The first book in the Buchanans series, 2006

PENNY JACKSON KNEW that it was probably wrong to be so excited to see her ex-husband come crawling back, but she was willing to live with the character flaw.

“You know he’s going to want to hire you,” her friend Naomi said.

“Oh, yeah. The sweet smell of validation.” Penny leaned back in her chair and considered the possibilities. “I want him to beg. Not in a vicious, I hate your guts way, but more as a…”

“Show of support for divorced women everywhere?” Naomi asked.

Penny laughed. “Exactly. I suppose that makes me petty and small.”

“Maybe, but you’re looking especially fabulous today, if that helps.”

“A little.” Penny smoothed the front of her loose sweater and glanced at the clock. “We’re meeting for lunch downtown. A neutral location-no memories, good or bad.”

“Stay away from the good ones,” Naomi warned her. “You always were a sucker where Cal was concerned.”

“That was so three years ago. I’m completely over him. I’ve moved on.”

“Right.” Naomi didn’t look convinced. “Don’t think about how great he looks in his clothes, or out of them. Instead remember how he broke your heart, lied about wanting children and trampled your fragile dreams.”

Easy enough, Penny thought, a flicker of annoyance muscling in on her good mood.

Nearly as bad, four years ago she’d applied for a job as a cook in Buchanan’s, one of Cal’s family’s restaurants. The job had been strictly entry-level-she would have been in charge of salads. There had been ten other applicants. Worried she wouldn’t make the cut, Penny had asked her then-husband to put in a good word for her with his grandmother. He’d refused and she hadn’t gotten the job.