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it out? I’m on a schedule.”
    “You’re supposed to be on vacation.”
    “Speak. Quickly.”
    How to sum up years of longing and regret in one sentence?  
    “Is something wrong, Kate?”
    Hadn’t something been wrong every day that she’d spent without him? Hadn’t every man she’d been with since him failed to live up to him? Hadn’t she been disappointed time and again when she’d tried and failed to fall in love again? “Will you ask him for his father’s contact info?”
    Jill’s mouth fell open, and then she quickly closed it. “You’re serious.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because there’s something I need to speak with him about. Something personal.”
    “And you think Ashton, who’s never forgiven you for hooking up with his father in the first place, is going to just hand over that info?”
    “That’s where you come in. Your powers of persuasion are legendary.”
    Jill shook her head. “I don’t feel comfortable asking him that. Our relationship is professional, and that’s a very personal topic.”
    “I know I’m asking a lot. I know I always ask a lot of you, but I need to talk to him.”
    “And you won’t tell me why?”
    Kate shook her head.
    “It’s been over with him for a long time, Kate. I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish—”
    “I need some closure.”
    Jill crossed her arms and studied her sister. “Closure.”
    “That’s what I said.” After a long pause, Kate asked, “Will you ask him?” While she awaited Jill’s reply, her heart hammered. She had a feeling she was making this into too big a deal, but the need to see him, to hear his soft drawl, to feel the way she had when they were together, was getting bigger by the day. No doubt he was long over her and rarely spared her a thought. Kate told herself if that were the case, she would put the past where it belonged and get on with her life. But if there was even the slightest chance that he thought of her as often as she thought of him… “Jill?”
    “If I get the chance, I’ll ask him, but no promises.”
    “That’s fair enough.”
    “Are you sure you want to venture into that hornet’s nest again?”
    “It was only a hornet’s nest at the end. The rest of the time…” She met her sister’s gaze. “The rest of the time it was magic.”
     
    Jill drove into the city an hour later in the white Mercedes coupe Kate had given her for Christmas last year. Her sister was endlessly generous and appreciative of everything Jill did to make her life run smoothly, but sometimes she asked too much. Like this morning… Kate had no way to know that the last thing in the world Jill would ever want to do was mention the ill-fated love affair between Reid Matthews and her sister to the man’s ridiculously handsome and endlessly irritating son.  
    She always dreaded her one-on-one meetings with Ashton, which were far more frequent than she’d like, thanks to the fact that Kate and the attorney for her record company didn’t speak to each other. So it was left to Jill to run interference between them. Sometimes she had half a mind to sit them down and tell them to stop acting like children, but she was wise enough by now to know that some hurts weren’t made better by time. Some hurts were too deep to ever heal.  
    Ashton’s office was in Green Hills, a trendy area that Jill might’ve preferred if close proximity to her sister didn’t make her life much less complicated. Plus, she knew Kate liked having her nearby. Kate needed someone around who she could always count on—and trust. Most of the time, Jill was happy to be that person.  
    This was not one of those times.  
    She pulled into a parking space behind the restored Victorian Ashton used as an office and turned off the car. She took a moment to collect herself and gather the calm, cool façade she preferred for business dealings. No matter how much time she took to affect that cool façade, however, she could count on Ashton