The Trouble With Love(33)

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.”

“Nah, that’s not it,” Jake said after considering.

Alex didn’t bite at whatever it was they were dancing around. Didn’t want to humor them.

“Don’t fret, boss,” Cole said, shifting up to fish his cellphone out of his back pocket to look at the time. “Help should be here any minute.”

“Help for what?” Alex asked helplessly when it became clear they weren’t going to back off.

“The source of your crankiness.” The new voice came from the doorway, and Cassidy glanced up to see yet another of his Oxford reporters.

Lincoln Mathis strolled into Alex’s office like he owned the place, and since there were no more available chairs, he propped a hip on the side of Alex’s desk before flipping his cellphone onto the stack of cover mockups Alex had been looking at.

“What’s this?” Alex asked, glancing at the phone.

“The modern man’s version of the black book,” Lincoln said.

Alex glanced up at one of his newer columnists. Lincoln Mathis had started at the magazine just a couple months after Alex joined, taking over the Relationships department after Jake moved to Travel. But despite his relatively short tenure, Lincoln had quickly established himself as the heart and soul of the magazine, rivaling only Jake in reputation and charm. And Cole, but Cole didn’t fully count because of his contractor status.

To say that Lincoln was a ladies’ man would have been an understatement. With his brown hair, blue eyes, and readiness with a line, he was exactly the type of guy that other men hid their women from.

Alex placed three fingers on the phone and slid it back across the desk toward Lincoln.

Lincoln pushed it back. “Dude, Jake and Cole are right. You need this.”

“Need what?”

“To get laid,” Lincoln said, emphasis on the last word.

Alex glanced around his office at the other men. “That’s what this is about? You think I’m curt—”

“Curmudgeonly,” Cole broke in.

“Because I’m horny?” Alex asked, ignoring Cole’s interruption.

“Definitely,” Jake said with a nod.

“I’m not,” Alex ground out. “I’ve only been single for a couple weeks. Not even. I’m not so licentious that I can’t go that long without a woman.”

“Generally speaking, that’s probably true,” Jake said. “But for whatever reason, your tolerance for abstinence is way down lately. Ever since that dinner party, actually.”

Alex met Jake’s gaze and saw from the other man’s expression that Jake thought he knew exactly why Alex had been running a little ragged lately.

Alex narrowed his eyes to indicate that Jake didn’t know shit.

If Grace had planted some garbage in her husband’s brain about Alex being hung up on Emma, that was Jake’s problem.

Alex wasn’t going to dignify it with a response.

“Anyway,” Lincoln said, “that’s where I come in. I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve got this rather impressive skill of staying on excellent terms with all women, even those I’ve slept with—”

“He really does have that skill,” Cole broke in. “It’s annoying. Every girl I sleep with wants to kill me after.”

“That’s because you slip out of bed in the a.m. and leave a “Thanks, babe” Post-it Note on the pillow,” Jake said.

“So does Mathis!” Cole said, pointing. “And, hell, so did you for that matter, before you met Grace.”

Jake ignored this, shifting attention back to Alex.