She pushed me away, nabbed the phone off the desk, and scurried away to the other side of the room. What the fuck? “Who texted that to you?” I asked, my voice cracking partway through.

“Nobody important.” But her demeanor said otherwise, so I ripped the phone out of her hand. “Hey!” she yelled and tried to grab it back.

My heart beat faster, and as anger crashed through me, I wanted to smash that Goddamn phone against the wall. “Is this your ex?” My voice lowered as I attempted to control my fury. The phone nearly crumbled in my hand. “Is that where you went after my place? Right from my bed back to his?”

Her face blanched and her mouth hung open.

“Answer me, or I swear to God I’m chucking this fucking phone,” I said, my voice quaking in anger. Fucking women. Fucking cheating women. It’s like I’m a magnet for them.

Her hands moved to her waist. “He showed up at my door with coffee when I left this morning. He asked me for money,” Harper said and pointed to herself. “I told him I didn’t have any. Which is the God’s honest truth, because during our marriage, he cleaned out our savings and pretty much anything I had of value so he could gamble. When we divorced, I found out he’d also charged massive amounts of shit on a bunch of different credit cards, which conveniently also had my name on them. Last month?” She leaned into me, blood boiling. “I made the final payment for my half of a debt that wasn’t even mine!” she screamed the last part at the top of her lungs. “Eighteen hefty payments.” Her eyes tore into mine. “So, no, Jack McCallister, restaurateur extraordinaire, I wasn’t busy bed-hopping. If you must know?” she asked, tears starting to form in her eyes. “Yours was the first bed I hopped into since my divorce, and I won’t make that mistake again.”

Fuck. I screwed this up. “Here, I didn’t realize,” I said as I held out her phone.

“Yeah, you didn’t realize, but now you’re all caught up,” she said and ripped her phone out of my hand. She stomped out, slamming the door behind her. My certificate of culinary excellence went crashing to the floor.

As I drove to work on the packed I-45, I tried my best not to think about Jack’s caveman attitude. But that whole ugly scene kept replaying through my mind on some horrible loop from hell. “Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry,” I chanted to myself. But, like every girl I knew, the more you told yourself not to cry, the harder you actually cried.

By mid-morning, I was mostly back to normal and had resolved to lead a celibate life and take up crocheting. Not that the two were mutually exclusive, but it couldn’t hurt to learn something new and keep my mind and hands busy.

I needed to stop thinking about a certain pair of deep brown eyes and everything they were connected to. The worst part was lying in my bed last night. I swear I could feel him and smell him, and that drove me so crazy I reached into my bedside table for a little battery-operated relief.

I was all right otherwise, though. I mean, I would never see Jack again, so there was nothing to worry about. He had been a client of ours for a while now and yet never stepped foot inside the office, so there was exactly zero need for him to ever show up. Vivienne would continue to travel to him if need be.

My mortification level would lessen as time went on, I’m sure. And celibate people didn’t make a habit of going out on girls’ nights, so I would never meet anyone else. I’m finished with that. Tried it. Failed it. Done.

Dean made it back about an hour before lunch. He was in his usual jeans and button-up shirt. Today’s shirt was a black and white plaid check, which seemed to make his broad shoulders even bigger, if that was possible.

“Morning, Dean.” I looked up from answering emails to smile.

“Harper, morning. Do you have enough info to set up the account for the Garcias? I just received word they are interested in moving forward,” he said with a grin, clearly proud of himself but humble like every great leader.

“Oh wow. That’s awesome news. Good job. Yeah, I think I do, but I’ll look into that right after I finish answering this email. I marked a few as top priority,” I motioned to the screen, “and forwarded them to your private email. Check those out when you can. Also, I finished the photocopying you asked for and it’s on your desk,” I said and got right back to my keyboard.

“Perfect, thanks. And if you could send Vivienne in when she gets here, I’d appreciate it,” he said, then strode down the hall to his office.

