“Ah,” he said, lifting a finger. “But I’m not from the office. I’m a contractor.”

She looked away, just for a split second, and it was exactly the opening Cole had been waiting for.

“Jo,” he said, leaning on the desk. “Is there something you want to tell me about that sports editor position?”

“Sharpe!”

Cole’s head snapped up, and he braced himself for a furious Alex Cassidy, only to sag a bit in relief when he realized the editor in chief was nowhere to be seen.

“Jake Malone,” Cole said, standing up straight and grinning at one of his closest friends.

Cole could have sworn he heard Jo sigh just a little as Jake came closer.

It happened a lot around Jake. Oxford’s travel editor had a Hugh Jackman kind of thing going on, and had definitely cornered the market on tall, dark, and handsome.

Jake had once been Oxford’s untamable playboy—a title he’d happily handed over to Lincoln, once Jake met and fell for his wife, Grace—one of Penelope’s Stiletto fairy godmothers.

Small world, and all that.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jake said, clapping Cole on the shoulder and giving him one of those half-man-hug things.

“Waiting for your boss to make up his mind,” Cole said, keeping his voice easy.

Jake rocked back on his heels. “Ah.”

Cole searched his friend’s face, but Jake gave no sign that he knew anything. Cole wasn’t surprised. Cassidy and Jake were good friends, but Cassidy also knew Jake had a big mouth. If Cassidy had made up his mind about the position, Jake would be the last one he’d tell.

“You here for an appointment with Cassidy?” Jake asked.

“Uh, well—”

Jake grinned. “He doesn’t know you’re coming, does he? Awesome. Can I be there when you surprise him? Heard you did that when he was interviewing your competition the other day. Damn, I wish I’d seen that.”

Cole winced. “Is he still pissed?”

Jake shrugged. “Honestly? I’ve barely seen the guy. He’s been up in corporate almost every day this week. Come on back,” Jake said, gesturing toward his office. “Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

Cole followed Jake into his office, pointing at a new poster of a vineyard on his friend’s wall. “Napa?”

“Spain,” Jake said. “I’m trying to convince the boss to send me out there in October. Everyone talks about French wines, California wines, even Italian wines…Spain doesn’t get nearly enough love.”

“Wine, huh? Let me guess whose idea that was.”

Jake grinned. “Let’s just say if Cassidy maybe allowed me to let my wife tag along, she probably wouldn’t say no. Oh, and speaking of the wife…wanna come to dinner at our place? Two weeks from Friday?”

Cole looked at him in surprise. “What’s the catch?”

“There’s no catch. What, I can’t ask my friend to dinner?”

Cole lifted an eyebrow. Waited.

Jake sighed and relented. “Okay, fine. Grace and the other girls—they’ve got it in their heads that they want to adopt this Penelope Pope character.”

Cole’s eyebrow went higher. “And you think I should be there? You are aware that this woman is out for my job?”

“This woman?” Jake repeated. “You sound like my sexist grandpa who’s having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that women who show a bit of ankle aren’t harlots.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Cole grumbled, dropping into the chair across from Jake.

“So it doesn’t bother you that she’s a woman?”

“Hell no. I love women.”

“Excellent,” Jake said. “So you won’t have a problem coming to dinner.”

“That was the lamest attempt at a trap ever,” Cole said. “Explain to me why your wife’s deciding to befriend Penelope Pope—which I’m in favor of, by the way—requires me to be present.”

“It’s not a trap,” Jake said irritably.

“Uh-huh. So you’re telling me this isn’t a couples-only party, with Penelope and me being the only single people?”

“Nope,” Jake said without hesitation. “And even if the girls were trying to set Penelope up, rumor has it Riley’s brother is first pick. Except he’s in Milan or Rome or something.”

Cole frowned. “Why was Liam first pick?”

Jake threw up his hands. “Do you want to come to fucking dinner or not?”

Cole considered. On one hand, he enjoyed hanging out with Jake and the rest of the crew. Was he slightly aware that he was the lone single guy in the group? Yes. Did it bother him? Not in the least.

Except…Grace and her friends were always not so subtly trying to set Cole up with women in an attempt to lure him into their coupled lifestyle.

As such, he could smell a setup a mile away. And this was definitely one of them.

“I think I’ll respectfully pass,” Cole said slowly, leaning back in his chair and resting his heels on Jake’s desk. “Penelope’s great, but—”

Jake shrugged as though it didn’t make a difference to him. “No problem. I’ll ask Lincoln.”

Cole’s feet hit the floor. “Hell no.”

“What’s wrong with Lincoln?” Jake asked distractedly, looking at something that had just come through on his computer screen.