Jackson glanced around the table. “Do you guys always pry this much into each other’s love life?”

“Yes,” Cassidy said. Cole and Jake nodded in agreement.

Lincoln lifted his hands. “This is why I have no love life. Too messy.”

“Correction. That is why you have lots of love lives,” Jake said.

“Guilty.” Lincoln said it with his usual quick smile, but Jackson noted there was a forced quality to his voice. As though his role as womanizer was one big act—an act he was tiring of.

“Okay, Burke, just one more question and then we’ll change the subject,” Cole said.

Jackson glared. “Why the hell would I agree to that?”

Cole’s smile turned into a confused look. “Because we’re your friends, dude. And if you don’t talk about it, you’re going to get even more pissy than you already are.”

Jackson opened his mouth to tell the other man to go to hell, but one word latched onto his brain and wouldn’t let go.

Friends.

They wanted to be his friends.

Hell, maybe they already were his friends, even though he hadn’t done a damn thing to earn entry into their little circle.

“Fine, okay, one question,” he muttered. “Also, before I forget…Mollie wants to do, like, a party type of thing. To meet all you guys.”

There was a moment of silence. “Holy shit,” Jake said. “I haven’t been this excited since I got invited to an eighth-grade party when I was in sixth grade.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t count if it was your sister,” Cassidy stage-whispered.

“Wait, if we say yes to the party, do we still get to ask our question?” Lincoln asked suspiciously.

Jackson rolled his eyes as the drinks were delivered. “Yes.”

His phone buzzed just as the men began arguing about what the one question should be, and he shifted his weight to pull it out of his pocket.

“Okay, we’ve got it,” Lincoln said, as they all turned their attention back to Jackson.

But Jackson’s attention was still riveted on his phone.

It was an email from Jerry. He’d gotten the job.

Holy hell.

Jackson scanned the email, picking out the key details even with Jerry’s trademark lack of punctuation. The job offer was for offensive coordinator. Effective immediately.

Jackson fought the urge to bellow in victory, which was just as well, because the next sentence in Jerry’s email all but took his breath away.

Sorry I was hard on you, son. That pretty wife of yours stopped by, explained how everything was. Told me that it wasn’t true, and that you’re still the man I thought you were.

Jackson closed his eyes in misery.

He had what he wanted. He had his life back. His old life. Almost.

And he had his ex-wife to thank for it.

Chapter 24

“I can’t believe you’re making me FaceTime in the dressing room,” Mollie muttered as she wriggled into a green dress.

“Well, only one of us could take the afternoon off. And if it makes you feel better, the terrible lighting makes you look slightly less bad than it makes me look.”

Kim’s voice was muffled, and Mollie had to dig through the pile of dresses on the small chair in the fitting room until she found her iPhone.

“Okay, how about this?” she asked, holding the phone as far away as possible so that Kim could see the latest possibility.

“Hmm.” Kim’s lips pursed. “The color’s kind of fun, but the neckline makes your boobs look small.”

“My boobs are small.”

“Yes, but so is the rest of you. Play up that tiny waist, girlfriend! And I think you should go shorter. Show off your long legs.”

“Got it. Legs good, boobs bad,” Mollie said, scanning the dresses she hadn’t tried on yet.

“No, no, it’s all good. I’m just saying, work your assets. And your assets are your thighs.”

“I hope nobody’s listening to this,” Mollie muttered as she set the phone down again and reached for another dress. The little black dress was such a cliché, but this one had caught her eye because it was deceptively demure from the front yet had a strappy, crisscross thing happening on the back that was both fun and sexy.

“I can’t believe you guys are cohosting a party,” Kim was saying.

“We’re not co-hosting. He’s hosting. It’s his party. I’m just there as his…date.”

“But it was your idea,” Kim said.

“Well, yeah.” Mollie pulled the dress over her head.

“And he agreed.”

“Reluctantly.”

“So let me get this straight: the guy you’re living with and sleeping with is hosting a party that was your idea, but you’re merely the guest.”

“Hell, I don’t know, Kim,” Mollie said wearily. “It’s not like anything Jackson and I have going on has a name.” Well, it did have a name, she thought. It was called “sleeping with your sister’s ex.”

Speaking of which, something was seriously going on with Madison. Not only had she come into town and seen Jackson without even telling Mollie that she was here, she’d gone and flown back to Houston…all without a word to Mollie. Considering that each of them was the only family the other had, it stung. Madison had texted her, true, but she’d been…different.

Mollie had really thought her sister would call today, at least. Today, of all days, she needed her sister. Madison was the only one who understood.