be amused at her confession. “And what did you learn?”
Uncomfortable with the formal way they were situated—him on the exam table, her facing him as if she were treating him—she stood next to him and rested a hip against the table. “That you’re home on a medical furlough. And employers don’t like for their people to spend their days at home texting a roommate on the company dime.”
“Roommate? I’m growing on you.”
“Temporary roommate.” It wasn’t as if she could kick him out of his home now. Before, when he was just being sexy and irritating, he was fair game. “I’d look like a jerk now, kicking the hometown hero out of his own house and throwing him to the mercy of the single ladies of Rome.”
“This hometown hero won’t be home for long,” he said. “This is more a case of ‘exes can’t be friends’—my boss is benching me for personal reasons, claiming HR won’t let me work until I’ve been cleared.”
“You slept with your boss?” Annie gasped.
“She wasn’t my boss at the time.” He laughed. “But yeah, we dated a few years back and it burned hot and fast. When she started talking about mingling families, I knew it was time to call it quits. I don’t bring that part of my life home, ever. So I broke it off with her, left on good terms, and took an assignment overseas. When I came back, she’d been promoted to senior editor, and here we are.”
“And here we are?” she repeated, sending him a disbelieving glance. “Clearly things weren’t as clear-cut as you thought. We want different things doesn’t make a woman hold a grudge for a few years.”
He shrugged. “Shortly after I got back from the assignment, I ran into her at a bar. She was with her girlfriends. Bad timing, because I was making friends with a girl.”
“Ah.” Annie laughed. “And how long was this assignment?”
“Two weeks.” At least he had the decency to sound sheepish. “I walked over and hugged her, asked about her dog, then bought them a round. I knew she was uncomfortable, so I left and went to a different bar.”
“With the other girl?” Annie didn’t even need to ask—she already knew the answer. “Seriously?”
Again with the shrug.
“Does your ex have a name? Because it would break my heart if, when Clark talked about me, he referred to me as she or her. I’d hope that after sharing so much, he’d call me by name and not a pronoun.”
“Carmen.” He nodded gently. “Her name is Carmen. And you’re right, I never thought of it that way.”
“Can you see that maybe she did?” Annie asked, because hello? What was he thinking? “You knew she was upset seeing you and you left, but you took the girl you’d just met? That’s shitty.”
“Is this some kind of girl code thing?” he asked, and she caught a glitter of amusement in his eyes. “You stick up for each other even if you’ve never met?”
“I’m not sticking up for her,” Annie said, thinking back to the day she’d found out about Molly-Leigh. The humiliation she’d felt after spending the entire day doing rounds, talking to colleagues, catching awkward glances from her peers, clueless that Clark had announced to the world that he’d finally found love. Meaning he’d never loved Annie in the forever kind of way. “I’ve been her and it sucks.”
“I have always been straight with women, Ann.” His words were spoken softly but delivered with conviction. “I’ve never cheated or lied, and I don’t make promises I can’t keep. I don’t know what you went through, but I know it crushed you and that pisses me off.”
She was so lost in what he was saying, she didn’t even see his hand until it was resting on her upper arm. But there it was, palm flattened against her skin, his fingers gently brushing back and forth in a soothing pattern.
“You know what else gets to me?”
Annie swallowed and shook her head. A slow heat started at his fingers and wound its way up to the hairs that were brushing the back of her neck. Each follicle sparking with sexual awareness.
“The idea that you think I’m a bad guy. I’m not saying I’m a good guy, and maybe I could have handled it better, but the bottom line was that Carmen needed me to be someone I’m not, and pretending isn’t my thing. I felt awful that our first time running into each other happened the way it did,