give him a chance.
Bayleigh was a detail-oriented person, in both her professional and personal lives. His plan
had to be as well. It was a good thing he was stubborn and persistent. It was the only way he would
get through to her.
“So what are you going to do?”
Dane looked over at Isaac. He almost forgot his friend was sitting next to him. “I have to
come up with a plan she can’t resist.”
Isaac chuckled. “The two of you have IQ levels I can only dream of so I won’t be of any
help, but I wish you luck.”
“IQ has nothing to do with this. It’s about emotions. The one thing I know Bayleigh fears
the most.” Dane sighed with exhaustion.
“I just don’t know why.”
Isaac gave him a reassuring pat on the back. “Well, you better come up with a good plan—
the quicker the better. I can’t stand too many more Friday nights like this. You’re depressing me.”
“I’m depressing myself,” Dane sighed. “I can’t figure out what it is about her that draws me
to her.”
Isaac shook his head. “Bayleigh is a good woman, even I know that. She’s also smart, which
means you’re going to have to use more than your good looks.”
Dane smiled. “If you weren’t my friend, I’d be tempted to hit you over the head with this
bottle.”
Isaac laughed. “You aren’t fast enough.”
Dane didn’t bother arguing. While he could hold his own, Isaac was twice as athletic.
His friendship with Isaac was solid. They had shared a lot of good times and a few bad ones.
Still, he had a feeling that Isaac wouldn’t be an expert in helping him to break down those damn
walls Bayleigh had retreated behind.
“I have to find a way to get her to talk to me.”
Isaac nodded. “You’re right.”
“The question is how. She is so skittish right now.”
Isaac motioned for another beer. When the bartender looked at Dane he shook his head. He
wasn’t in a drinking mood. Wasting money on one beer was enough for him. The bartender
delivered Isaac’s beer and he took a drink before looking at Dane.
“First, you have to catch her off guard. But in a place where she feels unthreatened, so work
is out.”
Dane looked over at Isaac, curious about what his friend was getting at. “What do you
mean?”
Isaac smiled. “Let’s talk football.”
Dane chuckled. Isaac related everything to football. But he was willing to play along if it
meant he could come up with a plan to help him. “I’m listening.”
Isaac nodded. “First, you need to stop playing defense and play offense.”
“What do you mean?”
Isaac leaned back in his chair. “Right now Bayleigh is calling all the shots and she knows it.
She’s in her comfort zone. You have to get her out of it.”
“How am I supposed to that if she won’t talk to me?”
Isaac shrugged. “Simple. You catch her in the one place she has to talk to you.”
“How do I do that?”
Isaac smiled. “Bayleigh expects for you to corner her at work so she’s prepared to do battle
there. You have to find a place where she doesn’t expect you.”
Dane stared at Isaac for a moment not quite sure what he was getting at. But the more Dane
thought about it he began to understand. A plan started to formulate in his mind. Isaac had a good
point. She was in complete control. Bayleigh wouldn’t talk to him at the office unless it dealt with
work.
Bayleigh had become expert at dodging him. Either she came into work early, left before he
could catch her, or she stayed late. He had a feeling she had years of experience at perfecting the art
of avoidance. It was one of the quirks he didn’t like about Bayleigh. Right now the trait was driving
him to the brink of insanity. Dane had to figure out what he was going to do and soon.
* * * *
“Bayleigh, are you okay?”
Bayleigh jumped, dropping her chopsticks. She sighed in relief when they landed on the table
away from her soy sauce. Bayleigh looked up at Maylea and smiled. “Sorry. What did you say?”
Deidre arched a dark brow in her direction. “It doesn’t matter. We have our answer.”
“At least to one question,” Giselle murmured.
Bayleigh frowned. “What do you mean?”
Maylea shook her head. “You’ve eaten one, maybe two pieces of sushi at the most. Now
you’re gazing off into space. You have been for twenty minutes now.”
Bayleigh glanced down at her plate. Lea was right. She hadn’t eaten much at all. Boy, she was
in worse shape than she thought. Dane had thrown off her well-planned, well-balanced life. She
looked up at her friends, the corners of her mouth curving upward. “I’m fine. I just have a lot on my
mind.”
Deidre rolled her eyes. “You don’t say.”
Even Giselle laughed. Bayleigh sighed. She wasn’t ready to discuss this with her friends yet.
It was Friday night. Bayleigh wanted to enjoy her sushi with her friends like she did every Friday.
