Copyright © 2015 Lauren LeDonne

Extract from Playing For Keeps copyright © 2015 Lauren LeDonne

Cover photo © Gerber86/iStock

The right of Lauren Layne to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in this Ebook edition in 2015

by HEADLINE ETERNAL

An imprint of HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by arrangement with Loveswept,

a member of Random House,

a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 1 4722 3629 6

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

An Hachette UK Company

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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

About the Author

Praise for Lauren Layne

By Lauren Layne

About the Book

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Epilogue

An enticing excerpt from Playing For Keeps

Find out more about Headline Eternal

About the Author

Lauren Layne is the USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren’s gone on to multiple books including the bestselling Stiletto series, with more sexy stories on the way!

Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you’ll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.

Join Lauren at www.laurenlayne.com to get news on her latest books, or keep up to date with her on Twitter: @_LaurenLayne and Facebook: www.facebook.com/LaurenLayneAuthor.

Praise for Lauren Layne’s irresistible romance:

‘Fun, sexy, and sharp as a spike heel’ Ruthie Knox, New York Times bestselling author

‘I absolutely adored this outstanding story’ Sandi Lynn, New York Times bestselling author

‘My kind of book, sexy and witty, and the banter between the characters is off the charts. You’ll fall in love with their chemistry from page one’ Sidney Halston, USA Today bestselling author

‘Lauren Layne is the queen of fun and sexy all rolled into one. She knows how to write smart and hilarious characters that I want to read over and over again’ Cassie Mae, bestselling author of Doing It for Love

‘A raw, no-holds-barred portrayal of two best friends making the choice to become lovers . . . the best I’ve ever read!’ The Romance Reviews

‘Fresh and fast-paced . . . a perfect escape/comfort read, and guaranteed to cheer a girl up when she’s feeling down’ Unquietly Me

‘Layne is one of the best authors writing today and I was reminded of that as I read this book . . . It was hot and sexy and sweet. I laughed and shrieked and cried, exactly what I want from a book’ Obsessed with Romance

By Lauren Layne

Oxford Series

Irresistibly Yours

Playing For Keeps

Blurred Lines

About the Book

Hotshot sports editor Cole Sharpe has been freelancing for Oxford for years, so when he hears about a staff position opening up, he figures he’s got the inside track. Then his boss drops a bombshell: Cole has competition. Female competition, in the form of a fresh-faced tomboy who can hang with the dudes – and write circles around them, too. Cole usually likes his women flirty and curvy, but he takes a special interest in his skinny, sassy rival, if only to keep an eye on her. And soon, he can’t take his eyes off her.

Penelope Pope knows all too well that she comes off as just one of the guys. Since she’s learned that wanting more usually leads to disappointment, Penelope’s resigned to sitting on the sidelines when it comes to love. So why does Cole make her want to get back in the game? The man is as arrogant as he is handsome. He probably sees her as nothing more than a barrier to his dream job. But when an unexpected kiss turns into a night of irresistible passion, Penelope has to figure out whether they’re just fooling around – or starting something real.

Want more fun, fresh, flirty and very sexy rom-com? Check out all the titles in the Oxford series: Irresistibly Yours, Playing For Keeps and Someone Like You.

Can a guy and a girl really be ‘just friends’? You won’t want to miss Lauren Layne’s sexy take on this timeless question in Blurred Lines.

For all of you who not so quietly demanded Cole’s story: This one’s for you.

Acknowledgments

Hey, readers! I’m going to be really honest here and say that I’ve been putting off writing the Acknowledgments section of this book. Why? Because it means that I’m at the end of Cole’s story! (Sniff!)

I’ve been waiting forever to watch Cole Sharpe fall in love, so typing “The End” was a little bit bittersweet! But chin up, because we’re going to see more of Cole and Penelope soon! They’ll be playing a very important role in Playing For Keeps (February 2016) and, of course, in sexy Lincoln’s story!

But, lest I get ahead of myself, I need to take a moment and thank all the people who made Cole’s story happen.

First, a big shout-out to you readers. It was you who first gave me the idea that maybe Cole Sharpe had a greater destiny than being just a funny secondary character in Love the One You’re With. You wield great power, not only in an author’s imagination, but with a publisher’s decision to buy a book. Cole and Penelope thank you for your enthusiasm!

Onward: Everyone, please bow to the amazing Sue Grimshaw, my fab editor. And I know some of you might be, like, “Dude, Lauren, you thank her in every book,” and to that I say, “Um, yeah, because she is a driving force behind every book!” This one in particular, she helped whip into shape, providing some delightful “What if…” questions that helped turn Cole and Penelope’s love story into something rather epic.

Next up, we need to talk about this cover, don’t we? Fabulous, right? I gasped the moment I saw it, because it was as though Lynn Andreozzi had jumped inside my imagination and pulled out my exact vision of Cole Sharpe. There really aren’t words to describe how much I love this cover.

I’m also going to need a dramatic slow clap for the rest of the unsung heroes on my publishing team. Gina, for being the bubbly cheerleader in the background, whose enthusiasm always makes me want to write better, faster, more! For the amazing publicist-guru, Ashleigh Heaton, because, lady, you are killing it, and I am so, so grateful for you. And for marketing whiz Erika Seyfried, for all the magic you cook up behind the scenes.

To my amazing assistant, Lisa…I don’t even know what to say other than sometimes it feels like you’ve saved my life! I really don’t know what I’d do without you. Thank you for taking care of All the Things so that I have more time to write.

For my family, especially my husband, for the love and support that just never quit.

And last, for my darling friends who helped keep my head above water as I was writing this book, especially Rachel Van Dyken, Jessica Lemmon, and Kristi Yanta. You get me.

Chapter 1

Cole had been watching the brunette for the better part of three innings.

Which was just wrong on a couple of levels.

For starters, it was a rare woman who could come between Cole Sharpe and baseball. Or between Cole and any sport, for that matter.

And at Yankee Stadium in particular, the game came first. Especially a game in which the Yankees were trying to establish early dominance over the Blue Jays in the American League East division.

Cole’s eyes should have been glued to the field. Not only because the Yankees were his team—he’d been a die-hard fan since his Little League days—but because Cole was a sportswriter. Come tomorrow morning, Cole would be expected to know the details of every single at bat.

And yet…

His eyes shifted once more to the narrow figure of the brunette as he took another sip of beer.

There was something about her that demanded a second look and at the same time, there was nothing about her. She was utterly, completely unremarkable.

And that was the other reason why Cole’s fascination with the woman made no sense.

Cole loved women almost as much as he loved sports, but this woman?

Cole liked women curvy, but this one was slim to the point of being skinny. There was no noticeable definition of her waist through her Jeter jersey. No womanly flare of her hips.

Plus, Cole preferred blondes, and this one’s messy ponytail was just a couple shades lighter than black.

As for her face? Well, he hadn’t seen it yet. Not fully. But she’d turned her head once in the third inning, giving Cole a quick glance at her profile. The upturned nose was cute enough, but the rest of her features were hardly so arresting as to explain why he continued to stare at her.

It took Cole another half inning to realize what it was that had captivated him.

For the first time in his life, he was seeing a woman who was more absorbed with a baseball game than he was.

Tiny Brunette, as he’d started thinking of her, hadn’t lost interest in the game once. Even between innings, when the rest of the stadium was refilling on beer and peanuts, she merely scribbled like crazy in a little notebook she kept in her lap.

It was like clockwork. The third out would signal the swap of the players on the field, and Tiny Brunette’s attention would dip toward the damn notebook.

Her left hand would sneak around to twirl her ponytail around a finger while her right hand busily wrote…

What?

What did she write in that notebook? And exactly why did he want to know so badly?

Normally Cole would just ask. The seat beside Tiny Brunette was free. Everyone else in the suite was there more for the networking and the free food and booze than the game. It would have been so easy just to plop down beside her, strike up a conversation. Flirt.

But for some reason he was hesitant.

Cole told himself it was because he didn’t want to interrupt whatever it was she was so diligently working on, but there was an unfamiliar fear too.

The fear of rejection.

Because nothing about this woman signaled that she’d be interested in a conversation with him.

And that would be a first.

But before Cole could make the call on whether or not to die curious about that damn notebook or risk rejection by Tiny Brunette, his best friend and co-worker was holding a fresh beer in front of his face.

“You look like you need it,” Lincoln Mathis said, sipping the foam off his own beer.

“How would you know?” Cole said. “You’ve been chatting up Jonas Leroy’s wife for the better part of four innings.”

“Had to,” Lincoln said with a little shrug. “She was bored. Her husband’s completely preoccupied with whatever’s going on with that ball down there.”

“As he should be at a baseball game,” Cole said pointedly.

Cole didn’t know why he bothered. His friend was already back on his cellphone, not the least bit interested in the game.

Lincoln Mathis looked like the type of man who should enjoy sports: tall, athletic, well muscled from their early-morning gym sessions. Carelessly styled black hair and friendly blue eyes that screamed guy’s guy just as loudly as they did ladies’ man.

But, much to Cole’s dismay, he’d never been able to get his friend to invest more than a passing interest in sports—any sport. Lincoln was always happy to tag along to a game when booze and women were involved, but ask him who he thought this year’s MVP would be, and he’d say Babe Ruth without the smallest hint of irony.

Still, tonight, Cole couldn’t exactly lecture Lincoln for not paying attention when he himself was having a hell of a time keeping track of the score.

Once more, his eyes found Tiny Brunette, who was…yep. Writing in her notebook.

“Hey, Sharpe. Do you know where they keep a fire extinguisher in here?” Lincoln asked, looking around the luxury suite of Yankee Stadium.

Cole tore his gaze away from the woman and her damn notebook. “What for?”

“If you stare at that girl any harder, she’s going to burst into flames,” Lincoln said, jerking his chin at Tiny Brunette.

“I wasn’t staring.”

“Don’t insult our bromance,” Lincoln said cheerfully.

“Keep running your mouth and we won’t have a bromance.” Cole forced himself not to look at the woman again.

“Hey, if you’ve got a crush on the wee lass, you can tell me,” Lincoln said, taking another sip of beer.

“I don’t have a crush. And wee lass? Really? You’re Scottish now?”

“Sometimes. Chicks dig the brogue. You should try it on your girl over there.”

“She’s not my girl. She’s just…” Interesting, Cole finished silently.

“Good,” Lincoln said, clapping him on the shoulder. “So you won’t mind that she left.”

Cole’s eyes flew to the seat where the woman was sitting, annoyed to see that his friend was right. She was gone.

“It’s just as well,” Lincoln said. “We have bigger things to focus on. Say, like how we’re going to annihilate the bastard who’s out for your job.”

“It’s not my job,” Cole said, carefully keeping the tinge of bitterness out of his tone.

“Not yet,” Lincoln said. “But it will be. Taking your competition out of the picture is the only reason I’m at this barbarian event.”

“Remind me never to take you to a hockey game,” Cole muttered.

Still, he appreciated his friend’s loyalty. And Lincoln was right. Tonight wasn’t about petite female baseball fans and their damn notebooks.

Tonight was about Cole’s professional future.

The key to that future? Oxford magazine.

Oxford was the country’s top selling men’s magazine where Lincoln—and most of Cole’s other closest friends—worked.

But more important, it was also where Cole worked.

Well, sort of.

He would work there. Just as soon as he found the asshole who was after his job.

Cole wasn’t going to pretend that he didn’t have a competitive streak. It was a prerequisite for someone whose bread and butter came from knowing the nuances of professional sports.

And it was rare that Cole felt a personal investment in a competition. But tonight? Tonight, it was definitely personal. Cole was the competitor.

The prize?

The title of Senior Sports Editor at Oxford.

The magazine was finally getting a real sports section. Their token two-page spread on fantasy football squeezed in between cologne reviews and the proper way to wear a tie clip was being expanded to a multipage, multitopic sports section.

A section that needed an editor.

Cole was the right man for the job. The only man for the job. Not only had he been writing for Oxford as a freelancer for years, but the editor in chief, Alex Cassidy, was one of his closest friends.

When Cassidy had come to Cole and explained that he wanted to make Oxford a serious contender for the Sports Illustrated readers, Cole had been damn sure that Cassidy was offering him the job.

Hell, Cassidy had been begging him for months to join the team, and Cole was finally ready—ready for a steady paycheck.

Ready to belong to something.

Because, although Cole wasn’t exactly dying to buy a house in the ’burbs and settle down with a nice girl, it wasn’t just about Cole.

It was about Bobby, and the fact that Bobby’s care was getting more and more expensive. His brother needed more than Cole’s occasional freelance checks could provide.

Cole wasn’t just ready for this job. He needed it.

And that’s when Alex Cassidy had dropped his bomb.

The job wasn’t Cole’s for the taking.

So, goodbye to Easygoing Cole. Hello, Gladiator Cole.

Because, really, what the fuck?

Cole hadn’t minded that they’d had to publicly post the position. He understood there were HR boxes that had to be checked. But never had Cole thought there’d actually be competition. Not only were the Oxford guys practically his family, but Cole was the best damn sportswriter in the city.

His application should have been a formality. Their request that he update his résumé and submit a portfolio should have been just a matter of documentation.

The position was his, damn it. Cole was the Oxford sports section.

Except he wasn’t. Not yet anyway.

Cassidy had called him yesterday to inform Cole that he was a finalist. A fucking finalist.

Pissing Cole off even further, Cassidy wouldn’t tell him who his competition was. Cole had named every worthwhile sportswriter in the city, but Cassidy wouldn’t so much as grunt in confirmation.

Damn Cassidy and his unshakable professionalism.

His friend hadn’t left him completely in the lurch, though.

Cassidy had pointedly mentioned to Lincoln that the other candidate had been invited to the suite reserved by Berkin’s Hospitality Group for tonight’s Yankees game.

Lincoln had, of course, told Cole.

So here they were, trying to sniff out the competition.

It was the only reason Cole would be caught dead in the luxury suite. Cole hated luxury suites.

This wasn’t what baseball—or any game—was about. Baseball was about the peanuts, the rowdy crowds, the overpriced beer. It was about the sound of a fastball smacking against the catcher’s glove, the satisfying crack of a wooden bat when a rookie pinch hitter really got hold of one.

For Cole, watching baseball was about sitting with his brother in the stands, watching Bobby’s face go positively ecstatic every time they did the wave, and the way his brother never, ever got tired of the seventh-inning stretch.

That was baseball.

And Cole wanted nothing more than to be an anonymous part of the rowdy crowd, preferably on the third baseline, watching the Yankees hopefully trounce the Blue Jays.

Instead, he was stuck here with a bunch of fools who wouldn’t recognize a line drive if it hit them in the ass.

Adding insult to injury, it was all for nothing. There was no sign of his competition. Cole knew every decent sportswriter in the city, and none were here tonight.

It was possible, he supposed, that Cassidy was considering some out-of-town jock for the position, but a quick scan of the room showed only familiar faces, all corporate bigwigs.

“Let’s get out of here,” Cole said to Lincoln, downing the rest of his beer in three gulps.

“You don’t want to wait for Cassidy?”

“Nah, I’ll catch him tomorrow.”

Before Cole turned to leave, he couldn’t resist one last look in the direction where his Tiny Brunette had been sitting.

He paused when he saw that she’d returned and, incredibly, the woman had just become more appealing.

Her face was turned to the side slightly, her notebook now on the open seat to her right instead of her lap, and she wrote furiously with her right hand, while her left hand held…

A hot dog.

Be still my heart.

Apparently, Miss Glued-to-the-Game had managed to tear herself away long enough to get a good old-fashioned hot dog. Mustard only, from the looks of it. Personally Cole would have added some ketchup, but still…a woman who’d so unabashedly eat a hot dog?

He had to talk to this woman, risk of rejection be damned.

Cole was beside her before he’d even fully committed to the decision to move, ignoring Lincoln’s snicker behind him.

Up close, she was even smaller than he expected. Narrow shoulders, no chest to speak of, skinny little arms.

He had yet to see her face full on, thanks to the cap pulled low on her forehead, and suddenly he wasn’t sure what he was more desperate to see, her face or her notebook.

He cleared his throat. “Hey.”

Not exactly his best opener, but it sufficed to get her attention.

Tiny Brunette’s pen stopped its furious scribbling, and her jaw paused in its steady chewing of the hot dog.

Slowly her face lifted to his and Cole had the strangest sensation of the breath catching in his chest as he waited to finally meet this woman’s eyes.

And, wow. What a pair of eyes they were.

If the rest of her was tiny, her eyes were enormous by comparison. Huge and dark brown and friendly.

Damn she was cute.

Not gorgeous. Not beautiful. But she had the girl-next-door, wanna-grab-a-pitcher? kind of appeal.

She also wasn’t Cole’s type. At all. He liked ’em blond and leggy and seductive.

Still, that damn notebook…

“Cole Sharpe,” he said, sticking out a hand.

Her eyes widened just slightly, and for a second he thought maybe she’d recognized his name, but then she smiled and it was pure friendly curiosity.

“Hi!” Her voice matched the rest of her. Girlish and guileless.

Cole found himself oddly enchanted. She was so…different.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing with his chin toward the seat beside her.

“Of course!”

Cole started to reach for her notebook under the guise of making room for himself, but she pulled it onto her lap before he could touch it.

Damn.

He sat and allowed himself to fully satisfy his curiosity, taking her in now that he could see her face-to-face.

The Yankees cap still shielded the top part of her face, but he could clearly make out a pointed chin, small nose, and those big, gorgeous brown eyes. As far as he could tell, she wasn’t wearing a speck of makeup, which allowed a light dusting of freckles to display loud and proud over her nose and the tops of her cheekbones.

Cute. Definitely cute.

And already, she was refocused on the game.

Cole’s eyes narrowed slightly as he realized that he’d been the only one doing any staring. Her attention had returned to the field, almost before he’d sat down.

What was this bullshit?

The lack of female appreciation was unusual enough—and uncomfortable enough—to make him slightly peeved. So, instead of doing the decent thing and letting her watch the Yankees’ starter reclaim his spot on the mound, he talked to her.

At her, really. She still wasn’t looking his way. Not even to check him out.

“First game?” he asked.

Brown eyes flicked to him, barely. “What?”

“First baseball game?”

That got her attention. For the first time, she seemed to really look at him. Her eyes drifted over him slowly, before returning to his, her tone just slightly annoyed. “No. Not my first game.”

“Ah,” he said, already mentally maneuvering into a backpedal. “Bad assumption of me. You were just so into the game…”

“So you figured I must be trying to figure out how it all worked?” she asked. “That I must be trying to understand why some of the field is green and some is brown, and whatever could those white squares on the dirt be, and why-oh-why are those men running toward the white squares, but only sometimes…”

“All right,” Cole said with a laugh. “I’m an ass. You know baseball.”

Her smile was quick and easy, and he was relieved to see that she wasn’t one of those snippy, hold-it-against-him-forever types. “I know baseball.”

Is that what’s in your notebook? Baseball stuff?

She took a huge bite of her hot dog, completely unabashed at her bulging cheeks, and Cole hid a smile, pretending instead to be fixated on the game.

Hell. When had he ever had to pretend to be fixated on the Yankees?

“You were partially right,” she admitted, after swallowing.

He glanced at her. “Oh yeah?”

She grinned. “This is my first Yankees game.”

“I knew it,” he said, matching her grin full on. “I knew there was something virgin about you. But tell me, how come a baseball fan like you never made it to Yankee Stadium until now?”

“Well…” She licked a spot of mustard off her finger, but not in the slow, deliberate way that most women he knew would have done it. “It’s a long way from Chicago…”

Cole tore his eyes away from the way her lips closed around her thumb, sucking off that mustard. “You’re from Chicago?”

“From there, yes,” she said. “But let’s just say that as of two weeks ago, I’ll be spending a lot more time here than at Wrigley.”

“Ah. You’re new to New York.”

“Quite.”

“How do you like it?”

She hesitated. “It’s…intense.”

“Meaning…we New Yorkers are scary as hell?”

She smiled. “Well, it’s not as hostile as I’d been warned, but yeah. We Chicagoans are a bit more openly friendly than you New Yorkers.”

“I’m friendly,” he countered.

Tiny Brunette laughed. “No. You’re just incredibly charming. And a smidgen good-looking.”

He gave her his best bedroom look. “Am I?”

She smiled. “You know you are.”

Their eyes held for a moment, and Cole was startled to realize it was the most relaxed—the most himself—he’d felt around a woman in…hell…he didn’t know.

Mostly he was used to throwing out a couple of witty lines, a few slow smiles, and watching women counter with moves of their own.

There were no moves with this woman. She merely was.

Cole realized he didn’t even know her name.

“So tell me, as a Chicago baseball fan, are you Team Cubs or Team White Sox, Ms….”

“Pope,” she said. “Penelope Pope. And both.”

Cole’s subconscious acknowledged that Penelope Pope was somehow exactly what this woman’s name should be. Perky and alliterative. His consciousness, however, latched on to another fact. “Both?”

It was not a typical answer. Most people had one baseball team, even if you were from a city with two teams, as Penelope was.

She shrugged. “Baseball’s not about who wins. It’s not even about who’s playing. It’s about the game. The consistent flow of it, the smack of the ball against the glove when you’re lucky enough to be sitting along one of the baselines, instead of stuck up here in this stuffy box—”

He stared at her. The words so closely echoed his own thoughts from just moments before that he wanted to kiss her.

She might just be his dream woman.

“That explains the hot dog,” he said.

“What?”

He nodded his chin at the last bite of hot dog, ignored in her left hand. “The hot dog. You’re in a luxury suite in Yankee Stadium with a whole buffet of gourmet foods, and yet you went and fetched the most basic hot dog you could find.”

She grinned. “Guilty.”

Cole turned his body all the way toward her now. “Tell me, Penelope Pope, what brings a Cubs and White Sox fan all the way to New York where you’ll face a whole new dilemma of choosing between the Yankees and the Mets…”

Tiny Brunette never got to answer.

The shadow of someone coming up behind their seats caused them both to turn. It was Alex Cassidy, Oxford’s editor in chief, looking down at them with a half-amused, half-worried expression.

“Cassidy,” Cole said. He lifted an eyebrow and silently added, Nice of you to show up.

“Sorry I’m late,” Cassidy said, not really sounding sorry at all. “I got held up.”

Automatically, Cole’s eyes scanned the luxury suite until he found the pretty woman he knew was likely to be somewhere around here…

Yup, there she was.

Emma Sinclair, Cassidy’s long-ago runaway bride, with whom he’d recently reconciled, was surreptitiously wiping smudged lipstick from the corner of her mouth.

His eyes returned to his boss, this time looking closer…

“Third button, dude,” Cole said wearily.

The always polished Cassidy glanced down, and without so much as wincing, fixed the misaligned buttons of his shirt.

Cole should have known. A naked Emma Sinclair was the only thing that could throw Alex Cassidy off his rigid timetable.

But Emma and Cassidy’s sex life was where the predictable part of the evening ended, because Cole was absolutely not prepared for Cassidy to reach out a hand to Tiny Brunette, a polite smile on his usually impassive face.

“Alex Cassidy. I’m so sorry I’m late, Ms. Pope.”

Cole glanced between the two of them. They knew each other?

“Not a problem,” she said, turning an easy smile on Cassidy. It was the exact same friendly smile she’d given Cole, and it very much made Cole want to punch his friend in the mouth.

“It’s refreshing to see you two playing so nicely,” Cassidy said with a droll look at Cole.

He narrowed his eyes at his boss, not sure what he was missing, but certain that he was missing something.

Cassidy answered Cole’s silent question with his usual professional businessman smile. “Cole, this is Penelope Pope.”

“We’ve met,” Cole said slowly.

“Excellent. So then you know that Penelope is our late-stage applicant for the sports editor role at Oxford?”

Very slowly, Cole turned toward Tiny Brunette. Took in her friendly smile even as he took in the sorry-not-sorry glint in her eyes.

This was his competition. This was the person standing between Cole and the job he so desperately wanted.

“I suppose I should have been more thorough when I introduced myself,” she said sweetly. “Penelope Pope. Sports editor.”

Plus side? At least now Cole knew what was in her damn notebook.

The downside? Everything else.

Chapter 2

It wasn’t that Penelope never wore high heels.

She did. Sometimes.

Say, like…her best friend’s wedding, or her grandmother’s funeral. Oh, and then there’d been that date with the investment banker at one of Chicago’s premier steak houses.

And…well, okay, those three occurrences were just about the only times in recent memory.

The problem: not one of those events had occurred in the past year.

The bigger problem? The lack of practice walking in stilettos had caused just the tiniest stumble, which had in turn caused a not so tiny coffee splotch all over her white blouse.

The biggest problem of all?

The only reason she was wearing a white blouse and the damn high heels in the first place was because she needed to be at the biggest interview of her career in—

Penelope glanced at her watch.

Thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes until she had to convince the editor in chief of Oxford magazine that she was the best possible candidate to take over the new sports section.

Thirty minutes to figure out how she was going to outdo Cole Sharpe on his turf, all with a big coffee stain between her boobs.

Ordinarily, half an hour would have been plenty of buffer for an interview, but it certainly wasn’t enough time to run back home and change her clothes. And seeing as she’d been a resident of New York City for all of two weeks, she didn’t have a single friend to call upon to help bail her out.

“Crud. Crud, crud, crud,” Penelope whispered quietly to herself, glancing around the massive and fancy lobby of the building that housed Oxford magazine.

It didn’t help that the place looked like a palace, at least to someone who’d spent the past two years working from her tiny home office at a wobbly desk on beat-up hardwood floors.

Penelope was suddenly acutely aware that she didn’t belong here. She didn’t fit in with the glamorous women striding across the floor in stilettos far higher than hers without so much as a stumble.

Penelope stubbornly pushed the thought out of her head as she wiped futilely at the stain.

So the Manhattan office building was a touch more glamorous than her Wicker Park apartment. So she had coffee on her shirt. So she would have sold a small part of her soul for a pair of tennis shoes.

None of that was important.

What was important was that Penelope was a darn good sportswriter. What was important was that she could convince Alex Cassidy of it, regardless of the big old stain on her shirt.

What was important was that…

Ah, screw it.

Penelope could absolutely not go into the most important interview of her life with a giant brown stain between her boobs.

She looked up again, her eyes locking on the discreet LADIES’ ROOM sign on the far side of the lobby. She didn’t know what she’d do once she got there, but maybe someone would have a Tide pen. Or twelve.

Penelope began walking—okay, teetering—in that direction when she heard her name.

“Penelope?”

She froze. The masculine voice was familiar. Penelope pivoted slowly.

There, staring down at her with a bemused expression, was one very gorgeous, very well-dressed, very non-coffee-stained Cole Sharpe.

Dear God. Are you freaking kidding me with this?

“Hi Cole!” Penelope kept her voice cheerful even though he was quite possibly the very last person on earth she wanted to see right now.

Why, of all the people to witness her coffee snafu, did it have to be the very man who was standing between Penelope and her dream job?

“Morning,” he said, returning her easy tone.

His eyes dropped to the coffee stain, but she had to give the man credit, because he returned his gaze to hers almost immediately. Of course, that could have been due to the fact that her flat-as-a-board 32A chest was hardly worth a lingering look.

Still, she appreciated that he managed to withhold a smirk, even though he had to be doing a mental victory fist pump at her unfortunate clumsiness.

“It’s nice to see you again,” she said, shifting her weight awkwardly from one foot to the other.

“Here for your interview?” Cole asked.

“It’s in a few minutes,” she replied. “You? Just wrapping up?”

“Mine’s not until two.”

Penelope glanced at her watch. It was ten to eleven. “Wow. That brings a whole new meaning to showing up early.”

Cole looked away for the briefest of seconds. “Actually…”

“Ah,” she said. “You’re not just here for the interview, are you? This is your place. These are your people.”

“I come in a few days a week. As a freelancer.”

There wasn’t any gloating in his voice, which she appreciated, but there was a fierce warrior light in his eyes all the same. Penelope slumped, just a little.

The subtext of his statement was coming through loud and clear: You’re on my turf, sweetheart.

What she wouldn’t give to go back to the charming man who’d chatted her up at the baseball game. Back before he’d known that she was the competition.

It wasn’t that he’d turned unfriendly upon learning that she was his main opposition. After Alex Cassidy had introduced them last night, Cole had stuck around long enough to be polite, making small talk.

But the teasing—dare she say flirting—Cole had vanished.

She didn’t blame him. If he wanted this job half as badly as she did, he had every reason to think of her as the enemy.

Which was a shame. She liked him. Not just because he was pretty to look at, but oh my goodness, was he pretty to look at. And exactly her type. He had the lean athleticism of a shortstop. Sandy blond hair long enough to run hands through. Dark brown eyes that promised a good time.

And that smile…Cole Sharpe’s smile was a hell of a thing, slow and sexy, and she was pretty sure it had robbed more than one woman of her ability to think about anything other than getting him naked.

But looks aside, he also seemed like the type of guy she’d like to grab a beer with. Someone with whom she could talk shop and joke.

Cole Sharpe was out of her league—way out of her league—on the relationship front, but as a friend? Instinct told her he’d make a good one if he weren’t currently giving her the side-eye like she was standing between him and a juicy prize.

Which, of course, she was.

Just like he was standing in her way.

It was an uncomfortable sensation. Despite her love of all things sports, Penelope herself wasn’t particularly competitive. Not that she was a total pushover, she just never got off on winning for winning’s sake.

But she wanted to win this Oxford position.

No, needed to win it, not only for the fresh start it represented but to remind her that there were more important things to win than Evan Barstow’s fickle heart.

The thought of Evan caused a pang, like it always did, and Penelope straightened her shoulders, coffee stain be damned.

“Good luck with your interview, Mr. Sharpe,” she said, giving him a friendly smile despite her unfriendly thoughts.

He nodded. “You too.”

She nodded, hoping she looked more sophisticated than she felt. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to the ladies’ room. I’ve had a bit of a…” She waved her hand in the general vicinity of her chest. “Wardrobe malfunction.”

His eyes flitted downward again, but he merely nodded.

Penelope turned away, wishing she was coordinated enough in stilettos to sexily pivot on her heel.

Instead she moved slowly, keeping her head held high even as tears stung at the corners of her eyes. This was not how this day was supposed to go. She was supposed to look polished and confident, and…

“Hey, Penelope.”

She paused, cringing as she realized that he’d followed her.

“Yeah?” She turned around.

Standing just a few feet away, Cole shifted the strap of his laptop bag higher on his shoulder. His eyes drifted down to the stain, then back up to her eyes, seeming to take in her burning cheeks and the fact that her chin was very close to wobbling.

Then he swore softly and ran a hand through his hair. “Come on.”

She blinked. “Sorry?”

He jerked his chin in the direction of the reception desk. “Come with me.”

She was too confused to do anything other than follow him, although she continued to move slowly, coffee held carefully out in front of her to avoid yet another misstep.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw that she wasn’t matching his pace. He stopped, marched toward her, and without warning, plucked the coffee out of her hand.

“Hey—”

“Speed up, Tiny,” he said.

“I don’t even know where we’re going.”

He didn’t respond as he approached the security guards, saying something to them before turning around and snapping his fingers at her. “Photo ID.”

Penelope handed it over, watching as the brawny men behind the desk tapped something into the computer.

A minute later, Cole handed her back her ID and a temporary badge before putting his hand on her back and ushering her none too gently through the turnstile and toward the massive elevator lobby.

“Cole, I can’t meet Cassidy like this,” she said, as they stepped into the elevator. “I need a ladies’ room, see if I can’t blot out some of this coffee stain.”

He punched the button for the twelfth floor and looked her over. “Tiny, no amount of blotting is going to remove vanilla latte from a white shirt.”

“How do you know it’s a vanilla latte?”

He gestured toward the cup he was still holding, where her drink order was plainly scribbled on the side. Then he took a drink.

“Hey!” She held out her hand to take the coffee back, but he batted it aside just as the elevator doors opened to the floor.

“After you.” He made a sweeping gesture, and Penelope reluctantly preceded him off the elevator and into…

“Where are we?” she breathed, skimming to a halt.

He stopped beside her with a small smile. “Welcome to Stiletto, Tiny.”

Stiletto.

As in the biggest women’s magazine in the country and Oxford’s sister publication.

Penelope wasn’t much of a girl’s girl, but even she had spent many a sunny afternoon with Stiletto’s shiny pages, learning about the right coral lipstick for your skin tone or flipping through “The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad.”

“Everyone seems so happy,” she said, more to herself than to Cole.

“Maybe you should consider working here, then,” he said, his voice grumpy as he put a hand on the small of her back and all but pushed her down the hallway to wherever he was leading her.

“Well, maybe I would if they had a sports section,” she shot back.

“Probably not happening. Not unless you count Pilates. I know, because I’ve tried. Okay, here we are.”

Cole stopped in front of a shut office door on the outer perimeter of the floor and knocked twice before opening it.

“What are you—”

Penelope broke off as the door swung open and Cole stepped aside. “Tiny, meet the queen bees of Stiletto.”

Four of the most gorgeous women Penelope had ever seen stared back at her.

“Cole, what delightful creature have you brought us?” asked the tall, black-haired bombshell in the corner. The woman’s stunning good looks were made slightly less intimidating by the fact that her mouth was full of donut. She licked powdered sugar off her thumb and gave Penelope a friendly smile.

“Penelope?” This from Emma Sinclair. Thank God. A familiar face.

Penelope had met Emma—Alex Cassidy’s girlfriend—at the Yankees game the night before, and the woman could not have been any nicer. Or any prettier. Slim with long brown hair, warm brown eyes, and crazy-high cheekbones, it was easy to see why Cassidy had fallen for her.

“Ladies, this is Penelope Pope,” Emma said to the other women.

“Ah yes, the Chicago darling who’s giving our Cole a run for his money in the Sports department,” said a blond woman. She gave a little finger waggle at Cole, who winked back.

There was an easy familiarity there that gave Penelope an odd stab of something close to jealousy.

The pretty blonde stood and extended a hand to Penelope. “I’m Julie Greene. That beast stuffing another donut in her face and not gaining a pound is Riley McKenna, the preppy one in the sweater set is Grace Malone, and of course you already know Emma. We’re the Relationships columnists for Stiletto.”

“Um, hi.” Penelope gave a dorky little wave.

There was an awkward moment of silence, and then Cole stepped forward.

“Penelope here has an interview with Cassidy in fifteen minutes.”

“Ohhhhh,” all four women said at once.

“Say no more,” the pretty brunette named Grace said, reaching forward to pull Penelope in.

“We’ll take it from here, Cole, baby,” Julie said, ushering Cole out of the doorway. “It was good of you to bring her to us.”

Was it? Penelope wondered. She still didn’t know what was going on.

And then the door was slammed in Cole’s face, and the four women surrounded her.

Riley walked over—tall enough that she’d tower over Penelope’s five-one even without her mammoth high heels—and, completely unabashed, bent and sniffed in the direction of Penelope’s boobs.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Ri,” Emma muttered.

Riley stood back up. “Vanilla latte.”

“Impressive,” Penelope said.

Riley tapped her nose and winked. “This baby can identify anything.”

“Well, anything edible,” Emma amended. “What do you think, girls? Shall we hit up the team over in Style? See if they have something that will fit Penelope?”

Understanding dawned on Penelope.

These women were going to help her overcome Coffeegate. Four perfect strangers—well, three strangers plus Emma—were helping her for no reason other than to be kind.

“It’s been slim pickings over in Style lately,” Grace said, circling Penelope and tapping her lip. “Lots of runway crap. Nothing interview-appropriate.”

“She can switch shirts with me,” Riley said, her hands already going to the hem of her leopard print V-neck.

Julie scoffed. “You and your big boobs have no place here, Ri. I’ll trade.”

Without warning, Julie whipped her black turtleneck over her head and held it out to Penelope.

Penelope blinked. “I can’t take your shirt.”

Julie shook it. “Of course you can.”

“What will you wear?”

“Your stained monstrosity, of course.”

Penelope balked. “I can’t let you do that.”

“It’s not for all day,” Julie said in a soothing voice. “I just need to wear it across town to Bloomingdale’s. Right, girls?”

“Can we stop and get a burrito?” Riley asked of nobody in particular.

Cole knocked on the other side of the door. “Twelve minutes, Tiny.”

“Tiny. You and Cole are at the nickname stage, hmm?” Grace said with raised eyebrows.

Penelope ignored this, took a deep breath, and awkwardly undid the buttons of her stained shirt. As soon as it was off her shoulders, Julie snatched it and pulled it on.

Penelope hurriedly pulled Julie’s shirt over her head, before watching guiltily as Julie buttoned up Penelope’s own disaster, the front straining a little across Julie’s more ample breasts, making the coffee stain even more noticeable.

Penelope groaned. “You can’t wear that.”

Julie glanced down and then shrugged. “What better way to call attention to the twins?”

Grace reached out and straightened the turtleneck across Penelope’s shoulders. “A little big, but guys don’t notice these things.”

“Thank you so much,” Penelope said, glancing around at all four women. “I really don’t…I don’t even know what to say. If there’s anything I can do to repay you…”

“Actually, there is,” Julie said with a thoughtful look on her face.

“Anything.”

Julie gave Penelope a slightly smug look and crossed her arms over her chest. “How about you tell us why Cole Sharpe is helping a woman who’s standing directly in the way of his dream job?”

Penelope froze as Julie’s question sank in.

Cole Sharpe could have walked away down in the lobby. Could have let her show up with a big wet spot on her shirt after an unsuccessful attempt to remove the stain.

He could have ensured that she was off balance and embarrassed for her interview.

Instead he’d helped her. He’d gone above and beyond, really.

Penelope could only shake her head at the curious women. “Honestly? I have no freaking idea.”

Chapter 3

Nearly two hours after he’d shown Penelope Pope up to the Oxford offices for her interview with Cassidy, Cole still hadn’t figured out what the hell he’d been thinking.

He’d had the perfect opportunity to get the edge over Penelope Pope in the interview process, and instead he’d played fairy fucking godmother, whisking her away to the ball.

Or to the Stiletto girls’ office. Same difference.

It was just…

She’d looked so damn small. And when she’d blinked up at him with huge brown eyes trying so desperately to hold back tears…

Ah, hell. He’d been a goner.

Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t dying to know if she’d bungled the interview. And he knew just the person to sweet-talk for the inside scoop.

Joanna Barry was Oxford’s front receptionist, and Alex Cassidy’s right-hand woman. If anyone knew what Cassidy had thought of Tiny Pope, it would be Jo.

Or at least, Cole sure as hell hoped so, because he’d just waited in line for twenty-five minutes at Starbucks to get his bribe.

“Hello, sweets. I’ve brought you something— Oh. It’s you.”

The reception chair at the Oxford front desk swiveled around. Cole had been expecting Joanna but got an altogether more manly visage.

Lincoln Mathis.

“Is that for me?” the black-haired man asked, tossing to the side the magazine he’d been reading and holding out an eager hand for one of the cups in Cole’s hand.

“It’s for Jo,” Cole said, looking around the office and hoping that the receptionist was nearby.

“Went home sick today,” Lincoln said. He snapped fingers expectantly for the coffee.

Cole hesitated for about a half second before relenting and handing over the coffee, careful to hide his grin. He took a sip of his own coffee, keeping an innocent expression on his face as Lincoln took a drink from the coffee meant for Joanna.

Wait for it…

Lincoln sputtered. “Son of a— What is this, tar?”

“That, my man, is an Americano,” Cole said.

“An Ameri-what? It tastes like dirt.”

“I thought you said it tasted like tar.”

“Give me yours instead,” Lincoln said, holding out a hand.

Cole lifted his cup out of the way. “Go get your own coffee. And besides, you wouldn’t like this. It’s an unsweetened cappuccino. Not nearly enough almond or sprinkles, or whatever you put in there.”

Lincoln Mathis looked like the type who’d like his coffee black. But he had a dirty little secret: a serious sweet tooth.

“It’s got to be better than this,” Lincoln grumbled.

Cole lifted a shoulder. “Jo likes things hot and strong.”

“Oh yeah?” A dark eyebrow crept up.

“It’s why she asked me out,” Cole said, grinning evilly.

“She didn’t.”

“Only because Cassidy is uptight about employees dating other employees.”

“But you’re not an employee,” Lincoln pointed out, leaning back in the chair.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Cole said grimly.

Lincoln’s words brought reality crashing down as Cole remembered why he was here.

A motherfucking interview.

A glance at his watch showed he still had nearly an hour until he could get the formality over with. He looked at Lincoln, who’d resumed flipping through a magazine.

“Dude, you’re reading Stiletto?” Cole asked, noting the unmistakable cover of the women’s magazine.

Blue eyes appeared over the top of the magazine. “Tell me you don’t pick it up from time to time for the sex tips.”

“Don’t need ’em. Hey, since you’ve been sitting up here, apparently doing absolutely no work at all, have you seen—”

The phone rang, and Lincoln held up a finger. “Hold please, I have to take this.”

“Seriously?”

Lincoln tucked the phone under his chin as he pulled a pen and paper toward him. “Oxford magazine, Lincoln speaking, how may I direct your call?…Mm-hmm. Of course. Just one moment.”

Lincoln pushed the hold button and squinted at the phone. “Hey, get over here and help me figure out how to transfer this call to Peter.”

“Um, no.”

Lincoln glanced up. “Really? Because I could tell you all about the cute brunette who’s talking to Cassidy right now about your job.”

Cole couldn’t get around the desk fast enough.

Holy shit, that was a lot of buttons.

“Why isn’t there just a simple transfer button?” Lincoln muttered.

“How long have you been sitting here?” Cole asked. “You haven’t figured out how to transfer a call by now?”

Lincoln shrugged. “I managed to convince everyone else to just call back later, or distracted them by asking about their day.”

“Of course you did,” Cole muttered. Cole considered himself charming. But Lincoln had it down to an art form.

The blinking light chirped its reminder that someone was still on hold, and Lincoln swore, picked up the receiver and hit a rapid progression of numbers, and then hung it back up again.

“What just happened?” Cole asked.

“No idea,” Lincoln said, leaning back in the chair. “Okay, so talk to me about this Penelope Pope.”

Cole made his way back to the front of the desk, only to realize that Lincoln had swiped his coffee. Knowing Lincoln, that had probably been his play the entire time.

“She’s—wait, you’re supposed to be giving me the lowdown.”

Lincoln shrugged.

“Well, how’d she look when she came out of the interview?” Cole asked. “Nervous? Stressed? Hopeful?”

Cole had meant to stick around and see the aftermath for himself, but some of the guys from the Fitness department had dragged him to a long lunch, and then he’d gone straight to Starbucks for Jo’s coffee.

“Don’t know,” Lincoln said.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You’re Oxford’s resident relationship expert. You read women for a living.”

It was true too. Cole was good with women, but Lincoln was in a whole other league. Even more annoying than Lincoln’s ability to pick up women with little more than a wink was his ability to let them go without so much as a hurt feeling.

