He didn't know the half of it, that made sense to Deck — and he was torn, for a beat, between whether or not he wanted to know more. If he could know more without risking her asking him more about his own sex life, (or lack thereof), Declan may have risked it. He always wanted to know more about Sage.

And then there she went, making him uncomfortable with a compliment while Declan had taken a beat to put more chicken in his mouth. He swallowed it before he replied.

"Don't go getting all soft on me, Sage," Declan chided, wrinkling his nose at her. Between Sage calling him a good person, and Tess calling him an angel, the Whitby girls were being awfully tender lately — and Declan was used to chatting to them a lot about their problems, but this was different. This risked inflating his ego. And he couldn't go on doing that.