Page 5

“Bryce . . . ”

“What?”

“Why do you keep ambushing me with all of your single friends?”

Bryce frowned at him as if he was the annoying one. This was her second attempt at setting him up, and while the first woman had been perfectly lovely, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking of Jenny, thus reaffirming his conviction that he wasn’t ready.

And yet, here they were again.

“Come on, just say hi to her. I didn’t tell her I was introducing her to anyone. I just invited her to come out with some of my coworkers. There’s no pressure.”

“Except that Slater and I are the only single dudes, so she’s going to get some kind of idea about who she’s here for.” Blake ran his hands over his face with a sigh. “Why do you have to make me the bad guy?”

She threw up her hands as if she was surrendering to something unreasonable. “Fine, I won’t introduce you.”

Before Blake could thank her, though, he glanced over and saw Jane walking toward them, a wide smile on her face.

“Megs, I thought you ditched me.”

Bryce gave him a look that clearly said whoops, too late. “Sorry, just saying hi to Blake. Blake, this is Jane. Jane, Blake Kline.”

Jane held out her hand to him eagerly. “Hi, Megan’s told me a lot about you.”

Blake didn’t even want to know what the lot was. “I’m Blake, good to meet you.” He took her hand and gave it a firm shake before releasing it.

“Why don’t I get you two kids some drinks and leave you to chat?” Before Blake could protest, she’d shimmied up the stairs faster than the weasel she was and left him alone with Jane.

“So, Megan tells me you work with search and rescue dogs. That must be cool. How did you get into that?”

Asking questions about his interests. Yep, definitely a setup.

“My dad trained hounds while I was growing up and taught me everything he knew.” Wishing he had a drink in his hand at the moment, he tried to at least be personable. “How do you know Bryce?”

“Oh, we went to high school together, and we kept in touch. She’s awesome.”

I’d argue that point.

“Yeah, she’s something.” Catching Best and Sparks watching them with barely smothered grins, he knew one or both of them had a hand in this. “So, what do you do for a living, Jane?”

“I’m actually in the UC Davis veterinary program. I’ve got another two years, but I love animals, so I’m excited. Hoping to eventually work at a surgical center, but I might go large animal. It all depends.”

“Here we go.” Bryce popped in with two drinks, one a fruity cocktail and the other a frothy beer, which she handed to him. “How are things going?”

“We were just talking about our careers,” Jane said.

Before Bryce could respond, Blake jumped in with a means of escape. “Will you ladies excuse me a minute? I’ve got to talk to Sparks about a problem with one of our trainees.”

Before Bryce’s withering look set him on fire, he walked away, coming up alongside Sparks.

“You could have at least warned me Bryce was plotting revenge.”

Sparks shrugged his linebacker shoulders before leaning over the pool table to take his shot.

“Dude, you told Bryce I called her fat. You deserve far worse than a hot girl,” Best said.

“I said you called her ass puffy, not fat.”

Best made a face at him. “Dick.” Sparks missed, and Best tipped back his beer until his glass was empty. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before lining up his shot. “Your problem is that it’s been so long since you’ve even seen any ass that you’ve forgotten how to talk to chicks. I’ll try to control Bryce, but as your friend, I need to tell you that bottling up the boys and never achieving release is no bueno.”