“I’m sor­ry about your mar­riage end­ing,” West said quietly.

Kel­by sighed. “It’s the only thing I ever real­ly failed at. Bax was self-cen­tered he was. When his mag­i­cal run dried up, I got the blame.”

He frowned. “Ver­bal? Or worse?”

“Lots of ver­bal, which I stu­pid­ly took. The drink­ing, which I shouldn’t have tol­er­at­ed, but I did. When I found the drugs, though, I was done.”

“Are you see­ing any­one now, Kelby?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I’ve focused on my career these past five years. Now that’s cir­cled the drain.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was let go. Because of the whole Bax thing.”

Con­fused, he asked, “I’m not following.”

“Bax killed a guy over his gam­bling debts. And then yes­ter­day, anoth­er pris­on­er in the jail stuck a shiv in Bax. He’s dead,” she said flatly.

Imme­di­ate­ly, West left the booth and slid in beside her, wrap­ping an arm about her.

“I’m so sor­ry, Kel­by. That had to hurt like hell. Even if you left the guy years ago, you loved him once.”

She leaned into him, press­ing her cheek against his chest, and he pulled her clos­er to him. “You’ve had it as rough as any­one can imag­ine. But you’re such a pos­i­tive per­son. Good is going to come out of this. Either you’ll land a new job, or you’ll start your own company.”

“My own com­pa­ny?” She looked up at him. “I’ll bet you don’t even know what I do for a living.”

West kept her close, feel­ing as if she fit per­fect­ly, exact­ly where she was. Their gazes held.

“It doesn’t mat­ter. Because I think you can do any­thing you set your mind to, Kel­by Blackstone.”

Hand­ing her a card, he said, “The acci­dent is com­plete­ly my fault. I’ll make cer­tain my insur­ance agent under­stands that.” He hes­i­tat­ed. “I’m sor­ry about your hus­band. I don’t under­stand why any­one who loves some­one would cheat on the per­son they love.”

Autumn wiped away her tears. “It took a long time to learn that he only loved him­self. Nev­er me.”

Her words hung in the air a moment, and she couldn’t believe she had shared such an inti­mate part of her life with this stranger.

“Why don’t I call my insur­ance agent now and see how to pro­ceed?” he asked. “We should move our cars, too. I think they’re both drivable.”

“Okay.”

The stranger came to his feet and offered Autumn his hand. She took it, an odd feel­ing wash­ing over her as she did so.

“Thanks.”

His gaze met hers. “We should also get you checked out.”

“Let’s take care of busi­ness first.”

Autumn knew noth­ing was wrong with her. Plus, at the moment, she had no insur­ance cov­er­age. The fees racked up for an ER vis­it would be astronomical.

Walk­ing back to her car, she knew this whole mess would take up the rest of today. She had want­ed to pre­pare for her inter­view. Study the Hogan Health website.

She opened the driver’s door and pushed aside as much of the explod­ed airbag as she could and got behind the wheel, real­iz­ing she held the card he had giv­en her in her hand. When she read it, an exple­tive was the first thing that came out of her mouth, a very un-Autumn-like thing to do. Many nurs­es F‑bombed all over the place, but Autumn couldn’t remem­ber the last time she had cursed. She stared at the name on the card. The man who had hit her was Dr. Eli Carson.

And she was sup­posed to inter­view with him tomor­row morning.

Dar­by want­ed to lessen his hurt. “That must have been ter­ri­ble. To have been adopt­ed and yet not feel as if you were a part of a family.”

Jace shook his head. “I had it way bet­ter than Eli ever did. I had a nice home. Decent clothes. I was giv­en edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Tan­ners lack of inter­est in me instilled a dri­ve, in me. I push myself, even now, want­i­ng to prove to every­one that I can pro­duce results. My clients know how devot­ed I am to them. I always come through. I’m mer­ci­less when nego­ti­at­ing on their behalf.”

“Do you have many friends, Jace?” she asked softly.