Whereas Cole’s in-box chronically held at least one hate email from a woman he’d dumped, Lincoln had standing lunch dates with at least half of his exes.

Cole had always figured that there had to be a story behind Lincoln’s strange approach with women. He just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“I do read women for a living,” Lincoln replied calmly. “But I have to actually see them first.”

The implication behind Lincoln’s words washed over Cole, and he froze. “Wait. Hold the fuck. Are you telling me you haven’t seen her come out of Cassidy’s office yet?”

Lincoln shrugged. “I’ve been sitting here since she went in. Haven’t seen her leave.”

“Maybe because you’re too busy reading about what to expect at your next gyno appointment,” Cole said, pointing accusingly at the Stiletto magazine in his friend’s hands. “Damn it, Linc, you’re supposed to be paying attention.”

“I can multitask, dude. I’m telling you, your girl hasn’t come out of there yet.”

Before Cole could stop to consider whether it was a good idea (it wasn’t), he was already strolling down the hall toward Cassidy’s office.

“If I were Jo, I’d have to follow you and tell you you can’t go in there!” Lincoln called after him.

Cole didn’t bother to respond. He didn’t have to look to know Lincoln was already back to his magazine.

It had been nearly two hours since the start of Penelope’s interview. What the hell were they talking about?

Cole could maybe understand how Cassidy had to go through the motions of the interview with another candidate—maybe.

But a thirty-minute “tell me about a time that you showed initiative” question-and-answer session should have sufficed.

Anything over an hour?

Bad news for Cole.

Alex Cassidy was a professional. He wouldn’t rush someone out without giving them a fair chance. But neither would he humor someone if he thought they were wasting his time.

If Tiny Brunette was still in there, it meant she was killing it in her interview.

“God damn it,” Cole muttered, when he found Cassidy’s door still closed.

Unfortunately for him, Cassidy’s office wasn’t one of those glass-for-walls affairs. There wasn’t even a peep window on the door for him to walk past accidentally-on-purpose.

He’d either have to wait until it was his turn, or—

His hand was on the door handle, and before he could think better of it, he’d opened the door.

Cassidy’s face was the first one he saw—the editor in chief’s expression went from surprise to pissed in record time—but Cole barely noticed.

His eyes were too busy taking in the small, dark-haired woman across from Cassidy, watching as she turned around at the interruption.

God, those eyes.

They got him every time.

And then she smiled. “Hi, Cole!”

God help them all. She sounded genuinely happy to see him. And not in a flirty, breathy, oh-Cole-ask-me-out kind of way that he was used to.

Just a friendly, I’m-a-nice-person kind of smile.

“Out,” Cassidy growled at Cole.

Cole glanced at his watch, letting his face go slack with fake dismay. “Crap, are you guys still— Sorry. Am I early?”

Cassidy pointed toward the door. “Out. Your interview’s not until two.”

“I know, but Jo wasn’t at the front desk, so I just figured I’d come on back like I always do.”

Cole’s like I always do was a deliberate reminder to Penelope that Cole belonged here. Him. Not her.

But if Penelope picked up on this, it never once registered on her face, and for some reason this annoyed Cole all the more.

For God’s sake woman, fight back. Tell me to get the hell out of your interview.

Instead, her damn smile never wavered and she turned around to Cassidy. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Cassidy. I’ve taken up far too much of your time. I’ll let you go.”

“Please, Ms. Pope, for the last time—call me Alex.”

Cole rolled his eyes behind Penelope’s back.

Most everyone called Cassidy Cassidy.

The whole “Call me Alex” thing was strictly for Cole’s benefit. To let him know that he wasn’t the only show in town.

“Only if you call me Penelope,” Tiny Brunette said, getting to her feet.

“I’d like that,” Cassidy said with a genuine smile as he too rose.

Cole’s smile slipped a little as he realized they were wrapping up their interview.

On the plus side, he’d done what he set out to do—interrupt Penelope Pope’s interview. Maybe spy a little.

On the downside—it felt awful.

Cole knew he could be a cocky son-of-a-bitch sometimes, but he wasn’t an asshole.

And right now he definitely felt like one.

“Ms. Pope, please,” Cole said, holding up a hand. “Sit down. I absolutely should not have come barging in like this, ruining your interview.”

Doing the right thing was such bullshit.

“Oh, it’s okay,” she said brightly, picking up a portfolio from Cassidy’s desk and tucking it into an oversize bag. “You didn’t ruin anything. I’m not worried about this interruption making me look bad.”

Cole was silent for several seconds, and then he couldn’t hold back the bark of laughter.

Penelope Pope might look sweet as a kitten, but damned if he hadn’t just felt the subtlest scratch of her claws. He admired her for it.

“You’re absolutely right,” he said. “This is not a good way to start my interview, is it, Cassidy?”

“You have no idea,” Cassidy muttered. “I’ll see you out, Ms. Pope—Penelope.”

“Oh gosh, don’t worry about it,” Penelope said, moving toward the door. She looked like a kid playing dress-up, in her dark dress slacks, and especially with the short-sleeved black turtleneck that was slightly too big on her tiny frame. “Good luck, Mr. Sharpe.”

“Yeah, thanks. Oh, and Penelope—”

She paused in the doorway and turned back with a questioning smile.

Cole let his smile glow warm. “I’m sure it’s hard to move to a new city with so many new teams and players to learn. If you ever want me to show you where to start—”

“Save it, Sharpe. You have to see this,” Cassidy interrupted, coming to stand beside Cole.

Cassidy turned to focus on Penelope. “Terrence Mason.”

She frowned a little and shuffled her feet.

Cassidy nodded in encouragement to her, before turning his head slightly to Cole and muttering watch this out of the corner of his mouth.

Penelope licked her lips nervously. “Um, okay. Terrence Mason. Starting shortstop for the Mets, three twelve batting average, one-hundred-thirty-three-RBI season average over his six-year career, switch hitter despite missing the outer half of his left pinky due to a high school shop class accident—”

“Joe Carrington,” Cassidy interrupted.

Penelope didn’t even pause to think. “Second-string point guard for the Knicks. Severely underrated, never seems to make the same move twice on the court. Graduated from Duke, took his team to the NCAA championship all four years, was MVP his senior year after scoring—”

“Rick Macornis,” Cassidy said, interrupting again.

“Recently retired Rangers goalie. Probably could have gone a few more years, but he’d started to get slow, likely made a good call quitting while he was ahead. His GA was creeping up every year in a bad way. Had an affair with his left wing’s wife.”

Cole shook his head, feeling a little dazed. “I get it,” he said, all trace of levity gone from his voice. “I should be asking you for stats.”

“Oh, I’d like that!” Penelope said, seemingly missing his mea culpa altogether. “Perhaps we could grab coffee sometime. I’d love to pick your brain about which players like to talk and which need to be coaxed—”

She broke off, glancing between the two men, no doubt taking in Cole and Cassidy’s stunned expressions.

Was this woman for real?

They were neck and neck for a highly paid, highly desirable position with one of the largest magazines in the country and she wanted to have coffee and swap pointers?

“Uh…” was all Cole could manage.

“No pressure,” she rushed to say. “I just thought, well…I’m new to town. Mr. Cassidy has my number if you care to grab a drink sometime. Not a date, just, you know, just— Okay, good luck with your interview.”

Her words got faster and faster so that his brain had to scramble to follow along…and then she was gone.

The door shut with a click behind her, and neither Cassidy nor Cole moved for several seconds.

“Did that just happen?” Cole asked, still staring at the door.

“Apparently,” Cassidy murmured. “You going to call her?”

“Not if she gets my job,” Cole grumbled.

Cassidy didn’t respond, and Cole gave the other man a sharp look as the editor in chief walked around to sit down at his desk.

“Don’t jump to reassure me or anything,” Cole said under his breath.

Cassidy sighed. “Would you just sit down so we can do this damn interview?”

Cole eyed the door. “Do we have to do it now? You seem like you’re in a shitty mood.”

“Of course I’m in a shitty mood,” Cassidy said, running a hand through his hair. “You just interrupted that woman’s interview. She could sue us.”

“Please,” Cole said with a scoff. “She wanted to go to coffee with me.”

“Only because she doesn’t know you,” Cassidy muttered.

“Yup, you’re definitely in a shitty mood. Maybe we should reschedule—”

“Sit,” Cassidy commanded. “Let’s get this over with. How about we start with an easy one.”

“Sure,” Cole said, plopping in the chair, feigning cockiness he didn’t feel after Tiny Brunette’s impressive display of New York sports stats.

“Great,” Cassidy snapped. “How about you tell me what the hell you were thinking, barging in here—”

Cassidy’s rant continued for several moments, but Cole didn’t bother listening. He already knew the answer to Cassidy’s question.

Why did he barge into the office? It was a two-parter.

The first was easy. He’d wanted to ensure that a tiny Chicago outsider wasn’t getting his job.

The second part was more complicated. He’d wanted to see said tiny Chicago outsider.

Now he just needed to figure out why.

Chapter 4

“It can’t have been that bad.” The voice at the other end of the phone was soothing.

“Trust me,” Penelope said. “It was worse.”

There was a moment of silence as her younger sister thought this over. “And you say he just stared at you?”

“Like I was an animal in the zoo. An exotic one, but not a pretty, exotic one,” Penelope said, taking a bite from the hot dog she’d gotten from a vendor in Central Park.

Street meat, she’d heard it called. Sounded so disgusting. Tasted so good.

Penelope had always imagined that Central Park would be crazy crowded, being the crown jewel of the most populous city in the country and all.

But on a cooler than usual Wednesday in April it was nearly deserted, and Penelope felt as though the park were her personal playground.

“What’s that noise?” Janie asked. “Are you eating?”

“Hot dog,” Penelope said.

Her sister groaned. “And here I was thinking that the only good thing about you leaving Chicago was that it would get you away from those things.”

Penelope sucked a drop of mustard off her thumb. “Nope. New city, new dog.”

“You say that as though it’s a common phrase,” Janie said. “It’s not.”

“Not to a vegetarian who’s doing yet another juice cleanse, maybe,” Penelope said, crumpling up the foil in her fist and leaning against the bench. “But did you know that different cities have different styles of dogs? The Chicago dog, for instance—”

“Stop. Just stop,” Janie cut in. “If I’m not allowed to tell you what’s in them, you’re not allowed to tell me all the disgusting things that go on them. Let’s get back to this guy—”

“Cole,” Penelope said. “Cole Sharpe.”

“Hmm. Good name.”

It was a good name.

Looked really damn good on a byline too, as Penelope well knew. She’d done her homework.

She knew everyone in the industry.

Being one of the few females in her line of work, Penelope hadn’t exactly had a plethora of mentors to pick from. The senior sportswriters of Chicago thought her an abomination. The sports columnists who were her own age had been both annoyed and threatened by her very existence.

For all of today’s talk about feminism and equality, female sportswriters were still few and far between. Nobody had exactly been banging down the door to show Penelope the ropes, so…

She’d taught herself.

She subscribed to dozens of newspapers across the country and read their entire sports sections, every day.

Then there were the magazines. And the blogs. And the apps. And the Twitter feeds. So, yeah, she’d known who Cole Sharpe was, even before she decided to move to New York.

And if Penelope was honest, she wished she were up against someone less, well, good.

Cole Sharpe’s work was amazing. He had an impressive knack for seamlessly blending analysis, stats, and summary in a way that read like a really good story.

Add in the fact that he had a distinctive writing style—a “voice” that came through in the written word—and, well, he was just about as worthy an opponent for the editor position as she could have dreamt up.

So much for her hopes that her rival would be someone a bit older—an old-school “boys’ club” type of columnist. At least then Penelope could have gotten the edge by playing the “I’m youthful and technically savvy” card.

But Cole Sharpe barely looked a day over thirty. Chances were he was not only as well versed in social media as she was, but also understood its importance in the future of sports reporting.

There went her edge.

“Pen?”

“Hmm?” she asked, realizing she’d completely zoned out and missed whatever Janie was talking about.

“I asked if Cole Sharpe was as hot as his name implies. He sounds…yummy.”

Penelope smiled. It was exactly the sort of question she’d expect from her sister. Granted, Janie was no longer a boy-crazy teen, but marriage hadn’t done much to temper her appreciation of the opposite sex.

Younger by two years, Janie was Penelope’s opposite in just about every way. In looks, certainly. Janie was tall and blond, with an hourglass figure—as different from Penelope’s petite, brunette boy-shape as could be.

But it was their interests and personalities that really set them apart. The only sport Janie believed in was shopping. Still, her sister was her best friend, and one of the people it had been hardest to leave behind in Chicago.

Harder, even, than leaving Evan.

Penelope’s smile dimmed at the memory of her former co-worker and friend.

She struggled to push thoughts of him aside, and hated how hard it was. The man had betrayed her—personally and professionally, and she could still see his beautiful smile every time she closed her eyes.

She. Was. Pathetic.

“Pen? You going to fill me in on this Cole guy?”

Penelope tilted her head back, feeling just the faintest hint of warmth from sun mostly hidden behind the clouds. “Um, Cole is—”

“He’s yummy. Isn’t he?” Janie demanded.

“Hot dogs are yummy,” Penelope said. “Not men.”

“Oh, Pen,” her sister sighed. “What I wouldn’t give for you to fall in love. Or at least meet a guy who gives you butterflies.”

There it was again. That pang.

Penelope had never told her sister how she’d felt about Evan, although she sometimes suspected that Janie knew and was too kind to mention it.

Or maybe her sister had just been hoping that silence on the matter would kill Penelope’s silly crush. Her sister had never liked Evan.

“Cole’s…attractive,” Penelope said, forcing her mind away from the past.

“Describe.”

She opened her mouth to try to describe his features to Janie, only to realize that there wasn’t anything particularly distinctive about them, other than that they all went together exceptionally well.

“He has a nice smile,” was what she settled on.

Janie let out a frustrated groan. “You’re hopeless.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter what he looks like,” Penelope grumbled. “He goes from being perfectly nice to being totally grumpy. He couldn’t even respond to my offer of coffee.”

“Sweetie, you’re his main competition for a pretty kick-ass job. Not everyone is as easygoing as you about such things.”

“I know,” Penelope said, running a pinky over the perfect crease of her dress slacks. “It’s just…I don’t really have any friends here. I thought maybe he could be one.”

Janie made a strangled noise. “You’re breaking my heart here. Come back to Chicago. You have a million friends here.”

Penelope squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Janie demanded. “New York can’t be that great. And I still can’t believe you moved there before knowing whether or not you got the job. I mean, you’ll get it, of course, but—”

Penelope couldn’t do this right now.

“Janie, I’ve got to run,” Penelope interrupted.

“Why?”

“I forgot that I have the cable guy coming by later. Something’s wrong with the box they installed last week.”

“Oh. Okay. Well…you’ll text me the second you know about the job, right?”

“Definitely,” Penelope promised. “Love you. Tell Josh I say hey.”

Penelope hung up the phone with a long sigh, feeling a stab of guilt.

It hadn’t been a complete lie. The cable guy really was scheduled to come by and figure out why ESPN kept cutting in and out. It was just that he was scheduled to come by tomorrow.

But the alternative to her fib was telling her sister the truth—the whole truth. That the reason she hightailed it out of Chicago was not just because she’d failed to get her dream job but because of a man.

A man who had taken her dream job right out from under her nose.

Penelope stood, tugging her heavy bag over her shoulder as she headed back toward home.

Her apartment on 107th and Amsterdam was too far north to be considered a prime location by most New Yorkers. But in a new-to-her city where she knew nobody, had no favorite restaurants, and didn’t yet know the public transportation system, the cozy one-bedroom suited her just fine.

It was close to the park. Close-ish to the Oxford offices…

If she got the job.

She’d felt pretty damn confident right up until the moment she’d met Cole Sharpe last night.

Granted, until today, she’d only had phone interviews. But in her conversations with Alex Cassidy and a handful of the other Oxford guys who’d vetted her, Penelope had had a sense of rightness.

She’d felt like they liked her. Felt like she belonged.

But Cole Sharpe—he belonged there too.

Something he’d pointedly reminded her when he’d crashed her interview.

Penelope supposed she should be mad about that—it was a crappy move on his part. Immature at best, unscrupulous at worst.

But she’d never been one to waste energy getting mad about the little stuff. Her tolerance for drama was remarkably low, which was part of the reason the world of sports fit her so well.

It was all numbers and scores.

And that was why she’d asked Cole Sharpe to coffee. Someone with whom to talk shop.

At least…that was her story, and she was sticking with it.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he looked every bit as good in a charcoal suit this morning as he had in jeans and T-shirt last night…

But ultimately, the reason didn’t matter, because he’d turned her down.

No, not even turned her down—he’d responded with an uh.

That was so much worse.

Penelope tried to tell herself that it didn’t sting as she unlocked the door of her apartment and dropped her bag by the front door.

She was used to it—rejection in all its forms.

Penelope had no illusions about her place in the world of men: the friend zone.

She was the girl next door you could always count on to pick up your mail when you were out of town, provide input when you needed to shop for an engagement ring for your girlfriend, serve as that last-minute date to the wedding of an extended family member you didn’t really like.

Unless, of course, she was among fellow sportswriters, in which case she was neither one of the guys nor was she appealing as a woman, which left her chronically on the outside.

Penelope wandered into her apartment, trying to ignore how empty it was. She’d thought that finally getting some art up on the walls—some gorgeous canvas photos of her favorite stadiums—would make it feel less empty.

But pretty as the new art pieces were, they were no substitute for human company.

Penelope felt a pang of regret that she hadn’t been brave enough to ask Emma Sinclair for her phone number when the other woman had been so friendly.

Not that she exactly fit in with the high-heeled glamour of the Stiletto women, but at least then she’d feel like she knew someone in this huge city.

Penelope sat on the edge of her couch and wondered what to do with the rest of her day.

She’d managed to get through her first two weeks in the city by prepping endlessly for her interview, but now that was over, and she had nothing to do but wait.

Wait to find out if her spontaneous move to New York would pay off in the form of a job offer from Oxford, or if she’d have to go back to square one in the job hunt.

In the meantime, of course, there was always freelance stuff. Some of her old contacts back in Chicago would likely jump at the chance to have some dedicated coverage for the American League East games.

There could be good money in freelance. Especially if one wrote fast, which she did.

But freelance also meant a hell of a lot of time alone.

If Penelope was honest with herself—and she usually was—the appeal of the Oxford position wasn’t just about the chance to build out an entirely new section of a nationally acclaimed magazine.

It was about belonging to a team. To have someone to bounce ideas off of, after-work happy hours to attend, the corporate holiday party. Someone to grab coffee with.

She winced at that last one, remembering the babbling, overeager way she’d all but thrown herself at Cole Sharpe, all because he’d shown her the tiniest scrap of kindness.

It would have been bad enough if she’d been asking him out on a date. It was all the more pathetic because she’d asked a perfect stranger—and competition—out as a friend. He hadn’t even gone for that.

Penelope groaned and threw herself onto her right side. “Could I be any more pathetic?”

She rolled onto her back, pulling one of her throw pillows against her chest.

Maybe she should think about getting a dog.

Or even a fish.

Yes, a fish would be better. Less poop.

She reached for her phone, intending to look up local pet stores, when it buzzed in her hand with an incoming text message.

It was a 212 number—no name, which meant it wasn’t one of her known contacts.

Her eyes narrowed in confusion before widening in surprise as she sat back up.

She read it again, just to be sure.

Hey. It’s Cole Sharpe. Any chance I can swap your offer of coffee for beer?

Penelope let a dopey smile crawl over her face as the loneliness eased—just slightly.

Absolutely, she typed back.

She started to ask when and where, but decided that sounded a little too desperate. Penelope had learned the hard way that We should grab a drink sometime was right up there with I’ll call you…

It didn’t mean that the other person actually wanted to share a drink.

But then his next text came through, and she realized—happily—that Cole Sharpe might be for real.

Good. How do you feel about day-drinking?

She smiled as she typed back. Depends on the day. And the occasion.

Penelope didn’t realize she was holding her breath until it whooshed out at his next response.

The day: Wednesday. The occasion: receiving an apology for intruding on your interview.

She grinned. Well, I DO like beer and apologies.

Glad to hear it. And by Wednesday, I meant today. Dubliner on 82nd and Broadway in a half hour?

Penelope hopped to her feet in excitement, and then did an unabashed happy dance.

The very existence of Cole Sharpe might mean a step backward in her New York job search, but it also might mean a step forward in something much more important: making her first New York friend.

Chapter 5

It wasn’t that Cole was bored with his life. Not really.

Sure, he was due for a change on the work front, both for the practical purpose of a bigger paycheck, as well as his brain needing a new challenge.

And yeah, he was a little tired of his usual date nights on Friday and Saturday with an endless string of nice but ultimately forgettable women.

Even his weeknight routine of WhistlePig Rye Whiskey on the rocks and whatever game was on had started to feel a little monotonous.

But even with all of that, it came as a surprise that the best time Cole had had in a long time was a spontaneous Wednesday afternoon in a mediocre pub, with mediocre beer, mediocre hot wings, and a feisty tomboy.

Penelope Pope continued to surprise him.

She’d surprised him last night at the Yankees game, with her unwavering focus on the field.

She’d surprised him again today with her friendly, no-strings-attached offer of coffee.

And she surprised him now, with how enjoyable she was to be around.

It had taken Cole the better part of an hour this afternoon—sitting side by side with her on the barstools in a crappy pub, drinking crappy beer—before he finally figured out what made her so damn arresting.

Penelope Pope was real.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d met someone who meant what they said—everything they said. But this woman had more honesty in her tiny body than the entire population of Manhattan.

Yet that wasn’t even the most surprising part. There were plenty of people who claimed candor as a way to utter harsh statements and snide observations. What made Penelope refreshing was that her goodness was honest.

Kind and straightforward. He didn’t want to get all weepy and weird about it, but even he could admit that Penelope Pope was a rare creature indeed.

“Okay, your turn to fess up,” she said, dragging a hot wing through a pile of blue cheese dressing before tearing at it neatly with her small white teeth.

“Fess up about what?” he asked.

He picked up his own chicken wing and took a healthy bite. Finally. A meal with a woman that wasn’t sushi or tapas.

She licked sauce off her finger, and if he had the urge to watch the motion of her lips longer than he should, he ignored it.

“You and sports,” she said. “You love them, obviously. But are you good at them?”

Cole picked up a piece of celery. “You mean am I good at playing them?”

“Yup. Were you high school quarterback? Starting point guard? Hotshot tennis player?”

“Baseball,” he said.

“My favorite! What position? No, let me guess. Shortstop.”

“Easy there, stalker. How’d you know that?”

She grinned and picked up her wing again. “It’s my job to know.”

“Not spilling your trade secrets?”

Her small shoulder lifted. “It’s your body type. It’s lean. Muscular but not too big. And you move well.”

Cole choked out a laugh. This had to be the strangest conversation he’d had over drinks with a woman. “I move well?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Your body looks like you know how to use it. You know?”

Her eyes went big, as though she just now realized that her choice of words could be misconstrued. “Oh. God. Not like that—”

Cole couldn’t help himself. He leaned forward with a sly smile. “Not like what?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re teasing me.”

Cole laughed. “Actually, I thought I was flirting.”

“Oh. Well. Maybe you were,” she said. “I’ve never been good at picking up on that.”

Her voice was just the tiniest bit glum, and Cole wanted to pry, despite the fact that wanting to dig beneath the surface of a woman was unusual for him.

Not because he was some jaded prick or anything, it was just…he hadn’t experienced what he’d seen some of his friends experience. True love, and all that.

Someday, maybe. Or not. He wasn’t holding his breath.

Instead he steered the conversation to safer topics. “Okay, my turn for a question.”

She held out her hands and made a beckoning motion. “Bring it.”

He smiled. He liked her.

“All right,” he said slowly, leaning back slightly. “What’s your story?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “My story?”

“Everyone’s got one, babe.”

She laughed. “That’s one hell of a question for our first nondate, Sharpe. I mean, where would I even start? About how I was born on a snowy day in November? Favorite movie? First time I broke my nose? Or how about the first time I broke my sister’s nose—”

“That one,” he said. “You broke your sister’s nose?”

“Total accident. In my youthful ignorance, I didn’t understand that it was instinct for some people to freeze in horror when a softball came their way rather than catch it.”

“And your broken nose?”

“Sixth grade. Elbow to the face during a basketball game.”

“Tiny. You played basketball?”

She smiled. “Let’s just say it wasn’t my glory sport.”

He nodded as he took another sip. “It’s good. All good stuff you’re sharing here, Tiny. But I want to know the really good stuff.”

“Such as?”

Her expression went just slightly wary, and his interest was piqued. Was it possible Penelope Pope wasn’t quite the open book she pretended to be?

“How about we start with why you moved to New York, when best I can tell, you don’t know a soul and you’re destined for unemployment.”

Penelope flicked at Cole’s arm. “Don’t count on that last one. But as for the first…”

She sighed, and Cole felt the same pang of protectiveness he had that morning when she’d been standing there in her stained shirt, with those big sad eyes looking up at him.

“Okay, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else,” she said.

“But what will I talk about at girls’ night?” he asked.

“Ha. Ha. Okay, here’s the thing, Sharpe…”

She blew out a breath, took a sip of beer, and then spun her barstool around to face him.

“I’m sort of running away from a guy.”

Was she now.

He didn’t know why he could possibly be interested in Penelope Pope’s love life, but he kept his voice casual to coax her into continuing.

“Well, switching time zones isn’t a bad way to do it,” he replied.

“Yeah. That and…”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t chicken out on me now, Tiny.”

“We worked together. Sort of. We were both freelancers, but we did a ton of stories together. Our styles meshed well. Readers loved our good-natured bickering about who would win the Series, or who the top draft pick would be. The Chicago Tribune would bring us on for months at a time to cover everything from Sweet Sixteen to the Triple Crown…”

Cole wiggled his eyebrows. “You do know how to sweet-talk a man.”

Her smile was faint, and he nudged her with his knee. “So what happened?”

Penelope bit her lip. “Well, the thing is, I’ve always wanted to go in more of a digital direction. I mean, I love the newspaper, and the team at the Tribune was great, but I sort of geek out on the more interactive things that are happening on the tech front.”

“Smart,” Cole said.

She nodded. “Evan thought so too. He encouraged me. Hooked me up with a college friend who was heading this great start-up. Basically a social media site for sports lovers. They had a ton of investors, and they were looking for a director of editorial. I wanted it. I prepped for weeks. I talked to every tech nerd in Chicago, learning the lingo. I put together this amazing portfolio. I showed it to Evan, and he loved it….”

She tilted her head back. “Ah gawd, I was stupid.”

Cole frowned as he realized where this story was going. “He took your portfolio.”

She swallowed and nodded. “The thing is, I didn’t even know he wanted the job. He never said a word about it. If he had, I would have—”

“You guys were a thing?”

“No,” she said quickly. “I mean, I thought maybe, someday…I thought…well, I found out he had a girlfriend. The same day I found out that he’d interviewed for the job with my proposal.”

“Holy shit, Tiny,” he said, staring at her. “I feel like I just walked into a summer blockbuster and your guy Evan is the villain. Real people actually pull that shit?”

She rubbed her hands over her face. “Apparently. And that’s all we’re going to say on the matter.”

“Really? Because if you want to cry…”

She smiled. “I’m not going to cry.”

“You sure? Because I was ready.”

“To what, offer a shoulder?”

Cole reached across the bar and rapidly pulled out a half dozen paper napkins from a beat-up dispenser.

He held them out to her and smiled when she burst out laughing.

Penelope pushed his hand aside. “I’m over it. Really.”

He didn’t think so. But she had a stubborn, don’t-push-me look on her face, and it was hardly his place to press. He barely knew the woman.

“My turn for a question,” she said.

He gestured for her to continue.

“The Stiletto ladies,” she said, sucking a drop of blue cheese off her finger.

Cole felt his groin tighten and looked away. Get it together, man.

“What about them?”

“They’re…friends?”

He smiled. “Yes. Good friends.”

“So you never…” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Never,” he said. “Julie and I flirted once upon a time, but never came close to dating. And by the time I got to know the rest of them, they were already involved with their respective significant others.”

“Damn,” she muttered. “There’s not a single one among them?”

“Nope. Why, were you hoping they’d be your Sex and the City crowd?”

“How do you know about Sex and the City?”

“I live in New York City and have dated a lot of women. Of course I know about Sex and the City.”

“A lot, hmm? How many is a lot?”

He winked. “Fishing? Seeing if I’m available?”

Penelope patted his arm. “Definitely not. You’re pretty, but don’t worry. You’re safe with me.”

Cole lifted an eyebrow. “How’s that?”

She pursed her lips and tilted her head to study him.

Cole laughed. “Why do I feel like I should be giving you my good side? To see if I pass muster?”

“Oh, don’t fret, this is quite nice,” she said, lifting her hand to gesture over his face.

“But you’re still not feeling the pull, huh?”

Penelope took a sip of beer. “Are you?”

He blinked in surprise. “What?”

She shifted in her barstool to face him. “Take it all in. Are you feeling light-headed? Dazzled by my feminine charms?”

“Ah—”

“Exactly,” she said, looking strangely satisfied with his nonreaction. “You’re out of my league, Sharpe.”

He opened his mouth, and she shocked the hell out of him by leaning forward and tapping a finger over his lips very matter-of-factly.

“Don’t even,” she said. “This is how it’s going to be, okay? I don’t have any illusions about the fact that I’m a friend-zone kind of girl, and I’m okay with that. Plus, lucky for you, I’m a darn good friend.”

He tried to speak, but she kept right on talking.

“Plus, we have a career in common, and let’s be honest, there aren’t that many sportswriters out there, so we should stick together, right?”

“I—”

“You can’t say no,” she chattered on. “Because I’m new to the city and desperate for a friend, and I like you. But that’s where it ends, okay? At like. You don’t have to worry that I’ll get the wrong idea about what this is because I won’t. But in return, you have to promise not to flirt.”

Cole could only stare at her.

It was the strangest conversation he’d ever had with a woman. He wasn’t sure he’d ever had a woman tell him quite so plainly that she didn’t want anything romantic from him.

Which was fine—he wasn’t in the market for a girlfriend, and even if he were, this chatty little tomboy wasn’t really his type.

Still, he couldn’t help being a little insulted by her easy dismissal of him as a potential lover.

And her insistence that he not flirt—Cole wasn’t sure he even knew where that line was anymore. What was the difference between friendly and flirty?

Penelope pointed a finger at him. “You’re overthinking this.”

He grabbed another celery stick and bit into it as he studied her. “Well, I do have a question. Since you have this so planned out, and all.”

“Shoot,” she said, taking a sip of her beer.

He leaned forward a little. “There is the not so tiny detail that as of now we’re actively competing for the same job. What happens when one of us gets it?”

And despite his surprise affection for Tiny, he would get the job. He had to. Rent at his brother’s adult-care home got more expensive every time Cole blinked, and Cole couldn’t bear the thought of Bobby’s having to move away from his friends if Cole hit a gap in his freelance contracts.

He needed that steady paycheck.

Penelope shrugged. “Why would that make a difference? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I want the job. I want it badly. But if you get it…well, then, I have to think you’re the best person for Oxford. And I’ll be happy for you.”

Cole could only shake his head. “You’re a unique creature, Penelope Pope.”

“What about you? If I get the job, can you handle it? We can still be friends?”

Cole glanced down at their near-empty glasses. “Another round?”

“Sure,” she said slowly, “but you didn’t answer the question.”

He lifted his hand to get the bartender’s attention. “We can absolutely be friends,” he told her.

“Even if I get the job,” she pressed, sounding doubtful.

Cole glanced over and smiled before chucking her playfully under the chin. “Oh, Tiny. That ain’t never gonna happen.”

Chapter 6

Penelope: Your precious Yankees aren’t looking so hot.

Cole: You watch your filthy Chicago mouth.

Penelope: Hmm, maybe I need glasses, because I keep looking at my TV, and I’m seeing Chicago White Sox: 6, New York Yankees: 2…What are you seeing?

Cole: The Yanks will come back. They always do.

Penelope: Has anyone told you how cute your delusions are?

Cole: Not recently. Want to come over and tell me to my face?

Penelope: Nice try, Sharpe. I’m quite comfortable on my own couch, thank you very much.

Cole: Fair enough…What are you wearing?

Penelope: Goodbye, Cole.

—

Cole Sharpe was good at a lot of things. Baseball. Putting furniture together. Cooking steak.

Sex.

But waiting was not on his list of skills.

And when an entire week passed after his interview without any word from Cassidy, Cole was past impatient and heading toward pissed.

The only consolation was that Penelope Pope hadn’t gotten word either. He knew because true to their agreement that afternoon in the bar, they’d ventured into a friendship of sorts.

Not that they were hanging out every day or anything. He actually hadn’t seen her since that day at the pub.

But they’d exchanged a few casual texts. Mostly about sports, with the occasional restaurant recommendation thrown in when she was craving Italian and didn’t know which of the hundreds in the city to choose from.

Cole found that he kind of enjoyed his new nightly routine of plopping on his couch with the remote, his notebook, his whiskey…and his phone.

He bickered with Penelope over texts about whether or not the rookie Henderson’s homer was a fluke or hint of potential. About whether or not Perez had gained weight in the off-season and would be able to maintain his impressive stolen base percentage.

It was through these nightly exchanges that he knew she hadn’t gotten the job offer either.

Why the fuck was Cassidy taking so long to decide?

On Thursday, one week and one day after his and Penelope’s interviews, Cole took matters into his own hands.

And this time, when he walked into the Oxford offices, two coffees in hand, the correct recipient was sitting at the front desk.

“Jo. My love,” he said, giving her his best smile.

The dark-haired receptionist glanced up from her computer and gave him a wry smile. “I was wondering when you’d show up with bribes.”

He handed her the coffee with an innocent look. “I’m offended, darling. This is just me trying to woo you so you’ll have dinner with me.”

“Unh-uh,” the brunette said, taking a sip. “For the nine millionth time, I don’t date guys from the office.”

“Ah,” he said, lifting a finger. “But I’m not from the office. I’m a contractor.”

She looked away, just for a split second, and it was exactly the opening Cole had been waiting for.

“Jo,” he said, leaning on the desk. “Is there something you want to tell me about that sports editor position?”

“Sharpe!”

Cole’s head snapped up, and he braced himself for a furious Alex Cassidy, only to sag a bit in relief when he realized the editor in chief was nowhere to be seen.

“Jake Malone,” Cole said, standing up straight and grinning at one of his closest friends.

Cole could have sworn he heard Jo sigh just a little as Jake came closer.

It happened a lot around Jake. Oxford’s travel editor had a Hugh Jackman kind of thing going on, and had definitely cornered the market on tall, dark, and handsome.

Jake had once been Oxford’s untamable playboy—a title he’d happily handed over to Lincoln, once Jake met and fell for his wife, Grace—one of Penelope’s Stiletto fairy godmothers.

Small world, and all that.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jake said, clapping Cole on the shoulder and giving him one of those half-man-hug things.

“Waiting for your boss to make up his mind,” Cole said, keeping his voice easy.

Jake rocked back on his heels. “Ah.”

Cole searched his friend’s face, but Jake gave no sign that he knew anything. Cole wasn’t surprised. Cassidy and Jake were good friends, but Cassidy also knew Jake had a big mouth. If Cassidy had made up his mind about the position, Jake would be the last one he’d tell.

“You here for an appointment with Cassidy?” Jake asked.

“Uh, well—”

Jake grinned. “He doesn’t know you’re coming, does he? Awesome. Can I be there when you surprise him? Heard you did that when he was interviewing your competition the other day. Damn, I wish I’d seen that.”

Cole winced. “Is he still pissed?”

Jake shrugged. “Honestly? I’ve barely seen the guy. He’s been up in corporate almost every day this week. Come on back,” Jake said, gesturing toward his office. “Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

Cole followed Jake into his office, pointing at a new poster of a vineyard on his friend’s wall. “Napa?”

“Spain,” Jake said. “I’m trying to convince the boss to send me out there in October. Everyone talks about French wines, California wines, even Italian wines…Spain doesn’t get nearly enough love.”

“Wine, huh? Let me guess whose idea that was.”

Jake grinned. “Let’s just say if Cassidy maybe allowed me to let my wife tag along, she probably wouldn’t say no. Oh, and speaking of the wife…wanna come to dinner at our place? Two weeks from Friday?”

Cole looked at him in surprise. “What’s the catch?”

“There’s no catch. What, I can’t ask my friend to dinner?”

Cole lifted an eyebrow. Waited.

Jake sighed and relented. “Okay, fine. Grace and the other girls—they’ve got it in their heads that they want to adopt this Penelope Pope character.”

Cole’s eyebrow went higher. “And you think I should be there? You are aware that this woman is out for my job?”

“This woman?” Jake repeated. “You sound like my sexist grandpa who’s having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that women who show a bit of ankle aren’t harlots.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Cole grumbled, dropping into the chair across from Jake.

“So it doesn’t bother you that she’s a woman?”

“Hell no. I love women.”

“Excellent,” Jake said. “So you won’t have a problem coming to dinner.”

“That was the lamest attempt at a trap ever,” Cole said. “Explain to me why your wife’s deciding to befriend Penelope Pope—which I’m in favor of, by the way—requires me to be present.”

“It’s not a trap,” Jake said irritably.

“Uh-huh. So you’re telling me this isn’t a couples-only party, with Penelope and me being the only single people?”

“Nope,” Jake said without hesitation. “And even if the girls were trying to set Penelope up, rumor has it Riley’s brother is first pick. Except he’s in Milan or Rome or something.”

Cole frowned. “Why was Liam first pick?”

Jake threw up his hands. “Do you want to come to fucking dinner or not?”

Cole considered. On one hand, he enjoyed hanging out with Jake and the rest of the crew. Was he slightly aware that he was the lone single guy in the group? Yes. Did it bother him? Not in the least.

Except…Grace and her friends were always not so subtly trying to set Cole up with women in an attempt to lure him into their coupled lifestyle.

As such, he could smell a setup a mile away. And this was definitely one of them.

“I think I’ll respectfully pass,” Cole said slowly, leaning back in his chair and resting his heels on Jake’s desk. “Penelope’s great, but—”

Jake shrugged as though it didn’t make a difference to him. “No problem. I’ll ask Lincoln.”

Cole’s feet hit the floor. “Hell no.”

“What’s wrong with Lincoln?” Jake asked distractedly, looking at something that had just come through on his computer screen.

“Yeah? What’s wrong with Lincoln?” came a familiar voice from the doorway.

Cole glanced over his shoulder to see the very topic of conversation strolling into Jake’s office. Lincoln sat in the chair next to Cole.

“Wanna come to dinner?” Jake asked Lincoln.

“No,” Cole said, pointing a finger at Jake. “No way.”

“Sure, I love dinner,” Lincoln said, ignoring Cole. “When?”

“You’re not going,” Cole told Lincoln.

Jake frowned. “Well, at least one of you has to come. If I go home and tell Grace I didn’t find her tenth dinner party member, she’s going to be cranky, and when she’s cranky, I don’t get laid.”

“I’ll be there,” Cole said.

Jake lifted an eyebrow. “Changed your mind, did you?”

Cole didn’t rise to the bait.

Jake likely knew full well that Lincoln was the worst possible alternative.

Women seemed to fall in love with Lincoln just for existing. Cole had seen smart, rational women all but offer to have the man’s baby in exchange for a smile.

Not that Lincoln ever fell in love back. In fact, whenever Cole so much as teased him about getting serious, Lincoln got this haunted look like he was torn between puking and punching something.

No way was Cole going to subject Penelope to that. The woman needed a friend, not a broken heart.

“What did I just miss out on?” Lincoln asked Jake. “I sense subtext.”

Jake jerked his chin at Cole. “Dude can’t make up his mind how he feels about Penelope Pope.”

“Ah, the cute brunette who’s gunning for your job.”

“Not my job yet,” Cole grumbled. “Unless you two know something…”

Lincoln held up his hands. “Dude, believe me, I’ve tried. Cassidy’s tight-lipped on this one.”

“Tight-lipped about what?”

Cole didn’t even have to turn around to know that Cassidy was standing in the doorway.

“Is this what you guys do all day?” Cole asked the group. “Just loom around other people’s office doorways and eavesdrop?”

“Why don’t you join the team and find out?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, Cassidy,” Cole said, tilting his head back and looking at his maybe-soon-to-be employer. “Why don’t I join the team and find out?”

Cassidy rolled his eyes, crossing both arms across his chest as he leaned against the doorway. “Yeah, I can see you’d be such a positive influence on my team’s productivity.”

“Glad you’re seeing the light,” Cole replied. “Should I start today? Jake here doesn’t mind sharing his office.”

“I do. I definitely mind,” Jake said.

Cassidy sighed. “I was going to call you tomorrow, Sharpe, but since you’re here—might as well get it over with.”

Cole felt his stomach drop suddenly. Cassidy’s words were hardly the encouraging pep talk of someone about to make a job offer.

He swallowed his bitterness.

He wasn’t going to get the job. They were going to give it to Penelope Pope.

And damn it, she probably deserved it.

But so did he.

And he needed it. He couldn’t let Bobby get kicked out of his home. Sure, his brother could move in with Cole, but they’d tried that, and Bobby had been bored out of his mind while Cole was at work, and Cole had been stressed and irritable, worrying about his brother more than he probably needed to.

Cole glanced at Lincoln and Jake, making a joking finger-slash-across-the-throat gesture. Neither of his friends said anything as he left Jake’s office, but it made him feel slightly better that they looked almost as disappointed by Cassidy’s dire tone as Cole felt.

Cassidy was already heading down the hall to his office, so Cole followed after him, feeling a good deal less jubilant than he usually did in the Oxford offices.

Abruptly he realized that it could be the last time he strolled these hallways.

Of course, there was always the chance that he could continue his current status as contractor, except…

That would be up to Penelope now, wouldn’t it?

Cassidy was already sitting when Cole entered the office, careful to keep his disappointment off his face. Careful not to show how much he cared.

He wasn’t sure why it was so important to uphold his happy-go-lucky reputation, only that the thought of anyone feeling sorry for him grated on his nerves.

“How’s it going?” Cassidy asked, once Cole had settled into the chair across from him.

Cole resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s fine, Cassidy. Can we just rip the Band-Aid off?”

Cassidy’s brows lifted. “What is it you think I’m about to say?”

Cole reached forward and snatched a pen off the desk, just so he had something to do with his hands, then put it back just as quickly.

“You’re giving the job to Penelope Pope.”

Cassidy’s chair spun slightly, his eyes never leaving Cole’s. “She’s damn good. You saw that.”

“Yeah,” Cole said, slowly exhaling a long, tired breath. “She is.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Cassidy said.

