Jac may have had a few moments of imagining what had happened if the kiss had gone deeper than it had.
Until he’d skedaddled, anyway. Hard to miss that part.
“I think he’d figure it out fast. Dear Max ran because you were too much woman for him. My grandmother did pack us sandwiches and brownies. And oatmeal-cranberry cookies.” Miranda shot her a grin. “Want me to crack open the tin?”
Those cookies were Jac’s favorite in existence. “You’ve been holding out. Hand over the goods.”
They shared the best cookies Jac had ever tasted on the drive, talking and laughing the whole way. Nat was her sister by birth, but Miranda was her sister by choice. She loved them both more than words could ever express.
She dropped Miranda off at Miranda’s condo and booked it back across town to her own place.
When she finally pulled into the Brynlock Academy parking lot at fifteen minutes past seven, she was relaxed but tired from the drive. Miranda had a way of breaking tension. It was one of her best friend’s strongest gifts. People relaxed with Miranda. That was a gift more prized than gold.
She stepped inside the multipurpose room of the school as the sounds and sights rushed her. The private school was one of the more expensive private schools in the city, but it had a warmth about it that belied that fact. Not super-prestigious. Or pretentious. The focus was on the children as whole beings, not just students competing for test scores. They also had generous scholarship and financial-hardship packages funded by local business organizations.
Jac had donated a thousand dollars last year to the financial-hardship fund.
Emery did well here. She had friends among her classmates, she loved playing sports and Brynlock had plenty for her to try, and she did great academically. She struggled with math, but the school provided one-on-one sessions with her for that, when needed. Brynlock wanted their students to succeed.
Max was a very proud daddy, who had often shared his daughter’s accomplishments with Jac. And begged her help with tutoring for that math two years in a row. Once a week, until recently, she’d have dinner with Max and Emery, and then she and Emery would hit the math book. They were making progress; it was just taking time. A mathematician Emery most certainly would never be, but she tried hard.
Max had freely shared his daughter with Jac.
Until the Kiss-That-Shouldn’t-Have Happened. She’d lost more than Max’s friendship after that moment. She’d lost Emery. Even if it had just been for a few months.
That had been long enough for her.
Well, she was going to fix that.
Max had delivered the invitation to the Brynlock Fall Festival—made by Emery out of construction paper and ribbon and glitter, lots and lots of glitter—to her desk personally, three days after he’d slept in her guest room.
He’d looked at her and asked quietly if she would attend. For Emery.
There hadn’t been any hesitation when she’d made her promise.
There never would be.
Emery Jones was the child of her heart.
No doubt, Emery’s father knew that.
Things had changed between them again the night he’d crashed in her guest room. She just hadn’t had time to figure out how yet.
Mostly, it was in the way he looked at her.
She looked around for people she knew. Jac was never fully comfortable in a crowd of strangers.
There were actually quite a few people she knew very well already in the multipurpose room. The first man she saw was her CCU team leader Sebastian Lorcan and his two brothers. They were identical, and very hard to overlook—even if they weren’t all around six-five and absolutely gorgeous. Sebastian’s niece and nephew attended Brynlock, though they were younger than Emery. There was an older nephew in the high school, too.
Simon Brockman, the absolute love of Emery’s life. Max had flipped the first time Emery had said how hot Simon was. Jac had laughed for fifteen minutes after that.
There were several children whose parents worked for PAVAD that attended Brynlock. Brynlock had excellent security. That was one of the important points for Max, too. His ex’s parents hadn’t been too happy when Pamela had given full custody to Max and had made threats when Emery was around five or so.
Thankfully, the attorney Max had hired—that his ex-wife had helped him pay for—put Pamela’s parents straight. Emery hadn’t seen them since.
Then she saw the man she was looking for. Max looked good. She’d always thought he looked good in jeans. He wore a Wildcats jersey. It was the same team their friend Ken had played for in his younger days.
Max was stressed, though he had on what she had privately always thought of his don’t-worry-Emery face. He was speaking to the director.
Neither man looked very happy at the moment. Jac headed across the floor.
Speaking of...Ken and Leina Chalmers were right there behind the director and Max, with their four children. Ken held their toddler. Leina had their newborn in a carrier on her chest. Their two girls were bouncing around in front of them, ready to rush around the carnival at any moment. Jac smiled seeing the bright faces of kids she’d met many times before.
Except for the newest.
The baby boy had been born while Jac had been in Masterson. Jac wanted to hold him, if Leina was willing to share for a few minutes. Leina should be sitting down and resting—she’d just had the baby last week.
Ken was hovering. Shannon, another agent on Jac’s computer forensic analysis team, was there, too. She made goofy faces at the Chalmers kids, then took the toddler from Ken, while her fiancé scooped up the younger girl. They didn’t have children yet, but
