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fifty-h central Denver and out to the suburbs

“I haven’t had my skates on in a couple of years,” he told her She and Marie had taken up inline skating during college On a lark Because Marie had been taking a fitness class and had hated jogging They’d fallen in love with the sport And eventually had talked Lia them for some cross-country skates on Saturdays

“When the weather’s nice Marie and I still go just about every weekend But we haven’t been out yet this year It’ll be cold, but the paveo for a short skate”

“Okay, yeah,” he said

“I’ll ask Marie, see if she wants to go”

He nodded Gabi smiled Good Normal

But when he stood—a tall, suited man whose looks screamed success—and picked up his five-hundred-dollar leather briefcase, her breath caught

How could she have just asked thiswith her?

He was Liam, she reminded herself with a mental shake She and Marie had skated with him more times than she could count

He grabbed her hand Squeezed it “Thank you”

“Of course” She thought her voice sounded norh Hoped it did

But as he walked out her door with a casual “See ya later,” she resisted the urge to rub the hand he’d touched against her jacket It felt strange As if it wasn’t quite the hand she’d always known

Which was absolutely ludicrous

But kind of fit Liam’s place in her life at the moment

LIAM WAS A FEW , the editor who’d published his piece on the near abduction—as well as many of his travel stories over the years—wanted hi a seventeen-year-old boy as suing his parents for the right to go off his antidepressants Unless the boy ca to lose, but the case was aining-national-attention online news source, thought Liae it needed, as opposed to the sensationalistic handling it would get from their competitors