Mainly because I sort of knew her.

Kristen Morgan.

And she had been there the night he broke my heart and everything changed.

Sucking in a sharp breath that did nothing to ease the burn now traveling up my throat, I pressed my lips together as I stared at the slowly churning ceiling fan.

“I’m not doing this,” I spoke out loud, causing Rhage to squirm on my legs. “I don’t care why he was here last night. It doesn’t affect me anymore. He doesn’t affect me anymore.”

Sounded like a plan.

Deciding it was far past the time to get my butt out of bed, I sat up and reached for Rhage. Just before the tips of my fingers brushed his soft fur, he flew off my legs and darted across my bedroom, running like a pack of wild dogs was chasing him.

I shook my head. “Ass.”

Wondering why the cat even bothered sleeping next to me, I reached for my cellphone. Hitting the screen, I saw I had a missed call from my friend Abby. “Shoot,” I murmured, remembering I’d turned the phone on silent after I’d gotten done talking to Avery last night.

Weeks had passed since I’d last spoken to Abby, and it had been almost a year since I’d seen her. When I headed back home for Thanksgiving, we were going to have to get coffee and catch up. Since she and Colton married a few years back, they’d been in the process of renovating an old, nineteenth -home they’d bought.

There was also a missed call and message from a local number I didn’t recognize. Curious, I hit the message button and waited.

“Hey, Jillian, this is—um—this is Grady. We met last night?” There was an awkward laugh. “Well, of course you probably remember that. Anyway, I hope you don’t get mad, but I finagled your phone number from Avery, because I wanted to know if you’d like to check out that art exhibit I was telling you about. I’m going to be out of town this weekend, but I would love to show it to you when I get back.”

Eyes wide, I stared at my phone in disbelief as Grady rattled off his phone number and then laughed again when he realized I’d have his number because of caller ID. His constant laughing at himself was . . . it was cute.

Grady wanted to see me again after I insinuated I had an uncontrollable bowel or something? For real?

A shocked laugh burst out of me. I didn’t even know what to think of that, and I felt like I needed a gallon of coffee to truly process it.