“Why, so that I’ll be less bitter about it at dinner parties?” Cole asked, trying to keep the snide out of his tone, and failing.

“I don’t give a damn whether you have PMS at our dinner parties,” Cassidy said. “I’m glad you like—or at least respect—Penelope, because the two of you are going to be spending an awful lot of time together.”

“Dude, it’s just one dinner,” Cole muttered. “How long are you thinking it’s going to last?”

Cassidy leaned forward, both arms braced on the desk. “Okay, let’s cut the bullshit. I’m offering you the job, Sharpe.”

It took several seconds for that to register. And then…

“What the hell, Cassidy. Why’d you just make me listen to how fucking great Penelope was if I got the job?”

Cassidy didn’t even flinch at Cole’s outburst. “Penelope’s being perfect for this job doesn’t make you any less perfect. You belong in this role, Cole. You know you do.”

Cole swallowed, uncomfortable by the unusual praise. He knew that Cassidy liked his work. His contract wouldn’t get renewed every year if he didn’t. But it was nice to hear it, all the same.

Still, Cole sensed he was missing something….

“I’ve been working with corporate all week to get approval for a second head count,” Cassidy said quietly.

Several moments of silence followed as the editor in chief waited for Cole to put the pieces together.

And then it clicked.

“You’re hiring both of us,” Cole said, annoyed that he hadn’t figured it out before now. “That’s why you’ve been up at corporate every day this week. That’s why you haven’t given either one of us an answer.”

“Yes,” Cassidy said. “I’ve decided to split the position. Two sports editors instead of one, and before you jump down my throat, this isn’t about me being indecisive.”

Cole nearly smiled at that. “Trust me. That wasn’t what I was thinking.”

Alex Cassidy was nothing if not decisive. Ruthless when he needed to be.

“You’ll be equals,” Cassidy explained. “Same titles, same authority. There’s more than enough work for both of you. You know what I want to do with this new sports section. It’s huge. We’re talking nearly a fifth of the magazine devoted to sports.”

Cole sat back in his chair, considering. “What happens when we don’t see eye to eye? If one of us doesn’t have final say—”

Cassidy smiled grimly at that. “Then you’ll have to learn how to work it out. Worst case, you bring it to me. I make the call.”

“That sounds terrible,” Cole muttered.

“It’s the offer that’s on the table,” Cassidy said in his usual no-BS voice. “You can take it or leave it.”

Cole blew out a breath. It wasn’t what he’d envisioned. He’d pictured running the show, hiring a team the way he wanted to, designing the pages the way they were in his head…

The thought of having a partner…chafed.

Then his thoughts shifted to Penelope Pope, about the ridiculous amount of sports knowledge practically bursting out of her brain, about the way she radiated true passion for her career.

Then he thought about the jackass from Chicago—the one who’d stolen a job right out from under her nose just because she was a ridiculously good person and hadn’t seen it coming.

“Okay,” Cole said simply. “I’m in.”

Cassidy breathed out in relief. “Somehow I was expecting it to be a bit harder than that to convince you.”

Cole smiled back. “Don’t worry, boss. I’m sure I can think of a whole slew of other ways to make your life miserable. When do we start?”

“Hold up there, cowboy. There’s one tiny little hurdle to get over first.”

“Who gets the bigger office?” Cole asked.

“More like…how the hell are we going to convince Penelope Pope to share the job with you?”

Cole lifted his eyebrows. “You haven’t told her yet?”

Cassidy shook his head. “I was going to call both of you in tomorrow.”

Cole stood and headed toward the door, already planning to drag Lincoln and Jake out for celebratory beers. “Don’t sweat it. She’ll agree.”

“How do you figure?” Cassidy asked.

Cole shot his boss a grin over his shoulder. “Haven’t you heard? We’re BFFs now.”

Chapter 7

“No. No no no no. Why the heck would we want our first sports cover story to be about a womanizing prick?” Penelope said, hands on her hips as she paced around her office.

Cole leaned back in the chair—her chair—looking entirely unperturbed as he ate an apple. “Because this is a men’s magazine. And men don’t care about another man being, quote, ‘a womanizing prick’ when he can consistently hit his driver over three hundred yards.”

“Adam Bailey is a first-rate turd,” Penelope shot back.

“Probably,” Cole agreed, swiveling around in the chair like a restless third grader. “But he’s a damn good golfer, and you know it.”

Penelope grunted in acknowledgment and paused in her pacing long enough to tap her fingernails against her desk.

Her desk. She had a desk.

It was such a simple thing—a simple joy, really, having one’s own office to decorate however one wanted, although she hadn’t quite gotten to that, having been here all of three days.

But it was still her desk. Her office.

The happy grin spread across her face before she could stop it.

“Oh no,” Cole said.

She glanced at him. “What?”

“That smile,” he said, taking another bite of apple. “It’s dangerous.”

“How can a smile possibly be dangerous?”

He shook his head. “You’re so cute and clueless.”

Since he’d commandeered her chair, Penelope didn’t feel all that bad about stealing his Starbucks cup and taking a healthy sip.

“Careful,” he said. “Didn’t you have a wardrobe malfunction the last time you drank coffee?”

“That was only because I was wearing high heels,” she said. “I’m very coordinated in these.”

She lifted up her leg so he could see her black ballet flat.

“Sensible,” he said, barely glancing at it. “But tell me honestly, Pope. How badly do you wish you were wearing a tennis shoe right now?”

She sighed and dropped into her own guest chair. “So badly.”

He smiled knowingly.

“You, on the other hand, seem to have settled into fancy office attire quite nicely,” she said, her eyes skimming over him.

“Tiny.” He laid a hand over his heart. “You noticed!”

Penelope rolled her eyes. It was hard not to notice just how well Cole Sharpe wore a suit. Today’s was dark blue, paired with a lighter blue tie for a monochromatic look that looked, well…mouthwatering.

He’d risen to the role of senior sports editor nicely.

No. Co–senior sports editor.

Penelope had felt the tiniest stab of disappointment when Alex Cassidy had told her that her new responsibilities would be shared.

She’d wanted to get this job on her own—wanted to prove that she could.

But, if you couldn’t beat ’em, join ’em, right? And if there was anyone she wanted to join with, it was Cole Sharpe.

Well…

Not join with.

Not that way.

Penelope’s eyes traveled over his lean torso. Well, okay. Maybe in that way, just a little bit.

But she’d meant what she’d said about the two of them remaining platonic. It was good to get things out in the open. Penelope knew all too well what kind of heartache happened if two members of the opposite sex weren’t on the same page about where they stood.

One thought they were headed toward a relationship…

The other had had a secret girlfriend the whole damn time.

“Uh-oh,” Cole said, watching her. “Now the smile’s gone. What’s going on in that little head?”

Penelope sat forward and needlessly adjusted her stapler. “Nothing.”

He chewed his apple as he watched her. “For the record, I don’t believe you for one second. But since I know firsthand how annoying prying can be, I’m going to let that go.”

Penelope watched as he shot the apple core across the room toward the garbage can. The quick swoosh followed by a clank indicated that he’d nailed it.

“You know there’s a wastebasket right under my desk, right? That was completely unnecessary.”

“Please. Manly displays of prowess are never unnecessary.” Cole sat forward. “Okay, so what do we do about this Adam Bailey thing? We’ve been sharing this job for three days, and already we’re at an impasse.”

She scratched the tip of her nose as she thought it over. “What about Jackson Burke? You can’t tell me that every guy in America doesn’t secretly want to be him.”

“No argument there. The man’s a living legend. But if your beef with Adam Bailey is his track record with women, how is Jackson Burke any better?”

Penelope scowled and crossed her arms. “I don’t believe those rumors about him.”

“Rumors,” Cole said slowly. “You mean like when his wife accused him of having multiple affairs with women she named by name, and then those same women came forward to back up her claims?”

Penelope glanced at her nails. “I think they made it up.”

Cole leaned forward, a knowing smile on his face. “Tiny. Do you have a crush on Jackson Burke?”

Maybe.

The quarterback of the Texas Redhawks had long been one of Penelope’s idols.

Not only because the man was exceptionally skilled on the football field, although he was. But he’d also funded a dozen charities—quietly, out of the spotlight. He’d adopted a handful of dogs rescued from another football player’s heinous dog-fighting hobby. He’d taken his parents out to dinner after every Super Bowl win….

“Tiny?” Cole prompted.

“Jackson Burke is a good man,” she said stubbornly.

“All right, let’s just say that he hasn’t been having affairs with half the women in Texas,” Cole said slowly. “He’s still not a good choice. Nobody cares about football in April.”

He had a point. They’d be better off saving a Jackson feature for football season, when everyone would be wondering if the rumors about his off-season activities affected his game.

“But golf?” she said, skeptical. “I know it’s growing in popularity, but—”

“It’s growing in popularity because of Adam Bailey,” Cole argued. “The man single-handedly revived the sport when he won four tours in a row and then started dating Hollywood actresses.”

“Exactly, and then he single-handedly tarnished the sport when he started dating more than one Hollywood actress at a time,” Penelope argued. “The man’s a playboy. And unlike Burke, Bailey’s all but admitted to it.”

“We don’t care about his bedroom game, we care about the golf game. And his game’s as good as it ever was. Better.”

“But—”

“You know I’m right on this. If we were the Relationships editors, we’d get flak for going with him, but we’re sports editors.”

“We’ll still get flak,” she grumbled.

“Bad publicity is still publicity. You know that.”

Damn it. Damn it. He was right.

It was just…she hated men who saw one woman while leading another on.

Shake it off, Penelope.

She lifted her hands out to her sides and shook them.

Cole smiled. “Penelope. Are you physically shaking it off right now?”

“Don’t judge, it helps,” she said.

He lifted his arms and mimicked her motions so they were both flapping like birds. “You’re right. It does.”

“What are you shaking off?” she asked.

Cole shrugged. “Nothing. I’m flawless.”

There was throat clearing from the doorway and she turned to see Lincoln Mathis watching them with raised eyebrows.

“Oh, hi, Lincoln!” She let her arms drop to her sides.

“Oh, hi, Lincoln!” Cole mimicked in a breathy voice.

She ignored him, mostly because he had a point. She probably had been a little breathless, but it was 100 hundred percent justified.

Yes, Lincoln Mathis was still the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

Dark wavy hair, blue eyes that were both friendly and distant, practically begging a woman to fix him. Same went for the shy yet confident smile, the muscled yet lean body.

Penelope felt a blast of misty water hit her cheek and turned around to see Cole holding a blue squirt bottle. “What are you doing? That’s for misting my plants!”

“You looked hot,” he said with a shrug, setting the bottle aside.

She wiped at her wet face with her sleeve. Forget Lincoln. It was Cole she was going to have to learn to survive.

“What can we help you with, Lincoln?”

The other man strolled into her office, sitting in the chair next to her before tilting his head. “Isn’t something backward here? Or did you switch offices?”

“Nope, you’ve got it about right,” she said. “Sharpe stole my chair.”

“And you let him?”

Penelope shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me where I sit when we argue.”

“Discuss,” Cole said. “We were discussing.”

“Yeah? Who won?” she asked.

“I did. Obviously.”

“Exactly. There’s no winner in a discussion. It was an argument, and I’ll concede this round, but—”

Lincoln held up a hand. “How about you two kids settle this later. I’ve got a crisis on my hands for my section.”

Penelope turned her attention back to Lincoln. “Relationships, right?”

“Ah, sure,” Lincoln said. “We can call it that.”

“Well, what do you call it?” Penelope asked.

He said nothing.

“Come on,” she coaxed, “I’m part of the team.”

Lincoln blew out a breath. “Well, the Table of Contents calls it Sex and Relationships. But around here we mostly call it—”

“Chicks and clits,” Cole said.

“We do not call it that,” Lincoln said, glaring at Cole.

“Sometimes we do,” Cole muttered.

“Anyway, we call it—”

“Hey, how come I didn’t get invited to the party?” Jake Malone strolled into the office without knocking.

“Welcome to my office,” Cole said, spreading his hands wide.

“It’s my office,” Penelope said.

“Well, it should be my office,” Cole said. “It’s bigger.”

Jake leaned down until his mouth was near Penelope’s ear. “Poor guy has to compensate.”

Penelope giggled and Cole shot his friend the finger.

“Guys—and gal—focus,” Lincoln said, snapping his fingers. “Cassidy asked me to do a quick filler story after some boring shit about shoes turned out to be a dud, and I’m stuck.”

“All right, young Lincoln, you may ask us sex gods our opinion,” Jake said.

“Actually, I was looking for Penelope.”

Jake looked crestfallen. “I thought I was your go-to sex advice guy.”

“Uh, I’m his go-to sex advice guy,” Cole said. “Lincoln comes to me when he needs fodder for his stories. You’re an old married fuddy-duddy—”

“Who gets sex every night,” Jake shot back. “Can you say the same?”

Penelope couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Cole. Could he say the same?

Cole narrowed his eyes at Jake, who grinned. “Thought not.”

Penelope smiled, enjoying their easy banter.

This was what she’d wanted when she’d applied for the job. This sort of camaraderie. Granted, she was the only female, but they seemed willing enough to include her.

And God knew they didn’t seem to be holding back on their “guy talk” in her presence. Chicks and clits? Really?

Lincoln was pulling out his notebook. “Okay, Penelope, so my article is on the first kiss of a first date…”

“Kissing?” Cole asked. “That seems tame.”

Lincoln shot him a pointed look. “Have you ever gotten laid without it?”

Cole opened his mouth, then shut it, making a rolling gesture with his hand. “Continue.”

“Okay, so, Ms. Pope,” Lincoln said, putting the tip of his pen to his lip and looking, well, hot. “I’ve always been under the impression that women preferred a good head-holding kiss. You know, our big hands on your little face. Chicks dig it. But, against my better judgment, I decided to do an informal poll of the office, and so far my results are coming up…scattered.”

Silence descended over the room, and Penelope realized that all three men were staring at her. Expectantly.

“Wait, sorry,” Penelope said nervously. “What do you want me to do about this?”

“Weigh in, of course,” Lincoln said. “We men only know what we think we know about women’s preferences.”

Penelope gave a nervous laugh. “Surely I’m not the only woman in the office.”

“No, of course not,” Lincoln said with a small smile. “There are six of you.”

“Six? That’s it? Out of how many employees?”

“A lot,” Jake said.

Penelope licked her lips. “Okay, well…why don’t you ask the other five?”

“I did,” Lincoln said patiently. “But six opinions are better than five, am I right?”

“Of course, it’s just—”

She glanced around the room to see all three of them watching her curiously.

Lincoln’s eyes narrowed slightly although not in a mean way. He leaned forward. “Penelope, darling. You have been kissed?”

“Eh, not appropriate, Mathis,” Jake said, glancing toward the door.

“Shit,” Lincoln said, looking horrified “Shit. Sorry. They make you take these sexual harassment classes, but I’m so used to just saying anything around these guys—”

“No, no, it’s okay!” she rushed to say.

The last thing she wanted to do was establish in her first week that she should be treated differently. “Of course, I’ve been kissed. I’m thirty-one…”

“Really?” Cole interrupted. “Damn, when I first saw you, I thought eighteen.”

“That’s the lack of boobs,” she said unabashedly.

Jake ran a hand over his face with a choked laugh. “Jesus. Maybe we should shut the door before Sandra walks by.”

“Sandra?” Penelope asked as Lincoln stood to shut her office door.

“Sandra Atens,” Cole explained.

“Ah,” Penelope said. “The HR lady who gave me all my paperwork.”

“That’s the one,” Lincoln said. “Look, so, Pen, if you don’t want to answer—”

“No, it’s just…” She started to bite her nail and then remembered that she’d gotten a manicure for her first week on the job and dropped her hands back to her lap. “Eh, it’s been a while. Since the kissing.”

For some reason, Penelope couldn’t bring herself to look at Cole Sharpe when she said it, so she kept her eyes locked on Lincoln, who, God bless him, didn’t look even tempted to laugh.

“Well, what the fuck’s wrong with those Chicago guys, honey?” he asked.

She laughed. “You’re sweet. But I think we know that men aren’t exactly barging down the door to get at all of this.”

She gestured awkwardly over her frame with her hands.

Lincoln looked her over, and Penelope sighed in resignation over what he’d see. She was wearing a skirt today—a slim gray affair, and a pink shirt—pink! But even still, she knew that the effect was hardly femme fatale.

Hell, it was barely feminine.

No matter what she did, no matter what color lipstick, no matter how high the heels, she never quite managed to escape the little-girl-playing-dress-up effect.

“I’m liking what I see,” Lincoln said.

“Oh my God,” someone muttered. Penelope wasn’t sure if it was Cole or Jake.

Still, Lincoln’s voice was more polite than it was enamored or lecherous, so she merely smiled.

Penelope hadn’t been here long, but she’d caught on pretty quick that Cole and Lincoln both had reps as ladies’ men. She could see why. They were both painfully good-looking.

And yet there was something about Lincoln…something about the way he held himself back and treated women with a deferential respect even as he charmed their pants off…

At least, she assumed. Lincoln hadn’t charmed her pants off. He hadn’t tried, really. And she was glad. He was handsome, and yet Lincoln wasn’t the one who sometimes made her heart beat a little too fast.

“How about the last time you were kissed, Tiny?”

Penelope’s head whipped around toward Cole. “What?”

He shrugged. “You said it’s been a while, but surely it hasn’t been so long that you can’t remember how you like to be kissed. So which is it? Do you like when a man holds your head? Your waist? Your back?”

“Cole!” Jake said in exasperation.

“I, um—” Penelope bit her lip, wondering how the hell she could stay relevant in this conversation without betraying the horrible truth that she didn’t really have a favorite, because she’d always found kissing…overrated.

“Okay, that’s it,” Lincoln said, throwing his hands up before tossing his pen and notebook on the desk.

He got to his feet, then gestured for Penelope to do the same.

“Up,” he said.

“What?”

“Stand up.” His voice was calm. Cajoling. “It’s experiment time.”

“No,” Jake said. “No fucking way. This is an office, Lincoln, she’s our colleague. HR or no HR, you can’t just go around kissing her.”

Lincoln frowned. “It’s not a romantic kiss. It’s just like when the guy over in the booze section brings in whiskey to taste-test. We’re experimenting. And she can say no.”

“But—”

“No, it’s okay,” Penelope said, holding out a hand to stop Jake’s objections. “Lincoln’s right. It doesn’t have to be weird.”

What the hell are you doing? This is so not you.

Penelope ignored the voice and stood up.

She was comfortable with who she was—really. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a tiny part of her that was tired of being one of the guys. And that same part of her was doing cartwheels because a handsome man was offering to kiss her—no, more important, he was looking at her as someone who deserved to be kissed.

No way she was going to turn that down, meaningless or not.

“Okay,” Lincoln said moving closer. “This is good. Here’s option one.”

“You can’t be serious,” Cole said, his voice pissed.

Penelope glanced at him, surprised by the sharpness in his tone. His face matched his tone—incredulous and maybe a little…angry?

“Ignore him,” Lincoln said, drawing her attention back to him. “Ready for this, darling?”

“Um—”

Lincoln’s hand closed over her face, then gently but strongly…and wow, okay…she understood what he’d meant by the head hold. It was nice.

Lincoln’s mouth closed over hers, and Penelope’s eyes fluttered closed, as she assessed.

It was also…nice. Not exactly toe-curling but…nice.

He pulled back.

“No?” he asked. “How about this one?”

His hands moved to her shoulders, tugging her forward again. Penelope’s eyes closed once more, wondering if this one would be a bit more, well, exciting, but his lips never touched hers.

Instead, he released her altogether.

She opened her eyes in confusion.

Cole was leaning across her desk, his hand on Lincoln’s shoulder, having clearly just shoved the other man away from her.

“Get it together,” Cole said. “Jake’s right, you can’t just go around macking on female employees.”

“Macking on,” Jake muttered from behind her. “Really?”

“It’s a fucking lawsuit waiting to happen,” Cole growled.

“Uh-huh,” Lincoln said, crossing his arms. “You’ve been an employee less than a month, and you’re worried about Internal Affairs?”

“Fuck no, I’m worried about her,” Cole said, pointing at Penelope.

She couldn’t help it. A laugh bubbled up then, and Cole gave her an incredulous look.

“Sorry,” she said, trying to keep her face straight, and failing. “It’s just…you look a lot like my dad right now.”

Cole’s mouth dropped open just as Jake let out a muffled laugh and Lincoln put a fist in front of his mouth, blue eyes twinkling in amusement.

“Your dad?” Cole said, sounding horrified.

Lincoln glanced at his watch. “Shit. Malone. We’re late for that meeting.”

“What meeting?” Jake asked.

Lincoln gave him a pointed look as he grabbed his notebook and pen. “Fine, you want to stay here and watch this go down, be my guest—”

“Oh, that meeting?” Jake said. “Right. We’re late.”

“Thanks for the kiss,” Penelope called playfully after Lincoln. “I think head-holding is definitely—”

She broke off when she saw Alex Cassidy standing in the doorway. His expression gave away nothing, but there was no way he hadn’t heard her loudly thanking her colleague for a kiss.

Penelope felt a blush rise to her cheek as their boss looked around at the four of them.

“We were, ah, doing some research,” Lincoln said, scooting by Cassidy.

Jake followed Lincoln, holding up his left hand innocently as he did so. “Didn’t touch her. I’m married.”

Cassidy narrowed his eyes at the two men before shifting his attention back to Penelope, then to Cole.

Then he merely rolled his eyes and walked away.

Penelope blew out a sigh of relief as she slumped back into her chair. “Whew. Do you think it’s always like this around here?”

“Don’t sound so hopeful,” Cole muttered grumpily.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same in Lincoln’s position. I see the way you flirt with the receptionist every morning.”

“Flirt with is different than make out with,” he said, hands braced on the desk as he loomed over her.

Penelope rolled her eyes. “It was one five-second kiss. Hardly a makeout session.”

“So you didn’t like it?”

“I didn’t say that.”

His eyebrow lifted in challenge.

“Well, you interrupted,” she huffed. “Maybe if he’d gotten to the other methods of kissing, I would have gotten a little more excited.”

Cole looked at her for several seconds before standing up straight. “I don’t think so.”

“Why, because I’m not capable of passion?” she asked, her voice sounding more defensive than she’d intended.

He was in the process of walking by her, but paused at that.

Cole glanced down, his expression thoughtful.

“Nah, I think you’re plenty capable.” He waited until Penelope met his gaze. “I just don’t think Lincoln’s your guy.”

He winked, then strolled out of her office, good humor apparently restored, closing the door behind him.

The second the door clicked shut, she slumped back in her chair, feeling flustered.

Cole was wrong. There was nothing the matter with Lincoln. That kiss would have been exactly the same coming from anyone else. Say, coming from Cole, for example.

She pushed out of her guest chair and moved around the desk to her actual chair.

Penelope was suddenly desperate to lose herself in work. Desperate to ignore that little voice in the back of her head whispering, Liar.

Chapter 8

Cole wasn’t exactly sure what had made him suggest that he and Penelope show up together at Jake and Grace’s dinner party.

If anything, he should have gone out of his way not to make a thing out of it.

It was bad enough that they’d be some of the only people not coupled-up at the party. And, despite Jake’s claims, Cole wasn’t at all sure that the Stiletto girls weren’t angling for a setup.

Arriving at the same time would only put the wrong idea in everybody’s head. Well, everybody except Penelope.

It was almost insulting how thoroughly he’d been put in the friend zone.

Or at least, he’d be insulted if he weren’t vastly relieved. The last thing he needed was a romantic entanglement with a co-worker.

Which absolutely did not explain why he was currently standing outside her apartment building feeling decidedly excited to see her.

Penelope lived in a mid-rise on the Upper West Side. Well, Upper Upper West Side, given how far north she was. He should know. He lived almost as far north, except on the eastern side of Central Park. The walk over had taken him only ten minutes.

He grimaced as he realized he was already trying to come up with an explanation for why he was stopping by her place first.

Cole knew his friends all too well. No way would they buy his “she was on the way” excuse.

Still, she was on the way, sort of, and here he was.

Cole used the callbox to ring her apartment, smiling as her frazzled voice came out all tinny. “Cole?”

“Yup.”

“Get up here!”

He lifted an eyebrow at the urgency in her tone. A couple minutes later, she opened the door, and he understood.

“Yikes,” he said, looking her over. Penelope was wearing a fuzzy white robe, her hair in a messy bun, her eyes huge and panicked.

“I fell asleep,” she said, jerking him inside. “I meant to take a quick nap and then next thing I knew it was six o’clock…”

“I can wait downstairs,” he said politely.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said, putting both hands on his back and pushing him in the direction of her bedroom. “I need help.”

“Uh—” Cole balked a little. Usually when a woman needed “help” in the bedroom—

“Tell me everything about these people,” she said, running her fingers into her hair as she went to stand in front of her closet. “Are they like old New York, or trendy New York? Like, we talking Fashion Week or Audrey Hepburn, or—”

He stared at her, aghast. “You want me to help you figure out what to wear?”

She turned around, eyes pleading. “I’m terrible at this kind of thing.”

“Tiny, with all due respect, I’m a hell of a lot better at undressing women than dressing them.”

“No doubt,” she said dismissively, looking him over. “But look at you. You look like you should be one of the Oxford models, not a columnist.”

He glanced down at his jeans, white button-down and navy sports jacket, which he didn’t consider exactly male model attire.

She pulled out an ugly yellow dress. “What about this?”

Cole sighed. Wow. She wasn’t kidding. She really was bad at this.

“They’re not going to care about what you’re wearing, Penelope. But, uh…not that.”

She stomped her foot. “Cole!”

He held up his hands. “Okay, okay.”

He went to her closet, rummaging through the hangers. “Seriously, woman, how many different jerseys do you have?”

“About half as many as I do ratty T-shirts,” she said glumly.

“You don’t look ratty at work,” he said, pulling out an Ichiro jersey from his Mariners days. “Is this a child’s size?”

“Yes, they’re all child-size,” she said. “It’s the only thing that fits. But I’m not going to show up dressed like a right fielder, so focus.”

“What about one of the boring outfits you wear to work? Slacks and a button-down, or something?”

“Well, considering you just called said outfits boring…”

He looked at her. “What do you feel most comfortable in?”

“Jeans and a T-shirt, obviously, but sometimes—”

She broke off and he lifted an expectant eyebrow.

“Yes, Tiny?” he cajoled when she looked down at the floor.

“Sometimes I’m in the mood to feel pretty.”

Her voice was quiet when she said it, and damned if his heart didn’t break just a little for her.

He had the strangest urge to pull her toward him. To tell her that she was pretty. Maybe to run his hands up her back, show her one of those kissing techniques that Lincoln had mentioned—

He grunted and pushed the thought aside. The last thing he needed to do was replay that day in the office when he’d felt something suspiciously close to jealousy.

Cole didn’t do jealous.

Certainly not over a woman who’d all but drawn a line in the sand and labeled it platonic.

He returned his attention to her closet, pulling out a bright blue halter top that was sort of silky.

“What about this?”

She eyed it skeptically. “What would I wear it with?”

Cole rolled his eyes, turned back toward the closet, and pulled out a pair of jeans. “Put these on.”

“But—”

Cole pointed a finger at her face. “Get dressed. If you want my help, you have to trust me.”

She glowered at him for several seconds before relenting with a sigh. “Fine.”

Then, to his utter shock, she pulled off her robe and threw it onto the bed.

He whirled around to face away from her, but not before he’d gotten an eyeful of Penelope Pope in a strapless bra and panties.

“Jesus.”

“Oh, stop,” she said. “It’s not like there’s a whole lot going on here.”

He sucked in a breath. His raging hard-on said otherwise.

How the hell had that happened? Usually it took more than an accidental sneak peek of a woman in bra and panties to turn him on.

But no doubt about it. He was turned on.

He tried to block out the sound of her jeans sliding up over her slim hips, tried to block out the urge to pull them back down again.

“All right,” she said a few moments later. “You can turn around. I’m dressed, so no more threats to your virtue.”

He gave a skeptical glance over his shoulder, confirmed that she was clothed, and then turned to face her more fully.

She held her hands out to the side. “Well? Are you overwhelmed?”

He turned back toward her closet, located her shoe rack, and pulled off a pair of standard black high heels.

“Unh-uh,” she said, looking at them like they were a dead rat. “Remember what happened last time I wore high heels? It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

“That’s where I come in handy,” he said. “You can hold my arm.”

“Oh yeah, because that’ll make them more comfortable,” she said. “Plus it’s supposed to snow tonight.”

Cole threw his arms in the air. “Damn it, woman. Wear your sneakers for all I care.”

She pursed her lips. “Nah. Boots.”

“Fine. Can we go now?”

“No! What about makeup? I’ve mastered mascara, mostly, but I could use some help on what eye shadow would look good.”

Cole stared at her, waiting to see if she was joking, then shook his head. “No. Hell no.”

He moved toward the door and she followed him. “But I don’t know—”

Cole pulled her small purse off a hook by the door. “This what you’re bringing?”

“Yes, but—”

He looped the strap unceremoniously over her shoulder. “Get your cellphone or whatever else you need and then we’re out of here.”

She opened her mouth. “But—”

He sighed and took a step forward. Her words broke off as his hands lifted to her head. Very slowly, his fingers pushed into her hair, trying to ignore how silky it felt against his fingers as he sought out the rubber band that held it in place.

Gently, he tugged, sliding the band inch by inch until her dark hair spilled all over her shoulders. All over his hands.

“There,” he said, his voice just slightly rough. “Now you’re ready.”

She was looking up at him, her expression unreadable, and he felt a sudden surge of tenderness for this woman he barely knew and yet somehow knew completely.

Cole cleared his throat and took a step back. “You don’t need makeup to look good, Penelope.”

“That’s what guys always say the second before they give themselves whiplash looking at some gussied-up Victoria’s Secret model,” she grumbled lightly as she pulled on her boots.

“Sure,” he agreed amiably. “But just because we want to sleep with the Victoria’s Secret model doesn’t mean we want to wake up beside her in the morning.”

“Well, that’s very comforting, Sharpe,” she said primly as she locked her door. “But save it for someone who isn’t alone every night and every morning.”

Cole wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he said nothing as they made their way down the hall to her elevator.

Penelope looked thoughtful as she punched the down button. “Hey, did Cassidy or Jake mention if Lincoln would be there tonight?”

He gave her a startled look. “Do you want him to be?”

She didn’t respond as she stepped into the elevator.

Cole followed her a little surprised—and annoyed—by how desperately he wanted her to answer.

Chapter 9

It took all of five minutes of being at the Malones’ gorgeous high-rise apartment for Penelope to realize what was happening: She was hanging out with the beautiful people.

Those people you saw in TV or movies. The ones you watched while wearing sweats and shoving popcorn in your face and thinking that real people couldn’t possibly look like that. And surely people didn’t really throw dinner parties where there’s a color scheme to the table linens and fresh flowers all over the place.

But they did exist, and she was one of them. Sort of.

For tonight anyway.

And Penelope had been only half right about her stress over what to wear.

On one hand, as expected, the women of the group were all perfectly put together. But on the other hand, they were so freaking nice that she was pretty sure she could have worn one of her jerseys and rattiest jeans, and they wouldn’t have even blinked.

“So, Penelope, tell us honestly now,” said Riley McKenna, as the gorgeous brunette hooked her arm through Penelope’s and guided her toward the couch. “How is it working in the testosterone cage?”

It took Penelope a minute to understand what Riley meant. “The Oxford offices? Is that what it’s called?”

“No,” Emma said with a dismissive wave of her hand as she came to join them in the living room. “That’s not a thing, ignore Riley.”

“Yes, but there is a lot of testosterone up there,” Riley argued. “Am I right?”

“Yes, dear, but unless we want them to start calling Stiletto the estrogen cave, I suggest we—”

“Estrogen cave sounds like a name for vagina,” Riley said.

Penelope choked on the white wine she’d been sipping, and Emma gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry about Riley. She forgets that names for genitalia aren’t appropriate dinner party conversation.”

“They are in this group,” Riley said.

Emma ignored her friend and leaned forward with an eager smile for Penelope. “Okay, but do tell us…how is it really working with Cole and Lincoln? Which one’s hotter? I mean, they’re both hot, but which one makes you all panty?”

“Wait!” a feminine voice called out.

Julie Greene grabbed a wine bottle, filled up her glass, and then made a beeline for them. “How dare you talk about the good stuff while I was helping make dinner?”

“You weren’t helping, Jules!” Grace called from the kitchen. “You massacred the bread!”

“Julie can’t cook,” Riley said, patting her friend on the knee.

“I didn’t used to cook,” Julie said, holding up a finger. “But I’ve learned.”

Emma caught Penelope’s eye and shook her head.

Penelope hid a smile into her wine.

“Okay, so back to Cole—” Julie said. “Actually no, don’t answer that. Let’s wait for Grace.”

“Oh, well, there’s really nothing to talk about….” Penelope said.

“Of course there isn’t, sweetie. But let’s discuss it all the same before the men get back, shall we?”

“Honestly, how long does it take to check out a grill when it’s freezing out?” Grace mused.

Jake and Grace’s apartment building was in the process of remodeling the rooftop residents’ lounge, and the second Jake had mentioned grill, all five of the other men had insisted on a tour.

“You know they’re talking about us, just like we’re talking about them, right?” Emma said, as she came to join the rest of them in the living room.

“Maybe,” Grace said doubtfully. “Or they’re talking about steak—”

“Who cares,” Julie interrupted. “I want to hear about Cole.”

Penelope gave a nervous laugh when she realized that all of the women’s attention was riveted on her. “Okay, so please don’t think I’m playing coy, and I really appreciate the invitation tonight, but…Cole and I are just colleagues.”

Riley lifted a skeptical eyebrow.

“And friends,” Penelope rushed to explain. “I like him. A lot. But not like that.”

Julie’s nose scrunched. “But he came here with you tonight, even though we made it perfectly clear that we weren’t trying to make this a couples thing.”

“Lies!” Riley said. “We’re totally trying to make it a couples thing. We just didn’t know Lincoln or Cole, so we brought both. Ooh, maybe they could mud-wrestle over you!”

Penelope laughed a little at Riley’s bald honesty. “I appreciate the sentiment. I do. But if you’re looking to set Cole up with a woman, I think you’ll need someone a little more…”

“A little more what?” Riley demanded.

Penelope blew out a breath. “I’m not his type.”

“Fun fact,” Julie said cheerfully, “Cole doesn’t have a type.”

“Well, he does, sort of,” Grace corrected. “Boobs.”

“See, there you go!” Penelope said, snapping her fingers and then pointing at her chest. “I’m lacking there.”

“Take it from another not-well-endowed gal,” Emma said, “the menfolk find all sizes very interesting.”

“Well, Cole doesn’t find these interesting,” Penelope said. “And I don’t want him to.”

“Well, this is disappointing,” Julie said with a pout. “I could have sworn my matchmaking instincts were dead-on.”

“Rumor has it we should have gone with plan B,” Grace said to her friends, sounding just a tiny bit smug.

“Plan B?” Penelope asked. “You had multiple plans?”

“Multiple men, she means. For you, sweetie,” Julie explained.

“Plan B is Lincoln,” Grace said.

“Mmmm, Lincoln,” Riley said with a dreamy sigh. “You like him, Pen?”

“He kissed her,” Grace said, before Penelope could answer.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Penelope muttered.

But nobody heard her. Riley was too busy pretending to swoon, Julie was fanning herself, and even the ever-cool Emma looked supremely interested.

“How do you know this?” Julie said, slapping at Grace’s knee.

“Jake saw it,” Grace replied. “Lincoln did it right there in Penelope’s office. Something about an article he was working on, and—”

“It seriously wasn’t romantic. Or sexy,” Penelope cut in. “Really. It was playful and—”

“But it was good, wasn’t it?” Riley asked. “I mean, I may be an almost-married woman, but Lincoln Mathis is hot.”

“The kiss was…” Penelope replayed Lincoln’s mouth on hers. “It was nice.”

Silence descended on the room.

“Nice?” Riley said, sounding aghast.

“You know, it was…” Penelope glanced around the room at disappointed faces. “I don’t have much to compare it to.”

She supposed she should be embarrassed by the admission—and she was, a little. But Penelope had never really seen the point of pretending to be something she wasn’t.

And she absolutely wasn’t an experienced femme fatale.

For all she knew, maybe Lincoln’s kisses were as good as it got. It had certainly been more skilled than most of the groping kisses she’d endured in college. And better than Erik’s, a guy whom she’d dated for a few months and who had borderline halitosis.

“Penelope,” Julie said slowly. “I don’t mean to pry—”

“She does,” Emma interrupted.

“Okay fine, I do mean to pry,” Julie continued. “But are you seriously telling me that the best kiss you’ve ever received is merely nice? From a guy you barely know, for the sake of work?”

“Wait!” Grace said, holding up a hand. “Don’t answer that until I fill up your glass!”

Penelope happily obliged as Grace topped off all their glasses. She was more of a beer girl, but hey, it was Friday and a fancy dinner party, and well, she was having fun.

The only time Penelope ever got to indulge in girl talk was with Janie, but her sister wasn’t here….

“I don’t think I’m over the guy I left in Chicago,” she blurted out.

Riley leaned forward. “Was he a bad kisser? Is he why you’re all anti-kissing? Because I’d move to another state if Sam was a bad kisser. Hell, I’d leave the continent.”

Penelope smiled sadly. “No. I mean…I don’t know. We never, um…my feelings were one-sided.”

“Oh, well, honey, if you’ve got feelings for a guy, you have to tell him!” Julie said.

“I planned to,” Penelope said, taking a sip of wine. “I mean, like, I actually had a plan. I made dinner reservations, I bought a dress. It was red….”

Riley whistled. “Red dress, huh? Busting out all the stops.”

“Exactly,” Penelope said. She looked down at her glass.

And then I found out he stole my job and had been shacking up with a flight attendant for the past six months….

To the other women’s credit, nobody pried. They sat there silently, waiting for her to continue, and she knew that if she didn’t say another word, they’d change the subject.

But it was time to tell somebody—it was time to move on.

She went for it. “He took the job that I wanted. I don’t know if he meant to, but he did. But that’s not even the worst part. Before he could tell me any of this, I’d decided to make my move. I got brave. Or stupid. I’m not sure which, but…I kissed him.”

Penelope took a deep breath before continuing. “Needless to say, he didn’t kiss me back. Not when he was waiting to introduce me to his new girlfriend, who saw the whole humiliating thing go down….”

She put a hand over her eyes for just a moment, reliving the moment. “The worst part was, I’d really thought he liked me. That he’d been in love with me too. But now I think maybe he was just keeping me close to use me for the job thing.”

“The bastard,” Julie breathed.

Penelope smiled ruefully. “Exactly. So why can’t I stop thinking about him?”

“The heart needs time to heal,” Emma said quietly.

“Totally. Like seven years, hmm, Em?” Riley asked.

Penelope looked between the two of them. “Seven years?”

Emma hesitated. “Me and Cassidy…we once, eh…I’ll fill you in some other time. Tonight is about you. Where do things stand with you and this guy now?”

Penelope lifted a shoulder. “He texts sometimes. Still wants to be friends, tries to keep things friendly. And maybe someday I’ll want that but I just…I had to get away, you know?”

“New York is your fresh start,” Grace said, after studying Penelope’s face.

“That,” Penelope agreed, “and also maybe a little bit of running away.”

“Which you were right to do,” Julie said, jabbing her finger at Penelope’s knee. “Like Emma said, the wound needs to heal.”

“That’s the idea,” Penelope said with a shrug. “A new city was my first step. The new job was my second.”

“And a new man is the third,” Riley said.

“Well…no, not exactly,” Penelope said with a little frown. “I don’t want to rush into anything.”

“Well, of course not. I’m not saying get your heart all tangled up in things. That sucker needs to patch itself up with some time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t distract yourself from this…what’s the guy’s name?”

“Evan.”

“Okay, no more Evan. Also, no more putting yourself down, acting like you’re not worthy of male attention. You’re freaking adorable.”

“You are,” Julie agreed. “I can think of about a dozen guys who would eat you up.”

“In the nondirty way,” Grace rushed to clarify.

“But the dirty way is the best kind,” Riley said, sounding confused.

“Regardless,” Emma said, “we don’t need a dozen guys to get your mind off this Evan.”

“Nope, just one will do,” Julie said.

“Okay, but I don’t know that Lincoln—”

“No, not Lincoln,” Julie said. “If the kiss was merely nice, he won’t do.”

“Then who—”

The guys chose that moment to barge back into the apartment, and judging from their talk about medium-rare, Grace was dead-on about their discussing steak.

The men froze by the door when they saw the women watching them, and Penelope watched as Riley’s fiancé leaned toward Cassidy and asked out of the corner of his mouth, “Why do I get the feeling we just walked into one of their disastrous plans?”

Cassidy shook his head, but he too looked wary. “I don’t know. But they’ve already got most of us ringed or on the way to the altar.”

“Most of us,” Jake said. “But not all.”

The other four men turned their attention to Cole and Lincoln, who’d both been looking at their phones and missed the whole thing.

They looked up, then looked at each other in confusion.

“Uh, what’d we miss?” Cole asked.

Julie’s husband, Mitchell, clapped Cole on the shoulder. “Don’t even worry about it, man. Chances are you don’t want to know.”

Cole frowned, his eyes moving around the room until they met Penelope’s. He lifted an eyebrow as though to ask Do you know what’s going on here?

Julie leaned toward Penelope with a knowing look on her face.

“Betcha Cole’s kisses are better than nice,” she said quietly.

“I wouldn’t know,” Penelope responded.

“Oh, but you will,” Julie said confidently, as she sat back and sipped her wine. “You will.”

Chapter 10

Cole and Penelope never discussed his walking her home. It just…happened.

It was snowing, but lightly, and Cole was relieved when Penelope looked content to walk through it rather than take a cab the several blocks to her place.

“I love snow,” she said as they trudged along the quiet sidewalks, lifting up her palms and letting the flakes land on her black gloved hands.

“Even in April?”

“Well, yeah, that’s kind of wrong. But still, it’s pretty.”

He smiled. “Sure, it’s pretty now. But will you love it when it’s piled up on the side of the curb, turned black from city grime, and creating a weeklong pile of slush at every crosswalk?”

Cole’d meant the comment as an off-the-cuff observation, but the way she was looking at him made him feel a bit like a grouch who’d declared the dessert table off-limits.

Then she surprised him with an equally gloomy response. “Everything pretty has an ugly underside.”

This time it was Cole’s turn to lift his eyebrows and look at her. “Dark thoughts, Tiny.”

“Oh, I don’t mean it in the depressed, glass-half-empty kind of way,” she explained. “But sometimes it’s better to be prepared, you know? To be aware that for every moment of wonder, another of disappointment is likely to follow.”