I was just getting down to the Garcia account when Vivienne crept in gingerly, like she was trying to keep her head still.

“All better?” I said and squinted my eyes at her as I looked her over. She was wearing a gray skirt suit with a button-up white blouse. Her hair was in a messy bun that still looked fabulous. Her look said I’m fancy, but I’m not trying to be fancy.

“Better, but not great.” She smiled tenderly. “Not as young as I once was, apparently.”

“Shoot, I almost forgot,” I said, perhaps a bit louder than I should have because Vivienne cringed. “Dean wants you to check in with him. He got the Garcia account,” I squealed, then Vivienne plugged her ears. Oops. I felt bad, but the Garcias owned a chain of grocery stores, and Dean and Vivienne had been trying to win them over for months, if not years. This was a huge deal for the business.

“Finally. I can’t believe he got through to them after all this time. That man is relentless. I need to hear the details on this. I’ll be right back,” she said, then practically tiptoed down the hall to Dean’s office.

I loved working here.

Just before lunch, I was still in full work mode. Everything was coming together and working like a well-oiled machine, so I hadn’t had any time to think about the handsome brown-eyed man. Well, not much time anyway.

As I was bent over, attempting to add more paper to the copier, the front door sensor announced that someone arrived. I spoke to the copier, hoping I was loud enough, “Hi, be with you in a minute.” I shoved one more package of paper into the drawer before I heard an answer.

“Don’t rush on my account.” I heard the exact deep, sexy voice I was trying my best to erase from my mind. Immediately, I considered crawling into the copier but decided Dean would be pissed. Copiers cost a lot of money, not to mention it would suck if I ruined this outfit.

I slowly stood up, waiting for the blood to return to the rest of my body so I wouldn’t topple over. Jack looked better every time I saw him. He was dressed in the same suit he wore for our early meeting—black with a white shirt and a tie that caught my attention. It was black and gray striped, but it had subtle stripes of light shiny blue that captivated me and drew me in. My fingers wanted to touch that tie and the man who was wearing it. So much for my new vow of celibacy. How pathetic. I didn’t even make it to noon.

Truth be told, I felt like an idiot seeing him again after I had my temper tantrum. His anger precipitated it, but why I overreacted like I did, I had no idea. Dumping on people wasn’t exactly my specialty.

Don’t get me wrong. The dick had it coming after what he said about me bouncing in and out of beds like some tramp. But I still felt like an idiot.

“Jack, can I help you?” I said and drew a blank, not knowing what the heck to say next as my poor stomach was twisting something awful.

He grinned his sexy grin as his eyes scanned me up and down. I felt like I was naked in front of him again. His eyes left heat everywhere they looked. He may as well have been touching me, for the effect was the same. Well, almost the same.

“I’m here to see Vivienne. Is she available?” he asked, then looked around the office.

I finally snapped out of my Jack trance when I realized, of course, he wouldn’t be here to see me. What a fool for thinking he’d actually search me out to maybe apologize. Idiot. They probably had to fix his order. I bet that was the whole reason Vivienne dragged herself out of bed.

“Oh yeah, for sure. Let me buzz her. One sec,” I said, as I walked to my phone and pushed her office button. “Vivienne, Jack McCallister here to see you,” I told the phone as I died a little more inside.

Immediately, her door swung open and we heard, “Jack, come on in.” Vivienne exited her office and held the door.

Jack turned to me and said, “Harper.” Then he greeted Vivienne as they ambled into her office and shut the door. My wobbly legs took me to the chair and I collapsed.

Five minutes later, I heard a duet of enthusiastic, “Auntie Harper,” coming from the front door. Audrey had fantastically awful timing. I opened my eyes and faked my enthusiasm.

“Hi, boys,” I said as they both gave me a cute, joint-hug reception. “I got you something. Wanna see?” I asked, and they responded with a resounding, “Yes.” Slowly opening my top drawer for added suspense, I grabbed out two eggs of silly putty. Not regular silly putty—super cool, specially colored silly putty. The boys hollered with joy when I handed them the eggs.

