Kilty Pleasure
exciting and attractive?
    Like Hailey .
    Hell, where did that thought come from? He shouldn’t have been surprised, though. Thoughts about her had kept drifting in and out of his mind since their evening together last week.
    And now it was his Friday again and he was so damn tempted to drive to Mount Vernon tonight. It was her Saturday, he’d realized. Which was odd, they shared a day off, because neither of their schedules was a traditional Monday through Friday workweek.
    He hadn’t spoken to her since that night, and felt a bit of an ass for it. There just hadn’t been time; he’d been too busy with work.
    Liar.
    There was always time when you were interested in someone. He’d made the time for Brenda when they’d been together, no matter how busy things got. The problem was that he was in full-on, guilt-ridden avoidance mode.
    Besides, it wasn’t as if she’d tried to contact him either. Then again, did she have his number? He only had her information from when he’d run her plates.
    He needed to apologize. He knew that. What he didn’t know was how he was going to see her again without immediately wanting to rid her of her clothes and toss her on the floor.
    Just thinking back on that moment had his blood stirring. His heart beating a bit faster. Wanting her had become a chronic condition, and the only remedy was sleeping with her or avoiding her. He’d chosen the latter.
    “Colin, are you still okay to watch Emily tomorrow?”
    Opening his eyes to Sarah’s question, he glanced over at her and grinned.
    “Aye, if you’re sure you trust me. What if she breaks her leg on my watch this time around?”
    Sarah gave a small shrug and then said lightly, “Well you’ll just have to figure out how to handle it on your own. You won’t have the luck of having Hailey nearby to help, she’ll be at lunch with Kenzie and me.”

Chapter Nine
    What the hell? Colin digested that, wondering if he’d heard wrong, but everyone in the backyard had gone still with surprise.
    Everyone but Sarah and Kenzie, who exchanged conspiring glances.
    “When did this come about?” Ian’s question wasn’t quite steady, and the wariness in his words showed he might not have been okay with the announcement either.
    “I met Sarah last week for a drink. We talked about a lot of stuff, and in the end, I’m choosing forgiveness.” Sarah paused. “She made a mistake, no one’s going to deny it—”
    “No one,” Colin agreed grimly.
    Sarah glanced at him, her brows drawn together. “But we’re all guilty of making mistakes in life, and Hailey was a close friend of ours.”
    Aye, maybe so, but had Hailey really changed? Maybe not. He’d seen proof of that by the scumbag ex of hers who kept coming around. Whom she’d let come around.
    And another reminder of where she came from had been in the form of responding to a recent noise complaint at her mother’s house. They were the same dodgy, drugged-out, filth-talking trash they’d always been.
    Ian moved to stand behind Sarah, massaging her shoulders. “Are you sure about this, doll? I worry about you getting hurt again.”
    “Aye, and you should,” Colin agreed. “Forgiveness, I suppose I can understand, though I think you’re being far too generous with the olive branch. Befriending Hailey again might not be the best idea.”
    “I don’t know, maybe it is. I think it’s all up to what the women want to do, Colin.” Aleck cast him a sharp, warning look. “Kenzie and Sarah are both adults. If they’re deciding to forgive and move forward, perhaps we could all learn something from them.”
    Hardly. Kenzie and Sarah were making decisions based on emotion instead of logic right now. They weren’t the same teenagers they’d been in high school. If they thought they could recapture that illusion of friendship, they were all likely to end up hurt.
    “What’s with you lately, Colin?” Kenzie glanced his way. “You’re awfully negative and grumpy. You’re not our

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