Page 35 of You've Got Male

Jonah approached the table, where Kyle, the director of finance for a midsized firm, was grinning as if he’d watched the fashion debacle unfold.

Kyle stood and welcomed Jonah with a handshake. “For a minute there I thought you were going to stand me up, but Jake said you were top of your class and admired your work so I decided you were worth the wait.”

Jonah had met Jake freshman year at Cornell. They were randomly assigned to the same dorm. They immediately hit it off. So when Jonah decided to get serious about getting a job—one that didn’t require getting someone else fired, brown-nosing it to climb the ladder, or sacrificing his family—he reached out to Jake. His firm wasn’t hiring but he hooked Jonah up with Kyle.

“Just having a morning,” Jonah explained. “Sorry about that.”

Kyle waved it off. “No worries. My wife nitpicks my clothes all the time.”

“Oh, she’s not—”

“Hell, she practically dresses me.” Kyle froze, then swallowed hard. “Sorry man, I forgot. Jake told me about your wife. That’s rough.”

Jonah wondered what people saw when they looked at him. It was clear by the concern on Kyle’s face that it was not the ballbuster broker he’d once been.Because you aren’t the ballbuster broker you once were.

But he could be. All he needed was one person,just one,to take a chance on him.

“It was. But I’m ready for the next chapter.”

“The kid yours?” He jerked his chin toward Waverly, who was perched effortlessly on Evie’s hip, like two pieces to the same puzzle. Something uncomfortable tightened in his stomach.

“Just turned three.”

“She’s cute. I have two. Nine and thirteen. Let me tell you, the teen years will make you go bald. Some days all my daughter is missing is the plastic heels and a pole.” Jonah thought of his own baby and shivered at the thought.

“I have a seventeen-year-old son, so I get it. Broody as hell.”

“So this next chapter. What does it look like? Because, I’m going to be frank, we aren’t really looking for anyone right now. But if the right kind of person comes along, we will always find the room, if you get what I’m saying.”

“I am that person. I know on paper I have some gaps, and decisions that I would question if I were in your chair, but when my wife was diagnosed and I heard the word terminal? I knew I couldn’t give one hundred percent of myself to my wife and job, so I quit.”

“I heard you were mere months away from being named partner.”

“I was. Which speaks to my ability and work ethic. It also speaks to the way I work with clients. My past employer won’t give me a glowing recommendation—”

“Frank is the devil incarnate. I can assure you we run our company differently.”

“Good to know, because while my daughter is in preschool and I’ll be hiring after-school help, things come up that are out of my control. Like today. And I don’t have a partner to rely on.”

The second that last sentence came out of his mouth he wanted to reel it back in. Because the slowly built confidence in Kyle’s eyes fizzled.

“I get that family comes first, but I need someone I can rely on, and sometimes that means making a hard call or working through dinner or over the holidays.”

“I hear you and agree with you.”

Kyle relaxed. “Why don’t you email me your resume and a list of client references, and I will take a look at it and get back to you. You were at the top of your game and impressive as hell.”

Jonah didn’t like the past tense Kyle used on that last line, but he knew his former clients would sing his praises.

Jonah reached into his bag and pulled out a crisp white paper. “Already have it.” He slid his resume and referral list across the coffee shop table and Kyle gave it a quick glance.

“Prepared. I like that.”

They shook hands, and when Kyle left the shop Jonah walked over to the counter where Evie was effortlessly amusing Waverly while serving her customers like a pro. A lifetime from now, when he thought back to this moment, he would remember the way Evie looked holding his daughter. She had Waverly on her hip in a little apron and Grinder tee, helping with the whipped cream. And what a breathtaking picture that made.

Something shifted inside him.

She must have felt his energy because she looked up at that precise moment and their gazes snagged and stuck. After a heavy moment, she turned to her employee and asked, “Julie, can you handle things for a minute?”

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