It didn’t. “He had the balls to go back in?”
“He had to, new guy gets the coffee, remember?”
I nodded. “Right.”
“You didn’t answer my calls.” Emily sounded hurt, making me feel like a terrible friend.
“I’m sorry. I needed some time to process.” And I didn’t want to take my frustration out on her.
She took the cup out of my hand and pulled me into a hug. “I know. Want me to tell Jamie to fire him?”
“Yes.” I laughed. “Maybe.” I wiped the tears off my face as I pulled away. I didn’t really want them to fire Nathan. “No.”
“If you change your mind, we’ll get Meg and Mary on our side so Jack and John don’t override Jamie.”
I agreed, but only because I knew we could hatch all the evil plans we wanted—the guys wouldn’t make business decisions based on my hurt feelings.
Casper’s job was safe.
My sanity, not so much. My heart, not at all.
“He’s in Dallas with Jay until tomorrow night. You won’t run into him again until then,” Emily said. Hearing that helped me relax a little.
I figured it’d be easy enough to avoid him if I asked Meg to give me a heads up anytime he made a coffee run. And I avoided SSI gatherings like the annual Fourth of July BBQ and the Christmas party.
“Thanks, Em.” I refilled my glass again.
Chapter 6
Nathan
Jay and I spoke the same language. Having special forces experience made connecting easy, despite serving in different branches. The brotherhood crossed uniforms.
Until he asked, “So, what’s the deal with you and York?”
“Who?”
“Dude, you don’t know her last name?”
Fuck, he’s talking about Ashley. “No. It never came up.” Which wasn’t entirely true, I’d intentionally not asked, and she hadn’t offered. “She didn’t ask for mine either.” And I hadn’t offered.
How’d we spend so much time together and learn so little?
That wasn’t accurate. We talked about everything and nothing. The conversation flowed easily, and we never experienced the awkwardness of a first date. I didn’t know her last name, but I’d learned what really mattered; what shaped Ashley into the amazing woman she was. And despite being undercover, I shared what made me, me.
Because we hooked up in Vegas, we didn’t expect more.
Liar. We might have intended for it to be a one-night stand, but we’d both wanted more.
Jay looked at me, shook his head back and forth, and said, “Ashley’s last name is York.”
Ashley York. If I’d had her full name, I might’ve looked her up. How many Ashley Yorks lived in Dallas? It didn’t matter. The image of her face was etched into my brain, so I could’ve used social media to find the right one.
Working for a company with government contracts meant there wasn’t much I couldn’t find out.
If I had their full name.
“So what happened?” he repeated his question.
