Chapter One
“You need to get Deke to cover that bad boy.”
Deke. Just hearing her ex-boyfriend’s name slip past her best friend’s lips made Harper break out in a cold sweat. It had been thirteen years since she’d left their tiny town and her high school boyfriend behind. Hearing his name shouldn’t affect her so much. Especially since she’d lived a lot of life since their paths last crossed.
“Are you kidding me?” Harper asked, looking at the offending tattoo in the full-length mirror. “You really think I’d let my ex near my ass with a tattoo gun? I’d probably end up with a penis on my tailbone, if he still has the same warped sense of humour he had back in high school.”
And if Deke was anything like the possessive guy he’d been back in the day, he wouldn’t take kindly to seeing another guy’s name tattooed on her derriere. Especially since he’d talked about stamping his own name in the very same spot. But that was a lifetime ago and for all Harper knew his body was covered with reminders of his conquests.
Jude covered her mouth so the soda she’d been drinking wouldn’t spew all over their clean floor. “Oh my God! Can you imagine? I can totally see him doing that.” She smirked. “But if it would make you feel better I can go with you to supervise, make sure he doesn’t use his instrument of choice to get his revenge.”
“Revenge?”
Harper snorted as she sank down in the oversized chair in their small living room. It totally dominated the space, but she’d taken half of everything from the house she’d shared with her ex-fiancée and they were trying to find a way to make it work in their smaller space.
“Why should he want revenge? He was the one who forgot I existed less than a month after I went away to college.”
It still stung to think about how quick Deke had been to write her off. They’d dated for three years before she went to a college eight hundred miles away. Within a month he’d decided the long distance thing wasn’t going to work for him and told her to have a nice life.
“That still doesn’t add up,” Jude said, curling her long auburn hair around her finger as she checked for split ends. She was a hair dresser, so split ends were her life. “Deke was crazy about you. And I happen to know after he broke up with you he was one miserable SOB. It’s not like he was living it up without you.”
Harper had tried not to ask about Deke after their break-up, but since they both stayed in the same small town and travelled in the same friend circles, she was sure Jude could tell her plenty about the life Deke had led since high school.
“That was a long time ago,” Harper said, sighing. “Not like anyone ever expects their first love to last forever.”
“It does sometimes,” Jude said, picking up a nail file from the coffee table. “It did for my parents. And my sister and her hubby have been happily married for ten years. They were high school sweethearts.”
“True.”
But life was different in a small town like theirs. The pickings were slim and everyone knew it. Maybe that’s why Deke had never gotten married.
“How have your folks been?”
“Great,” Jude smiled. “They’re dying to see you.”
Harper had only been back in town two weeks. She’d walked in on her fiancée doing the nasty on his desk with the aesthetician who worked on the main level of his office building, and Harper knew if she didn’t leave town she’d land her butt in the clink for going off on one or both of them.
Thankfully her best friend had an extra bedroom she was looking to rent out, so her hometown seemed like Harper’s best option, for the time being. Her father died five years ago and her mother moved to Florida last year. She was an only child, but she still had aunts, uncles, and cousins in the area. And all of the old-timers welcomed her back like she’d never been gone, which was nice. It felt good knowing you really could come back home again.
“We should plan to pop in on them this weekend,” Harper said, rolling her neck. “Maybe I’ll make a carrot cake. I know how much your dad likes that.”
“Ugh! Then I’d have to listen to him complain that no one else ever bakes for him.”
Harper wasn’t able to visit as often as she would have liked over the years, but whenever she did, she always brought a sweet treat for Jude’s dad. He was one of her favorite people. A reminder that good men still existed. Men who didn’t lie and cheat and lay it all on the line for a little desk action behind closed doors. Not that she was bitter. Much.
“Are you excited to see everyone tonight?” Jude asked while filing her short purple nails.
“Uh yeah, sure.”
Harper was excited to meet up with most of their old friends at the local watering hole. It would be the first time in years they’d all gotten together, but she was afraid to ask whether Deke would be there.
Jude grinned, jabbing the pointy pink file at Harper. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s written all over your face.”
Harper tried for a neutral expression but knew she was failing miserably. “I was just thinking about what I’m going to wear tonight.”
Jude rolled her tongue in her cheek. “Why? Because you wanna look hot in case Deke’s there?”
“No.” Harper rolled her eyes. “What are we? Seventeen? Give me a break. I was not thinking about a man who dumped me thirteen years ago.”
