“We’re wrinkling.”

I lift a bare, wet arm from the cooling bath water to show Jared my puckered fingertips. He’s behind me in my claw-foot tub, his arms sheltering my shoulders and my head tucked into the curve of his neck.

“I see.” He catches my fingers, briefly kisses the tips. He links his hands with mine on the lip of the tub. “What do you think about a hike today?”

“Oooh.” I arch my neck to look at him over my shoulder. “That could be fun.”

“Maybe Temescal Canyon?”

“I haven’t done that one. I love the sound of that.”

It feels strange sometimes that we . . . date. That we do normal things together like go to movies or the theater, eat dinner or walk on the beach. I grew up with the ocean close by, and I missed it when I lived in New York. Our schedules are so hectic, but when we snatch time to be together, it’s to do simple things like that. Just breathing in ocean air and appreciating a majestic sunset and learning new things about each other all the while.

We’ve only been together a few weeks, and it’s quiet. Not many know, only our closest family and friends. Zo and I released a joint statement explaining that our relationship had been platonic for months, but we had decided not to discuss it while we were navigating his illness. That put his “te amo” from stage in a different light, that of a man appreciating his best friend for standing by him through hell. Which is what it was, what we are, even though it took Zo some time to accept it.

“Uh . . . what time were you thinking?” I ask, touching the powerful legs on either side of me.

His skin slides against mine behind me with a shrug.

“Two?” He pulls the wet hair from my neck and kisses the curve. “You have something to do?”

I’m quiet for a few seconds. I’m still involved with Zo’s care now that we’re back in LA. With chemo behind him, the medical team is monitoring his body’s response. Preparing for the next stage, stem cell replacement, is a complex process that includes a battery of tests ensuring his organs are healthy enough for the procedure. Then follows a lengthy recovery that will largely isolate Zo, nearly quarantining him because of how the process will strip his immune system down to nothing. He’ll have very few visitors.

But he’ll have me.

“Yeah, I do have a few things to take care of.” I clear my throat before going on. “I need to check on Zo.”

It’s quiet behind me, the only sound the water lapping against the tub with each slight subtle shift of our bodies.

“Does it bother you?” I finally ask softly. “That I’m still so involved with him? With his care?”

“Yes.”

I try to be a no-judgment zone for Jared. We love each other deeply but are made so differently. We’re both fiercely protective of the ones we love, but Jared has a tight filter for who gets in, for who gets loved. I’m glad I made the cut.

“Thank you for being honest with me.” I turn in the tub so I’m facing him. “I can’t abandon him.”

“I know that.” His lashes are lowered, screening his eyes from me. His face is implacable, chiseled into tight lines and sharp angles. “I don’t want you to abandon him. That wouldn’t be who you are, but it still bothers me because I know he’s in love with you.”

I can’t deny that. It’s an odd situation I have us in, but I’m not sure how to get out and live with myself. I know there will come a time when I’m less involved, but Zo is nowhere near out of the woods. With the stem cell process looming ahead, he is actually about to enter a deeper, darker forest in some ways. This would be the worst time to leave him.

“At least we’re not living together,” I say, my attempt to soothe the frown from his handsome face. “Me and Zo, I mean.”

Our things are scattered between Jared’s apartment and my house, but most nights we end up here.

He does grin at my hasty clarification and traces my lips, my cheekbones, leaving a damp trail in the wake of his finger.

“I knew what you meant.” He kisses my nose. “My lease is up in a few months. We could discuss it, if you want.”

My stomach lurches and my breath hangs in my throat. My heart triple beats.

“Sure, we can talk about it.”

I glance down, studying the contrasting textures of our bodies in the water. My skin a little darker. His rougher, golden-hair dusted. There’s no self-consciousness about my nudity, about my body. Yes, I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been, but it’s not that. I’m still a double-digit girl in a single-digit town. I work out and eat right, but Mother Nature took her time spreading these hips and this ass. My curves are toned and firm, but they ain’t going anywhere any time soon, and I’m fine with that. I’ve grown to love that. Jared loves it, too. I used to think being with a man like him would make me more self-conscious. If anything, with his love as a constant, I’m more confident than ever.

