Page 101 of Dancing in the Rain

“Well, that’s business, I guess. Too bad we can’t like all our coworkers.”

She laughed. “Yeah.”

“It would be great to be able to pick everyone you want to work with. I’d pick you and…and Aidan. And Hannah.”

“Hannah?” Her eyes widened. “The girl who can’t hold a job longer than a year?”

He shrugged. “She has a lot of good skills. She just needs to find her way.”

“And Aidan? He’s a lawyer.”

“He’d be great at reputation management. Knowing the law is a definite asset. Hey, we have lawyers working for us.”

“True.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “That would be your dream team, huh?”

He grinned. “It would.”

Their food arrived and they continued to talk technical stuff like tools for social media listening, SEO optimization, and online branding.

Peyton tried to keep from looking over at Drew, but he was like a magnet to her eyes. And every time she glanced his way, he was watching her, still with that intense look on his face.

He’d said it was a business lunch, but what kind of business did he have? He still didn’t have a job, although he didn’t seem to be hurting for money. Maybe this was a job interview of some sort? And damn, she’d interrupted it.

She focused back on what Jax was saying about problems training a client to use the dashboard he’d developed.

The server approached them about dessert, which they both declined, and he left the check. Jax pulled out his cellphone. “Ugh,” he said, checking messages. “I’d better get back to the office.”

Peyton reached for the check, but Jax snatched it up first. “No way,” he said. “Lunch is on me.”

“Aw, thank you.”

“It was really good to see you again, Pey.”

“You, too.”

She glanced over at Drew one last time as they left the restaurant, and again he was staring at her as Jax set his hand on the small of her back to guide her through the tables.

They hugged again on the sidewalk. “Keep in touch,” Jax said. “If you decide to stay in Chicago you could probably have your job at Campbell back.”

“Well, you didn’t do a very good job of selling me on that,” she said with a wry smile. “Telling me how unhappy you are there.”

“Right.” He grimaced. “But it would be a job. You know. If you really needed something.”

She smiled and nodded, and his words stayed with her as she walked to where she’d parked her car. How much did she miss Chicago? How much would she sacrifice to stay there for Chloe’s sake? The thought of going back to Campbell was mildly depressing. Been there, done that, moved past it to bigger and better things.

She kept thinking about that even at home as she got to work on her actual job. Since Drew had offered to help again, she arranged to go to New York at the end of the week, figuring she could be away two days. She asked Aaron to book flights and set up client meetings, as well as a meeting to sit down with Gord and touch base.

The doorbell rang shortly after two and she frowned as she dragged herself away from her computer to answer it.

Drew.

“Hi,” she said, answering the door with raised eyebrows.

“Hi.” His eyes were hard, his mouth a straight line, and his nostrils flared as he stepped into the house. He shut the door behind him with something just short of a slam.

She blinked at him and touched her throat. “What are you doing here?”

“Who was that you were having lunch with?”

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