As he lifted his finger to his too-tight shirt collar once again, it occurred to Jackson that maybe it wasn’t the shirt that threatened to choke him. Maybe it was the anger.

Anger that not so long ago his biggest worry had been Tirone Alberts’s occasional butterfingers in the end zone. Now the closest he’d be getting to any end zone was through the seventy-five-inch flat-screen in his living room.

“Hey, Burke!” Lincoln Mathis said, seeming to realize for the first time that they were standing in the doorway of Jackson’s office. “You coming to lunch?”

Even Jackson Burke could admit that Lincoln was one good-looking dude. Black hair, blue eyes, shoulders that knew their way around a gym.

And just like Penelope and Cole, Lincoln had no respect for the fact that Jackson had zero interest in joining their little clique.

“No. Not coming to lunch.” Jackson cleared his throat when he realized how terse his response sounded. “I have a couple things to work on here, otherwise I would.”

Penelope tilted her head, her long brown ponytail swinging to the side. “I thought you said it was because you already ate.”

Jackson lifted a hand to his forehead, relieved not to feel any dampness. Good Christ, were these people out to kill him?

Jackson had jumped at the job offer from Oxford magazine’s editor in chief with an odd mixture of reluctance and desperation. Reluctance to relocate to New York, to cease being an athlete and start being a journalist. Desperation to escape Houston. Desperation to get to—

“So that’s a no, then?” Cole asked, interrupting Jackson’s dark thoughts.

He gave a curt shake of his head. “Maybe next time.”

Someone snorted at that. He wasn’t sure who.

“Yeah,” Penelope said quietly. “Maybe next time.”

One of them closed his office door with a quiet click, and Jackson shut his eyes in gratitude for the silence even as he felt a stab of regret.

How many times would he have to say no until they quit asking?

How many times until he wanted to say yes? Until he wanted to be one of them, going to the casual lunches, the after-work happy hours, and the weekend whatevers.

But something held him back. No, everything held him back. Accepting a job offer with Oxford magazine had been foolish. Worse than the time he’d thrown an interception at his first Super Bowl. Worse than the time he’d had an affair with his professor in college. Worse than the time he’d blown his entire first year’s salary on a Houston mansion he hadn’t yet been able to afford.

Worse, even, than marrying the woman who’d nearly destroyed him.

But none of that—not the interceptions or the affairs or the money mistakes or Madison—quite measured up to the acute stab of foolishness that had Jackson staring rather desperately around his barren office wondering what the fuck he was doing.

For the first time in…well, ever, Jackson Burke was the outsider. The one who didn’t know how to fit in among the high-rises and the pinstripes and the stupid lunch meetings.

Jackson ran both hands over his face slowly until his fingertips dug into his jaw, hard, as though trying to wake himself up from this new life. With a muttered oath he turned back to his computer.

But not to the article he was writing, “Shortcut to an Eight-Pack,” which was due tomorrow. Instead, Jackson’s big hand closed over his computer mouse and navigated to his Gmail account.

There was the usual shit. Spam. Propositions from dedicated groupies. A handful of curt but well-meaning messages from his former teammates. One from his mother, whom he’d catch hell from if he didn’t respond soon.

But not the email he was looking for. No email from the head coach of the Texas Redhawks.

Jackson’s other hand reached for his phone. He could text Jerry. It would be so easy to text his former coach, ask if Jerry had considered his proposal. But it was bad enough that Jackson was going around his agent. Texting crossed a line that would send his agent over the edge.

Plus it smacked of desperation, and Jackson wasn’t there.

Not yet.

He was just about ready to close the Internet browser and get back to his godforsaken day job when a new email came through.

Not from Jerry. But this email was as good. No, it was better.

See, the whole damn world thought Jackson had hightailed it out of Houston because of a Carrington sister. They were right.

Where they were wrong was that it wasn’t Madison Carrington who’d inspired Jackson’s move to New York, although getting away from his ex had been a pleasant bonus. But Jackson’s new Manhattan address didn’t have anything to do with Madison. Or even Oxford.

No, Jackson’s presence in New York had everything to do with the other Carrington sister.

He’d been keeping his distance. He’d had to. But today he didn’t want to. He wanted to see her. Needed to see her.

He needed Mollie.

Chapter 2

“Joining us for dinner, sir?” The hostess at the upscale Italian restaurant gave him a polite if generic smile.

“I am, but I’m early,” Jackson replied, forcing a smile in return.

“Not a problem. Feel free to grab a seat in the bar while you wait.”

That was the plan, sweetheart. Jackson mustered up another fake-feeling smile and made his way into the dimly lit bar to wait for Mollie.

A tuxedoed bartender appeared even before Jackson had fully settled on the plush red barstool.

“Drink, sir?”

“Manhattan,” Jackson replied. “Knob Creek bourbon if you have it, with Carpano Antica if you have that.”