Page 4 of The Perfect Secret

“I liked their rhythm. Can’t say much for their ‘hotness’ though.”

“Oh, you overheard us?”

He nodded and his cheek twitched. He was trying not to grin.

As they ate, she studied his profile. Close-cropped salt and pepper hair, square jaw, powerful shoulders. If she had to guess, she’d say late thirties despite the hair color. He turned and his gaze no longer brimmed with laughter.

“You have mustard…right…there.” He took a napkin and wiped it off her cheek. His touch, even through the thin paper, branded her. Her face heated at the thought of how she must have looked, and his lips stretched into a smile. But to his credit, he didn’t laugh, and he pulled away as if he sensed she needed more space.

“Thanks,” she said. “Wow, I am just winning today, aren’t I?”

“We all have our days.”

She pulled out her phone to check the time. “I hate to eat and run, but I have to get back to work. It was great running into you…literally.”

“I’m glad you did. See you around.”

She threw away her trash, waved, and returned to her office. But after going about three blocks, she realized she hadn’t gotten his phone number.

And he hadn’t asked for hers.

Chapter Two

Hannah’s laugh was more breathtaking than her smile, Dan thought as he tapped a pencil against his desk. It had been a long time since he’d laughed, and longer since he’d made someone else laugh. Unless you counted Tess, but somehow, a teenager laughing at her dad didn’t count in his mind. He’d been awkward, but somehow Hannah hadn’t seemed to mind. Or at least she hadn’t shown it. Best lunch he’d shared in a while. And she was beautiful. Auburn, shoulder-length hair that curled at the ends, blue eyes that could make him jealous of men who had been in her past. Her skin was pale, and her hands were small, delicate-looking.

He took a deep breath as Lisa, his co-worker, popped around the door of his office. “Hey, I’m having trouble with the analysis. I can probably have it to you later this afternoon. Is that okay?”

He raised his brows. “Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

He had a ton of work and needed her analysis before he could move forward with his project, but Lisa was a dedicated employee. If she said she needed more time, he wasn’t about to deny her.

“Take a break and get a bite to eat,” he added. “Maybe it’ll help.”

Lisa nodded. “Want to join me?”

He paused before answering. “No, I already ate. Thanks, though.”

She saluted. “You know what they say about all work and no play. You should get out more, like maybe with whomever caused you to smile and stare off into space.” With a wave, she left.

He jerked in his chair. Hannah had lightened his mood. Was it so obvious? He let himself dream a little as he thought about her. Maybe he should listen to Lisa and ask her out.

But as soon as the thought entered his mind, he dismissed it. He was a dad, focused on his daughter. The rest of his time was dedicated to his job. Eating lunch with Hannah was a spur-of-the-moment thing. He didn’t do spur-of-the-moment. He planned, made lists, and weighed positives and negatives. He had no list prepared of reasons why asking Hannah out was a good idea. He had no plan formulated guiding him how to date.

The list not to date? That was easy. He was a single dad. His calendar was jammed with Tess’s afterschool art classes, doctor appointments, and tutoring sessions. And even when she didn’t have a social life to rival the Queen’s, his primary responsibility had to be to her, his secondary to his job. His knee had a bad habit of flaring up at the most inopportune times. The rest of the time, it hurt like a sonofabitch. Except…those reasons sounded stupid, even to him.

He frowned. Beth died seven years ago. There had been plenty of opportunities to date, but he avoided them all in an effort to be the best dad he could be, and to make up to Tess for…everything. In the beginning, he’d been recovering physically and mentally. Then there were the aftereffects. He massaged his knee with a wince. Things were under control now. He was under control. Could it work? Maybe. Did he want to? Kind of.

He juggled the pencil through his fingers as he cobbled together a new list, a list of what he knew about Hannah. She was younger than him. If he had to guess, by about ten years, which put her in her late twenties. Did age matter? He hadn’t thought about her age when they’d eaten hot dogs. Maybe the age difference didn’t matter.

He’d enjoyed her company. For a few minutes when they’d laughed during their hot-dog lunch, he’d felt carefree. Wasrelaxing so bad? Everyone needed to feel that way sometimes. And he hadn’t in a long time. Maybe it was time. He reached for his phone and stopped, hand halfway in his pocket.

He didn’t have her phone number. Maybe he should take it as a sign. If seeing her again was that great of an idea, he would’ve asked for it. He should accept his life as it was and forget about her. Returning to his desk, he reached for a folder.

He knew her last name. She was in PR. It couldn’t hurt to do a little research. If he were unsuccessful, he’d put her out of his mind. He swiveled toward the computer and searched for Hannah Cohen. Multiple upon multiple options popped upon the screen. Maybe he should stop now, before he did something he’d regret. But an internal voice whispered not to give up.

The voice was a pain in the ass.

He scrolled through until he found her name listed as the media contact on a press release. Bingo. He apologized in silence for offending the voice in his head. He’d found her. He’d come this far, might as well see it through. Now all he had to do was hope she hadn’t changed firms in the last six months.