“Jarret Cavendish.”
“Nope.”
“Nash Booker.”
“Mom. No.” She closed her eyes and prayed for an intervention.
“He’s a bad boy. I thought all girls were into bad boys.”
Sure. Bad boys were hot. But the thing about bad boys? It was too easy to get burned. Regan should know. S
he’d been burned once, and it had hurt like hell.
“Look, honey. All I’m saying is that you need to put yourself out there. Don’t you want a husband and a family?”
You can do this. Count to three.
One.
Two.
Three.
“Regan?”
She exhaled. “Yes, Mom, of course I want a family. But Jesus, don’t hang me out to dry just yet. There’s still time.”
“It’s not just the dating thing. You don’t live. You don’t do anything for fun.” Her mother went on as if she hadn’t heard a thing. “I bet you came home from work with takeout.”
“Nope. Wrong.”
“Then you ate cereal for dinner.”
Damn. Her mother was good. Regan’s eyes moved to the bowl drying on the counter.
“You’re wearing those ratty pink-and-white Hello Kitty pajamas that I threw in the garbage when you were sixteen, and I still can’t believe you dug through everything to get them back.”
“Got me there.”
“The Michigan U sweatshirt?”
“Yep.”
“And what do you have planned for the night?”
“A bottle of wine and Netflix.” She knew she sounded defensive, but whatever. She was done with this. Time to say good night and see you at Sunday dinner.
“I don’t think so.”
“Excuse me?”
“Carly is on her way over, and she’s not taking no for an answer.”
“Carly?” Carly Davis, her oldest and best friend lived in California and had done so ever since graduation from Michigan U, when she’d taken a job for a public relations firm.
“If you checked your answering machine once in a while or your personal email, you’d know she was home. She stopped by here looking for you. Apparently, you haven’t sent her your new address. She had no idea you’d bought your own place.”
The doorbell rang, slicing through the silence, and Regan jumped. Guilt rolled over her because her mother was right, well, almost right. She’d been avoiding Carly’s messages and emails for months now, and the crazy thing was? She had no idea why.