Fittingly, Evan and Owen were playing “Let Her Go” by Passenger. Jenny was a nice girl who had a nice guy interested in her. He would leave well enough alone, but damn, he wished he had the balls…

***

After witnessing angry Alex, Jenny was more attracted than ever and devastated to learn his mother was suffering from dementia. With sons in their mid-thirties, Mrs. Martinez couldn’t be that old. Jenny’s grandmother had had dementia as an older woman, so she was familiar with how difficult it could be to manage and how devastating it was to family members.

She was proud of him for standing up to his rude employee and firing her on the spot, even if Jenny had noticed the hint of panic in his eyes when he’d calmly told the woman off.

As she rejoined Linc at the table, Jenny’s brain whirled with everything she’d learned about Alex during the brief confrontation with his employee. He was loyal—fiercely so—to his family, willing to stand up on their behalf, unwilling to tolerate anyone making fun of his mother’s infirmity and sexy as all hell when he was pissed.

But the agonizing pain she’d sensed in him overrode all the other thoughts that filed through her busy mind.

“Everything okay?” Linc asked.

Jenny started to assure him that she was fine, but she wasn’t. Her skin was prickling with awareness and the need to do something, anything to ease the pain of a man she barely knew. “My stomach is a bit upset. Would you mind terribly if we called it a night?” She hated herself for lying to him, but she needed to get out of there. Immediately. Before she gave in to the urge to run after Alex.

“Not at all.” Linc handed a twenty to Mac to cover their portion of the tab and stood.

“See you all,” Jenny said.

Tiffany winked and gave her a thumbs-up.

Jenny rolled her eyes at her mischievous friend.

Linc placed a proprietary hand on the small of her back that made Jenny feel uncomfortable. She didn’t belong to him and didn’t want anyone to think she did, especially a certain dark-eyed man who’d turned her whole life upside down in the span of two days.

He was just outside the marina gates, talking intently to his brother, when Jenny and Linc walked past on the other side of the street.

She glanced at him, and his gaze smacked into hers, nearly making her gasp with the yearning she felt coming from him. Like shards of metal drawn to a high-powered magnet, Jenny felt the pull from twenty feet away and had to fight her way through it when all she wanted was to run to him.

“Are you okay?” Linc asked, thankfully oblivious to the sizzling connection with Alex that she finally broke when she looked away.