Freelance Flirt: Falling for the Single Mom (Sworn to Loathe You Book 5) by Rachel John

Author:Rachel John [John, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18 – Dean

A retreat from our friendship did not surprise me, but it still stung. Grace didn’t initiate any calls or texts that week. She answered me when I checked in with her, but she always seemed busy. She probably was busy, what with illustrating and the shop, and what to do with both those things. I didn’t ask her about her decision on whether to sell. When she knew, she’d tell me.

She also didn’t RSVP for the Saturday night GoWithFriends event. Not that I could blame her. Our group wanted to go see the new dragon shifter movie together. The overdramatic preview ended with the half-dragon guy shouting, “I’d rather die a mortal man with you by my side than live a million years breathing fire without you.” It was followed by some serious mouth Olympics against a fiery background that came from literally nowhere. Flames just happened to spontaneously combust every time they kissed.

Back in our high school days, we would have thrown popcorn at the screen and later recited the lines at each other every chance we could work it into a conversation. That might not go over well in our GoWithFriends group, considering there were more than a few hardcore dragon shifter fans who would probably get offended. Also, I was much too aware now of what custodial workers had to do to get a theater cleaned up to throw popcorn anywhere but into my mouth.

On Friday night, I put on one of my trusty tuxes I’d accumulated over the years and drove my newly detailed Audi over to pick up Blaire. I tried not to think too much about what Grace and Piper might be doing on a night like tonight. Was Grace cheating at Chutes and Ladders? Were they dancing without me? Was it spaghetti night? They’d made spaghetti for me once and brought it to my house. It was an old recipe from Grace’s grandmother.

Blaire lived in a condo in a posh gated community in Scottsdale. I punched in her number at the gate, and after she answered through the intercom, the gates opened to let me in. She came out her door just as I parked and was strolling up to get her.

“Hello, Dean. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” She leaned forward expectantly, so I kissed her cheek in greeting, my lips barely touching her skin. She had on a lot of makeup and perfume, none of which I wanted on me, nor did I want to smudge anything. I took a step back while she turned and locked her door with the press of a button. Then I put my hand to the small of her back, leading her over to the side of my Audi.

“You look beautiful,” I said, finally taking in what she was wearing. My concentration rarely wavered, but tonight I was feeling curiously detached. My focus jumped from trivial detail to trivial detail, and then back to thoughts I shouldn’t be having, like how much I wished this night was already over.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.