One Week with the Marine (Love on Location)

“Sweetie, don’t you think it was already ruined?”

“If you call me sweetie again, I’ll start hiding inappropriate pictures of myself around your house.” She leveled her friend with her most menacing look.

Myla gulped. “All right then, but either way, I think this was doomed from the start. This is your chance to make it right.”

“By putting an end to everything?” Avery asked

“By doing whatever you think will make you happy.”

The clicking of a door opening sounded behind them, and Myla’s boyfriend, Oliver, entered the room, wearing nothing but a Stetson and a pair of underwear

she would have paid to un-see.

“I heard you were up, and I thought—” Oliver’s British lilt died off as he spied Avery beside Myla on the couch. “Avery.”

“Howdy, partner,” Avery said.

“Yeah, um, hon, I’ll be right there,” Myla sputtered.

“Right then. Well, er, nice to see you again, Avery.” He tipped his Stetson and backed out of the room, careful not to turn around.

“Man, I could have made some serious tabloid money off that.” Avery shook her head.

Myla waved her off, but it wasn’t clear whether it was to help her ignore her embarrassment or if she was trying to get back to the matter at hand.

“Listen, are you okay?” Myla stared at her, trying to uncover the truth in her words.

Maybe if Avery went to bed, she’d find out it had been Freaky Friday and everything would be normal in the morning. Like nothing had ever happened.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about me. You go in there and ride ’em, cowgirl.” As Myla stood to leave, Avery smacked her friend on the bottom and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“Let’s never speak of this again,” Myla whispered.

“But how will people at the rodeo know you’re coming if I don’t tell them ahead of time? Or will they already know you’re coming, if you know what I mean?” Avery wiggled her eyebrows, and Myla frowned.

“Oh, stop it, he was, you know, kidding.” Myla paused. “Mostly.”

“He didn’t look like there was much to kid about. It looked like he had a whole lot of—”

“The blankets are in the basket behind the couch. Stay if you want to. Good night.” Myla stalked from the room, only pausing to toss a throw pillow at Avery’s head before she disappeared behind the bedroom door.

Avery sighed and laid on the couch, thinking about the day to follow. She’d see Holden in the morning, have to face the aftermath of everything he’d said, everything she’d said.

But what would she do when she saw him? She couldn’t simply walk up and say, “Just kidding, we should totally give this a go even though we both know it’s a terrible idea.”

Was that even what she wanted to do?

It’s either that or say good-bye forever.

Now that it was said, it couldn’t be undone. They could never go back to the way things were before tonight. Still, there had to be more than just one option, didn’t there? There had to be another way, but God help her if any ideas came to mind.

It was too appealing to think of being his woman and not consider the heartbreaking consequences of the aftermath. But what if she tried? What if she actually put her all into being someone’s girlfriend?

Granted, it had never worked before. Not with Jake Mussler, the top Pokémon collector in all of the third grade. Not with the maharajah. Not with Eleven-finger Louie. Most of those had ended in near death or a grueling Pokémon battle defeat.

But at this point, their friendship could never survive—one way or the other. And if it was a choice between losing him forever now or losing him forever later?

She’d just have to do whatever she could to hold on to him for as long as she possibly could.