Chapter One
Hailey stood in the line at Phoenix airport security
flanked by her brother's two best friends, aka serious
drool material. As if she hadn't been able to figure that
out for herself, every woman in the vicinity and a few of
the men reminded her. Even mothers busy with babies and
toddlers managed to sneak in wistful glances at them.
Tony Adamo and Mark Allen. Too bad she had a crush on
both of them—had had a crush on both of them since
she'd learned that boys were good for something other than
playing ball and tag. Too bad they thought of her as a
little sister. Oh yeah, and there was that tiny, little
detail about them being her brother's best friends.
Yes, she was vacationing with her brother and his wife
and her brother's best friends. How pathetic was that? Her
boyfriend hadn't wanted to go. And why was a
thirty–two–year–old woman using the
term "boyfriend," as if she were still in high school?
Nix that. She no longer had a boyfriend. After a year
and a half, she'd finally broken it off with him two days
ago. Well, technically a day and a half ago.
Which reminded her...
Surreptitiously, she swept the area with her gaze just
to make certain Daniel hadn't followed her. No sign of him.
Just a few families going on vacation and a lot of business
people with their carry–ons in one hand and
BlackBerries in the other. She pulled her cell phone from
the back pocket of her jeans and checked for messages.
One from her brother saying he and Nikki had arrived in
Hawaii and to "get her rear in gear." She automatically
deleted the message and then the phone number in the log of
incoming calls, leaving it empty. She checked her outgoing
log to make certain it was empty then stopped herself.
Daniel was history. No more arguments over who called
her or whom she called. No more fights over whom she
lunched with. No more defending her meetings with clients.
No more put–downs or subtle threats.
She should have been relieved. She wasn't. Daniel hadn't
taken the breakup well.
Once again she scanned the crowd, more carefully this
time.
"You lookin' for someone?" Mark asked, his voice so
close to her ear that she startled and her heart skipped a
beat.
Hailey slipped the phone back in her pocket as she shook
her head. "No."
He rested his arm across her shoulders, and Tony ruffled
her hair.
"Hey, sunshine, you're on vacation. What's got you so
jumpy?" Tony asked, his dark eyes serious.
Hailey tried to clear her throat so her voice didn't
sound so rough. It was too damned early in the morning to
talk. "Nothing," she lied, but her next statement was the
truth. "I didn't sleep well last night. I'm just tired."
Tony looked over her head at Mark and shrugged his
shoulders. He obviously didn't believe her. His frown and
the lines between his dark eyebrows told her as much. One
of the drawbacks of knowing each other for so long.
