Page 38 of All Wrong
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CORINNE
Corinne chose her outfit with care. She wanted something that saidI respect you enough to make an effort, but let’s not make more of this than it is. Clean jeans, button-down over tank top, and comfortable flats. She put her hair up in a messy but stylish bun to complete the casual look and dabbed on a bit of light makeup.
Did she really want to do this? No, not really, but she had no one to blame but herself. Telling Lacie she had a date had been a knee-jerk reaction, and now, she had to follow through.
You could have called Nick and asked him to do something.
She laughed at that. That would have been so much worse. She tried to imagine Lacie’s reaction—because guaranteed, Lacie was going to want details about Corinne’s mysterious date. If Corinne told her she’d gone out with Nick, her eyes would go wide. She’d blink for a minute or two. Perhaps open her mouth a few times, searching for words.
Hell, it might be worth it, just for the shock factor.
But the joy would be fleeting.
Not that anything was wrong with Nick. On the contrary, she’d go out with him in a heartbeat, consequences be damned. And there would be consequences. Of that, she had no doubt. Tossing that pebble into the Callaghan family pond would cause plenty of ripples. Nick Milligan, enigmatic bad-boy biker with a shady past, and Corinne McCain, responsible good girl who’d somehow made it through her rebellious years intact? It was almost too delicious.
The trouble was, her relationship with Nick wasn’t anything like that.
She laughed again.What relationship?
Although there had been that moment when she stepped out of the café and Nick was across the street. The look on his face had been intense. Almost … possessive. Her heart beat as she thought about it. More than twenty-four hours later, she still didn’t know what to make of it.
Stop overthinking it. It probably didn’t even have anything to do with you.
Corinne paused at the small mirror beside her apartment door and was applying a thin coat of lip balm when it hit her. Abruptly and with absolute certainty, she recalled where she’d heard that young server’s smoky, sultry voice before.
“You’ve got the right number. He’s in the shower. You wanna leave a message?”
That girl was the one who’d answered Nick’s phone the morning after the county fair.
Air whooshed out of her lungs at the realization. It seemed unlikely, and yet was it really? The woman might’ve been young, but she was definitely of legal age. And she did have an edgy look that some men found appealing—with her glossy, vibrant hair, lined eyes, and piercings.
The kind of men who hung out in biker bars and didn’t date, for example.
Corinne looked critically at the face reflecting back at her, comparing it to the image of the server. It was like comparing a brilliant autumn sunset to apale winter sunrise. Or a banana split to a plain vanilla cone.
She sighed. How could she fault Nick for wanting someone like that when she wished for the same thing? Nick was the dark spice she craved while she was the poster child for bland. What had happened to that rebellious girl she’d once been? The one who took risks and thumbed her nose at the rules?
She’s getting ready to go on a nice, safe date with a nice, safe man.
She supposed it was better than spending another evening alone, eating junk food and starting to pack. Even if she felt none of the same sparks she did when she was around a certain biker mechanic, Brett was pleasant company.
Brett pulled up to the curb in a shiny, new pickup. When he spotted Corinne, he got out of the car and came around to the passenger side. In a gentlemanly move, he opened the door for her. He was dressed similarly in a pair of nice jeans and a plain white button-down. He looked freshly shaven, his hair was damp around the edges, and he smelled of soap and subtle aftershave.
Once situated, he returned to the driver’s sideand pulled into the street. “I’m glad you texted,” Brett said.
“I’m glad you were willing to go,” she replied. “I know it was short notice.”
His smile was warm and genuine. “My calendar is pretty open right now, at least until school starts.”
Right, because he was new in town. She tried to imagine how difficult it must be to move into a small, tight-knit community like Pine Ridge, where so many of the people who lived and worked here had done so for most of their lives.
“But even if it wasn’t, I would have made time,” he said with another smile and a quick sidelong glance. Before she could read too much into that, he added, “I never say no to classic horror flicks.”
“Right?” she said with a soft laugh. “Nothing like the classics. The worse the effects are, the more I like them.”
“Amen to that.”