Cole considered this.

He was surprised to realize how closely her philosophy aligned with his own.

Cole knew how people saw him. He was aware of his charming, easygoing image. He cultivated it, even. Everyone assumed that nothing got under Cole’s skin because he never showed it getting under his skin.

But part of the reason he was able to maintain the happy-go-lucky vibe more often than not was precisely because of what Penelope was describing. He was always prepared for when the other shoe dropped; and as long as he knew it was coming, he could grin and bear it.

“So what about tonight?” he asked curiously. “You seemed like you were having fun.”

“Yes! So much fun,” she said, sounding so happy that his chest squeezed.

“So what’s the downside of a happy dinner party?” he asked teasingly. “What’s the ugly underside?”

She was quiet, and he was surprised to see that she was really thinking about it.

They walked another half block before she replied. “The dark side will happen later tonight. When I’m almost asleep,” she said quietly. “It won’t quite be jealousy, but…something close to it.”

He supposed he should stop being surprised by Penelope Pope’s unabashed honesty, but she continued to catch him off guard with her openness.

“Jealous of…” he prompted.

“Their happiness,” she said quietly, sounding a little embarrassed. “I get that you’re a dedicated bachelor and all that, but surely it doesn’t escape how in love they are with their respective partners?”

Cole smiled a little. “I’ve noticed. Hell, I knew every last one of them when they were single, and believe me, watching them all find each other has been endlessly entertaining.”

“I bet it was lovely,” she said with a little sigh.

He couldn’t help laughing. “You’re a romantic.”

“I know,” she said, smiling up at him through the increasingly heavy snowfall as they walked. “It’s always baffled my parents. Just when my dad started to get excited about my love of sports, I’d throw him off by crying over a romantic movie. And my mom would be all thrilled when I asked to borrow her Jane Austen books, only to be dismayed when I put them aside to watch a football game.”

“No siblings to take the heat off?”

“A sister,” she said. “Janie’s younger by two years. We’re totally opposite, and yet I think we sort of balance each other. I’m lucky to have her. She’s the most fiercely loyal person I know.”

Cole nodded, and she tilted her head to look up at him. “What about you, any siblings?”

He stiffened the way he always did when someone mentioned his siblings, but then forced his shoulders to relax, remembering that her question was harmless—innocent.

“An older brother,” he said, his voice coming out gruff.

Cole didn’t need another reason to like Penelope Pope, but she gave him one anyway.

She didn’t ask questions. Didn’t look offended that he didn’t elaborate. Instead, she seemed to know that the topic of his brother was not an open one, and she let it go.

But not before she touched his hand, just briefly. It was nothing. Glove to glove, not even any skin contact. There was zero agenda in the touch—no attempt at seduction, no playing coy as though it was an accident.

The touch merely was.

It said, I’m here, but only if you want me to be.

And, oddly enough, he did want her to be. There was something calming about Penelope Pope.

Not because she was particularly quiet or serene. He’d witnessed that just an hour ago during a spontaneous group game of charades in which she’d thrown her whole body into an attempt to get the group to guess cyclone.

No, her calming influence came from her being genuine. Despite her penchant for sports, there was no game playing with this woman.

He liked her. A lot.

Cole let out a laugh as he realized it had been a long time since he’d simply liked a woman, save for the Stiletto ladies, all of whom he counted among his closest friends.

But Julie, Grace, Riley, and Emma were either married or close to it.

Penelope was single.

Although maybe not for long. He’d lost count of the number of times over the course of the evening that one of the women had unsubtly asked if Lincoln was seeing anyone. He also hadn’t missed the way the seating arrangement had put Penelope between him and Lincoln.

As though they were supposed to fight over her, with Lincoln the one everyone was betting on.

But that wasn’t what was really bothering him. The Stiletto women, while meddling, were harmless.

What was bothering him was that his guy friends—the ones who knew him best—also seemed to think that Lincoln was better for Penelope.

They’d all but said as much when they’d been up on the rooftop admiring Jake’s new grill as though their man cards depended on it.

Their comments had been casual and off-the-cuff, but they’d stung all the same.

Sure, you’re both womanizers, but at least Lincoln is equal opportunity with his exes. Cole only likes ol’ leggy blondes, and none-too-bright.

Unless Penelope figures out a way to play for the Yankees, she can’t hold Cole’s interest for more than a week. Nobody does.

And worst of all, though meant as a joke, was Jake’s assertion that Lincoln had the dark secret thing going on, while with Cole, what you see is what you get.

It wasn’t that Cole needed to be all mysterious and alluring, or whatever the fuck Lincoln was. He didn’t want to be seen as the type of man who could be fixed with just the right woman.

But it did bother him that people thought he didn’t care about things. That he didn’t care about people.

Cole cared. He cared deeply. About Bobby. About his friends and co-workers. About the Stiletto women, and maybe…

Maybe he cared about Penelope Pope. Because, although he barely knew her, somehow here he was, walking her home, not out of duty, but because he wanted to.

Because he liked her.

New York was unusually quiet for a Friday night, due to the snowstorm, and Cole was surprised how quickly they made it back to Penelope’s place.

Too quickly, if he was being totally honest. He paused outside her building, ready to bid her a reluctant goodbye, but as usual, the woman surprised him.

She tilted her head back to look at him, the snow swirling around her, flakes soaking her dark hair, landing softly on her small features.

“Want to come up?” she asked.

Cole smiled. “Somehow I don’t think you mean that how it’s usually meant.”

Her nose scrunched. “Meaning?”

He grinned down at her, once again, marveling at the strange sense of tenderness that this woman pulled out of him. “Meaning that usually when a woman asks a man up to her apartment on a Friday night, it’s for sex.”

The word hung between them as she blinked against the swirling snowflakes. “I don’t want to have sex with you, Cole.”

“Because I’m not Lincoln?” he said.

Damn it. He’d meant the question playfully, but it came out…harsh.

Penelope merely laughed, a girlish happy sound. Did nothing bother her?

“I’m a hundred percent positive Lincoln’s not interested in me.”

It wasn’t quite the answer he hoped for. She hadn’t clarified that she wasn’t interested in Lincoln.

“And yet, he kissed you,” Cole pushed.

Her eyes rolled. “You know full well that was for his silly little story. It was hardly because he couldn’t keep his hands off me.”

“The Stiletto girls are trying to set you two up,” he said, unsure why he wasn’t just letting this drop.

“No they’re not.”

He folded his arms and gave her a smug look. “Oh yeah? Then why wouldn’t they quit nudging you and Lincoln together tonight?”

Penelope let out another one of those delighted laughs. “Because they’re trying to set me up with you. Riley said something about igniting your competitive juices.”

Cole stared at her, the pieces slowly falling into place. He’d suspected early on that that had been the plan, but then everyone had started talking about Lincoln, and he figured they’d shifted course.

Apparently not.

Then he laughed, mostly at himself, for not figuring them out sooner. It was so them. His friends could be…crafty. Their hearts were in the right place, always, but he should have known better to take anything they said at face value.

“Yeah. I tried to tell them it was ridiculous,” she said. She smiled again, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

He took a step forward. “Hold up now, Tiny. Did you think I was laughing at you just now?”

“No,” she said quickly. “Just the prospect of us together is so…”

He took another step closer, even as he wondered what the hell he was doing. He shouldn’t play games with her. She was too good for that.

And yet it didn’t feel like a game. It felt…

Well, hell. He had no idea how to explain what was going on here. If anything was going on.

“I was laughing at my own stupidity,” he explained quietly. “I should have known they’d be up to something.”

She smiled slightly, and even through the thickening snowfall he saw that she didn’t believe him.

What the hell had happened to this smiling, lovely woman to convince her that she was undesirable? That the prospect of a guy having any sort of sexual interest in her was laughable?

Sure, she wasn’t overtly sexy. But Cole was beginning to think that had more to do with the fact that Penelope herself never seemed to be thinking about sex, rather than the fact that men didn’t think about sex with her.

Cole definitely wasn’t finding it a stretch to think of Penelope in a not so platonic fashion. Something about her big eyes and petite body and—

Her gloved hands reached out to wrap lightly around his forearms as she went on her toes and kissed his cheek.

Cole wasn’t terribly tall—six feet, give or take—but Penelope was so short that he had to move his head down, just slightly, so that she could reach.

“Thanks for a nice evening, Cole.” Her fingers squeezed lightly as she took a step back, and the gesture was friendly to the point of being sisterly.

Which didn’t explain why Cole found himself, just slightly, stunned by the contact.

She lifted her hand with another of those happy grins and started to turn away, and something in Cole snapped, and he wanted to prove…something.

To her? To himself?

Hell, he didn’t know. Didn’t bother to think. “Hey, Penelope.”

She turned back around. “Yeah?”

His eyes locked on hers. “You never answered Lincoln’s question.”

She looked at him in confusion. “What question?”

“About the type of kiss you prefer.”

Her lips parted slightly, and damned if he wasn’t getting to know this woman, because he spotted the flicker of wariness on her face even as she pushed it away with a smile. “Oh, well…we really only tried the one, you know?”

“Did you like it?”

What the hell, Sharpe? What are you doing?

The snow had eased up, just a few flakes floating around them now. “Um, I guess so?”

Her voice was straight-up nervous now, and if he had any decency, he’d let it drop. Instead he moved toward her again.

“You don’t sound convinced. Head-holding kisses aren’t your thing, then?”

Her laugh was breathy. Nervous. “Well, it wasn’t the most romantic of situations. It was hard to really, um, gauge.”

“Huh,” he said, stopping when there were just a few inches separating them. She didn’t back away from him, but her eyes were cautious, her body language telling him to back off.

He didn’t.

“When was the last time you’ve been decently kissed, Penelope?”

She licked her lips. The gesture was more nervous than it was seductive, but damned if Cole wasn’t seduced all the same.

This was madness.

She was his co-worker. They spent eight to five together, Monday through Friday. Did he really want to go and complicate that?

No. He didn’t.

Especially considering the little pep talk she’d given him a couple weeks ago about how they were going to be friends. Just friends.

Tell her good night. Go home and take a cold shower. Or better yet, go home and call one of the dozen of willing, uncomplicated women in your black book who will know the score.

But then he saw it. Saw that she saw the moment he’d decided to walk away. That she’d been expecting it.

Cole didn’t have a temper, wasn’t prone to bursts of anger. But he was good and pissed. Pissed at whomever had taught her that she didn’t deserve a hot good-night kiss on a New York City sidewalk.

Cole tugged off his glove, then slipped his hand around the back of her neck, his thumb running along her jawline, as he slid his other arm around her back, the bulk of her puffy winter coat doing nothing to disguise how small she was.

“Cole—”

He bent his knees slightly as he used his thumb to hook under her chin, tilting her face up to his. He paused for the briefest of moments—giving her the opportunity to pull away…to protest if she didn’t want this.

She didn’t protest.

He kissed her.

He kissed Penelope Pope in the snow like his life depended on it.

His lips moved against hers insistently, swallowing the sweet breathy noises she made, his arm bringing them even more firmly together.

And when she molded herself against him, her snowy gloved hands coming up to cup his face, Cole forgot all about the reasons they shouldn’t be doing this. Forgot about the fact that this was going to make Monday morning a hell of a lot more complicated.

He thought only of her. Of them. His tongue nudged her lips apart, and she surprised him by slipping her own tongue into his mouth, tangling with his in teasing yet urgent strokes.

For someone who claimed to not have much kissing experience, she sure as hell seemed to know precisely what he liked.

He shifted them even closer, the hand on her neck sliding back so that her head was cradled in the crook of his elbow, as he held her small frame against him and devoured her mouth.

A car door slammed, and Penelope jumped, her hands pushing against his shoulders as she moved away.

It was on the tip of Cole’s tongue to protest the end of the kiss, when he saw the panicked look on her face.

She was freaked out.

Abruptly he released her and stepped back.

Penelope gave a painfully awkward smile to the elderly couple who’d just exited the cab and given them an indulgent look.

Cole was still trying to gather his thoughts—hell, was still waiting for the world to stop spinning—when she closed the distance between them once again, her hand coming up as she jabbed a finger in his face.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

Cole’s mouth dropped open.

Not exactly the response he’d been expecting. Or hoping for.

“Hey, hold on now—” he said.

He reached for her, but she stepped back. “Don’t you dare, Cole Sharpe.”

Her voice was firm and unwavering, but her lips shook, just a little, and his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on here.

Talk about mixed signals. She looked mad and scared and aroused, all at the same time.

“Penelope—”

She shook her head. “No. I told you we weren’t doing this. That day at the Irish bar, remember?”

“Sure, but—”

“I don’t want this, Cole. I don’t want you, not like this.”

Well…hell. What did a man say to that?

He wanted to snap that her kiss had said otherwise. That a woman didn’t kiss the hell out of a man she doesn’t want.

“You’re telling me you didn’t feel anything with that kiss?” he asked, hating what the question revealed—that he’d felt something—but he threw it out there anyway.

She looked away, and his eyes narrowed. “Of course I did. You’re very…skilled.”

He felt a little thrill of victory, and started to reach for her again, but her next words stopped him cold.

“But so was Lincoln. Skilled, I mean. And don’t get me wrong, it’s flattering to have all you gorgeous guys kissing girls like me all willy-nilly, but I don’t— Don’t do it again. Please.”

It was that last word. The please uttered with just the tiniest bit of pleading that had his hands dropping to his sides once more.

“Okay,” he said quietly.

He felt defeated. And rejected. Neither was a familiar sensation, and neither was pleasant.

But what could he do?

He’d been in her shoes dozens of times. It was never easy telling a woman that she wanted more than he had to give.

Somehow he’d never pictured how it would be on the other side, and…

It sucked.

He started to turn away, when she called his name.

Cole turned around, found her watching him with a nervous expression. “We’ll be okay, right? On Monday?”

He forced a grin. “Absolutely, Tiny.”

It wasn’t until he’d put several blocks between the two of them that he let his forced smile slip.

But as he trudged home through the snow, Cole knew one thing for sure. Penelope Pope would never find out just how much that kiss had rocked him.

Or how much that rejection had burned.

Chapter 11

True to Cole’s word, he hadn’t let Monday get awkward.

Nor Tuesday. Or Wednesday…or any of the days that followed. Nearly two weeks had passed, and to say that it was like the kiss had never happened was the ultimate in understatements.

Which was good. Really good.

Or so Penelope had told herself twice a day, every day since it had happened.

“Yo, Tiny—you coming to lunch?” Cole asked, knocking on her doorframe.

Lincoln appeared behind Cole. “Yes, come with.”

She chewed her lip. “I shouldn’t. I brought a sandwich.”

Cole made a thumbs-down motion. “Boo. We’re going to Roadie’s.”

“Onion rings,” Penelope breathed reverently.

Cole lifted an eyebrow in challenge. The man was getting to know her all too well. He understood that her appetite ran more toward battered and fried onions than it did the turkey on whole wheat sandwich that was waiting for her in the fridge.

Then she glanced down at the article she was working on. “I have to finish this before my meeting with Cassidy.”

“Need help?” Cole asked. “I can stay.”

Cole didn’t see the surprised, thoughtful look Lincoln shot him¸ but Penelope did. Lincoln shifted his gaze to hers, wiggling his eyebrows, and she gave him a Knock it off look.

“No, I’m good,” she told Cole, not wanting Lincoln to get the wrong idea. Or heck, not wanting Cole to get the wrong idea.

Although she doubted she needed to worry about that. Any vibes she’d gotten the night of The Kiss that he’d seen her as a woman rather than a colleague hadn’t made even the briefest reappearance.

Cole shrugged and he and Lincoln headed off to lunch.

Penelope returned to her computer. She tried to lose herself in the world of golf stats, but golf was one sport Penelope had never been able to get particularly excited about, and she found herself pulling up Facebook instead.

A mistake.

“Oh God,” she breathed as she looked closer at the screen.

Without tearing her eyes away from the screen she reached for her cellphone. Two rings later her sister picked up.

“I’ll never forgive you for helping Mom get on Facebook,” Penelope said by way of greeting.

Janie groaned. “What now?”

“Let’s just say she’s interpreted Throwback Thursday as ‘opportunity to show my daughters naked,’ ” Penelope said.

“Again? How many naked pictures does she have?”

“Lots, apparently,” Penelope said. “Today’s feature is of you running around in a diaper with ketchup smeared all over your face, and she caught me in the process of whipping my sunflower dress over my head.”

“You know, you always did have a naked thing—”

“I do not have a naked thing,” Penelope said.

Although, with as many pictures as her mother had of her tearing her clothes off, her sister might be onto something.

“Did you see her post last night about Dad’s bunion?” Janie asked. “It got a hundred and four likes. I didn’t get that many likes when I announced my engagement.”

“It’s not right,” Penelope muttered, as she scanned the highly amused comments on her mother’s post. “We should change her password.”

“Eh, at least it keeps her busy,” Janie said dismissively. “Now she only calls me once a day instead of five. You?”

“I’m still on the thrice-a-day schedule, but I’m hoping that’ll die down once she understands I’m not at constant risk of being mugged.”

Penelope’s phone beeped, and she pulled it back to look at the incoming call.

She smiled. Of course it would be her mother.

She went back to Janie. “Mom’s calling. Don’t even try to tell me that she doesn’t have us bugged to know when we’re talking about her. I know she does.”

“Have fun with that,” Janie said in a singsong voice. “Also, next time you call me, it better be to discuss your adult naked time—”

Penelope switched over from Janie to her mother before her sister could finish.

“Hey Mom.”

“Penny! Hi, honey!”

Penelope smiled. Lydia Pope was of one of those chronically happy people whose face was never without a smile, and whose voice was never without an exclamation point.

“How are you, sweetie? Anything new happening?”

“Since yesterday?” Penelope asked, taking a sip from her water bottle. “Not really.”

Her mom made a soft scolding noise. “How often do I have to tell you that life happens in moments, honey. Anything could have happened since we last spoke!”

“Sure, but you have to admit, the chances of my meeting the love of my life or getting pregnant since we last talked yesterday afternoon are slim.”

“Only because you moved to New York,” her mom said. “Had you stayed in Chicago, I’m confident your father and I might have found a nice boy for you.”

Penelope rolled her eyes. “Yes, because that’s every thirtysomething woman’s dream. To be set up by her parents.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll admit that we don’t have much in terms of the under-sixty connections. But, oh! I didn’t tell you who I ran into last night!”

“Who?” Penelope asked, even though her mother was going to tell her with or without her participation in the conversation.

“Evan!”

Penelope froze with the water bottle halfway to her lips.

“You know…Evan Barton? Barter?” her mother said.

“Barstow,” Penelope said casually—as though mention of his name didn’t have her feeling slightly sweaty. “Where’d you see him?”

“Oh, your father dragged me to Wrigley Field last night. I was bored out of my mind, as always, but then, lo and behold, guess who was sitting right in front of us! I can’t believe he recognized me. We only met him that one time you brought him to our Memorial Day BBQ….”

Penelope squeezed her eyes shut, wishing there was a way to change the subject without her mother catching on to the fact that Penelope’s chest hurt a little at the mention of Evan. At the memory of how she had so foolishly thought there was something between them…

“Anyway, he asked about you.”

“Did he,” she murmured.

Of course Evan would ask about her. He was nothing if not polite. Fake and manipulative, but polite.

“Said he might be coming out to New York soon for work. Said he was going to look you up.”

Penelope blew out a breath. She knew that tone—her mother was matchmaking.

“He has a girlfriend, Mom.”

“Not last night he didn’t,” his mother said smugly. “He was at the game with a short, portly fellow.”

Penelope would bet serious money that the short, portly fellow was Caleb Mulroney, one of the guys who’d interviewed Penelope for the job Evan had swiped out from under her nose.

Although, surprisingly, that memory didn’t sting as sharply as it usually did. She’d wanted that job with Sportiva, certainly. Had she gotten it, she was sure she’d be loving it. She’d be going to Cubs games with the friendly, likable Caleb.

But maybe it had worked out for the better. She was loving New York. Loving Oxford. Loving the friends she was making, thanks to Cole bringing her into his group of friends.

And then there was Cole himself…

But Penelope wasn’t ready to talk about Cole. Not to her prying mother or her mischievous sister. If anyone was capable of taking a simple kiss and turning it into wedding planning, it was her family.

Instead she changed the subject to another of her mother’s favorites: Facebook.

By the end of the phone call, she had her mother’s promise that she wouldn’t post any naked pictures of Penelope in which she was over the age of eight.

Hanging up with her mother, Penelope forced her attention back to golf stats.

Despite her lukewarm feelings on the thought, she supposed its rise in popularity was refreshing.

There was something very human about a sport that anyone could pick up, at any age. Baseball fans were limited to amateur softball leagues, basketball fans to picking up a random game after work at the gym. Football? Definitely not a layman’s sport.

But golf was a level playing field. Kids. Women. Retirees. Anyone could play.

And thanks to guys like Adam Bailey, it was now every bit as cool as it was approachable.

Penelope still thought the man was a slimebucket, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t slightly giddy about getting to meet him at the photo shoot next week. For some reason, when she’d decided to pursue the Oxford job, the potential perk of getting to meet professional athletes in person hadn’t occurred to her.

It was just one of the many perks about the job she hadn’t seen coming. The other unexpected perk?

She enjoyed working with a partner.

Working with Cole was…

Well, it was right. She didn’t know how else to put it.

It was early in their partnership, true, but other than the occasional squabble, they seemed to see eye to eye on most everything.

He challenged her when she got too attached to a pet project, and he was always open to her challenging him. Which she did. Often.

Penelope’s stomach did one of those grinding, growling things, and a glance at the clock showed her why.

It was nearly one-thirty. Way past lunchtime.

She pushed her chair back and stood, trying to muster enthusiasm for the turkey sandwich that awaited her, when Cole came strolling in the door.

“Looking for this?” he asked, holding up a brown paper lunch sack.

“Oh! Yeah, I was, actually,” she said, smiling in thanks as he set the bag in front of her on the desk.

He tapped the front of the bag where she’d written her name, first and last, in black marker.

“Really?” he asked.

“What?”

“This is so third grade.”

“Well, how else am I going to know it’s mine?”

“Maybe because nobody else literally brown-bags their lunch?”

“Oh,” she said, feeling a little foolish.

“Don’t fret,” he said. “It’s cute.”

Before she could register what that meant, he dropped something else on her desk. A white Styrofoam box.

She looked up in question, but he merely lifted his eyebrows.

Opening it, she breathed a sigh of delight when she saw the onion rings. “You brought me leftovers.”

“Nope,” he said, plopping in her chair and putting his shoes up on the desk as he made himself comfortable. “Ordered them special, with instructions not to cook them until we were paying our bill so they’d still be hot.”

Penelope paused in chewing the greasy, oniony goodness and looked at him in surprise, but he was busy typing something on his phone and didn’t notice her curious glance.

She chewed thoughtfully as she studied him, wondering, not for the first time, if there were depths to Cole Sharpe that he kept carefully hidden from the world.

Sure, it was common knowledge that he was nice. Friendly. Charming.

But did people see beneath that to the kindness?

“Quit looking at me like that, Tiny,” he said, not glancing up from his phone.

“Like what?”

“Like I just threw myself in front of a truck to save a toddler. They’re onion rings, not flowers.”

“I don’t like flowers.”

He glanced up at that. “What do you mean, you don’t like flowers?”

She shrugged and dunked another onion ring into the spicy mayo that came in a little side container. “I mean, I like flowers. But I don’t like to receive them.”

Not that she’d been on the receiving end of a lot of flowers.

“What do you have against a bunch of nice roses?”

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re beautiful,” she said, polishing off the onion ring and looking in dismay at her now completely greasy fingers.

Cole shifted his weight and reached into his pocket, pulling out a bunch of napkins.

It was her turn to lift her eyebrows, and he just shrugged. “Figured you’d need them. But back to the flowers thing—how can you both think they’re beautiful and not like them?”

“I don’t like that they’re cut,” she explained, wiping her fingers on a napkin. “I like flowers in their natural habitat. They belong in nature, not hacked up and sentenced to die in a vase somewhere.”

“Huh,” he said, looking at her. His feet came down off her desk, landing softly on the carpet of her office as he leaned forward. “Well, then, tell me, Tiny, how do you expect a guy to woo you if you don’t get all gushy over overpriced long-stem roses?”

“I don’t,” she said.

“What do you mean, you don’t?”

“I don’t expect to be wooed,” she said, picking up another onion ring, getting her fingers greasy all over again. “Don’t want it, really.”

“Every woman wants to be wooed.”

“Nope.”

He leaned back and tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair as he watched her eat. She supposed she should feel embarrassed about the speed with which she was finishing off the deep-fried goodness, but…nope.

“You know what I think?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you think, but I do know that I don’t want to hear it,” she replied.

He told her anyway. “I think that despite all your I’m just a simple girl next door charm, you’ve got walls.”

“Oh boy,” she said, dunking another ring in the sauce. “This should be good.”

He leaned forward again, smiling evilly. “I think that you pretend you don’t want to be wooed, because no one’s made the effort, and deep down, you’re terrified that nobody ever will.”

Penelope ignored the truth of his words and rolled her eyes. “This is good stuff, Cole. Do you accept credit cards, or should I write you a check?”

He ignored her dismissal. “I’ll drop it if you answer one question for me.”

“Fine,” she said with sigh.

His eyes locked on hers. “When was the last time you got flowers?”

“Two weeks ago,” she said, happy to have a ready answer.

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “Who were they from?”

She licked her thumb. “A friend.”

“And the occasion?” he asked.

She hesitated, wishing she could tell him they were of the romantic variety. But she was a terrible liar. “They were congratulatory for the new job.”

“Mm-hmm,” he said. “And which friend were they from?”

“You said one question,” she said primly. “This is turning into an inquisition.”

“Fair enough. I’ll rephrase my original question,” he said, as though this were a fair compromise. “When was the last time you got flowers from a man?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Her voice was defensive, and he knew it. “Aha, so these last flowers were not from a man.”

“My sister, Janie, sent them,” she admitted somewhat reluctantly. “But her husband’s name was on the card too. And he’s a man.”

Cole shook his head and looked disappointed. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?” she asked, even as she told herself not to play into his little game of goading.

“You’re so prickly that men are too scared to try.”

“Prickly!” Penelope said, outraged. “I am not prickly.”

“Not personality-wise,” he said, his voice reassuring, as though talking to a skittish horse. “But romance-wise…you’re prickly.”

Penelope crossed her arms on the desk and leaned toward him. “Is this because I told you not to kiss me again?”

He crossed his own arms, mimicking her posture. “Definitely not. You’ll be relieved to know I’ve found my way to women who actually want to kiss me.”

Penelope tried to ignore a stab of jealousy. Of course he’d found women more willing. That had been her entire point in putting up these boundaries between them.

The reason she had insisted things not become romantic.

For Cole Sharpe, Penelope would have been one out of a million other women in his life.

For Penelope, Cole might have been one in a million. The only one. It’s how she rolled, throwing herself all the way over the ledge without looking.

No way was she setting herself up for that kind of pain again.

“Are you going somewhere with this?” she asked wearily.

“I am,” he said with a wide smile. “I’ve decided to make you my pet project.”

She groaned. “No way. Pass.”

“Come on. A woman who hates flowers? That’s just wrong.”

“Plenty of women don’t get off on flowers,” she said testily.

“Fair enough,” he said, standing. “You’re more the box-of-chocolates type. I can work with that. My point is, I’m going to show you that a little romance can be nice—fun. Casual.”

No doubt it could.

For him.

“Actually, I’m not really much of a chocolate fan either,” she admitted, picking up an onion ring. “Not much of a sweet tooth.”

“Well, what would make you swoon, Pope?” he asked, pausing in the doorway. “There’s got to be some shortcut to your heart.”

Without realizing she was doing it, Penelope glanced at the onion ring in her hand. Thought about the way he’d ordered them separately rather than just throwing some leftovers in a box. Thought about the way he’d tried to time it so they were as hot and nonsoggy as possible.

Lord help her.

Onion rings for Penelope were what roses and chocolate truffles were to other women.

And when she glanced up and caught Cole’s cocky departing wink, she saw that he knew it.

He’d known it all along.

Chapter 12

If anyone asked, Cole would swear up and down that meeting professional athletes had become old hat.

That he was so accustomed to meeting his sports heroes that he barely batted an eye when he got to shake hands with someone most people would only ever see on a TV screen.

But the truth was, it never got old.

He’d never grown out of the giddy shock of how awesome his job was.

Today was no exception.

Adam Bailey wasn’t Cole’s favorite athlete. Nor was golf his favorite sport. Still, the man was well on his way to becoming a legend, and the sports fanatic in Cole couldn’t help but feel a little starstruck.

Still, at least he was holding it together.

It was more than he could say for his co-editor.

Cole shook his head as he watched Penelope giggle like a schoolgirl over whatever it was the golf pro was telling her.

For all her protesting about Adam Bailey’s being a womanizing pig, or whatever, she looked pretty damn willing to be one of his women.

Cole studied her. She was wearing her usual clothes. Dark flats, dark pants, button-down shirt.

Cole wasn’t exactly a woman’s fashion expert, but he dated often enough to know that her attire, while perfectly respectable, wasn’t particularly stylish. His eyes narrowed slightly. But was she wearing…makeup?

He didn’t think it was his imagination that her lips had more color than usual. Her big eyes stood out even more than they usually did. What the hell?

Surely she hadn’t done that for Bailey. She’d spent all of yesterday reminding Cole the ways in which the golfer was the human equivalent of scabies.

His eyes narrowed as she laughed again, even louder this time, and then hit Adam playfully on the shoulder in the most awkwardly obvious flirting move of all time.

“Sharpe.”

Cole finally registered someone trying to get his attention, and pulled his eyes away from Penelope to find his boss standing beside him. From the irritated look on Cassidy’s face, it wasn’t the first time his boss had said his name.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Cassidy lifted an eyebrow and shifted his gaze toward Penelope and Adam. “Problem?”

“Why would there be a problem?”

“You were glaring,” Cassidy said.

“Yeah, well. The guy’s a dick,” Cole said, grabbing a water bottle from the buffet table and twisting off the cap.

“Well, really glad he’s on our cover, then,” Cassidy said drily. “Which, as I remember, was your idea.”

Cole took a drink of water and continued to glare at the golfer.

Cassidy looked like he wanted to smile. “You want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what? Adam Bailey?”

Cassidy lifted a knowing eyebrow, and Cole shook his head. “Dude. Just because you and Jake decided to overlap your professional and personal lives doesn’t mean the rest of us have any intention of following in your footsteps.”

“Absolutely,” Cassidy said with a quick nod. “Better that way. Plus, Jake and I aren’t dating co-workers—not technically. Just women who happen to work in the same building.”

Cole said nothing.

“Sharpe.”

“Yeah?”

Cassidy’s gaze was shrewd. “Penelope’s damn good for Oxford.”

“Agreed,” Cole said slowly.

“I’d hate if she decided it didn’t work out.”

Cole didn’t play dumb. He knew what his boss was getting at. “I’m not going to mess with her.”

Cassidy nodded. “Good.”

“If you’re so anti me and Penelope together, why did you okay both of us coming to the same dinner party?” Cole asked, hoping Cassidy wouldn’t notice the irritated note in his tone.

Cassidy blew out a breath. “Emma can be…persuasive. Still, she doesn’t have to deal with the two of you on a daily basis if there’s a messy fallout,” Cassidy said.

“Nothing to worry about,” Cole said. “We’re just friends.”

“I’ve heard that one before,” Cassidy muttered before walking away to talk to Adam Bailey’s agent.

Cole snuck another look at Penelope, who gave a nerdy wave to the golfer as the photographer’s assistant led him away.

She glanced over at Cole, and he was slightly mollified when her smile bloomed wider as she met his eyes.

Penelope headed his way, and when she got closer, he realized he was spot-on about the makeup.

“This is new,” he said, letting his eyes roam over her features.

She sighed. “I know. Do I look like a clown?”

Cole grimaced. There was no easy way to answer this. It was just like the old Does this make me look fat? trap.

You say no, they assume you’re just saying what they want to hear, and start lecturing you about the importance of honesty.

You say yes, you’re a dead man.

“Uh—”

“The makeup girl did it,” she said, touching her fingers to her pinker-than-usual cheek. He wasn’t sure if it was from blush, or from embarrassment, and in case it was the latter, he nudged her shoulder with his, even though he had to stoop to do so.

“Hey. It looks good.”

It was the right thing to say.

She smiled up at him, and he had an odd sense of triumph that he’d been able to sneak beneath her walls, at least for a moment. And Cole was damn sure he was right about her having walls.

The over-the-top friendliness, however genuine, was also deliberate. It was her way of ensuring that guys knew to keep her in the friend zone.

“So, Adam asked if I wanted to grab a drink after this,” Penelope said, biting her lip.

His head whipped around. What the…

Maybe he was wrong about the friend-zone thing, because apparently Adam Bailey hadn’t gotten the Let’s just be friends pep talk.

“Yeah?” Cole asked, keeping his voice casual. “What’d you say?”

“I said maybe,” she said, chewing her lip as they both looked over to where Adam was expertly posing for the cameras as though he’d done it a million times. Because he had.

“I thought you said he was a pig.”

She lifted a shoulder. “I’m not going to marry the guy. And you’re the one who said I should let myself be wooed.”

“Not by him!” Cole said.

His voice was louder than he’d intended, and several people turned to stare.

He forced a smile before lowering his voice. “You know what? I think you should go on a date with him.”

“It’s not a date, just a drink,” she said.

Cole shook his head.

Clueless. So adorably clueless.

“It’s a date,” he said.

“It’s not,” she said emphatically. “In fact…you should come!”

Yeah. Because that’s just how he wanted to spend a Thursday night. Watching a playboy pro athlete put the moves on the one woman who’d rejected him.

“Can’t,” he said.

“Plans?” she asked.

It was the distracted, uninterested note in her voice, as though she didn’t care one way or another, that brought the lie to the tip of his tongue. “Yup. Got a date of my own.”

That got her attention.

She snapped her head around, and he didn’t think he imagined the slight delay in her usual smile.

“Oh! Well, have fun,” she said.

“I will. And you have fun with Adam.” He wiggled his eyebrows just to mess with her and she narrowed her eyes.

“I told you, it’s not a date. I have absolutely zero intention of becoming one of Adam Bailey’s women.”

“Uh-huh.”

He walked away then, not wanting her to pick up on his bad mood, and Penelope’s voice followed him.

“Hey, where are you going? The shoot’s not over yet.”

He turned around and walked backward as he answered. “Gotta go call my date. Confirm where we’re meeting.”

Once outside the studio where the shoot was taking place, Cole pulled out his phone.

Only not to call a woman.

Lincoln picked up on the first ring. “Yo.”

“Need help.”

“Name it.”

“I need a last-minute date.”

Lincoln paused. “And you’re telling me this because…”

Cole rolled his eyes. “Come on. I know you’ve got like a dozen rejects you can set me up with.”

“I may have plenty of women on speed dial,” Lincoln said slowly. “But I don’t want you messing with them.”

There it was again—that implication that Cole was a callow user of women.

“This from the guy who’s never had a relationship in…ever?” Cole shot back.

Lincoln was quiet for several moments. “When you say last-minute, how last-minute we talking about?”

“Tonight. Come on, Mathis, I’m not looking for my soulmate, just a woman who wouldn’t mind grabbing drinks with a good-looking guy.”

“I refuse to vouch for the good-looking part,” his friend said. “But I know a few girls who don’t mind letting a guy buy them a drink. No expectations of hearts and flowers and the like.”

The mention of hearts and flowers reminded him of his conversation with Penelope, and it was on the tip of his tongue to ask if Lincoln knew of any women who preferred onion rings to chocolate.

Shit. This had to stop.

Penelope Pope was…hell, he didn’t want her. Didn’t want to date her.

Which was good. Because she didn’t want him either. She could not have been more clear about that. I don’t want this, Cole. I don’t want you, not like this.

“Sure, call one of them,” Cole told Lincoln. “Or text me a number and I’ll make the call.”

“You got it,” Lincoln said. “But dude, you sound weird. What’s going on?”

Cole hung up the phone without responding.

No point in responding to a question you didn’t have the answer to.

Chapter 13

Penelope and Cole had been co-editors for nearly two months now, and Penelope thought she’d done a darn good job not thinking about that kiss in the snow.

She’d done a good job not reading too much into the fact that Cole brought her onion rings just because he knew that she liked them. She’d done a good job of not reading into it when he asked her out to Friday happy hour most weeks.

It was self-preservation, really. Penelope had made the mistake once of reading too much into a man’s friendliness, and she was determined not to make the same mistake with Cole.

They worked well together—no surprise there, but more than that, they respected each other. Were comfortable with each other.

Liked each other.

And if every so often Penelope found herself wishing she could go back in time and do things just a little bit differently the night of that kiss, she reminded herself that the way they were now was better.

Safer.

And then…

And then she walked in on Cole and another woman.

“Oh!” Penelope skidded to a halt in the doorway of his office. “Oh!”

Cole had a curvy blonde pinned against his desk, one hand on either side of the woman’s ample hips as they kissed.

Penelope flashed back to the time Evan had told her he was seeing someone.

It hurt. It shouldn’t. But it did.

Cole acknowledged the interruption before his lady friend did, and he lazily pulled his mouth away from the blonde’s before his eyes met Penelope’s across the office.

“Hey, Tiny.”

The man didn’t look the least bit embarrassed, but Penelope was mortified.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice coming out all croaky and awkward. “The door was shut, and I should have knocked, it’s just…”

It’s just that they never knocked.

He came into her office whenever he damn well felt like it, and vice versa.

A policy she’d be remedying stat.

The blonde had turned around to see the interruption for herself, and Penelope was unsurprised to see that the other woman was pretty—very pretty.

Of course she was.

“Sorry,” Penelope mouthed, even as she was closing the door.

“Hold up,” Cole said, pushing back from his desk. “What did you want to see me about?”

Penelope forced a smile and held up the paper in her hands. “First proofs came in for the Adam Bailey article. I’m thinking we want to revisit which shots we picked. They looked fine on their own, but on the page—you know? Never mind. It can wait.”

Wait until you’re done playing tonsil hockey.

“I was just leaving,” the blonde said, smoothing a hand over her silky pink dress. “I’m Meredith, by the way.”

“Penelope,” she said, feeling horribly out of place.

Penelope snuck a glance at Cole to make sure he wasn’t bothered by the interruption, but he seemed completely indifferent to her presence as he swiped a thumb over his mouth, probably to remove Meredith’s lipstick.

“See you, baby,” Meredith said, leaning forward to brush her lips against Cole’s cheek.

Penelope noted with no small amount of envy that the woman didn’t have to go up on her toes to reach Cole’s face. The combination of her height and heels put cheek—and mouth—within easy kissing distance.

Everything about the other woman made Penelope feel like a child. The height. The curves. The clothes. The confidence.

Meredith grabbed her purse by the door and Penelope all but scampered out of the way as the woman gave her a friendly smile and sailed out of the office in a whoosh of some spicy, exotic perfume.

Penelope started to follow her, but Cole’s voice stopped her. “Yo. Pope. Get in here. Show me what you’ve got.”

She swallowed and approached the desk as he sat in his chair.

So he wanted to play it cool? Fine. She could do that.

“New girlfriend?” she asked, proud that her voice didn’t betray her embarrassment. Or jealousy.

No, not jealousy.

Annoyance.

No, that wasn’t right either.

Agony. That was closer.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said, plucking the folder out of her hands and flipping through the proofs. “You’re right. These photos don’t work side by side. They’re too busy.”

“You could have put a sock on the door or something.”

He glanced up in confusion. “What?”

She pointed to the door. “Next time you’re going to have sex in your office, give me some sort of warning.”

He lifted his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair. “One kiss hardly equates to having sex.”

“Well, it was quite the kiss.” Who was this snotty, peevish woman running her mouth?

He lifted his eyebrows. “Everything okay? You sound—”

“Don’t say it,” she snapped.

“Say what?”

“Don’t say that I sound jealous.”

“Were you?”

“Why would I be jealous?”

He flung his hands out in exasperation. “You tell me.”

Penelope leaned forward and snatched the folder off the desk, before turning on her heel and marching out of the office.

“Where the hell are you going?” he called after her.

Penelope didn’t stop. Didn’t want to have a conversation until she’d sorted out her thoughts.

And to think, just a couple weeks earlier she’d turned down Adam Bailey’s invitation to go back to his hotel room because she’d been thinking about Cole.

She should have taken up the slutty golf pro on his invitation, she thought, as she slammed her office door shut behind her. She should have—

The door opened again as Cole entered her office uninvited, then slammed it once again behind him.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, the single word managing to sound huffy.

“Look, I’m sorry you had to see that, but—”

“It was hardly appropriate, Cole.”

“The only thing inappropriate is Meredith. The woman is up here every other week. Thinks that Oxford is her personal hunting ground for her next flavor of the week. Lincoln’s rejected her one too many times, so she’s moved on to me.”

Penelope pointed an accusing finger at him. “You didn’t seem to mind.

“I don’t want Meredith,” he said quietly, “but Tiny, you can’t go around telling me you hate my kisses and then get mad when I try to give them to someone else—”

“I never said I hated that kiss,” she interrupted.

He broke off, and then his smile was slow and sexy.

Too late, she realized she’d walked into the trap of a very, very skilled seducer.

“Is that so?” he said, in a low, sexy voice.

She rolled her eyes and tried to play it off. “I just meant, it didn’t suck.”

“But you didn’t want me to do it again,” he said, moving toward her.

“I—I didn’t think it was a good idea,” she said, backing up.

He continued moving toward her and Penelope’s butt hit the desk; she was completely out of room to back away.

Cole paused when there were just inches between them.

“That’s not an answer. Do you want me to do it again? Have you been thinking about me? Kissing you? Touching you?”

She could feel his breath on her face as she glanced down to avoid eye contact.

A mistake, because her eyes latched onto his arm.

No suit jacket today, and he’d rolled his dress shirt up to his elbows, exposing forearms covered in crinkly, gorgeous arm hair.

Gorgeous arm hair?

Oh, man. She was in trouble. Serious trouble.

She tried to move to the side, but his hands came up, caging her against the desk.

The posture was an almost exact replica of the scene she’d walked in on just minutes earlier, and it was exactly the reminder she needed that Cole didn’t want her.

He wanted conquests.

Penelope folded her arms across her chest and forced herself to meet his eyes. “Go call Meredith back if you want to get frisky on a desk,” she snapped. “I’m not interested.”

“Aren’t you?” he said, his eyes on her mouth.

“I just said I wasn’t.”

“So you don’t want my lips on yours? You’re sure?”

Penelope hesitated. It was just for a second, but she saw from the flare of triumph in his eyes that he’d noticed the pause.

“Leave me alone, Cole.”

