Now, at the secret fountain, she found herself studiously avoiding Hudson’s eyes. The memory—and the fact that he remembered it, too—made her think again about what a different person he’d seemed to be then. A person she’d willingly spent an entire week with, cocooned in a Las Vegas hotel. What had happened?

Not really sure what else to say, Annika kicked off her shoes and turned to put her feet in the fountain. Her breath immediately whooshed out. “Oh my god, that’s cold.”

After a moment, Hudson joined her. “Fuck!”

Annika laughed. “You didn’t even roll up your jeans. You’re going to freeze to death. What a tragic loss for Break Up.”

The corner of Hudson’s mouth lifted. “And the world at large.”

She rolled her eyes. “At least you’re not low on self-confidence. I don’t know how anyone puts up with you.” She gave him a sidelong glance and wiggled her toes in the water. “Your girlfriend must be a saint.”

He shook his head, looking into the water. The reflection of small ripples played across his skin. “Nope. No girlfriend. Probably a good thing, given how much I work.”

A beat passed, during which Annika squashed a brief flash of happiness before adding, “It’s such an enormous coincidence, you moving into the building.”

He met her eye, his face serious. “Are you asking me if I followed you there?”

Annika wiggled her toes again. “Did you?”

Hudson shook his head and studied her. “No. I’ve had my eye on that space for a while, so when two offices opened up side by side, I knew we had to snag them. We just knocked the wall down between them to make it one giant office.”

Annika looked at their feet in the water, his enormous pale ones next to her smaller, darker ones. They were different in just about every way. She didn’t really know what she was doing here, sitting at a fountain and talking with him. “You’re different now than you were then.”

Annika lifted her cold feet out of the water and set them on the broad lip of the fountain, knees up to her chest.

“You mean in Vegas,” he said, his green eyes like a lion’s, intent, focused. He pulled his feet out, too, and sat in a position that mirrored hers, so they were toe to toe.

“I do.” Annika saw a shadow pass over Hudson’s face, but she didn’t have the wherewithal to interpret what it might mean.

“Well, a lot of things have changed since Vegas.” Hudson pushed a hand through his hair, leaving it mussed. “Are you dating anyone?”

Annika couldn’t help the surprised laugh that burst out of her. “I haven’t had a second date in, like, a year.” Shit. She hadn’t meant to say that. Damn margaritas.

Hudson looked taken aback. “Seriously?”