Like a toddler, I was of the mindset that if I wasn’t looking at Brock, he couldn’t see us. Like he wasn’t truly there, so I fixed my gaze on my nearly empty plate, and prayed I was having hallucinations.

“Well, hello,” came the smooth, deep voice that never failed to slip over my skin like heated silk. “What a surprise.”

God. Damn. It.

I lifted my gaze at the same time Grady did, and I saw surprise flicker across his handsome face as he caught sight of Brock towering over our table.

“Hi?” I forced out.

Brock’s full lips slipped into a half-smile as he looked down at Grady. “We meet again.”

“Yeah. We do.” Grady was nodding as he glanced between us. “This is a surprise.”

“I know.” Brock’s dark eyes glimmered. “Such a coincidence.”

My eyes narrowed as I picked up my wine glass. A coincidence, my rosy red ass. “So, what . . . what are you doing here, Brock?”

“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I’d swing by and grab something to eat.”

“By yourself?” I asked, because this wasn’t the type of restaurant you wandered into by yourself. So what in the world was he up to?

“I do a lot of things by myself, Jillian.” His amused gaze centered on me.

I widened my eyes at that and took a healthy gulp of my wine, because my mind really took that to a place that was really inappropriate since I was on a date with another man. I suddenly heard his heated words in my ear. I got you. And that made me think of his hand slipping between my legs . . .

Grady cleared his throat. “So, do you come here often?”

“Actually, I was here not too long ago.” He was still staring at me, his lips curved into a rather delighted smirk. “Remember? Our dinner date?”

“Dinner date?” Grady parroted, sounding confused as his pale eyes settled on me.

I sputtered, nearly choking on my wine. I placed the glass back down before I threw it. “The business dinner,” I reminded Grady. “The reason I had to reschedule our date. Brock, my boss, and I brought the potential investors here.”

“Your boss,” Grady murmured, sitting back in his chair. The air of confusion faded as his lips thinned. “And childhood friend, right?”

“We did grow up together.” Brock chuckled as he planted a hand on the back of my booth. “Saying ‘childhood friend’ seems to belittle what we were to each other.”

What in the holy hell?

“That sounds perfectly correct.” I glared at Brock, but now he was busy eyeing Grady with that unnerving stare of his.

Brock ignored my comment. “Did she ever get around to telling you about the first time we met?”

“He doesn’t want to hear about that,” I cut in, forcing a dismissive laugh that came out a bit crazy-sounding.