Flirting with Disaster (Jackson: Girls' Night Out 2)

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“I don’t want to! I’m still mad!”

Lauren rolled her eyes as though Isabelle was the one being unreasonable.

“Oh, hey, Veronica!” Lauren said, standing up to hug their newest friend.

Veronica waved cheerily at Isabelle, though her smile faltered when their eyes met. Isabelle imagined that her face was a blotchy mess.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. This last column was a challenge. Some guy had a question about sex, so there were a lot of substitutions to be made in his original letter. And a lot of stuff I had to look up.”

“About sex?” Lauren asked, sounding surprised.

“I don’t automatically know everything about sex just because I write an advice column, you know,” Veronica said, color rising on her cheeks.

That made even Isabelle smile. “We’ve got to get you out more if the mere mention of sex makes you blush.”

“I have pale skin!” she protested.

“Okay,” Lauren said, “I have a hypothetical advice question for you. Say you lie about your identity to a man, and he later arrests you, but you guys really, really like each other...”

Veronica’s eyes went wide as saucers. She glanced

at Isabelle as if she were afraid there was going to be a fistfight. But screw it. Lauren was slowly wearing her down.

Isabelle waved a hand. “Oh, go ahead. Give your advice.”

“I thought you were still furious with him,” Veronica said carefully.

“I don’t know what I am anymore. Horny, maybe. And he—” she poured a second glass of champagne “—was really, really good. And sweet. And funny.”

“Did he get in touch?”

“No,” Isabelle said firmly. “He has not gotten in touch.”

Veronica looked down at the table for a long moment. Her cheeks went pink again. She looked very young when she blushed like that. “I think...” she started before she looked up at Lauren, then Isabelle. “I think that he did something that was really good for you.” She raised a hand to stop Lauren from commenting. “And I don’t mean sex. I mean he did the right thing for you, even though neither of you liked it. So if he’s also sweet and funny and great in bed, then you’re being really stupid, Isabelle.”

Isabelle sucked in a breath as if she’d been slapped. “What?” She looked at Lauren, but there was no help there. Lauren looked disappointed in her. “He hasn’t called me!” Isabelle said.

“You told him you never wanted to see him again,” Lauren pointed out unhelpfully.

“He...he...” Isabelle heard the panic in her voice and cut off her own words. She nodded. Swallowed hard. Nodded again. “He probably doesn’t want me. And I don’t want to know that, you guys. I can’t take that.”

“Yes, you can,” Lauren said.

Veronica nodded. “You need to find out.”

Isabelle shook her head, but she knew they were right. The scary thing wasn’t that she still wanted him; it was that he might not want her. It was that he might walk away and leave her alone. The thought turned her skin to ice. She was so cold she felt like shivering. She was a problem, and he was going to walk away from her, and she couldn’t take that.

She knew she was quiet through dinner, but Veronica and Lauren kept the conversation going, trying to keep it light. Lauren picked up the tab, claiming that getting a new name deserved to be counted as a birthday celebration.

“This is your new life, Isabelle. Everything is different for you now. The world is your oyster and all that. But!” She pointed at Isabelle with a stern look. “That doesn’t mean you get to leave Jackson. We already lost Sophie. I’m putting a moratorium on anyone moving.”

Isabelle agreed, trying not to get teary-eyed again. Lauren was right. This was a new life. She could travel if she wanted to. She hadn’t been able to do that before. She could call attention to herself. Live in town.

No. That sounded awful.

“Are you sure you don’t want another drink?” Lauren offered.