Free What Janie Wants by Rhenna Morgan Page B

whacked his thigh and settled back against him.
    “ You really think it’s that simple?” he said. “Just talking to a lawyer?”
    “ Oh, I don’t know about simple. Lawyers are never simple, but I’d say there’s usually a loophole somewhere. Seems like I heard Gerald talk about one company who didn’t uphold the quality or the mission of the business, and the seller was able to get the company back for breach of something or other. I don’t know what it’s called. Seriously, have a lawyer check the contract out. You just need a knowledgeable set of eyes.”
    Zade unfastened her hair clip and finger-combed the untamed mess.
    Easing into his casual touch, Janie closed her eyes and soaked in the moment. The sun, the wind, the steady swish of water spraying as the hull cut a clear path toward home. Oh, if Emmy could only see her now.
    “ So, you’re a free woman now,” Zade said. “One kid already in college and another leaving soon. What’s your next step?”
    Wasn’t that the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Or in this day and age, the sixty-four million dollar question. Geez, she was old. “I guess that’s what Emmy sent me here for. To figure out what to do next.”
    “ Emmy?”
    “ My baby sister. She lives as large and loud as the colors she wears, and has never met a stranger. She might be five years younger than me, but I’ll swear she’s got the spirit of a wise man.”
    “ An old soul.”
    Janie cackled loud enough, it should have brought Pedro scrambling over the center cabin. “God, don’t let her hear you say she’s old anything. I’ve never met a woman more determined to fight the aging process.”
    “ If she’s anything like you, she won’t have to fight hard.” He combed her hair to one side of her neck. “Do you have any places you want to start? Ideas you want to pursue?”
    All the peaceful sounds around her reverberated loud as cymbols in her head, and the unfamiliar panic she’d been fighting since Gerald dropped his I’ve-fallen-in-love-with-someone-else speech surged to full pitch. “I have absolutely no idea.”
    Zade laced his fingers with hers, comforting without being overbearing.
    “ The alimony will cover me for as long as I need it to and the house is paid off. Needless to say, Gerald felt obliged to give it to me in the divorce. Still.” She shook her head. “Living off him doesn’t sit well with me. I want to be a model for McKenna. To show her it’s important for a woman to be able to take care of herself.”
    “ Did you do anything when the kids were growing up? Volunteer anywhere?”
    “ Oh, yeah,” she said. “PTA, church, a few of the sports organizations the kids were involved with. I was quite the take-charge, figure out how to get it done woman.”
    “ So maybe you start there.” He edged out from behind her and met her gaze. “You said you wanted to go back to school. Why not look at a business management degree? Hell, you zoned in on a solution to my problem quick enough.”
    School. Tests and studying. Class schedules and credit hours. All those things she’d helped her kids with. “You don’t think it’s too much to take on? I mean, I’d stick out like a sore thumb on any kind of campus.”
    Zade scoffed. “Hardly. You really think you’re the only adult over the age of thirty readjusting their life? I bet half my bachelor’s graduating class had at least twelve years on me.”
    Twenty-six years old, barely out of college, and she’d slept with him. Was running around topless as footloose and fancy free as her sister always encouraged her to be.
    “ Something wrong?” he said.
    “ I keep forgetting you’re younger than me. You don’t act like it.” She glanced down at her bare torso. “Well, except when you’re trying to talk me out of my clothes.”
    “ Out of curiosity, how old is your husband’s new interest?”
    “ Twenty-four.”
    “ So what’s the difference?”
    Well, damn. He had her there. “Okay,