The Three-Week Arrangement (Chase Brothers) by Sarah Ballance

said she was on the committee. Total firing squad situation, and she understood all toowell what it felt like trying to breathe under the weight of someone else’s expectations. Her mother had made sure of that.
    She was playing with her phone, wondering if there was a way to get out of the meeting without giving up her calendar idea, when a call came in. Abbie .
    Rue greeted her with, “Tell me you have great news on the adoption front.”
    Abbie laughed. “Seriously?It’s been less than a day.”
    “And?”
    “We’ve had interest in about half of them, and the phone is still ringing. Several people are coming in over the weekend.”
    “Perfect,” Rue said.
    “You did great work, as always. And speaking of perfect, who is that man you had with you?” Abbie sighed. Or, more accurately, she swooned so hard, Rue could actually hear it over the phone.
    Rue got it. “I’m pretty sure he told you his name, and he really is taken.”
    “And not by you?” Skeptical notes colored Abbie’s tone.
    She studied a freshly discarded piece of gum on the sidewalk. So much for pushing down all that confusion and dredged emotion. “Nope, not mine. We’re just friends.”
    “You weren’t looking at one another like you were just friends.”
    “The factthat he’s not available,” Rue said, “doesn’t make him any less gorgeous. The drool is legit.”
    Abbie snorted loud enough to be heard over the din of traffic. “Maybe yours is, but what about his?”
    Rue didn’t think she’d imagined the attraction arcing between them, but she had no idea it was obvious to anyone else. This knowledge kind of legitimized this thing between them…and bolsteredher denial. Because there could absolutely not be anything between them. He wasn’t available, and she’d been waiting her whole life to make her own dreams come true. Having them belittled as not good enough had only fanned the flames—not out of rebellion, but because what she wanted mattered . The more her mother pushed for Rue to find her so-called proper place in society, the more Rue realizedshe’d never fit in her mother’s world. She’d waited a long time for the right time to quit her job and follow her passion. Now that she had the opportunity to turn what she loved into a full-fledged career, she was taking it. Even if by some miracle Ethan decided he was single, she’d need another miracle to walk away from him.
    Because she would have to walk away from her plans, and miraclesjust weren’t that easy to come by.
    “There was no drool on him,” Rue said. “At least not human drool.”
    “Um, no.” She could practically see Abbie’s head shake in disagreement. “If he was my man and I saw him looking at you like that, I’d be pissed.”
    Rue bit her lip. Ethan’s wife’s death wasn’t her story to tell, but it wasn’t a secret, either. “He lost someone,” Rue said. “Hiswife died. He’s not over her.”
    “Oh.” Abbie’s tone instantly sobered. “I’m sorry.”
    “Yeah, me too, but don’t tell him that. He’s a little tired of the pity, hence our acquaintance. He’s letting his family think he’s finally moving on, and to that end, we’re hanging out. In return, he’s taking me to the Von Adler gala to get Boyd off my back and to keep his family off his.”
    “Well,I think he’s more into you than that.” More skepticism.
    And it filled Rue with misplaced hope. But she knew better, even if her bone-deep reaction to the man had run amok. “You came to this conclusion via facial expressions?”
    “Yeah, that’s it.” Abbie let the odd answer hang there, and Rue’s silence didn’t draw any more out of her.
    Which was fine. She didn’t need any more ideasin her head. She needed a serious distraction. Maybe one involving alcohol. “Want to grab a drink tonight?”
    “Can’t do it. I have a potential adoption after hours. I’ll be working late.” To most people, a long day probably wouldn’t be a good thing. But Abbie