I don’t want to go home because I want to spend more time with Nate. The brain flash curdled her stomach. She didn’t get along with Nate, but there was something about him that triggered…a spark. A spark, just like Nate had mentioned. The spark that had been completely missing with Paul, but with Nate it was there all the time, simmering just beneath the surface, threatening to flare up, and it was exciting, stimulating. Yeah, like a roller coaster, a voice at the back of her mind jeered. And we all know what happens to you after a roller-coaster ride. You wobble all over the place, and then you throw up.

Ally shook her head, trying to dislodge the disturbing thought.

“You look different tonight,” Nate said. “I’ve never seen you so glammed up, with the makeup and heels and that dress.” His quick glance rippled over her, lingering on her bare knees.

Suddenly self-conscious, she tried to stretch the hem of her dress over her knees. What madness had induced her to borrow one of Tyler’s dresses and let her friend doll her up for the evening? “Yeah, I look ridiculous. If you must know, tonight I wanted to look different, act different, but it’s not so easy to change who you are on the inside.”

“I didn’t say you looked ridiculous,” he swiftly replied. “Far from it. Even without the dress and the heels and the makeup, you look terrific.”

“Oh, yeah?” She arched a skeptical brow. “Bet you hardly noticed I had legs before I put on this dress.”

He grinned. “Maybe, but now I can’t get them out of my head.”