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hours. The knot in her stomach tightened another notch. What the hell had she been thinking? She wasn’t ready to date again. Yes, you are. Get a grip.
    “Ash?”
    She blinked. “Sorry.”
    Jake frowned. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Are you sure?”
    She laughed and boy did it feel good. “You don’t have to worry about me passing out on you again.”
    “When I think about . . . Forget it.” He walked over and pressed a cool palm to her forehead. “You feel warm.”
    “I just have a bit of a headache, that’s all.” Was it any wonder considering the day she’d had?
    He nodded. “So, where are we off to?”
    Ashley stood and grabbed her purse. “We’ll start with Chez Francois.”
    “Okay. That’s the new banquet facility downtown, right?”
    She nodded. “Camilla booked a fiftieth wedding anniversary there when it first opened a month ago and was impressed with both the décor and the service. The Modique ballroom is available on the date you selected. It seats about two hundred and fifty people and the location is perfect for your constituents.”
    “Sounds great. Let’s go.”
    Twenty minutes later, their taxi pulled to the edge of the curb in front of the event facility. Ashley slid from the rear seat, paid the driver, and Jake followed. He turned to her when the cab drove away, a boyish grin on his face. “What?” she asked.
    He pointed to a small pizza joint across the street. “Remember the night we all went to Nick’s?”
    Ashley smiled. “After the championship football game my freshman year of high school. You had the waitress add jalapenos and hot red pepper flakes to that jerk Barry Newgate’s pizza.
    “He kept harassing you. He deserved it as far as I’m concerned.”
    “Damned straight he did. And the look on his face when he stuffed a huge slice into his mouth all at once”—she grinned—“priceless.”
    “It was also the night you kissed me for the first time.”
    She sighed. “Missed my curfew because of that kiss. Got grounded for a week. Would have been a month if my mother had her way.”
    He let out another of his laughs. It warmed her heart.
    “Your own fault. You kissed me first and didn’t stop.”
    She wiggled her brows. “I would have been old and gray if I’d waited for you to make the first move.”
    His eyes lit with amusement. “Okay, okay. I’d been working up to it.”
    Ashley snorted.
    Jake turned serious. “You’re right. The truth is, I didn’t want to screw up our friendship, and—”
    Ashley swallowed hard. “We should go inside.” She turned toward the grand entrance of the banquet hall.
    Jake grasped her arm and pulled her back to face him. “I’ve missed you, Ashley. Us.”
    “Jake.”
    He held up a hand to stop her protest. “I don’t mean us as a couple.” He shook his head. “No, I do miss us as a couple, but I get we can’t go there. What I’m trying to say is I miss my friend Ashley. The cheeky little girl I played with as a kid. The smart-mouthed teenager who didn’t take crap from anyone, and yes, the girl I dated, because she was my friend, too.
    “What about the woman you were engaged to?” she whispered.
    He cupped her face in his hands and gazed down at her. “I screwed up. I got scared and I didn’t know how to break things off without hurting you and pissing off my parents. The ties between our families were strong back then. Still are. So, I got stinkin’ drunk and did something I regret to this day.”
    She sighed. The truth was she’d had doubts about their engagement, too, and she wasn’t sure what she’d have done about them if he hadn’t cheated.
    “I’m sorry, Ash.”
    Sincerity rang true in every word. She nodded. “Apology accepted.”
    He pulled her into the crook of his arm and held her tight.
    Where they went from here remained to be seen.

Chapter 9
    It was almost eight o’clock in the evening when the phone rang. Reed reached across the massive oak desk in