Not Just Friends (Hot in the City #3) - T. Gephart Page 0,81
my team.
“True, but if you ever change your mind, decide you want to do something else? Give me a call. No one says you have to stay on the road you’re on, just remember that.” I tried to play it off casually but really meant it, hoping she would see what I saw, and would someday give me a call.
She cleared her throat nervously, as she took another drink.
“So if you’re allowed to pry, then I am too. What do you know about Mack’s ex-wife?”
Great.
Mack’s ex-wife.
Next to my own ex, she was another one I didn’t like talking about. Melinda had been frequently coming to Diablo, probably hoping to bait Mack or piss me off. And while I hated her, she hadn’t done anything wrong—yet. She even kept her distance from Jared, leaving him alone since her original proposition of a blowjob. But I could understand the worry, the shadow of a crazy ex was something that followed me too. I wondered if Jared worried about it, and if sometime later it might become an issue.
Just saying her name was distasteful, unable to hide my disgust as I answered her question. “Melinda? Enough to know she’s bad news. In any case, you’re here and she isn’t, so I wouldn’t worry about her.”
Deciding a change of subject would be better for everyone, I instead asked about Ava, Riley and Quinn’s new baby girl. Other than a photo Riley had sent everyone, I hadn’t had a chance to visit but knew Mack and Hayden had been at the hospital when she’d been born.
After Hayden gushed about how sweet she was and filled in a few more details, I decided I needed to get back to work. As much as I wanted to stay and chat some more, I had some things I wanted to go over with the team. “You going to be okay around here for a bit by yourself? I have some meetings I need to take, but it shouldn’t take too long. I can come and chat in between my tasks until Mack gets back.”
She nodded, waving her hand like it was no big deal. “Of course, I’m fine. And thanks so much for the drink. If I’m not going to be in the way, I’d love to just hang around. I’d rather wait in here than sit at the stationhouse.”
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, and I don’t blame you. That place is made for function but isn’t as sexy as Diablo. I totally picked the color scheme, the designer almost having a heart attack.” I laughed, remembering the pushback I’d gotten. And in a few short months, I was going to do it again, this time with even more authority.
Instructing Hank to look after Hayden at the bar, I took my drink and headed to my office. I tried not to look too happy, the smile I usually tried to contain when I was at work, beaming off my face.
“You screwed him.” Raelle was sitting on my desk waiting for me as I entered my office. “All that talk about not wanting to do it with an audience, and there you go. Such a dirty girl, I fully approve,” she laughed, with a little too much joy in her irises.
I rolled my eyes, sinking into the chair behind my desk. “I didn’t. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you about it.”
“Well, if it wasn’t sex then he did something equally as good.” She pointed accusingly. “You better keep him around, smiles like that on you are hard to come by.”
“I’m in love with him, Rae,” I admitted, not wanting to hide it any longer. “In. Love. With. Him.”
It was her turn to roll her eyes, grinning. “Girl, tell me something I don’t know. Now, move in together already because you’ve wasted enough time.”
And she was right.
Usually I dated a guy for months before I’d even consider moving him in, but Jared was different. And not just because I’d known him forever.
It was different because I couldn’t see another guy ever taking his place.
Because he was the one.
And I’d wasted enough time.
Jared
I WASN’T GOING to make it.
Presley had shown up in that dress and tested whatever resolve I had left. How I was able to 1. Stop myself from kissing her and 2. Not tell everyone she was my girlfriend was a mystery for the heavenly Father. I wasn’t even sure how I’d made it onto the engine, my arms and legs doing what