“He’s just a guy. Seriously, Kayla, it’s fine.” The weather matched Grace’s mood perfectly. The last thing she wanted was to have a heart-to-heart right here in the office with Kayla. She would end up crying, and she didn’t want to cry anymore. She’d cried so much the night before her eyes were still a little swollen.
Kayla studied her for a moment. She frowned. “I doubt that. I’m pretty sure you need some retail therapy or at least some time with Señor Cuervo. But now that you’re single again, we should see about setting you up. You have to forget that jerk and get right back on the horse.” A startled look crossed Kayla’s face. “Unless…didn’t I hear that you went out with Adam Miles last night?”
She wasn’t sure what that had to do with getting back on the horse. Not that she was getting on any horse, or man, anytime soon. She’d given the whole flaming hot affair thing a try, and she’d gotten burned. “We went out for dinner and a movie last night. He’s a friend. And he’s gay. Jake was with us.” It couldn’t be a hot date if the guy brought along his boyfriend.
“Holy crap. How exactly was Jake ‘with’ you? Tonya in HR says those boys are wild.”
Grace felt her eyes go wide. “What are you talking about?”
“Tonya said she’s never had a night like the one she spent in between those two.”
“No. They aren’t bi. They’re gay. They just started a relationship. I can’t imagine that they would do that.” But she kind of could, in a totally hot, dirty way. They were two gorgeous men. The idea of them kissing had always done something for her. The idea of them kissing and then reaching out to the girl watching them really did something for her. “No. That has to be a rumor. You know you shouldn’t pay attention to gossip.”
“What else am I supposed to do? Work? That’s horribly boring, Grace. I would much rather think about your suddenly raging, hot sex life. And I didn’t mention anything about them being bisexual. Maybe, but according to Tonya, they were all about the girl. Has one of them made a move on you? I bet it’s Jake. He’s the dark, broody one. I bet he’s the aggressive one, too.”
“No, it wasn’t Jake.” She hadn’t meant to say that.
Kayla’s grin practically lit up the room. “Then it was Adam. OMG, Grace, what happened?”
“It was nothing.” Wasn’t it? It had just been a little kiss. And a whole lot of hand holding. And Adam’s arm around her waist for a lot of the night. But he didn’t mean anything by that. She wasn’t so vain that she expected a thirty-year-old hottie to be after her. A hottie and his boyfriend. Although, now that she thought about it, she’d never seen them kiss. Maybe they were just shy. She shook her head. They couldn’t be straight. “It wasn’t anything. I don’t know what happened with Tonya, but I’m strictly hag material, if you know what I mean.”
Even the thought of two hot guys wasn’t breaking through the sadness she felt about Sean. She could put together four, and they wouldn’t be as stimulating as the thought of the man who she had briefly called Sir.
“I doubt that. You’re not very self aware.” Kayla got up and sighed. She pulled the scarf off her neck and began wrapping it around her hair, covering it. “There’s nothing else to do. We need lattes. I’m going to brave the rain and get us some. You stay here. You’ve had a crappy day. You always go get the coffee. I’ll do it today.”
But she hadn’t lately. Lately, her daily run to the coffee bar two streets over had been taken over by Sean. Until yesterday.
She’d always made her daily run to the coffee bar at exactly three p.m. But when she started seeing Sean, he’d show up with her latte, and then they would talk for awhile. Yesterday, she had forced herself to make the walk. It had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was gone and life was back to normal. “You don’t have to, Kay. It’s awful out there.”
“It’s letting up, and I need some caffeine. Give me your raincoat and your umbrella, and I’ll be good to go.” Kayla’s hand was already out and waiting.
Grace sighed and stood back up. She hugged her friend. At least if she was back to normal, Kayla was with her. She needed sugar and coffee and girl talk. “Thanks. Get me a couple of cookies, too. I’m supposed to go to happy hour with Adam and Jake tonight. Want to join us? You can form your own opinions about my future ménage a trois chances.”
Those would be zero, but she was willing to play along. Kayla was taking one for the team by going on the coffee run.
When she was fully geared up for the rain, Kayla gave her a jaunty salute and promised to return as soon as possible. Grace sat back. Matt had left earlier in the day after barking a few orders at her. He’d been in a terrible mood and obviously hung over. Now it was quiet. She thought briefly about visiting the storage place again and asking some questions. The weather made that decision for her. But there was something she could do.
Grace got up and walked to Matt’s door. She was surprised to discover it was locked. She tried it twice before accepting it. He never locked his door. Confused, Grace walked back to her desk and pulled out her keys. Maybe he’d forgotten she had a set, or he’d just made a mistake. Either way, she was going in. She wanted to see that contract he’d signed, the big moneymaker they were celebrating on Friday.
It took her awhile to find the file. She shuffled through it, reading through each bid carefully. Twenty minutes later, she came to the final, signed contract, and then her jaw dropped open.
They were losing money on the Bryson Building deal. How was that possible? Why would he do that? What on earth had possessed him to make such a deal?
By the time Grace looked up, Adam was standing in the doorway, a smile on his face and his hand out to her.
* * * *
Sean watched her cross the street from his car. Her face was covered by her bright red umbrella, but he knew the raincoat she’d worn that morning. He checked the time. Exactly three p.m. It was the afternoon coffee run. It didn’t look like a little rain was going to keep Grace away from her afternoon fix. What a miserable fucking day. He hadn’t slept. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Grace in between Adam and Jake right before Patrick Wright, former CIA agent, showed up to kill them all. It was so fucking nice of Mr. Black to not mention he was really hunting a rogue agent. Bastard.