After Meg left Cade, it felt like an eternity until the next Saturday. By the time she reached her house she had switched her thoughts to Mick. There had to be a reason for his invitation. Maybe the entire gang was going. She hadn't spoken to either Lucy or Emily all week.

The biggest thing in her life she wasn't willing to share. What would her friends think about her running partner? They liked him at the club or at least encouraged her. Obviously, the club was before she agreed to date Tyler. If she had a time machine, she would go back to the moment the ring appeared and told the truth. On second thought, she should go back to her night with Cade and exchange information or stay out talking in an all-night diner. They wouldn't have had amazing sex, but he wouldn't have been arrested. Then she could have brought him to dinner.

The Beacon Hill restaurant was close to her house, so she walked. Meg dressed in jeans and a light sweater, not a cardigan. Instead of pearls she opted for no jewelry. The only makeup she wore was lip gloss and mascara and she let her hair fall without a headband. Even when she ran, she wore an absorbent headband. Cade had seen her looking red and sweaty. He looked sexy in his shirt with wet marks and he didn't smell like a locker room. Why did all thoughts lead back to Cade?

As she approached the Beacon Hill icon, she chastised herself for letting him take over her thoughts. Mick stood out front looking like the hunk he was. She had seen girls lust after him. He looked nice in jeans and a white button down. Of all her friends, Mick would win most likely to iron. He didn't grow up as privileged as Meg and Tyler, but his parents were rich enough to send him to a private school. His family life was not as happy as Meg's. As much as she complained about Shannon, she was a fluffy bunny compared to Mick's mother.

Meg had never considered Ty's best friend, because he and Tyler were very close. It was as if they had shared him for years. Mick got him all to himself with Meg banished.

"Hey, you," she said.

Mick greeted her with a hug. Meg smiled as two girls watched. He had the looks that girls noticed, and it felt good to be with him. She needed the boost.

As he pulled back, he said, "You look good. Are you doing okay?"

She nodded. "Mostly. My job sucks and my best friend is..."

"You love your job." They stood in a long line to order. "What's wrong with your job?"

"I'm too good to get promoted so short of my editor getting hit by a bus, I'm stuck." Maybe Pacheco could put a contact out on him, but then Eli would send her to prison.

He chuckled. "You can always look for a new one."

"I sent resumes all over town, but no one has contacted me."

"Hey, I'm sorry, kid. As for your best friend, you know he still loves you."

She shook her head. "He's into Ariella."

Mick laughed. "He's into her alright. Literally."

Meg blushed. "Yeah, I know. He flaunts it."

"He's restoring his masculine pride after you rejected him."

She couldn't argue, because she had rejected him. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, but we're all feeling this shift. You and Ty were our nucleus."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I didn't mean to put pressure on you. I knew it would never work."

She frowned. "I should have listened to you. Seriously, I considered settling with him. Plenty of couples aren't best friends, so we would have that. In the end it wouldn't be fair to him."

"To neither of you. I believe love should be equal. Plenty of couples try one-sided love, but it never works."

"Like who? You?"

He smiled. "No. How about Eli and Sonia?"

"He loved her." Eli had been happy dating her, even though she was a bitch to Meg and Tyler.

"He did, but she never loved him."

"She didn't? How do you know?"

"I watch and notice details people miss."

Meg smiled. "Tyler picked a great best friend."

"You." He smiled.

She laughed. "I meant you."

The line moved slowly. When they reached the counter, Mick said, "Order. It's on me."

"I can pay."

He chuckled. "I asked you."

She looked up at him. "Why did you?"

He frowned, and her belly flipped. She knew there was a reason. After they ordered, Mick led her to a table. It was empty, but not cleared. She piled the plates and put them to the side while Mick wiped the table with napkins. Whoever sat there before them made a mess.

When they finished cleaning the table, Meg looked at Mick. "Just tell me what's going on." He looked too serious for her easy going friend. Mick was a joker. A million things flash through her brain at warp speed. "You aren't dying?"

He laughed. "No, only you would go to the worst, but I am leaving. I took a job out of the country."

Meg breathed a sigh. Mick worked on construction projects away from Boston all the time. His latest stint in Boston was unusual. "For how long this time?"

"It's a big one. A year maybe longer."

"A year!" Her voice was loud, and as she looked around she froze. Looking at her with only a table in between was a beautiful pair of blue eyes.

"I know. That's why I wanted to tell you in person."

Sadness crept in at the thought of another friend who wouldn't be around. "That's long even for you. Where are you going?"

"Cartagena."

She repeated it. "Cartagena. Sounds exotic. The women will be beautiful."

"I'm not going to meet women. I'm going to work."

Mick always met women. They flocked to him, but in recent years he had been pickier about who got his attention. Even on her birthday, he didn't go home with the girl he had been dancing with. They were all acting their age, even Lucy.

"What are you thinking?"

She shrugged. "We're getting older. Things have changed."

"Life is full of change. I don't like the guy I was in my twenties."

Meg looked at him. "Are you thinking about settling down?"

He shook his head slowly. "With my job, I doubt it'll ever happen. I'm accepting I won't have the things Tyler wanted with you."

"Marriage, kids." All things that she wanted, eventually. She looked at Cade. Once again, he met her gaze. She sipped on her straw causing him to smirk.

Mick nodded. "I'll be uncle to your kids. Come into town and spoil them."

She couldn't think about blue-eyed children. "You get to practice your Spanish. We all know you have a weakness for Spanish-speaking women." Mick had taken Spanish in high school and had a huge crush on the young teacher.

He smiled. "I was sixteen. We're older now than she was."

"She was twenty-four at the most. You weren't the only guy in love with her."

He cleared his throat. "I just need a change, but I'll still be in contact with you. When I come back, I expect you two to be friends."

"Tell that to Ty." She couldn't keep her eyes off Cade's blue eyes. Once she found them it was as if they were magnetic. She tried to ignore that he was with a woman. Whoever she was, she turned to look at her. Meg focused on Mick. "He doesn't want me staying at his place when I watch Blue."

Mick laughed. "He doesn't want you in his bed. Well, he does but, you know."

Did she? "Men only care about one thing."

"Not exactly, unless that one thing is available. I care about you, but we're just friends. We don't think about sex every minute. I'm not looking around the room wishing I could have sex with a woman eating her omelet."

Meg blushed. She couldn't say the same thing. Could Cade? He probably left the girl in his bed to run. As she thought back, he knew the day before he had plans. Whoever she was, she was beautiful with dark hair. She wasn't like Tyler's model type with legs that never end.

Mick continued. "I hope you don't mind, but Tyler told me everything."

Her jaw dropped. "What's everything?"

"About your role in a murder investigation."

"Oh, that everything. He's here."

Mick's eyes opened wide. "Are you okay?"

A teen boy brought over her plate. She looked at the burger and golden fries and wanted to thank Cade for the ten miles the day before. She dunked a fry in the ketchup. "I'm fine."

"Is this your first time seeing him since your birthday?"

She shook her head. Eli knew. It wasn't a secret. Did she want Tyler to find out? Mick would probably tell him. "Nope. I ran into him on a run. Sometimes we run together on the weekends."

Mick looked over his shoulder. "Did you run today?"

Meg swallowed the fries she popped in her mouth. "Yup." She took a bite of her burger. It was big and sloppy just the way she liked it.

Mick smiled at her and shook his head. "You are unlike every other girl. Who's he with?"

She shrugged. "Don't know." Cade with a woman bothered her a hundred times more than Tyler with Ariella.

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