James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com www.twitter.com/carinapress www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
To my husband, my forever plus one and the
best real life hero a girl could ask for.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jeanette Grey for believing in me and in Plus One , and for pushing me when I needed to be pushed. And for reminding me that my motto has always been Go Big Or Go Home.
Thanks to Kat Watson for polishing and tweaking and generally being awesome during the beginning stages of this book. And I’m sorry about all those sentences starting with conjunctions. (But not really.)
Thanks to Caren, Nikki and Gin for giving me invaluable feedback and support during the writing process.
Thanks to Angela James for the call that left me blubbering like an idiot and will forever rank as one of my favorite moments. Thanks to Carina for having faith in my story and making my dream of becoming a published author a reality.
Thanks to my editors, Elizabeth Bass and Denise Nielsen, for asking the tough questions, giving helpful feedback and suggestions, and making sure this was the best book it could possibly be.
And, finally, thanks to my husband, who put up with 2 a.m. frantic scribbling when I just had to write a piece of dialogue down, for answering questions like “Would a guy really do this…?” and for being unwaveringly supportive in encouraging me to follow my dream.
Chapter One
“So, interesting fact,” the guy sitting across from her said. His confident tone suggested he really did think it was interesting. “Cat urine is one of the most difficult things to get out of carpet.”
Olivia Winters just stared at him, no longer surprised by what came out of the mouths of the men she dated. After a solid eighteen months of nothing but shitty and shittier dates, she was done.
Done .
She didn’t need this. She wasn’t a leper, for God’s sake. She was cute and fun. She owned her own bakery—her own successful bakery, thank you very much. She had a great sense of humor, if she did say so herself, and gave one mean blow job—or so she’d been told.
So then why did her luck with men suck so horrendously?
With her blank stare still focused on Geoffrey Scott, Bad-Date-Number-Too-Many-to-Count, who was still blabbering on about the different products one could use to get rid of cat pee, she decided this was it. The very last date she’d subject herself to. She had better things to occupy her Friday and Saturday nights—namely, spending some quality time with her much-loved vibrator. Unlike some of her former lovers, at least it had never left her high and not-so-dry.
She stared into the eyes of the guy she’d hoped would be her reprieve from the shittiness, and she let out a relieved breath when her cell phone rang from inside her purse, right on time. Thank God she had some people in her life she could count on.
Turning a mock look of regret at her date, she said, “I’m so sorry, but I need to get this. My best friend had surgery yesterday and she lives alone. I told her to call if she had any problems.”
“Of course.”
“Emma?” she asked into the phone, not bothering to check caller ID.
“Is he awful?” The deep timbre of the voice on the other line startled Olivia momentarily. That definitely wasn’t the voice of Emma, friend and bad date rescuer. With her thoughts scattered from surprise, it took her longer than usual to recognize who the owner was, but once she did, she took a deep breath, remembering her part in this farce.
She put on her most concerned face. “Oh, no, are you all right?” she asked into the phone, pausing for dramatic effect and making her eyes go wide. “Yes, of course, I’ll be right there!” She turned a well-rehearsed mask of contrition on Geoffrey and held the phone away from her mouth. “I’m sorry, Geoffrey, but I have to leave. It’s been...well, it’s been something.”
Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her purse and
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com www.twitter.com/carinapress www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
To my husband, my forever plus one and the
best real life hero a girl could ask for.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jeanette Grey for believing in me and in Plus One , and for pushing me when I needed to be pushed. And for reminding me that my motto has always been Go Big Or Go Home.
Thanks to Kat Watson for polishing and tweaking and generally being awesome during the beginning stages of this book. And I’m sorry about all those sentences starting with conjunctions. (But not really.)
Thanks to Caren, Nikki and Gin for giving me invaluable feedback and support during the writing process.
Thanks to Angela James for the call that left me blubbering like an idiot and will forever rank as one of my favorite moments. Thanks to Carina for having faith in my story and making my dream of becoming a published author a reality.
Thanks to my editors, Elizabeth Bass and Denise Nielsen, for asking the tough questions, giving helpful feedback and suggestions, and making sure this was the best book it could possibly be.
And, finally, thanks to my husband, who put up with 2 a.m. frantic scribbling when I just had to write a piece of dialogue down, for answering questions like “Would a guy really do this…?” and for being unwaveringly supportive in encouraging me to follow my dream.
Chapter One
“So, interesting fact,” the guy sitting across from her said. His confident tone suggested he really did think it was interesting. “Cat urine is one of the most difficult things to get out of carpet.”
Olivia Winters just stared at him, no longer surprised by what came out of the mouths of the men she dated. After a solid eighteen months of nothing but shitty and shittier dates, she was done.
Done .
She didn’t need this. She wasn’t a leper, for God’s sake. She was cute and fun. She owned her own bakery—her own successful bakery, thank you very much. She had a great sense of humor, if she did say so herself, and gave one mean blow job—or so she’d been told.
So then why did her luck with men suck so horrendously?
With her blank stare still focused on Geoffrey Scott, Bad-Date-Number-Too-Many-to-Count, who was still blabbering on about the different products one could use to get rid of cat pee, she decided this was it. The very last date she’d subject herself to. She had better things to occupy her Friday and Saturday nights—namely, spending some quality time with her much-loved vibrator. Unlike some of her former lovers, at least it had never left her high and not-so-dry.
She stared into the eyes of the guy she’d hoped would be her reprieve from the shittiness, and she let out a relieved breath when her cell phone rang from inside her purse, right on time. Thank God she had some people in her life she could count on.
Turning a mock look of regret at her date, she said, “I’m so sorry, but I need to get this. My best friend had surgery yesterday and she lives alone. I told her to call if she had any problems.”
“Of course.”
“Emma?” she asked into the phone, not bothering to check caller ID.
“Is he awful?” The deep timbre of the voice on the other line startled Olivia momentarily. That definitely wasn’t the voice of Emma, friend and bad date rescuer. With her thoughts scattered from surprise, it took her longer than usual to recognize who the owner was, but once she did, she took a deep breath, remembering her part in this farce.
She put on her most concerned face. “Oh, no, are you all right?” she asked into the phone, pausing for dramatic effect and making her eyes go wide. “Yes, of course, I’ll be right there!” She turned a well-rehearsed mask of contrition on Geoffrey and held the phone away from her mouth. “I’m sorry, Geoffrey, but I have to leave. It’s been...well, it’s been something.”
Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her purse and
Similar Books
In the Court of the Yellow King
Tim Curran, Cody Goodfellow, Gary McMahon, C.J. Henderson, William Meikle, T.E. Grau, Laurel Halbany, Christine Morgan, Edward Morris
