Page 61 of Making Over Maris

It was true. Kat was like a vault. “Jack and I are…kind of having a thing.”

“A thing?”

How else could she describe it? She wasn’t quite sure exactly what this was. “Yes. A thing. I don’t even know where it’s going but—”

“But?”

“Oh Kat. I really like him.”

“Like him, like him?”

Sara nodded. A movement across the hall caught her attention and she frowned. “What the fuck is that?”

Kat peered into Jenny’s office. The company’s graphics artist and Jack had their heads together. Jack was fiddling with the connections on her computer. “He’s helping her—”

“I know. With her Skype. Like Jenny needs help with something like that.”

“Oh.” Kat sobered.

Sara drummed her fingers on the blotter. “He’s always had a crush on her.”

“What?”

“I’ve seen him staring at her.”

“She’s interesting to look at.” She was. Every day she had a new piercing or a fresh tattoo. Her hair changed color on a whim. One day she had come in with it bedecked in feathers. But still…

“I don’t think I can go through that again.”

“That?”

“That Todd thing.”

“You never did tell me what happened with him.”

“Yeah.” Sara grunted. “There’s a reason for that.” But now it hardly mattered. She didn’t even think about Todd anymore. And when she did, it was with a mix of apathy and disgust.

What kind of man walked away from a relationship without a word? Just dropped off the face of the planet? Leaving the woman he’d been intimate with wondering? Agonizing over what she’d done wrong?

Loser.

But if that happened with Jack—she’d kill him. Or die.

And…

Sara’s heart thudded painfully as an agonizing realization crept through her brain.

Holy crap.

When had that happened? When had she started to care so much?

Granted, they’d been friends for a bazillion years, as long as she could remember. He was the one person who had always—always—been there for her. He’d been there for her when her mother married James and moved to Vermont. He was the reason she’d graduated from college. Hell, he was the reason she’d even gotten into college, tutoring her and helping her study for exams. He was the reason she had this job.

He was the reason for a lot of things.

He was the reason for most of the good things in her life.

She glared across the hall. But now—