Right Place, Right Time (Second Chances Book 2) by Jennifer L. Allen

also not about to tell her I’d ridden on his motorcycle and invited him inside our apartment. That we’d gotten hot and heavy right on this very couch. She’d freak out.
    I start to blush under Casey’s scrutiny. “Say something!” I shriek, slapping at her arm. She grimaces, and I feel bad; I might have hit her harder than I’d meant to.
    “You’ve been busy!” she says after a moment, smiling.
    I can feel my face heat even more. “It’s not like that.”
    “Then what’s it like? Are you trying to tell me you guys aren’t sexting?”
    “Casey!” I yell, slapping her again. I can’t believe she just went there!
    “Ouch! What?” she asks, rubbing her arm.
    “Stop it!”
    “Not until you tell me more. Where does he work? What’s he look like? I don’t even know where to begin!”
    Here’s the inquisition I’d been hoping to avoid. Keep is simple, Kate. “He works at a repair shop in San Jose. He’s tall, dark and handsome.”
    She rolls her eyes at my lack of details. “What’s his name?”
    “Jay.”
    She nods, processing this new information. “Do you like him?”
    “Yeah,” I answer truthfully, looking down. “But it’s never going to be anything, so it doesn’t matter.”
    She takes my hand and tugs at it until I look at her. “Why would you think that? You’re amazing, beautiful, smart…”
    I laugh, even if I am those things, I know it’s not enough. “Yeah, but we’re so different. He’s totally hot, and he knows it. He and his friends are boisterous and out of control. He’s my complete opposite.”
    While I was working a couple nights ago, Jay had stopped in to the restaurant with some of the guys he works with. I was working the bar, and he’d kept his friends away from me and seated at a high-top table across the room. I didn’t get the chance to interact with them at all, and it had seemed as though Jay designed it that way…that he was trying to keep us separated, so I didn’t push it. He’d told me that he missed me and needed to see me. It made my heart melt. The whole situation had clued me in on just how different the two of us are, though. I watched him off and on that night, noting how different he was when he was in his element like that…in his natural habitat so-to-speak. He didn’t behave that way with me; he was more guarded. It was as though I was holding him back from who he truly was.
    “Hey, you’re hot, too,” Casey says, breaking me from my thoughts. “And you know what they say, ‘opposites attract.’”
    “That’s so cliché.” I sigh. I start digging through my nail bag to find the perfect color to paint my nails.
    “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be,” Casey says, and I laugh. Now that’s cliché.
    “Ha-ha,” I say dryly. I pull two colors out of the bag, trying to change the subject. “Passion Pink or Radiant Rose?”
    She points to Passion Pink. Figures. “Look, if he doesn’t appreciate what’s right in front of him, that’s his problem. You’re a great catch and it’s his loss.”
    “It’s complicated, Case. I just don’t know.” When she narrows her eyes at me, I know I’ve said a little too much.
    “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Nothing. I told you everything that’s relevant.” I look away from her and start painting my nails. Hoping she doesn’t ask another question.
    “Kate?”
    “Yeah?”
    “What aren’t you telling me?” I ignore her, acting like the coward I most certainly am. “You really like this guy, don’t you?”
    I close my eyes tight. She hit the nail right on the head with that one. I take a deep breath and decide to be honest with my roommate. I look up and tell her, “More than I can even explain.”
    She nods as if she was expecting this response, though I’m not sure how. “Okay. That’s good. If you care about him, then he can’t be a bad guy, right? You’re an excellent judge of character. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
    “Thank you,” I say, relaxing for