Page 5

Why isn’t my lawyer focusing on that?

We finish our loop of the block and end up at the bottom of the courthouse steps again.

“I didn’t see a coffee place.” It’s more of an observation than a pouting complaint from the persistent woman glued to my side like a heat-seeking missile.

“I never promised that.”

People and their coffee. It’s not like it’s the hardest thing in the world to brew a pot. Why does everyone feel like they need to get coffee “out”? That’s how Elizabeth used to refer to her eight-dollar cup of slop, which she insisted on even though I own a perfectly good French press, and I grind my own beans.

I’m about to point out a café two blocks over when it hits me—that sweet jasmine perfume that Elizabeth wears. I smell it before I see her, but there she is, stilettos clip-clopping on the sidewalk a half a block away. Nausea hits me, and I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of a conversation before we meet with the judge. So I do something that will certainly strike me as reckless and dumb when I consider it later, but for now, it makes sense.

“Listen, I’ll buy you all the coffee you want if you’ll just do me one giant favor.” I look at the ground as the words rush out because I’m embarrassed to be saying them.

“Okay, cowboy. You’re on.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Well, I don’t know your name.”

“Luke,” I grunt.

“Callie. It’s short for Calliope, but no one calls me that.”

I nod. “That’s my ex-wife coming toward us. Could you just, sort of block her access to me, pretend we’re deep in conversation until they pass by? I can’t deal with her right now.”

“Um, sure. I can do that.”

I blow out a breath of relief at this tiny kindness, and because she didn’t ask a million questions or comment on her diamond necklace that’s probably visible from space.

The perfume scent grows stronger, and I can feel Elizabeth’s presence like a cold front, icing my bones and tightening my jaw into an immovable scowl.

Callie does as requested and moves between me and my ex, nearly blocking my view and hopefully obscuring me from scrutiny when I’m this rattled. She takes a step closer to me, stands on her tiptoes, and tips her face up to mine like she’s going to whisper a secret. “I’ll do you one better.”

Before I can ask what she means, she presses her lips against mine. Gently at first, tentatively. Like she’s deciding whether this is a good idea.

It’s not.

My eyes widen, but I don’t pull away. Her arms reach up to wrap around my neck, and her fingers brush through my hair. I haven’t had this kind of proximity to a woman since Elizabeth left. I haven’t wanted it.

Still. Don’t. Want. It.

My breath hitches as I try to inhale.

Callie’s lips part and her tongue slips out to lick my lips. For some damn reason, I don’t pull away. I even…lean in, letting the light floral scent of her skin calm my senses.

I feel paralyzed, unable to back away even as every nerve in my body fires and my dick goes half hard, and my mind scrambles to make sense of three seconds that I want to last an hour.

But only for a moment. Then reason prevails, and I pull away because it’s the sensible thing to do. When we break the kiss, I catch the gawking, slow-blinking surprise on the faces of my ex and her fiancé. I also notice something different about my ex-wife. She may be advertising her wealth with her diamond jewelry, but otherwise, she looks wholesome and toned down. She looks like… a soccer mom, with her hair cut into a shoulder-length bob and minimal makeup.

It’s an act meant to convince the judge that she’s a model parent, but it doesn’t matter. She’s working it to a T. The only chink in her armor is the slight frown in the face of my public display of affection. I can’t deny it gives me a moment of satisfaction.

And then she’s gone.

When I turn back to Callie to communicate some combination of shock and thanks and bewilderment, I notice it all over again, that fucking blue mustache on lips that just took my damn breath away.

“Luke, hey, told you I wouldn’t be late.” The jovial voice is accompanied by a slap on the shoulder from my lawyer, who is looking Callie up and down with too much appreciation and a grin I’d like to smack from his face.

Blinking at him, I open my mouth, but no words come out. Callie extends her hand and introduces herself.