Dante grins. “I’m holding you to that.”

* * *

Raylan and I fly back into Knoxville. Our flight is canceled, postponed, then leaves an hour earlier than expected, so we take a cab into town to kill a little time before Bo picks us up.

Raylan says we should walk by my newly purchased office building so he can see it in person. It’s not nearly as grand as the massive high-rise in which I dreamed of becoming partner, but I feel a deep flush of pleasure all the same. This building belongs to me, and me alone. This law firm will be mine. I’ll build it from the ground up.

And it has a view of the river, like I always loved in Chicago. A different, more gentle river, in a warmer town, where even at the end of November I only need a light sweater.

Even if it was cold, I’ve got a big, strong man beside me, radiating heat from his chest into my back, with his arms wrapped tight around me.

“I’m gonna come visit you here every day,” Raylan says. “I’ll bring you lunch.”

“I’m not going to get any work done if you’re around. You’re incredibly distracting,” I tell him.

“Me?” he says, innocently.

“Yes. When you were supposed to be bodyguarding me, I can’t tell you how many times I had to sneak a look at you, all scruffy and handsome in that corner chair.”

He grins. “Oh, I know you did. I caught you every time.”

“The hell you did!”

“The hell I didn’t!”

He kisses me hard.

“I’m proud of you,” he says. “I already know you’re gonna be a huge success. The best lawyer in Knoxville, guaranteed. Probably all of Tennessee.”

“Not the whole country?” I tease him.

“Well . . . there’s that one guy that got OJ off . . . ”

“Johnny Cochrane? He’s not even alive anymore!”

“Alright,” Raylan grins. “You’re the best in the whole damn country, then.”

With Raylan’s arm around my waist, we walk over to World’s Fair Park. We take a little stroll around the lake, stopping at the Sunsphere. Its gold-plated glass glitters, even though it’s not a very sunny day.

On the opposite side of the tower, I see a girl with long black hair standing next to a slim young man in a battered leather jacket. They’re standing with their backs to me, but something about the couple looks oddly familiar. They look tense, as if they’ve been arguing. The girl starts to walk away, and the boy grabs her and pulls her back again. He seizes her face and kisses her ferociously. For a moment she tries to pull away, but then she kisses him back, just as hard.

It’s only when they break apart that I realize it’s Bo and Duke.

“Oh!” I gasp. “Let’s go, I don’t want them to see us.”

“Why not?” Raylan says.