“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Penelope muttered.

But nobody heard her. Riley was too busy pretending to swoon, Julie was fanning herself, and even the ever-cool Emma looked supremely interested.

“How do you know this?” Julie said, slapping at Grace’s knee.

“Jake saw it,” Grace replied. “Lincoln did it right there in Penelope’s office. Something about an article he was working on, and—”

“It seriously wasn’t romantic. Or sexy,” Penelope cut in. “Really. It was playful and—”

“But it was good, wasn’t it?” Riley asked. “I mean, I may be an almost-married woman, but Lincoln Mathis is hot.”

“The kiss was…” Penelope replayed Lincoln’s mouth on hers. “It was nice.”

Silence descended on the room.

“Nice?” Riley said, sounding aghast.

“You know, it was…” Penelope glanced around the room at disappointed faces. “I don’t have much to compare it to.”

She supposed she should be embarrassed by the admission—and she was, a little. But Penelope had never really seen the point of pretending to be something she wasn’t.

And she absolutely wasn’t an experienced femme fatale.

For all she knew, maybe Lincoln’s kisses were as good as it got. It had certainly been more skilled than most of the groping kisses she’d endured in college. And better than Erik’s, a guy whom she’d dated for a few months and who had borderline halitosis.

“Penelope,” Julie said slowly. “I don’t mean to pry—”

“She does,” Emma interrupted.

“Okay fine, I do mean to pry,” Julie continued. “But are you seriously telling me that the best kiss you’ve ever received is merely nice? From a guy you barely know, for the sake of work?”

“Wait!” Grace said, holding up a hand. “Don’t answer that until I fill up your glass!”

Penelope happily obliged as Grace topped off all their glasses. She was more of a beer girl, but hey, it was Friday and a fancy dinner party, and well, she was having fun.

The only time Penelope ever got to indulge in girl talk was with Janie, but her sister wasn’t here….

“I don’t think I’m over the guy I left in Chicago,” she blurted out.

Riley leaned forward. “Was he a bad kisser? Is he why you’re all anti-kissing? Because I’d move to another state if Sam was a bad kisser. Hell, I’d leave the continent.”

Penelope smiled sadly. “No. I mean…I don’t know. We never, um…my feelings were one-sided.”

“Oh, well, honey, if you’ve got feelings for a guy, you have to tell him!” Julie said.

“I planned to,” Penelope said, taking a sip of wine. “I mean, like, I actually had a plan. I made dinner reservations, I bought a dress. It was red….”

Riley whistled. “Red dress, huh? Busting out all the stops.”

“Exactly,” Penelope said. She looked down at her glass.

And then I found out he stole my job and had been shacking up with a flight attendant for the past six months….

To the other women’s credit, nobody pried. They sat there silently, waiting for her to continue, and she knew that if she didn’t say another word, they’d change the subject.

But it was time to tell somebody—it was time to move on.

She went for it. “He took the job that I wanted. I don’t know if he meant to, but he did. But that’s not even the worst part. Before he could tell me any of this, I’d decided to make my move. I got brave. Or stupid. I’m not sure which, but…I kissed him.”

Penelope took a deep breath before continuing. “Needless to say, he didn’t kiss me back. Not when he was waiting to introduce me to his new girlfriend, who saw the whole humiliating thing go down….”

She put a hand over her eyes for just a moment, reliving the moment. “The worst part was, I’d really thought he liked me. That he’d been in love with me too. But now I think maybe he was just keeping me close to use me for the job thing.”

“The bastard,” Julie breathed.

Penelope smiled ruefully. “Exactly. So why can’t I stop thinking about him?”

“The heart needs time to heal,” Emma said quietly.

“Totally. Like seven years, hmm, Em?” Riley asked.

Penelope looked between the two of them. “Seven years?”

Emma hesitated. “Me and Cassidy…we once, eh…I’ll fill you in some other time. Tonight is about you. Where do things stand with you and this guy now?”

Penelope lifted a shoulder. “He texts sometimes. Still wants to be friends, tries to keep things friendly. And maybe someday I’ll want that but I just…I had to get away, you know?”

“New York is your fresh start,” Grace said, after studying Penelope’s face.

“That,” Penelope agreed, “and also maybe a little bit of running away.”

“Which you were right to do,” Julie said, jabbing her finger at Penelope’s knee. “Like Emma said, the wound needs to heal.”

“That’s the idea,” Penelope said with a shrug. “A new city was my first step. The new job was my second.”

“And a new man is the third,” Riley said.

“Well…no, not exactly,” Penelope said with a little frown. “I don’t want to rush into anything.”