which was not offering any cars in the area, and cursed small towns. "Damn it, there's nothing that can be here in less than an hour."

"Finn left me the keys to his jeep." Max took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. " Just take that."

The couple had a doctor's appointment in Washington and had left before sunrise to miss the morning rush hour, Emily leaving a note to wish Sophie good luck on her walk through with Simon.

Sophie pinched the brow of her nose. "I can't."

"I don't mind. I don't have anything to do today."

"No. I mean I can't drive."

Max coughed, as if choking on his sip of water. "You don't have your driver's license."

"No." Sophie met his gaze, dark pools sucking her in. "I have my license." Silence hung in the air between them as he continued to hold her gaze. "I just don't drive."

The thick tendons in his throat rippled. "I'll take you."

"What?" Sophie blinked and Max was moving out of the kitchen. She trailed him into the gloom of the front hallway.

He paused on the third step of the staircase, removed his hat, and looked down at her. "Give me five to change."

"That's not necessary." She had to tilt her head back to catch his expression, eyes pinched, mouth in a taut line. A knot formed in her chest at the pained look. "I'll text Simon and let him know I'm delayed."

The tips of his fingers turned white where they gripped the banister. "I see."

Sophie wasn't sure what he saw, but that knot tightened, and her gut screamed at her that Max was somehow hurt by her refusal to accept help. "I mean, if it's not too much of a bother..." His face softened and the rope in her chest loosened. "A ride would be great."

Outside, the clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight beamed in through the second-story windows, illuminating the foyer, staircase and Max. His mouth curved up. "Wait here."

She nodded as Max bounded up the remaining steps and disappeared. With another check of the rideshare app, which assured her there wasn't another car in the area, she shut down her phone and headed for the kitchen. Asking for help sat like a stone in her stomach and she searched for some way to even the debt she was about to take on. The sound of running water echoed through the house. Briefly. Max must have taken the fastest shower known to man.

After throwing a few things into her purse, she brushed the errant lock of hair that refused to stay in place and made her way back to the front hall. Taking her time, she pulled on her tweed jacket and settled the scarf her mother had given her last Christmas under the collar. She could hear his footsteps slap against the hardwood of the upstairs hallway and turned to find him bounding down the staircase, his hands pulling a light blue Henley over his bare chest.

"That was fast." She averted her gaze, but not without snapshotting the beautiful six pack he sported.

Max dropped his shoes on the marble floor and stuffed his feet into them. "You learn to clean up quick in the Navy. Water is a precious commodity. So is time." He patted the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his cell phone. "Are you ready?"

"This is really so kind of you." She watched as he picked up the keys from a crystal bowl on a long, thin table by the entranceway. "I owe you one."

The cool November morning air tickled Sophie's ears as they strode across the stone driveway.

"Nonsense." The brake lights on the Jeep flashed and Max held open the passenger side door for her. "I miss driving. Don't get much chance these days." The leather seat was cold against the back of her thighs. With the click of the door closing, the world went silent. Sophie watched Max jog around the hood of the vehicle and climb into the driver's seat. "Used to drive for hours back home." The engine roarer to life and a grin graced his face. "But never anything as nice as this."

Sophie punched in the address to the winery on the navigation system and sat back to find Max's face inches from her, his hand on the back of her headrest. He blinked at the sudden proximity, his lips parting. He cleared his throat, and the Jeep jerked to life as he reversed out of the parking spot. The scent of his bodywash, something woodsy engulfed her, and she inhaled deeply. The frosty morning melted away as her lungs filled with eau-d-Max and a familiar pull tugged in her lower belly.

In need of a distraction, she rummaged in her purse, producing a green package. "Here." She offered the granola bar to him. "You must be hungry."

Sunlight filtered through the trees rushing by and Max's eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. His hands remained on the steering wheel. "For me?"

"Do you want me to open it for you?" She waved the package at him. His response, that shy smile she'd open a thousand granola bar wrappers to see, broke across his face.

She fumbled with the wrapper and peeled it back before offering the bar to him. "Here."

"Thanks." More of his masculine scent hit her as he reached for the bar. His fingers brushed against hers and tingles pulsed down her nerves, straight to her heart. She ignored the uptick in her pulse and crumpling the wrapper in her hand, focused on the road ahead.

An awkward silence settled between them, punctured only by the clicking of the turn signal and the hum of the engine. The longer the hush gaped between them, the more Sophie squirmed in her seat.

"Sophie." Max's whisper burst the cone of silence.

A vision of the last time he'd whispered her name, the tenderness of his thumb stroking her cheek, the hard lines of his body pressed against hers, the desire to stay the night in his arms, replaced the brown fields zipping by the window. "Mmm."

"Are you sure it's okay I'm here? Staying at Emily and Finn's." Max shifted in his seat. "Cause I'm staying longer. At least until I have to go home for Christmas."

"Really?" Why did her insides lurch with delight at the concept of seeing Max every morning? His heaving chest after a run. Those dark eyes watching her over his coffee cup. The sound of his laughter filtering out of the library where Finn and he spend the afternoon this weekend. "What made you change your mind?"

Another pause. Sophie snuck a look at Max. The tendons in his neck strained and she had the urge to put her hand on his arm, to comfort him.

"Emily is right. Something's not right with Finn." His Adam's apple bobbed. "I've seen him walk into enemy territory less stressed." His head swayed in denial. "I doubt I can do anything, but I can't abandon a member of my team."

Admiration at Max's dedication filled Sophie. "You're a good friend. Sometimes just being there is enough." It was what Emily had done for her after Thomas's death. She'd had stayed night after night in her bed with her, soaking up the ocean of tears Sophie shed. Emily didn't have a magic wand to take away the pain, but she held Sophie and kept her from falling apart completely.

"Is being here going to be... difficult?" Max's bicep flexed as he turned the wheel of the Jeep and his voice dropped. "Given what happened... at the barbeque?"

She didn't want to think about what they'd done. Or rather, she did, and it was a dangerous path. Since Thomas's death, there had been one man she'd obsessed about. They'd met at the restaurant, him wasting time at the bar rather than going back to his hotel room. After a few drinks, some intense flirting and a make-out session in the hallway to the bathroom, she'd accepted his invitation to test out the bed in his suite. They didn't leave the room for two days. She'd drank in every inch of him and left exhausted and satiated. For a few weeks after he left town, there had been fantasies of him returning and sweeping her off her feet for a repeat. Then life got busy, and the craving died on the vine like sour grapes.

Her obsession with Max didn't suffer the same fate. Instead, the seed of him rooted somewhere inside her, cropping up in her dreams, both at night and during the day. She'd even tried to initiate another one-night stand but couldn't find anyone who made her insides clench the way the mere memory of Max did.

That's why she knew she had to stay away from him. One more night with him and that seed that had planted inside her might grow into something more. She clasped her hands together. "It's fine."

"It's just, we never talked about that night."

"There's no need." Sophie stared straight ahead. "It was one night." Sophie was determined there would not be a repeat. No matter how good Max smelled.

Hi everyone! DL here. I've been making a list of my favourite themes and scenes in romances and car scenes, where characters talk about important issues seems to be one of them. I think you can expect a few more "car talk" chapters coming up.

Do you think Max should drive Sophie to work every day?