Ample & Alluring

Chapter 1-2

“Are you coming tonight?” my sister, Vicki, asked when I rushed home that afternoon.

I nodded, heading straight for my room. “I am. Give me five minutes to change.”

“Okay. Need something to eat?”

Vicki was a godsend. The woman could cook like nobody’s business. She saved my a*s plenty of times over the years, leaving food in the fridge for me to heat up.

“If there’s something quick. If not, I’ll eat later.”

I kicked my door closed, just in case Vicki’s boyfriend was lurking somewhere, and stripped off my work clothes. Ideally, I’d take a shower to get rid of the funk from the day, but I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. Vicki’s friends had welcomed me into their group without question. They were sweet and funny and dirty and wonderful.

And didn’t care if I showed up sweaty and smelling clinical.

There were definitely worse things I could smell like.

I tossed my scrubs in the laundry basket, reminding myself that I needed to do a load when we got home, and found something clean. Yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt fit my mood. Plus, I didn’t have time to look for anything nicer.

Vicki had a plate of food waiting for me when I walked into the kitchen. I barely cared what it was, but grinned when I saw the pulled pork, mac and cheese, and green beans. She always made sure I got something healthy.

“You’re amazing.”

“Funny, that’s what Hunter says,” Vicki replied with a wink.

“Ew. I don’t need to hear about that.”

“Oh, you love it.”

“Um, no.”

“Well, you and Wyatt need to hurry up and hook up. Then we can trade notes.”

“Oh, s**t, where did that come from?”

Vicki rolled her eyes. “Please. I saw the two of you flirting at the Thanksgiving party.”

I snorted. “You’re insane. We were talking about how content we both are to be single. Not planning when we can hook up.”

“I think you two would be great together.”

“Really?” I challenged. “Because he’s as much of a workaholic as I am. The only good part of any relationship between us would be no messy break-up. We’d both just forget to call the other with all the s**t we deal with daily.”

“Give yourself more credit than that,” she argued. “You could make it work if you wanted to. You’ve been coming to girls’ night. And so is he.”

“Do you think Charlie would mind if we screwed in the kitchen while all of you talked?” I asked with a straight face.

“Seriously? Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I shook my head. “Damn. Then I don’t think it’ll work.”

“You’re messing with me, right?”

I shrugged. “We’ll never know now. I could have had something magical with Mayor Ramsey in the back of Bite Me! It could have been forever.”

Vicki finally caught on to my teasing and rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

I laughed. “You’re the one telling me, the serial anti-dater, to go after the mayor of Winterville, another serial anti-dater, and you think it could actually work out. And I’m ridiculous?”

“Fine. Don’t go out with him. I just think you guys would be good together.”

I shrugged. I wouldn’t deny that Wyatt was sexy as all hell, but I wasn’t in a place to start a relationship. Especially if Laura was being honest about thinking of leaving. My work load was big enough. If Laura left and I had to find someone new, I’d be lucky to have a date before I turned forty.

Yeah, three years from now.

“I think you need to keep your happily ever after between you and Hunter. Leave Wyatt and I to our own content singledom.”

“If you say so,” Vicki said in a tone that said she wasn’t buying it.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t trying to sell her. I knew what I wanted. And it wasn’t a new complication.

No matter how hot he was.