Lucy gives Derek those same feelings: warm, safe, and happy. The scary thing is just knowing that the last three women he felt like that with had been psychotic or had just been doing their job. He was a job, for Braeden. He can't imagine in a million years that, given the circumstances of their meeting, that he's in any way a job for Lucy. Derek finds himself having to actively remind himself that not everyone is out to get him; that Lucy isn't out to get him. ...probably.

He laughs a little at her appreciative comment and he looks her in the eye before responding to the later comment. Or, at least, he does until she gets too close to be able to focus his eyes on properly.

"This is absolutely the best part of my day," he admits and he finally ventures to kiss her. It isn't the first time they've kissed and he hopes it won't be the last, but it's chaste and when he pulls back, he's smiling down at her. Lucy is always the best part of his day.

His reflexive response to get mention that she'd like to go back to school and that her father is thinking about paying for it is to...offer to pay for it if her father turns it down. If Lucy likes being in school and wants to better her chances in the rat race, then she should be able to. But strangers who kiss sometimes and flirt even more often aren't the types of people who pay your way through college. He knows that'd be an inappropriate offer, so he doesn't make it, but the thought is there. ...if she was his girlfriend, he wouldn't even have thought twice about saying it. He is in so deep…

"That's great," he encourages. "I hope he gets on board with that."