“Happy now?” she asked. “The article moving along to your liking?”
Not by a long shot.
“Are they all like that?” he asked. “The meetings, I mean?”
She released her hair, bracing both palms against the counter. He topped off her glass a bit and shoved it toward her, but she didn’t reach for it.
“Jason was the fifth one so far. And, yeah, they’re all pretty much the same. Some innocuous memory. A tepid breakup. And the pronouncement that I’d apparently been a humorless bore the entire damn relationship.”
“Emma.”
She glanced up. “Every relationship, Cassidy. Every guy has said that same thing about me not smiling. I smile. Don’t I?”
He hedged. “Eh, right now you’re not.”
“Well, of course not, it’s you,” she said with a huff, picking up her glass.
And for some reason that made him smile.
He’d take grumpy Emma over fake-smiley Emma.
“Can I ask you something?” he said, following her into the living room, where she threw herself onto the couch in a rather un-Emma-like gesture.
She grunted her assent, and he sat in the chair that Jason had just been in.
“The whole not-getting-married thing that Jason mentioned…did I do that to you?”
Emma’s eyes met his, but she didn’t sit up. “Do you want to get married someday?”
He hesitated. “Haven’t done much thinking about it, but…no. Not really part of my game plan.”
Not anymore.
She gave a sad smile and closed her eyes. “Well, then, there you go. I’d say we did this to each other, don’t you think?”
Chapter 13
“Yup,” Alex called out at the knock on his office door.
He glanced up and was both surprised and yet not at all surprised to see Cole Sharpe standing in his doorway. Cole had this way of being everywhere he wasn’t expected, while managing to stay MIA whenever Alex went looking for him. It was a gift.
“Whose meeting am I crashing this time?” Cole asked, entering uninvited.
“Grace Malone’s,” Alex said, glancing at his watch. “And don’t even tell me she snuck into the stairwell with Jake. Do those two just wait until they’re supposed to meet with me to go get it on?”
Cole’s eyebrows wiggled. “Maybe thinking of you makes them horny.”
“I assure you, that is not the case,” Jake said from the doorway.
He, too, entered uninvited, taking the chair next to Cole, as he tossed a stack of papers across the desk at Alex.
“What’s this?” Alex said, glancing at the documents.
“Grace’s notes for her story.”
“Why didn’t she give them to me herself? We’re supposed to have a meeting.”
“I’m hijacking her time.”
Alex opened his mouth to protest, but Jake cut him off. “Trust me. Her story’s fine. She doesn’t need a babysitter. And whatever you think you know about blow jobs, I assure you, Grace knows more.”
That shut Alex up. He really, really did not want to talk to his best friend’s wife about giving head.
He pushed the papers aside to read later. As in never.
“Is there some sort of crisis I should be aware of?” Alex asked.
“Actually, yes,” Jake said.
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. “What now? Is the new copy editor not working out?”
“She’s working out just fine,” Cole broke in. “She’s cute.”
Alex shook his head. “Don’t be that gross guy.”
“I didn’t say I was going to hit on her,” Cole protested. “But she is cute.”
Alex shifted his attention to Jake, picking up a pen and clicking it. “So what’s the problem?”
Jake eyed the pen and lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve been…oh, what’s the word I’m looking for, Cole?”
“Grumpy?”
“Yes,” Jake said, snapping his fingers. “Grumpy.”
Alex stopped clicking for a half second before he resumed. “Grumpy.”
“Irritable? Grouchy?” Cole said, tilting his head as though to consider the new word choice. “No, I’ve got it. Cantankerous.”
“Yes!” Jake said with a nod. “You are cantankerous.”
“This is what I get for working with a bunch of journalists. Fifty synonyms for my irritation about people interrupting my workday.”
Cole and Jake glanced at each other. “Bilious?” Cole said.
“Nice,” Jake replied, holding out his hand to fist bump Cole.
“And you two clowns thought this was going to help my mood?” Alex asked. “Coming in here and badgering me about it? If I’m short-tempered it’s because there aren’t enough hours in the day to run two magazines.”