Rylann tipped her glass in agreement. “Exactly.”

” ‘Did Ms. Pierce ever talk about your testimony in bed, Mr. Rhodes? Perhaps give you a few pointers, lover to lover, on what you should say on the witness stand?’ “

“Right. So you see my—”

” ‘—You like to please your lovers, don’t you, Mr. Rhodes? You’d say anything to help Ms. Pierce win her case, wouldn’t you?’ “

Seeing that this could take a while, Rylann sat back in her chair and got comfortable.

Rae smiled. “Speaking for a moment as a defense attorney and not as your friend, that would be so much fun.”

“Well, that kind of fun is not happening in any case I handle,” Rylann said. And it wasn’t just Kyle’s reputation as a witness that she was thinking about. Just as important was her own reputation. She couldn’t imagine the embarrassment of sitting in court while a defense attorney grilled one of her witnesses about a sexual relationship with her. She was a former clerk; she knew exactly what the judge would think of any lawyer who allowed herself to be put in that situation. Not to mention the stir that would cause around her office.

Bottom line, she was trying to impress her new boss and coworkers, and make a name for herself in the Chicago legal community. And being the dimwit who slept with a witness sure as heck wasn’t the way to do it.

“Well.” Rae gave Rylann a disappointed look. “That kind of sucks. I mean, not to rub it in or anything, but he’s really hot. Like, movie star hot.”

This had not escaped Rylann’s attention. “I wouldn’t want any part of that scene, anyway,” she said with a shrug.

“Right. Because the hot guy scene is such a drag.”

“I meant Kyle’s scene. How many times did I see his name mentioned in Scene and Heard, PageSix, or TMZ.com, gossiping about how he was with some model at a hot new club or restaurant?”

Rae raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know, how many times did you see that?” Her tone turned sly. “Wait a second…have you been Googling Kyle Rhodes these past nine years, Ms. Pierce?”

Rylann blushed furiously at that. “No,” she said as Rae began laughing in delight. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like a witness in the hot seat. “I may have accidentally, wholly inadvertently, stumbled across his name one or two times”—or ten—”when I happened to be perusing a few gossip websites. That’s all.”

As Rae continued to smile, Rylann shot her a look over her martini glass. “Oh, like you’ve never looked up a guy you once knew on Facebook or anything.”

“So you admit it.”

Rylann tossed her hair back dismissively. “I admit nothing except for the fact that the man is now my witness.”

“Over ninety percent of federal criminal cases plead out before going to trial, Ry.” Rae winked knowingly. “Kyle Rhodes won’t be your witness forever.”

LATER THAT EVENING, Rylann sat cross-legged on her bed with her laptop open. She’d been dreading this moment since she’d gotten home—trying to come up with some kind of appropriate response to Jon’s e-mail.

Finally, she typed, HI YOURSELF.

She immediately deleted it. That sounded too flirty.

This prompted a new question: Did she want to sound flirty?

Definitely not—he’d dumped her.

So she tried again. GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU, she began, before deleting that, too. Frankly, it wasn’t all that great to hear from him. Particularly since he’d thrown her into a tailspin over the damn Hi and now she was up at night, writing and rewriting a response to an e-mail that barely deserved one.

So ignore it. He’ll get the hint.

But ignoring it made it seem as if she wasn’t ready to face Jon, even via e-mail, and that wasn’t the case. She was…okay with the breakup.

She perked up as that realization hit her. Suddenly, the pressure to write the perfect response was gone, and she just went with her gut.

HEY YOU—HOPE ALL IS WELL IN ROME AND THAT IT’S EVERYTHING YOU WERE LOOKING FOR. IF YOU GET A CHANCE, DROP ME A LINE IN ANOTHER SIX MONTHS. : )

There. She read it again and was satisfied that she’d struck just the right tone. Friendly enough—she’d even thrown in a smiley face emoticon—but not overly so. Assuming the whole point of Jon’s e-mail was to check in and see how she was doing, her reply conveyed the message that he was free and clear to go about his business.

And also that she was going about hers.

Fourteen

KYLE CAREFULLY EASED his car into a tight parking spot, trying hard not to laugh at the sight of Dex, who stood on the sidewalk sporting a visor over a brown mess of seriously ridiculous bed hair.

After shutting off the engine, Kyle grabbed the handle of the gull-wing door of his Mercedes and pushed the door open upward toward the sky.

Dex grinned. “Dude, I don’t care how many times I’ve seen you do that. That car is so f**king cool.”

No disagreement there. Kyle pushed the button on his key, locking the car, and pointed to his friend’s head. “Any particular explanation for the hair?”

“A hookup that ran late.”

“I really hope she didn’t see you on the way out. Because I think I see a gaggle of birds nesting in there.” Not that it was the first time Kyle had seen Dex looking less than stellar, seeing how they’d shared an apartment their senior year of college and also during the two years thereafter.