Page 148 of Stay With Me

I chuckle at her blunt honesty. “So, a lot.”

“Noah and I used to watch it religiously and fight over who Zoe should end up with.” Then she chuckles. “We still do.”

“Based on the twenty minutes I’ve seen so far, I can make an educated guess on your pick.”

There’s no way she’d be rooting for the beloved town lawyer. Wade’s the guy from the wrong side of the tracks and sleeps with half the town.

“What’s that mean?” she asks, almost offended that I can read her as well as I can.

“It means you have a type, sweetheart.”

“That sounds offensive.”

“Are you tellin’ me Wade ain’t yours?”

“See, this is where you’re wrong.” She shoves a forkful in her mouth.

“About what? Educate me, then.”

“Me liking Wade better isn’t because he’s who I’d go for. It’s because he’s way better for Zoe than George is. She just doesn’t know it because she’s blinded by his shiny job and good hair.”

I snort. “Is that the priority for choosin’ a life partner?”

“I’m sure it doesn’t hurt, but no. George is known as the nice guy. The good family man. His family is wealthy and well-known, so everyone adores him.”

“Sounds like a decent catch,” I say.

“Except he’s acheater. He finds Zoe on the side of the road and offers to drive her into town. Doesn’t know much about her, just that she’s pretty and obviously not from around there. Which would be fine and all except he conveniently forgets to mention hisfiancée—his high school sweetheart—and low-key flirts with her. He leads her into thinking he’s available and interested. Which means Zoe has to later find out he’s engaged to the wicked witch of the South. A woman who’s nothing but catty to her for no reason besides her being an outsider and a well-educated woman.”

“When does he cheat?” I ask, feeling like I missed a chapter.

“Emotionalcheating. Instead of being upfront with her and making it clear he’s taken, he catches feelings for her. But Zoe’s to blame, too. Even after she knows, it doesn’t stop her from beingflirty. But it should’ve been his responsibility to stop it from the start.”

I nod, agreeing with her because if a woman approached me, I’d make it crystal clear I wasn’t available or interested.

“Meanwhile, Wade never pretended to be anything he wasn’t. What you see is what you get. No surprises. He’s a manwhore, but you know that from the beginning. Hell, he lives on the Mayor’s Plantation where she can see women coming and going because they’re neighbors. It’s almost all sexual attraction between them at first, but the more you see ’em together, the more you realize they’re way more compatible.”

I soak in every word she says, even if I’m trying to wrap my head around the storyline. I’m going to have to watch this from the beginning to properly understand the characters.

“That’s quite the assessment for a TV show,” I half-tease.

“Well...the men in this show aren’t bad to look at. Wait till you see Mayor Hayes. Former linebacker in the NFL. Won two Super Bowls. Built like a tree I’d fall on my ass tryin’ to climb.”

Now that cracks me up. “You’re tellin’ me a two-time Super Bowl NFL player decided to retire and become the mayor of some small town in Alabama?”

“Yes, why?”

“I mean, sure. That’s realistic.”

She rolls her eyes. “Okay, Mr. Judgy. You don’t watch these shows for theplot.”

I furrow my brows. “Then what’re you watchin’ it for?”

Just then a shirtless Wade appears with sweat dripping down his six-pack abs, and she points to the screen with a grin.

“Ohh, so this is like porn for women disguised as a CW show.”

She smirks, shrugging. “Now you’re gettin’ it.”