“So, this one time during school,” he told me, “the whole team went down to the stadium when the Pirates were practicing and begged security to let us in. We sneaked back to the locker room and waited for them to be finished and stormed inside, asking for pictures and inviting them to our party.” Jake’s his face bright with excitement as he recounted the story from college. “Turned out they were damn impressed with our determination, and they came. That was a wild night.”

“Certainly sounds like it.” I smiled, but I could tell my mouth wasn’t going as wide as I wanted it to.

“So, what was school like for you? Sororities? Where did you live?” He leaned forward on the table, his enormous forearms looking out of place on the pink tablecloth.

“Mostly just schoolwork, studying, working—I was a waitress at Billy’s—and that’s about it. I had a few good friends. We would run or catch a movie together. Of course, we went to a few parties, but it wasn’t really my scene.”

“Like Lane,” Jake mumbled. “He was the determined brother, the responsible one, the one who accomplished lots of shit. Not me, I was the fuckup.”

I nudged his big boot with my ballet flat. “No way. Looks to me like you’re both successful, you just got there different ways. There are so many lawyers who partied their way through undergrad and law school.”

“Wild that we missed each other by a year, right? How old are you? About twenty-seven?”

I nodded. I was.

“Yeah, I figured. Four years for undergrad, three more for law school, and no way you’re a newcomer to the PD office. Your balls are too big.”

“You got me!” I said with a laugh. “Except I went to Community for a year before transferring to Pitt, so we missed each other by two years.” I waved my hand in the air as if I were reporting for class, answering roll call, or something else ridiculous because I wasn’t used to dates, let alone fancy ones with demanding, gorgeous, body-building men.

“Maybe I would have tamed my partying ways if I’d met you back then.” He brought my hand to his lips and kept his eyes on mine as he dropped a few kisses along my knuckles.

I had no idea hand-kissing could be erotic, but this was the most sensual sensation I’d ever felt. Tingles rushed from my hand to my toes, and then settled in other places.

I was in deep, deep trouble.

Jake

Aly and I strolled out of the restaurant side by side, and I didn’t want the night to end. It couldn’t end yet . . . I still had some fixing to do.

“Want to grab a cocktail in the lounge?” I asked her, still amazed that the beautiful woman was here with me. She was more than long legs, red hair, and creamy skin, much more than I’d expected. She was a whole woman. A good person, a sexy woman, a well-educated lawyer, soft and sensuous on the inside and so damn smart and tough on the outside—like an alley cat.

“I really can’t. We’re working this big case at the office, and we have an early debriefing meeting. I need to be on top of my game.”

She turned to face me and stood up on tiptoe to place a small kiss on my cheek. Her lips lingered for a few heartbeats along my face. They felt like a piece of silk floating over my stubble and with each breath, my coarse five o’clock shadow was snagging her perfection—a warning if there ever was one. But I was a rule-breaker.

“Thank you,” she whispered, pulling away. “This was surprisingly nice.”

I took her hand and led her to the other side of the lobby, next to the waterfall for some privacy, where the lapping of the water would drown out our words. Turning her to face me, I took her face in my hands and bent down to place a gentle kiss on her lips. It was nothing like I wanted to do. It was more of a caress when I wanted to devour her whole, but this wasn’t the time. I feared if I took one small nibble, I’d eat her alive right in the middle of the hotel for everyone to see.

“Aly, remember when I said everything was going to change?”

“Uh-huh.”

I took her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “And you asked about my other car, and I said I’d made a different investment?”

“Jake, I don’t know where you’re going with any of this.” Confusion swirled in her green eyes, and a line formed between her brows.

“I sold the car and used the money as a down payment on a small duplex. I now own two rental units in Highland Park. On the bus line. And I want you to live in one of them.”

“What?” she shrieked, but contained her volume to an urgent whisper between clenched teeth. She snatched her hand away from me with a force I didn’t know she had in her. “Jake! What in the world? I’m not a charity case!”

If I’d been looking for a way to bring out her fire, I had apparently found it.

“I know,” I said in a soothing voice, trying to calm her down. “I felt indebted to you, Aly, that’s all. And you and I both know, your place is awful. And dangerous. I hated dropping you off there, and now you can live at my new building. As a favor, I’ll match what you pay now in rent.” I might be stupid, but not dumb enough to admit I’d intended to let her live there rent-free.

“That’s the most preposterous thing I ever heard!” she said before she turned and stalked toward the revolving front door of the hotel.

“Aly!” I chased after her, my heavy boots clunking on the marble floor, echoing throughout the quiet lobby.

She held up a hand to warn me off, and I skidded to a stop. Yes, I could have caught her, but I didn’t. There was no way I’d make a scene—or more of one—in front of the front desk staff and valets. So I stood like an asshole on the other side of the glass door and watched the valet open a cab door for Aly. She slid into the backseat without even a glance back.

I knew it was rash and insane, selling my car and buying a rental property, asking her to move in. All of it was fucking nuts, but my brother went all crazy when he met Bess, inviting her to visit him in Florida. It had worked for him, so why not for me? We were identical twins, together since birth, so was it so bad that I wanted what he had? I didn’t know how he did it, but I was going to find the fuck out. Fast.

At least Aly took a cab and not the bus this late at night, I thought as I settled into my Hummer a few minutes later and drove away.

Then I had another irrational idea. Maybe I should swing by her place and at least make sure she got home safely. Isn’t that what men who liked women did? Looked out for them and shit. Or would that just scare her off?

My mind whirled, trying to come up with a way to fix this. Maybe I should have started smaller than an apartment? Like with flowers, or a puppy?

Nah.

It had been nearly forty-eight hours since Aly ran out of the hotel on me, and I couldn’t stand to be around all weekend without charging into her apartment and packing up all her shit. So I opted for a weekend with my brother’s family. Saturday morning, I let myself into his country house, ready for some of that domestic chaos to wash over me.

“Jaaaake-yyy!” I heard my name radiating from the kitchen, but it wasn’t who I wanted to be yelling it.

“Hey, James,” I said, greeting my sister-in-law’s best friend. He seemed to be spending more time at Bess and Lane’s country home than his own apartment in South Florida. “You’re back? Don’t you even work anymore?”

“I quit!” he exclaimed, then did a bad imitation of a hula dance, which I supposed was his idea of a “happy” dance.

I shook my head with a grin and let him rattle on since Lane had insisted James was good for Bess. He was part of the AA program, so he and Bess always went to meetings together when he visited them. Bess said that with James’s lifestyle, he’d likely never have a family of his own, so he was always welcome to be a part of theirs.