The Laws of Attraction by Sherryl Woods

the big guns. Maybe this was his chance to do just that. He had no financial obligations, no family to consider. If he was ever going to dramatically alter his income and lifestyle, now was the time.
    A part of him wanted to go back to Ashley’s and bat the whole idea around with her for a while. He had a hunch she would bring a unique perspective to the picture. Maybe it would even help her wrestle with her own dilemma. They could be sounding boards for each other, at least once she got over the shock of discovering that he was one of those lawyers she thought he held in such disdain.
    He sighed and dismissed the idea. Ashley didn’t want a sounding board right now. She wanted to hibernate and lick her wounds. He honestly couldn’t blame her. He’d give her tonight to do that, but come morning, he was going to be back over there and was going to insist they talk her situation out some more, especially if she was still neck-deep in guilt.
    “You look like a man with a lot on his mind.” Mike startled Josh out of his reverie when he found Josh still sitting behind the wheel of his car in his driveway after he’d driven home from Ashley’s.
    “Just thinking about this and that,” Josh said, climbing out of the car and plastering a fake smile of welcome on his face. “What are you doing here?”
    “Actually I was out for a walk and saw your car turn in. I decided I’d stop by and see if you wanted a littlecompany. Melanie and Jessie went shopping for school supplies so I’m at loose ends.”
    Josh grinned at the restless note in Mike’s voice. “Is that what marriage does to you, makes you incapable of being on your own for a few hours?”
    Mike laughed. “Pretty much. I’m still shocked by that myself.” He gave Josh a speculative look. “You’re on your own pretty early, too. Did Ashley kick you out?”
    “She had some things she needed to think through,” he said, careful not to allude to what those things were. If she didn’t want her family to know, it wasn’t up to him to spill the beans.
    “About your relationship?” Mike prodded.
    “No way. To hear her tell it, we don’t have a relationship.”
    “I see. What’s your take on that?”
    Josh gave the question some serious thought. He liked her, no question about that. He was attracted to her. Definitely no question about that, either. Did they have a future? How could he possibly answer that when neither of them had a clue what they really wanted for the rest of their lives, professionally speaking, anyway? He settled for giving a reply that was honest as far as it went.
    “I think that depends on how determined she is to go back to Boston,” he told Mike. “There’s not much chance of having a relationship with someone whose life is hundreds of miles away.”
    Mike didn’t seem convinced. “You hear about long-distance relationships working all the time. They’re tough, but it can be done if both people are committed to it.”
    “I think it’s a little soon for either of us to be thinking about commitment. We barely know each other.”
    “Sometimes the whole lightning-bolt thing happens,” Mike reminded him. “It happened that way for me and Melanie. Same thing with Rick and Maggie. Maybe it’s the way things go with the D’Angelo women.”
    Josh thought of how connected he sometimes felt to Ashley, far more connected than he’d ever felt to Stephanie, despite having known Stephanie so much longer. Maybe Mike was right. Maybe time had nothing to do with love. Still, for a plodder like him, it seemed wrong to be thinking of jumping from thoughts of an eventual engagement to a certain woman one day, to a full-throttle relationship with another woman a few days later. A full-throttle affair, maybe, but he’d already vetoed that idea.
    “Let’s not jump the gun,” he told Mike. “I don’t think Ashley’s in the best place to be worrying about a relationship with anyone right now.”
    Mike regarded him with pity. “A word of