“Joe came up with a series of unpleasant sit-up variations I need to get through. Give me five minutes, and I can meet you in the ring.” Sam pulled himself up, breathing in the familiar scents of vinyl and sawdust mixed with sweat. The gym was his retreat, the only place he could put aside his emotional pain and pay in blood and sweat for what he’d done to Nisha and his family and the hundreds of poor souls he fired each month.

“He’s weak,” John shouted, his skipping rope whistling through the air, making his straight dark hair stand on end. A marathon runner, attorney John Lee didn’t even break a sweat on Joe’s cardio exercises, but he couldn’t match Sam and Evan when it came to skill in the ring. “I think it’s his age.”

“We’re the same damn age.” And in the same situation with the ladies. Sam didn’t want to commit and John couldn’t commit. After being abandoned by his father, John had raised his younger brother singlehandedly while his mother worked three jobs to support them. He had put himself through law school and started his own firm, Lee, Lee, Lee & Hershkowitz, with three friends, but had been unable to move past his abandonment issues to maintain a relationship for more than a few months.

John transferred the handles of the ropes to one hand and jumped back and forth. “I’ve got that legal opinion you asked for in my bag. You can give Nasir’s daughter the printed copy. There’s no question you have the legal right of occupancy. But are you sure you want to do this? Nasir’s a good guy, and there’s no reason to think his daughter is lying. Legally, the office is yours, but is it right or fair to go against his wishes?”

Sam felt a strange tightening in his chest. He lay back, trying to breathe the curious sensation away. He was doing this for Nisha. For justice. The office location was a key element of the Alpha Health Care pitch, and he couldn’t afford to lose it. “I know what I’m doing. I can handle her.”

“Can you handle me standing over you with a victory grin?” Evan dropped his weights and joined Sam on the mat. Vastly more experienced, he had never lost a fight to either Sam or John over the years.

“Two shots. My fist in your face. Your face on the mat,” Sam countered with a confidence he didn’t feel in the least.

Evan clapped him on the back. “Someone’s feeling lucky today.”

Not lucky, but he’d woken this morning with a curious sense of anticipation. He didn’t remember the last time he’d started his day with anything other than a feeling of dread, so this peculiar lightness in his chest had to mean this was the day Evan was finally going to kiss the canvas.

“You do seem unusually upbeat.” John helped him to his feet. “You’re not your usual sullen, morose, and uncommunicative self. Is it the new office? Change of scenery good for the soul?”

Sam’s mind flashed to an image of Layla walking across the office, her jeans clinging to her curves, the dreadful Nickelback T-shirt pulled tight across her ample breasts. Then he remembered the office supplies flying at his face, the stubborn set of her jaw, her Juicy ass, and the hideous purple couch. Such an aggravating woman. And yet, when he thought of the way she’d rubbed up against him when she’d jumped to get the résumé, his lips quivered at the corners.

“Or is it the girl?”

Sometimes it sucked having a friend who was a lawyer. John was far too astute, and when he started with the questions, there was no escaping the truth.

“What girl?” Evan pulled two sets of gloves from the equipment box and handed one pair to Sam.

“The one he’s planning to throw out on the street even though her father is ill.”

Evan’s face lit with interest. “Do tell.”

Sam brought Evan up to speed on the office situation, the contract, and Nasir’s secret plans to find Layla a husband.

“What does Royce think about the whole situation?” Evan and Royce had been friends since college. After Sam had left medicine and completed his MBA, Evan had hooked him up with Royce, who was looking for a partner to join his new consulting business.

“He doesn’t know.”

Evan chuckled. “Find her a husband and she’ll be too busy planning her wedding to worry about setting up a new business.”

Sam shook his head as he pulled on a glove. “She’s stubborn as hell, irritating, strong willed, and far too competitive to give up the office because someone wants to put a ring on her finger.” She was also the sexiest goddamn woman he’d ever seen, but that wasn’t information he was willing to share. “She’s disorganized, unprofessional, and her taste in furniture is even worse than her taste in friends.”

“Sounds like my kind of girl.”

Sam’s stomach tightened at the thought of Evan with Layla. With his good looks and easy charm, Evan was the king of hookups. Sam couldn’t remember a night when they’d left a bar together.

“She’s not your type.”

“I don’t discriminate,” Evan said, misunderstanding. “I like all women. Last week I hooked up with a girl who’d had plastic surgery to give herself elf ears. Her elf name was Buttorwyr. She kicked me out when I called her Butt for short.”

“What a surprise.” John made no effort to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.

“She won’t be around long enough for you to work your magic.” Sam climbed through the ropes to join Evan in the ring. “John says the law is on my side. I’m going to tell her to clear out her stuff by the end of the day.” No second thoughts. It didn’t matter that she was beautiful and smart and snarky enough to keep him on his toes. He couldn’t afford to get distracted.

Evan smashed his fist into Sam’s face, sending him staggering back into the ropes. The world began to spin, and he dropped to his knees, the side of his face throbbing from the powerful blow.

“What the hell was that?” he shouted, more angry with himself than with the friend who had caught him off guard.

Evan held out a hand to pull him up. “Wake-up call. You weren’t paying attention.”

* * *

• • •

“WHAT the hell happened in here?” Sam pushed his way into the office, shoving aside half-empty boxes of dishes, baskets of shoes, fuzzy blankets, bags filled with clothes, picture frames, stuffed animals, shampoo bottles, and bolts of colorful fabric.

“You’re a late starter, I see.” Layla looked up from the rosewood desk. She had removed all his belongings and scattered them across the Eagerson in a heap. “I’ve been up since five A.M. I spent two hours in the kitchen with my mom, visited my dad in the hospital, and made it here just as the movers arrived with my stuff from New York.”