“How’s Anna?” McKenna asked, deciding to jump right in with both feet.
“She’s amazing,” Whisper said dreamily.
McKenna smiled and cocked an eyebrow, waiting for Whisper to elaborate. She didn’t. “Well, I could’ve told you that, so you’re going to have to give me more than that.”
Whisper laughed, and her husky, seductive chuckle echoed through the room and probably the rest of the building if she had to guess. Her friend was definitely not anything like her name would suggest.
“I think we both realized exactly what we were doing.”
“And that was?” McKenna felt clueless, and she wondered why Whisper seemed to be talking in circles.
Whisper grinned slyly. “Let’s just say, we have decided not to take for granted what we have anymore. It took us a long time to find each other and in less time than that, we’d somehow managed to start drifting apart. I love her. She is my world, and maybe, just maybe, I took a little “what not to do” from your book.”
McKenna’s eyes widened and then she laughed. Loudly. “What not to do? I know you did not just say that.”
“Yes, boss lady. If nothing else, over the last few weeks, I’ve learned that you’re supposed to go after what you want because you taught me that,” Whisper said, pointing her finger directly at McKenna. “And I also learned that you aren’t supposed to run away from it once you find it. I learned that from your sexy lawyer man.
“Then, most importantly, I learned that if you want something bad enough, it’s worth everything it took to get it. And it’s worth every second invested after because there are some people who are not as blessed to have found it. And you never know how long it might last.”
McKenna sat back in her chair, tapping her pen on her thumb as she regarded her friend’s words of wisdom.
She knew that what Stephen Crawford was doing was ultimately affecting lives. In many ways. Ways he probably wasn’t even aware of. But, she was damn sure he didn’t realize that he had brought a couple back together because of his ignorance and his desire to tear everything apart.
To top it off, Susan Toulmin was bound and determined to ensure she hurt others the way she felt she had been hurt, and though McKenna absolutely didn’t agree with her methods, she could almost understand her logic.
“Well, regardless how this turn of events happened, I’m super thrilled that the two of you are working it out. You’re both amazing women who deserve each other. You complement one another nicely.”
“That we do,” Whisper agreed. “Now, I think I better get outta here. I really do have a date this time.”
“Be careful and have fun.” McKenna watched as Whisper practically skipped out of the room.
Wow. It was crazy how things happened, but when they resulted in a woman who was as happy as Whisper, McKenna didn’t feel the need to question it.
Glancing at her watch, she realized it was just after five, and she had one last thing she needed to get done. Sending off a quick note to Tag, inviting him to her house for dinner, she jumped right into the article she hoped to have out the following day.
By the time she was finished, McKenna was about half an hour late for meeting Tag. She glanced at her cell phone but noticed he hadn’t called, so she figured he got tied up and would probably get there about the same time she did. Shutting down her laptop and dropping it into her bag, McKenna hefted the bag on her shoulder and grabbed her purse.
Walking down the hall, she dug through her purse for her keys and looked up in time to come almost face to face with Stephen Crawford.
“Mr. Crawford,” McKenna said coolly, trying to ignore the painful pounding of her heart against her ribs.
“Ready to do that interview yet?” he asked, sounding eerily calm.
“Interview?” She knew there was no way to get out of this confrontation, so she could only hope if she pretended not to know what he was talking about, it’d give her at least a minute to come up with a plan.
Since she already had her keys in her hand, she couldn’t very well reach back in her purse and grab her handgun because he’d wonder what she was doing and the last thing McKenna wanted was for this to go bad.
“Yeah, you know the interview you’re going to run tomorrow because if you don’t, I’m going to make sure pictures of your boyfriend and that whore, Samantha McCoy, are plastered all over cyberspace.”
The memory of those photos made her stomach churn, but McKenna ignored it. Those were in the past, they didn’t matter anymore.
Tag and Sam mattered though. To McKenna. She cared about what happened to them, and she wasn’t about to let this crazy bastard get away with ruining lives because he was a selfish, greedy asshole.