Page 1 of The Catch

One

“What do I win?” CatiaRoday shouted over the screaming guitar of a cover band. Her best friend Dani was so close that their sweaty arms kept sliding off of each other, but the volume still made conversation cumbersome.

Dani tapped a manicured nail on her drink and pursed her red lips in thought. “I’ll buy your breakfast tomorrow,” she offered.

Cat considered the terms as she bent to gather her thick, heavy hair off of her neck, tying it in a knot on top of her head. Unfortunately, a man in a neon-greenVirginia is for Loverstank top took that as an invitation to stare down her shirt. She shot him a look to let him know he’d been caught, then spun away from him. When she righted herself, though, his eyes just slid to her ass.

Okay. She officially hated this place.

It was a long overdue vacation—a road trip down the coast to Virginia Beach to celebrate their friend Emma’s upcoming wedding—but the club Dani had dragged them all to, with thumping dance music and skimpy outfits might as well have been Narnia.

“How is that even a fair bet?” Cat asked, gesturing to Dani’s cleavage, barely contained in her dress. “Who wouldn’t buy you a drink?”

Dani tossed her bouncy platinum curls over her shoulder. She didn’t look at all as out of place as Cat felt. “Not a drink.Allmy drinks. Bet is I can drink all night without spending a dime.”

Cat weighed the wager. For a potential free meal at their swanky hotel, why not? It was Dani’s bet to lose. “Fine,” she said. “Every time we get another round, you get a guy to buy yours, or breakfast is on you.”

“Deal. Let’s go.” Dani spun on her heel, clutching Cat’s wrist and tugging.

“Wait. What?” Cat sputtered. She planted her feet, but her flat-bottomed sandals were like ice skates on the sweat and beer-soaked floor. “This was your idea. I’m not playing.”

“Stop being a wuss! You’re the only other single one on this trip, and I need a wingman.”

“Forget it. You can buy your own drinks, Dani. I’m not here to get hit on, especially not at this place. Look around you. Every guy here is trouble.” She pointed to a circle of men openly ogling the bartender as an example.

Dani let go of Cat’s arm and set her hands on her hips. “It’s not about getting hit on. Think of it as beating these guys at their own game. They’re going to look anyway, might as well get a drink for it. It’s like… feminist or whatever.”

“It definitely is not.” Her argument was cut short when the same man who’d been staring down her shirt approached them in a scent cloud of drugstore body spray and fake tanner.

“Ladies,” he said, perusing them each from head to toe. He gave Cat a smarmy smile over his bottle of Michelob Ultra and hooked a muscled arm around Dani’s shoulders. Now that he was close up, her first thought afterthat shirt is ridiculouswaswow, he’s really short.Being only five-foot-two herself, that was saying a lot.

Dani took one look at him and winked at Cat. She could not be serious.

“How are you two beautiful ladies doing tonight?”

“We’re just fine,” Dani purred. “How about yourself?”

“I sure am better now.”

Gag!Cat kicked Dani’s shin to show her displeasure, but she didn’t react. Instead, she flipped her hair again. “We were just about to get a drink.”

“Why don’t you let me do that for you?” the guy said, his eyes squarely on Dani’s ample chest. He gestured for her to join him against the bar. “I’m Brad.”

“Nice to meet you, Brad. I’m Dani, and this is Cat.” Dani spit Cat’s name out through clenched teeth, attempting to get her to play along, but Cat had already checked out.

This was so typical Dani. They were supposed to be celebrating Emma. Couldn’t they have a girls’ night without bringing men into it? Yeah, she and Dani were the two single ones on this trip, but single for Dani meant something entirely different than it did for Cat. Cat was single on purpose because men—at the risk of making a sweeping generalization—sucked. And lied. Oh, and also ruined everything. At least the one she’d met, fallen in love with, and almost married.

Sure, he was one guy. She’d heard that argument before, but that’s all it took to throw her entire life off course. Why bother spinning that Wheel of Fortune again?

Her chest did that familiar achy-angry thing it did whenever she thought of Micah, and she gulped her sickly-sweet cocktail to push it away. The thick, syrupy flavor only made her cough.

She felt an elbow connect with her ribs as Dani tried again to draw her into the conversation she was forcing with Brad. “So, Cat was just saying what a fun place this was,” Dani said.She definitely was not.“Do you come here often?”

“I like to be wherever the pretty girls are,” Brad said. “Looks like I picked the right place tonight.”

This guy was something else. And, not for nothing, the way he was leering was setting off all sorts of alarm bells inside her head. She was used to the standard bullshit spinning that men do, where they tell you exactly what they think you want to hear in hopes you’ll act against your better judgment. This guy, though, he was standing way too close and staring way too hard. He had “watch your drinks, girls”written all over him.

Cat looked around the bar, spotting the rest of their friends on the dance floor. Maybe she could use the Bon Jovi song blaring from the speakers to entice Dani to join them. Who could resist “Living On A Prayer”?

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