Page 13 of Bad Boy Done Wrong
“I say this out of love,” Hailey said, reaching over and giving Carrie’s arm a squeeze. She lifted her fingers, probably full of sunscreen, and discreetly wiped them on her towel. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I hate to say it,” Ally said. “But Hailey’s making a lot of sense.”
Carrie pasted on a smile. “Thank you for the warning, but I’m fine with something temporary. Iwantthat. And even if I wasn’t fine with it—” she held up a finger “—which I am, it doesn’t matter because he’s heading overseas first chance he gets and I’m staying here for grad school. No way I’m taking a pass on my teaching assistantship with full tuition coverage just to follow some guy to who-knows-where.”
“What happens after you’re through with the list in a week or two and he’s not overseas?” Hailey asked. “What if you run into him with the guys or around town?”
“I’ll be polite,” Carrie replied tightly.
Hailey spoke in a gentle tone. “But you might have your happy ending if you’d just give him a chance.” She meant the whole romantic thing—everlasting love culminating in a wedding. The idea of beingforevertrapped in a relationship made Carrie’s stomach roll. People changed, not always for the better.
Missy, a tough redheaded woman who never sugarcoated anything, put her two cents in. “Marriage isn’t for everyone. It was a bad fit for me. You go for it, Carrie. Enjoy yourself.”
The women dove enthusiastically into a debate over marriage and what it meant—an opportunity for happiness or a lifetime of hard relationship work. Carrie ignored all that, instead gazing serenely at the lake, reveling once again in post-bad-boy bliss. But then Hailey asked a question that triggered Carrie’s automatic good-girl guilt.
“What if you end up hurting him?”
She hadn’t given any thought to it because he’d seemed okay with everything. Finally she said simply, “He said he didn’t want a relationship.”
Hailey let out a long sigh. “Fine.” She turned to the group. “So no volunteers for Ethan?”
The women were quiet. No one was eager to be set up by Hailey. Give her a little encouragement and she kept going with the hard-driving persistence that worked so well for her business. People’s love lives were a bit trickier.
Hailey pulled a pink baseball cap out of her tote and pulled it low over her forehead. “I will simply have to give Ethan extra attention myself.”
“This oughta be good,” Missy muttered under her breath.
“What?” Hailey asked.
“I said it’ll be good for him,” Missy said.
“And Josh!” Ally put in, which had them all cracking up because it was exactly what was on their minds. Josh Campbell, the bartender and manager of Garner’s, had previously been a paid escort for the many weddings Hailey planned. When that arrangement went down in flames, they’d begun a hilarious frenemy one-upmanship that escalated from spicy peppers slipped into nachos (Josh’s move), rumors of an affliction that caused impotency (Hailey’s move), to running out of Hailey’s favored mojito ingredients (Josh’s move), to rumors of Josh’s tiny banana (Hailey’s move), to rumors that Josh was the one who got away. Poor Hailey, that last one was Josh’s extremely effective move that everyone in town believed due to their palpable chemistry. Carrie and her friends all thought the frenemy thing was a cover for what Josh and Hailey really wanted—each other.
Josh would not take it well if he had to watch Hailey cuddle up to his friend Ethan. Maybe this would make Josh step up and finally make the move they all suspected he wanted to make on Hailey. And that Hailey secretly longed for.
Hailey shoved her sunglasses back on. “Josh can kiss my ass.”
Or not.
