It wasn’t like I had anything to do in my empty apartment, but… “You have to be tired of looking at me by now, Jax. It’s getting late.”
He shot me a dubious glance. “It’s not even dark yet, Harlow. And I plan on taking the dogs to the dog beach whether you agree to go or not. I’d prefer to have some human company. If you don’t come, you’ll miss the trip for ice cream afterward. The mutts would never forgive me if I passed the shop without getting them a doggie-size cone.”
I laughed. “Okay, I’m sold.”
He grinned. “Was it the beach that convinced you, or the ice cream?”
I bumped his shoulder playfully as we reached our bikes. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I just want to spend more time with you?”
“Honestly, it didn’t,” he answered in a fake solemn voice. “My bet is that it was the ice cream.”
Oh, Jax would lose that particular wager.
The man had no idea just how tempting it had been to spend time with him and the dogs instead of going home to a lonely apartment.
No single woman in her right mind could resist the enticing lure of being with a guy like Jax Montgomery, right?
“Think whatever you like,” I quipped as I got my bike moving and headed toward Jax’s place.
We were halfway to his house before I remembered that one single woman had resisted Jax Montgomery’s charm, and his offer to spend time in his company.
Two years ago.
When I hadn’t really known Jax.
Ironically, once upon a time, that woman had been me.
Jax
I looked up as I heard the door to my office open, and saw my younger brother Cooper come in. His arms were loaded with white bags that I assumed were probably our lunch.
“Need help?” I asked.
“Nah, I got it,” he answered as he kicked the door closed. “Although it would really help if you didn’t order half the damn menu.”
I grinned. I’d gotten used to Cooper’s constantly irritable attitude during the last year or so.
When we were younger, he’d been the nicest, most good-natured Montgomery.
Now, I swore he was the surliest bastard on the planet sometimes.
Cooper hadn’t been the same since he’d broken up with his last girlfriend nearly a year ago. Hudson and I knew exactly why our younger brother had become so damn cynical. We’d just never figured out who had dumped who because Cooper refused to discuss it. Hell, he wouldn’t even admit that he’d been hurt.
Hudson and I had waited him out, knowing Cooper would tell us about it when he was ready.
Or so we’d thought…
“I’ve got an appetite, man,” I complained as I snatched the bags he plopped onto the desk. “I skipped breakfast.”
“Maybe because you’re taking your advisor duties with Harlow way too seriously,” Cooper guessed as he planted his ass in a chair on the other side of my desk. “You’ve been getting into the office by seven a.m. every damn morning for almost three weeks now, Jax, just so you can leave early. Have you forgotten that we own this company, and that you can come in whenever you want, and leave whenever you want?”
I’d gotten Cooper’s word that he wouldn’t tell Hudson about me being Harlow’s advisor since she’d asked me not to tell my older brother. But Cooper and I had always been close, and I’d wanted someone other than Marshall to confide in. “I don’t want to be a slacker,” I told him. “I have responsibilities to take care of here, but Harlow needs somebody with her every day right now, too. It’s not a big deal. I’m getting used to coming in early. I get more done when there’s nobody around in the morning.”
I dug into the food that Cooper had gotten from one of our favorite burger places.
“Right,” Cooper said doubtfully as he unwrapped a double cheeseburger. “You do realize that you could just take a vacay, right? Hudson took time off to be with Taylor, and I spent some extra time in Seattle after our cousin Mason’s wedding. When’s the last time you did that yourself? If I remember right, you haven’t had any real downtime in a couple of years.”
“Haven’t needed it,” I said after taking a big slug of water to wash down my second burger.
Cooper sent me a harsh glare. “You need it,” he countered. “Spending that much time with a victim is pretty intense, especially one who went through