“Hey.” He tips my chin up so I meet his eyes, which are laughing, content, blue. “It would be a very short conversation. I want to live with you. To wake up with you every day. What do you say?”

His grin is teasing and infectious. As complicated as our careers, our lives are, it’s simple when it’s just us. And I love when it’s just us.

“That’d be nice,” I reply, leaning up to kiss him, long, slow, deep. When I pull away and turn back around, even though the water is getting chilly, I settle into his chest again.

“There’s something, uh . . . else I wanted to discuss,” he says.

Now I hear something in his voice, a reservation. A hesitation that has me grabbing his hand and linking our fingers at my waist.

“Shoot,” I say. “What’s up?”

He brushes his free hand over my hair and drops a kiss onto the wet strands.

“I have an offer to make,” he says, watching my face closely. “I have a position for you at Elevation.”

If you could hear a pin drop in bathwater, we would right now. It’s not that I suspect he chased me for my clients, for what I could add to his agency. I’m clear on Jared’s single-minded love for me. It’s my brain working through the offer.

I separate myself from the woman stretched out against the man who owns her heart. That woman’s ass still aches from how hard he fucked her. That woman wears stubble burns on her breasts and the insides of her thighs from his kisses. That woman’s whole world fits inside this bathtub with the golden-haired man behind her. In an apocalypse, this would be all she needed.

But the world is not coming to an end, and I mentally take a few measured steps away from this tub and that girl and her man and examine the offer with objective distance.

“You say you have a position for me at Elevation?”

I turn and slide away until my back hits the other side and we’re facing each other. I hang my arms over the lip of the tub, caught at the elbows.

“Yes.” His lips twist, a smile suppressed because he feels the shift. The water isn’t the only thing cooling. “A very generous offer, I think.”

“You have a position for me at your agency. How would that differ from my current situation?”

“I’d beat whatever Cal pays you.”

“Cal doesn’t pay me.” I relish the surprise in his eyes. “I negotiated a contract to waive my base salary in exchange for keeping even more of my commission.”

I smile innocently and bat my lashes.

“It’s actually quite a lot.”

An amused breath passes his lips, and where I lean back, he leans forward, propping his elbows on the edge of the tub.

“So what would it take for you to come work for me?”

“I won’t come work for you.”

“You won’t?” he asks, his frown quick, heavy.

“I know exactly how many clients Elevation represents, and I can guarantee that all of mine would follow me out the door if I left Bagley. That would double your client list.” Now I lean forward, my naked breasts pushing through the water, and wait for him to raise his eyes from my nipples. “In a day.”

“Double?”

“Double,” I confirm. “I have autonomy at Bagley, by and large, and keep more of my money than I would anywhere else. Eventually, I’ll strike out on my own but haven’t wanted to take that step before. What you’re describing would be a lateral move, at best, and doesn’t interest me.”

I raise one knee and watch his eyes drop between my legs.

“I won’t come work for you,” I reiterate. “But I would come work with you if the offer was right. Equal partner.”

“Equal partner?” His mouth drops open, that strong jaw unhinged. “In the firm I built from nothing? You want to walk in the door and be handed an equal partnership?”

“Handed?” I tilt my head and compress my lips. “I can’t remember the last time I was handed anything. I’ve worked my ass off for the last decade, just like you have. My reputation and results are just as good.”

I give him a meaningful look and don’t say the words aloud, but he hears them.

If not better.

He licks his lips and tucks them in, hiding a smile from me.

“I’d have to talk to August. He’s a silent partner.”

“You do that.” I stand, naked and as confident as if we were wrapping up a negotiation at a boardroom table. I step out, tie a towel at my breasts, and offer my “closer” smile. “And get back to me.”

Epilogue

“It is true what they say-When you know, you know.”

-Cindy Cherie, Poetess

Epilogue - Jared

“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Banner says, chewing her thumbnail and scrunching her expression into a frown.

Looking nervous.

“Uh . . . okay.” I pull into the parking lot of the villa where Banner’s niece Anna’s quinceañera reception is being held. “I’m not nervous.”