His palms were so close that with just the slightest movement of his thumbs, he would have brushed the outside of her hips.

Hips that were tiny and boyish instead of lush and curvy. If she leaned forward, her chest would brush his, but it was a chest that was flat and barely filled out a bra.

And still, she wanted…She desperately wanted.

“Penelope.”

His voice was gentle now. More concerned than seductive.

“What?” she said, her own voice low. Defeated. Maybe a little sad.

“You really don’t want me to kiss you? I’m not going to force myself on a woman, so if you tell me to go, I’ll go. You want me to release you, I’ll release you. But I’ve gotta tell you, babe, the way you’re looking at me…”

She felt a spike of anger. “You were just kissing another woman.”

“Actually, she was kissing me.”

“And I’m sure you were just standing there, not enjoying it.”

“I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to get into it or not,” he said.

She made a disgusted noise, shoved at his shoulders. “You’re disgusting.”

He held fast, refusing to move. “The thing is, Tiny…When it comes to you, I don’t have to decide. I don’t have to stop and think about if I want to kiss you. I know. I know every damn day when I see you put on mascara in the reflection of your computer monitor because you forgot to do it at home. I know when we go get coffee together and you can recite every single thing that happened on ESPN the night before. I know when I share my French fries with you at lunch and you eat all of them. I know—”

Penelope placed her lips against his.

She didn’t mean to. Really she didn’t. She didn’t remember making the decision to move.

But she had, and she was kissing Cole.

His response was immediate, his lips fighting with hers to get control of the kiss, and yet his hands never moved. He used nothing but lips and body heat to seduce her.

But Penelope used her hands. His tongue slipped into her mouth and she made a little sighing noise as her hands lifted to tug at his collar and hold his lips to hers.

He tilted his head, deepened the kiss, and if Penelope thought the kiss in the snow had been out of this world, this kiss was in an entirely different universe. A universe where gorgeous men wanted to kiss tomboys.

Objectively, she knew that he only wanted her because she’d rejected him. A man like Cole liked a challenge. After this kiss—this wonderfully wanton kiss that she’d initiated—his ardor would cool and he’d be off to chase some other woman.

But that was okay. He wasn’t Evan. She wasn’t in love with him.

If he never kissed her again, it wouldn’t break her heart.

She wouldn’t let it.

Cole pulled away slowly, straightening until his hands slid off the desk to his sides, and they stared at each other.

“So?” he asked finally, when the silence had stretched long enough to get awkward.

She licked her lips. “So, what?”

“Which did you like better? Head-holding? Or what we just did?”

She rolled her eyes and went to the other side of her desk, feeling a bit safer with the distance between them. “Lincoln’s already turned in that stupid article. The time for research has long passed.”

“Oh, I’m not doing research for Lincoln’s article. And I have no interest in being an expert in all things kissing, although honestly, I suspect I’m pretty damn close to getting my black belt—”

She held up a hand. “Then what are you after?”

He grinned and pulled the folder with their story proofs off her desk as he strolled toward the door. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m out to be an expert on Penelope Pope. Because, despite your efforts to prove otherwise, I don’t believe for one second that you don’t want me.”

“You’re wrong,” she called after him, even though he was out the door.

He backed up two steps, just enough to poke his head back into her office.

The look he gave her was positively panty-dropping. “We’ll see, Tiny. We’ll see.”

Chapter 14

For Cole, Sundays always had, always would be about Bobby. Cole saw his brother on other days of the week, certainly. Occasional lunches, ball games, spontaneous visits. But Sundays were their days.

Whether it was playing checkers in Bobby’s room while watching reruns of whatever his brother’s current pet show was, or trips to Governors Island on sunny summer days, Cole always ensured that Bobby knew he came first.

And more than that, Cole enjoyed it. Even before their disengaged parents had passed away, Bobby had always been Cole’s only real family.

It was Bobby who taught Cole that people could be unconditionally good.

And it was also through Bobby that he’d learned just how cruel they could be. People stared too long, laughed when they shouldn’t, or could be all-out mocking.

Even the ones with good intentions got it wrong more often than not. Whether it be talking about Bobby as though he wasn’t there or speaking to him as though he were a child, people in general just screwed up.

It was because of these people that Cole kept Bobby separate from the rest of his life, although he sometimes feared that Bobby would misunderstand his motives—that he would think Cole was ashamed of him.

Luckily, this had never seemed to cross Bobby’s mind, and Cole was glad for it, because it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Was he guilty of being overprotective of his brother?

Perhaps. But ashamed of Bobby? Never.

Bobby was the light of his life. His constant.

Which was why, on this particular Sunday, when Bobby was sick in bed with a nasty stomach virus and strict instructions for Cole to keep his distance, Cole was feeling a bit…

Lost.

No, that wasn’t quite right. Cole was lonely.

He hadn’t realized how much he’d come to rely on Sundays as his way of relaxing—of connecting—until the opportunity wasn’t there.

But the most startling realization wasn’t that Cole didn’t want to spend Sunday alone. The startling part was the way in which he’d decided to remedy it.

Somehow, Cole found himself outside the callbox of Penelope’s apartment building, trying to hide his apprehension as he hit the button next to her name and waited to see if she was home. Waited to see if she’d let him up.

“Hello?” Her voice was crackly, although not at all as confused-sounding as it should be for a single woman who wasn’t expecting company.

Unless she was expecting company. Ah, fuck, if she had plans with someone else—another man, he’d—he’d—

“Hello?” she said again, just a tiny bit impatient.

He hit the button before she hung up. “Hey, it’s Cole.”

He waited for the expected pause. The few moments of silence while she registered that her colleague was standing uninvited outside her apartment building and figured out how she felt about it.

As usual, Penelope surprised him. There wasn’t so much as the slightest delay before her voice crackled through, even more chipper than her hello. “Cole! Hey! You wanna come up?”

He stared for a second at the callbox.

How was it that everything was so simple with her?

Even with this push-pull thing they had going on, the sometimes kissing, sometimes arguing, sometimes platonic mess they had on their hands, she sounded genuinely glad to see him.

He closed his eyes in gratitude, just for a second.

“Cole? You still there?”

“Yeah,” he said, punching the button once more.

“Well get up here already.”

She let him into the building, and as he made his way up to her floor and knocked on her door, he realized that it wasn’t all that long ago that he’d been in this very spot, waiting to walk her to Jake and Grace’s dinner party.

Back then, she’d opened the door dressed in a robe, and his fingers hadn’t itched to remove it—much.

And now, Cole found himself hoping that history would repeat itself. That she’d open the door in a robe, and that he’d peel it off her body…

The door opened, and Cole blew out a sigh of regret.

No robe.

Just an enormously oversize Texas Rangers sweatshirt, cropped black yoga pants, and bare feet.

“What’s up?” she said, ushering him in.

Cole had to laugh. “Are you this welcoming to all uninvited visitors?”

She snorted. “Trust me. When you’re as short on visitors as I am, you’d be excited to see anyone.”

He smiled, although it wasn’t quite the answer he wanted. He’d wanted her to say that she was happy to see him….

“But I am in an extra good mood,” she was saying. “Edgar’s alive.”

“Come again?” he said, following her into the living room where the TV blared the Boston/Toronto game. The Yankees were away, on the West Coast, so their game wouldn’t be on for another hour.

“Edgar,” she said, gesturing at the fishbowl. “My fish. I thought he was dead, because he didn’t eat his breakfast, and was just sort of floating there, but maybe he was only resting, because now he’s moving again.”

Penelope was staring down at the fish with an adoring look on her face, and Cole could have sworn that his heart squeezed.

So much damn affection for a fish.

“ ’Sup, Edgar,” he said, glancing down at the black goldfish. He glanced at her. “Maybe he’s lonely. Have you thought about bringing him a friend?”

Her mouth turned downward, her eyes sad. “He had a friend. Lola. She died a couple days after I brought her home.”

Cole nodded solemnly. “May she rest in peace.”

“She’s totally in fish heaven where Finding Nemo plays twenty-four-seven,” Penelope said, good humor returning. “Can I get you a beer?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to ask what I’m doing here?”

She seemed to think about this. “Oh. Sure. What are you doing here?”

Suddenly Cole regretted his prompting her to ask the question, because he remembered too late that he didn’t have a damn clue.

He opened his mouth, then shut it again, and Penelope gave him a sly grin. “Thought that might be the case. Beer?”

“Yeah, okay,” he said, running his hand through his hair.

“Take your jacket off,” she said over her shoulder as she headed to the kitchen. “Sit. Get comfortable. It’s an awesome game.”

He glanced at the screen as he shrugged out of his jacket. “It’s zero–zero.”

“Exactly,” she said, coming back and handing him a bottle of beer. “It’s the fifth inning and neither team has gotten a hit.”

“Really,” he said, drawing out the word as he turned back to the screen with more interest.

She nodded and sat beside him, curling her legs up underneath her. “It’s early yet. One’s bound to mess up. But still, how cool would a double no-hitter be. There’s only been one in MLB history—”

“Fred Toney and Hippo Vaughn,” he interrupted, “in nineteen seventeen. The first hit didn’t happen until the tenth inning.”

Penelope glanced over at him, then lifted her bottle. “Well done, sir.”

He leaned back with a smug grin, kicking off his shoes before putting his feet up on her ottoman. “It’s annoying, huh? No longer being the only one in your social circle who can spout little-known sports facts?”

“I kind of like it,” Penelope said, taking a sip of beer. “Maybe it’s different being a woman. I hate to stereotype, but most of my female friends aren’t all that interested in talking sports. I mean, some like football, some like baseball, et cetera, but there’s nobody quite as passionate about all of them as me.”

He glanced over at her profile. No makeup. He loved it. “What about guy friends?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, they care more about my knowledge of hockey facts, I guess. It was easier in my twenties, when I could hang out at a pub on a Saturday with a bunch of guy friends. But the older we all got, the more they started to drop off. Get married. They sort of quit coming out for all-day sports benders, you know?”

He did know. She was all alone.

Just like him.

Well, not just like him. To be fair, she had a point about it being easier for him than her to hang with the guys.

He could see all too well why her pool of guy friends had dried up. Penelope wouldn’t have thought of herself as a threat to all those wives and girlfriends, but there was something appealing about a woman you could be yourself with; someone who wouldn’t tune you out when you talked about RBIs and penalty flags. He was betting all of her guy friends’ significant others had known it.

Cole knew Penelope thought that her “one of the guys” vibe detracted from her appeal but she was dead wrong on that. He didn’t know a single other woman in his acquaintance who’d be so satisfied—so thrilled—to be spending Sunday in front of a potential double no-hitter.

It was pretty fantastic.

As though determined to prove his point, Penelope glanced over at him during the next commercial. “I was going to order pizza tonight. You wanna stay for dinner?”

Say no. Don’t intrude on her privacy. Don’t get too used to this.

“Sure,” he said, keeping his voice easy.

She reached for her cell on the table. “What do you like?”

“Whatever you’re getting is fine.”

“I’m boring. Pepperoni and olives?”

“Perfect,” he said.

The double no-hitter came to an end two innings later, but their disappointment was tempered by the fact that the pizza arrived at the exact same time.

Cole paid for the pizza as Penelope fetched them more beers.

“Switch to the Yankees?” she asked.

“I thought you’d never ask,” he said.

“It’s going to be a wipeout,” she said, reaching into the box and pulling out a slice. She took an enormous bite as she dug around in the couch cushions for the remote.

“Those are the best kind,” he said.

Penelope had a string of cheese on her chin, and he wiped at it with his napkin and she grunted a thank-you before holding up the remote in triumph.

It wasn’t a sexy moment. Not in the least romantic, her happily chewing pizza while she found his sports team on TV.

I could do this, he thought. I could do this every damn day.

She glanced over, pausing in her chewing as she saw the look on his face. “What’s wrong? You’re not going to tell me now that you don’t like olives, are you?”

He shook his head, reaching into the box for a slice of pizza as he tried to clear his head.

This was just comfortable, that was all. And a little bit unusual. That didn’t mean that it was special.

That was a path he didn’t even want to explore.

The next couple of hours passed in a contented blur, as they shared the pizza, drank beer, and alternated between arguing about close calls and agreeing that the home-plate ump had a definite bias against inside fastballs.

As the ninth inning approached (Penelope had been right, a total wipeout, with the Yankees up 7–1), Cole realized that it was perhaps the most enjoyable sports-watching experience he’d had in years.

And almost immediately on the heels of this realization was a stab of disappointment that it was already over. It was one thing for two sports editors to watch a game together, but what happened after the game was over?

He couldn’t stay. They weren’t dating. Weren’t sleeping together.

And judging from the way Penelope was eating yet another piece of pizza, he highly doubted that she was planning or anticipating a seduction.

Not that he was thinking that either, it was just…

He watched as she tugged a piece of pepperoni off the slice and ate it in little nibbles. It was both weird and cute.

He wanted her.

Don’t do it, Sharpe.

He did it.

He sat up and quietly plucked her beer and pizza out of her hand, setting them both on the coffee table.

She looked at him in surprise at the same moment his thumb and forefinger found her chin and tilted her face to his.

And then he kissed her.

Chapter 15

Penelope hadn’t seen the kiss coming. She’d been more focused, on, well…pizza. And baseball.

Had she been a little hyperaware of Cole?

Maybe.

Okay, fine, yes, of course she’d been hyperaware of him.

The man smelled like man in the best way possible. But it wasn’t just that.

It was the slightest edge of vulnerability on his face when she’d opened the door. He hadn’t been himself, and the fact that he’d come to her meant more than she wanted to admit.

But she’d been doing a damn good job of keeping things casual. Of not letting him become more important to her than he already was. Those walls he’d referred to—they were firmly in place.

Right up until the moment his lips landed on hers.

Now those walls were crumbling fast.

Cole’s tongue swiped across her bottom lip and she moaned.

Except…

Her hands found his shoulders, ready to push him back.

“Kiss me back,” he said against her mouth. “Kiss me back, Penelope. Please.”

It was the desperation in his voice that did her in. There was a need there, beneath all Cole’s sexy confidence, that she couldn’t say no to.

She inched forward on the couch, placing her lips against his and kissing him softly. His groan sent an odd little thrill through her. She tried it again, letting her lips tangle with his, her hand inching up to cup his cheek.

He let her control the kiss, his hand moving over her back in soothing motions as she learned his taste. Learned the scratch of his stubble against her lips. Learned the way his big hands made her feel even smaller than usual as they ran over her back and hips in long, lingering strokes.

The kiss grew ever more urgent, and she felt gentle pressure as Cole tried to coax her onto his lap.

Penelope’s newfound confidence evaporated instantly, and she pulled back.

His eyes were dark with arousal as he lifted his eyebrows in question.

She pressed her lips together. They tingled. In a good way.

“You should know…I’m not very good at this,” she said. You’re going to be disappointed.

He smiled and ran a finger over her lower lip. “Don’t worry. Because I’m very good at this.”

And then he proved it, wrapping his hands around her hips and easily lifting her on top of him so that she was straddling him on the couch.

“Oh,” she said softly.

He smiled wickedly, wrapped his hand around the back of her head, and pulled her face down to his, his tongue sliding against hers in one hot, delicious stroke.

Yes. Yes, he was good at this.

If their earlier kisses had made her hot, this kiss set her on fire. His lips and tongue were everywhere. His hands touching every part of her that he could reach.

His hands cupped her butt, tugging her firmly against his erection and rocking upward. She moaned, her hips moving of their own accord now as she ground against him.

It was good, but not enough. Not nearly enough. There were still layers separating them, and Penelope had never hated clothes as much as she did in that moment.

As though reading her mind, Cole’s hands slid up under her shirt, his palms touching the bare skin of her back for the first time, and that simple, skin-to-skin contact made a moan escape her lips.

He ran his hands up until they found her bra strap, unsnapping it with disconcerting ease before sliding his hands around to cover her breasts.

Penelope squeezed her eyes shut.

This would be the part where he changed his mind. The part where he realized that she had absolutely no curves. That her clothes didn’t lie—that she wasn’t secretly hiding a bombshell figure under all the layers.

“Ah, fuck, Pen,” he said, his fingers plucking her nipples in toying strokes. “You’re fucking perfect.”

Her eyes flew open, searching his face for signs of a lie.

But then he was tugging her shirt over her head, roughly pushing away the cups of her bra.

Before she could register embarrassment, his hand slid up her back, pulling her toward him as his mouth found her breast.

Her breath came out on a gasp as she arched into him. His tongue flicked at her nipple before he shifted to her other breast, and Penelope forgot all about being embarrassed, forgot all about the fact that her sexual experience paled in comparison to his.

None of that mattered. There was only Cole with his hot mouth and clever fingers.

She had to touch him.

Her hands roamed over his shoulders, his chest, then down to the hem of his shirt. He sat up and in one easy motion tugged the shirt off.

Penelope’s mouth went dry. He was perfect. Toned and golden and very, very male.

“You are so out of my league,” she said, scraping her nails over his bare chest.

His eyes slitted. “Not from where I’m sitting,” he said, his voice husky.

He sat up straighter, his hands cupping her face as he nipped her lips. “Let me take you to the bedroom.”

His hands slid down, his thumbs finding her nipples and sending any protests she might have uttered out the window.

She started to climb off him, but he scooped his hands beneath her butt, pulling her to him as he stood, easily holding her up.

“Nice trick, Sharpe.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “You like?”

In answer, she wound her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck and kissed him as he walked them into the bedroom.

Penelope had a moment of embarrassment that she hadn’t made the bed—she rarely bothered.

But Cole didn’t seem to mind when he deposited her among the mess of blankets and slowly lowered himself over her, his tongue running lazy circles over her throat until he inched down and sucked a nipple into his hot mouth.

Then her pants were gone—how had that happened?—and his lips were tickling the soft skin of her lower belly.

“I like the way you taste right here,” he said, licking at the sensitive skin just below her navel. “Sweet.”

Penelope propped herself up on her elbows, watching as his mouth skimmed over her skin, leaving a trail of fire everywhere he touched.

One of his hands drifted lower, over her thighs, before moving back up again, gently raking over the fabric of her underwear, and Penelope arched her back.

His eyebrows lifted, and he returned his hand to the tiny cotton triangle, tracing teasing circles over her.

“Cole. Don’t tease.”

In response, he tugged her underwear down her legs, parted her thighs, and dipped his fingers into her wetness.

She cried out.

“This what you want?” he growled, moving up so his mouth could nuzzle her neck.

Penelope could only nod. The slight roughness of his fingertips, the perfect speed in which he played with her was sweet, torturous heaven.

“So fucking responsive,” he said roughly. “I could torture you like this forever.”

“Don’t you dare.” She kissed his chin. “More.”

His eyes darkened and he nipped her lips. “I can do that. Just point me to the condoms.”

Penelope froze, and Cole froze in response, his hand going still. “Tell me you have condoms.”

She blushed. “I don’t exactly do this a lot. Aren’t you supposed to carry one around in your wallet?”

He groaned. “No, because I’m not a high school boy hoping to get lucky on prom night.”

Penelope swallowed. Well, crap. “Now what?”

His eyes skimmed over her body, turning speculative. “Now we get creative.”

“What—”

Cole slid down her body, his hands finding her knees and pushing her legs up, spreading her open.

Penelope barely had time to register his intention before he dropped his head and licked her. He glanced up, meeting her eyes briefly before his face dropped once more, his mouth opening over her as his tongue explored her folds.

Penelope cried out again, clenching the bedspread as he tasted her, first in teasing flicks and then in steady circles. She alternated between praying that it never ended and silently begging him to give her release.

And then a finger slid into her and it was exactly what she needed to come apart in his hands. His mouth.

She was still panting when he kissed his way up her body, lying beside her and stroking fingers over her ribs in soothing motions until she remembered how to think.

Penelope turned her face to look at him. “That was—”

He smiled and winked. “I know.”

She rolled toward him, licking her lip nervously. “Um, about you—”

Cole kissed her softly. “Next time. I’ll come prepared.”

Penelope was slightly relieved. Truth be told, she wasn’t at all sure she had the skills or experience to pleasure a man as clearly skilled at sex as Cole.

And yet she was also…determined.

She shoved her embarrassment aside and leaned into him until he let her roll him onto his back.

Once she was on top of him, Penelope scraped her palm along his jaw and swallowed nervously. “Will you—show me?”

“Penelope—”

“Please.”

His eyes searched her face, and she tried to banish the uncertainty the only way she could think of.

Her hand slid down his body until her palm rested over the bulging erection beneath his jeans.

“Baby.” His eyes closed, and she smiled, knowing she had him.

She moved her hand over him, rubbing against him as she gathered her courage.

And then she pulled back, unsnapping his jeans and pulling down the zipper.

His underwear posed a problem. One he solved quickly by sitting up and stripping without the least bit of shyness.

Cole Sharpe was naked. Naked and gorgeous.

He lay back again. “Do your worst. I guarantee you can’t get it wrong.”

She wasn’t nearly so sure, but she surprised herself by wanting to touch him. Wanting to know every inch of him, and to make him writhe in the kind of ecstasy he’d given her.

Before she could lose her nerve, she wrapped her fingers around his cock, marveling at how small her hand looked against him. She stroked, and Cole bucked.

She smiled in triumph and Cole let out a little laugh. “I don’t think you need me to show you a damn thing, Tiny. I’d say you’ve got this.”

Her hand moved over him again, watching his face to see what he liked, and she realized that he liked it just a little bit rough.

His breathing grew more ragged and Penelope surprised herself by wanting to go further. To do things she’d always found unbearably awkward in the past.

Before she could change her mind, she wiggled down his body until she was leaning over him.

“Pen—”

She kissed the tip of his cock, and he cursed. Her tongue softly fluttered over the tip, learning his salty taste. And then she sucked him all the way into her mouth, her hand covering the lower base of him that her mouth couldn’t reach.

He was swearing in earnest now, and she kept going, relying on instinct. She figured she must be doing something right, because his fingers fisted tightly in her hair and his hips began to rock up toward her mouth.

“Sweetie, you’ve got to— I’m going to—”

Yes.

She nodded and moved faster, the movements of her mouth telling him what she wanted. And then he gave it to her, coming in her mouth as he shouted her name.

It. Was. Glorious.

Cole tugged her upward, and she settled against him, cheek on his shoulder as he softly ran his hand over her hair.

“Now what happens?” she asked after they’d been quiet for several minutes.

“Well, for starters, we’re going to stock up on some condoms.”

She smiled. “You seem to be thinking we’ll do this again.”

He kissed her forehead. “I know we will.”

She tilted her face up so she could meet his eyes. “Cole, I— This was—”

“Don’t you dare try to tell me this was a onetime thing, Tiny. You liked it every bit as much as I did.”

She felt herself blush, and hoped he wouldn’t notice. “I’m not saying I didn’t, it’s just— I meant what I said that first day. I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”

He blinked. “I think that’s a version of what’s supposed to be my line.”

“You know what I mean. It’s just that we already spend so much time together at work, and if we add sex to the mix, I’m worried the lines will blur, and—”

He pushed her onto her back, rolling over her. “I’ve got an idea. We make a pact.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of pact? A sex pact?”

His smile was gentle. “You’re adorable. And sure, I guess it’s a sex pact, in that we’ll be having lots of it. But I was thinking more along the line of a guarantee. Something to ensure neither of us crosses a line we don’t want to cross.”

“Go on…”

He framed her face with his hands. “I will treat you with the respect you deserve at work, and then I will use your sweet body for sex after work, but Penelope Pope, I give you my solemn promise not to fall in love with you.”

Her lips parted and he gave her a quick kiss. “Your turn.”

“Cole—”

“Go on.”

She rolled her eyes. “This is dumb.”

“I’m waiting.”

Penelope huffed out a breath. “Fine. I promise to never fall in love with you, and ditto on the work and sex thing, except there have to be rules. No sex on weekdays.”

“Nope. Do not agree.”

She scowled up at him. “I’m serious. If we want to keep them separate, if we want to keep everything in perspective, we have to be smart about this. Weekdays, we’re colleagues. Weekends, we can be—”

“Fuck buddies.”

She grinned. “Yes. That.”

He narrowed his eyes. “That’s my only option?”

“Take it or leave it,” she said in a singsong voice.

Take it. Please take it.

He studied her for several long moments before he levered himself up and started to move off the bed.

Penelope’s heart sank as she sat up. “You’re leaving?”

He reached for his jeans and pulled them on. “Damn straight.”

She pushed her hair out of her face and tried to keep her face composed. It was no more than she expected really. She’d always known that she lacked the allure to hold a guy’s interest….

“Okay, well…I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, hoping her voice sounded cool and indifferent instead of small and rejected.

He froze in the process of buttoning his jeans. “What are you talking about?”

“You said you were leaving—”

He gave her an exasperated look. “Tiny, if you’re only giving me sex on weekends, I have to take advantage of every moment. You follow?”

“Not really.”

He pointed at her nightstand clock. “It’s still Sunday. Sunday’s the weekend.”

“So where are you going?” she called after him, as he walked out of her bedroom.

His head poked back into the room. “Keep up. Where do you think I’m going? We need some fucking condoms.”

And then he was gone, and Penelope couldn’t help the dopey smile that crept over her face.

She was really doing this. She was about to embark on a real-life, grown-up affair with Cole Sharpe.

Chapter 16

Cole made it nearly a week of following Penelope’s stupid no-sex-on-weekdays rule.

He didn’t like it, but he’d seen from the stubborn set of her pointy little jaw that it was that or nothing, and, well…for reasons he didn’t care to explore too closely, nothing wasn’t an option when it came to Penelope Pope.

Not when he’d spent the better part of the last three and a half days trying not to think about those little sighs she made when he licked her nipples, or the way her hips went crazy when he fingered her.

Hell, he’d almost thought they could pull it off.

They’d made it through Monday’s staff meeting, Tuesday’s team lunch, and Wednesday’s after-work happy hour without him hauling her into a deserted corner and kissing her senseless.

Somehow he’d managed to sit beside her for hours on end as they reviewed images and copy and stats, without sliding his hand under her skirt and seeing if she was as wet as he was hard.

And then Thursday happened.

“Tiny,” he barked, the second he stepped off the elevator. “Where the hell have you been?”

She blinked in surprise at his harsh tone. “I was at lunch.”

He’d known she was at lunch. He also knew who she was at lunch with.

Cole’s gaze shifted to Lincoln, who was standing beside Penelope and looking at Cole with a knowing smirk.

“We would have asked you to join,” Penelope said, clearly confused at his anger, “but you were on the phone, and we had to be back by one, so—”

He had been on the phone. He’d been trying once again to get hold of Bobby, only to find out that his brother was busy. Again.

Cole was happy his brother had a life. Had friends. Was happy that his brother was happy.

It was just…

For years, Cole had known that he was all his brother had. That his brother needed him.

But there were times when Cole was struck with the realization that Bobby was all he had. His only family.

And Bobby never meant to blow him off—his brother would die if he thought he’d hurt anyone’s feelings, much less Cole’s….

And yet, hurt his feelings were.

Which put him a damn shitty mood.

“Relax, Pen,” Lincoln was saying to Penelope. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

He punctuated this statement by placing his hand just briefly on Penelope’s back and Cole had the strangest urge to drive his fist into Lincoln’s face.

What the hell was wrong with him?

Lincoln was his friend. Penelope was his…friend.

They were both his colleagues, and they were absolutely allowed to go to lunch together.

And yet…and yet—

He scowled at Penelope. “Do you have a few minutes? We have to make that US Open layout by end of day.”

“That’s going to take four hours?” Lincoln asked in sham confusion, glancing at his watch.

Cole ignored him, storming toward his office and hoping more than he should that Penelope would follow.

“I’m really sorry we didn’t wait for you,” Penelope said as she came into his office.

Cole shut the door without replying.

She touched his arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

He frowned at the question. Cole Sharpe was always okay. Cole Sharpe was the one who made everyone else laugh, who put everyone at ease, who always had the quick comeback and the ready smile.

But sometimes…sometimes, he wanted to lean.

Just a little. Or, at the very least, to simply be, without always having a quip at the ready. And when she was looking at him with those damn big eyes, all wide and compassionate, and hell, caring, he wanted to lean on her.

“Cole?”

“Fuck it,” he muttered.

His hands wrapped around Penelope’s arms and he jerked her toward him and claimed her mouth.

It was a graceless, hungry kiss. It had none of his usual finesse, but he needed it. Needed her.

He was so lost in the taste of her that it took him a moment to realize she’d gone still against him.

He pulled back slightly and gave her a questioning glance.

“Cole, you know the rules,” she said, her eyes locked on his mouth. “No blending work and pleasure, no sex on weekdays—”

He dropped his hands from her arms, releasing her, but he didn’t step back. There were mere inches separating them, and he wondered if she felt the heat between them as acutely as he did.

How had this happened? How was it that this sweet, feisty tomboy could turn him on just as easily as she turned him completely inside out every time she looked at him?

“Come on, Cole. Don’t do this.” Her voice was a whisper now.

His hands itched to reach for her again, but he forced himself to stay. To wait.

He grinned in triumph as she shrugged slightly, letting her purse fall to the floor with a quiet thump as her arms lifted to wind around his neck.

Their lips collided as they devoured each other.

Was it possible it had only been three and a half days since he’d last tasted her lips? Since he’d last run his hands over her lithe body?

It felt like forever.

He wrapped his fingers low on her hips, holding her snugly against his already hard cock as her hands roamed restlessly over his back.

“I hate this suit jacket,” she said with a little gasp, when he pulled back and bent his knees slightly to get at her neck. “I mean, I usually like it, because you look all corporate and yummy, but it’s in my way, and I can’t touch you.”

“How do you think I feel about all your clothes?” he muttered.

She was wearing a short-sleeved purple top with just the slightest V-neck. His mouth forged a trail downward until he could lick just under the fabric of her shirt, tasting the sweet upper curves of her breasts.

She made a breathy, sighing noise. “We really shouldn’t. We’re at work, and anyone could walk in.”

“First of all,” he said, kissing his way back up her neck, “don’t think for one second that we’re the first ones. Jake closes his office door every time his wife ‘brings him lunch’ and her hair is never quite as neat when she comes out. And I have it on good authority that the boss has gotten lucky in his office once or twice.”

She pulled back. “Cassidy? No. He wouldn’t. Sex in his office, really? He’s so controlled.”

“Not around Emma he’s not,” Cole said confidently, pulling her back in for a long, wet kiss.

“What’s the ‘second of all’?” Penelope asked, when they parted to breathe.

“Hmm?” Cole asked, his hands sliding up, inching ever closer to her breasts.

“Well, you said ‘first of all.’ That implies there’s something else.”

“Ah, right.” He stepped nearer, backing Penelope against the door. “Second of all, there’s a lock on the door.”

They both watched as his hand slid down, twisting the lock with a quick flick of his fingers.

And then she launched herself at him, all but climbing up his body, trying to reach his mouth.

He laughed a little, scooting his hands under her ass and pulling her up as he sandwiched her body between the door and his body as they kissed.

Cole barely registered the sound of one of her shoes falling off and hitting the floor when she wrapped her legs around his waist. He was too busy touching her. Tasting her.

Wanting her.

Finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He needed her naked. Now.

He stepped back, and she made a mewling sound of protest as he set her back on the floor.

Cole locked his eyes on hers as he slowly lifted her shirt over her head. Her bra was pink and lacy. Pretty, but he was far more interested in what lay beneath, and he sent the bra in the same direction as her shirt: off.

“Cole,” she whispered, clearly embarrassed. She lifted her hands to cover herself, but he batted her hands aside. If anyone was going to put hands on her breasts, it was going to be him.

He rubbed the heels of his palms against her, his cock going even harder when she cried out. He’d never been with a woman this responsive. And suddenly he wanted to know if she was always this way, or if it was just with him.

He hoped to God it was the latter.

He toyed with her in soft teasing touches before dipping his head and putting his mouth on her. So obsessed was he with the feel of her beaded nipple against his tongue that he didn’t realize she’d undone his pants until her hand slipped beneath the waistband of his briefs and palmed his cock.

“Fuh-uck,” he said, his head falling back as she stroked him.

He saw the pleased triumph in her eyes, and he let her have her moment. Let her palm torture him for several moments until he was embarrassingly close to coming.

Cole gripped her wrist, tugging her hand away from him, as he swiftly assessed his options. He had a condom—several of them, actually. He’d learned his lesson after last weekend.

His cock hardened at the thought of turning her around, pressing her against the door, and taking her from behind. But logistically speaking, their height difference would make that difficult.

Instead, he tightened his grip on her wrist, pulling her toward the desk. He kissed his way down her body until he knelt in front of her, his hands quickly ridding her of both pants and panties as well as the remaining shoe.

He meant to stand back up. Meant to lift her up onto his desk and bury himself inside her—

Instead, he leaned forward and let his tongue find her slit. She gave a sharp cry, and he licked her harder, palming the back of one of her thighs and lifting her leg to the side so she was wide open for him.

Her hands found his head for balance, her nails digging into his hair as his tongue circled her.

Going down on Penelope Pope in his office was definitely going in Cole’s catalog of best erotic memories.

He was damn close to coming in his pants just by licking her. This was madness. Fucking madness.

Cole stood, taking a condom out of his wallet before throwing off his suit jacket. Penelope shoved his pants down around his hips as he freed his cock with his hand and rolled on the condom.

She hopped up onto the desk, slowing spreading her legs and crooking her finger at him. Cole groaned as he stepped closer, positioning himself at her wet entrance. “I thought you said you were no good at this,” he growled.

Her hands found his shoulders. “Guess I just needed to do it with the right guy.”

Her words sent an odd thrill through him, and he rewarded her by sliding into her with a slow, slick thrust.

When he was all the way inside, he rested his forehead against hers, putting her hands around his neck. “Hold on.”

His palms slid down to her ass, pulling her even more tightly around him before he pulled back, and thrust home again, harder this time.

“Jesus,” he whispered, already on the verge of losing it. “You’re so tight. I can’t—”

“Hard and fast,” she whispered against his ear.

Cole needed no further encouragement. He slid his thumb down to her clit, pressing it in relentless circles as he drove into her at a merciless pace.

Holding off was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life, but he waited. Waited until he heard her cry out, waited until she contracted around him.

Then he let himself go. He came with a soft roar, burying his face in the crook of her shoulder, too damn far gone to let himself be embarrassed by his lack of control.

They clung to each other for long moments after, both of them panting, neither speaking.

It was Penelope who pulled back first, and Cole felt a stab of annoyance when she didn’t meet his eyes.

She scooted off the desk and shot him a quick, embarrassed look before kneeling down to pick up her pants.

No. There would be none of that. No embarrassment.

He knelt beside her, refusing to let either of them be embarrassed by their nakedness or what had just transpired.

He hooked a finger under chin, lifting her eyes to his. “You’re the hottest lay I’ve ever had, Ms. Pope.”

It was the right thing to say. She let out a surprised laugh, but he could tell by the warmth in her eyes that she was pleased with the compliment.

Cole just hoped she knew he meant every damn word.

He handed her clothes to her, then turned slightly so she could dress in some semblance of privacy.

Cole frowned a little as he tugged his own pants back up over his hips, wondering, not for the first time, who or what had made Penelope think she was anything less than a sexy, hot-blooded woman. That Evan bastard back in Chicago?

He wanted to ask her, but it felt like a boyfriend kind of question, and she’d made it perfectly clear she wasn’t looking for one of those.

Great. Fine. He certainly wasn’t in the market for a relationship.

He wasn’t commitment-phobic per se, he just hadn’t yet been in a relationship that wasn’t a hell of a lot more headache than it was worth.

Cole mentally braced himself for Penelope to go skulking out of his office, probably to avoid him for the rest of the day, if not the rest of the week.

But she surprised him. When he turned back around, she was fully dressed, looking completely composed as she scooped her purse off the floor and walked toward his desk.

She set the purse on his chair then went up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Is it slutty if I say thanks?” she asked.

He grinned. “If it is, I like slutty.”

Penelope grinned back at him, then went to unlock the door, swinging it wide open as though nothing out of the ordinary had just transpired.

When she turned back, she smiled her friendly work-Penelope smile at him. “So. Should we review those page layouts?”

Cole shook his head at how easy this all felt as he went around to the other side of his desk.

He didn’t know exactly what this was.

But whatever they decided to call it—or not call it—he could all too easily get used to it.

Chapter 17

Penelope told herself that it was a good thing that Cole was busy on Sunday.

Just because they’d agreed to limit their, um, sexy times to weekends didn’t mean that it should take up the whole weekend.

They’d spent Friday night together at her place. Thai takeout, baseball, and really good sex…basically her idea of heaven.

Saturday night had been more or less a repeat, except with Italian food.

And then Sunday rolled around, and Cole had told her he had other plans.

She didn’t ask what they were. It wasn’t her business. Besides, they’d totally violated her rules by having sex on a Thursday—lots, so really, it was just like she was trading one day for another.

But confident as Penelope was that their maintaining some sort of boundaries and distance was a smart decision, there was this tiny, stupid part of her brain that kept wondering if his plans involved another woman.

She couldn’t blame him if they did. She’d made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want a boyfriend.

And he’d flat out promised never to fall in love with her—not that that had ever been a serious possibility. They were really just co-workers who slept together, on weekends, but not the entire weekend, apparently, because he had plans.

So who was she to judge him if he dated on the side? Perfectly acceptable.

Even if the thought of another woman putting her hands on Cole made Penelope a bit…stabby.

And it was these wicked, torturous thoughts of him undressing another woman…of him kissing her neck…making her gasp…

It was these torturous thoughts that made Penelope realize she needed a distraction.

Penelope flopped on her couch and pulled out her cellphone, scrolling through her favorites until she found the one person who could soothe her nerves even when she was at her most jittery.

“Hey, Dad,” she said, as soon as he picked up.

“Penny!”

Both her parents had called her Penny for as long as she could remember. She didn’t mind, but neither did she exactly bring the nickname outside the Pope household. She didn’t need a childish nickname to make her appear younger than she was. She seemed to manage that all on her own.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I was just thinking of you, actually. Thinking of heading over to the Sox game today.”

She lifted her eyebrow. Her father was a die-hard Cubs fan through and through. “Oh yeah?”

“Your mother’s having her book club over, God help me, which means I need to get out of the house. Cubs are away, so I figured…why not?”

Why not indeed. Rick Pope was single-handedly responsible for teaching Penelope her love of the game—all games. Her dad was an avid sportsman, and rather than bemoan his lack of a son, had dragged both Janie and Penelope into the world of athletics.

He’d had only partial success with Janie. He’d had to spray-paint her bat hot pink in order to get her to play softball on long summer evenings, and the only sport she’d stuck to for more than a month was tennis, and she quit that in seventh grade.

But he’d hit the jackpot with Penelope. Janie was the spitting image of their mother in looks and personality, while Penelope was her father’s daughter, from the dark hair to the love of sports to the flat chest.

She didn’t exactly love that last one.

“So tell me, how’s my little New Yorker?”

“Missing you,” Penelope said.

Just because New York was starting to feel like home didn’t mean that a huge chunk of her heart wasn’t still back in the Chicago suburbs at the house where she’d grown up. Right about now she could have used one of her mom’s famous oatmeal cookies, or her dad’s bear hugs…

“What’s got my girl down? Is it a boy? If it’s a boy, I know a guy….”

She rolled her eyes, smiling. “You know a guy, and what? You gonna break someone’s kneecaps? Come on, Dad, Janie and I figured out around age fifteen that you’re all talk.”

“There are nonviolent ways to break a man,” her father said in a faux-Mafia-style voice. “And don’t think I missed that you didn’t deny having a boyfriend.”

Penelope blew out a long breath and said nothing.

“Penny…”

“If I tell you, you’ll tell Mom, and if you tell Mom, she’ll start sending me pictures of mother-of-the-bride dresses.”

“I can keep a secret if you need me to.”

She blew out a breath. The thing was, he probably could. And the thought of talking to someone about Cole was tempting, but her father? Much as she loved the man, and forward thinking as he was, there was no way she could even think about telling him about her and Cole’s weekend-only sex rule.

“I’m just in a thinking place right now,” she replied.

“Ah yes. Understood.”

Penelope smiled, knowing that he really did understand. Rick Pope had forever been telling his wife that Penelope was in a thinking place, back when Penelope’s well-meaning mother had tried to coax Penelope to talk about whatever was bothering her as a kid.

Janie and her mother were extroverts—they liked to talk about anything and everything, and tended to solve problems best by discussing them.

Penelope was more like her father—outgoing when they needed to be, but introverted at heart, especially when she was mulling over a problem.

“Sounds like you need to go to a thinking place, if you know what I mean,” her dad said.

Penelope sat up on the couch as inspiration struck. “Dad, I know exactly what you mean. And you’re a freaking genius.”

Ten minutes later, Penelope had hung up with her father and was out the door heading to the place where she’d always done some of her best thinking: the ballpark. Any ballpark.

She headed out to see the Mets. Partially because the Yankees were away, and partially because she’d only been to one Mets game so far, and she had yet to get a sense for the fans and the stadium.

Baseball was more than the game itself. It was also about the experience.

No two ballparks were the same, no two fan bases interchangeable. Understanding these home-team nuances was Penelope’s favorite part of the job. Yes, she was good with the stats and the plays and could probably outcall any ump…but it was the human element that had drawn her into sports in the first place. That coming together of people.

She had her pick of seats when she got to the stadium. The Mets didn’t draw the kind of crowds the Yankees did, and though she was sure the stadium could be a perfectly lovely place to experience a day game, today was overcast, with a solid promise of rain.

Penelope had planned to splurge on a ticket behind home plate but at the last minute heard herself request one along the third baseline.

It had always been one of her favorite places to watch a game. The proximity to the outfield made it feel less crowded but still close to the action.

She’d already missed first pitch by the time she got inside, but she took her time making her way toward her section. She paused in front of one of the souvenir stores. A Mets cap was one of the few team hats she didn’t own, and since it felt wrong to wear another team’s, she’d opted to go hatless for the day.

Which, at a ball game, just felt wrong. She thought about buying one, but buying a hat for oneself while at a game alone seemed sort of…sad.

Instead she settled for a hot dog and beer and made her way toward her seat. As she’d expected, there were plenty of open seats, including the ones to either side of her own.

Penelope had just settled in and taken a bite of her hot dog when the Mets second baseman sent a line drive up the first-base foul line, and the crowd erupted in cheers when the ump ruled it a fair ball.

Penelope happily chewed her hot dog, watching as the runner on second rounded third and started the desperate race to beat the right fielder’s throw to home plate.

It was one of the best moments to watch in any game. The runner’s dramatic slide, the catcher’s desperate tag, then that heartbeat of wait before the ump’s ruling of…

Safe.

The Mets were on the board, and the enthusiastic fan in front of Penelope went nuts, throwing both his hands in the air in his excitement.

The only problem?

