Breaking Even (Sterling Shore 5)

“Just walked out on the blind date from hell. I love Tria and Ash for trying to get me back in the game, but I swear they are terrible at picking girls. Besides, I'm not really ready to date yet.”

Considering his ex-wife screwed his brother, I get that. What I don't understand is why he married her if he couldn't get past it.

“Better get a date for the weekend. Ash will have several girls at their party to set you up with otherwise. She does it to me every time, and she's terrible at picking girls. The last chick she set me up was smoking hot.”

I pause as I move a donut around, and Wren assumes that's the end of my statement. “Sounds brutal,” he mutters.

I laugh while getting back on track with filling all twelve of the surprise desserts.

“Her looks weren't the problem. The girl had a voice like she was on helium, and if I said something that sounded like the line of a song, she'd sing the whole song. This happened about every ten minutes. I was drunk and still couldn't tolerate it.”

Wren snickers while sitting down in front of me, and I close the lid on the pathetic prank. I’ll come up with something better when I have more time.

“Well, she keeps setting me up with nice girls. It doesn't matter how they look as long as they're nice. I'm not shallow by any means, but I don't want to go out on a date with a girl who has more muscle than I do no matter how nice she is. This last girl could have bench-pressed me.”

I burst out laughing while leaning back in my chair, and he continues. “The girl before that had an issue with the number four. I don't know why either. But she'd count her steps and jump over the fourth step as though there was an invisible hole in the way. And I couldn't say four words or words that had only four letters. That did it for me, because if I want to say fuck, then I'm going to say fuck. Oddly enough, she told me it wouldn’t work between us because my name only had four letters. Yes, I was dumped by her.”

My laughter grows while he smiles. Ash is a sweet girl with a real big heart. She just tries too hard to make us find what she and Tag have. She keeps having faith in me when no one else does. It's sweet, but she's crazy if she thinks the love they have is for everyone.

What they have would give most people hope. But I’ve seen the nasty side of love, the dark side most people don’t even whisper about. Love isn’t something I want or need in my life.

Besides, my life is good—no rules, no drama, no problems. I can get what I need when I need it, but I don't have to have someone in my house all the time.

“Which is why I'm here,” Wren says, confusing me as I pull out of my silent reverie.

“What?” I ask, showing him how puzzled I am. What were we even talking about?

He blows out a breath while propping his elbows on his knees.

“I'm supposed to go out with another nice girl tonight, but I can't. I have something else that I really need to take care of. Something big. But you know how Ash is. She'll ask a thousand questions if I call and cancel, because they're planning to meet me at Silk in thirty minutes. Sorry for the short notice, but I need to take care of this, so I need you to go in my place.”

The humor that was in his face earlier has been washed away by something else. He looks tense, and he's a little pale.

“What's going on?” I ask, all my humor fleeing as well.

“Something I don’t feel like talking about. Will you go on the date in my place? I'll fill you in later if anything comes of this. Ash will let me off the hook a little easier if you're there.”

I nod as he stands, and I stand, too.

“You know you can call if you need me,” I say lamely.

Wren didn't even look this defeated when he and Erica got divorced. It has me worried.

“I know. And I will call. But only after I have details. Try to have fun. Maybe this girl allows four-lettered words,” he says, forcing a smile.

I puff out a laugh as he walks out, and then I dial Tag.

“You'd better not have fucked up my wife's car,” he says distractedly, the keys of a laptop rattling in the background.

“Your wife's car is still getting fucked up as we speak,” I say mildly, earning a small laugh from him. “Looks like I'm filling in for Wren tonight.”

The keyboard rattling stops, and Tag lets out a sigh that tells me he knows more than I do. That sucks. I know they're closer, but Wren and I are close enough for him to trust me with this. I’ve trusted him with all my fucked-up shit, and there’s nothing he could tell me that would even come close to what he knows about me.

“He said he was going to get someone to take his place because he doesn't want Ash knowing anything is going on. I don't think this girl is really your type, so you'll have to work hard to play nice.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I ask, closing the door to my office.

At least I was able to shower the glitter off me—mostly. I'm thankful the locker rooms I had installed have awesome showers. And I'm also glad that I had a few changes of clothes on hand for the sake of an emergency.