“Armor?”
“A slinky dress, makeup, and the sexiest shoes you have. Leave the underwear at home. It’s time to hunt your man down and remind him who he belongs to.”
“Me?”
“You,” Riley and Maya said as one.
Then Maya gave Ann a wicked grin. “You have to set a trap, and I know just how to do it.”
Chapter Seventeen
“You look like shit, Jack.” Dex shook his head as the pair of them worked to straighten up Dex’s back room. The studio was perfect, with the right amount of light and space to have several backdrops for portraits, as well as comfort for staged shoots and costumes.
But the back storage room needed some new shelving, and Jack needed something—anything—to take his mind off Ann. He would talk to her again soon. Just…not until he was ready. He couldn’t figure out how to deal with her yet. But God, he missed her.
“Dude, you stare any harder at the shelf, it won’t need nails. You can hammer it in through thought alone.” Dex brought his hands together and made some weird meditation sound.
“Shut up, Black.”
“It speaks! About time. How’s work?”
“Okay. I enjoy helping the TAs, and I’ve made some great inroads on new research with solar power. I’ve written a syllabus the head guy likes, and I’m rewriting some course work for fun.”
“For fun.” Dex blinked. “You really are a nerd under that muscle, aren’t you?”
“You’d know. Poindexter.”
Dex held his hands over his heart and staggered. “Bastard. Hit me right where it hurts, why don’t you?”
Jack shook his head, chuckling. “Where’s Anson?”
“Where else? Fighting with Riley.”
“He’d do better to leave her alone before she feeds him a poisoned cupcake.”
Dex sighed. “Sad thing is, he’d take it in a heartbeat if she offered. He’s stupid enough to eat it and die to prove a point.”
“What? That he has the hots for Riley?” Jack wasn’t blind. Well, not all the time. When it came to Ann, he couldn’t think straight. With everyone else, he knew just how to handle them. He’d been smart enough to avoid his family with work excuses. None of them knew of his personal troubles, and he wanted to keep it that way.
Anson and Dex did, of course, and they’d been nothing but supportive. Hearing that the girls were out for vengeance put them both on the alert. Jack kept Ann’s miscarriage and his other worries a secret though. Some things even best friends didn’t need to know.
“You ever going to talk to her again?” Dex asked. He’d been a quiet shoulder to lean on, not bugging Jack about details, just listening. Anson had given him several strategies for dealing with her, none of which had any appeal.
“Yeah. I just don’t know what to say. I mean, she had a reason to want my head on a platter.”
“And you can’t trust that she means it when she says she loves you.”
“You know Ann. She’s got a heart. She might have started the relationship with the idea to screw me over, but once she knew the truth, she’d never have gone through with it.”
Dex blinked. “If you know that, then you know she won’t lie about dumping you.”
Jack sighed. “Yeah, but what if she went on dating me just to save me more heartache? God, I said heartache. I’m turning into a woman.” He hated thinking so hard about fuckingfeelings.
Dex coughed. “Well, um, I don’t think I’d say—”
“I am way over-thinking things. So we didn’t work out once? Doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends, right? She probably feels sorry for me. And damn, but pity will kill a hard-on faster than—”
“Than what, Jack?”
