Page 40 of Good at Being Bad (Rock Canyon, Idaho 8)

She held the puppy up, furry cheek to plastered cheek, and Mike chuckled. “I’ll go make the coffee while you snuggle him.”

Mike filled the filter hallway, listening to Ellie talk to Smalls as if he was a baby. It had been a long while since he’d had a woman in his three-bedroom house, besides Gracie and Gemma. Not that Ellie was anything more than a friend, and hell, he wasn’t sure if he’d be accurate to call her that. He hardly knew her.

“You got your bachelor’s degree, didn’t you?” he asked.

Ellie turned to look over the back of the couch at him. “Yeah. I got it in December.”

“In what?”

“Business.”

“What do you plan to do with it?” The coffee started dripping into the pot behind him as he caught Ellie’s disgusted look. “Whoa, did I say something wrong?”

“No. I just get that question at least once a day, and I d

on’t know how to answer.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I have no freaking clue what I want to do.”

“Then why business?” he asked.

“I really have no good answer except I figured it was the most unspecific degree I could get while still having one.”

“Ah.” Mike pulled down two coffee mugs.

“What does ‘ah’ mean?” she asked.

“Nothing. Do you want half and half, sugar, or milk?”

“Just half and half, please. Seriously, that clearly meant something. Be honest.”

He finished fixing the coffee and carried their mugs into the living room before he answered. “I just wondered what you were actually passionate about. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to have a degree. But if you never do anything with it…”

“I’ll do something with it.” She placed Smalls on the couch between them, and took the coffee from his hand. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll move to New York and become a professional makeover specialist.”

Mike laughed. “Why New York? Seems like you’d get more business in small towns like this, full of nerds and fashion failures.”

“Yes, but the stores where I can spend their money are better.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not much for shopping.”

“Most guys aren’t.” She took a sip of her coffee and hummed.

“You like it?”

“Yeah, you buy the good stuff,” she said.

“It helps when your best friend runs a coffee shop.” A rush of guilt overwhelmed him thinking about Gracie and her business. “Can I ask you a hypothetical?”

“Shoot.”

“Let’s say you were offered a lot of money to do something, but in the end it would hurt someone you care about.”

Ellie tapped her white tipped nails against the coffee mug. “Completely hypothetical, huh?”

“Yeah.”