Page 4 of Holiday Loss

8:34 A.M.

It felt like she’d never left.

Jessica swallowed a yawn as she tried to focus on the screen in front of her.

Sleep had remained elusive for most of the night. She’d felt bad about not giving Donovan Davidson a chance to explain himself, assuming he was doing what the call-in had accused him of, and embarrassed for being so wrong about things even if she was only doing her job and acting on the intel she had.

Then there were the dreams.

When sleep finally did come, her dreams were filled with a dark-haired man with gray eyes and a charming smile. For the first time in she couldn’t even remember how long, she had dreamed about sex. Waking when the alarm went off with a throbbing between her legs and a heavy weight of unfulfilled need clinging to her.

As always, the morning rushed by in a whirl of trying to get herself and her seven-year-old ready for the day simultaneously, while alsotrying not to think about the fact that a man had asked her out on a date.

Five years had passed since she’d gotten divorced, and she hadn't been on a date since.

There was just no time.

Exactly what she said to Donovan last night when he asked if he could take her to dinner. Her experience said that most men were interested in having sex with her but not in taking on all the baggage she had being a single mom with an ex who contributed nothing toward his son’s care.

Just because she hadn't been asked out on a date didn't mean she hadn't been propositioned. Usually, as soon as she told them she had a kid and dating her would have to fit around that they ran a mile.

A nice little ego boost, that was all last night could be. It was a nice compliment that a billionaire as she knew Mrs. Grayson’s children to be would ask her out, especially given the awkwardness of her having cuffed and arrested him. Add in that Donovan was attractive, and yeah, it definitely felt nice even if there was no way she would have said yes.

As soon as he knew about her son, he would have taken those words back.

For now, she had to accept that dating wasn't in the cards. Work and Freddie were all she could handle on her plate right now. Maybe one day, when her son went off to college, she could think about re-entering the dating pool, scary though that would be.

So what if sometimes she was overcome with loneliness?

All things considered, she had a pretty good life. Her son was an amazing little human, she loved her job, she had great friends, and she was content knowing that even though her family had thrown her away when she got divorced, she would never do that to her child.

“Hey, Jess.”

“Yeah?” Looking away from the computer screen, she rubbed at her bleary eyes. Not enough sleep was catching up with her. Maybe this weekend she’d have to convince Freddie to stay in, take things easy, watch movies, play video games, and wrap presents, ready to start following their holiday traditions and start delivering them soon.

“Someone had these delivered for you,” Adam told her.

Blinking away the grittiness that seemed stuck in her eyes, her mouth dropped open in shock when she saw what her partner held.

It was the biggest bouquet she’d ever seen.

So big in fact that Adam could hardly hold it.

There were at least half a dozen different flowers and a myriad of colors. Pretty pinks and purples, brighter reds and yellows, all mixed in with the greenery to make it look like a rainbow had touched the ground and someone had gathered up the evidence and put it together.

Beautiful, no other word to describe it, but not for her.

Couldn’t be.

Who would send her flowers?

“What do you mean they were delivered to me?” she asked, pushing away from her desk and standing up but not taking a step toward her partner or the flowers.

“Card has your name on it, and the driver had your name and this address,” Adam said, his dark eyes sparkling with curiosity.

They were friends and their shared understanding of how hard it was to be a single parent had brought them even closer. They shared most things, and it was obvious her partner was wondering why she hadn't mentioned a boyfriend.

Only there was no boyfriend.

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