When We Met (Fool's Gold #13)(86)

The thought of an “outdoor weekend” with him in a couple of weeks made her skin crawl, but she’d survived worse. The boys would be there as a buffer. And thanks to Angel, she would be able to hold her own whether kayaking or hiking. As long as there wasn’t another flash flood, she would be fine.

As soon as those thoughts formed, she pushed them away. Thinking about Angel was a mistake. She could get lost in the memories for hours at a time, and right now LL@R was her primary focus.

Cole looked at her, then back at Jack. “Okay, great. You’ve shown me you’re all about equal opportunity and all that nonsense. Now can we lose the eye candy and get on with the presentation?”

The words were delivered so casually, at first Taryn was sure she’d misunderstood what he’d said. Kenny, Jack and Sam seemed equally stunned. But when Cole flicked his finger from her to the door, she knew she’d heard exactly what he’d said.

She started to stand. Before she could do much more than get the thought formed, Sam, Jack and Kenny rose as one. Each of them leaned toward Cole.

“You didn’t just say that,” Kenny told him.

Cole leaned back in his chair. “Come on, guys, seriously?”

Sam smiled. But it was the smile of a wolf about to take down a rabbit. “Over her, over any woman, anywhere.” He looked at Kenny and Jack. “I know you had high hopes for this campaign, but we don’t work with ass**les.”

“Damn straight,” Jack said. “Cole, you’re going to apologize to Taryn and then you’re leaving.”

Cole sat up straight. “What? Are you kidding me? Do you know what my account is worth? We had an afternoon planned. What about playing golf with Josh Golden and Raoul Moreno?”

“Not happening,” Kenny told him. “Now apologize to the lady.”

Cole bristled. “I was just calling a spade a spade. A woman dressed like that, who looks like that, what could she be here for?”

“She’s here because she’s smart and capable and because she wears the pants around here, figuratively speaking,” Jack said without missing a beat.

Cole seemed to realize he was seriously outgunned. He swallowed, then turned to Taryn. “No offense, ma’am.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” she told him. “You did mean to offend because you’re a misogynistic jerk.” She stood. “You have five seconds to leave this building or I turn them loose on you.”

Cole blinked, then scrambled to his feet and literally ran from the room. A second or two later, they heard him yelling, “Where the hell is the exit in this place?”

And then he was gone and she was alone with her boys.

“Well, that sucks,” she said. “Do you know how much time and effort we put into that presentation? Face it, gentlemen. We’re not meant to have retail clients. We’ll make do with our niche markets. Frankly, I can’t go through this again.”

Sam walked over to her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Then he put his arms around her and squeezed. She hung on until he released her. Kenny followed. He, too, kissed her, then hugged her. Jack was last. Only he didn’t let her go.

“He was a jerk,” Jack told her. “You okay?”

She stared into his brown eyes. “I will be.”

Because the pain in her heart had nothing to do with the jerk who had just scurried out of the building and everything to do with the dark-haired man who had stolen her heart.

She leaned against Jack and thought for the millionth time how much easier everything would have been if she’d been able to fall in love with him. But no. Her heart was nothing if not difficult.

“Thank you,” she said as she stepped back. “You were all great.”

“Anytime,” Kenny said.

* * *

TARYN GOT HOME, changed clothes and contemplated the long hours until she could realistically go to bed. The fact that she hadn’t been sleeping didn’t help things. She was exhausted and yet every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was Angel.

The killer of it was, she got why he’d freaked. He’d told her about what had happened with Marie and Marcus. She knew he blamed himself for their deaths. She knew his emotions ranged from feeling that he hadn’t been able to protect them when he should have to the sense that loving anyone else was a betrayal of what he’d had before.

She wanted to tell him that she knew he would always love Marie. That loving Marie was part of what she loved most about him. That she respected his past and his devotion. But he wouldn’t listen and if he did, he wouldn’t believe her.

Someone knocked on her door. For a second she allowed herself to hope. It fluttered like a trapped butterfly in her chest until she opened the door and saw Kenny standing on her porch. He had a stack of DVDs in his large hand.

“Hey,” he said. “Am I the first one here?”

“First one?” She groaned, realizing she was about to have an invasion. “What’s going on?”

“We played basketball this morning,” he said. “Angel wasn’t there. Jack asked why. Ford told him the two of you weren’t seeing each other anymore.” Kenny’s blue eyes were sympathetic. “If you dump a guy, you’re all about calling him scum. You haven’t said a word.”

“We broke up. It’s no big deal.”