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“He’s making me homicidal,” I clarify, and she laughs.
“Why don’t you just tell him you like him?” She twirls two tiny straws in her cocktail, her eyes periodically flitting up to the stage. She’s waiting for Adam, and I’d probably be jealous of her if those two weren’t so disgustingly perfect for each other.
Last semester, I nearly got kicked out of my dorm when I let Rowan move in with me and my roommate. But Rowan’s asshole live-in boyfriend had cheated on her, and she had nowhere to go, and she’s been my best friend since kindergarten. I ignored the written warnings from my RA, and Rowan ultimately ended up moving in with Adam before I got kicked out. Fast forward to one too many “overnight visitors” later, I still ended up getting reported, and Rowan and I got a two-bedroom in an apartment complex near campus. Her name is on the lease right next to mine, but really, the apartment is just a decoy she uses to avoid telling her parents that she’s actually living with three ungodly hot rock stars. She sleeps in Adam’s bed, his bandmate Shawn is in the second bedroom, and Joel sleeps on their couch most nights because he’s a hot, stupid, infuriating freaking nomad.
“Because I don’t like him,” I answer. When I realize my drink is gone, I steal Rowan’s, down the last of it, and flag the bartender.
“Then why is he making you insane?”
“Because he doesn’t like me.”
Rowan lifts a sandy blonde eyebrow at me, but I don’t expect her to understand. Hell, I don’t understand. I’ve never wanted a boy to like me so badly in my entire life.
An Excerpt from
ONLY IN MY DREAMS
Ribbon Ridge Book One
by Darcy Burke
From a USA Today bestselling author comes the first installment in a sexy and emotional family saga about seven siblings who reunite in a small Oregon town to fulfill their brother’s dying wish . . .
Sara Archer took a deep breath and dialed her assistant and close friend, Craig Walker. He was going to laugh his butt off when she told him why she was calling, which almost made her hang up, but she forced herself to go through with it.
“Sara! Your call can only mean one thing: you’re totally doing it.”
She envisioned his blue eyes alight with laughter, his dimples creasing, and rolled her eyes. “I guess so.”
He whooped into the phone, causing Sara to pull it back from her ear. “Awesome! You won’t regret it. It’s been waaaaay too long since you got out there. What, four years?”
“You’re exaggerating.” More like three. She hadn’t been out with a guy since Jude. Easy, breezy, coffee barista Jude. He’d been a welcome breath of fresh air after her cheating college boyfriend. Come to think of it, she’d taken three years to get back in the game then too.
“Am I? I’ve known you for almost three years, and you’ve never had even a casual date in all that time.”
Because after she and Jude had ended their fling, she’d decided to focus on her business, and she’d hired Craig a couple of months later. “Enough with the history lesson. Let’s talk about tonight before I lose my nerve.”
“Got it. I’m really proud of you for doing this. You need a social life beyond our rom-com movie nights.”
Sara suspected he was pushing her to go out because he’d started dating someone. They seemed serious even though it had been only a couple of weeks, and when you fell in love, you wanted the whole world to fall in love too. Not that Sara planned on doing that again—if she could even count her college boyfriend as falling in love. She really didn’t know anymore.
“I was thinking I might go line dancing.” She glanced through her clothing, pondering what to wear.
“Line dancing?” Craig’s tone made it sound as if he were asking whether she was going to the garbage dump. He wouldn’t have been caught dead in a country-western bar. “If you want to get your groove on, Taylor and I will come get you and take you downtown. Much better scene.”
No, the nearby suburban country-western bar would suit her needs just fine. She wouldn’t be comfortable at a chic Portland club—totally out of her league. “I’ll stick with Sidewinders, thanks.”
“We wouldn’t take you to a gay bar,” Craig said with a touch of exasperation that made her smile.
“I know. I just don’t want company. You’d try to set me up with every guy in the place.”
“I’m not that bad! Taylor keeps me in line.”
Yeah, she’d noticed. She’d been out with them once and was surprised at the difference in Craig. He was still his energetic self, but it was like everything he had was focused on his new boyfriend. She supposed that was natural when a relationship was shiny and new. “Well, I’m good going by myself. I’m just going to dance a little, maybe sip a lemon drop, see what happens.”
Craig made a noise of disgust. “Don’t ass out, Sara. You need to get laid.”
An Excerpt from
