Love the One You're With (Sex, Love & Stiletto 2)

“Nothing,” Jake grumbled. “Just …” He ran both his hands through his hair, looking more agitated than she’d ever seen him. “I didn’t handle that well.”

“Cole’s a big boy.”

“Not Cole,” Jake said, exasperated. “This.” He gestured around the office where a picture frame of two smiling little boys lay amid broken glass. Grace had also been right about the stapler. It now lay sadly on the floor.

Grace went to the picture and carefully retrieved the photo. “They’re cute.”

“Jackson and Matt. My oldest sister’s kids. They’re even cuter in person. Also a lot noisier.”

“Kids usually are.” Grace set the picture carefully on his desk so it wouldn’t be trampled, and began dropping the biggest pieces of glass into the garbage can.

“Grace, you don’t have to—”

“Here,” she said, retrieving the bag she’d left on the chair. “Eat.”

He stared down at the bag. “You brought me food?”

“Well, don’t get too excited. It’s cold now. But you can pick the bacon off. Bacon’s good at any temperature. And why are you staring at me?”

“You just watched me have a rather horrific run-in with an ex-girlfriend, and all you do is clean up, say my nephews are cute, and tell me to eat bacon?”

“It’s not like I’m offering to floss your teeth,” Grace said, not looking up. “I just wanted to help.”

“Help?” he repeated.

“Yeah. Fuss over you, or whatever. At least I did before you started acting like a weirdo. Hasn’t anyone ever done that? Taken care of you?”

Uh-oh. Now 1.0 had gotten a word in, and 2.0 was pissed.

“Sure,” he said hesitantly. “When I go back to Wisconsin, I’m spoiled rotten. But New York’s sort of a dog-eat-dog kind of city, you know?”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

The words hung between them, awkward and meaningful, although for the life of her, Grace wasn’t sure what she’d meant.

And seeing as Jake wasn’t meeting her eyes, she didn’t think he did either. Or maybe he did know and was just choosing to ignore it.

“So,” Grace said, standing and avoiding the rest of the shattered glass, “that girl sure seemed nice. Very gentle and sweet. Tell me about her.”

He gave a crooked smile. “This is going up on the website, isn’t it?”

Grace pulled out a pen and notebook from her purse. “Oh, absolutely.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Ladies, I’ve done it. Well, Cassidy and I have done it. We’ve figured out the grand finale for Grace and Jake’s little endeavor.”

Camille paused dramatically in the doorway, but none of the Love and Relationships women bit. Or even looked up.

“ ‘Home Run for Love.’ Imagine that in big letters, because we’re taking this show to the stadium.”

“Somebody tell her we’re not doing that,” Riley said, not looking away from her computer.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Julie said, never once pausing in her typing.

Camille huffed. “Emma?”

Emma waggled her head as though contemplating. “Yankees or Mets?”