Your cousin Kate’s engagement party is Saturday night.” Claire Callahan’s annoyed voice carried over the cell phone and Merrit stood up to excuse herself from the conference room she and her team had commandeered at Blaze headquarters. Jay McManus gave her a bemused smile as she walked past. He’d been Blake’s best friend for nearly fifteen years now, and he’d heard more than his fair share of her mother’s rants. “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said as she stepped into the small office in the owner’s suite that Jay was using until his godfather retired and the sale was final. “But the audit is running a little longer than we expected. I have lots of work to get done this weekend so we can finish before next week.” It was a total lie, of course. She’d been eking out work on the audit for the past week in order to have an excuse to stay in Baltimore so she could be with Heath. Late June had slid into July and she and Heath had spent every spare moment they could together these past two weeks.
