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Her hand flew to his arm. “Oh, Conor, I’m so sorry.”
There was no missing the flash of hurt that crossed his brow, but he speedily dialed up a toothy grin. “It was a while ago. I’m long over it.”
Perhaps, but Jules couldn’t help feeling for him. Or awarding him extra points for sensitivity. Dr. D had competition.
“So what do you say we go somewhere a little more—?” Frowning, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, its buzz loud above the chatty crowd. “Looks like we’ll have to take a rain check. I’m on call at the firehouse. Five alarm on the south side.”
“Oh, okay. Be careful,” she said, concerned.
With a blink-or-you’d-miss-it incline of his head, he brushed his lips across hers.
Warm and dry. No tingles, but not bad. “I’d like to take you out sometime, Jules. Can I give you a ring?”
“Sure,” she said, because if something was to happen to him on his call tonight, at least he went off thinking he might have a date in his future. But his viability as the future Mr. Juliet Kilroy had shrunk to a big fat zero. As much as she admired a man who did such important work, the thought of waiting around at home with her heart permanently in her mouth did not sit well.
There she went finding faults again.
With a big smile, he walked away, leaving her to ponder the curious problem of how her dating life had suddenly become very promising, yet she still felt ridiculously hollow inside.
Damn Tad DeLuca.
She didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know he was enjoying himself immensely with that food magazine journalist. Perhaps they were making arrangements for a special set of interviews later that involved a shirtless Tad. The woman was smart enough to undo shirt buttons and Jules bet she had graduated with a double first in pulling down zippers.
This should not bother her. He was her friend and yes, she had let her mind wander to wicked, wanton thoughts about her friend, but those were just fantasies. He had to kiss her, didn’t he? So what if she had kissed him first all those months ago. They had overcome that.
The Incident.They had got the train back on track and were doing just fine until he had some sort of brain malfunction and made his offer.
That woman’s husky laugh reverberated off her skull, seizing Jules’s heart in a vise. Tad must be in fine form tonight. She couldn’t listen to him ply his Mediterranean charm on another woman. Not anymore.
She had to get out of here. Tottering like a toddler in her too-high heels, she threaded her way through the hip crowd with the restroom as her goal.
“Hey.” Cara lay a slender hand on her arm. “Everything okay?”
“Sure. Just need the little girl’s room.”
Cara zeroed those ice blue eyes in on her and moved the weapon—her baby bump— into a block. “You’d tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course. Just TBS. Tiny bladder syndrome.”
Cara shot her a shadowy look.
“I’m fine,” Jules said with a strained patience, every cell poised for a meltdown that might relieve her throat, thick with tears.
Cara waddled aside. Okay, Jules wished she did. Rather, she sidestepped Jules with more grace than a woman with that much baggage should be allowed. Her superpower was to look radiant while carrying fifty extra pounds.
Jules finally got to the restroom, crashed in, and locked the door once she had determined she was alone.
This thing with Tad had to stop. She could no longer allow herself the luxury of soul-sucking jealousy. Indulging in negative energy while she imagined him with other women, imagined him doing things to them that she wanted done to her. Time to snap out of it.
Dr. Darian was a viable option and how handy would that be to have a pediatrician in the house? She spent a couple of minutes practicing her game face in the mirror. She had found non-Tad and now she needed to reel him in.
As she left the Ladies, her phone chirped and she looked down, expecting to see Sylvia’s battle axe face with an Evan check-in but it was that strange number again. The one from London.
Him.
She couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Hello,” she said, trying to keep the shake from her voice. She could already feel his vibes through the phone line.
