“A little. I’m not obsessed or anything.” She grinned. “I started collecting things when I moved into my first apartment, mostly because it was all I could afford, but I’ve kind of fallen in love with the way it looks. I used to like things all matchy-matchy but now, I like this.”

He had to admit, her place did look good. Despite the mismatched furniture and accessories, it was almost excruciatingly neat and tidy, unlike her bathroom which was an explosion of girl stuff. How could a person be so neat and tidy in every room of the home but one? Of course, thinking of his own messy house, he wasn’t exactly one to talk. But even orderly and spotless as her apartment was, it felt comfortable. “I like it.”

“Thanks. Should we go?”

“Sure.”

They walked out to his car parked on the street. “I thought we could go to Ambrosia.”

“That sounds great.”

A short time later they were seated in a booth in the casual restaurant drinking margaritas on the rocks. And then she asked the question he’d been stewing about all day.

“So now are you going to tell me what happened between you and Andrew?”

He kept his face in a careful, casual smile. “It’s not that big a deal. We met in college. About a year ago we were talking about going into business together. It didn’t work out.”

A small crease appeared between her sexy bedroom eyes. “Oh. What kind of business?”

“Consulting. Project management, business process renewal.”

“What happened? Why didn’t it work out?”

“We both decided with the economy the way it’s been, we were safer to stay employed than trying to start a business. That’s risky at the best of times, never mind in a recession.”

“That’s true.” She gave a vigorous nod. “Probably worked out for the best. Will you still do it when the economy picks up?”

“Maybe.” Although not with Andrew. He made a face. “I’m not exactly happy with my job right now, but it’s a regular paycheck anyway. Our company is coming through the recession okay, so I’m pretty safe.”

“Why aren’t you happy there?”

Now he could be more open with her and he relaxed a little, having moved on from talking about him and Andrew. “Ha. Where should I start? The company I work for has out-of-date processes and they’re completely resistant to change. Even when upper management agrees they need to make changes, they don’t want to commit enough resources to the project and the staff are all so resistant to change, it’s hard to get anything moving. I got promoted to Senior Business Analyst a while back, and I feel like all I do is sit in an office and analyze shit and check the work my team is doing.”

She laughed. “Analyze shit?”

He smiled back at her. “Yeah. I like solving problems, thinking up new ideas. I like to be doing new things all the time, otherwise I get bored.”

She nodded, her lips pursed. “I guess I can relate to that. I like project management because it’s always something new.”

“Yeah.” He hitched a shoulder. “That’s why I wanted to start my own business. Be my own boss. My boss is a clock-watching, by-the-books paper pusher, and that is so not me.”

She gazed across the table at him, sympathy shining in her wide eyes. “That doesn’t make work fun, when you’re not working for a good boss. Even with the problems I’ve had with Andrew, I have to say he’s actually great to work for.”

“Really. I got the impression you don’t like him.”

“Oh no! It’s not that I don’t like him. He’s very smart and knowledgeable. He really goes to bat for his staff, I’ve seen him.”

Jake didn’t really want to hear how great Andrew was. “But you said his attention was causing problems for you.”

“Yes. That’s true.” Her smile faded. “I don’t know what it is, he seems like such a fair-minded man, but he seems to be treating me differently. Well, you know all about that.”

She hitched one shoulder, and the thin fabric of her loose shirt slipped off again, exposing one pretty, smooth shoulder. Did she not have a bra on underneath? His gaze dropped to her chest, but he couldn’t really tell. Focus, man.

“Did we convince him the other night? That you’re not ah…available?”

“I think so.” A tiny furrow wrinkled her forehead. “He was a little cool yesterday. And not very happy that I couldn’t work late tonight.”

Hell. He didn’t want to make things worse for her. But still, it was good that she hadn’t had to work late with him. Who knew what could happen?

He wanted to ask what she knew about Andrew’s marriage, but couldn’t think of a casual way to throw that out there. “Well. We should order.” He didn’t want to talk about Andrew anymore. He was the last thing Jake wanted to talk about to Shelby. Or maybe the second last. Luckily she hadn’t even mentioned Gianna.

They looked over the menu then gave the server their order. “Tell me about the project you’re working on,” he invited Shelby. They worked in similar fields and had a lot in common, and talk flowed easily, moving on to other topics like Jake’s training schedule for his triathlon and Shelby’s friends.

When Jake had paid the bill and driven Shelby back to her place, heated memories of Saturday night had him swelling in his jeans, but this time he was gonna be a nice guy and leave her at her door. This time.

“How did your cookies turn out the other day?” he asked as he walked her to her door.

“Oh.” She smiled. “Good. Taylor was very excited to take them to school.”

“That’s nice of you to do that.”

“I guess.” She lifted one shoulder and her top slipped a little again. “Her mom’s a single mom. She goes to school all day, works two part-time jobs, so Taylor’s on her own a lot. She’s at that in-between age where she doesn’t really need a babysitter, but she’s not quite old enough to be on her own all the time, so I ask her over sometimes. I know how it feels to be alone.”

He studied the faint shadows in her eyes as she said that, remembering what she’d said about her parents. “I’m sure they appreciate that.”

She just smiled.

“’Night, Shelby.” He kissed her mouth, a soft and gentle kiss though he wanted to shove her up against the wall and devour her. “Mmm.” Her long eyelashes fluttered.

He kissed her again, just because she was so soft and sweet. “Wanna do lunch on Thursday?”

Her eyes opened and she straightened. “Oh, Jake.” She touched her fingers to his cheek and smiled. “You don’t need to do that. I appreciate your help—coming to the picnic. And thanks for dinner tonight. But it really wasn’t necessary.”

Damn. He flipped through some thoughts in his mind, the first one being, she was saying no to him, the next that she didn’t want to see him again, and the next was—what the hell was he doing? He wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship. He should just walk away from this too.

But he wanted to see her again. “I’ll come pick you up at the office for lunch. Andrew will see us. It’ll just help make it more convincing.”

She eyed him for a moment, lips pursed as she thought. “Okay,” she finally said.

He smiled. “Great. I’ll give you a call Thursday morning.” He brushed a kiss over her mouth, turned and left.

Thursday morning at work Shelby had to determinedly push away thoughts of Jake and lunch with him and what a potentially bad idea that was, for her meeting with the two business units involved in her project. The meeting didn’t go well, and back in her cubicle she pressed her fingers to her temples. Then she got a call from Riley.

“It’s Adam,” Riley said, referring to their friend Kiara’s husband. “He’s in the hospital.”

“Oh no.” Shelby dropped into her chair and stared across her cubicle. “Is it bad?”

“Yeah.” Shelby could sense Riley’s struggle to get the words out. “This is probably the end.”

“Oh lord.” They’d known this was coming. “We’ll go visit him tonight.”