The Friends We Keep

Nicole hadn’t been expecting the question. “No. We, um, Tyler won a contest for his summer camp a few weeks ago. Jairus came to see him and the camp group. They all loved it.”


All true, but not exactly how they’d gotten in. Still, she wasn’t comfortable admitting to a personal relationship with Jairus. Not when it was so new and they hadn’t discussed what exactly they were doing. Plus, finding out he kept the information about his sister to himself made her doubly cautious about oversharing.

“He knows how to put on a good show,” Veronica said easily. “He’s so good with the kids. Mason doesn’t like to be close to strangers. Jairus seems to sense that and never pushes. He lets the kids come to him. He’s not put off if they scream at the wrong time or are in a wheelchair. You gotta love that.”

“You do.”

Veronica excused herself. Nicole joined Tyler at the buffet. There were all kinds of kid-friendly foods. Everything from hot dogs to cupcakes decorated in B the D colors, of course.

But she couldn’t seem to summon her general annoyance at the dragon’s bright red universe. Not when it seemed that Jairus wasn’t such a bad guy after all. She’d been enjoying getting to know him, but that was as the man. She still hadn’t been sure what he was like as king of the B the D empire. From what she could tell, he wasn’t half bad there, either. Which meant resisting his considerable charms might turn out to be more difficult than she’d imagined.

“Mommy, can I invite Jairus to a barbecue?” Tyler asked. “You always say that it’s ’portant to invite back. He had us here, so we should have him at our house.”

Talk about a big step, she thought, pressing her hand to her suddenly fluttering stomach. But maybe it was time to walk on the wild side. Or at least stroll very, very slowly.

“I think that would be nice. He’s going to be on his book tour, so it might not be right away.”

“I know he’s busy. He’s got a lot of kids to make happy.” Tyler smiled up at her. “This is the best day ever.”

She laughed. “You know what? It kind of is.”

*

Hayley pulled the card out of the printer and handed it to her boss. Steven shook his head.

“How do you do that?”

She smiled. “It’s not hard, but I refuse to show you. I consider my skill with your schedule my job security.”

“You got that right.” He glanced at his list of appointments for the day. “I have a teleconference in ten minutes.”

“Yes, you do.”

Hayley generally gave Steven his appointment card every workday evening, but he’d lost the one for today. The man did a great job running the company, but he couldn’t keep track of his schedule if his life depended on it.

She touched her phone. “I have the phone number right here. I’ll buzz you when you’re connected.”

“Thanks, Hayley.” Steven leaned against the door frame of her office.

He was tall and nice-looking, a lot like his dad. Last year, when Steven had stepped in to take over the company, they’d all wondered how it was going to go. But John had trained his son well, as had Pam. Steven was a fair boss, honest and understanding without being a pushover. From her point of view, the pay was good, the hours completely reasonable and whenever she’d needed time off, he’d worked with her.

She thought about mentioning the trip to Switzerland, but honestly didn’t have the energy. With Rob still gone, there wasn’t much reason to think about getting pregnant. She didn’t want a child on her own—she wanted them to be a family.

But they hadn’t spoken since their meeting at the coffee shop. She’d wanted to call, but didn’t know what to say. She knew that until she was willing to tell him she’d let go of her dream, he wasn’t coming back.

She returned her attention to her boss. “You’ll need the notes on the contract,” she told him. “Let me grab them.”

She rose so she could cross to the file room just off her office. She knew she made it to upright, but wasn’t completely sure she got past that before the room started spinning.

How strange, she thought, more confused and intrigued than scared. This wasn’t like when she stood up too fast and got light-headed. It was completely different. Almost a kind of slow motion. As if everything were turning and turning, like the carousel at the park. She’d always liked the carousel. The white horses, especially, with pink ribbons and—

Something hot and wet dripped down her legs. The sensation surprised her. She glanced down and saw her jeans were stained. She touched her hand to her thigh and then looked at her fingers. Blood, she thought with surprise. That was strange. So very strange.

“Hayley!”

The frantic voice came from far away. Steven, she thought as she crumpled to the ground. He sounded worried. She needed to tell him she was going to be all—