Her Sexiest Mistake

'Well, he's between careers at the moment, but he's putting in time at the teen center every day for a while.'

'Great.' Mia tossed her pen aside. 'Damn it, you have too big a heart, you know this. You fall too hard, and then get hurt.'

'No I don't.'

Mia ticked them off on her fingers. 'Scott. Jon. Timothy-'

'Okay, fine. I've fallen too hard, too fast before, but not this time.'

'Ha. You've already slept with him, the hurt is just around the corner.'

'Shows what you know.' Tess lifted her chin smugly. 'I haven't sleep with him. Yet.'

Mia groaned. 'How do you even communicate? You don't know sign language.'

'He reads lips, and that's where I was today. I started a sign language class.' Another dreamy sigh escaped her. 'Did I tell you? He's been making cookie dough with me at night.'

Tess had a small home business called Cookie Madness. She made cookie dough for extra cash, and she was amazing at it. She sold it by the pound, mostly to two small local bakeries, and in Mia's opinion it was the best dough in the world. So many times she'd bugged Tess to get serious about the business, to let Mia market it, but Tess had resisted, enjoying the smallness of the company.

'Mia.' Tess smiled at her doubt. 'Stop thinking. Just be happy for me.'

'If he hurts you, I hurt him.'

'I'll be sure to tell him. Now prepare yourself. I have wince-inducing news.'

'God.' Mia pressed her fingers to her eyelids. 'What now?'

'King Dickface wants to see you in his office.'

***

'Ted says the Anderson people asked for him specifically, and that you wouldn't let him on board,' Dick said without preamble.

'Ted also says he's a human being, but I have my doubts.' Mia smiled.

Dick did not. 'Fix this,' he said and went back to his computer.

Mia moved to the door thinking, if she could only figure out how to set her cell phone to stun…

'Mia.'

She turned back. 'Yes?'

'Ted wants to fire Tess. Says she came on to him.'

Mia found it difficult to speak with her jaw locked tight, but she managed. 'Ted has an ego problem. Trust me, Tess wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole.'

'We're laying off at the lower tier this week, and I'm just looking for people to give me a reason to let them go, so you might want to make sure.'

What she would like to make sure of was Ted's slow, painful demise, but she merely nodded.

'How's it going with your niece? Is she in jail yet?'

'She's not a bad kid,' she heard herself say and left in tune to his low laugh.

***

Mike showed up for work each day, a fact that quite frankly surprised Kevin. Mike even exhibited a glimmer of true interest: not just the happy-go-lucky, what-the-fuck Mike, but a man who wanted this job and who cared about making a living.

Now if Kevin could get Cole to care about his grades, convince Beth not to sell the building, get Joe off his back, get Mia to open up… if, if, if.

To suitably exhaust himself, he took a very long ride on the bike, after which he planned to fall into bed and not dream of Mia, or how if she knocked he hoped she was wearing that gauzy sundress again.

No. Christ, what was wrong with him? He was not going to keep sleeping with her whenever she knocked.

Yeah, but there was no sleeping involved, a little voice reminded him, while his body surged and said Oh, pretty please, one more time.

He parked the bike on his dark street and, in spite of himself, looked up at Mia's house. It was well lit, and from somewhere inside came the thudding beat of music. Not as loud as the previous week, which meant the two wildly opinioned, edgy, fierce females inside-so different and yet somehow so similar- had come to some sort of compromise.

Interesting.

Encouraging.

It was possible he'd never met two more incredibly stubborn women. It'd been easy to let Hope inside his heart, and he was glad she'd gotten to stay as long as she had. He'd ordered the parts for her car in case she somehow pulled off the impossible and stayed even longer. There was just something about her tough exterior and soft, vulnerable inside that melted him. He understood her. Whatever her background, it hadn't been easy, but she hadn't allowed her spirit to be taken from her.

He could identify with that.

He identified with Mia, too, whether she liked it or not. Identified, and craved.

She craved, too, or she wouldn't keep showing up on his doorstep.

From the top floor, probably her bedroom window, Mia appeared, looking blindly out into the night, her expression one of such sadness it pulled the air right out of his lungs.

She wasn't all tough, kick-ass, coldhearted woman, any more than Hope was-not that she'd admit it. He stood there trying to talk himself into walking away instead of knocking on her door, when he heard an odd noise.

A different window, a different female standing in the window directly beneath Mia. Then the face vanished.

The screen popped out. A leg appeared, and a pale face glanced back to make sure no one was watching her escape.

Hope, on the move.

Kevin sighed. Guess he was going over there, after all.

Chapter 13

Hope swung her other leg out the den window and for a moment clung to the ledge, looking down. Not so far, only eight feet or so. Not enough to break her legs.

Probably.

But the bushes planted directly below looked a little prickly and uncomfortable, topped with the now bent screen. Aunt Apple wouldn't be happy about that, but she squelched the regret because not even Mia wanted her around, not really.

And yet she didn't send you back…

Yeah, yeah, give the woman a medal. Hope looked down. She just wanted to go somewhere and think…

And smoke.

And, okay, also see Adam. He said he'd meet her by the basketball court, where they'd maybe play one-on-one for a while. At the teen center, she'd looked into his sharp blue eyes and thought It's not a game you want.

She wasn't stupid, she knew what boys