One of those hands was holding a very full bag of popcorn.

And in a rather dazed, slow-motion fashion, Penelope found herself covered in puffy, buttery popcorn kernels.

“Oh, I’m soo sorry! I’m sooo sorry!”

The apology was every bit as enthusiastic as the cheering had been, and Penelope found herself smiling as she glanced up at the popcorn thrower.

Her heart broke just a little at his red-faced embarrassment. His blue eyes were wide with dismay as he looked at her butter-splattered T-shirt, and Penelope was desperate to make him feel better.

She picked up a couple pieces of popcorn off her lap and tossed them into her mouth. “Nice of you to share with me!”

His smile lit up his entire face. It was impossible not to smile back. The man had short sandy brown hair, blue eyes, and the distinctive features of someone with Down syndrome.

So immersed was Penelope in his happy, relieved smile, it didn’t immediately register that her popcorn thrower wasn’t alone.

Or that she recognized the man with him.

“Cole?”

He turned around, noticing her with an expression that fell somewhere among shock, dismay, and wariness.

“You know my brother?” Popcorn Thrower asked happily.

Brother. This was Cole’s brother.

“Penelope and I work together,” Cole said, shifting his attention back to his brother. “Penelope, this is Bobby.”

“I’m his big brother!” Bobby said, sticking out a hand for her to shake.

“Ah, then I bet you know all his secrets, huh? You may just become my next best friend.”

“Cole’s my best friend,” Bobby responded immediately. “But you could be my second best friend. After Andy. And Sara. And Joyce. And—”

“I’m sure Penelope will be thrilled just to be on the long list, bud,” Cole said. “But maybe we should hand her some of our napkins?”

Bobby turned around and rifled around the front pocket of his sweatshirt and came up with a handful of napkins. Penelope took them, although it was really too late to do much other than swipe at the remaining kernels. The butter had already left an oily tie-dyed pattern all over her shirt and jeans.

Bobby had become distracted by a double play on the field, but Cole was still watching her. The shock had faded, and maybe some of the dismay, but he was definitely still wary. Because she was crashing his time with his brother?

Wait. Oh God. Did he think she’d followed him here?

She scooted forward. “Cole, I swear, this is a total coincidence. I had no idea you were coming today, and…wait, aren’t you a Yankees fan?”

“I am, but—”

“I’m a Mets fan,” Bobby said proudly.

Penelope nodded at this, taking a bite of her neglected hot dog. “A split family. I love that kind of drama.”

“You should come down here and sit by us!” Bobby said.

“Oh, I’m—”

“Yes, do,” Cole said. “It’s not safe for you back there. I hear it’s cloudy, with a chance of popcorn showers.”

Bobby laughed and Cole winked at her.

“Well, I guess—”

Cole reached around, grabbing her beer from the cup holder and moving it down to his row.

Why not?

It beat watching the game alone.

Plus, now she knew that Cole wasn’t with another woman and she was feeling a bit giddy.

There were two free seats. One on the other side of Bobby, one on the other side of Cole.

She chose the one next to Bobby, who seemed absolutely delighted to have someone to regale with his rather impressive knowledge of Mets history.

Penelope was a little worried she’d have a hard time not sneaking glances at Cole, but as the innings ticked by, her concern evaporated. Bobby was really, truly charming.

He had a youthful energy that made one happy to be alive. He also shared his remaining popcorn. Couldn’t beat that.

“Do you have a crush on my brother?” Bobby asked, after Cole had bought them all ice creams.

Penelope leaned over and snuck a bite of Bobby’s chocolate ice cream, which was better than her vanilla.

“I do. A little bit,” she said.

Cole glanced up at her in surprise and she shrugged.

“Are you going to get married?” Bobby asked. “Then we can be best friends and you can be my sister!”

“Bob,” Cole said in a warning voice.

Bobby looked at him in confusion. “What?”

“Penelope and I are just friends,” Cole explained.

Penelope swallowed, telling herself that it didn’t sting.

Of course they were just friends. Heck, she was the one who’d set the rules. Multiple times. And even if they were more than friends, she could understand why he wouldn’t want his brother to get the wrong idea.

It wasn’t like the three of them were going to start making a routine out of ball games together.

That last thought caused a little stab of regret, and Penelope frowned down at her ice cream. What was wrong with her? One baseball game and she was all ready to insert herself into Cole’s family?

She wondered if it was always just the two of them, or if parents sometimes tagged along. Did Cole’s parents live in New York? Were they alive?

It was something a girlfriend would know. Heck, it was something a friend would know.

Her frown deepened as she realized just how little she knew the man she was sometimes sleeping with.

After singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the seventh-inning stretch, Bobby headed to the restrooms with firm instructions that he did not want Cole to come with him.

Penelope and Cole stayed standing, watching in awkward silence as the crew cleaned up the field. She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, and Cole turned toward her suddenly.

“Thank you.”

She glanced up at him. “For?”

He lifted a shoulder. “For not making it weird. For being…understanding.”

It was on the tip of Penelope’s tongue to protest that it was no big thing—or at least that it shouldn’t be. But something on Cole’s face had her holding back. As though he’d been through this sort of interaction before, and not had it end well.

She touched her fingers just lightly to his elbow. “I’m having a really good time.”

He swallowed and glanced at her before his eyes darted back to the field.

This was a different side of Cole. One she was suddenly desperate to get to know. But it wasn’t the time. Or the place. And then Bobby was back, and the game wound down into what turned out to be a pretty impressive victory for the Mets.

The three of them filed out of their row and joined the slow, crowded procession toward the main level. Bobby chatted happily the whole time about some big party they were having at the Big House later, and how he was going to wear his new purple shirt.

They were a few feet from the exit when Cole interrupted his brother. “Hold on, Bobby, there’s something we need to do before we can leave.”

Both Penelope and Bobby looked at him.

“Look at Penelope here,” Cole said. “Does she seem like she’s missing something?”

Bobby studied her with careful precision before holding up a finger. “A hat!”

“Damn straight,” Cole said. “She’s lacking a Mets cap.”

“Says the guy wearing the Yankees hat,” Penelope said.

She meant to match his playfulness, but inside her heart was doing weird, skippy things.

How had he known? Not just that she wanted a hat but that she didn’t want to buy it for herself—by herself.

“You pick it out,” she told Bobby, once they were inside the crowded shop. “You know the Mets better than anyone.”

“Classic,” Bobby said without hesitation. “Definitely classic. Do you know your size?”

“Of course I know my hat size,” Penelope said with a mock-offended voice.

She caught Cole’s grin out of the corner of her eye. “A woman who knows her hat size, Bob. Is it any wonder we adore her?”

Her eyes flew to Cole, but he seemed unaware of what he’d just said, instead helping Bobby rifle through the disorganized mass of hats until they found her size.

She reached into her pocket for the cash she’d brought, but Cole held up a hand. “No way. The Sharpe brothers are paying for this and your dry cleaning bill.”

His eyes skimmed over her butter-splattered outfit, and Penelope didn’t think it was her imagination that his eyes lingered on certain body parts.

And it definitely wasn’t her imagination that the formerly comfortable shop had turned extremely warm.

Cole took her hat to the counter as she and Bobby debated whether it was okay that there were pink jerseys. She said no, he insisted yes.

When Cole made his way back to them, he plopped the hat on her head before curving his hands around the bill and applying gentle pressure in an attempt to get rid of the “new hat” look.

His eyes were warm as they locked on hers, and she had a pretty good feeling that if they were alone he would have kissed her.

And she had a really good feeling that she would have kissed him back.

“Penelope, you should come with us to dinner,” Bobby said, unaware of the electricity humming between her and his brother.

“Oh, I can’t,” she said. “I have to get back home so I can—”

Damn it. The only excuse she had at the ready was feed my fish, and there was no way she would give voice to that level of lame.

“Bobby’s right,” Cole said. “You should come with us. We’re just going to grab a quick burger. Nothing fancy. Bobby’s got to get home for his big party.”

“Um, well, if you’re sure I wouldn’t be—”

“We’re sure,” Bobby interrupted, leaning forward and grabbing her hand. “Come on. I’m starving.”

Penelope let Bobby drag her forward but gave one last questioning glance at Cole to make sure it was really okay.

But he obviously hadn’t expected her to turn around just then, because his expression was as open and vulnerable as she’d ever seen it.

She just wished she knew what he was feeling.

Heck, for that matter…

She wouldn’t mind knowing what she was feeling.

Chapter 18

It was an odd thing, being jealous of one’s brother. Cole wasn’t used to it.

Protective? Yes.

Adoring? Definitely.

Amused? Always. Bobby was one of the funniest people he knew.

But jealous? It wasn’t really a part of their relationship. Until now.

Cole watched as Penelope and his brother walked ahead of him, hand in hand, bickering like an old married couple over whether the regular fries or the sweet potato fries had been better at the restaurant.

The sweet potato fries had been better by a long shot, but saying so would mean agreeing with Penelope, who hadn’t once glanced back at him on the long walk to the adult care home where Bobby lived.

And yet, despite the fact that the woman he was sleeping with was barely glancing his way, Cole was fucking loving every minute of this.

He couldn’t remember a day when he’d felt this whole. Ever.

He quickened his pace to catch up with them and Penelope gave him such a genuine, happy smile that he wanted to reach for her other hand.

Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

The sky still looked like rain, but so far it had held off, and the late afternoon was unseasonably warm, making for a pleasant walk from the subway station back to Bobby’s place on the Lower East Side.

A couple minutes later, they were in front of Bobby’s group home.

Cole usually hated this part. Hated the empty feeling after Bobby went happily back to whatever he and his friends had planned for the evening, leaving Cole feeling a little hollow.

But tonight was different. Tonight, when Bobby dashed up the steps and gave one last wave before disappearing, Cole wouldn’t be left standing alone.

“It was nice to meet you, Penelope,” Bobby said.

“You too.”

“And I’m really sorry about the popcorn.”

She waved this away. “Don’t think a thing about it.”

Bobby nodded and smiled. “I’ll see you again soon?”

Cole’s heart broke a little at the sweet ignorance behind Bobby’s question, and started to save Penelope from having to answer, but she beat him to it.

“I’d like that.”

Cole glanced down at her sharply, looking for the lie behind her words, but saw only Penelope’s usual genuineness.

Bobby grinned happily and hugged a surprised Penelope before turning to Cole.

Cole hugged his brother, feeling the usual combination of love and guilt that happened whenever they said goodbye.

“I’ll see you soon, okay, Bobbo?” he said quietly.

“I know,” Bobby said, thumping Cole’s back twice and pulling back. “But now I have to go to my party.”

Cole smiled and allowed his brother to pull away. Bobby’s face was conflicted. “You can come to the party if you want, Cole. They’ll let you.”

“Nah, you go,” Cole said. “I’ve got things to do.”

“Like hang out with Penelope?”

Cole glanced down at the tiny brunette by his side. Her face was tilted up so he could see beneath the bill of her hat, and she wiggled her eyebrows playfully. She was also completely unperturbed by the butter splatters on her shirt and jeans.

“Yeah,” he heard himself say to his brother. “I’m going to hang out with Penelope.”

He watched as his brother bounded up the steps, turning back as he opened the front door and giving one last happy wave before disappearing.

Penelope started to turn away, but Cole held up a finger for her to wait. A moment later, the door opened again, and a friendly-looking woman with short black hair stuck her head out and gave Cole a wave.

“The residents are supposed to check in and out whenever they come and go. Bobby always forgets this, but he hates it when I baby him by walking him all the way inside. Gloria always watches for him.”

She nodded in understanding. “How long has he lived here?”

“Since I was twenty-five. After college I tried to have him live with me, but it just…he got bored when I was at work. He hates being alone. I hated having to put him in a group home, but—”

“Are you kidding?” Penelope said as they began walking. “He clearly loves it.”

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “Thanks for saying so.”

“This is so not my business, but are your parents in the picture?” she asked.

“They both died a few years ago,” he answered quietly.

“I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “Honestly, even if they were around, I don’t know that things would be different. They loved Bobby, but they alternated between treating him like a burden and a child. He wouldn’t have been happy living with them, and the home he’s in now is expensive—”

“You pay for it? All on your own?”

He smiled. “You sound impressed now, but wait until you see that my apartment doesn’t have a wall separating the bedroom from the living room or the living room from the kitchen…”

“Cole, the fact that you sacrifice your own comfort for your brother’s makes you more attractive. Not less.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her around to face him. “Is that why you’ve got a crush on me?”

“Ah—” She tilted her head down, her hat hiding her face, and he pulled her closer.

“Pen.” He kept his voice light, teasing, but he was oddly eager to have her confirm that what she’d told his brother was true.

She tilted her face up to look at him. “You know you’re ridiculously charming.”

He grinned. “You sound grumpy about that.”

“Let’s just say I’m not exactly loving the fact that I seem to find myself on the verge of joining the Cole Sharpe fan club.”

“Resistance is futile,” he said. He started to dip down to kiss her, only to realize that kissing in baseball caps on a semicrowded sidewalk was logistically annoying.

He stood back up, his eyes locked on hers. “What day is it?”

“Sunday.”

Cole traced a finger along her cheekbone. “Which is the weekend.”

She smiled, and his finger dropped down to trace her mouth.

“It is,” she replied.

He swallowed, preparing to take a risk he hadn’t taken in a long, long time.

“My place is thirty minutes north of here.”

She hesitated, and his heart sank. She couldn’t have known, of course, that she was the first woman he’d invited back to his studio in years. Couldn’t have known how unusual it was that he wanted her to see it. To know all of him.

But it stung, all the same.

I don’t want a boyfriend.

Suddenly her emphatic and repeated statement was starting to feel a lot more like I don’t want you.

“The thing is, Cole…I’m pretty sure I smell like butter.”

He blinked down at her. “Butter?”

She glanced down. “It’s hard enough for me to feel sexy on a good day, but when I smell like a movie theater…”

Cole was torn between relief that she wasn’t rejecting him and the now familiar anger at her lack of self-esteem when it came to her appeal. But it didn’t feel right to bring that up—not here.

“I’ve got good news for you,” he said. Cole lifted her hand to his lips, and before he realized what he was doing, had pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

“What’s that?” she asked warily.

“The good news, my dear, is that I happen to like the taste of popcorn, almost as much as I like the taste of you.”

Her breath hitched a little, and he knew he had her.

“Come over?”

Her wide dark eyes went hazy. “Okay.”

Cole gave in to temptation then. Forgot about the whole kissing-in-hats-is-awkward thing.

He tilted his head and kissed her, and then lingered. And tried very hard to ignore the sudden, forbidden thought that he wished every day could be exactly like this one.

Chapter 19

The morning-after walk of shame was a new thing for Penelope, but luckily, she didn’t have to do it alone.

Cole wouldn’t hear about her walking home on her own, and since she refused to consider a cab on what was looking to be a gorgeous early-summer Monday morning, he walked her back to her place.

“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this five A.M. wake-up call,” Cole grumbled as he held the door at Starbucks open for her.

She stepped out onto the sidewalk and took a sip of her latte. “You know exactly why we’re doing this. I need to get home in time to shower before work, and someone refused to let me go home last night.”

“Tiny, the day I willingly let a naked woman leave my apartment after a world-class blow job is the day you should just euthanize me.”

Penelope started to tell herself not to blush at the memory of last night, only to find…she didn’t feel like blushing at all. She felt…like doing it all over again. Many times.

Next weekend, she told herself. You can do it next weekend.

Although, truth be told, her oh-so-smart plan of only having sex on weekends was starting to feel a bit silly.

What would be so wrong with doing this on a regular basis? The baseball games, followed by chatty family dinners. Followed by sex and cuddling and talking long into the night.

Followed by Starbucks runs and…

Holding hands.

Cole casually reached for her hand as they started their trek across Central Park back toward her place. She glanced up at him and he winked.

She could fall for this man. She could so fall for him.

“You’ve got your thinking face on, Tiny.”

“You make that sound like it’s a rare occasion,” she said.

“Let’s just say I like your sexy face better. Or your sports-watching one, where you bite your lip when the score gets close. Or basically, any of your looks that aren’t going to end up with you telling me we can’t have sex again for five days.”

And that, right there, was the problem.

For Cole, this was all about sex.

Sure, he liked her. She didn’t doubt that. But when she broke their rule and fell in love with him, it would be a disaster.

If, she mentally corrected herself. If she did that.

“Cole—”

He sighed. “Don’t do it, Tiny. Let’s just walk quietly and enjoy the rarity of having Central Park all to ourselves.”

They didn’t have it quite all to themselves. There were a handful of runners. An elderly couple. But for the most part, it was deserted, and lovely, with nothing but the rising sun and the blossoming trees, and—

Julie Greene?

A slim blond woman decked out in aqua running gear came to a stop before them, slightly out of breath.

Yep. It was definitely Julie of the Stiletto crew.

“Cole? Penelope?”

Julie glanced between the two of them in confusion. Then she gave Penelope a subtle once-over, and her confusion turned into a slow, sly smile, no doubt making the assumption that the hugely oversize T-shirt Penelope was wearing was Cole’s.

An assumption that would be correct.

Julie’s husband rounded a corner, paused slightly when he spotted them, then came to stand beside Julie.

“Good of you to catch up, sweetie,” Julie said, reaching over and patting his ass.

Mitchell gave her a look before reaching out and shaking Cole’s hand in greeting.

“You lapped her, huh?” Cole asked, jerking his chin at Julie.

Mitchell gave a slight smile that softened his otherwise harsh features. “A gentleman never tells.”

He didn’t have to. The fact that Julie was red-faced and panting, while her husband looked like he could run to California without breaking a sweat said it all.

Julie waggled a finger between Cole and Penelope. “So Penelope’s mussed hair tells me what you guys were doing last night, but what the heck are you doing this morning?”

“Some people like to get up early,” Mitchell told his wife.

“Nobody likes getting up early, Mitchell,” Julie retorted. “Nobody with a soul.”

“I’m walking Penelope back to her place,” Cole said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to accompany her from his place to hers in the early-morning hours. “She refused to take a cab. Something about fresh air and sunshine, blah blah blah.”

Mitchell nodded at Penelope approvingly and Julie rolled her eyes.

Penelope finally managed to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth. “Cole and I were just—we only sometimes—we—”

“Are having rather fantastic sex,” Cole completed for her.

“Cole!”

“What, like they didn’t know?” Cole said, pointing his coffee cup toward Julie and Mitchell.

Sure enough, Julie was grinning happily, and Mitchell gave her a little wink.

“It’s not serious,” Penelope heard herself say.

“Definitely not,” Cole said in agreement.

“Of course it isn’t,” Julie said soothingly. “Mitchell and I weren’t serious either.”

Then she not so subtly reached up with her left hand and scratched her nose, causing the diamond on her fourth finger to catch the light.

Cole narrowed his eyes slightly. “Well, Jules, I need to get Penelope home, so we’ll just leave you to your speed-walking, shall we?”

“I was running,” Julie said.

“Were you, babe?” Mitchell asked. “Were you really?”

Julie huffed and turned to Penelope. “Mitchell here is a running freak. I tag along sometimes, because he buys me a donut after.”

“I buy you a donut even when you don’t come running,” Mitchell said.

Julie patted her hip. “Which is exactly why I need to run some of the time. Calories burned, et cetera. Anyway, Penelope, we should grab lunch later. If you don’t have plans?”

“I’d like that,” Penelope said.

“Careful, Pen. She wants to interrogate you about how massive my dick is,” Cole said.

Penelope met Julie’s eyes and wiggled her eyebrows. “Are you free later today? Lots to talk about.”

Mitchell and Julie laughed, and Penelope glanced up to see Cole looking down at her. He wasn’t quite smiling, but his eyes were warm.

Which made her warm.

This whole thing was getting highly inconvenient.

Mitchell had his hand on Julie’s back, nudging her forward. “We’ll let you guys get going. Come on, Jules. Still have four miles to go.”

Julie’s mouth dropped open. “We do not. You promised we were only going to run five miles total.”

“We are,” Mitchell explained patiently. “You’ve only run one mile so far, so—”

“One mile! That’s all I’ve run? I married a monster!”

“See you later, Jules,” Cole called over his shoulder.

“If I’m even alive!” she called back. Then she sped up into a reluctant jog, cursing her husband in quiet, heartfelt oaths.

“I like her,” Penelope said, watching Mitchell and Julie run off.

Cole nodded. “Me too.”

“Do you think she’ll tell everyone else about, you know…us?”

“Oh definitely,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee as they resumed walking.

“You don’t seem to mind.”

“Why would I mind? We’re two healthy adults engaging in casual, consensual sex. I can’t think of a single reason why that should be a secret.”

“You make it sound so easy,” she muttered.

He looked down at her. “Isn’t it? What am I missing that makes it more complicated?”

Oh nothing. Just the itty-bitty, minor fact that I think I’m falling in love with you.

But she couldn’t. She’d promised.

Not just him, but herself. No more falling in love with men who don’t love you back.

She’d played fast and careless with her heart once, and the darn organ still felt like it had a hole in it.

Never again.

If she and Cole were going to do this, they stuck to the rules. Colleagues during the week, sex on the weekends if they felt like it.

And she definitely felt like it.

It would be enough. It had to.

But then he took her hand again and launched into a new idea he had for a spread on the top college football recruits, and Penelope decided to give herself the rest of the walk home to pretend that it could be like this every day.

It was the happiest ten minutes of her life.

Chapter 20

After rifling around in her purse without finding anything resembling a lipstick, Penelope dumped the contents on her desk.

Surely she had a lipstick in here. Any lipstick would do.

Of course, even if there were a lipstick tube mixed in with the tampons and pens and ever-growing assortment of tickets to various New York sports events, there was no guarantee that it wasn’t expired.

Did lipstick expire? It was stuff like this that Penelope had never thought to figure out. Most of the time she didn’t even think to put lipstick on, much less know where it was.

Cole Sharpe’s other women likely knew their way around lipstick. Take, for example, that gorgeous blonde with her tongue in Cole’s mouth whom she’d walked in on not so long ago…

Penelope pushed the thought aside. It was Monday. For today, and the next four days, Cole Sharpe was her colleague. He could kiss whomever he wanted.

And if that person wasn’t her, she’d splinter into a million pieces.

“No,” Penelope muttered to herself. “You are a strong, independent woman. You don’t need a man to complete you. You don’t need lipstick to be a better person.”

Which was a good thing. There was no lipstick anywhere in this mess of stuff. She’d just have to go to lunch with Julie Greene as she was.

At least she was wearing a dress today.

It was one of the few that she owned, but after her sleepover at Cole’s last night that involved, well, not much sleep, she’d been feeling feminine and pretty.

The light green sweater dress had called to her.

High heels, on the other hand, had not, but her comfy yellow flats worked with the dress. At least, she was pretty sure…

Penelope’s cell rang as she was in the process of putting everything back in her purse. She picked it up. “Hey, baby sister.”

Janie made a huffing noise on the other end. “Finally. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for over a week.”

Penelope felt a stab of guilt. “I know, I’m so sorry. Work’s been crazy, and Mom hogs all the phone time I do have. And Dad. Did you know he’s taking up fishing? Can we please veto that?”

“Working on it,” Janie said. “But why do I get the feeling you’re trying to change the subject? I’ve sort of been hoping there was a more interesting reason why you haven’t called me back. Maybe someone tall, dark, and handsome…”

Tall, blond, and handsome, actually.

The words didn’t come out. If she was going to tell anyone about the weird thing going on between her and Cole, it should Janie. But her sister would ask questions that Penelope didn’t know the answers to.

Or worse, questions she did know the answers to, but wasn’t ready to say out loud. Or in her head. Or at all.

“The new job has been crazy,” Penelope repeated instead.

Not a total lie. Even with Cole as co-editor, the fast-paced world of Oxford was more than enough to keep her busy.

“Tell me you love it,” Janie demanded. “It’s the only way I’m going to let you stay in New York instead of inciting you to get your tiny, cellulite-free butt back to Chicago where it belongs.”

“I do love it,” Penelope said, as she sat down in her chair. A quick glance at the clock told her she had a few minutes before she needed to head out to meet Julie for lunch. “New York’s…crazy. But good crazy.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Janie said. “But please, please tell me you booked your flight for Fourth of July. You know I’m no match for mom’s overindulgence with the red, white, and blue food coloring without you.”

“Yup, was going to do that today,” Penelope said, pulling a sticky pad to her and writing Book flight home.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to seeing her family in July. She missed them like crazy. It was just…

Well, oddly enough, Chicago didn’t feel as much like home as she thought it would at this stage.

It was like New York had very slowly, very subtly sunk its teeth into her.

Her phone beeped, and Penelope sighed. “Okay, there’s no way Mom doesn’t have some sort of radar for when we’re talking on the phone.”

She pulled her phone away from her face to check caller ID and froze.

It wasn’t her mom. Or her dad.

It was Evan.

What to do?

Her brain was screaming at her to ignore it. To send him straight to voicemail.

Her heart, on the other hand…

“Janie, I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you back this afternoon, I promise.”

Her sister was silent for a moment. “Sure, that’s fine, but…you okay?”

No. Not even close. Don’t let me do this.

“Yup, totally. Talk soon.”

She switched over to the other call before her sister could catch on to the fact that Penelope’s heartbeat was thumping in overdrive.

“Hello?”

“Now there’s a voice I haven’t heard in far too long,” said the gravelly voice on the other end of the line.

She’d always loved Evan Barstow’s voice. It was a shame his first passion was sportswriting, because he had an awesome radio voice.

“Hi, Evan.”

“How you doing, babe?”

She swallowed. He sounded so…casual. As though the last time they’d talked, she hadn’t been fighting back tears as he’d delivered a double whammy of I took your job, and Oh, by the way, that kiss you tried to plant on me was awkward because I’m seeing someone.

“I’m fine.” She cleared her throat. “I’m great.”

There, that was better. Less pathetic.

“How’s the New York freelance world treating you?”

“Actually, not doing that anymore. I took another job, with Oxford magazine.”

He paused. “The men’s magazine?”

“Yup.” The massive, household-name magazine, she silently added.

“Wow, that’s fucking awesome. Although they don’t have much in sports, if I remember correctly. A couple pages. You doing cologne reviews now or something?”

He laughed at his own joke, and her jaw clenched. Had he always been such a jerk? “Actually, they’ve recently decided to overhaul and expand their sports section, and brought me in to oversee the project.”

It was only a partial truth, since technically she shared the job, but she didn’t feel particularly bad about the semi-fib.

“How are things with you?” she asked.

“Good. They’re really good. Busy, which is actually why I’m calling, got a favor.”

Any hope that he might be calling to apologize went out the window. Of course he needed something.

She didn’t say anything, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Sportiva is looking to expand into New York, and they’re sending me out there to sort of do an initial scouting session. Knowing you, you probably did a ton of research about the New York sports scene before moving out there…”

Which you well know since you stole the last research I did.

“I was thinking I could take you out to dinner. Pick your brain a little.”

Penelope wanted to say no. Wanted to tell him to go to hell.

And yet, it felt…petty.

Plus, she wanted to prove—especially to herself—that she was over Evan Barstow, and the only way to do that…

“When are you coming out?” she asked reluctantly.

“Friday, actually.”

She blinked. “This Friday?”

“I know it’s last-minute, but figured, why wait, and…”

“Are you coming alone?”

There was a brief pause, and Penelope squeezed her eyes shut at what the question betrayed. “I mean, is Caleb or anyone coming with you or…”

“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “No, just me. Been getting used to my alone time now that I’m single again.”

Boom. There it was.

Evan Barstow was single. And coming to New York. And wanted to see her.

And…

She didn’t care.

Did she?

“Well, it’d be nice to see you,” she said. “Maybe we could grab dinner on Friday when you get in?”

“Absolutely,” he said. She didn’t think she was imagining the relief in his voice, and it warmed her a little to think that he might have been nervous about calling her.

“Look, I’ve got to get going. I have a lunch meeting, but text me your flight details, ’kay?”

“Absolutely, will do. And Penelope—”

She stilled.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and muttered an awkward goodbye before hanging up the phone.

Penelope gathered her bag to go meet Julie in the lobby, when all of a sudden she skidded to a halt.

Evan was flying in Friday.

He’d be here all weekend.

Except weekend days were her and Cole’s time, which meant…

She didn’t know what any of it meant.

“Freaking great,” she muttered to herself. “Well done, Pope.”

How was it that she’d gone from a chronic state of no men to all of a sudden having two to contend with?

A minute later, Penelope was scanning the lobby for Julie, when inspiration struck.

Julie…She would definitely know what to do.

“Whoa,” Julie said, holding up a hand as Penelope came to a stop in front of her. “Can we talk about your scowl for a second?”

“Sorry,” Penelope said with a sheepish smile.

“Don’t apologize. Tell me everything,” Julie said, linking her arm with Penelope’s and pulling her toward the door. “I know that scowl. It’s about a man. And considering I saw you wearing Cole Sharpe’s T-shirt at five-thirty in the morning…”

“Um…”

“Hold that thought until we’re sitting down,” Julie said.

Penelope let Julie lead her to a nearby Italian restaurant, and true to her word, Julie waited until they were seated and sipping iced tea before she dove in.

“Mitchell gave me explicit orders not to bug you about this, but since I never listen to my husband, I’ve got to ask…what is going on with you and delicious Cole? Are you going to have his babies? Can I be godmother? Or at least come to the wedding?”

Penelope searched Julie’s face for any sign of incredulity. Any hint of disbelief that someone like Cole would be interested in someone like Penelope.

Instead she saw only girlish curiosity.

“Come on, Pen,” Julie said, reaching for a piece of bread. “I’m an old married woman. Give me something juicy to work with.”

“Uh-huh,” Penelope said drily. “You forget that I’ve seen you and Mitchell together. The two of you set off fireworks every time you come into contact.”

Julie dunked her bread in olive oil before popping it into her mouth and chewing happily. “It’s a burden I must bear, being married to a gorgeous man I adore.”

Their server came by to take their order, and both women opted for the mushroom ravioli special with truffle butter sauce, because, as Julie pointed out, the only thing better than truffles was butter, and vice versa.

“Okay,” Penelope said, taking a deep breath when they were alone again. “You want to know what’s going on with me and Cole.”

“I do,” Julie said plainly. “But only if you want to share. If it’s private, just say the word and I’ll never breathe another word about it.”

Penelope appreciated that Julie was giving her an out, and was on the verge of taking the other woman up on it…but then she surprised herself. Because suddenly she did want to talk about it. Wanted to talk about how he made her laugh, and how great the sex was, and how sweet he was around his brother….

Julie’s smile was slow and happy. “You like him.”

Penelope sighed. “I’m pretty sure it’s impossible not to like him.”

Julie nodded sympathetically. “Cole’s always been one of those guys. I doubt he can even get on the subway without someone falling in love with him. Lincoln too.”

Penelope nodded, although, much as she liked Lincoln Mathis, gorgeous smile and all, she didn’t have a problem avoiding falling in love with him.

Cole, though…

“See, that’s sort of my problem,” Penelope said, fiddling with her napkin. “Everyone falls in love with Cole. I don’t doubt that. But, um, see, nobody ever falls in love with me.”

“Penelope!” Julie’s voice was half shocked, half chiding.

“I know, I know. Believe it or not, I do hear myself. I hear the pathetic, poor-me thing I have going on, and I’m not proud of it. It’s just—”

Penelope broke off and Julie reached across the table and gently touched the back of her hand. “Sweetie, does this have to do with that guy? That asshole who stole your job?”

Penelope groaned. “He’s coming to New York. And for the life of me, I don’t know if I’m supposed to avoid him, or play it cool, or get a makeover to show him what he’s missing, or if I should tell him off, or—”

Julie pursed her lips. “Okay. Okay, let’s work through this. How much time do we have?”

Penelope smiled at Julie’s use of we. The woman barely knew her, and already she was treating Penelope like an old friend.

“This weekend. He gets in Friday.”

Julie whistled, only it wasn’t a very good whistle and came out as an awkward breath. “That doesn’t give us much time for a plan.”

“Tell me about it,” Penelope said, gnawing at a piece of bread.

“Okay, well, let me ask this,” Julie said hesitantly. “Are you…over him? Truly.”

Penelope paused in her chewing. “I have no idea. No freaking idea. I know that I should be over him. I know that only a fool wouldn’t be. But…”

“But the heart is sometimes foolish,” Julie said. “I get it. I totally get it.”

“So…any ideas?” Penelope asked with a smile.

Julie was quiet for several moments, a speculative look on her face as she tapped her fingers on the table.

“Why, yes, actually. Just one idea, but it’s a very, very good one.”

Chapter 21

Later that afternoon, Cole knocked on Cassidy’s door.

“Boss. You wanted to see me?”

Cassidy glanced up from his computer. “Yeah. Cole, come in.”

Cole came into the office, planting himself in the chair across from Cassidy as he had dozens of times in the past.

“What’s up?”

Cassidy leaned back in his chair. “Just wanted to see how things are going. I think I talk to you less since you’ve become my employee than when you were a contractor.”

“That’s because you work your employees to the bone,” Cole said. “I barely find time to eat.”

“Hmm,” Cassidy said, folding his hands, resting them against his lips, and staring at Cole. “And yet you do find time to have sex with your co-editor.”

Shit.

“Ahhhhh—”

Cassidy let out a rare laugh. “I wish I had a camera. I believe this is the first time I’ve ever caught you at a loss for words.”

“How the hell did you find out so fast?” Cole said, unable to keep the slightly sheepish note out of his voice. As he’d told Pen this morning, he wasn’t ashamed of sleeping with her, but he didn’t exactly love the fact that their boss knew about it.

“Please. Everyone knew about thirty seconds after Julie got back from her run,” Jake Malone said from the doorway.

Cole mentally calculated how painfully slow Julie Greene’s running pace was. “So, noon?” he asked.

Jake entered the office and plopped into the chair beside Cole. It was a familiar scene. How many times had he and Jake sat in this exact spot, giving Cassidy shit about anything and everything?

But this time, it wasn’t Cassidy getting the shit. Judging from the smirks on both of his friends’ faces, they were gearing up to make Cole’s life miserable.

And not just them.

A strange wheeling noise sounded from the hallway, and Cole shifted to see Lincoln scoot his way into Cassidy’s office while still seated in his office chair.

“Seriously, dude?” Jake asked. “You wheeled in here? Nobody does that past the age of eight on Take Your Kid to Work Day.”

Lincoln shrugged as he shuffled his feet, scooting forward until his chair was on the other side of Cole’s. “What? Cassidy only has two chairs, so I brought my own.”

“For what?” Cole asked. “Group therapy? Why do I get the feeling this doesn’t have to do with my work on the actual magazine?”

“Because that would be boring,” Lincoln said.

Cole glanced to his right and gave Lincoln a once-over. “Dude, are you wearing a pink tie?”

Lincoln glanced down. “I rock it. You know I do.”

Cole rolled his eyes. Lincoln did kind of rock it. When you’re built like Superman, you could get away with wearing just about whatever the fuck you wanted.

“So, you’re sleeping with Penelope,” Jake said in a soothing, therapist kind of voice.

Cole glanced around. “Everyone knows, huh?”

“Definitely,” Lincoln said. “I’d say it became common knowledge that you wanted her right about the time you bit my head off for kissing her—”

“No, before that,” Cassidy broke in. “He definitely wanted to sleep with her that first night he saw her at the Yankees game. He just didn’t know it yet.”

Cole settled back in his chair, and wiggled his fingers in a Come on motion. “Keep this coming, all good stuff. Very helpful to know who I want to sleep with, and when.”

“Lincoln, shut the door,” Cassidy said.

Lincoln rolled backward, still refusing to get off the chair.

“I can’t imagine why Penelope chose me over you,” Cole muttered. “You’re so mature.”

Cassidy cleared his throat. “Our boy Cole here’s put us in a weird position by hitting on one of our colleagues. And I know you all respect Penelope as a co-worker as much as I respect her as my employee.”

Everyone nodded, even as Cole tensed for what Cassidy’s next words were going to be.

“But for the next five minutes, all discussion of Penelope Pope is as our friend, and Cole’s girlfriend—”

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “She’s not my—”

Cassidy cut him with a glance. “Save it, Sharpe. After those five minutes are up, we go back to thinking of her as co-editor of the sports section. Understood? Respectful-like.”

“Roger,” Lincoln said. “Copy that.”

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” Jake said, leaning forward. “Penelope has an, um, friend coming into town this weekend.”

Cole’s head whipped around. “What?”

How did Jake know this, and he didn’t? Also, this weekend? That was supposed to be their time to, well…get naked.

And what friend? She’d mentioned a handful of girlfriends from back in Chicago, but why would these guys care about that?

“It’s a former co-worker,” Cassidy added.

“And you knew about this too?” Cole said, unable to hold back a glare at his boss.

Lincoln spun around in a circle in his chair. “Penelope had lunch with Julie. Julie went back to the Stiletto office and filled in Grace, so Jake knows, and Emma, so Cassidy knows.”

Jake, Cassidy, and Cole all stared at Lincoln. “And how do you know this?”

“Because I was also in the Stiletto offices,” Lincoln said, as though it were obvious that he’d been hanging out in the offices of a women’s magazine.

“Explain?” Jake asked Lincoln.

“I’m hooking up with one of the girls in the Beauty department. I saw Julie and Riley whispering, and they filled me in.”

Cole scratched his nose. “You know this whole thing is fucked up, right? Jake being married to a Stiletto gal, Cassidy being almost married to one…Lincoln sleeping with everyone who’s left over…”

“Yes, well, you’re hardly one to talk about mixing relationships and the workplace,” Cassidy said. “But back to the point—”

“So there is a point?” Cole asked.

“Can I be the one to tell him?” Lincoln asked, raising his hand.

Cassidy nodded and muttered Your funeral under his breath.

“So,” Lincoln said to Cole. “Penelope’s friend is of the male variety.”

Cole froze. “Don’t tell me it’s Ivan. No, Eric. No—”

“Evan,” Jake said.

Cole felt a flash of rage followed by a stab of glee that the man who’d stolen Penelope’s job was going to be within arm’s reach so that Cole could kick his ass.

But immediately following the rush of masculine protectiveness was a surge of jealousy.

Cole thought back to his and Penelope’s first conversation about this Evan guy. It hadn’t just been about the job. She’d had feelings for him.

Back then, he’d barely known her, and hadn’t really cared.

But Cole sure as fuck cared now.

“When?” Cole ground out. “When does he get here exactly?”

“Friday,” Lincoln said. “And according to Riley, who talked to Grace, who talked to Julie, she’s freaking out about it.”

“Which is where you come in,” Jake said.

Cole gave them all a wary glance. “Am I going to like this?”

“Well, now, that depends,” Cassidy said, giving a quick study to his cuticles. “Exactly how serious were you when you said Penelope isn’t your girlfriend?”

Chapter 22

Other than meetings where they’d both been in attendance, Penelope hadn’t seen Cole all day.

She told herself it was no big deal. That it was the way things were supposed to be.

Colleagues only from Monday through Friday, remember?

But at six o’clock, just as she was loading up her laptop and preparing to head home for a quiet night with takeout and Edgar the goldfish, Cole appeared in her office doorway.

And call her crazy…but her heart flipped over.

Once. Twice. Okay, fine, her heart flipped over and over and over again for Cole Sharpe.

Crap.

But Penelope refused to take full accountability for her fluttery reaction. Cole was at least 80 percent responsible, especially when he had his suit jacket slung over his shoulder all sexy-like, looking at her with a combination of heat and affection.

“Hey!” she said.

His smile was slow and intimate. As though he knew exactly what she was thinking, and that the thoughts weren’t particularly pure. “Hey back.”

“I thought you’d gone for the night.”

He pushed away from the doorjamb, shifting the strap of his briefcase higher on his shoulder. “Thought we could grab a drink.”

She hesitated for only a half second.

What was the harm? Other than the not so tiny fact that her heart could get broken, that is.

“A drink would be great,” she said, unable to stop the happy smile.

He smiled back and Penelope silently scolded her heart for lighting up the way it did.

Cole Sharpe smiles like that for all women, she reminded herself.

But when they stepped out of their building, and he rested his hand lightly—casually—on the small of her back, it didn’t feel like she was just any woman. It felt like she was his woman.

“How do you feel about fancy cocktails?” Cole asked as he led her south.

“Depends. If they have whiskey in them, I feel favorable.”

Cole laid a hand over his heart. “I do believe my ticker just skipped a beat.”

She smiled. “That’s all it takes, huh? A girl who likes bourbon?”

“I’m not shallow, Pen. The girl has to like baseball and bourbon.”

“Well, then, I’m your girl.”

“Yeah, you are,” he said with a quick grin.

Penelope’s heart did some more acrobatics, but before she could dwell on his words, Cole shifted conversation to work stuff, and Penelope marveled at just how easy it all was, transitioning from colleague, to friend, to lover and back again. It was precisely the type of thing that should be complicated, but with Cole, it felt wonderfully simple.

Penelope scrunched her nose in confusion as he led her toward Grand Central. Did their drinks involve getting on a train?

Instead of entering the main terminal, he led her around to a side door and up a handful of steps to a dimly lit bar. A pretty blond hostess in a black cocktail dress and pearls waited with a polite smile; Frank Sinatra played in the background.

“Where are we?” she whispered quietly as the hostess led them up a staircase to the balcony overlooking the main bar. “And what year, nineteen twenty?”

“The Campbell Apartment,” Cole said, “one of my favorite places in the city.”

“I can see why,” Penelope said as they were seated. “It’s gorgeous.”

“Apparently it used to be some guy named Campbell’s office back in the day. Personally, I like it better as a bar.”

Penelope glanced around at the sexy, dim lighting and the well-dressed patrons. “Dang. Some office.”

“You should bring your friend here this weekend,” Cole said, without looking up from the cocktail menu.

“I should,” Penelope said distractedly. “Evan would—”

Wait. Wait a darn minute.

“How did you know I have a friend coming into town?”

Cole grinned and set the menu aside. “Really? You haven’t figured out the delights of being part of the strange Stiletto/Oxford web?”

Penelope could only shake her head in wonder. “Julie. She moves fast.”

A cocktail waitress appeared at their table, wearing the same elegant black dress and pearls as the hostess had, only this one filled out the top part of the dress in an Are those real? kind of way.

Penelope didn’t miss the way the stunning redhead seemed a little more interested in helping Cole pick out his cocktail than hers, but Penelope didn’t hold it against her. Penelope couldn’t blame the woman, really. Especially with his tie just slightly loosened, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his smile doing that slow, panty-melty thing.

Cole opted for a cocktail called the Commodore, while Penelope stuck with a trusty Manhattan.

“Okay, so, about your friend,” Cole said once Booby Redhead had moved away. “I was thinking…I could tag along?”

Penelope leaned forward with a smile. “It wouldn’t happen that somebody planted that idea in your head, now, would it? Because this seems to be very similar to a plan I hatched with Julie just this afternoon.”

