Her eyes were wide and moved over his face as she studied him and listened to him. “Yes,” she finally said. “That’s right.”

The waitress returned with their drinks.

“So you like taking risks,” she said, pulling her glass closer.

“Yeah.” He grinned. “That’s why I skydive.”

She gasped. “Skydive? Jesus! You jump out of planes?”

“Yeah. It’s a rush.”

“You jump out of planes for fun.” She shook her head. “Oh my god. That’s crazy.”

“The first time scared the hell out of me,” he said. “My buddy in the plane almost had to push me out. I was hanging on by the tips of my fingers. Probably would’ve stayed there forever. But sometimes…you just have to jump. Take a chance.”

“That’s a pretty big chance to take.”

“That’s what makes it exciting.” He lifted a shoulder. “I had to learn to slow down, to analyze and weigh things and make careful, rational decisions. I tend to rely on my gut too much, but you can analyze and weigh things and procrastinate to death. Sometimes you just need to go with your instincts. Even in business, sometimes you just have to…jump.”

“So, that’s what you like—taking risks.”

“I also like creating, coming up with ideas.”

“I could tell that earlier. You were all full of energy when we were talking about your idea.”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “I love that part of it. You’re exactly right—it energizes me.”

Their eyes met and a connection shimmered between them despite the fact that she him pegged wrong, all wrong.

“Tell me how you and Chris met,” he said, picking up his beer, not sure if he really wanted to hear this story.

“We told you, we met at work.”

“You were doing training for his department?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “I guess we were both attracted to each other, but we waited until the project was done until we went out together. It made going to work every day pretty exciting for a while, though.”

“What was it about him that attracted you?”

She tipped her head to one side and gave him a narrow-eyed look, as if she found his question odd. He probably should drop this. “Well, he’s good looking, of course.”

“He’s pretty.”

She frowned. “No, he’s not.”

Dag laughed. “Sure he is. He’s a pretty boy.”

“Well, he does have a sweet smile.” Her own mouth curved. “But he’s so big—I guess that’s why I don’t think of him as a pretty boy.”

“Yeah. The big muscles save him from looking too cute.”

She laughed. “And I love his shoulders.” She gave a little shrug. “But I liked how he was so…accepting.”

“Huh?” Dag sat back, watched her face. He hadn’t expected to hear that word from her.

“I was junior on the project team. When I’d remind him about the human impacts of certain decisions, he listened to me. I really liked that. He could have ignored me, but he made me feel like I had something important to say.” She looked down at her drink. “He was very focused on the project goals, very task oriented, very let’s-get-it-done. But when there were problems, he’d sit back and not react. Other people would freak out and start rushing into crazy decisions. I liked how he listened to everyone, even me. Sometimes people get lost in the business decisions, and for me, it’s all about the people. It’s the people who make the company.”

Dag nodded. Yeah. That was Chris. The way he’d accepted Dag as his friend from the first time they’d met, despite their vastly different backgrounds, despite the fact that Chris was a golden boy who’d gotten all kinds of breaks in his life and had it all, whereas Dag had started with nothing and had had to fight for every damn thing. He’d treated Dag as an equal. Yeah, that was a good word—Chris was accepting. Of most things.

Listening to Chris’s girlfriend praise him, watching her face light up as she talked about the man she loved, had something tightening hot and hard in Dag’s chest.

Wanting to change the subject, he said, “You mentioned you have a sister.”

“Yeah. Hailey. She’s two years younger than me. You’ll meet her tonight, actually—she works at the nightclub we’re going to.”

“Really?” He lifted a brow and took a swallow of beer.

“She’s a bartender.” Kassidy lifted one shoulder. “She’s not exactly career oriented.”

“Bartending can be a career.”

“I suppose.” Doubt shadowed her eyes. “She’s a lot different from me.”

“Hmmm. Interesting. Does she look like you?”

Kassidy’s forehead furrowed. “No. I don’t think so.”

They ordered another drink, hopping easily from one topic to another as they talked, until Kassidy finally checked the time. “Jesus! It’s almost seven. Where the hell is Chris?”

Dag hadn’t realized how much time had passed either. He’d actually been having fun, lost in the pleasure of getting to know Kassidy who was surprisingly easy to talk to, surprisingly sweet and sexy. Okay, that part wasn’t surprising. He’d already known that.

They were meeting friends at the club between nine and ten; Chris had arranged it all with some of the people he knew who were still in Chicago. They needed to grab some food, and he needed to shower and change. Shit.

Kassidy had pulled out her cell phone and quickly sent off a text. Her phone buzzed in response only a moment later. “He’s on his way,” she said.

“Tell him to just go home,” Dag suggested. “We should get going—”

“There he is.” Kassidy lifted a hand, and Dag followed her gaze to where Chris was entering the patio. He strode toward them, tugging at the knot of his tie.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he said, bending to kiss Kassidy before grabbing a chair. “Little problem with the new WAFS project. Hey, Dag.”

“That’s okay. Dag and I were having so much fun we didn’t even realize what time it was.”

Chris looked between them, no doubt taking in Kassidy’s flushed cheeks from several mojitos. “That’s good,” he said. “I could use a drink.”

Dag stood. “You two go ahead and order if you want, I gotta get back to the hotel. Oh shit.”

“What?” Kassidy gazed up at him.

“All your stuff is in the trunk of my car.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I’ll bring it over in a while,” Dag said. “We can all go to the club together.”

“Gotta take a taxi anyway,” Chris said. “You won’t be in shape to drive later.”

Trust Chris to be the responsible one. But despite his risk-taking behavior, Dag would never drink and drive. “We’ll see,” he said. “I’ll see you back at your place in…what…an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

As he turned away, Dag saw Chris lean over and kiss Kassidy again, this time a longer, lingering kiss, his fingertips resting on her jaw in a tender, intimate gesture, and something twisted inside him as he dragged his gaze away from the image and made his way out of the bar.

Chris lifted a hand to attract the waitress’s attention, ordered his favorite beer from a local microbrewery. “Kass…?”

“No. I’m good.”

“Had enough?” He smiled at her. “What the hell were you and Dag doing, sitting drinking all afternoon?” She looked pretty, all sparkly eyed, flushed-cheeked.

“It wasn’t all afternoon. He came shopping with me.”

Chris sat back in his chair, hands on the armrests. “He went shopping with you? Why?”

“He had nothing else to do.”

“Uh…when he called me this morning, it sounded like he had something pretty urgent to talk to you about.”

“Oh yeah. He did.” She told him about their lunch conversation.

“Wow.” Chris made a face. “Sounds interesting.”

Kassidy grinned at him, the evening breeze blowing a strand of hair across her face. “You aren’t even a little bit interested in that, are you?”

“Well…it’s not my thing.”

“I know.”

He reached over and gently tucked the errant hair behind her ear. “I’m glad you two are getting along. I wanted you to like him.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s my friend. One of my best friends. And I want him to like you too.”