“Oh gee. Thanks, Harper. How can I ever repay you?” Audrey said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

I just smiled up at her and ignored her comment because I didn’t care. She was always worried about messes, but kids were supposed to get messy.

“Oh, actually, I know. How about you watch the boys for us in a few weeks? Please? Murray’s sister is having us over for some kind of shindig. I mean, who the heck invites people over and says, ‘Oh, could you leave your kids at home?’ Crazy ass people who don’t have kids and have a huge house with ugly expensive ornaments all over the place, that’s who. Could you imagine us taking the boys into that nightmare? It gives me hives just thinkin’ about it.” She sat down in the chair in front of me and crossed her legs.

“Of course, Audrey. No problem. I told you any time you need me, just let me know.” The relief in her eyes was almost comical.

“My head was pounding out of my skull this morning.” Her hands clutched her head. “If I ever touch a pink whatcha-call-it again, it will be too soon. Next time, I’m in charge of drinks or I’ll just crash at your house.”

Poor Audrey. I just giggled and tried not to think what kind of drinks she would force on us.

“Boys, watch what you can do with it.” I took the silly putty from Nick and squished it on the newspaper I had on my desk, then lifted it off and showed them the resulting imprint.

“Whoa, cool,” Levi said and ripped the putty away from me, which resulted in Nick ripping it out of Levi’s hands. Oy.

“Hey, that’s mine. Give it back!” Nick yelled.

“Boys, you both have your own. Here’s the newspaper. Go crazy.” I placed the paper on the floor so they had better access. God, they were cute.

Sitting back in my chair, I swiveled around just in time to see Jack’s hot derriere walking out the front door. Damn. I had no clue why I was disappointed, but I was. Terribly. My stomach fell to the floor and I couldn’t seem to breathe or speak. Luckily, Audrey did it for me.

“Was that lover boy walking out? He has a fine, fine behind,” she said, shaking her head. “Did he track you all the way to work? Boyfriend has it bad.” She gave me her wide-eyed look.

“He was here to see Vivienne. Settle down,” I told her. Again my stomach twisted in a bad way, and I actually felt sick from being so nervous.

“Uh, honey, he just showed up for no darn good reason. I offered to meet him at the restaurant like I always do, but he insisted on coming here. First time he’s ever stepped foot in the office after all these months, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Vivienne said.

“He barely said two words to me,” I told them, and my eyes started to get teary. Why? Why was I sad when he was the one who acted like an ass and basically called me a tramp?

“It’s what he didn’t say that was meaningful from my angle. When you were playing with the boys, he stopped in his tracks, staring at you the whole time like he wanted to drag you out of here over his shoulder or something. God, it was hot,” Vivienne said, as she pretended to fake fan herself with her hand.

“See? He came here to search you out,” Audrey said and pointed at me, grinning. Then she lost her grin and said, “But why didn’t he just call you? Hasn’t he called you yet? Do not tell me he’s playing games with you.” Her hands were on her hips, her face now frowning.

Painted into a corner, I gave them the extremely edited version of what happened last night and this morning, complete with a few spelled words so the boys wouldn’t take a new vocabulary to school with them.

“She dined and dashed.” Vivienne started giggling and couldn’t control herself. Soon she was doubled over as I glared at her.

“I need a cold compress,” Audrey said and leaned back, holding her head with both hands. “So you left that hunk of burning love in B-E-D,” she spelled out, “and ran away? What were you thinking? I can’t name one thing that would get me out from that man’s arms in the middle of the night.” She sat with her eyes closed and shook her head. “Oh, you’re makin’ my head pound all over again. Those pink devils were a nightmare in disguise.”

“I just felt like an I-D-I-O-T after how I acted, so I bolted once reason returned to my tiny brain,” I told her, hoping she would drop the subject and leave for lunch already.

