Page 5 of Love or Leave

"Thanks." As she turned she caught a whiff of his cologne—then her phone rang again.

"Maybe you should take that," Jalen said, backing away.

Cara shook her head. "No, it's just a…"

Delusional ex boyfriend who's begun stalking me.

"A friend," she said with finality. "He's just calling about a concert this weekend."

"Which concert?"

Uh oh.

"The Cherry Chasers."

"No kidding," Jalen said with a huff of a laugh and a wide, handsome grin. "I'm going to that concert this weekend."

Shit.

"Really?"

Jalen nodded. "Those tickets were impossible to get."

"Yeah." She was still annoyed at how hard she had worked to get tickets for a crappy band she didn't even like because she knew how much Cooper liked them. Cara had planned to either give in and send them to Cooper or sell them online to the highest bidder. It felt kind of petty, considering she’d bought them as a gift—back when she’d thought they’d be going together.

Embarrassed by the sudden shame that filled her whenever she thought of Cooper, she hit the decline button on her phone and placed it back into her pocket.

"We seem to have a lot in common, eh? Golf, music. I wonder what else," Jalen said.

Cara’s lip twitched. She hated both things. But few men shared her interests. Especially attractive athletic guys with wide smiles who smelled like heaven.

"So, will I see you there?" he asked.

Cara looked up at Jalen's dark eyes. "Yes," she replied without thinking.

Suddenly, the instructor was right next to her. He scribbled at his clipboard for a moment before finally looking up at her with an assessing glare. "Alright, let's see your swing."

Fuck.

Following Jalen's advice, she aimed and then swung. Mercifully, the club somehow made contact with the ball, which skidded along the grass for fewer than fifty yards before dying. But it was something.

"Hmmm," her instructor said with a disappointed look and an unsurprised shake of his head. "Needs work."

Jalen smiled and gave her a thumbs up before turning his attention to the instructor. She probably shouldn't be considering going to that crappy concert, but if it meant she'd see Jalen again, outside of golf, it would probably be worth it.

Besides, there had to be more to him than just sports and questionable taste in music. It was way too soon to write him off.

She gave herself a decisive nod. She'd keep the tickets and go to the concert, and definitely without Cooper. But the only thing worse than going with him would be going alone.

Which meant that she’d have to rope someone into going with her.

But who?

two

Antonio Santori pulled into the dimly lit parking lot of his apartment building. He killed the engine and dashed out of his car, making a beeline for the door.

His sister Maria was going to kill him for being so late, but there was no way he could show up to his niece's unicorn birthday party as is—in dirty scrubs with no gift.

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