Page 16 of I Did Before I Do

He raised his eyebrows. That little smirk was back on his face.

I had to get him out before he could say something else. I nodded toward the door. “Have a nice day.”

“Sure. You, too.” He nodded, moving away.

And then he stopped.

He paused in the doorway, turning his head to look over his shoulder. “Oh, hey.”

“Yes?” I smiled but was sure it wasn’t quite as welcoming this time. He was wearing on my nerves.

“Well, it’s just...” Ryker chuckled, folding his arms over his chest. The way his arms looked like that was sinful. “Page five, paragraph six, subsection I.”

I blinked in surprise. “What?”

He shrugged. He was trying to play this off as no big deal, but I was a little rattled. “It really needs a reference to the non-compete clause from the appendix. Just to make sure everything is clear. No loopholes.”

I blinked. What the hell was he talking about? He shouldn’t know that much. He shouldn’t have even looked at the documents. He wasn’t an owner.

But… what if he was right?

That would change things a little.

A lot, really.

I hitched my dealing-with-clients smile back on and nodded. “Well, I’ll take a look at that. Thanks for bringing these by.”

“No problem.” He smiled. “Take care, then.”

“You, too.”

He turned and passed through the doorway, quickly vanishing.

I sat down at my desk and opened the envelope, pulling the papers out and flipping through them. Page five, paragraph six, subsection I.

I read over it, eyebrows raising.

He was right.

Who the hell was this guy?

* * * * *

After work, I had plans. Kenzie and I had arranged to meet up for drinks, and she’d invited Lora to join us. I’d met Lora last time I visited Richland, and I liked her a lot. She was funny, and fun, and she liked to party.

The three of us sat in a booth at The Republic. We ordered a few plates of appetizers—wings, nachos, potato skins—and beers to enjoy while we caught up. Lora sat across from me, talking animatedly about a new recipe she’d come up with for Bakeology that was doing really well.

“And I mean, all the guys at No Regrets really liked it, and that means a lot.” She smiled, twisting a lock of strawberry-blond hair around her finger as she gushed about espresso cupcakes.

“That sounds really good,” I replied. “I’ll have to drop in and get some.”

“Let us know what day you plan to stop in, and we’ll save you one.” Kenzie smiled. “They sell out fast.”

I didn’t really want to talk about cupcakes all night, but it was better than Lora talking about her relationship.

At least one of us was getting laid.

I had some questions for Kenzie, though. I opened my mouth, but she got her question out first.

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