“Thank you.”

She put the call on hold, and my gaze locked with Bennett’s. “I’m going to beat you because I’m good at my job. Not because of anything else.”

Bennett stared at me, his face unreadable.

Lauren came on the phone two seconds later. “Anna?”

I picked up the receiver. “Yes. Hi, Lauren.”

“How are you? God, it’s been too long.”

“It has. I don’t know if you’re aware or not, but I work at Foster, Burnett and Wren now. The two companies merged.”

I looked up at Bennett while I listened to her answer.

“Oh.” I said. “Okay. Yeah. I wasn’t sure Andrew had told you. Thank you. I appreciate you including us on the RFP.”

Bennett’s jaw flexed, and I stifled a sigh. I had no control over how the business had come our way, but I did have control over how I managed it. Lauren and I caught up for a minute, and then I cleared my throat.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I invited a colleague to join me on this call. He just walked in. His name is Bennett Fox.”

After she said she didn’t object, I put the phone back on speaker. The three of us then talked for a half hour about the RFP and what she was looking for. Toward the end of our call, I suggested we get together for dinner to discuss things further next week.

“That would be great. I know Trent would love to see you, too.” She paused. “What about Andrew? Should I see if he’d like to join us? He mentioned things had been tough since the merger and thought it might be a good time for us to finally work together.”

Bennett looked as uncomfortable as I felt. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer if you didn’t. We aren’t… I wasn’t even aware he’d spoken to you about my change at work or asked you to include me in the RFP.”

Lauren sighed. “Yeah, I understand.”

I had no idea what to expect from Bennett when I hung up, but what I got, I knew was sincere.

“Thank you for including me.”

I nodded. “You’re welcome.”

He took a few steps toward my office door and then turned back. “Why?”

I wasn’t sure I understood the question. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to win fair and square? Is it because of what’s going on between us?”

“I actually thought about that earlier.” I smiled. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’d be going about things the same way even if you were a sixty-year-old, happily married man.”

“Wow.” He shook his head. “And here I was thinking you were just a good person. But you’d let a sixty-year-old, married dude go down on you in his office?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Bennett winked. “I know. But let’s pretend so I don’t have to admit you’re a fuck of a lot better person than I am.”

Chapter 33

* * *

Bennett

“Do you like Star Wars?”

I hit mute on SportsCenter and looked over at Annalise. She had three different newspapers spread out in sections all over my bed. I preferred my news in the form of CNN or ESPN, but over the last few weeks, we had settled into a Saturday-morning routine I liked.

We’d have early-morning sex, and then I’d go for a run while she made us breakfast. On the way home I picked up three different newspapers, and after we ate, I’d watch SportsCenter while she read the papers for hours.

Did I mention she cooked and read while wearing one of my T-shirts with no bra or underwear underneath? Yeah, so that’s my favorite part.

I slipped my hand under the hem of the white tee she had on and rubbed her thigh. “I like Star Wars. I’m not one of those freaks who walk around dressed up as Yoda or Chewbacca at an annual convention of freaks, but I go see the movies. Why?”

Annalise shrugged. “No reason.”

But something about her response—maybe it was too fast or too curt—told me she was full of shit. “You’re not one of those freaks, are you?”

Her cheeks shaded pink. “No, I’m not.”

I pointed to her face. “Don’t even try it, Texas. You’re halfway to tomato already.”

She put down the paper. “Fine. I used to like to dress up as Princess Leia.” Her voice lowered. “And maybe sometimes Aayla Secura and Shaak Ti.”

I laughed. “Who?”

“Forget it.”

“Oh, no. You opened this can of worms. Now that I know you’re a Star Wars dork, I want to know what I’m dealing with. Are we talking Halloween costumes only, lunchboxes, and you have the entire Klingon language memorized, or full-on crazed fan who dresses up and goes to conventions?”

“Klingon is Star Trek, not Star Wars.”

“The fact that you know that tells me a lot.”

Annalise rolled her eyes. “Why do I share anything with you?”

I laughed. “Okay. I won’t tease, my sexy little dork. What made you ask?”

She pointed to an article in the paper. “I’m reading about movie merchandising that outperformed box office sales. Star Wars has had almost thirty-five billion in merchandising.”

“Guess you have a lot of potential buddies out there in dorkland.”

She whacked my stomach with the back of her hand. “Shut up.”

“You know there’s a new land coming to Disneyland soon: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.”

“Duh. I know. I can’t wait.”

This afternoon was my annual trip to Disney with Lucas—his birthday weekend was the only overnight trip Fanny allowed me. Every year, we drove down on Saturday afternoon and spent the night and the entire next day going on rides. Lucas always wrote up a list of the rides that were new each year, and this time one of them was Star Wars-themed.

“Do you go on rides at Disney?” I asked.

“I used to. But I haven’t been in years.”

I hadn’t mentioned my trip with Lucas, yet I’d been toying with inviting her all week. “I’m actually driving up to Disney with Lucas this afternoon. It’s his birthday this week, and we take an annual trip.”

“Oh. That’s awesome. You do such fun things with him.”

I’d never really brought women around Lucas, mostly because the relationships I had didn’t seem to fit with my weekly visits with him. I took women out to dinners where they wore nice dresses, and then I took them home, not fishing or go-kart racing. But Annalise and I were different. We spent hours working together every day, and when we weren’t fighting or make-up fucking, we actually had a pretty good time sitting around doing nothing on mornings like this.

Even though it had only been about a month, I’d gotten to know her far better than anyone I’d dated for six months. Plus, she’d like the new Star Wars ride they’d put in. So now I felt almost obligated to invite her. It was the right thing to do.

I clicked the muted TV off. “Why don’t you come with us?”

She looked as surprised as I was that I’d invited her. “To Disney? With you and Lucas?”

“Yeah. Why not? You can get your dork on at the new Star Wars ride, and Lucas will have someone to go on spinny shit with.”

“You don’t go on spinning rides?”

“Nope. In eighth grade, I was dying to make out with Katie Lanzelli. I took her to the town fair and had planned to suck her face on the Ferris wheel. Right before we went on, I went on the Gravitron. Puked my guts out after I got off. Couldn’t very well subject her to kissing me after that. So I quit spinning rides that day.”

Annalise chuckled. “Your perversion knows no limits. It even affects your trips to Disney.”

“What do you say? Wanna come?” I let my hand on her leg travel higher and stroked the sensitive skin on the inside of her thigh, right next to her lips. “I’d have to get you a separate room because of Lucas, but maybe I could get one next door so I could slip out after he falls asleep and slip inside of you.”

“See? Pervert. All roads lead to and from sex.” She smiled. “I’d love to go. But are you sure? I don’t want to interrupt your time with Lucas.”

The more we talked about it, the more I liked the idea of her coming. “Positive. He’ll be glad to have someone other than me to talk to. Trust me.” I looked at her. “Plus, I want you to come.”

Annalise lit up, practically glowed, as she nodded her head. Then she climbed on top of me, and I lit up, too.

***

“What composer scored the songs in the movies?”

“Easy. John Williams.” Annalise wiped sprinkles off her lip with a napkin.

Lucas looked down at his phone and swiped again. He’d been quizzing her with all the online trivia he could find since we’d gotten in the car this morning.

“What color was Luke Skywalker’s light saber in the first two movies?”

“Blue.”

“What about in Return of the Jedi?”

“Green.”

I shook my head. “Why would they change the color of the light saber? And, a better question, why do you know the answers to all this crap?”