NowthatI believed. From the little conversation we’d had—while she’d been pretty drunk and distracted—she’d struck me as an honest, direct woman.
“I didn’t think I was breaking into his house. She had a damn key,” Blake said. “I didn’t climb in a window, I walked through the front door.”
Jace looked at me. “How does she have a key?”
“Last week, I misplaced my keys,” I explained. “I couldn’t find them in my office or my classroom. Eventually, my admin found them under her chair. Dory could’ve stolen them and made a copy.”
“Very convenient,” Blake said. “Besides, Jace, he’s the one you need to be talking to. He gets off on sleeping with his students and taking their priceless belongings.”
“Did Dory Jensen tell you this?” Jace asked. “She’s been harassing Lennox for months. The judge granted a restraining order last week.”
Blake froze. My guess? She was going over everything Dory had told her about me. Her shoulders sagged and she grumbled something incoherent.
Jace sighed. “Len, I believe her. She’s not a liar. We’ve been friends since we were kids. We lived on the same block for years.”
“He has a crush on my twin sister,” Blake added.
“Blake, shut up,” Jace ordered.
Ignoring the warning, she continued, “I saved him from the switch time and again. Shit, his grandmother was tough. And I taught him how to do a foot sweep to beat up stupid Shamar Bolton.”
“Shut up,” Jace growled, rubbing the side of his face with his palm. “Let me handle this.”
The officer scribbled something on his pad. “Blake…what’s your last name again?”
“Young,” I said. Two pairs of eyes met mine. “Her name is Blake Young.”
Jace frowned. “You know her?”
Blake shot me a sidelong glance. “You know me?”
I narrowed my eyes on her. “Yes, I know who you are.”
“Young,” the officer murmured to himself as he continued to write on his small pad of paper. “Okay, city of residence?”
Blake cursed. “You’d already know this information if you wouldn’t have been such a wea—”
Jace shushed her. “Be quiet. Officer Perry, can I have a word?”
The two of them walked toward the police cruiser, leaving me alone with Blake. She was watching me when I peered over at her again.
“What?” she asked.
“You’restaring atme.”
She rolled her eyes. “Because you keep looking at me. And how do you know my name?”
I hunched a shoulder. “Does it matter?”
“Actually, yes. As you can see, I’m not very popular with men who used to have wives or girlfriends who’ve read my work or heard me speak. So, yes, it matters. Especially if it colors your view of me.”
“You’re worried about my view of you?” I raised a brow. “After you broke into my house on the word of the woman who almost destroyed my career?”
“Well, when you say it like that…damn.”
“You’re a therapist. How would you advise a client to handle this?”
“That’s easy. I’d tell her to show mercy,” she said with a shrug.
