Hey, Charlie, it’s Angela. Yeah, remember from high school? Good times! Listen, I was hoping to see you when you’re in town for the tournament. I’m the manager at Fredrick’s on the Miracle Mile. Stop by.

Such an innocent voicemail, and he’d been half excited about reliving some good old days with her. Apparently he’d forgotten Angela’s middle name was Manipulative. He didn’t know what he’d just been served with, but he knew he had Angela to thank.

“May I tell her who’s asking?”

“Just say her old friend Charlie is here. I’m sure she’ll want to see me.”

The girl nodded and picked up her phone. “Ms. Rollins? A man by the name of Charlie is here to see you?” With a nod, she hung up the phone. “Follow me?”

The narrow hallway behind the front counter led to a small office with a placard reading, Angela Rollins, Manager. Go figure, she hadn’t lied about everything.

“Come on in, Charlie,” Angela called from behind a big mahogany desk. She was tall and lithe, just as he remembered her, but she had a little age on her face now, and cynicism showed in the features framed by her stick-straight black bob.

“What is this about?” he said, holding up the manila envelope.

She smirked. “I see they found you.”

“And I suppose I have you to thank for that? What the hell, Angela? I haven’t seen you in sixteen years and you call out of the blue and ask me to meet you at your store so you can have me served? And why the hell didn’t you try a f**king phone call first?”

She pushed back from her desk and smoothed down her skirt. “My lawyer thought it would be best to let the courts handle this. Since they couldn’t catch you at the hotel, thanks to the limited access to that fancy suite, we thought this might work just as well.”

“And, what, may I ask, is this about?”

She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “Listen, I don’t want this to be ugly. I just want it to be over. If you have any questions, you can call my lawyer.” She handed him a slick beige business card and motioned him out of the office.

He begrudgingly stepped out and watched her as she locked up.

She turned around and ran her gaze over him—up, down, and slowly up again. “You look good, Charlie. I hope when this all settles, we can go for a drink and put this all behind us.”

He watched her walk out the back exit before looking at the card in his hand.

CLERENCE FRENCH LAW, LTD.

Specializing in Child Custody, Child Support

Chapter Two

Riley stared at her new phone and frowned. “I really don’t think I needed anything this high tech.” She opened the door to the apartment she and Lacey shared. Jaws, her bichon-poo, hopped off the couch and made a beeline for her.

Lacey laughed. “Ry, that’s not high tech. It’s just a standard smart phone.”

Riley wrinkled her nose. “It has an MP3 player, a camera, and a full keyboard.” She dropped her bags on the couch and crouched to greet the dog who instantly rolled on his back for a belly rub. “And I don’t need my phone to check my e-mail. I have a computer for that.”

“Your dog is such a man-whore,” Lacey said.

Riley rubbed Jaws’ tummy, and crooned, “She’s so mean,” but she didn’t deny it. She looked up at Lacey. “I just think I need something simpler.”

“It’s pretty standard stuff these days. Did no one welcome you to the twenty-first century?” She grinned. “Just wait. You’re going to love having your work calendar sync right up with that puppy. Once you’re Grand Escape’s General Manager, you’ll love having your e-mail at your fingertips.”

Riley studied the phone again, a sleek little chrome number the guy at the counter swore would be her new crack co**ine—was that supposed to be a selling point? “If I get the position. I had to put in an application like everyone else.”

“You’ll get it!” Lacey said, tossing her purse on the counter. “You’ll be the best GM Grand Escape has ever had.”

“I hope you’re right,” Riley muttered. She shook her head, trying to toss thoughts of work to the side. “I need to figure out how to program my numbers into this phone before dinner.” She walked across the living room and pulled her address book from her desk, leaving Jaws behind to beg for attention from Lacey.

“Wow,” Lacey said, pulling the ball of apricot fur into her arms. “I didn’t know anyone still had one of those.”

“Good thing I do.”

“Yeah, I guess so. It’s just a pain because if you hadn’t lost your old phone, they could have synched them and loaded all your numbers into the new phone for you.”

Riley shook her head. “If I hadn’t lost my old phone, I wouldn’t have bought the new phone.”

Lacey rolled her eyes. “Ry, it was the size of my purse and it didn’t even have a camera.”

“I never had to worry about misplacing it.” She frowned. “Until I did. And who the heck decided phones should double as cameras?”

“Someone who understood the hidden potential of phone sex. You needed to upgrade.”

“Yeah, well I guess it’s good that today’s trip to Fredrick’s was on your brother,” Riley mumbled.

“Here, give me that. I’ll be able to program it way faster than—” She stopped and her big blue eyes rounded. “Wait. What did you just say?”

“I ran into Charlie at Fredrick’s of Hollywood.” Just talking about him made her lips tug into a grin. Dear God, she was pathetic.

“You did?”

“I know I said I wasn’t going to shop there anymore, but they were having a sale and—”

Lacey’s swatted her arm. “I don’t care about why you were in there! A girl deserves pretty things.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a whole closet full of lingerie though.”

“Who cares? God knows if I were about to come into the amount of fat cash you are, I’d have twenty maxed out credit cards and a different pair of panties for every day of the year. I want to know why my brother was buying you underwear!”

Riley ignored Lacey’s assumption that she was even interested in the “fat cash.” At thoughts of Charlie, she put her hand over her face. “Oh, God, it was embarrassing! And not underwear, no, nothing that innocuous.”

“What’d he buy you?” Lacey’s gaze shot to the nondescript, eco-friendly canvas shopping bag on the couch. “Is it in there?”

But before Riley could respond, Lacey was pulling out sexy, sexy leather and Riley’s ING was squirming impatiently, saying, Let me try it on. Now!

