Page 16 of Hank

"I had sex."

"What?" she choked out, while sputtering into her cup. "I had sex?"

"I thought so."

"No, no, no…" Her shoulders slumped. How could Toni tell? Jo hadn’t given out any clues. At least none she could pinpoint.She blew out a low breath. The other woman should have been a prosecutor with her keen powers of discernment instead of a divorce attorney. Meaning, what good was it going to do to deny it? "Okay, I did."

"You…" Toni’s eyes widened, staring in clearly stunned disbelief as she sat hard in the chair in front of Jo’s desk. "Well, I’ll be damned."

"I hope not."

"When? You’re dating?" Toni quickly fired at her while sitting forward. "And I can’t stress to youhowimportant this next question is to me. With whom?"

"Last night." Telling Toni she’d had a one-night stand was still something sheherselfcouldn’t believe she’d done. So, how was she supposed to tell her boss. Her hesitation had nothing to do with worry the other woman would judge her, but still. "First of all, I’m not dating." Toni’s eyes widened even more and jaw slightly dropped. "And all I know is, his name is Hank."

"We had sex in the backseat of his truck," Jo blurted out as soon as Mags’ red front door opened.

"The backseat of his truck." Magdalena’s deadpan reply as she stood in the doorway—her face going from stunned to kind of scrunched up—hung between them.

"Yeah," she answered as Mags grabbed her hand and dragged her inside and shut the door. "Where’s Renner?"

"Don’t change the subject," Magdalena groused as she pulled her behind her into the living room, throwing over her shoulder, "And you know good and well I told you he and Waylen are finishing up some business in Mobile this week. Okay." She pressed Jo into a floral club chair, before sitting in the corner ofher solid sage-colored couch opposite her. "Now, spill," she said, crossing her arms.

Jo should have gone straight home instead of stopping at Mags and Renner’s. But she’d missed getting to talk to her best friend all day about what had happened with Hank—and had actually been anxious about it. Something that wasn’t her style. At all. Too bad now that she was here, she couldn’t find the right words to tell her the rest.

And wasn’t that just a bitch.

Seriously, how could she tell her she’d blown off the whole Hank-thing as a meaningless one-night stand? Because, you know, that’s what it was. But, damn, it didn’t feel like it. Not when she’d left a lot of unfinished business in the back of that man’s truck. Business that would have been better served in his bed.

All night.

And maybe into the next day.

So, telling Mags it was anything else but earth-shattering—something she had tried not to admit was true, at least to herself—would be a lie. The other woman wouldsmellthe bullshit.

"I’m screwed."

"I assumed you were," Mags said, earning her a slight glare. "But I need more context."

"I thought I could have sex with Hank and just walk away."

"So, you stayed with him." She was about to douse Mags’ thousand-watt smile.

"No, I walked away." And, yes, it disappeared, replaced by that scrunched-up expression again.

"I’m confused."

"Join the club, sister."

"Let’s start from the beginning." The scrunched-up face got scrunchier. "I just don’t need all the blow-by-blow details."

"We didn’t get to that."

"To what?"

"Blowing."

She received a rather exaggerated eye-roll from Mags, before she shook her head. "You’re changing the subject again."

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