Page 235 of A Matter of Time

“Some people stay gone, Sam.” I turned to duck back inside my office.

“J.”

I leaned back out.

“Can I get your number so I can give you a call?”

“Your mom’s got it,” I told him. “I’ll see ya.”

“Yep,” he said as I closed the door behind me.

“Jory!” Dylan yelled for me from the other room. “Get your ass in here and explain to me why in the hell Sam Kage is loitering around our office!”

“Who’s Sam Kage?” Sadie asked me softly. “The hot guy in the hall?”

I waved my hands at Sadie to shut her up, but she missed the gesture completely.

“My God, Jory, that man could do whatever he wanted to me.”

“You’re not helping,” I whispered.

“Jory!” Dylan almost screamed. “Get in here now!”

I groaned and went to explain to my best friend why shrieking was no good for either her or the baby. I had to talk really fast to convince her that hurling her Rolodex at me wasn’t an acceptable solution either.

THREE

It turned out that the place where Brandon had invited me to meet him was a block from his office. All the lawyers hung out there after work, swapping stories, getting drunk, and dancing badly. At the table, sitting with my date, they were talking about a case they were all working on. I was drinking. There was not one attempt to include me in the conversation or segue into a new one that might have interested me. After a few more minutes ticked by, I pulled my phone out of my leather racing jacket and posed the question to Dylan, Evan, and my pal Aiden: Why am I attending happy hour instead of being out on a date?

When I looked up, the waiter was back, and I ordered another mojito. I slipped him a twenty and asked him to separate my bill from the rest of the table’s. My phone gave out a catcall whistle to let me know I had messages.

Evan thought he was showing me off because I was so pretty.

Dylan thought he was the kind of guy who needed the approval of his friends on who he could or could not date.

Aiden said he was out to make his friends jealous because I was not only hot but also talented and successful.

They were all ridiculous.

I told Evan that he was on crack, sent Aiden the same, and agreed with Dylan. The man for me would not have cared what his friends thought, as Brandon so obviously did.

“Are you okay?” Brandon asked, leaning in beside me, hand on my leg. “Can I get you another drink?”

Maybe his friends had to see me first before he even decided whether to waste time taking me out to a real restaurant or not. I sent that back to Dylan.

“Jory?”

“I’m good.” I sighed and saw that I had a picture from Dane of him and Aja on some beach, drinking. They were both smiling into the phone.

“Excellent,” Brandon gushed.

It was rude to sit on my phone and text, so I sent Evan one last message, asking him if he and Loudon wanted to have dinner with me on Friday. I got a yes back with a promise that Loudon had another friend for me to meet. I couldn’t stifle the groan. The last guy Loudon McKay, Evan’s partner of the last two years, had had me meet ended up having a cat with some kind of weird skin disease. There was ointment that needed to be applied every four hours. I had run like hell.

“You all right?” one of Brandon’s friends asked me.

“Super,” I answered cheerfully, shoving my phone back into my jacket as it hung on my chair.

When the music changed from whatever weird electronic down-tempo crap they had on to classic seventies, I was very happy. When I started singing along, I looked down the table and saw the girl at the other end singing along with me. The shy smile was very appealing. So were the dimples and the riot of red curls. Bonus, she knew all the words to “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates, just like I did. I waved, and she waved back.