Cole let out a little laugh and held up his hands. “Guilty. But I confess, I was prepared to have to talk you into it.”

“Why? I’m the one who needs the favor.”

“I guess I just thought you’d try to play it like you didn’t need help.”

“Oh, I need help. I so need help.”

Cole’s smile slipped a little at her admission, and his eyes went serious. “So you and this guy…”

“Evan.”

His jaw moved just slightly, and when he spoke again his voice was more gravelly than before. “You and this Evan. What exactly happened between you?”

“I’ve already told you.”

“I know the details of the asshole stealing your job. I want to know the sexy parts.”

“There are no sexy parts,” she grumbled. “That was kind of the problem.”

Cole winced. “I can’t believe I’m actually asking to hear about you and another guy, but…short version. I need the details if I’m going to pull this off this weekend.”

“Short version? I thought I was in love with him. Maybe I actually was, I don’t know. And I was so ready to tell him. I’d just nailed my interview with Sportiva—or so I thought—and I was feeling very confident. I thought it was my time, you know. The moment where my life quit being average. I was going to tell Evan I felt…”

“Did you sprinkle rose petals on the bed?” he asked sympathetically.

She laughed. “Just about. I went over to his place to watch a game, the way we had a hundred times before, and I just…I don’t know, I wanted to be spontaneous, so as soon as he opened the door, I kissed him.”

Cole said nothing and Penelope forced herself to tell the rest of the story. “He didn’t kiss me back. And by the time it all registered, there was this other woman there in the background sort of smirking at me….”

“Ah,” Cole said knowingly.

“Yeah.”

She let out a little groan. “The thing is, I should have seen it coming. Guys like Evan Barstow don’t go for plain girls like Penelope Pope.”

Cole stared at her. “Did you just call yourself plain?”

“Well, you know what I mean. Nonflashy.”

As though proving her point, the stunning waitress came back over to deliver their drinks, and the eyes of every man in the room followed her.

Every man but Cole. He gave her a distracted thank-you without even glancing at the woman’s wares that were so blatantly on display.

Instead he seemed focused only on Penelope.

He leaned forward slightly. “You’re not plain, Pope. And in case I haven’t said it before, you have the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen.”

She blinked at him. “My eyes?”

He gave a smile that verged on embarrassed. “I know it sounds like a line. But, swear to God, those damn big brown eyes get me every time.”

Penelope had no words to describe how she felt just then. Sometimes happy simply didn’t cut it.

Cole lifted his drink in a toast. “So whaddya say? Let me tag along this weekend? Remind you of all the reasons I’m a far better choice than this Evan asshole?”

She hesitated slightly. “Cole, if we do this, it would only be pretend. I’m still not sure I’m ready for an actual boyfriend.”

Not until I know this can last.

Something flitted across his face, but it was gone before she could identify it.

“I haven’t forgotten the rules,” he said quietly. “No falling in love. Weekends only.”

Penelope smiled. “And yet today is Monday.”

“True, but we’re both fully clothed, so, in theory, this could just be two drinks between co-workers.”

She took a sip of her drink. This didn’t feel like drinks between co-workers. It felt like…more.

“Tiny, do me a favor,” Cole said, watching her with a slight smile.

“Hmm?”

“Quit overthinking everything, would you? For tonight, let’s just be Penelope and Cole. Free of labels. Let’s see how that goes.”

She took a deep breath.

Here was a guy—an insanely good-looking guy—asking her to spend an evening with him. No strings attached. Just fancy cocktails, a sexy bar, and companionship.

“All right,” she said slowly. “No labels.”

“Good girl. Now, there’s something I’ve been waiting to discuss ever since our sales meeting this morning. You did hear that the Adam Bailey issue is likely to be one of our bestselling issues ever?”

Penelope narrowed her eyes and took another sip of her Manhattan. “Mm-hmm. I was there. Saw the numbers.”

He twirled a lock of his hair and batted his eyelashes before pitching his voice into a high, feminine squeak. “I was there, Cole, I saw the numbers, and I just want to take this opportunity to tell you that you were right about Adam Bailey being the right cover choice, and you’re so wise and brilliant—”

Penelope gaped. “Wait. Was that supposed to be me?”

He dropped his hand. “Was it not spot-on?”

“Well, considering I’ve never twirled my hair in my life, don’t know how to bat my eyelashes, and surely my voice doesn’t sound like a cartoon mouse—”

“Details. All details. Just say it, Tiny. Say I was right, and that Adam Bailey was an excellent idea.”

She gave him a slow smile. “You were right. Adam Bailey was an excellent idea.”

He opened his mouth, then narrowed his eyes. “Wait a minute. Wait just a damn minute. I know that tone. When you and Adam Bailey went for drinks after the photo shoot, it was just drinks, right?”

“No labels tonight, Cole. That means you don’t get to ask that. We’re just Penelope and Cole, remember?”

His scowl only deepened. “Well, fine, from unlabeled Cole to unlabeled Penelope…did you hook up with Adam Bailey?”

“I never kiss and tell,” she said, surprising herself by the saucy, confident note in her voice.

Cole frowned and fell uncharacteristically silent, but he let himself be coaxed out of his bad mood. She seriously doubted this man had ever had a bad mood that lasted for more than two minutes. They chatted about anything and everything, until one drink turned into two, and then two drinks turned into stopping for dinner on the way home.

By the time they were on their way back to her place, she was just happy-buzzy enough not to freak out about the fact that he was holding her hand. Or that he occasionally bent to kiss the top of her head.

Or that, if they were to apply labels to the evening, romantic was the first word that came to mind.

Romantic and sweet.

They stopped outside her apartment, and Penelope realized it was the moment of truth. It was Monday, which meant…no sexy time. And yet, they’d already crossed all sorts of other lines today, what with the hand-holding and the flirting…

“Do you know that we were standing in this very spot the first time I kissed you?” he said, pulling her around to face him.

She smiled. “Hard to forget a perfect kiss in the gently falling snow.”

He didn’t smile back. “Perfect kiss, huh? That why you kicked me to the curb after?”

Her stomach twisted. “Cole, I—”

He took a step forward, his hand resting against her cheek. “Let’s forget about the way that one ended. I vote for a do-over.”

His mouth melted against hers, and she sighed.

There was no snow this time, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Cole, the warmth of his hand, the heat of his kiss. The way his tongue flicked out to touch hers as though he needed the taste of her.

He pulled back slowly, his thumb rubbing against her cheek as he held her gaze. “Those damn eyes of yours,” he said roughly. “They undo me.”

Penelope made her decision. “Do you want to come up?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s Monday.”

“It is, but, um, do you want to come up?” she repeated.

He tenderly ran a finger along her hairline. “So badly, but—”

“But?”

He grinned wickedly and leaned down to kiss her nose. “You hold back from me more easily than I’d like, Penelope Pope. I want you begging for me. No matter what day of the week.”

“Wait, so you’re walking away?” she asked, unable to keep the glumness from her voice.

“Only for tonight. Gotta give you a chance to see how you feel about that.”

He gave her one last wink before he walked away into the night—whistling, for God’s sake—and Penelope realized that she didn’t need a chance to explore how she felt about his leaving.

She felt horribly, painfully empty.

Chapter 23

Cole was 110 percent prepared to hate Evan Barstow.

Not just because of the sketchy way the man had gotten his new job, although stealing someone’s portfolio and presenting it as your own was Villainy 101.

No, what really pissed Cole off about this Evan character wasn’t what he’d done to Penelope’s career but what he’d done to her heart. That Evan had been dumb enough to choose another woman when he had Penelope Pope standing right in front of him.

Moron.

Still, Evan’s loss was Cole’s gain, so Cole was determined to at least pretend to be civil.

But halfway through dinner, Cole’s resolve to play nice was weakening.

Because Penelope was playing too nice, considering how the man had treated her. And considering that she was supposed to be dating Cole.

Granted, his being her boyfriend was a lie. As she’d pointed out at least a half dozen times in the past week, Cole wasn’t actually her boyfriend.

Fine.

Cole had absolutely zero qualms about lying to this son-of-a-bitch for the sake of Penelope’s pride. He was doing a damn good job with his lie. He’d held doors for her, dropped plenty of casual, possessive touches, called her sweetie.

But too late, Cole was realizing that the charade they were putting on for the sake of Penelope’s pride was having a disastrous effect on Cole’s own ego.

This whole thing made absolutely zero fucking sense. Cole had spent most of his adult life avoiding serious relationships. He didn’t have time for his career and Bobby and a woman.

So why did it bother him so much that the only way Penelope would think of him as a boyfriend was if it was pretend?

And why did he want to punch Evan in the face every time he was on the receiving end of one of her smiles?

“So how long are you here, Ev?” Penelope said as she took a bite of fish.

“Just until Sunday for this trip,” Evan said, leaning back in his chair. “But I’m planning on making quite a few New York trips in the near future.”

Penelope nodded at this, seemingly preoccupied with her dinner, but Cole was watching the other man. Noted the way Evan’s eyes lingered speculatively on Penelope, as though she were part of some grand master plan.

Evan Barstow was a good-looking dude.

This alone didn’t bother Cole. What bothered him was that Evan looked an awful lot like Cole.

Evan was bulkier. And maybe an inch taller. But the dark blond hair was similar in both color and cut. Brown eyes, like Cole’s. The rest of his features a little closer to Cole’s than he’d like. Plus, they were both sportswriters….

Cole was struck with an obnoxious thought: What if he was some sort of look-alike rebound?

Was Penelope still so hung up on this asshole that she’d settled for the closest New York version she could find?

The thought burned.

“So, how long have you two been a thing?” Evan asked, transferring his gaze to Cole.

“Not long,” Penelope said quickly, before Cole could answer.

Cole stifled a surge of frustration. What was the point of them playing this little game if she was all but waving the available flag at Evan?

“And you met at work?” Evan asked.

“Penelope and I applied for the same job,” Cole said before Penelope could answer.

Sound familiar? he silently added.

“Oh yeah? How’d that work out?” Evan said with an uninterested little laugh, as though he hadn’t once applied for the same job as Penelope.

Cole slowly, deliberately reached around the back of Penelope’s chair, and rested his hand on the nape of her neck, as he turned to stare at her adoringly.

“I’d say it worked out pretty damn well.”

She glanced at Cole and gave a nervous little laugh. “We both ended up getting offered the job, actually. Co-editors.”

“Huh,” Evan said noncommittally.

“You two used to work together, yeah?” Cole asked, faking ignorance.

Penelope stiffened slightly under his hand, and he rubbed his thumb along the nape of her neck. Trust me.

“Yeah, for a while,” Evan said, taking a sip of his wine.

“And now you work for…refresh my memory on the company name?”

“Sportiva,” Evan said.

Cole frowned, feigning confusion as he kept his gaze locked on Evan. “Sportiva. Wait, Tiny, wasn’t that the company you interviewed for?”

There was a beat of silence before Evan gave a nervous laugh.

Cole looked at Penelope to find her giving him a back off glare.

He glared back, trying to silently communicate. Come on, Penelope. Stand up for yourself. What are we doing here if not to put this asshole in his place?

She merely looked away, licking her lips nervously. “Yeah. I applied.”

Evan set his wineglass down, and his expression went from nervous to earnest. “Actually, Pen, I wanted to talk to you about that.” He shifted his gaze just briefly to Cole. “Maybe later this weekend we can get some time to chat?”

Oh, hell no.

Penelope was silent for several moments. Then, “Sure. Okay.”

Cole’s gaze whipped back toward her. What the fuck?

But she wasn’t even looking at him. She and Evan were locked in some silent bubble of communication with Cole on the outside.

And it fucking blew.

Cole’s grip tightened on his wineglass as he tried to tell himself that it didn’t bother him, but fuck, of course it bothered him.

He wasn’t her boyfriend—he got that. But he treated her a hell of a lot better than this asshole.

He cared about her. A lot.

Just as Cole was wondering if he should make an excuse to leave the table before he made a fool of himself, he felt the soft brush of fingers against the back of his hand. Felt as her hand slid against his until they were palm to palm.

She turned her head then, meeting his eyes, smiling shyly as she linked her fingers with his.

He couldn’t look away, even though he knew this small woman could crack his heart in half.

Aw fuck, Sharpe, you are in so much trouble.

She gave him a thoughtful look and then turned back to Evan. “Actually, Ev, I’m busy the rest of this weekend.”

Cole’s heart beat faster, wondering if he’d heard her correctly, and she squeezed his hand.

“Come on, Pen, it’s just—”

“If there’s something to say, you can say it now,” Penelope interrupted Evan in a quiet, firm voice.

The subtext of Penelope’s statement was clear: You are not worth a second more of my time.

Cole wanted to slow clap.

Evan’s smile faltered. “It’s, um…I was hoping we could talk, just the two of us.”

Penelope shrugged. “You lost that right when you used me to get ahead in your career.”

The other man’s laugh was nervous. “Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. I need to apologize—”

“Accepted,” she said.

Both Cole and Evan looked at her in shock.

She gave a little shrug. “I’ve wasted enough time on you, Evan. You screwed up. You treated me badly. I can continue to hang on to the anger and hurt or…I can move on.”

Evan started to reach across the table toward her, then caught sight of Cole’s glare and thought better of it. “Pen, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed us—”

She held up her free hand—the one that wasn’t linked with Cole’s—and stopped the other man’s words.

“Hold on, Ev, just because I forgive you doesn’t mean we’re going back to the way things were. Even if I were still in Chicago, we can’t go back. You’re not my colleague anymore and you’re certainly not my friend. I don’t know that you ever were.”

Evan swallowed, looking increasingly panicked now. “I dumped Tara because of you. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Cole cleared his throat pointedly, but Evan ignored him.

She shrugged again. “That’s not my problem, Evan.”

Evan gave a small smile, which Cole supposed was intended to look regretful but instead looked smarmy. “Come on, Pen. Give me a second chance. I deserve at least one more. Three strikes you’re out, and all that.”

Cole tensed. Enough with this bullshit. Cole enjoyed a sports reference as much as the next guy, but this was too much. Treating relationships like a game. Treating Penelope’s heart like it was some field to be navigated…

Cole wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Barstow, the job you stole from Penelope pays well, right?”

Evan blinked. “Um, what?”

“Good,” Cole said, as though the other man had responded affirmatively. “Then you won’t mind paying? I think we’re done here.”

Cole held out a hand to Penelope, his heart silently begging her not to reject it.

She placed her hand in his.

Placed her trust in him.

Penelope stood. “Goodbye, Evan.”

Cole listened carefully for any sign of misplaced regret in her voice and was relieved to hear nothing but finality.

They walked hand in hand from the restaurant, not bothering to turn around to see if Evan Barstow was sputtering about being stuck with the check or whether he was sitting there in shock.

Cole didn’t really give a fuck.

He’d done what he’d come here to do. He’d helped free Penelope from the past that was holding her back from knowing how fucking amazing she was.

They didn’t speak as they exited the restaurant. Cole hailed a cab, but after giving the driver Penelope’s address, he felt uncharacteristically at a loss for words, so they said nothing.

He had no idea what the next move was here. They’d all but wiped the floor with Evan, yet there was another hurdle ahead of them tonight. A more important one than the shadowy asshole in Penelope’s past.

How had Cole not realized that tonight wasn’t about Evan? Not really.

Tonight was about them—about him and Penelope.

They hadn’t slept together since before his completely idiotic idea to hold back from her until she reached for him—wanted him.

So far, his plan was backfiring. Penelope had been friendly all week, but she’d hardly been hurling her naked body at him in darkened corners.

What did he even want from her?

Suddenly Cole felt tired. Bone-tired in that way one gets when one desperately wants something that seems to be getting farther and farther away by the minute.

Something he didn’t know how to ask for. Something important.

Wordlessly they emerged from the car, walking side by side, before stopping in the familiar spot. The same place where he’d kissed her, twice now.

Cole tried to think of some clever quip about déjà vu, but he had nothing.

All he wanted was to pull her toward him—to kiss her until she begged him to take her upstairs. But he knew all too well how kissing Penelope on the sidewalk turned out. He ended up walking away with blue balls and, more recently, a pain in his chest.

She seemed to sense his mood, because her happy smile had faded slightly. “Hey, so, thanks for tonight. I’m sure it wasn’t your favorite way to spend a Friday night—”

“It was fine.”

“Cole, people only say ‘fine’ when things are anything but.”

“I had a good time,” he said slowly. “Really.”

“But…?” she prompted.

He could only stare at her. What could he possibly say?

That he hated that the only reason she’d brought him along tonight was to make Evan jealous? That he hated the fact that she had to be coaxed into hanging out with him, and sleeping with him and kissing him…

“But nothing, Tiny,” he said with a quiet sigh. He stepped closer, wrapping his hands around her upper arms and pulling her up slightly so he could press his lips to her forehead. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay,” she said slowly. She sounded confused.

You and me both, darling.

He gave her a wink, figuring he could at least try to act like himself, and then he walked away, wondering if he should stop for a drink on the way home. Wondered if he could muster any kind of interest in a woman. Maybe one who actually wanted—

“Cole!”

He turned, saw Penelope racing toward him. It was a full-out run too. Full speed, so that he had to brace himself for impact, supporting her small body as she collided with his.

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Cole froze. It was the first time Penelope had initiated a kiss, and the shock of it had him rooted to the spot, until slowly he wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her against him.

Her fingers tangled in his hair as she kissed him with artless enthusiasm. She pulled back, giving him one last nipping kiss before digging her fingers into his hair and pulling his face down to look at hers.

“The other day you told me that you wanted me to beg for you. Any day of the week.”

He said nothing. He waited.

“This is me. Begging.”

Cole couldn’t help the brief laugh at the simple calmness of her voice. “Yeah, you sound really desperate there, Tiny.”

She smiled and rested her hands against his chest. “Give me a break; I’m just now finding out that I’m not in love with the guy I thought.”

Cole’s heart stopped for a moment, but he forced his voice to stay calm. “Oh yeah?”

She fiddled with the button of his shirt, not quite meeting his eye. “I’m not saying I wasn’t in love with him once. But tonight, I was braced for the usual agony when I looked at Evan and remembered all the ways he broke my heart….”

“And?”

“I wasn’t thinking about any of that. It seems my mind kept drifting to other places.” Penelope looked up. “Other people. One in particular.”

His hands slid up her back. “Is that so?”

She shrugged. “What can I say? You look really good naked.”

“You know, this speech would have been more effective on a Tuesday. Seeing as it’s Friday, you had a pretty good chance of getting laid anyway.”

“Didn’t seem that way when you were walking away,” she said quietly.

“My mistake,” he whispered, leaning down to brush his lips against hers.

“So you wanna come up?”

“Fuck yes I want to come up.”

Chapter 24

It was strange.

She and Cole had done this several times now. Hot sex. Raunchy sex. Playful sex.

Great sex.

But tonight, as they stood facing each other with only the streetlight from her window illuminating her bedroom, it felt different.

Special.

Important.

She didn’t want it to be important. She wanted it to be spontaneous, and fun, and safe, and—

Penelope’s thoughts scattered as Cole slowly, methodically unbuttoned his dress shirt, and tossed it aside.

His eyes never left hers as he kicked off his shoes and then stripped off the rest of his clothes.

Her mouth dropped open at his boldness, and he smiled. “You did say you liked me naked.”

She tried to speak, but her mouth was dry.

He stepped forward and rested his hands on her waist before dipping his head and brushing his lips along the side of her throat.

Penelope sighed his name, and his hands slipped under her shirt, his fingers hot on her back as his mouth explored her neck.

He tugged her shirt over her head, then his lips captured hers in an erotic kiss that reminded her of hot, sultry summer nights, even though it was only June.

Cole’s hands flicked her bra open, his hands sliding forward to cover her with warm palms as she arched her back. Together they moved toward the bed, tumbling onto it in a graceless heap without their mouths ever breaking contact.

Cole’s fingers went to the button of her pants, and she helped him, wiggling them down her legs until she could kick them aside.

She crawled over him then, shamelessly rubbing her naked body against his, relishing the contrast of their bodies, hard against soft, rough against smooth, big against small.

Cole’s hands were on her butt, her thighs, then he slipped one finger under the fabric of her underwear, sliding down until he found her wetness.

He slipped a finger inside, then a second.

Penelope moaned as he slowly thrust his two fingers in and out of her, his eyes latching onto hers. His eyes were dark with want. Want for her. For this.

But for how long?

Driven by a sudden, desperate fear that their days as lovers were numbered, Penelope rode his hand harder until she came with a shuddering, harsh climax that was both too much and not nearly enough.

Before the last shudder had ripped through her, Penelope moved off him, digging around in her nightstand until she found a condom.

She’d never felt this frantic. Greedy. She’d never wanted like this.

Cole started to reach for the condom, but she batted his hand aside, instead rolling it on herself.

Then she peeled off her underwear and resumed her position on top of him, feeling heady with a strange feminine power at the flare of lust in his eyes.

“Penelope—”

She found his hands, kissing his knuckles before she pinned his hands above his head.

He was twice her size. He could easily fling her off and take control.

He didn’t.

“I’m all yours,” he said gruffly.

That was all it took.

Three simple words, and Penelope’s inhibitions flew out the window.

For years, she’d been thinking she wasn’t good at this. That she wasn’t sexy. That she wasn’t worth wanting.

Years of ridiculousness fixed by three words from one magnificent man.

Acting on instinct, Penelope shifted upward slightly until her nipples brushed softly over his mouth.

Cole lifted his head, his tongue fluttering against the tip of one breast before blowing cold air against it teasingly. In response, she lowered herself farther until he had no choice but to take her nipple into his mouth and suck.

“Cole,” she gasped.

His lips moved to the other breast, all the time keeping his hands pinned to the pillow. He let it be her show. Her moment.

She was tempted to ride the sweet torture forever, but the man’s mouth was too skilled.

She wanted him now. Inside.

Penelope sat up, giving him a naughty look through her lashes as her hand wrapped around him and guided him to her opening. She held his gaze as she slowly sank onto him in one slow, sensuous movement.

Cole’s eyes slitted and his breath grew more ragged as he filled her, but still he didn’t move.

Not until she lifted once more before sinking down onto him, harder this time, deeper, did his hands slide down to her hips with a quiet groan that could have been a prayer or a curse.

Penelope had never been on top before. Thirty-one years old, and she was just now learning what it was like to ride a man. To have all the power.

And just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, Cole licked his fingers and then reached to play with her.

“Let go, Pen.”

She did. She arched back with a victorious cry as she gave herself completely to him.

“Good girl,” he whispered before wrapping both arms around her and rolling her on her back beneath him.

He thrust into her again and again, his eyes holding hers as though trying to tell her something.

She tried to understand—tried to grasp what he was telling her with his body, but she was too far gone with want.

Cole slid an arm behind her neck, cradling her face into the hot, slick skin of his shoulder, whispering her name so reverently she thought she imagined it.

And then he went over the edge, her name a harsh groan on his lips.

Cole stayed lying over her for longer than usual, his breath hot against her temple, as her lips soothed the scratch marks on his shoulder that she didn’t remember making.

He pulled away with another kiss to her cheek as he eased off the bed and went into the bathroom.

He returned a few moments later just as she’d managed to muster enough energy to crawl under the sheets.

Cole hesitated near the side of the bed, his features flickering with vulnerability, and Penelope’s heart seemed to lodge in her throat.

She held the sheets up in wordless invitation, and watched as his vulnerability flickered into relief.

Cole pulled her against him, and she went easily, as though she belonged there.

Still, neither spoke. Not about what had just transpired, nor about what it meant.

And happy as she was, just before she drifted off to sleep, Penelope couldn’t help but wonder how long this could continue.

She was now 100 percent positive that she couldn’t honor her promise to Cole that she wouldn’t fall in love.

If she told him, she’d lose him.

But if she didn’t tell him…

She’d lose herself.

Chapter 25

Sunday marked a first for Cole: he’d rescheduled his and his brother’s standing Sunday date.

It hadn’t been an easy decision. But Jake had scored four Yankees tickets directly behind home plate and invited Cole and Penelope. And even though it was Sunday—his and Bobby’s day—Cole had found himself tempted. Tempted to spend a sunny afternoon with friends and a woman who was, well…he didn’t know.

Something had shifted between Cole and Penelope.

As far as what was different, Cole didn’t have a fucking clue. He couldn’t have named it. He only knew it felt a good deal more important than weekend bed partners and weekday colleagues.

And for the life of him, he didn’t know whether to be freaked out or happy.

Bobby had agreed to the change of plans with so much enthusiasm, Cole half wondered if Bobby hadn’t been waiting for this moment—waiting for Cole to have a reason to have a relationship with someone other than his big brother.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Mets were away, so a ball game was out of the question anyway, since Bobby good-naturedly refused to go to Yankee Stadium.

But whatever Bobby’s motivations, his brother had approved. Heartily.

Still, Bobby’s approval didn’t quite ease the sting of guilt Cole felt when he and Penelope walked into Yankee Stadium with Jake and Grace Malone.

As though sensing this, Penelope’s fingers found his and squeezed.

“Okay,” Grace said, clapping her hands together. “They have wine here, right? I know beer’s customary, but I could really go for a nice chardonnay….”

Penelope stared at her in horror. “You can’t be serious. This is a ballpark.”

“An evolved one,” Grace said with a little wink.

“But—but—” Penelope was sputtering.

Grace gave her a little pat on the shoulder. “I can see you’re all about the classics, so how about we split up and meet back after everyone finds their food and beverage of choice?”

“If she brings sushi, I’ll have to unfriend her,” Penelope muttered to Cole after Grace had dragged Jake toward the wine cart.

“Fair enough,” Cole agreed as they headed to the main concession stand. “So what’s our plan? Hot dog?”

Penelope studied the menu with as much interest as a sommelier perusing a wine list.

“I’m thinking…pretzel,” she finally pronounced. “I haven’t had a good one in forever. Or wait, do I want nachos?”

“I notice popcorn’s not in the running,” he said.

She smiled. “I know it’s been a week since I was doused in the stuff, but I swear sometimes I still get a whiff of butter. Speaking of which, how’s Bobby? Are you sure it’s okay that you’re not hanging out with him today?”

There it was again. That stab of guilt.

“We’re going to the Mets game on Wednesday,” Cole told Penelope as they inched their way closer to the cashier.

“Nice,” Penelope said. “What’s he going to do today while you’re bumming around with me? Probably another killer party?”

Cole smiled. “Probably. The guy is Mr. Popular. And he’s been talking nonstop lately about some woman named Carly, so I’m thinking he’s got a crush.”

Penelope shook her head. “The Sharpe brothers have moves. Poor Carly’s heart doesn’t stand a chance.”

He slid his hand behind her neck, tilting her head up so he could see her face beneath the brim of her cap. “What about your heart? Where does it stand on the whole Sharpe brothers’ charm thing?”

Penelope’s lips parted in surprise, probably at the quiet urgency in his voice. He told himself to let her go—that the food line at Yankee Stadium wasn’t the time or the place to have this conversation.

He didn’t even know what this conversation was. Or what he wanted to hear her say—

Scratch that.

He knew exactly what words he wanted to hear. He wanted to know that she was his. That this was more than a weekends-only fling. That she was falling for him as helplessly as he was falling for her.

So tell her. Tell her how you feel.

And then the people in front of them finished ordering, and it was Penelope and Cole’s turn to order.

Moment ruined by junk food.

Cole ran a hand over his face, feeling both disappointed and relieved.

Penelope ordered nachos and a pretzel, and then turned to Cole expectantly, waiting for him to place his own order. He looked at her in surprise. “You’re eating all of that?”

She snorted. “What, you thought I’d share? Get your own food, Sharpe.”

He shook his head and ordered a hot dog and a Coke.

The bored kid behind the counter loaded their food onto a tray, and Cole carried it to the condiment stand.

“Yuck, no ketchup,” she said when he went to add it to his hot dog.

“It’s my hot dog,” he said.

“Which I’ll be having a bite of. And I don’t like ketchup on my dogs.”

“What happened to no sharing?”

Penelope blinked up at him. “Are you, or are you not, a gentleman, Cole Sharpe?”

In response, he deliberately added ketchup to his hot dog. More than he usually would.

Then he took a big bite, holding her gaze the entire time as he chewed.

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s how it’s gonna be, huh? This is our ball game future?”

He licked ketchup from his lip.

She went on her toes, getting up in his face. “Game on, Sharpe.”

“Penelope Pope, are you roughing up a man for his hot dog?” Grace asked from behind them.

“That was the plan, until he defiled it with ketchup.” Penelope scanned both Grace and Jake, before her gaze locked on Jake’s hot dog. “Malone. Give me that.”

Jake sighed and handed it over as he met Cole’s eyes with a questioning smile. “This is the one, huh?”

Oh yes. This is the one.

Seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on around her, Penelope took a bite of Jake’s hot dog—no ketchup—before handing it back with a happy sigh.

“That’s all I wanted, Cole. One bite.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “So you won’t mind giving Jake one of your nachos in return, right?”

Penelope clutched their food tray to her chest and gave Jake a warning glare. “Don’t you dare.”

Cole put his palm on the top of her head. “Come on, weirdo. Game’s about to start.”

They headed toward their section, and Cole glanced down at her. “Want me to carry the tray?”

Penelope all but rattled at him, and he smiled. How had he ever thought a boring model-type could keep him happy? All he needed was a pint-size baseball fan.

Unlike last weekend, the weather was perfect. Just a handful of white puffy clouds, the slightest early-summer breeze, and plenty of bright sunshine.

Baseball weather.

“Hey, Grace,” Cole said, putting an arm around Penelope’s shoulder as he looked over her head to where Grace delicately sipped her chardonnay.

“Hmm?”

He gave her a playful wink. “Remember that time you and I nearly made out for the kiss cam in this very stadium?”

Penelope glanced up at him, then at Grace. “Really. Do tell.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “It’s so not what it sounds like. Trust me.”

“It was going to be epic, Gracie, you know it was,” Cole teased.

Jake gave Cole a bland look over his wife’s head. “Sharpe. I will kill you.”

“More like you owe me for helping you come to your senses.”

Penelope was all but bouncing in her seat. “Come on, fill me in! This sounds juicy.”

“Oh it is,” Cole said. “But…another story for another time, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, like when we’re all dead,” Jake muttered.

Cole’s phone buzzed in his back pocket just as the first pitch was about to be thrown. He pulled it out—a local area code, but not a number he recognized. Cole shoved it back in his pocket. They could leave a voicemail.

The first Oakland batter went down swinging, and Cole cheered loudly with the rest of the stadium. Had to love a game that started with a strikeout.

Cole’s phone buzzed again, with the short voicemail notification. He thought about pulling it out, but the crowd was too keyed up on sunshine and beer and the Yankees. There was no way he’d be able to hear anything.

The second batter grounded out. The third struck out.

Cole stole one of Penelope’s nachos and winked at her when she glared.

His phone rang again as Oakland took the field for the bottom of the first. He pulled it out—same number.

“Hey, I’m gonna go take this,” he said to Penelope.

She nodded, cheeks full of pretzel, and Cole headed toward the main section, taking the steps two at a time.

“Cole Sharpe,” he said, once he’d gotten far enough away from the noise to answer.

“Hi, Mr. Sharpe? Is this the brother of Robert Sharpe?”

Cole froze. “Yeah, I’m Bobby’s brother. Who’s this?”

“This is Bellevue Hospital.”

Cole’s hand reached out blindly for the wall as he tried to steady himself.

Hospital.

The entire stadium drifted away, and it was only Cole, his ragged breath, and the voice of a stranger on the other end of the phone.

Oh, God. Bobby.

“Mr. Sharpe, I’m sorry to inform you that your brother’s been involved in an accident…”

Chapter 26

Penelope wasn’t sure how long she sat staring at the text on her cellphone, but it was long enough for Grace to give her a gentle nudge in the ribs.

“Pen. You okay? And where the heck is Cole; he’s been gone for like two and a half innings. I thought this was his team?”

Penelope opened her mouth, but no words came out. Instead she handed her phone to Grace. Jake leaned over to read the message.

Bobby was in an accident. Headed to hospital.

“Who’s Bobby?” Grace asked, her brown eyes wide with concern.

“His older brother,” Penelope replied.

Grace glanced at Jake in surprise. “Did you know Cole had a brother?”

Jake looked troubled. “Yeah. He rarely mentions him. I assumed they were at odds or something.”

Penelope swallowed. “He has Down syndrome and lives in a group care home. I can’t imagine what might have happened—”

Why hadn’t he taken her?

She understood Cole’s being in a hurry. Of course. But she would have gone with him if she’d known. She would have held his hand, and—

Penelope yanked her cellphone back out of her friend’s hand and typed a response to Cole.

What hospital? Is he okay?

Penelope spent the next four innings staring at her phone as she waited for a response that never came.

“Maybe I should just go to the hospital,” she said, for the tenth time.

“But which one?” Jake asked.

“All of them.”

“It’s New York City, hon. There’s not just the one hospital off Main Street.”

Penelope huffed out a breath. Jake was right. She’d already researched the various places where they could have taken Bobby, and there were a lot.

And she could call, but she was pretty sure they’d only release patient info to family members. What was she supposed to say? Hi, the brother of my nonboyfriend whom I only sleep with on weekends was in an accident.

“Come on, Cole,” Penelope muttered, staring down at her phone and willing it to give her a response.

“I can’t just sit here,” she said, leaning forward and curling into herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so miserable or helpless.

Grace rubbed her back. “Do you want to head back into the city? That way, if he does get back to you, you’ll be closer and can go to him.”

It was true. Bobby lived in Manhattan, so chances were, whatever happened to him had happened there. The closer she got to Manhattan, the closer she’d be to Bobby.

And to Cole.

“Yeah,” she said, “but you two stay here.”

“Hell no. We’re going with you,” Jake said. Grace nodded in agreement.

Penelope opened her mouth, but Jake cut her off. “We won’t go into the hospital, once you figure out where he is. We don’t belong there. But we’ll be there every step of the way up until then, ’kay?”

“Are you sure?”

“He’s our friend too,” Jake said quietly.

“Penelope.” Grace put a hand on her arm, her expression concerned. “This isn’t some little fling, is it? It’s more than you trying to move on from that Evan guy?”

Penelope couldn’t stop the little laugh that bubbled up.

Evan. She hadn’t thought about him since they’d ditched him at the restaurant on Friday night.

That anyone could think that Cole and Evan belonged in the same sentence, or even in the same thought…

Penelope might have loved Evan once. She might have. The kind of love that became sort of desperate because of its unrequited nature, thus making you feel that it was the biggest love you’d ever known.

But now…

In hindsight, Penelope recognized it for what it was—a shallow love that, while genuine, had never had the chance to grow roots.

For the longest time, she’d thought that Evan hadn’t seen her because she wasn’t a certain type. Because she wasn’t pretty enough or flashy enough.

But in the end, Evan Barstow was a useless jerk, and Cole was…

“It’s more than a fling,” Penelope said quietly.

Grace and Jake stood in unison, perfect soulmates that they were. “What are we waiting for? Up, Pen! Let’s go!”

The subway ride back to the city was the longest journey of Penelope’s life, but she was rewarded when they emerged from the tunnel in Manhattan and she had a text from Cole.

“Bellevue,” she said, already dashing to the curb to hail a cab. “He’s at Bellevue Hospital.”

A cab pulled up beside her, and Penelope reached for the door handle even before it came to a complete stop.

Then she whirled around, gave Grace and Jake fierce hugs. “Promise you’ll go someplace ridiculously fancy for dinner and let me pay you back for it later?”

They both ignored this. “Let us know as soon as you know what’s going on,” Grace said.

“I promise,” Penelope said, climbing into the cab. She blew them both a distracted kiss and then reread Cole’s text once more.

On one hand, he’d replied. Good sign. On the other hand…

They took him to Bellevue Hospital. He got hit by a cab while crossing the street. He’s fine, but they’re keeping him overnight. Don’t come, we’re fine.

Don’t come, he’d said.

Penelope tried not to read too much into it. He was probably just being a good guy—not wanting to take her away from the baseball game.

Don’t come.

There was something so final—so harsh about those two words. One sentence.

Don’t come.

“Too damn bad, Cole,” she muttered. “I’m coming anyway.”

Penelope tossed a twenty at the cabdriver, not bothering to wait for change, and sprinted into the hospital.

She started toward the reception desk then skidded to a halt and took several steps backward when she saw the gift shop out of the corner of her eye.

A couple emerged carrying flowers, but Bobby wouldn’t want flowers. Her eyes drifted to a display of balloons. Bobby would love balloons.

Ten minutes later, Penelope made her way to the reception desk with an enormous bouquet of orange, blue, and white balloons.

Penelope was in luck. She’d come during visiting hours.

Penelope followed the nurse’s directions to Bobby’s room, ignoring the annoyed looks she got when her balloons took up the entire elevator.

Her heart pounded harder as she approached Bobby’s room. Please let him be okay. Please let him be perfectly okay….

She got as far as the open doorway and froze, unsure of her best move.

Surprise!

It’s me!

I know you said don’t come, but I love you, so really, it wasn’t a choice…

In the end, it was Bobby who decided for her. He turned his head, and his face broke into a smile that felt like it lifted her heart right out of her chest.

“Penelope!”

Cole’s head whipped around.

He was seated in a chair next to Bobby’s bed, and even as she pasted on a smile for Bobby’s sake, inwardly she lurched at the look on Cole’s face.

He looked like he’d aged five years in two hours.

“Are those for me?” Bobby asked in a delighted voice, apparently unaware of his brother’s distress.

“Um, of course they are,” she said, coming toward the bed.

“Mets colors!”

“What else would I bring?” she said in a scoffing voice.

There was a tiny table and chair against the wall. “How about I tie these here?” she asked, looping the ends of the balloon strings through the rung on the back of the chair.

“Okay!”

“Who’s the bear from?” she asked, nodding at the enormous stuffed bear on the table.

“My friends at the Big House. They can’t come see me yet, but Cole said they wanted me to have the bear.”

Penelope risked a glance at Cole. He was standing now, hands shoved into his back pockets as he stared at Bobby with a bleak expression on his face.

Penelope’s smile never wavered, but her eyes skimmed over Bobby. His foot was in one of those sling things, a cast running all the way up to his upper thigh, but it was the only obvious sign that he’d been hurt.

“What happened?” she asked, coming to stand beside him.

Bobby sighed. “Cole’s mad.”

Cole ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not mad, it’s just—”

“I’m not supposed to leave the house by myself,” Bobby explained with a voice resembling a weary teenager’s. “But Penelope, I had to.”

She reached out and rubbed his arm. “What for?”

His eyes were wide and earnest. “For Carly. I wanted to get her flowers. Yellow ones, ’cuz they’re her favorites.”

Penelope swallowed. The sweetness was killing her.

“I didn’t know the taxi wouldn’t stop,” Bobby said glumly.

“You should have waited for me, Bobby,” Cole said.

“I know. You’ve told me a hundred times.”

“Then why—”

“I wasn’t going to see you till Wednesday,” Bobby said. “I needed the flowers for Carly today.”

Oh, Bobby, no.

Penelope closed her eyes.

She knew Bobby didn’t mean any harm. He was just stating facts without a single thought to laying blame.

But instinctively, Penelope knew it was the worst possible thing he could have said.

A glance at Cole confirmed it. He looked destroyed.

And Penelope knew why. Sunday was Cole and Bobby’s day; any other Sunday, Cole would have been there when Bobby wanted to get the flowers. Could have gone with him. Could have stopped him from stepping into the street.

But Cole had rescheduled for another day.

For her.

“Will you sign my cast?” Bobby asked. “My doctor says I have to wear it for weeks but that I can have everyone sign it if they want to.”

“I’d love to.”

“Okay,” Bobby said happily. “You can sign it after Carly. And after Cole.”

“Uh-huh, I see where I rank,” she teased.

“Penelope, can I talk to you for a sec? Outside.” Cole’s voice was gruff.

Uh-oh.

“Sure,” she said, smiling at him. He didn’t smile back.

“Bob, can you keep yourself busy watching TV for a few minutes?” Cole asked.

“Definitely,” Bobby said, attention already turned to the television. “Do they have ice cream here?”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks for the balloons, Penelope!” Bobby called as she left the room.

She turned to face Cole as he followed her out, but he shook his head. “Not here. I need air.”

The walk to the elevator was silent. As was the ride down.

Not until they stepped outside into the warm sunshine did he speak.

“I told you not to come.”

Her footsteps faltered at his hard tone, and she turned to face him.

“I know,” she said quietly. “I just didn’t want you to be alone.”

“Are you kidding me, Penelope? He’s the one who shouldn’t have been alone,” Cole snapped. “I should have been there.”

She knew it was coming, but the sharpness in his tone still stung.

“It’s not your fault,” she said quietly.

He ignored her. “Do you know what he told me when I asked why he walked into the crosswalk when there was a no-walk sign?”

Penelope shook her head.

“He said that I do it all the time,” Cole said, his eyes wild. “That I never wait for the walk sign to indicate it’s okay to cross, so why should he?”

“Cole—”

“So let’s recap, shall we?” he said, voice louder. “My brother looks up to me for everything, and I teach him how to jaywalk. And then, on the one day out of the week that I’m supposed to be there for him, I’m at a fucking baseball game with a—”

Penelope narrowed her eyes. “With a what?”

“A woman,” he said tersely.

Penelope inhaled. She wasn’t exactly loving his tone. Still, the guy was having a rather massively bad day. He needed patience, not for her to go all diva on him.

Cole closed his eyes briefly. “I never should have canceled on Bobby.”

She took a step closer and reached out a hand. He backed up, which stung even more than his sharp words, but she let it go.

This wasn’t about her.

“I’d be feeling the same if I were in your shoes,” Penelope said quietly. “But I wouldn’t be any kind of friend if I didn’t tell you that this isn’t your fault. You do your best by Bobby, but you can’t put him in a bubble. You can’t be there every second of every day.”

“Yes, but—”

She pressed on. “What if this had happened on a Tuesday morning? Or a Thursday evening? What if he’d decided that Carly needed to have her flowers at midnight on Monday? The fact that this happened on Sunday is a coincidence, Cole.”

“Maybe,” he granted. “But Penelope, he’s up there with his leg in a cast, and bruises up and down his torso, and—”

“And he’s fine.” She found his hand and squeezed. “I’m not minimizing what happened, but he’s okay, Cole. And we’ll talk to him about crossing the street, and we’ll be more careful about—”

Cole stepped back, shaking off her hand. “We?”

Penelope faltered. “Well, I mean, I don’t want to insert myself, but I care about Bobby too—”

He laughed. “Today is the second time you’ve ever even met the guy, Penelope. Him dumping his popcorn all over you at a baseball game hardly makes you part of the family.”

She blew out a breath. “Wow.”

