“Wow, thanks—”

“But you don’t need to worry about him. He’s by your side until the end.”

I swallowed a sudden dry lump in my throat and looked up—way up—at Heath. He was a lot taller than me so I had to tilt my head back to do it. “The end of what?”

He frowned. “Goddamn, I’m sorry. That was a shitty choice of words.”

I turned to go through to the kitchen. “I agree. But we are all permitted our lapses.”

“Lapses? What lapses?” Kat asked, backing away from apparently having hugged Adam.

“Lapses in judgment. Like letting a saucy redhead leave her new job to travel here from Vancouver—over a thousand miles—”

“To see a sick friend—” Kat interrupted. “And I’d lose my job again in a heartbeat. Just like I know you’d do the same for me. You aren’t getting rid of me, Geek Girl.”

I grinned. “Good!”

“What, good?” Heath laughed. “You aren’t the one who’s stuck with her and her Lucky Crispy Sugar Flakes addiction. She seriously eats the shittiest sugar cereal in existence.”

Kat waggled her brows. “I have a cute dentist. I like to have an excuse to visit him.”

“So is that true?” I asked. “You really lost your job to come down to see me?”

“Pfft.” She waved her hand. “It was a crap job anyway. I’ll look for another when I get back… if I get back. I have to say the weather here is ah-mazing. How could I go back to Vancouver after spending a winter here?”

“There might be something for you at Draco, Kat. Maybe something cool like playtesting. Because I know you’d be honest as hell,” Adam said

“A job at Draco? That would fucking rock. You know someone with an in?”

I glanced at Adam, raising my brows. “Does the CEO count?”

“We are talking about the gaming company, right? The owner of the game we are all hopelessly addicted to? Because this would be hella disappointing if you all were talking about Draco garbage delivery or Draco burger joint.”

I started giggling and both Adam and Heath watched me, open-mouthed. I closed my mouth, self-conscious. “What?”

Heath glanced at Adam and then turned back to me. “I think we are both just happy to see you laughing again. It’s been a while.”

Kat slunk up beside me and slipped an arm around my shoulders. “Then my visit has been good for something.”

Adam watched both of us, his gaze intensifying thoughtfully. “I’ll be the first to agree with that.” He turned to her. “Kat, if you want to stay, then I can make sure you have a job.”

Kat raised her brows at Adam. “Oh, and how will you do that? Do I need to blow the CEO at Draco or something?”

I opened my mouth to answer but Heath’s snicker interrupted me. “No, that’s Mia’s job.” My face flushed with heat and I didn’t look at Adam, though I might have liked to. I was starting to feel better again after that last round and when that happened, my sex drive usually kicked in, too. And it had been a while. A long while.

But Adam seemed more interested in taking it slow.

We sat down to eat the Greek food and explained the entire thing to Kat. She was still open-mouthed and pale from shock when we left a few hours later.

***

The next day Kat was sitting with me in my room at Adam’s house. We’d all agreed that she could stay as long as she liked at Heath’s house. I’d lend her my car, since I really wasn’t using it. And not having a car in Southern California really wasn’t an option. It was just too difficult to get around without one. Heath was more than willing to let her stay in the guest room and she’d look for work, hopefully at Draco.

We were sharing playlists over the sound system in my little sanctuary. Adam had gone into work, which is what he usually did for the first few days after I was feeling more myself after a round. Kat threw surreptitious glances at me and I could tell she wanted the details of what was going on between us.

“You might as well just ask me,” I sighed after more than a half hour of her out-of-place coyness.

“Is he as hot in bed as he is to look at?”

My mouth dropped open. “I’m not going to talk about that.” Most especially because it had been so long, I almost couldn’t remember. Almost. Adam was hot to look at, sure. And he was even hotter in bed. But he wasn’t sharing any of that with me anymore. Nowadays.

“To be honest, the memory is starting to fade…”