"Hey, I was just taking off. Are you coming to dinner tonight?"

"Dinner?"

"Cam and Maya are cooking a feast." Her blue-eyed gaze wandered to Ian and lingered there a little too long. "You're welcome too, if you want."

He shot her his signature smile, the one that made models fall on their backs. "Sounds great. I'm Ian, by the way."

He shook her hand, and her cheeks grew pink.

I frowned between the two of them, but neither seemed to notice. "Actually, Ian and I might be hitting the bar later. I'll let you know if we're going to swing by though."

She glanced back to me. I probably did a shitty job of schooling my discontent because her smile fell away quickly.

"Okay. Sure. I guess I'll see you later."

She waved without looking back at either of us and passed through the doors.

"What the fuck was that?" My tone was clipped.

Ian raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Touch my sister, and I'll slit your throat. Got it?"

Last thing I needed was someone like Ian setting his sights on my sister. I didn't know how innocent she was, but suffice to say she'd always be innocent to me. And Ian was the furthest thing from innocent.

He glanced back toward Olivia's figure disappearing down the street and out of view before returning to me with a nod. "Got it."

I stared a second longer, making sure he understood I wasn't kidding. I liked Ian. I didn't want to have to kill him.

His face split with a smile. "Dude, you need to get laid. You're turning into an uptight motherfucker."

I sighed, because I couldn't lie. "Yeah. I know. That's why I'm here every day."

True enough, life hadn't been the same since the trip. Work was the same, but when it came to unwinding, I ended up blowing off steam at the gym.

We walked into the weight room, and I scanned the room for familiar faces. The only one I wanted to see was Vanessa's. I had to find my way back into her world, one that was proving to be increasingly difficult to breach with her schedule. I didn't think I had an addictive personality, but when it came to being with her, I was hooked. And I needed my fix.

Maybe patience wasn't a word in my dictionary, but I was willing to find some when it came to her. I could have called up a dozen women to satisfy the physical need that gnawed at me a little more every day, but Vanessa was the one I wanted. And as much as I ached for her, I didn't want to make her feel like the hookup she worried she'd become to me.

"We'll fix you up tonight, man."

I shook my head. "Nah. I'm good."

I racked up my bar with weights and did a set. The rush and the burn and the slight fatigue that hit my muscles were all welcome sensations.

"You strung up on someone?"

Hell, I was going to have to break the news to Ian eventually.

I sat up and thought back to the only time they'd met. "You remember the girl at the bar?"

He chuckled. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"The singer."

He lifted his eyebrows. "Oh, that girl at the bar. Yeah. She was smokin'."

"I wasn't sure you'd remember. You were pretty distracted."

He laughed. "Oh, yeah. We had a good time. All three of us. Thanks for the back up." He winked.

I rolled my eyes. Further evidence that I needed to keep him a mile away from my sister.

"So how was she?"

I could reminisce in my head all day long on the mind-blowing sex we'd had, and I often did, but I wasn't going to regale Ian with the nitty gritty of our more intimate moments. The devil knew he had plenty of his own fodder to work with, anyway.

"She's incredible," I said simply. "I want to take her out. Do something special. All she does is work lately, and I can't exactly tell her to stop."

"Sounds familiar."

I smirked. "It's not work when it's your dream job, man."

"True. I'm guessing she's not at her dream job."

"Not exactly. She's someone's personal assistant."

He wrinkled his nose and switched places with me at the squat bar. "So what? You're going to try dating her?"

"Yeah."

He shot me a wary look, full of doubt and probably fueled by his own ignorance.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Seems like a lot of work when we could hit the bar after work and you could have your pick. Or just take a spin through your contacts."

As he said that, my phone dinged with a text.

One of the girls I'd trained at the gym last month, Ellie.

Did you have plans tonight? I'm free.

I shot off a quick reply. Not tonight. Of course, the answer was not ever, but I didn't know quite how to word that yet. When I glanced up, Ian was staring at me.

"How are you going to clear the bench, Bridge?"

I shrugged. "I'll figure it out. I'm more worried about making this work with Vanessa right now."

I changed the subject quickly, simultaneously ignoring the problem that I could feel taking root a little more deeply.

Chapter Ten.

VANESSA.

Today wasn't exactly bittersweet. Tomorrow my commute would be longer and my paycheck would double. I could only hope I'd made the right choice. My knowledge of hedge funds was limited, but I was confident that with Reilly's background in finance and his broad connections with other wealthy investors, he would find a way to succeed with the new venture. Hopefully I'd be given an opportunity to grow as the new company did.

