Page 35 of Fierce-Zander

“Justin…” he said. “You heard me say his name and I can trust you, right?”

“You can,” she said. “But don’t expect me to tell you the names of my clients. Though I do have one that I mentioned your name to and they did ask me to talk to you.”

“Good,” he said. “We can do that too. Anyway, Justin is always worried his wife is doing something he doesn’t know about, but I’m not sure how he feels about it or why he has to know all the details. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this and he’s got the money to pay so why not? It’s easy work, just boring. Tonight, I can have dinner with you while I get a few pictures and try to figure it out.”

“How does he know where his wife is going to dinner?” she asked.

“She shares her work calendar with him and tells him.”

“Seems normal enough,” she said. “But there are trust issues.”

“Do you think?” he asked drily. “Anyway, dinner at eight. Care to join me?”

She looked down at her clothes for the day. She had black trousers and heels with a hunter green silk button-down shirt tucked in. It was the opposite of his jeans and T-shirt with sneakers.

“Should I change?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s a casual pub and I need to change too. Don’t suppose I can pick you up or we can meet? Your choice.”

It wasn’t like he was being pushy. “I might be out of the way.”

“We can meet then,” he said.

He gave her the name of the pub; she left and ran home quickly. She only lived fifteen minutes away and the pub was ten minutes in another direction from her house but only about ten minutes from her office.

Regan got in her door and decided to take a quick shower. Grabbing dark jeans, a T-shirt with a retro cartoon pattern on it that she fell in love with, she put a light green blazer over it, then found a pair of flats.

Her hair looked fine. No reason to do anything fancy with it and she didn’t want to come off as someone who was trying too hard.

She realized she hadn’t gotten Zander’s number and maybe should have if she was held up.

But she left with twenty minutes to spare and noticed his SUV was already there. She wasn’t late but walked in anyway.

He saw her and came over.

“Let’s go wait in my SUV so I’ve got an idea of when they come in. I just slipped the hostess cash and showed her the woman’s picture and asked if we could be seated by them.”

Regan laughed. “I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“Part of the job.”

“This is fun.”

He laughed and it transformed his face even more. Though he always seemed laid back, this laugh just reached his eyes more than before.

If there were tingles in her chest and maybe some between her legs, she was putting it on hold until she could get a better idea of where this all might go.

The fact she made this move with him was something she hadn’t done with another man before.

Another sad fact about her life.

“Speaking of fun,” he said. “You look different.”

“Different in a bad way?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “In a fun way.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t always get to dress for a night out like this.”

---