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“Your last name is Moore?” she asked.
I scrubbed my face. “Oh my gosh.” This really was a bad idea.
“What?”
“What? We’ve been friends for a year now and you don’t know my last name?”
“I mean, we’re not exactly friends...”
I stared at her. “Your name is Mara Taylor. You write romance for adult women. You live in a bungalow in Brentwood, less than ten minutes from the beach because your favorite place to be is the water. You drink coffee all hours of the day, unless you’re at a bar where you order mojitos or, on rare occasion, a dirty martini. You don’t have any pets, but your favorite animal is a giraffe. Oh, and you eat dessert before regular food when the mood strikes. Does that about cover it?”
Her mouth gaped open and closed. “Wh—how did you know that?”
“Because I pay attention when you speak!” I let out a breath. Why was she making me so crazy already? “We’ve been in the same friend group for two years, and what do you know about me?”
She opened her mouth.
“Other than the fact I’m an accountant.”
She closed her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m not used to people staying in my life.”
The way she said it, the way she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes... it made my chest ache. But I had more important things to worry about. Especially now that I knew she’d been fucking my parents’ neighbor. “You know my parents have seen your truck in front of Hayden’s house before.”
“And?” she asked.
“And? They might wonder why their son’s theoretically serious girlfriend is at some other guy’s house all the time.”
“Shit,” she mumbled. “Shit. What am I supposed to do? I can’t exactly get rid of my truck.”
“You’re going to have to get to my parents’ house somehow, if Mom agrees, and you can’t bring that truck.”
She looked longingly at her pickup. “Bertha’s the first brand-new vehicle I ever bought.”
I would have had a little more sympathy if I wasn’t currently standing outside her booty call’s house. “There’ll be more brand-new vehicles. If you get another movie deal.”
I knew I’d won the second that realization crossed her face. With that, I turned to walk back toward my car parked across the street. “See you tomorrow for supper,” I called over my shoulder.
“I hate you,” she called back. “But thank you,” she added.
I couldn’t help but smile despite the feeling in my gut that this was a terrible,terribleidea.
6
Mara
Confession: Family isn’t my thing.
Henrietta tookoff work to go car shopping with me. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of Bertha, but I did have it in my budget for a payment on a decent used car. Birdie offered to ask Cohen to come along so we wouldn’t get stiffed, but I had dealt with so many bullshitters over the years that used car salesmen were nothing new.
We went to the lot near my house and parked up front. Pretty soon, a guy maybe five years younger than us walked up. My eyes immediately traveled to the tattoo of a phoenix decorating his muscular forearm.
“Hi, ladies,” he said, his voice as smooth as honey. “Looking for something particular today?”
I nodded, drawing my eyes away from his muscles and back to his honey-brown eyes. “I want a four-door sedan, less than fifty thousand miles, and newer than five years old. Nissan’s my preference, but I like Hyundai too.”
He nodded, his lips curling into a sultry smile. “I like a girl who knows what she wants. Let me go see what we have. You two can come in and grab some coffee while you wait?”
“We just met and you’re already taking me out to coffee?” I teased, laughing.