He looked away. “Not real­ly. I don’t like to ask for help. I don’t want any­one think­ing I’m weak. I guess I’m what you’d call a lone wolf.”

She real­ized Jace Tan­ner was giv­ing her insight to him that he had nev­er allowed any­one to access before. She didn’t know why he had cho­sen to open up to her. They bare­ly knew one another.

Yet some­how, it felt as if they had always known each other.

“You didn’t have to share any of this with me, Jace. But I’m glad you did.”

He final­ly turned to meet her gaze. “I don’t think Eli is the bro­ken one,” he said, his voice raw and hoarse. “I think … that’s me.”

Her hand cupped his cheek. His eyes closed a moment, and he leaned into it, seem­ing to savor the touch as much as she her­self did. This smart, con­fi­dent, sexy man had bared his soul to her. Dar­by want­ed to help him in some small way. Her thumb caressed his cheek for a moment, then she slid her hand to his nape.

And pulled him toward her.

Chance Black­stone stood there, cow­boy hat in hand. His unruly, coal-black hair had been tamed into place, and his gray eyes were steady as they looked at her.

“Hey, Sum­mer,” he drawled. “I hear you’re back in Hawthorne for good.”

She swal­lowed, her heart now beat­ing wild­ly against her ribs. “I’ve com­plet­ed one romance nov­el and will be start­ing anoth­er one come Monday.”

“I sup­pose Mon­day is a good day to start a romance,” he said, his gaze steady.

Sum­mer swal­lowed, the but­ter­flies mad­ly flap­ping away in her bel­ly. She had always had a crush on Chance Black­stone. He had been West’s best friend since kinder­garten and two years her senior. She had always looked up to him, think­ing him smart, fun­ny, and hot as hell.

Chance had nev­er giv­en her the time of day.

“Mon­days are the best day to begin a romance,” she replied sauci­ly. “I plan for my hero and hero­ine to meet, and I promise that sparks will fly. That’s what a romance nov­el is all about.”

Chance stud­ied her a long moment. “I won­der if real-life romances begin on Mondays?”

Was he flirt­ing with her?

“I wouldn’t know,” she said breezi­ly. “It’s been too long since I’ve been in one.”

“So, no bro­ken­heart­ed guys left behind in the Big Apple?”

“No.”

“Then maybe we can meet up for cof­fee. I’d like to hear about your time in New York.”

She shook her head. “I know you only think of me as West’s kid sis­ter. You don’t have to be so nice, Chance.”

“You haven’t been a kid for a long time, Summer.”

Sawyer laced his fin­gers through hers.

“I can’t imag­ine what you’ve gone through. Not just the injury and com­ing back phys­i­cal­ly from it. The men­tal aspect.”

“They had me see a ther­a­pist,” she revealed. “I did talk ther­a­py for about four months. It helped some.”

Pais­ley paused, lik­ing the feel of his him. “I didn’t mean to damp­en today’s mood, Sawyer. I know you’re try­ing to make it a joy­ful one for me. Doing some­thing that takes my mind off Team USA and where they’re bound.”

“It’s nat­ur­al for you to miss being out on the court. Being with your Olympian team­mates. The chance to earn gold for a fourth time.”

“Well, what­ev­er you have planned, I’m game for. And I real­ly do appre­ci­ate you tak­ing today off to spend with me. I knew it was going to be a rough one. One of sev­er­al com­ing up. The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny will also be hard to watch. That was so much fun to par­tic­i­pate in, every­one wear­ing their red, white, and blue out­fits and march­ing as a group behind our flag.”

“I’ll watch the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny with you. If you’d like. And any games tele­cast. You don’t have to do this alone, Pais­ley. You’ve got friends here in Hawthorne, and I’d be hon­ored if you would con­sid­er me one of them.”

“I real­ly appre­ci­ate that. More than you could ever know. So, Mr. Mont­gomery, tell me what we’re going to do today.”

“I asked you about heights for a rea­son. If you were scared of them.”

“Nope. Not a bit.”

He grinned at her. “Good. Because in a few min­utes, we’re going skydiving.”