“But he didn’t kick you out, and he adjusted his play so you would stay over. Harper, you need your head examined if you let that one go. I say you drive to his restaurant right now and offer yourself up to him on a platter.” Audrey laughed hysterically, slapping her legs.

“We didn’t exactly leave on great terms after our meeting.” I sighed and reluctantly told them about our fight.

“He said what?” Audrey shouted, then immediately regretted it and clutched her head again. “I don’t care how hot a man is. He cannot speak to you that way.”

“Huh. I didn’t take him for the Neanderthal type,” Vivienne said, tapping her lips with her finger. “But he seemed to care an awful lot about where you ran off to last night. And,” her arm flung into the air, “you have to admit. That text from your ex was all kinds of messed up. Why is he back asking you for money again?”

“I don’t understand how that boy can show his face after Riley threw his A-S-S out of the club last night. That girl knows some serious ninja moves,” Audrey said, waving her arms around with sound effects like she was also a serious ninja.

Oh boy. Time to get out of here. “I’d love to stay here and chat,” I lied and they both knew it. “But I have to run to lunch. I didn’t pack anything,” I said and got up to find my purse. “Audrey, text me with what date you need me to watch the twins. Bye, boys!” I yelled in their direction, but they were completely absorbed with mashing the putty onto every possible surface except for the newspaper. Nice.

“Yeah, and I’ll text you, too, when that silly putty gets stuck in my carpet. Thanks,” Audrey replied, annoyance in her tone. But she was just teasing. Mostly.

“I’ll walk out with you, Harper. Let me grab my purse,” Vivienne said and strutted into her office.

I held open the door for her, but when she walked through, she suddenly stopped dead. Frowning at her, I asked, “What’s going on? Did you forget something?”

“Oh my God. This is like a freaking romance movie,” she whispered, talking in code.

I gazed up and deciphered the meaning of her words when I saw him. Jack was leaning against what I assumed was his hot as hell car, arms crossed and eyes aimed over the top of his shades in our direction, looking heart-stoppingly irresistible. My stomach had butterflies the likes I’d never felt before and my heart beat out of my chest.

“Oh shit,” I muttered with what little breath I had left in my lungs. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“Just go,” Vivienne said and pushed me in the back, coaxing me forward before she abandoned me with another. “Oh my God.”

I stumbled forward, trying to control my breathing and heart rate but failed miserably at both. As I approached the curb, there was no avoiding him. He crooked a finger at me. What? Who does that? Unable to ignore the finger crook, I padded up to him, hoping I didn’t trip and fall. Again.

“Umm, hi?” I said and was once again lost for words. “Did you forget something? I can run back into the office and get it. Vivienne’s still here.” The big deserter, who I would yell at when I saw her again.

“Going for lunch?” He straightened up and removed his shades like some kind of practiced male model.

Somehow, I was close enough to smell his manly smell, and it started affecting me all over again. Don’t jump on him in the parking lot. Vow of chastity. Crochet.

“Yeah, I was headed out. Too lazy to pack anything this morning.” Or more like too freaking tired.

“I owe you an apology. My behavior this morning in my office was reprehensible. I assumed things I had no right to assume. And then I acted like a goon.”

“You know what they say about assume, right?”

“No?”

“Assume makes an ass out of u…”

“And me,” he repeated the old saying like a pro. I giggled at the stupidity of my amusement.

“Forgive me?” he asked, his eyes and face sincere.

“I guess we can be friends again.” I smiled at him and shifted my purse.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his sun-warmed body. “First, let’s get one thing straight,” he said against my lips. “I don’t want to be your friend.” Then he kissed me, sweet and gentle. “Hungry?”

I nodded since he’d stolen my power of speech.

“Good.” He opened the passenger door and swung his hand out. “I packed extras, just in case. Come with me. I’ll have you back in time for work.”

How in the world did I get out of this? I couldn’t possibly go with him in his car. Alone.

“Uh, you don’t have to do that,” I said, terrified and close to passing out.

“Harper, get in.”