The Girls Of Mischief Bay. Susan Mallery

      “Exciting is highly overrated,” she murmured. All this and stable, too. So what was the flaw? Emotional unavailability? A secret life as a serial killer? There had to be something, because to be honest, her luck simply wasn’t that good.

      “Where did you grow up?” he asked.

      “Riverside. I’m an only child, so I can’t relate to your noise. My house was always quiet.”

      “Were you the smartest girl in the class?”

      “Sometimes. I liked math, which made me unacceptable to most groups. But I wasn’t brilliant enough to major in it. Finance seemed like an interesting way to spend my days.”

      His brown eyes crinkled with amusement. “If I had a nickel for every time I looked forward to spending time working on the company’s financial records…”

      “You wouldn’t have a nickel?”

      “Something like that.”

      She smiled. “Your profile said you’re divorced?”

      He nodded. “Nearly a year now. We were separated before that.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t anything dramatic. We were married young and over the past few years realized we didn’t like spending time with each other.”

      There was something about the way he spoke that had her leaning forward. As if there was more to the story.

      “That’s no fun,” she said quietly.

      “Tell me about it.” He looked at her, then swore softly. “Hell. Okay, she cheated. I don’t like to say that because it makes me look like an idiot. I didn’t know. She came to me one day and said she’d been having an affair and that she’d fallen in love with the guy. She didn’t want to marry him or anything, but she’d realized that if she could be in love with someone else, she wasn’t in love with me anymore.”

      He moved his glass back and forth on the table. Tension pulled at his mouth. “I was shocked and hurt and didn’t know what to do. I grabbed some stuff and moved out that night. About a month later, when my pride and ego weren’t so much in the way, I realized we’d been growing apart for a long time.”

      “That must have been hard,” she said, thinking that if he was telling the truth, then she was liking him more by the second.

      “It was. We have two kids. Charlotte is nearly nine and Oliver is six. We share them. One week on, one week off. Tabitha and I live about two blocks away from each other. Slightly awkward for us, but easy for the kids.” Humor returned to his eyes. “Of course, my parents and three of my siblings live in the neighborhood, too, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s way more awkward for her than for me.”

      “As long as it works,” Shannon told him.

      “And you?” he prompted.

      Yes, the inevitable questions. “No kids, no ex-husband. I was engaged twice, but never quite made it down the aisle.”

      “Who made the decision?”

      “One time him, one time me.”

      She’d also had a long-term on-again, off-again relationship with a music producer, who’d been very bad for her, but there was no reason to mention him. At least not on the first date.

      “What do you do for fun?” Adam asked.

      “I love to travel. Take two or three weeks and go somewhere I’ve never been.”

      “Like?”

      She smiled. “I’ve been on every continent except Antarctica. I was thinking of taking one of those ships there, but after one got stuck a couple of years ago and made headlines, I changed my mind.”

      “What’s your next trip?”

      She laughed. “You’re going to be shocked.”

      “I doubt that.”

      “Okay. Machu Picchu.”

      His eyes widened slightly. “Remind me to listen to you next time. That’s Peru, right?”

      “Yes. I’m going with a girlfriend and it’s going to be great. We’ll be hiking the Inca Trail. The ruins are at seven thousand feet above sea level so I’m a little worried about my athletic ability. I’m—”

      A familiar ringtone drifted from her purse. She reached for her bag.

      “Sorry,” she said as she pulled her phone out of its pocket and glanced at the screen. “It’s work. I need to take this.”

      She was already standing and heading out of the restaurant. When she stepped onto the sidewalk, she pushed Talk.

      “This is Shannon.”

      “Len Howard in the Seoul office. Sorry to bother you but we have a problem with the South Korean finance minister. He’s insisting on speaking with you.”

      Shannon glanced back at the bar and saw Adam glancing her way. Adam, who appeared to be pretty darned close to perfect.

      “Based on my other conversations with him, I’m guessing he wants me to phone him in the next few minutes.”

      “If possible.”

      Because he was a man of power and she needed his help with some banking regulations. Nolan, her boss, wanted their Asian headquarters in Seoul, which meant Shannon had to make nice with the finance minister.

      “Please tell him I’ll call him back in fifteen minutes,” she said. “From my office.”

      “Will do.”

      She walked back into the restaurant. Adam rose as she approached the table.

      “Everything all right?” he asked.

      She shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I have to get back to work. There’s a crisis in South Korea and I need to be on the phone in fifteen minutes.”

      “I’m sorry to hear that. I was hoping we could grab dinner. Should I wait?”

      She wanted to say yes. He was an unexpected find. But once she was done calming things down, she would have to call her boss and do paperwork.

      “It’s going to be a late night.” She gave him a smile. “But I enjoyed meeting you.”

      She wanted to say more. She wanted to ask him not to be intimidated by what she did. She wanted to say it would be great if he mentioned he wanted to see her again. Instead, she reached for her wallet.

      “No way,” he told her. “I’ve got this. Go make your call.”

      “Thank you.”

      She waited a second, hoping he would say more. When he didn’t, she smiled. “It was so nice to meet you.”

      “You, too.”

      She walked to the door and out into the cool evening. Her office was only a few blocks away. She would make it back in time with no problem.

      Thoughts swirled and competed for her attention. If only, she thought, then pushed the words away. She’d wanted her career. She’d wanted to be successful and know that she could always take care of herself, no matter what. And she had that. There was no way she was going to feel bad about what she’d accomplished.

      It was just that sometimes, she found herself wanting more.

       Three

      Nicole turned on the coffeemaker and leaned against the counter to wait for it to work its magic. It was early still. Quiet. The time of day she liked best—­except when she was exhausted, which was most of the time.

      She told herself that eventually the situation would get better. That she would figure out a schedule that worked,