Dane was ruining her plan. Why did she sleep with him? Why did it have to be so good?
Bayleigh smiled to herself. Not that bad sex would have made the situation any better. But at
least she would be able to put this all behind her.
Instead, for the last week her mind, her thoughts had been plagued by Dane. It was hard to
focus at work. He wanted to talk to her, but she put him off every time. She just didn’t know what
to do.
She didn’t want to lose Dane’s friendship, it was too valuable to her.
Lea leaned closer to her. “So Bayleigh, are you going to tell us what’s bothering you? Or, are
we going to have to play twenty questions?”
Bayleigh groaned. Her friends weren’t going to give up until she told them. It might be a bad
idea. Or maybe they could give her a fresh perspective on things.
“I slept with Dane,” she whispered.
It took a full minute before her friends responded. Deidre was the first to recover. “You did
what?”
Bayleigh dropped her face into her hands. “I know. I know. It was a mistake. Now I don’t
know what to do.”
She now knew what morning after sex regret felt like. Four days later she still reeled from it.
Something monumental happened that night. Dane touched her in ways that scared her to death.
“What happened?”
Bayleigh looked up at Maylea. “You want details?”
Giselle gasped. “No! We don’t want details.” Giselle looked at Lea with a wide-eyed stare.
“Do we?”
Lea laughed. “No, we don’t. I meant in general.”
Bayleigh shook her head. “I don’t know what happened. We worked on our presentation,
had dinner, and the next thing I know we were in bed together. We got a little reckless and now our
friendship is ruined.”
Deidre frowned. “Dane doesn’t seem like the type to end a friendship because of one
mistake.”
Bayleigh wanted to cry. “He wants to date me.”
Their eyes widened.
“He what?” Giselle gasped.
“Dane wants to date me,” Bayleigh repeated.
Her friends looked as stunned as she felt. Maylea set her chopsticks down. “Why are you
upset then?”
Bayleigh’s mouth fell open. “Dane and I are friends.”
&nb
sp; Deidre nodded but her confusion was clear on her face. “Yes, you are. Is that a bad thing?”
Bayleigh nodded. “We broke the number one friendship rule.”
Lea gave her a puzzled look. “What rule?”
“The rule that says friends don’t sleep together.”
Giselle shook her head. “I’ve never heard that rule before.”
“Well it exists,” Bayleigh muttered.
Maylea looked at Bayleigh, and frowned. “Are you sure it isn’t something else?”
Bayleigh narrowed her eyes at Lani. “What else could it be?”
Her friends shared a look but remained silent. The action frustrated Bayleigh even more.
“What was that look about?”
Deidre was the only one brave enough to speak, her voice soft and hesitant. “Well Bayleigh,
it’s just you haven’t been the same since your relationship with Erwin—”
“Erwin has nothing to do with this,” Bayleigh snapped.
Her friends looked at her in shock. She became appalled by her own response. She gave
Deidre a look of apology. “I’m sorry.
This has been a rough week.”
Deidre reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. I would probably be
stressed out if I were in your situation as well.”
Giselle shook her head. “This isn’t a bad situation. Bayleigh is making it worse than it really
is.”
Bayleigh looked at Giselle, her irritation level threatening to boil over again. Giselle smiled in
response. “You’re overreacting.
There’s nothing wrong with friends dating each other. It happens all the time.”
Bayleigh shook her head. “I don’t care what you say. Dane and I are better off if we remain
friends.”
Lea frowned. “Who says you can’t date and be friends? Look at my parents. Look at yours.”
“Marriage is different,” Bayleigh murmured.
Giselle tilted her head to the side. “It is?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Bayleigh drew blank at Deidre’s question. She hated when she didn’t have a logical answer.
Then again, nothing about this was logical. If she had just been able to keep her hormones in check,
they wouldn’t be sitting here having this discussion.
“Remember Bayleigh, you were supposed to do something that you normally wouldn’t do as
a nice girl,” Lea responded with a gentle smile.
Bayleigh gasped. “This has nothing to do with that.”
Giselle looked baffled. “It doesn’t?”
Bayleigh shook her head. “This just happened. Dane and I were eating dinner and talking,
the next thing I know we were kissing. You can figure out the rest from there.”
“So Dane wasn’t your one bad thing?” Deidre asked.
Bayleigh shook her head. “No, he wasn’t. I admit I should have said no, but I didn’t. Now
here I sit.”
