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“Can I help you—”
Jia’s eyes widened in surprise. There was a hint of fear. She looked down at the hand wrapped around her arm. Henry followed
her line of sight and considered what this must look like to her.
Shit, he’d grabbed a woman in a dark hallway like an idiot. He quickly dropped his hand. “Sorry,” he said.
“Henry?” She composed herself. “What are you doing here?”
Henry didn’t actually know why he stopped in at the Del Rey for a drink.
It wasn’t like he was even in the mood for being social.
He just needed to get out of the Sunset Hills bubble and find a place that reminded him of New York.
Reminded him that he was a high-powered corporate attorney.
That he dealt in facts. That a hardened heart had served him well.
It was like everything, and everyone, at The Sunset, from his grandfather’s constant encouraging words, the neighbors’ generosity of spirit, and one young woman’s bright eyes, warm smile, and best intentions had thrown him off his game. He was uncomfortable.
And he needed space away from his grandfather for even just an hour to prepare himself for a time when he’d have to leave
Dennis on his own and trust that he’d be able to take care of himself.
Henry had started to forget himself in the short time he’d been out in the desert. So that was why he’d gone looking for a
trendy bar with expensive alcohol and glitzy people he cared nothing about.
But if he had known he’d run into them, he definitely wouldn’t have come.
“What are you doing here?” He lobbed the question back to Jia because he needed to know. What was Jia Chung doing here with that guy?
As far as Henry was concerned, the jury was still out on Jia. He’d let go of his suspicion that she was in the desert for
something nefarious. It seemed unlikely she was running some kind of grift trying to swindle the elderly residents of Sunset
Hills. She was way too kind and caring with everyone, and no one was that good an actor. Plus, she’d have to be a real asshole
to scam older people. His parents were proof positive of that. And in his gut, he knew she wasn’t. She was clearly beloved
by the community, and from what he’d seen, she really was just a good person.
But Matthew Singleton? Henry had firsthand knowledge that he was bad news.
Maybe not illegal in their direct dealings, but borderline unethical and most definitely predatory.
And when Henry saw the real estate snake, the one who’d tried to pull one over on Dennis when he’d sold his old house and bought the new one, out on what looked to be a real cozy date with Jia, it triggered something in him.
“I’m having drinks, um, with a friend.” She looked over his shoulder back out toward the bar area.
“You have bad taste in friends,” Henry said.
Her eyes snapped back to his.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her brows furrowed together like she was seriously offended by this statement. “My best friend,
Lizzy, you met her at Willow that night we, uh, you know—” Jia waved her hand between the two of them, apparently encouraging
Henry to finish the statement in his own head “—she’s amazing. She’s loyal and funny and successful and badass. And Mimi,
well, she’s the kindest soul in the whole world. And . . .”
Oh god, was this woman going to list all of her friends and defend their honor by telling Henry every single one of their
positive traits?
“Well, beyond those two, I don’t really have any other friends. Maybe Gladys, I suppose. And Betty and Sally Mae. Is that
weird that most all my friends are in their eighties?”
“Jia,” Henry said, trying to get her attention back to the topic at hand. “How do you know this guy?”
“Matthew?”
Henry very much did not like the way his name sounded coming from her lips.
“Snake,” he said.
“I mean, I barely know him at all. So maybe referring to him as a friend is being generous. More like an acquaintance? We’ve just run into each other around town a few times, and he asked me out. But now, well, he’s got business to do at The
Sunset.” The corners of her mouth turned down, and Henry’s hackles rose.
“What kind of business?”
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to say. In fact, I’m not sure he was supposed to share any of it with me either. Are there,
like, nondisclosures you have to sign in real estate? It just . . . Never mind.”
“Jia.” How many times had he said her name? Her attention span was minuscule, and he needed to bring her back to the present
conversation. He stepped forward, closer, closing off the rest of the world, blocking any competition for her attention, lined up body to body, the heat radiating off each of them and mingling in between. The nearness forced her to lean against
the wall. She lifted her eyes up to meet his.
He barely knew Jia Chung, and who she dated should have been none of his business. But it enraged him that she was here with
this guy. Maybe he was a little jealous seeing her enjoying herself with him. Guys like Matthew Singleton didn’t deserve easy
nights out on the town with women like Jia. And this all mattered to him more than it should. It mattered enough for him to
ignore every alarm bell going off in his head in this moment and to let Jia know exactly how he felt. He did not want them
together. At all.
“Listen to me,” Henry said, lowering his voice. “That guy is bad news. Stay away from him.”
“That’s not very nice,” she whispered. “What if someone said you were bad news?”
His eyes lowered to her lips. The tip of her tongue peeked out to lick her bottom one.
He leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to you, but no one has ever accused me of being nice,”
he said, “and I am most definitely bad news.” He watched the pulse point in her neck quicken. He wanted to lick her there.
But he pulled back and stepped away from her.
Everything about this was a bad idea.
“I mean it, Jia.” Henry pointed his finger at her. “Stay away from Matthew Singleton. He’s exactly the type of person that
would try to take advantage of someone like you.”
“Someone like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Someone soft. Kind. Easily taken advantage of. Easily eliminated by the signature of a stranger and the whim of a high-powered
executive. “You’re in over your head,” he said.
But maybe it was Henry who was the one in over his.
He soaked in one last look before turning and walking away back to the bar, leaving her behind.
“I can take care of myself,” she said after him as he walked away.
God, he wished that were true. And he was angry at himself for caring either way.
Henry signaled the bartender and asked for his check. He’d come for a drink to try to get away and was leaving more entrenched
in this weird desert life than ever before.
He walked past Jia and Matthew’s table on his way out. He tried to keep his gaze on the door. He didn’t want to see that snake’s
swarmy face and Jia’s big, innocent eyes buying into all the shit being spewed at her.
He would ask himself a hundred times on the short drive home why he even cared. But for now, he bit down, clenching his jaw,
willing himself to keep walking.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jia’s head turn, watching him as he passed. He caved and looked. He was met with a small
smile and almost imperceptible nod.
He nodded back and kept walking.
“Do you know him?”
Henry heard the question asked between the two behind him.
“I do. He’s a friend,” she said in response.
The words caught Henry off guard. A one-night stand, yes. A work foe, most certainly. But a friend? Henry didn’t have friends.
He didn’t want friends. Yet there was something about those words coming from Jia that made him wonder if maybe he actually
did.
An unfamiliar feeling arose in his chest like he was being taken over by aliens. He braced for the tight piercing of a panic attack. What he experienced instead
was a warmth bubbling up inside him. And he wasn’t sure which would end up hurting more.