Free The Rebound Guy by Farrah Rochon Page A

stopped midair. “It’s Cortland’s favorite,” she said.
    A fissure of unease cleaved her chest. For two years she’d come to this restaurant week after week, telling herself she was satisfied with chips and salsa for dinner if it meant keeping her fiancé happy. Making concessions had been a part of the deal, one more thing she could do to show Cortland that she loved him.
    Asia set the chip down, her appetite suddenly evaporating.
    She glanced at Dexter and a bulge of something she couldn’t fully identify clogged her throat at the expression on his face. It wasn’t pity. Empathy? Understanding? Whatever it was, it caused her heart to expand with gratitude.
    “What type of food do you like?” he asked, wiping his hands on a napkin and pushing away from the table.
    “No.” Asia caught him by the arm. “Sit. Enjoy your fajitas.”
    “While you eat chips and salsa for dinner?”
    “This is fine,” she said.
    The look on his face said that he was ready to scoop her up and carry her to another restaurant if he had to, but he reclaimed his seat and returned to his meal.
    “So,” Asia said after a beat. “Are you sure you’re willing to take this on?”
    He set his fork on the edge of his plate, then folded his hands over his chest as he sat back in the chair. “You need me more than you realize, Asia.”
    It took considerable effort to swallow past the lump of emotion that continued to reside in her throat. She didn’t know what had come over her. It was on only the rarest of occasions that she allowed her emotions to get the best of her, and never in public.
    She cleared her throat. “I’ve already explained exactly what it is I want from you. Are you willing to agree to that, and only that?”
    After a weighty pause he finally nodded, and that mixture of gratitude and relief filled her chest again.
    Feeling as if a sudden weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she reached for another chip. “Now that that’s settled, let’s come up with a plausible story. We can say that we met while we were both shopping at Vino’s Cellar.”
    “I’m not a wine drinker.”
    “Not even a red with dinner?” He shook his head. This would be harder to pull off than she first thought. “Okay, we met at...”
    “A coffee shop?” Dexter provided.
    His eyes sparkled with something that made her insides quake, and Asia realized that looking at him for the next month would not be a hardship. In fact, she was already enjoying it way more than was wise.
    “We need to figure out another occupation for you.”
    “A dog-walking relationship advisor won’t impress the ex?”
    She dropped her face into her hand. “I’m so sorry. That was incredibly insensitive of me.”
    “I wouldn’t say it was incredibly insensitive.”
    She peered at him through her gaped fingers, relieved at the hint of humor she heard in his voice.
    “Why don’t we just say that I’m an independent consultant and leave it at that?” he suggested. “Now, what about you? What is it that you do at...what’s the name of your firm again?”
    “Global Partners Public Relations. GPPR for short. We handle PR for many companies in the financial sector.”
    “And what do you do at GPPR?” he asked as he folded strips of beef and vegetables inside a flour tortilla.
    “Mostly I put out fires.” His puzzled look begged for further explanation. “I’m the head of the crisis-management department,” Asia clarified. “We mitigate unexpected emergencies that arise for our clients. Of course, because of the unexpected nature of the job I don’t punch a clock as you would with a regular nine-to-five. That was one of Cortland’s biggest issues.” Her eyes caught him staring from across the table. “He didn’t understand that I have to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
    “Like a firefighter.”
    She dipped a chip into the dish of fresh, burning hot salsa verde on the table. “It’s a fitting analogy.”
    “So, when you’re not