As I was packing up the last of my office supplies, a young man arrived with a dolly stacked high with boxes of documents.

"Boxes from Kevin Dermott's office?"

"Over there," I said, pointing to the corner of Reilly's old office.

Dermott was inheriting Reilly's position at the firm, a healthy jump from what I could tell. He'd been Maya's boss before she left. I didn't know him well beyond the fact that he and Maya had never really gelled very well. She'd left the company abruptly. She never told me exactly why, other than to imply that Dermott had played some part in it.

My phone began to vibrate on my desk. A Florida number came up that I didn't recognize. I let it ring, and a minute later a voice mail alert popped up. I listened and froze when I heard a voice from my past.

"Vanessa, it's Michael Browning. Long time. So your mom gave me your number. Hope you don't mind me calling you out of the blue like this, but I'm going to be up in New York City next week for a conference. I was hoping that maybe we could catch up. I'm not sure if you come back to Callaway much, but if you do, I guess I always seem to miss you. Anyway. Give me a call sometime and maybe we can get a drink or something. Talk to you soon. Bye."

I ignored the next person who brought in another dolly of boxes and moved to the window overlooking the street. I dialed my mom's number and pushed the phone to my ear. Two rings and she picked up.

"You gave Michael my number?" My words came out hushed and angry before she could even say hello.

"Wh- Well, hello to you too." There was an edge to her voice.

I'd caught her off guard.

"Why, Mom?"

"He wanted to catch up with you while he was in town, and it seemed harmless enough. Is that a crime, now really?"

"You had no right to do that without my permission."

"You're being a little bit dramatic, don't you think?"

"What if I sent Dad over to your house out of the blue?"

She was silent a moment. "That's different."

"Why?"

"Because... For one, I'm a married woman now. I'm not sure that would be entirely appropriate."

"I may not be married, but I'm seeing someone. And I don't need you pushing Michael on me and giving him the wrong idea."

"You're seeing someone? Who is he?"

"He's..." How did I describe Darren? "He's a firefighter here in the city. He also happens to be Maya's new brother-in-law. We spent a lot of time together on the trip."

"Oh. You never told me."

"Things are still really new. I'm not sure where it's going."

"That doesn't sound promising."

I rolled my eyes, bracing myself for the lecture that was coming. "He's fine. I just haven't had a ton of time lately."

She sighed. "You need to make time for a relationship if you want one to work. How long has it been since you've dated? It's your schedule that's always pushing people away."

"Mom, please don't lecture me right now."

She wasn't wrong, but I also hadn't been looking for a relationship either. Not until my heart started doing unexpected things around Darren. Impeccable timing too, when my professional life was getting turned upside down.

"I know I couldn't give you the father you really wanted, Vanessa, but I didn't raise you to live without love in your life. Maybe we don't always see eye to eye on the choices you make. I accept that. It is your life, and I respect that. I just want to see you make it a happy one."

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the window. "I don't need a man to be happy."

Yet being with Darren had made me happier than anything had in a long time.

"I know you don't. But you're not happy, sweetheart. Something's missing, and you know it. I'm your mother. I can sense it, even from this distance."

I hated when she was right. She'd go straight to the heart of something. Strip away all the noise.

I didn't know what to say to that.

Then a woman entered the office. She didn't look like someone who'd been hired to move boxes. She wore a tight black pencil skirt, a silky lavender blouse, and chunky square diamonds sparkled on her ears. Her dark hair was pulled into a twist.

"Mom, I have to go. I'll call you later."

I hung up quickly as the woman walked toward me with a smile. "I'm Jia Sumner. I work with Kevin Dermott."

"Nice to meet you. Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, actually. Kevin's not going to be fully operational in this office for a few more days. But he needs something from his files here. I'm just going to grab it for him quickly. Do you mind?"

Something about her manner gave me pause. She was all smiles and politeness, but I had an odd feeling that facade didn't fully represent the woman in front of me. Still, I had nothing to lose by letting her poke around. As of five o'clock today, I didn't work here anymore. I gestured to the stacks of document boxes that lined the edge of Reilly's old office.

"They've been putting everything in there. Let me know if you need any help," I added, because I was programmed to help anyone in a suit, it would seem. Thus was my lot in life, thanks to Mr. David Reilly.

She moved to the boxes, sifted through the files, and extracted one. "Here is it. That was easy."