That was fair. It wasn’t as if Jake was a widow. His and his wife’s relationship had dissolved before Ryan had ever reached adulthood. “What happened there?” I asked, realizing that he’d never told me before.
Jake took a long time to answer. I nearly apologized and told him to forget it. The look on his face was complicated and closed, and I hated it. He was one of the warmest people I’d ever met, and I didn’t like that I’d put such a pinched look on his face.
“We got married young,” he said finally. “We had Ryan too young—not that I regret that for an instant—but it all happenedsoquickly, and we barely knew who we were.”
“How did it end?”
Jake shrugged. “During a screaming match,” he said, sounding faraway. “I realized that I didn’t want to fight with her for the rest of our lives. It didn’t seem fair to either of us... but I was also an idiot who didn’t know how to say that, so I told her that I didn’t love her anymore. It hurt her more than she will ever tell me, but it did the trick. We were divorced a few months later.”
“Ryan said that you and he weren’t particularly... close growing up.”
His jaw tightened. “Another one of my failings,” he said. “I was financially supportive, and I went to the events that I remembered for school, but I wasn’t the kind of father he would come to with his girl problems or have heart-to-hearts with, you know?”
I propped my elbow on the table, resting my face against my hand. “Would you go back and change it if you could?”
“If I had the opportunity to go back and be a better father? Absolutely,” he said. “But I wouldn’t change my divorce.”
“Why not?” I expected to feel some kind of jealousy, but I didn’t. I liked learning more about Jake, including his past with his ex-wife.
“She and I aren’t compatible,” he said. “We’re good enough friends to function around Ryan, but that’s where things end. I don’t think that going back, knowing how I failed, would fix things. We’d still be incompatible.”
I reached across the table and entwined our fingers. “Did you need to go home tonight?” I asked. “Or did you want to stay?”
“Do you want me to stay?”
I nodded. “I do.”
He smiled. “Then, I’ll stay. Help me with the dishes, and we’ll watch a movie?”
I nodded, and we moved together to clear the table. Bumping into him at the sink, him washing and me drying, sent butterflies flapping through my stomach.Is this falling in love?I asked myself. Was it safe to fall in love with Jake? With all of them?
I hoped so.
13
ZACH
“CarrieAnne, clear out for the day, okay?”
She blinked but then grabbed her bag. “Bad day in court?” she asked gently. “Should I clear your schedule before I leave?”
I nodded. “That would be great, thanks.” I stalked into my office and closed the door with a solidthud. As soon as I was alone, my hands curled into fists. “Fucking hell,” I growled out. “God-fucking-dammit.”
I had been working on a lawsuit for more than six months, a class-action suit against one of the largest land developers in the area, finally went to court, and despite the firm’s best efforts, the judge ruled in the land developers’ favor. Even with all the evidence that we’d compiled that proved that the developers were cutting corners.
We could find a new angle and file a new lawsuit, but that was time and money that my clients didn’t have. I would offer to do it pro-bono, but the board had already chastised me about “giving away freebies” this year.
Someone knocked on my door, and I considered ignoring it, but they knocked again. I stalked over, ready to unleash on this person, but Alex was in my doorway. CarrieAnne had taken me at my word and cleared out. As much as seeing Alex was the best part of my day, regardless of the day, today wasn’t good. “Alex—”
“I was bringing you files from Naomi,” she said. “But CarrieAnne said that you were in a bad mood, so it can wait.” She stepped toward me, and all I could do was step back and let her into my office. “What happened today?”
I didn’t want to talk about it. I never wanted to talk about losing in court. But her face was so open and genuineand ... fucking hell. “I lost today,” I said. “It was a huge lawsuit, and I lost. My clients are devastated.”
I’m not sure what I expected, but Alex throwing her arms around me and tugging me close was not it. I was used to platitudes and empty words.Oh, you’ll get them next time. Things are always 50-50, etc. Alex didn’t do any of that. Instead, she held me and asked, “What do you need to feel better?”
I opened my mouth to say that I would be fine, but what came out was, “You.”
She stared into my eyes for a moment, long enough that I thought she would say no or maybe make plans for later, but then she leaned up and pressed her mouth against mine. We stood, just kissing, for a moment, and thenneedsurged through me, and I swept her into my arms. She gasped into my mouth and held on.