“You might have to stand in line.” I take another bite of the chocolaty goodness in front of me—my go-to indulgence when I’m feeling down. “Ray was there when I took the call from Adam. He must have seen something in my face because he followed me around the office demanding I tell him who it was and where he lived. I finally gave in and told him it was my ex and it was a bad situation that was now over. Of course, he wouldn’t let it go. I’m almost dreading going to work tomorrow.”

    “I can’t imagine what Jack would do.” Cora washes down her croissant with a sip of coffee. “He’s the reason I called you tonight. He was worried about you after he dropped you off. He didn’t want you to be alone. He tracked down Jimmy to get my number. I’d say he cares about you something fierce.”

    Her words make me feel warm inside, beating away the chill that settled over me when Jack suggested it would be better if we spent the night apart.

    I look out the window and spot a familiar face. “Is that Blade Saw…er…Jimmy sitting out there in that SUV?”

    Cora’s cheeks heat, and she bites back a smile. “Yeah. I call him by his real name because the whole ring name thing you Redemption people have going on is kinda weird outside the gym. I was with him when Jack called. He came to my place after the party. When I told him we were going for coffee, he insisted on driving. He said he didn’t want us to go out unprotected, and he was happy to sit outside until we were done.”

    “That sounds pretty serious.”

    Cora shrugs. “It’s casual.”

    “Jimmy doesn’t do casual. I thought you might have picked that up at Score when he got the whole team thrown out.”

    Cora shifts in her seat and toys with her hair. “Yeah, but he understands I’m not looking for a commitment right now.”

    Something else is going on. Cora is not a casual hook-up kind of woman. She’s been desperate to find a non-geek to date, and now she has one…or is it two? “You slept with Doctor Death, didn’t you?”

    Her lips quiver with a guilty smile. “It was before Jimmy and I really hooked up. Except now, Don—that’s his real name, Doctor Donald Drake—keeps calling me. I’ve never had any men interested in me, and now I have two. It’s kind of hard to get my head around it all.”

    “If it was anyone else, I’d be dancing on the table for you,” I say. “But I told you about Jimmy. He’s a big-hearted guy, but a heart can only take so many breaks. He’s the most loyal guy I know. If he’s with you, he’s with you 100 percent. If Don is with you, he’s there and then he’s gone. He likes to share himself around. He is pretty much Jimmy’s opposite. You need to decide what you want.”

    “What about you? You haven’t told me what happened tonight and why I’m here instead of Jack. Did you have a fight? Did he find out that you hurt yourself and that’s why he was worried about you tonight?”

    My last bite of cake is one too many, and I push away the plate. “I think we both realized I can’t give him what he needs, and it was just sad and awkward when he left. I’m tired of feeling like a failure. I think I’m going to break it off with him and he can go back to being who he is and I can go back to being who I am.”

    “Are you crazy?” Cora thunks her coffee cup on the table. “I thought you said you didn’t need to hurt yourself after you’ve been with him. Doesn’t that mean he’s the right guy for you?”

    My stomach twists as I look out at Jimmy alone in his car. Sometimes it’s better to be alone. When you’re alone, you can’t get hurt.

    “Yes. He’s the right guy for me. But I’m not the right woman for him.”

22

    Are you trying to turn me on?

    PENNY

    My eyes snap open, a creeping sense of danger washing over me, as I blink into the icy blue glare of Ray’s eyes. Damn. Mind wandering. Again. After leaving Jack a cowardly phone message this morning, I haven’t been able to focus. And now I’ve been caught out in the middle of our Thursday staff meeting.

    I glance around the boardroom table to see if anyone else noticed my lapse. Jill’s smirk and Dana’s raised eyebrow answer my unspoken question.

    “Amanda just asked if you’ve got the PI reports on those three new road accident cases.” Ray’s tone says he’s going to be all over my ass the minute we leave the meeting, but he’s holding back because Amanda is the only person in the room who didn’t catch me having a mid-meeting snooze.

    “Um…yes.” I sift through the files in front of me, mentally congratulating myself for preparing them in advance so I didn’t have to worry about coming in late after my early morning chat with Cora. “I have them here.”

    Amanda takes the reports and sighs as she flips through them. “I don’t think we can take any more of these smaller contingency cases. We need paying clients who can provide a steady income stream or I won’t be able to pay the bills or even continue our pro bono work. I don’t know what’s happened over the last year. We’re doing everything we did before, but we’re not bringing in the big-dollar clients.”

    “World is full of deadbeats,” Ray offers. “Get rid of the deadweight. Start again.”

    “Thank you for that.” Amanda catches my gaze and rolls her eyes. “I’ll just call up all the clients I don’t like and tell them to get lost.”

    “Thought you just did that with Gerry.” Ray leans back in his chair, and I just know he is tempted to put his feet on the table.

    I am suddenly and very acutely awake. “Gerry’s not a client anymore?”

    “No.” Amanda’s lips thin. “Yesterday evening, I had a meeting with him. I told him if he wanted to handle things legally, then I would continue to represent him, but if he was going to continue harassing Damien Stone the way he did when he hired those contractors or by threatening to blackmail Stone’s clients, we were through. I’m desperate for work, but I’m not willing to compromise my standards or have my reputation tarnished. He didn’t like what I said, so we parted ways.”