Lacey’s jaw dropped. “Oh. My. God. This is so hot.” She laid it out on the back of the couch and looked at Riley. “Do I even want to know why my brother bought this for you?” She smiled. “Charlie’s always been sweet on you. If he weren’t my brother, I’d tell you to go act like the young woman you are and have a wild affair.”

Riley thumped her friend’s arm. “I’m with Chaz.”

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” Lacey said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but I have to live here.” Riley looked at her watch. “Listen, speaking of Chaz, will you really program that for me? I’m going out with him tonight, and he gets irritated if I answer unimportant calls when we’re together.”

Lacey rolled her eyes. “What do you see in him, anyway?”

Riley shrugged, dropping the address book on the end table. “He’s a nice guy.” She headed for the bathroom to get ready.

Lacey scoffed. “Riley, hon, I love you, and if this is who you want to be with, I’ll shut my mouth, but you seem awfully serious about this guy and you’ve never even played the field.”

Riley plugged in her straightening iron to warm, then climbed into the shower. “What?”

“I’m afraid you’re with Chaz for the wrong reasons,” Lacey said over the sound of the spray.

Riley’s jaw dropped. “Like what?” She peeked around the shower curtain.

Lacey was sitting on the bathroom counter, address book on her lap, cell phone in her hand. Riley had known Lacey since after college when they’d both needed roommates to save a little cash. Shortly after they’d moved in together, Riley had gotten Lacey a job at the front desk of Grand Escape. Living and working together, the two bonded quickly, but never in all that time had Lacey said anything so blatantly disapproving of her relationship with Chaz. “How can you say that?”

Lacey shrugged. “Riley, he’s your dad’s favorite employee. Don’t you think that influences your feelings for him more than a little?”

She closed the curtain again and shampooed her hair. “That’s not fair. My father likes him, but that’s not why I like him.”

Riley could hear Lacey’s dramatic sigh over the shower. She thought she heard her mumble, “I don’t know why else you would.”

Riley closed her eyes under the pounding water and sighed. Chaz was a good guy. He would make a good husband. A good partner in the successful life they both wanted. “I think you just don’t know him as well as I do,” she muttered, trying—and failing—to keep the pout out of her voice.

“You’re probably right. Don’t be upset. The stuff with Charlie just…had me thinking.”

Riley turned off the water, then grabbed a towel. She wouldn’t be angry with Lacey because Lacey had no way of knowing Chaz was so good to her. If anything, this was Riley’s fault because when she did talk to Lacey about her love life, it was usually to complain about the sex—something it was time she took into her own hands. She’d been complaining that things between her and Chaz were a little bland, but she had a spice cabinet, didn’t she?

Chaz was a great catch and she’d be foolish to let him slip by.

Wrapping the towel under her arms, Riley stepped out of the shower.

“I’ll get out of your way,” Lacey said, hopping off the counter.

“He’s good for me,” Riley whispered when she was alone. But what about me? her Inner Naughty Girl asked. Riley sighed as she reached for her hairdryer and brush.

Her father was retiring at the end of the month. He would still be involved in making the major company decisions, but later this week he would announce whom he would leave in charge to be the General Manager of Grand Escape. Riley hoped he would name her, and with Chaz by her side, they would eventually run Carter Hotels and Entertainment in a way that made her father proud.

Chunk by chunk, she dried her hair with a round brush, taming the dark curls with each stroke.

“There!” Lacey called from the living room. “Your phone is all programmed, and in record time, too. God, I’m good!”

“Thanks, Lacey,” Riley said, taking the flat iron to her hair now. “I owe you one.”

Sure, Chaz didn’t make her heart pound like a certain poker player. But she didn’t feel safe with guys like Charlie Singleton. She never knew what would happen next when she was around them. When she was with Chaz, she didn’t have to worry about life spinning out of her control. She always knew what would happen next.

“I’m sorry for what I said about Chaz,” Lacey said, strolling into the bathroom and placing Riley’s phone on the sink. “I guess I just worry because I know you’re not completely—” she smirked “—satisfied in that relationship.”

In the mirror, Riley watched the blush seep into her cheeks. “I’m going to work on that. Don’t worry about me.”

Lacey twisted a lock of her blond hair, studying Riley. “Maybe you should send him a suggestive text. That should be gas on the fire.”

Right. Chaz sexting. Riley couldn’t see it and raised an eyebrow to let Lacey know as much.

Lacey shrugged. “Just an idea,” she said, turning to leave.

“Hey, Lace, do you know any reason Charlie would have been served with court papers?”

***

Charlie watched his sister take a long drink of her red wine and ignored the pap member snapping pictures from the corner of the dimly lit restaurant. As soon as the as**ole did a little fact-checking and discovered the long-legged blonde across the table was Charlie’s sister, not his latest love interest, the pictures would go in the trash and Charlie would be old news again.

“What are you going to do?” Lacey asked.

“Call my lawyer?” The manila envelope had held a subpoena for paternity testing. Paternity testing. The words still made him flinch.

After sixteen years, Angela wanted to prove her child was Charlie’s. Charlie didn’t need to ask, “Why now?” He knew. Charlie had been a nobody when he and Angela had been fooling around. A nobody with no connections and no future. Apparently, winning a handful of national poker tourneys made him a somebody in Angela’s eyes, and now—like everybody else he’d ever shared a meal with—she wanted a piece of his checking account. Would she have bothered if she’d known that checking account was rapidly dwindling, right alongside Charlie’s future in professional poker?

“I don’t really see what other options I have.”

Lacey swatted his hand, making his beer slosh out of his glass. “Don’t be a jerk, Charlie.”

He slid his sunglasses down his nose and narrowed his eyes at her. “Excuse me?”

Lacey rolled her eyes. “Just because Angela wants to pull out the big guns doesn’t mean you have to. What about the kid? What does he think about all this?”