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“But I won’t ask again, even if a kiss would convince every naysayer in Alexandra’s twitter feed, if it means losing this,” I continue.
“The chance to walk four dogs before sunrise?” she quips.
“Someone to talk to when I’m trying to make sense of the whole damn world,” I admit.
She closes the space between us, dragging a reluctant Luna along. Then she takes my hand, the one not bound with leashes. “I need that too,” she says. “More than sex and all the other things that might take us down that path.”
But what if we did travel down the road marked sex? Would we find our way back here? I wonder briefly. A few days ago the idea seemed insane. But maybe our friendship is unbreakable.
I push the questions aside. Now, in the middle of Central Park, surrounded by impatient pups, is not the place to ask my best friend if she wants to fuck me, just to see how it goes, with the understanding that everything will return to normal the next morning. Yeah, I’m going to put that conversation on hold indefinitely.
“What do you want to do for dinner tonight?” I ask, turning the subject to one of Kayla’s favorite topics.
“We don’t have a fancy party or gala?”
“Not tonight,” I say. “My assistant canceled my work event for this evening.”
“What did you have planned?”
“I was taking a client to see a concert from my box at the new stadium in Brooklyn. But the clients can wait until we’re actually ready to release the software I want them to buy.”
Kayla starts typing on her phone. Then she looks up. “You were planning to see the Adam Bates Band without me!” she shrieks. “I just Googled concert in Brooklyn and what do I find? One of my favorite country stars is performing. And you happen to have an entire box of seats?”
“I take it you want to go?” I accept the fact that I’ll be spending the night listening to my least favorite style of music. But I’ll be with Kayla, not clients. “I have sixteen seats and a selection of cheesecakes ordered from catering. We could invite friends, go to dinner nearby the stadium first.”
“No friends,” she says shaking her head. “Just us. This will be our second high-profile date. Hopefully some photographers will follow and see us slip in the box alone.”
“Where we’ll pretend to have sex over cheesecake?” I ask dryly.
“Maybe.” She gives a small shrug and then heads down the path with an obedient Luna at her side.
My three K-9 charges pull me off to the right. For a second, I wonder if the dogs coordinated their efforts to keep me from asking Kayla what she means by “maybe.” Does she plan to tease me all night with her soft moans that no one will be able to hear over the music? Or does she actually want to …
The dogs halt on the grass and put their noses to the ground. I practically trip over Ava I’m so damn lost in the mental “what-if” of Kayla and I alone in the box.
No, I am not having sex with her at the concert.
But I’m still transfixed by the possibility. Everything else—the news coverage, the blackmail, my shitty past—it all fades into the backg
round.
Kayla … country music … sex … maybe …
I can’t even form a coherent thought. I glance over to where my best friend stands under a lamplight, waiting for me to drag the dogs away from this particular patch of dirt. Maybe Kayla wanted to distract me from the mess I’ve been wading through since Friday night. And maybe she realized the possibility of sex with her would do exactly that.
“What am I supposed to make of that?” I mutter. Three dogs lift their noses from the ground and look at me. Shit, they don’t have a clue either.
CHAPTER 14
GAVIN
“Mr. Black?”
Standing outside an Italian bistro near the concert venue with my cell pressed against my ear, I offer a curt affirmation to the woman on the line. I’ve been dodging reporters’ calls all day. First they plagued my office line. My assistant repeated her scripted response so many times I’m willing to bet she’ll recite the instructions to call Margaret in her sleep.
But I took this call because the number has an upstate area code.
“This is Lucie, the deputy chief of police handling the Greene shooting,” the woman continues. “We met Saturday morning in Kayla’s kitchen.”
