Page 51 of Falling for the Enemy

“Like in a boxing match?” Isla asked.

“Yeah, I guess like that in a way. We’re going to ignore each other and get on with our jobs. With luck, we won’t run into each other much.”

“Don’t you work in the same building?” Ella asked.

“Yes, but it’s a big building.” I sipped some water and wished we’d opened a bottle of wine instead.

Aria and Isla exchanged secretive glances, only they weren’t very secretive about it. Isla nodded. “She broke another one,” Isla finally said.

Ella looked at me with a frown. “Did you break another man’s heart? You’ve really got to stop that, Ava.”

I sat back with a sigh of irritation. “I don’t break hearts. I get into relationships and then the relationship peters out, and we go our separate ways.”

“You mean it peters out for you,” Isla said.

“No, it’s always mutual, and just to be clear, Jack and I were not in a relationship. We were stuck on a hill of mud for several days?—”

Layla sat up with interest again. “Alone? Like on a deserted island?”

“No, we weren’t alone. Norman was there, and trust me, it wasn’t an island worth being deserted on. You know what, I’m bored of this conversation. Let’s eat pizza.”

Layla grumbled and slumped. She wasn’t bored yet. “That’s a sucky ending. He’s supposed to carry you off to his massive Pemberly Estate.”

I laughed. “I’m fairly certain there is no Pemberly Estate, and we’re not Darcy and Elizabeth. We’re two assistant professors who went on a grant-funded trip that ended abruptly with a storm, and now we’re back. We return to work on Monday, and we’ll both be busy with teaching. He has his job and life, and I have mine.”

Ella was closest. She reached over and put her hand on my arm. “But you are staying at the university, aren’t you?”

“For now, Ella, I’m home. I don’t know what the future holds, but after this experience, I’m not in any hurry to go back out in the world. Now, enough about me. I know I was only gone a week, but catch me up. I want it all—businesses, relationships, writing. I want all the details.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

JACK

“Daddy, what do you think?” Holly held up her drawing of a horse. The kid had art talent, that was for sure.

“Wow, Peanut, that is amazing. Did Mom ever sign you up for the after-school art lessons?”

“She did. I start in two weeks. That’s fourteen days, right?”

“Yep.”

Holly was a highly skilled pouter. She got that from her mom. “Fourteen days is so long. I want to start tomorrow.”

I set down a grilled cheese sandwich. “It’ll be here before you know it. Tell you what—I’ve got a pad of plain white paper. You can make a countdown calendar and draw something special on each day. Then you rip the page off at the end of each day, and the fourteenth one will say ‘art school.’”

Her pout vanished, and her button nose crinkled from the giant smile underneath. “That’s a great idea, Dad.” She tilted her head sweetly. “You can be a pretty great dad, you know that?”

She had no idea how big an impact her words had on me. My chest tightened, and it took me a second to respond. “That’s only because I have the most amazing daughter a dad could ask for.”

She laughed. “Oh, dad. When is Mommy coming?”

“You bored of ole Dad already? She’ll be here in a few hours.”

“Is she with her friend Nate?”

“Uh, don’t know. Who is Nate?” I never asked Gwen about her social life mostly because I didn’t care. Up until now she hadn’t dated anyone, at least not that I knew of, but having another man in her life was going to upset the balance we’d created with Holly. Stupidly, the thought of there being another dad figure in Holly’s life had never crossed my mind.

“He’s this guy that sometimes comes over.” Holly scrunched up her nose. “He wears too much cologne. It makes me sneeze.”

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