She felt even worse at the expression of sympathy on her friend’s face. If Bayleigh could kick
herself she would. She had screwed up in a major way. This was one time when she couldn’t figure
out how to fix a dilemma. It was hard to do when focused on the things he did to her that night.
The stuff she did to him in return. A groan escaped her. Sitting at a table with her friends, thinking
about sex with Dane, was embarrassing. She had to stop.
Her brother had always teased her about her wild imagination. Lynden always kidded her
about it getting her into trouble one day. Trouble she wouldn’t be able to get herself out of. How
right he’d been.
If her brother could see her now he would be beside himself. On the other hand, she was
beside herself. How in the world had Dane managed to captivate her after one night of sex—
fantastic sex? If she were honest with herself she would admit he had captivated her long before their
night of passion. Dane was a captivating man, with the intelligence to match. It was one of the main
reasons they got along so well. He wasn’t intimidated by her intellect any more than she was
intimidated by his brainpower.
Still, men like Dane didn’t happen to her. Another reason why she valued their relationship
the way she did. Bayleigh released a quiet breath. She knew other woman would be clamoring to
have a piece of Dane. They did. Bayleigh had witnessed it several times. Dane was different than
most men. Instead of using the women in the way they asked to be, he ignored them. In the five
years she had known him, Dane proved to her time and time again how selective a man he was.
She wasn’t in the same league with any of the women he dated. Her sense of fashion was
lacking, mainly because she dressed for comfort not style. Yes she was attractive, but she wouldn’t
turn every head in the room unless she tripped and fell on her face. Thanks to her mother who had
been happy to pass on her round hips and ample breasts, she had been blessed with a curvaceous
figure. Bayleigh was grateful her father had passed along some of his height. At five-foot eight-
inches, her height balanced her curves.
She could still remember the look on Dane’s face after he undressed her. He had been
stunned. Her mother and sister always asked her why she hid her body. At this point, it was more
out of habit than anything else. In her younger days she’d been overweight. The teasing, at least
about her body, had been less frequent if she wore baggy clothes.
“Bayleigh.”
She looked up at her friends, their expressions amused. The fact that they found her
suffering funny didn’t sit well.
“You drifted off again,” Giselle stated with a smile.
Bayleigh sighed. “I know.”
“What were you thinking about?” Deidre asked before eating a piece of sushi.
“I was thinking Dane means the world to me and I don’t want to lose his friendship.”
“Who says you’re going to?” Lea questioned with a kind smile.
I do. Because I have rotten luck with men, Bayleigh wanted to scream. Instead she shrugged. “I’m
just confused by all of this,” she murmured. “Dane caught me off guard. He told me he’s liked me
for a long time.”
Deidre snickered. “I believe him.”
Bayleigh tried to glare at Deidre but wasn’t successful. “You all are supposed to be on my
side.”
Giselle leaned over, gave Bayleigh’s hand a light squeeze, and a sweet smile. “We are, which
is why we aren’t afraid to tell you how ridiculous you’re acting right now.”
Lea nodded in agreement. “We also aren’t afraid to say your self-esteem needs some work.”
“My self-esteem is just fine.”
Deidre looked at Bayleigh, her expression full of disbelief.
“Then why do you find it so hard to believe that Dane could be attracted to you?”
She looked at Deidre. “I never said that.”
“You don’t have to,” Lea added. “It’s all over your face.”
Bayleigh shook her head. “This just doesn’t seem real. I feel like any moment now I’m going
to wake up and realize I’m dreaming—Ow!” Bayleigh gave Giselle a hard look. “Why did you pinch
me?”
Giselle smiled. “To show you this isn’t a dream.”
Lea gave Bayleigh a questioning look. “Why would you dream about Dane being attracted to
you?”
Bayleigh opened her mouth but no words came out. She had backed herself into a corner
she may never get out of.
“Do you beli
eve in destiny, Bayleigh? Fate?”
Bayleigh looked over at Deidre. She sighed. This was going to be a long night. “Yes, Deidre.
I believe in destiny and fate.”
Deidre smiled. “What if it was meant for you to get to know Dane as a friend first?”
Bayleigh’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”
Deidre leaned closer. “What if you were meant to get to know Dane for the good guy that
he is, so when this time came you didn’t have any reservations?”
Bayleigh frowned. She always had reservations. It was the reason she had made the wise
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