His words hurt; she suspected that he meant them to, but once again she tried to remember Cole wasn’t being himself.

“I’m not trying to insert myself into your family,” she said.

“And yet you came, when I specifically asked you not to.”

Penelope held her palms out to her sides and then let them drop. “What’s going on here, Cole? I’m having a hard time seeing my crime. I brought Bobby balloons, which he loved. I came to be here for you—”

He cut her off. “I don’t need you to be here for me. I don’t even— We’re not even—”

“We’re not even what?”

“We’re not together,” he said quietly.

Right. There was that.

“Not officially,” she said, “but I thought…things seemed like they were changing between us—”

He shook his head and cut her off. “You made a promise, Penelope. So did I. This was never meant to get serious, and this is why.”

“By this, you mean the off chance that your brother was going to get hit by a cab while we were at a Yankees game? That’s why you promised you wouldn’t fall in love with me?”

“Mock all you want, but he’s all I have,” Cole said.

“He’s not,” Penelope shot back before she could think better of it. “He is not all you have. You have friends, and colleagues, and me. You have me, Cole. You may not like that I’m here, but that doesn’t change the fact that I came for you, and that I’d do it all over again.”

His eyes were flat, his expression betraying nothing. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”

Penelope ignored that. “Also, for what it’s worth, you’re not all Bobby has either. He loves you like crazy, Cole, but honestly, I wonder if he’s not better adjusted than you are, because he seems pretty okay with the fact that you two can be brothers and have your own lives.”

This time his eyes did flicker to life, and when they locked on hers they were full of anger. “Hey, here’s an idea, Penelope. You’ve got a sister, right? How about we wait until she’s in the hospital, and then we can have this little chat. Better yet, make sure that she’s entirely financially reliant on you, and that her well-being sits on your shoulders, and then come find me.”

This was not going well.

“Do you want me to leave?” she asked.

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

It was no less than she’d expected, given his current mood, but ouch.

“Okay,” she said. “If you need anything, I—”

“I won’t.”

She met his eyes steadily. “Tell me you’re not actually doing this, Cole. Tell me you’re not that guy who goes all Jekyll-and-Hyde when something unexpected happens.”

His face crumpled for a moment before he put a hand over it, covering most of his features as he took a long breath. “I’m sorry, Penelope. I am.”

She stepped forward, putting her arms around him, the embrace slightly awkward because she was still wearing her Yankees hat.

He stiffened, and though he didn’t push her away, he didn’t exactly return her embrace.

“I should get back,” he said gruffly.

Penelope retreated a little, letting her arms fall back to her sides and trying not to feel humiliated by the one-sided hug.

“Okay.”

He started to turn away and then paused, hesitating before he met her eyes. “Believe it or not, I do get that I’m acting like an ass. I just…I can’t do this right now. It’s only ever just been me and Bobby, even when my parents were alive, and I don’t know what I’d do without him. Or him without me. He has to come first.”

“I see.” She managed to keep her voice steady. “You’re just realizing this now?”

He hesitated. “I’ve always known it, but lately…you made it easy to forget, Penelope.”

The statement would have warmed her heart if it hadn’t been uttered as he geared up to walk away from her.

She tried one more time. “Your heart’s bigger than you think, Cole. There’s room for me and Bobby. And Cole, you have to know that…”

I love you.

She opened her mouth to say it, but faltered when he took another step backward.

“Don’t, Penelope.”

“Cole—”

He turned away. “See you around, Pope.”

Penelope stood rooted to the spot as she watched his lean figure head back into the hospital.

See you around, Pope.

Was he for real?

See you around, Pope.

Suddenly she was so very glad she hadn’t uttered the words she’d been about to say.

Chapter 27

“I can’t believe you guys came all the way from Chicago,” Penelope said around a mouthful of Cool Ranch Doritos.

“Oh, sweetie. We’re your family.” As if punctuating this point, her mother snatched the chip bag away and replaced it with a bowl of carrots.

Penelope ignored the carrots, opting instead to pull a pillow over her chest and flop back against the couch.

Her sister came out of the kitchen and handed her a beer before sitting on the coffee table so she could study Penelope.

It had been like this for two days, Penelope going through the motions of life as her mother and sister alternated between feeding her beer and carrots and watching her like she might shatter at any moment.

And she might shatter. She just might.

“Thanks for coming,” she said quietly.

“Please,” Janie said, reaching across to squeeze Penelope’s arm. “You think we wouldn’t both jump on a plane the second you called us? You think we didn’t have to practically handcuff Dad to his La-Z-Boy to prevent him from going after Cole with a shotgun?”

Penelope gave a small smile at the thought of her gentle father even swatting a fly. He hadn’t been able to come with her mom and sister because of work, but he’d called her twice a day, trying to distract her with every possible bit of sports trivia on the planet. She knew every fact before he said it, of course, but the distraction was welcome all the same.

Anything to keep from crying again.

Penelope had made it all the way home from the hospital on Sunday without shedding a tear.

But once inside the safety of her apartment? Waterworks. The tears had come hot and furious, and hadn’t stopped until sometime around 4:00 A.M. on Monday, at which point she texted her sister.

By Monday night, her mother and sister had descended upon New York in full mother hen/warrior mode.

It was now Wednesday evening, and the tears had grown more intermittent, although she’d had a breakdown in the women’s restroom at work today. Jo, Oxford’s sweet receptionist, had patiently stroked her hair before rigging up an awkward ice pack for Penelope’s puffy eyes.

It hadn’t worked. Penelope was pretty sure Lincoln and Jake were on to her. Cassidy too.

As for Cole…

She hadn’t seen him. Not since his See you around, Pope send-off.

He’d taken the week off to get Bobby settled, but he’d be back on Monday. Penelope was counting the days, half in dread, half in hopes that he’d show up and it would be like their fight had never happened.

“No word from him?” Janie asked, pulling Penelope’s beer out of her hand and taking a sip.

She shook her head. “No. Do you think I should call him?”

“Absolutely not,” her mother said. “The ball’s in his court. He’s the utter fool here.”

Janie nodded. “I’m not saying he doesn’t get a little bit of a free pass because of what happened with his brother, but he still owes you an apology. And he needs to initiate it.”

Penelope stared blindly at the fishbowl, where Edgar swam in aimless circles. “That would be all fine and good if we didn’t work together. What am I supposed to do when he shows up on Monday?”

“Well, one thing’s for certain, you have to look fabulous,” her mother said. “Which reminds me, I want to take you shopping. Your closet is eighty percent sports outfits.”

Sports outfits?

Penelope and Janie exchanged a tired look. Their mother wasn’t superficial—not quite. But Lydia Pope was definitely of the mind-set that a nice fuchsia lipstick could solve most of the world’s problems.

“I’m pretty sure Cole cares about a lot more than Penelope’s looks,” Janie said gently.

“Well, of course he does,” Lydia said, indignant. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t show off her legs. Maybe get a nice push-up bra…remind him of exactly what he kicked out of his bed.”

“Mom, eeew,” Janie said.

“Do you have a better idea?” Lydia asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Janie said, handing Penelope her beer back. “You’re going to act like nothing happened.”

“Can’t,” Penelope said glumly. “I’m a horrible actress.”

“Well, that’s true, dear. Which reminds me, would you mind if I put up a video of that time you played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz and then chased your tail because you thought it was on fire?”

“Mother,” Janie and Penelope said at the same time.

“What? It’s cute! And you two have banned me from naked pictures. I need something to post on Facebook. My fans are counting on me.”

“You know they’re friends, right. Not fans?”

“Mine are both,” Lydia said stubbornly. “I have a following. They rely on me for entertainment.”

“Did I say I was glad you came out to New York?” Penelope asked jokingly. “Because I changed my mind.”

“Well, it’s either the lion video, or I could do the fourth-grade talent show, where you—”

Penelope was saved from having to hear her mother recount a disastrous performance of Leader of the Pack by the buzzing of her intercom.

“Yikes,” Janie said, glancing at the ancient-looking box making the noise. “They still make those?”

“It’s an old building,” Penelope said, dragging herself off the couch. “I hope that’s the pizza.”

Her mother made a dismayed noise. “Pizza. I thought we agreed that I’d make a lovely salad—”

“Mom, I’m a vegetarian, and even I know salad’s not comfort food,” Janie said. “We ordered a pizza while you were in the bathroom curling your hair. Again.”

“Hello?” Penelope asked, punching the button.

“Penelope, sweetheart. How are you?”

She frowned at the familiar voice. “Lincoln?”

“Indeed. Can I come up?”

“Who’s Lincoln?” Lydia asked Janie.

“Dunno,” Janie said. “I hope we’re about to find out. He sounds sexy.”

“You’re married,” Penelope shot over her shoulder to her sister. “Although, if you think he sounds sexy, watch this….”

“Come on up,” she told Lincoln, buzzing him in.

“Watch what?” Janie asked.

“Wait for it,” Penelope said, going to the front door and standing on her toes to look through the peephole.

She smiled in anticipation when she saw Lincoln’s painfully handsome face appear on the other side of the door. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with this one? Handsome, and unlikely to bid farewell to a woman with a See you around, Pope.

Penelope opened the door before he could knock, then stepped back to let her mother and sister take in the full impact of Lincoln Mathis’s good looks.

“Wow,” Janie said.

“Oh my,” their mother breathed.

Penelope grinned. “Lincoln, meet my sister, Janie, and mother, Lydia.”

Lincoln’s eyebrows lifted. “I would have thought them both your sisters.”

Penelope rolled her eyes at the overused line, but Lydia put a hand over her chest and made a tittering, tinkling laugh that Penelope hadn’t heard…ever.

“I didn’t realize you had family in town,” Lincoln said, going to shake both women’s hands. “Badly done of me to intrude like this.”

“Oh, you’re not intruding,” Janie said in a breathy little voice.

Penelope shut the door. “You’re not,” she confirmed for Lincoln. “They came out to offer moral support in the wake of your best friend being a total jerk.”

Lincoln winced. “I figured it was something like that. Although he’s not returning any of our calls. Jake said his brother had been in an accident, but none of us can get details.”

Penelope studied Lincoln. Saw the concern for his friend that wasn’t quite disguised by Lincoln’s ever-present smile.

“His brother’s okay,” she said, even though it wasn’t her news to tell. “He’s banged up and has a broken leg, but it could have been much worse.”

Lincoln breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thanks for telling me. I don’t know why that fool thinks he has to keep secrets….”

Penelope smiled gently. “Right. Because you’re an open book, hmm?”

Lincoln’s head snapped back just slightly, and his blue eyes went guarded as he studied her.

Yup. Lincoln Mathis definitely had secrets. Ones that were far darker than Cole being overprotective of his brother.

She inwardly sighed. Men and their secrets.

Janie and her mother were still staring at Lincoln.

“You came to check on your friend?” Janie said. “Now that is a legit bromance.”

He winked at Janie. “Actually, my concern is more for his brother and Penelope. As far as I’m concerned, Cole is being a moron.”

“That’s true,” Penelope muttered.

He turned to face her, his eyes gentling. “What happened?”

She shrugged. “The usual dude thing. He pushed me away when I got too close.”

“Idiot.”

She gave a weak smile. “Totally.”

“Have you figured out your plan yet?”

“Nuh-uh,” Janie said, stepping forward. “Penelope is not the one who needs a plan. He’s the one who messed up.”

“I know that, pet,” Lincoln replied smoothly. “But Cole is…well, a guy. If we want him to come to his senses, we’re going to have to tread carefully. Handle this exactly right, you know?”

“What are you thinking?” Penelope’s mother asked, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Lincoln a suspicious look.

Penelope smiled. Apparently even Lincoln’s good looks weren’t enough to hold off the fierceness of a mother cub for her wounded cub.

Lincoln never took his eyes off Penelope. “Well, it all depends on Penelope.”

Her smile slipped at the uncharacteristic seriousness in his gaze. “What do you mean, it depends on me?”

“It’s simple, love. Before we go even a step forward, I need to know one thing. Do you love him enough to want him back, even though he’s been a complete fool?”

Penelope sucked in a breath, the bluntness of the question taking her breath away just slightly.

On one hand, her chest literally ached every time she remembered how much it had hurt when he pushed her away. To remember the flatness of his eyes, and the ease with which he could throw away everything they had had, the second life got a little bit difficult.

On the other hand…

A montage of Cole flitted through her mind. Him buying her that damn Mets cap. The way he’d die for his brother. The way he loved his job but would never let it rule his life the way Evan had.

The way he’d looked at her as though she were everything.

The way he’d wanted her just the way she was. The way he’d seen what nobody else had seen.

He’d seen her.

He’d wanted her.

And though the stubborn ass might not be ready to admit it, he cared for her. She was positive.

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “Of course I love him enough to want him back.”

“Excellent,” Lincoln said with a wide smile that had her mother and sister sighing all over again as he shrugged out of his suit jacket. “So, here’s how I’m thinking we play it…”

Chapter 28

THREE WEEKS LATER

“Hey, hold the door, please!”

Cole half jogged the last couple of steps to the elevator door just as a hand slid between the closing doors, triggering the sensors so that the door opened again.

“Thanks,” he said as he stepped into the elevator. His smile froze halfway to formation when he saw who’d held the door for him.

“Hey, Cole!”

“Penelope.” He forced his smile to completion, if only to match her casual happiness. It’s what they did now. An awful lot of forced. At least on his part.

It had been nearly a month since the day of Bobby’s accident. Three and a half long weeks since he’d last kissed her. Held her.

It would have been easier if she’d given him the cold shoulder. If she’d gone all icy-cool and distant. It’s what every other woman he knew would have done.

But Penelope wasn’t every other woman.

He didn’t know if it was because they had to work together, or if it was because she was just ridiculously decent, but she was every bit as friendly to him now as she’d been since the very first day she’d met him.

Of course, there were slight differences.

She didn’t meet his eyes anymore. Sure, she came close—he was sure other people didn’t notice the way her eyes would sort of stop just shy of his when they were talking to each other in a meeting.

But he noticed. He felt it.

She also didn’t touch him. Not ever.

She’d playfully sock Lincoln in the arm, or give Jake a high five, but she steered clear of Cole.

But she still greeted him every morning. Still popped into his office unexpectedly, even invited him to lunch a couple of times. Or, like now, she was chatting on about their upcoming meeting with the Web team as though nothing had happened between them.

As though they hadn’t been lovers. As though he hadn’t ruthlessly dumped her on a Manhattan sidewalk outside a fucking hospital.

“Cole?”

“Yeah.”

She gave him a confused smile. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat. “Guess I was distracted.”

She nodded, understanding as ever. “How are things? Bobby’s still on the mend?”

Damn it, Tiny, stop being so goddamn sweet after I treated you like garbage.

“Yeah, he’s good,” Cole replied. “Bruises have faded almost completely. The cast holds him up some, but he’s gotten the hang of crutches. And turns out his new lady love has been quite the doting little nurse.”

Penelope smiled. “Carly?”

“Yeah. She’s sweet.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to suggest that Penelope should meet her sometime, but of course she wouldn’t.

And whose fault is that, fuckwad? Cole barely flinched as his subconscious scolded him. He’d grown used to it.

The elevator opened on their floor and Cole stepped aside so Penelope could exit first.

They walked side by side toward their respective offices, together, but not.

The separation made every part of Cole hurt, and he didn’t have the faintest clue what to do about it.

“Hey, Penelope.”

She paused as she unlocked her office door and looked up. “Hmm?”

I miss you. I want you back. I’m so fucking sorry.

“Do you think you could email me those mock-ups you’re working on? They’re better than mine, so I’m thinking we should just submit yours at the meeting today.”

“Sure thing.” She flashed him another easy smile and went into her office, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Cole stood there for several seconds, staring at her door, wanting to walk in but not knowing what to say.

Lincoln appeared at his side, chewing one of his disgusting power bars. “This is getting pathetic, dude.”

“Shut up,” Cole growled, half walking, half marching toward his own office.

Lincoln, being Lincoln, didn’t take the hint and fell into step beside him. “Nobody blames you that you screwed it up. I mean, we all expected it.”

“Oh, good, another pep talk,” Cole said. He tried to shut his office door in Lincoln’s face, but his friend pushed it open again and made himself comfortable in Cole’s guest chair as Cole pulled his laptop out of his bag.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lincoln asked.

“Nope,” Cole said, snapping his laptop into its docking station. “Didn’t want to talk about it yesterday. Or the day before. Or last week. Don’t want to talk about it now.”

“No problem, man, I totally get it,” Lincoln said. “I don’t like to talk about my women issues either.”

“Thank you,” Cole said, settling in his chair and taking a sip of his coffee.

“Except…”

Christ.

“I don’t really have any woman issues,” Lincoln said. “So…”

“Yeah, how is that?” Cole asked, narrowing his eyes at the other man. “You’ve dated five times the number of women I have—”

“More like ten,” Lincoln interrupted.

“—And yet you don’t have a single bitter ex, and I’ve never seen you so much as the tiniest bit tripped up by anything female.”

Lincoln spread his hands out to his sides. “Eat it up, Sharpe. This is a gift.”

“Whatever,” Cole muttered as he clicked open his email.

Lincoln leaned forward. “Give me a hint. Was it because she finally admitted that I was the better kisser? Was it the fact that you think burgers count as dinner? Dude, you didn’t cheat, did you?”

“I didn’t cheat,” Cole ground out. “And why do you assume it was my fault?”

“Wasn’t it?”

Cole sighed and gave up the pretense of getting any work done while Lincoln was still talking at him. “Yes.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Lincoln said. “And that’s actually good news.”

Cole gave him a look. Nothing about him and Penelope acting like strangers was good news.

“No, it is,” Lincoln insisted. “If you’re the one who screwed up, the ball’s in your court. You’ve got a chance to fix things.”

Cole looked away.

“Sharpe. You do want to fix things?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Sure, sure,” Lincoln said with an exaggerated nod. “I’m sure it’s very complicated. Explain?”

Cole fiddled with his computer mouse. Was there any good way to tell your guy friend that you’ve flipped out? That you’ve realized loving someone was hard, and weren’t sure your heart could handle the rough parts?

The moment he’d heard Bobby had been in an accident, Cole’s whole life had stopped and then tilted upside down. What would happen if he allowed himself to love someone else as much as he loved Bobby?

“Still waiting,” Lincoln whispered.

“The thing is, Mathis,” Cole said slowly. “Everyone acts like the moment you realize you’re in love is the big gotcha moment. But there’s actually a moment after that…the one where you realize you could lose the person you love.”

Lincoln said nothing, and Cole glanced up, surprised by his friend’s uncharacteristic quietness.

Lincoln had gone rigid, his eyes completely vacant. He looked a bit like someone had stabbed him in the chest.

Cole frowned in concern. “Hey. You okay?”

Lincoln shook his head slightly, and Cole watched as his eyes refocused, his mind obviously coming back from whatever dark place he’d just gone to.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lincoln’s voice had none of its usual energy as he stood up abruptly. “But, I get it. The whole loving and losing someone thing. It’s a big risk. No lectures here.”

“Wait, Mathis. Hey! Lincoln!” Cole called after his friend, but Lincoln was already gone.

“What was that about?” Cole muttered. He thought about going after his friend, but instinct told him Lincoln had nothing to say on the matter, at least not yet.

Plus, maybe now they could come to an understanding.

Let sleeping dogs lie when the dogs involved women.

Or something.

Cole had finally turned his attention to his in-box when Cassidy called. After they greeted each other, there was a pause. Then Cassidy said, “You didn’t hear this from me.”

“Okay?”

There was another pause, longer this time, and Cole rolled his eyes. “Cassidy, right now I’m not hearing anything.”

“Todd Kolb is in the office today.”

“Well, shit, Cassidy,” Cole said. “Does the NSA know? Should we call the CIA?”

Todd Kolb was a prissy, fussy type who was a bigwig of a major sporting goods store that frequently advertised in Oxford. Todd tended to think that being one of their biggest accounts entitled him to hanging out in the office whenever he felt like it. The guy could be an awkward clinger, but he was harmless.

“Yeah, well…you heard that his uncle just bought the New York Rangers?”

“What kind of senior sports editor would I be if I didn’t know that?”

“Co–sports editor,” Cassidy corrected. “Which is sort of why I’m calling—”

“As opposed to taking the fifteen-second walk to my office?”

“Yeah, well, didn’t really want to be within firing range when I told you this….”

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “Told me what?”

“Todd Kolb’s taking Penelope to the Rangers game tonight. And a late dinner afterward. It would seem they’re kind of…dating.”

Cole’s ears rang.

“Come again?”

“Nope. I’m not repeating it. Didn’t even want to say it the first time. Just…damn it, Cole, get it together.”

The line went dead in Cole’s ear and he slowly put the phone back.

Let her go, he told himself.

Penelope deserved happiness, and if happiness came in the arms of another man—

“Nope. Not gonna happen.” Cole stood so quickly his chair flipped backward, but he didn’t pause to right it.

He had a woman to win back.

Chapter 29

Cole made it as far as Penelope’s office before he realized he didn’t have a plan.

Which would have been fine had he paused before opening the door, but nope—he’d gone flinging the door open without a single thought as to what he was going to say or do.

The result?

Two very startled pairs of eyes staring at him.

One pair of eyes—the big brown ones—he could drown in. Happily.

The other…

Cole focused all of his attention on the other man in the room. “Kolb.”

“Hey, Sharpe!” Todd Kolb had been standing behind Penelope, one hand braced on her desk, the other on the back of her chair, as they both looked at something on her computer screen.

Whether it was because he sensed the death glare from Cole or because of ingrained manners, Todd left Penelope’s side to shake Cole’s hand.

Cole might have shaken it harder than necessary. It was a clichéd move. Totally pathetic.

And absolutely unavoidable.

Cole did not like this man. He’d just now decided. Didn’t like his reddish hair. Didn’t like the preppy glasses. And his tie was the color of shit.

Penelope wouldn’t really date a man wearing a shit tie.

Would she?

“So, what’s going on in here?” Cole asked. He tried to keep his voice casual and curious, but it definitely seemed to come out vaguely predatory, and he could see from Penelope’s subtle eye roll that she noticed.

“Todd was walking me through some of the players for the off-season game tonight. Did you know that his uncle owns—”

“Yeah, I know,” Cole snapped.

Honestly, why did everyone think he didn’t know that? It was insulting.

“Next time I get tickets it’s your turn,” Todd told Cole, doing an admirable job of sounding apologetic. “I just thought since Penelope is new to town and hasn’t been to a game yet—”

“Yeah, that’s great,” Cole said. “Sounds good. But actually, Penelope and I have a meeting that was supposed to start five minutes ago, so—”

“Oh. Sure.” Todd looked a little surprised, but then gave a little shrug as though he wasn’t the least bit worried to be leaving the woman he was dating alone with Cole Sharpe.

Wrong, dude. You should be worried. Very worried.

Cole all but put his shoe up Todd’s ass in an effort to get the other man out the door, and then slammed it shut with more force than was necessary.

Then he spun around, to find her—

Typing at her computer.

Hell, she wasn’t even looking at him.

“Sorry if I was late to a meeting,” she said, not looking up. “I didn’t have anything on my calendar, but Outlook’s been so weird for me lately. Have you noticed—”

Cole ignored all of this, making it across the room in record time, moving around to Penelope’s side of the desk, and roughly spinning her chair to face him.

Except that this put her face level with his crotch, which was nice, but not exactly appropriate for the moment, so Cole slowly leaned down, his hands on either side of her against the desk as he caged her in.

“Cole?” She kept her shoulders straight as though unfazed, but her voice had gone decidedly breathy.

A good sign. Definitely.

He wanted to give her words. All the words. But first…

Cole couldn’t help himself from bending his head and pressing his lips to the soft skin just below her jaw. The tip of his tongue flicked out and he felt a surge of triumph when she shivered.

“Tell me you won’t be seeing him again,” he said, kissing her neck, slower this time.

“What? Who?”

Good. Excellent. She couldn’t even remember Kolb’s name.

“Todd Kolb.”

Cole gently raked his teeth against her neck and she gasped. “Oh, but…I really want to go to the game.”

“I’ll take you to the game,” he whispered.

She laughed softly. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

His stomach clenched and he pulled back slightly. “Because of your new boyfriend?”

Her nose scrunched. “What new boyfriend?”

“Don’t play games with me, Penelope.”

“When have I ever played games with you? I don’t even know how.”

Good point. She was a straight shooter.

“Todd Kolb,” he said. “Aren’t you dating him?”

“Dating him? I don’t even know him.”

Cole frowned. “What?”

“I just met him about ten minutes ago,” Penelope replied. “Cassidy introduced us because he thought I might like going to the game—”

“But Cassidy told me—” Cole broke off as the pieces snapped into place as he straightened.

Oh, hell. He’d been thoroughly played by his boss.

“That bastard,” he muttered.

“Who?” Penelope asked.

“Let’s just say Cassidy knew exactly what buttons to push,” he said, feeling foolish.

She motioned for him to back up. “Move, you’re making me crane my neck.”

“You crane your neck even when we’re both standing, Tiny.”

“True,” she said as she stood. “But at least when I’m standing I don’t feel quite so lamb to your lion.”

Any confidence Cole had felt at the way she’d responded to his neck nuzzling evaporated when she looked up at him with a cool expression.

He couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She looked utterly calm.

She crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Are you all right? You look kind of off.”

He let out a little laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m off. I’ve been off weeks.”

“Well, I don’t know why you’re hollering at me about that. You dumped me—”

“I didn’t dump you.”

“Um, beg to differ. I came to be with you while your brother was in the hospital, bought balloons, and you said, and I quote, See you around, Pope. I actually went home and googled that, because I thought it might be a line from The Godfather, or some guy movie. But nope. Just you being a jerk.”

“I know. I know I did all that, I said all that.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “What are the chances we can pretend that day didn’t happen? That I didn’t act like a foolish ass?”

“Okay.”

Cole’s eyes flew open. “Okay?”

It couldn’t possibly be that easy.

“Okay,” she repeated with a little shrug. “Let’s say I give you a do-over. Let’s pretend we’re back on the sidewalk outside the hospital. What do you say?”

Oh. Fuck.

“Uh.”

She nodded. “Good start.”

He could do this.

“If I got a do-over…” He cleared his throat. “I’d tell you thanks for coming, of course.”

“Of course.”

“And I’d…Shit. Here’s the thing, Tiny. A few months ago, I made you a promise that I wouldn’t fall in love with you.”

She nodded slowly.

He stepped closer. “I’m going to have to break that promise.”

Penelope’s breath caught, and he lifted a hand to her face and pressed forward. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Penelope. Yes, that scares the shit out of me. And yes, it caused me to freak out. But my head’s out of my ass now, and I just, I want…I’m yours, Penelope. If you want me. Irresistibly yours.”

She stared at him, looking stunned, and Cole felt his chest tighten.

He dipped his head for a second, trying to gather his last bit of courage, before he looked up to meet her eyes. Tried again. “I love you. That’s all I’ve got. I love you.”

Penelope stood perfectly still as her eyes searched his face, not saying a word, her features betraying nothing.

Be patient. Be patient. You’ve treated her horribly, and she’ll need time. You can’t go begging—

“Please say something,” he blurted out.

Smooth, Cole. Good job on the no begging thing.

She swallowed and dropped her eyes to his chin. “Just trying to think of the best way to tell you that I broke my promise a long time ago. You’re really an impossible man not to fall in love with.”

Cole had the strangest urge to pump his fist in triumph, but instead he settled for pulling her closer. “Is that so?”

She smiled and went on her toes as she kissed his chin. “It is. And I love you.”

He bent and kissed her cheekbones. “Say it again.”

“No way, you say it again.”

“Not until you—”

“Here’s an idea,” came a male voice from the doorway. “Say it at the same time. Then you both win.”

Cole glanced up to see Lincoln leaning in the doorway drinking a smoothie. The haunted look was gone from Lincoln’s face, and now he wore a shit-eating grin.

“Don’t you knock?” Cole asked.

“I don’t know, Jake, do we knock?” Lincoln said, raising his voice and looking to his left. “I’m pretty sure we don’t.”

Jake Malone came into the doorway, saw Penelope in Cole’s arms, and grinned. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment, Sharpe. All the shit you’ve been giving me for the past year, and—”

Cassidy appeared in the doorway, his cool green eyes betraying nothing, but there may have been just the slightest upward tilt of his lips.

He leaned forward, his hand finding the doorknob of Penelope’s office door. “Sorry about my Relationships and Travel editors here,” Cassidy said. “I’ll just give you a moment of privacy…”

“Hold up,” Cole said before Cassidy could close the door. “I have a bone to pick with you, boss. You deliberately let me think—”

“Never happened,” Cassidy called, shutting the door with a sharp snap.

It opened a half second later, and Cassidy poked his head in the door.

“You guys do remember we have a staff meeting in ten?”

Cole was already kissing Penelope, and waved a hand over her head. Get out.

The door closed again, and Cole pulled Penelope closer, deepening the kiss. If he only had ten minutes, he was going to make every damn one count.

Penelope, however, had other ideas, because she shoved him back after two minutes.

“Wait. Does this mean I don’t get to go to the game with Todd tonight?”

“You have other plans,” Cole said, running his hands over her, just because he could.

“What am I supposed to tell him? I already said I was available.”

“Tell him there’s been a change of plans and you’ll be spending the night naked, at my place.”

“What if he asks to go later this week?”

“You’re busy then too.”

“Next week?” she asked, her voice just slightly exasperated.

He smiled against her neck. “Let me make this really clear. You’re going to busy all of the nights. Forever. With me.”

She pulled back. “That sounds to me like commitment, Mr. Sharpe.”

He grinned. “It does, doesn’t it?”

“Okay, but I’m thinking I should get this one in writing. You’re obviously terrible at keeping your promises, and—”

Cole cut her off with a kiss. Penelope didn’t know it yet, but he was pretty damn sure she’d be getting his promise in the form of something shiny and sparkly.

Say, along the lines of a diamond ring…

Epilogue

“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, it’s him.” Penelope thumped her fist against Cole’s biceps in excitement. “Do I look okay? Do you have any lipstick?”

Cole stared at her. “Are you kidding me right now with this?”

She barely heard him. She stood on her toes, peering around the crowd of reporters to get a better look. “Dang, I wish I were taller. Can I sit on your shoulders?”

“If you think for one second I’m going to hoist you onto my shoulders so that you can ogle another man—”

“Not just any other man, though,” she said. “Jackson Burke. Only, like, the greatest quarterback in the history of quarterbacks.”

“Former quarterback,” Cole corrected under his breath.

They were both quiet for a moment, two avid sports fans paying a moment of silence to the end of a legend.

Five days ago, Cole and Penelope had flown in for the Redhawks’ training camp. It was a sports editor’s dream. A chance to interview players, coaches, see who was looking good, who’d had a few too many beers in the off-season…

The moment they’d stepped off the plane, both of their phones had exploded in a barrage of texts, emails, and tweets.

Jackson Burke, the Texas Redhawks quarterback and four-time Super Bowl winner, had been involved in a multicar accident on the way to a training game.

Nobody from the Redhawks had confirmed the extent of his injury, but rumors were flying that his football career was over.

Further rumors were circulating that he’d had a woman, not his wife, in the car with him.

It was a toss-up which was getting more press—the demise of his professional life or the implosion of his personal one. Especially given the swirling rumors of his womanizing ways in recent months.

The crowd parted enough that Penelope could get her first glimpse of Jackson, and her heart sank as she realized that the rumors likely held some truth.

The sling on his shoulder was the first clue, but it was the look on his face that confirmed it.

This was a man who’d lost everything.

“Damn,” Cole said.

“I know,” Penelope said. “He’s even more gorgeous when he’s haunted, isn’t he?”

Cole glared at her, and Penelope hid a smile. She was doing it to needle him, but truth be told, Jackson Burke was an exceptionally good-looking man. Dark brown hair, hazel eyes framed by some great eyelashes. Then there was the body. That glorious, sculpted body.

Basically, the man was so perfect to look at that he was the paid rep for at least a half dozen different lines of fitness equipment, men’s grooming products, and a couple kinds of whiskey.

The crowd quieted as Jackson Burke took his place behind the microphone. It was the first press conference he’d given since the accident, and judging from the pissed-off expression on his face, it hadn’t been his idea.

“Mr. Burke, can you tell us the extent of your injuries?”

No.

“Mr. Burke, do you anticipate recovery by the start of the season?”

No.

“Mr. Burke, if your injuries prevent you from returning from football, what will you do? Your college degree is in journalism, do you think you’ll ever be one of us?”

Hell no.

“Mr. Burke, can you tell us the identity of the young woman in your car?”

No.

“Mr. Burke, in the three days you were in the hospital, Mrs. Burke wasn’t ever seen coming or going. What is—”

There was a loud crash as the podium hit the ground.

“Holy shit, he just table-flipped a podium,” one of the other reporters said excitedly.

“Guess his other arm still works fine,” Cole muttered in her ear.

“Yeah,” Penelope said distractedly. Her eyes stayed trained on Jackson Burke as he walked away, shaking off his agent and coach and giving the finger to the crowd of bolder reporters who’d dared to follow him.

“Time’s up, sweetheart,” Cole said, his hand sliding around her waist. “Your ogling minutes are all used up.”

She turned around to face him, and the sight of his perfect, beloved features had her forgetting all about Jackson Burke.

The damn man still didn’t fail to take her breath away. She doubted he ever would.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, oblivious to the buzzing crowd around them. “What if I were to ogle you?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Do you want me to strip? If you take me back to our room, I can definitely strip down and let you ogle, and if you’re a really good girl, I might let you touch….”

She glanced at her watch. “Shouldn’t we head over to the game camp? See if we can’t get someone to talk to us about yesterday’s near brawl?”

“Definitely. We should. Or, we can try out that two-person shower in our suite.”

Penelope pursed her lips. “You know, hypothetically, if I agreed to that shower idea, it would be the first time in my life that I chose a guy over sports?”

He lowered his lips to her ear. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Deal. But if Cassidy asks—”

“He won’t. Trust me, he does not want to know.”

Penelope let him take her hand and lead her in the direction of their hotel, when suddenly she tugged him to a stop.

“Hold up. I said it was the first time in my life I chose a guy over sports.”

“Yeah?”

“So you didn’t say it back,” she said, feeling oddly sulky. “You’ve chosen a woman over sports before?”

He scratched his cheek. “Yeah. Once.”

Jealousy stabbed through Penelope, and the unfamiliar emotion left her with the strangest feeling of being icy cold and fiery hot at the same time.

“Who?” she demanded. “When?”

“It was at a Yankees game. I spent the first three innings captivated by her back and the way she kept scribbling in this little notebook….”

Penelope made a huffing noise. She did not like this woman. She really didn’t like that the woman liked baseball. That was her and Cole’s thing.

She started to lift her chin and play it off, but then she saw the little whisper of a smile on his face.

Penelope’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. I have a little notebook. And you first met me at a Yankees game.”

“Hmm, that so? I don’t remember.”

She pinched his arm playfully. “Cole Sharpe, don’t you dare tease me about this. The woman who distracted you from that Yankees game. It was me?”

His hands found her face as his thumbs gently brushed her lips, his expression tender. “Penelope. It’s always been you.”

Read on for an enticing excerpt

from the next in the Oxford series

Playing For Keeps

Available soon from

Chapter 1

It wasn’t that Jackson Burke was a cowboy.

Not really.

Sure, he’d been born and raised in Texas, but he’d lived most of his life in the suburbs of Houston.

The only time he’d seen a horse was at summer camp.

And sure, he liked his jeans and his boots, but he’d adjusted to the daily suits.

Mostly.

So maybe Jackson was more cowboy than he thought, because man, did he hate New York City.

He hated that his new penthouse apartment, with all its shiny appliances and stunning skyline, didn’t have a backyard.

Hated that you couldn’t do something as simple as go out to buy a tube of toothpaste without having to share the sidewalk with a hundred other people.

The beer was overpriced, the food was overpriced, and there were always a dozen sushi places within a half-block radius—but it was damn near impossible to find decent barbecue.

He hated the subway. Hated the cabs. He even hated the fancy car service that he could easily afford, because it reminded him that he had nowhere to go.

Hated his new job and everything that it represented.

Basically, Jackson hated that he was in New York instead of Texas, but most of all—more than the expensive beer and the substandard barbecue—he hated why he was in New York instead of Texas.

Hated that he was no longer Jackson Burke, quarterback of the Texas Redhawks.

He was no longer quarterback of anything.

Which would be great—no, not great, it would never be great—but it would be tolerable if everyone would quit acting like he was just a stroke of luck away from a comeback.

Of course, they hadn’t seen the X-rays.

They hadn’t had to listen to doctor after doctor string the words never and football into the same sentence.

Still, there were two things that Manhattan delivered just as well as Texas: whiskey and women.

Tonight, like most other nights lately, both were on the agenda, but unlike other nights, the women part of the equation wasn’t going to end with them naked between his sheets.

There were some women who weren’t meant for fucking. Your ex-wife’s little sister was one of them.

And though he wasn’t going to get all sappy and emotional about it, Mollie Carrington was perhaps the one positive thing about his move to New York City. The spunky kid was the one person who’d never seemed to care about his jersey.

Which was a good thing. Because he’d never be wearing one again.

—

“Joining us for dinner, sir?” The hostess at the upscale Italian restaurant gave him a polite, if slightly generic smile.

“I am, but I’m early,” Jackson replied, forcing a return smile. He’d been doing a lot of that in the past eight months—forcing smiles. Forcing everything.

“Not a problem. Feel free to grab a seat in the bar while you wait.”

That was the plan, sweetheart, Jackson thought as he forced another smile and made his way into the dimly lit bar.

It’s not that he was dreading seeing his sister-in-law. No, ex–sister-in-law. Of all the women in his life, Mollie was easily the least complicated. It was just that Mollie made him think of Madison, and Madison was, well, very complicated.

Still, Mollie was a good kid. Granted, he didn’t see her much. She’d been twenty when he and Madison had gotten married at twenty-eight, and completely immersed in her college life at Fordham.

Then she’d opted to stay in New York, coming to Houston only for holidays and the occasional weekend getaway.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen her. A year ago, at least.

Jackson was a little surprised to realize he’d missed her. Odd, considering that their friendship had more or less been born out of obligation on his part: Right after he and Madison had gotten married, he’d been so damn desperate to be the perfect husband, and by extension, the perfect brother-in-law.

Mollie had gone to Australia for a year abroad and had been terrified at being so far from home. Since Madison didn’t “do” email, Jackson had done his best to give Mollie a sense of home by corresponding with her via the Internet while she was halfway across the world, and somehow they’d never stopped, even when she’d gotten back to New York.

Not like they’d been writing long love letters that he’d spritzed with his cologne or any bullshit like that, just emails here, quick texts there. She reached out whenever she had boyfriend problems, and he’d just been grateful to have someone in his life willing to talk about something other than football.

Mollie was a friend…one of his best friends, perhaps, but her email invitation to catch up over drinks now that he was in New York had caught him by surprise.

To say that the end of his and Madison’s marriage had been stormy would be a massive understatement.

He hadn’t heard from Mollie since the divorce was finalized.

Until now.

“Can I get you a drink, sir?” the bartender asked.

“Manhattan, Knob Creek bourbon if you have it, with Carpano Antica if you have that,” Jackson said.

“Of course, sir.” The middle-aged bartender didn’t even bat an eye at the precise order.

Now this was one thing New York did better than Texas—cocktails. Perfectly cold, perfectly mixed, perfectly classic cocktails.

The bartender fluttered down a white, monogrammed cocktail napkin in front of Jackson as he stirred the drink, before straining it into a chilled glass.

Perfect. Utter fucking perfection.

And what shit it was that Jackson’s life had turned into this—the highlight of his day was a well-made cocktail.

Jackson took a sip of his drink as he surveyed the room with a bored eye. It was early on a Wednesday evening, which meant that most of the clientele were the after-work business crowd: men in perfectly tailored suits, women in classy pencil skirts with perfectly coiffed hair.

Houston had this too—a thriving business scene—but it was different.

Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just that the way people responded to him was different here. Not so long ago, he could walk into a room—any room—and be swarmed with fans wanting autographs or selfies or just to touch him.

People occasionally recognized him in New York, but more often than not, he blended into the suit-wearing, Monday-through-Friday crowd as though he were one of them.

Because he was one of them.

Or at least he was trying damn hard to be.

Jackson slid a finger under the collar of his shirt, tugging it outward just slightly in an effort to ease the choking sensation it gave him. The tailor had assured him that the shirt was a perfect fit, but it still felt tight.

Trying to distract himself from the fact that he was wearing a boring blue suit just like most of the other men in the bar, he let his attention shift to the women.

It was one of the few benefits of his divorce—the ability to look at other women without feeling guilty.

Hell, in the early years of his marriage he hadn’t even wanted to look at other women. Madison had been…everything.

Even toward the end, he’d stayed faithful.

And not a damn person believed him.

Jackson took a sip of his drink and let his eyes scan the room. There were the two cocktail waitresses in their tight black dresses. Hot, but young. Far too young. There was the group of classy, designer-clad women near the window, nursing their white wines.

Then there were the businesswomen on their cellphones, the gussied-up women on dates, and the elderly woman who’d just ordered her second martini….

Bored.

He was bored. Jackson’s fingers crept to his collar once more. Sweet Jesus, was the thing actually getting tighter?

He went for another sip of his drink only to freeze when he saw a pair of very nice legs out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head subtly to get a better look, and all traces of boredom vanished.

A woman in a short red dress will do that to a man. Especially when the woman has the most perfect pair of legs he’d ever seen. Long—sinfully long—toned, tanned…

His eyes traveled up…and up and up, over the trim ankles in their sexy sandals, over the defined calves and toned thighs and narrow hips. The woman was tall and thin, bordering on lanky, which he didn’t usually go for, but it was working for her.

His gaze kept right on going, over the narrow waist, small but perky breasts, until he reached her face.

Pretty. Very pretty. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tousled and sexy, her eyes brilliantly blue. And that mouth…

That mouth was smiling at him. No, smirking. At him.

The woman had definitely caught him in the act.

Shit. Might as well roll with it.

Jackson calmly lifted his drink to his lips as he met her eyes, only to feel a little jolt as their gazes collided. Jackson felt a punch of lust in his gut, followed by something else…something low and dangerous, not unlike an eerie siren trying to tell him that something was very, very amiss.

Slowly, the woman lowered herself to the barstool next to his. He watched in horrified arousal as she reached out, plucked his drink from his hand, raised it to red, red lips, and took a deliberate sip.

Only after she’d set the drink—his drink—back on the bar did she speak.

“Hello, Jackson.”

“God. Mollie.”

He continued to stare in shock at his ex sister-in-law.

Oh hell. When had this happened?

FIND YOUR HEART’S DESIRE. . .

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Epilogue

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Other Titles

About the Author

Excerpt from Playing for Keeps