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Gunnar smirks at me. “How goes the never-ending crusade for Chip?”
Fucker. He heard something. He must have or he wouldn’t be bringing it up.
“It’s going. What’s it to you?”
He smirks. “Oh nothing. Just heard you struck out this morning, and in a desperate attempt to make some progress, you paid for the poor girl’s coffee.”
I shove at his shoulder while steering with one hand. “Fuck off. It wasn’t like that.”
“War, it’s been three years. When are you gonna give it up?”
It’s a valid question. Lord knows I would have packed it in for any other woman well before now.
“I don’t know. I just get the feeling that what you see with her isn’t what you get. She has me curious, and I want to know more about her.”
“I think that if she was going to cave at all, she would have done so before now.”
“Maybe you’re right,” is all I say. I spend most of the rest of my day trying to figure out what has me in a stranglehold about this woman. Why her? Why now? Is it her, or just my want for something more permanent that has me stuck on her?
The next morning I get the answer I’m looking for when the coffee shop barista hands me my drink before I can even order with a Post-it note stuck to it reading “Better luck next time. Enjoy the coffee.”
It’s definitely the woman I’m stuck on.
CHAPTER 2
Chip
Sweet nirvana from heaven slips past my taste buds, across my mouth, and down my throat in a rush of heady liquid energy. The smooth sweetness of the caramel leaves a pleasant aftertaste across my palate.
I could make my own coffee in the morning. Hell, they even make those syrups so I could do my own fancy coffees. That would work if I didn’t burn water in a pan on a turned-off stove.
Except for chocolate chip cookies.
My gran taught me when I was a little girl, and it’s the only thing to this day that I don’t destroy in the kitchen. I live off cold cuts, cereal, cheese, and takeout.
The takeout part is a little challenging living in a town that rolls up the sidewalks when the sun goes down, but I make do.
After my gran passed away, I couldn’t stomach staying in Idaho without her and started looking at houses for sale across the country. I took one look at my house and the town it was in and was sold.
I jiggle the mouse on my keyboard to wake the device. My email inbox looks like it’s about to burst, so I spend a bit parsing through emails until I have it back in an organized order. Then I pull open my digital planner and calendar to get a feel for the rest of the day. Four client meetings, a few projects to get started, some of my own personal business to handle, and then game night with friends. It’s a relatively light Friday for me.
Gran was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks after I graduated from high school. I knew that I needed to find a career that allowed me to work remotely so that I could help her with her treatments.
Forgoing the full college experience, I enrolled in just enough management courses to get my business off the ground, and I’ve steadily grown my career as a virtual administrative assistant since.
Pressing the button on my desk, I bring it to chest height and lug my walking treadmill out of the corner. After strapping my fitness watch on my ankle, I start walking and working.
I do my best work while being chained to my desk and simultaneously moving. I can chug through six hours of work in less than three when my feet are occupied and my brain is caffeinated.
Another sip of nirvana goes down my throat, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the memory of yesterday morning with Warrick.
The man just doesn’t know how to give up. Yummy as he is, I have no interest in dating or relationships. Though I do miss sex.
On the quietest nights, when the wind is whistling across the windows and my battery-operated boyfriend takes the edge off, I miss the press of a man’s skin against my own. The weight of him on my body.
I don’t miss it enough to start something up with Warrick Byrne though.
Resident ladies’ man, it’s easy to see that he’s not serious about his hot pursuit of me. I’m just the lone single woman in town that he hasn’t fucked yet. And I promised myself that the next time I formed an attachment to a man, it wouldn’t be casual. I’m too old to play the casual dating game anymore.
