Dax crossed to the jar and picked up the large spoon next to it. He dipped the spoon in as if it were a bowl of cereal and took a bite.

Aiden nodded. “Got it.”

“So gummy bears and Ping-Pong whether you're happy or pissed or brokenhearted, huh?” Grant said.

“Guess so.” Thing was, until now, none of them had seen him brokenhearted. He’d never been brokenhearted. Happy and pissed, sure. But he’d never been in love, so no one had ever been able to break his heart.

“We need to talk,” Grant told him. “How drunk are you?”

“Not drunk enough.” The gummy bears had only been in the vodka for about an hour and eating them with a spoon still let him taste too much of the liquor.

“Then sit down.”

Dax rounded the edge of the sofa and slumped into the overstuffed cushions. He tipped his head back into the cushion behind him. “I’m ready for my pep talk.”

Grant took a seat on the coffee table directly in front of Dax. He snorted. “Pep talk?”

Dax lifted his head and frowned at Grant. “Yeah. My pep talk. Where you tell me I’ll get over Jane.”

Aiden snorted this time and took the chair perpendicular to where Dax sat. “You’re not going to get over Jane.”

Dax turned his frown on Aiden. “What?”

“Jane’s awesome. She’s one of those girls who, if you’re lucky enough to get close to her, you don’t get over. You fell for her and that’s forever, man.”

Dax sighed even as his heart turned over in his chest. That sounded accurate. “So is this a pep talk about how to get her back?”

“This is a talk about leaving Piper alone,” Ollie said, sliding onto the arm of the sofa and leaning his elbows on his thighs.

Dax frowned. “What’s wrong with Piper?”

“She’s now obsessed with baby llamas for one thing,” Ollie said.

“Alpacas,” Dax corrected. Piper had been helping him with research. Not only the farming program for people with dementia but other programs for eldercare facilities as well as state policies and any other issues he needed to be aware of.

Ollie nodded. “Whatever. And goats. And potbellied pigs. That’s what she’s spending her time researching.”

“And by researching, Ollie means she’s been making trips out to talk to Dallas and Justin. And enjoying those trips a lot,” Aiden said.

Dallas Ryan and Justin Ross owned the farm. “So?” Dax asked.

“So Piper has… enjoyed getting to know those guys,” Aiden said.

“Fuck off, Aiden,” Ollie said.

Dax looked at Ollie. “Oh.”

“There’s no oh,” Ollie said. “We just need her in the office doing Hot Cakes work. And Fluke work. Not oohing and ahhing over… stuff at the farm.”

“And by 'stuff at the farm' you mean the goats and alpacas, not the guys taking care of the goats and alpacas?” Dax asked, suddenly feeling better. Giving his friends shit always made him feel better, and it was about fucking time Ollie noticed how amazing Piper was. Maybe seeing her flirting with other guys was what it was going to take.

“Piper doesn’t dress appropriately for stomping around a farm,” Ollie said with a frown. “It’s ridiculous she’s going out there.”

Well, that wasn’t entirely untrue, but there was no way Ollie was concerned about Piper’s clothes. Okay, that might not be true. Piper looked sexy as hell in the dresses and skirts she wore. Ollie might very well be concerned about that and what Dallas and Justin thought of her dresses and skirts. But he wasn’t worried about her shoes getting dirty.

In fact, Dax had images of the farmers he’d met tearing off their flannels and tees to lay them down over the dirt so Piper could walk through the barnyard in her hot-pink pumps like a queen. With her two shirtless escorts checking out her curves in her pin-up dresses.

He grinned. He really did love that Ollie was annoyed by this.

“Oh, no worries,” Aiden said. “She got some boots.”

Ollie looked over at him. “What?”

“Piper got some boots. They’re like rubber rain boots. But they’re bright pink with black and white polka dots. And go up to her knees. They’re pretty cute.”

Of course they were.

Dax could see by Aiden’s grin that he really liked that this was annoying Ollie too.

“Well, great,” Dax said with a nod. “Then it’s all fine.”

Sure, because the biggest problem here had been that Piper didn’t have appropriate footwear for the barnyard.

“Anyway,” Grant said, pulling their attention back to him. And his eye roll. “Ollie has a point.”

Dax frowned. “What?”

It wasn’t that Grant had never said Ollie had a point, but it was rare. Ollie didn’t make points. Ollie came up with crazy concepts. Then Dax turned them into more tangible ideas. Then Aiden turned those ideas into actionable points. Then Cam turned those points into paperwork. And finally Grant turned that paperwork into dollars. So no, Ollie didn’t often make points.

“Piper is doing a lot of work on the farm plan and that’s fine. But you haven’t done anything with it for two days.”

“I’m working through some things.” And texting Jane. And then trying with everything in him to keep from texting Jane. And then texting Jane about how he was sorry he kept texting and bugging her and how he was going to leave her alone. And then texting her about how he really was going to leave her alone, but first he wanted to say one more time that he loved her. And then texting her that he knew he was pathetic with all the texting.

He could only hope she hadn’t told Zoe about it. Or that at least Zoe hadn’t told Aiden. Or that at least Aiden hadn’t told the rest of the guys.

“You’re playing Ping-Pong and drinking a ridiculous amount of cappuccino and moping,” Grant said.

“That’s how I work through things.”

“Bullshit.”

Dax’s eyebrows went up. “It is.”

“I’ve known you for nine years,” Grant said. “It takes you, max, six hours to work through things. We’re going on fifty-some hours now. You’re moping and avoiding.”

“I don’t mope and avoid.”

“Exactly. So get off your ass and do something.”

Dax sat up straighter. “Hey, this isn’t very supportive.”

“You don’t need us to be supportive,” Grant said. “You’re in love with her, and you’re mad because she called you on some shit.”

He frowned. “I think I like Ping-Pong better than this.” He started to get up.

“But she was wrong.”

Dax sat back down. “Go on.”

“She panicked because you were your usual self,” Grant said. “And your usual self does spontaneous things just because they sound fun.”

Dax started to get up again. He knew this.

“At least, that’s why she thinks you did it,” Grant went on. “Because that’s what you think you did.”

Dax sighed and settled back into the cushions. Honestly, his head was swimming a little from the vodka, and he was too tired to keep getting up and down. The manic Ping-Pong game had something to do with that. But more, he hadn’t been sleeping well since he’d walked away from Jane.