The photo of Alaska was the only item left on her bookcase. She remembered how she had placed it close to her desk after she had started her job. He had been an unexpected addition, a dog that had been orphaned when the previous owner of the house had died. She had had no idea how much love she had let into her life when she opened the door to the stray. And it had introduced her to Finn—one of her closest friends.

You see, Kate. It paid to take the chance.

A soft knock on the half-closed door made her glance up.

The gaze that met hers was the one she’d been waiting for all morning. In fact, it was one she had been waiting for the past ten months.

Randall Barrett. Former managing partner of McGrath Woods, former husband of the beautiful, unfaithful Elise Vanderzell, former accused in the murder of his ex-wife, former power broker who almost had her fired from her job just three months after she began.

Former almost-lover.

Randall’s eyes were just as intense as she remembered. But there was a new expression added to the mix.

Wariness.

He waited in the doorway. “Can I come in?” Formal, polite, one colleague to another.

She placed the photo of Alaska in the box. “Yes. Of course.”

He strode toward her, stopping by the chair. A safe distance.

But for whom?

His eyes—piercing, blue—searched her face. Drew her in.

She had forgotten what it was like to be in the same room with Randall. She had forgotten the effect his physical presence had on her. She was a mere electron in the magnetic field of his presence. Her heart raced. Her body flushed. Her nerves were pitched to an edge that teetered between pain and pleasure.

It was both thrilling and scary. A rollercoaster.

She had never liked rollercoasters.

She took a step back.

His gaze flickered at her withdrawal. “I heard from Nina that you resigned. Is that true?” There was a different question in his eyes. Why didn’t you tell me?

“It only just happened.”

“Why are you leaving?” She knew he wondered if it was because of them. Or, to be accurate, ‘almost them.’ Or, to be even more accurate, because things had been rapidly deteriorating between them since Kenzie Sloane had returned in her life.

Both of them had sensed it. Both of them had tried to stop the unraveling. In fact, the phone calls had become more frequent after John McNally stalked her. But the more Randall tried to reach her, the less Kate wanted to talk. Speaking about what happened was too difficult. She wanted to bury it and move forward with her life. Laugh, eat good food, go for a rejuvenating run, and have someone hold her close when the nightmares struck.

Not stumble through another phone call that only served to prove how widely their paths had diverged.