She picked at a piece of lint on her sweatpants. “No,” she said without looking at him. “What kind of pizza did you bring?”

“Are we changing the subject?”

“Can we, please?”

“Pepperoni.”

“My favorite.”

“My lucky day.” He got up to get some paper towels from her kitchen and served them each a slice. “I heard something about you today.”

“You did?”

He nodded. “I was in the office for a while, and I got talking to one of the partners who happened to be at your party last night. He was going on and on about this girl singer who’s going to be a huge star.”

“Shut up,” she said, pushing him. “You made that up to make me feel better.”

“I did not! I swear to God. I didn’t realize he was talking about you until he mentioned the Rafters.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

They shared a smile before he launched into a story about one of his diva clients who’d had him chasing his tail for weeks trying to finalize a contract for her to appear in a dog food commercial.

Kate laughed so hard she forgot she was supposed to be sad. They ate the pizza, watched a movie, and by the time he got up to leave at ten, she felt much better.

“Thanks for the company tonight,” she said when she walked him to the door.

He kissed her forehead. “My pleasure. You gonna be okay?”

“I’m fine. Go home. You have to work tomorrow.”

“I’m right over there if you need me,” he said, pointing across the parking lot.

“I know.” She waved to him before going back upstairs to clean up the living room.

The phone rang. “What’d you forget?” she asked when she answered without checking the caller ID.

“Forget?” Reid asked.

Her heart jumped. “Oh, hi, it’s you.”

“Who did you think it was?”

“Ashton was just here. He brought a pizza over. I thought he forgot something.”

“Oh.”

“What’s up?” She made a huge effort to sound like she didn’t care one bit that he’d called. He didn’t need to know she’d waited all day to hear from him.

“I’m in town. Can I come by?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Are you still mad at me?”

He sighed. “I was never mad at you, Kate. We do need to talk, though.”

“That doesn’t sound good. Come on over, I guess.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Kate ran for the shower. When she answered the door twenty minutes later, she’d changed into jeans, a sweater, and the sexiest underwear she owned.

Just in case.

Chapter 17

Kate sat on the sofa and watched Reid pace back and forth as he concluded his speech.