Page 11 of Good Girl’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #4)

On paper, we shouldn’t have become friends. We have nothing in common. But when you work enough traumas together, and need to literally pick your person up from the floor after they lose a tiny patient, you’re bonded forever.

That, and I always have gum.

“Okay, so let’s recap,” Mia says. “You’re lonely and don’t want to be single anymore, and your best option, which isn’t an option, is your ex who randomly texted you this week?”

“Yes.”

“Dating apps suck.”

“Big time.”

“And despite you wearing a neon sign at the grocery store announcing that you’re single, no one is randomly approaching to ask you out.”

I shake my head. “I even made sure to put on makeup and change out of my scrubs before I went.”

Mia takes a deep breath and reaches over to hold my hand. “Well, my friend, I hate to be the one to tell you this.”

My heart sinks. “What?”

“I think it’s time we shake things up a bit.”

That doesn’t sound fun. “What’s that mean?”

“It means you’re in a slump. You work with the same people and see them every day, and there are no prospects there.

Unless you haven’t told me a huge secret, there’s not a former love of your life pining for you back in Rolling Hills.

You see the same people day in and day out, which means you’re never going to meet someone new. ”

I groan, but only because she’s right. My days blur together for the most part where I can’t tell one from the other.

Dating apps aren’t my jam, and I’m not the kind of extrovert that would ask someone out if I saw them in the wild, and clearly, no one is asking me for my phone number.

Even when I literally run into them. “So what do you suggest we do? Because if you’re making me do this, I’m not doing it alone. ”

The grin that forms on her face is worthy of the Cheshire Cat. A frisson of alarm runs down my spine. “Mia…why are you smiling like that?”

I was concerned before. But now that she’s wagging her eyebrows, I’m down right petrified.

“Let’s go do karaoke.”

Thank goodness I wasn’t having a sip of my drink, because I would’ve spit it in her face. “That’s your idea of mixing it up? Can’t we just go to another bar? Or line dancing? That doesn’t sound so bad, and I can dance much better than I can sing.”

She shakes her head. “I love you. You’re my sister from another mister. But you play it safe. In every aspect of your life. We come to the same bar because it’s comfortable. You play by every rule in the book. You don’t swear. You don’t drink. You’re the most non-risk taker in the world.”

“Exactly,” I say. “And you’d have to get me to drink a whole bottle of something if you think I’m going to stand in front of a bunch of strangers and sing.”

I was a competitive dancer my entire childhood, so being on a stage doesn’t scare me. But all those people staring at you? Likely laughing at you, especially when you’re me and can’t carry a tune? No, thank you. That sounds horrible.

“How about this? Baby steps,” she says. “Let’s just go to the bar. See what it’s about. You don’t have to sing. But at least by doing this, mixing it up in this small way, you’re going to at least break the monotony. What can it hurt?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I say, grasping for straws because I really don’t want to go to a karaoke bar.

“What if tonight is the night? What if I’ve been coming here for years, and the one night I’m not here is when my future husband walks through the door?

Would you ever be able to forgive yourself, Mia? Huh?”

I know that’s a stretch. And by the loft of Mia’s right eyebrow, she agrees.

But I really, really, don’t want to go to karaoke.

“I doubt that tonight of all nights, after we’ve been to this bar countless times over the years, that this is the one where your future husband is going to suddenly appear.

And if he does, then it’s proof that God is a man.

Because no woman would ever do you dirty like that. ”

“Let’s see. Let’s look at the door right now and see if my future husband is about to walk in.”

Mia groans but indulges me as we both turn toward the entrance. From where we’re sitting in the middle of the bar, we have a straight shot.

Which is how we don’t miss the man walking through.

The blast from my past.

“What the frick…”

I rub my eyes. No way am I seeing what I think I’m seeing. Because walking through the door, with a confidence I didn’t know he had, is Jonathan Ainsworth.

A coy smile.

Sharply dressed.

And with hair?

“Is that who I think it is?”

Okay, if Mia’s seeing him too, then it’s not just me. I hunch over, terrified he’ll see me. “Yes. What the heck is he doing here?”

“I don’t know.” Mia does a horrible job of hiding her stares in his direction. Me, on the other hand? I’m trying to somehow hide under the table. “Did he always look like a slime ball? The hair makes him look like he’s about to be the next murderer featured on a true crime doc.”

“What is happening?” I ask, not expecting an answer. “First I think about him for the first time in years. Then he texts me. Now this. Wait! Do you think I summoned him? Did I say his name three times and then ‘Poof!’ he’s here?”

“I mean, maybe? He is giving Beetlejuice vibes. I’m all for men enhancing their hair, but not like he did,” Mia says before averting her eyes back to me.

“This is your call. What do you want to do? Stay? Leave? And don’t tell me to pick, because what I want to do will get me kicked out of this bar. ”

I don’t want to look at him, but I can’t help myself. He’s here. Here. In Nashville. Last I knew he was in San Antonio. Is he visiting? Is that why he called me? I have so many questions.

When we make eye contact, I feel a cold chill go up my spine. Maybe it’s because he hasn’t looked away from me. He hasn’t approached, but his stare isn’t wavering.

It’s unsettling. And as much as I want answers, I’m not that curious.

“The polite person in me wants to go over and say hello. See what he’s doing in town. Apologize for not texting back. But…”

Mia’s smile reactivates as my word trail off. “I don’t know what’s going through that head of yours, but I feel like this is the beginning of a night we’re never going to forget.”

I look over to Jonathan one more time, and if I hadn’t made my decision before this, I would now. And all it took was him tipping his glass to me and giving me a creepy wink.

Which is when I jump up from my seat and say words I never in a million years thought I’d ever say.

“Let’s go sing some karaoke.”