Anna's eyebrows rose. "A girl."
"A woman. A prosecutor. Ray's prosecutor. Emily Callahan."
"The one he's been talking about for a year? The one he recruited from Nashville?"
"That's her."
Anna waited. Jake took another drink, buying time, and she let him have it. Some things needed room to surface.
"She walked into Ray's office," Jake said, "and my brain just... stopped. For about ten seconds I couldn't put a sentencetogether. Me. I've talked my way out of checkpoints in three languages and I couldn't find a noun."
"You."
"Me."
"Jake Walsh, who could sell sand in a desert."
"Couldn't get a word out. She's got these eyes, Anna. Sharp. Evaluating. Like everything you say is evidence and she's already building the case." He shook his head. "She looked at me like she was trying to decide if I was useful or just another complication."
"And you liked that."
"I did." He set the bottle down. "I really did."
Anna went still.
"But you recovered," she said.
"I recovered."
"And?"
Jake's mouth curved. That smile he couldn't quite control, the one that gave him away every time. "I asked her to come to The Anchor tonight. Her and Claire, her friend. Gator's doing a thing."
Anna stared at him. Then she started laughing. Not polite laughter, the real kind that made her set down the rag she'd been holding and put a hand on the counter to balance herself.
"You asked her out," Anna said. "In the meeting. In Ray's office. With Ray sitting right there."
"It wasn't asking her out. It was a professional invitation to a team gathering."
"Jake."
"What?"
"You asked a federal prosecutor on a date in front of your boss. Who is also your best friend. During a case briefing." Anna was still laughing, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "That's the most Jake Walsh thing I've ever heard."
"It wasn't a date."
"What did Ray do?"
Jake picked at the label on his beer. "He gave me a look."
"I bet he did." Anna's laughter subsided into a warm grin. "And what did she say? This prosecutor who was deciding if you were useful?"
"She said she'd think about it." Jake looked up. "But the way she said it. Like she'd already decided and was making me wait because she could."
"Smart woman."
"Scary smart. She spent twenty minutes in that briefing asking questions I hadn't thought of. Building a picture of the case that I couldn't see until she assembled it. And she did it without making anyone feel stupid, without grandstanding, just... methodically taking things apart and putting them back together better."
