And so Sawyer found himself telling Law and Jake about the kiss that wasn’t, and about how things had been awkward between them since they made up. “What’s the matter with me? It was like somebody else was inside my body, manning the controls. Thank God for those hard hats. That would’ve been an epic mistake.”

“You sure about that?” Law asked. “It sort of seems to me like if there was a kiss that was a mistake, it was that one you planted on Jeannie Wilkerson all those years ago.”

Nope. They weren’t going there again.

Still, he could use some advice. He’d been wondering if the reason Evie had been so odd at the play was that she was annoyed at him about the almost-kiss. “What do I do? Apologize? I’m not totally sure she realized what my intentions were. What would I say? ‘If you thought I was trying to kiss you, I’m sorry about that’? ‘But if you didn’t, let’s just pretend we never had this conversation’?”

“Well, if it will stop you from making a fool of yourself every time you lay eyes on her, maybe you should apologize.”

“Or…” Sawyer and Law swiveled to face Jake. Because Jake so seldom spoke, when he did have something to say, people tended to listen. “You could forget all the talking and kiss her.”

Yeah, so much for listening to Jake. “Are you crazy? I can’t do that. If I do anything, which I’m not at all convinced I should—”

“Shut up.” Law held up a palm. “Let the man speak.”

Jake shrugged. “Nothing more to say, really. I just think if you almost kissed and it’s been weird, maybe you should see what happens when you actually kiss.”

“You know what?” Law grinned. “He’s right.”

“She’s leaving in ten months.” He had seen the X’s in her calendar, concrete reminders that she was counting the days.

“So?” Law said. “Ten months is a long time. And you don’t have to marry her.”

“We’re not the same people we used to be.”

“What does that mean?”

It meant that Evie wanted to work in collections development and not corporate taxonomy, and he barely even knew what those phrases meant.

When he didn’t answer, Law said, “Dude. You don’t even have to date her, if you know what I mean. Just put yourself out of your misery.”