“That’s the truth, and Aaron is still very sexy,” Chloe said wistfully, sighing again. “I didn’t leave him because the sex was bad.”
“Oh—please. Stop mooning over leaving a repeat adulterer,” Emma ordered, her tone fierce. “Trust me, it’s a total waste of time.”
Chloe opened her mouth to tell Emma that Aaron wasn’t as bad as her ex, but Taylor chimed in first.
“You married Aaron for the same reason I married Lewis and in the same year. Being single at thirty-five sent you right into the arms of the first sexy man who popped the question. Lewis was good in bed too, but that didn’t make up for his lack of morals. Luckily, my opportunistic ex-husband moved on to his next victim when the business failed. I don’t even think I was a woman to him. I was just an investment plan. God—the business failing put me on the right track in a lot of ways.”
Taylor looked over at Emma, who hadn’t said anything. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed in a meditative pose, listening and looking serene. Unfortunately, Emma was always serene, Taylor thought, and it wasn’t healthy to hold the hurt in that tightly.
“I guess when it comes down to it, Emma is the only one of us who even came close to finding real love,” Taylor said wistfully
“Real love? What are you talking about? Brad got another woman pregnant before I even found out for sure that I couldn’t have children. A bad marriage doesn’t get much more pathetic than that,” Emma said lightly, not breaking her pose. “But I’ve separated myself from his energy now. He’s already working on baby number two with his new wife, who is also a twenty-something. So I know how you feel about being tossed out to the curb because of a younger woman, Chloe.”
Chloe looked at Emma and blinked. Aaron’s defection had nicked her pride because she hadn’t wanted to fail in her marriage, but it hadn’t affected her heart much. Emma hadn’t been so lucky. Though divorced the longest amount of time, Emma had loved her husband sincerely, and there had been no serious man in her life since.
Chloe bit back her first response of denial. Emma didn’t need more pain.
“Fine. I concede we all need help with our love lives, but if I’m going to have to answer those dumb quiz questions, it’s going to require more than mild lubrication. I think I’m going to start at lunch and do a follow-up drink every hour to make sure I maintain a buzz all day to get through it,” Chloe said, gracing Emma with as sincere a smile as she could manage. “It shouldn’t take much though. I haven’t been inebriated in years.”
Shaking off her mood, Emma stood to wiggle her hips and her eyebrows as she looked at Chloe. “Does alcohol still make you want to get extra friendly?”
“Yes. So if I do get tipsy, don’t let me run off with some strange man. That’s a bit more self-exploration than I’m ready for right now,” Chloe said, letting herself find the humor in it at last.
Listening to both her friends laughing at her plea, something inside Chloe eased. She hated being defensive, hated that she’d brought that attitude to these two women who had been true friends to her through thick and thin. They didn’t need her angst on top of their own. She was the fixer not the fixee in their group.
Taylor laughed at Chloe’s confession and sighed at the kindness and caring on her face as well as the return of ease to Emma’s expression. “I have missed you something fierce, Chloe Zanders. The California sunshine is going to melt all that East Coast angst away soon. By the time you get your tan back, you’ll be a new woman.”
“Wow. Aren’t you the optimist for once? Saving a business agrees with you,” Chloe teased. Then she sighed. “I’m glad to be back. It was way past time to make a change.”
Taylor sprang up from the bed, lithe and confident in her dress clothes, which she intended to shed right now for crops and the tightest t-shirt she owned. “Wear something easy to get out of, girls, and bring slut shoes if you have them. We’re going shopping.”
## Available at your favorite ebook retailer ##
Contemporary Books
NEVER TOO LATE SERIES
Dating A Cougar (Book One)
Dating Dr. Notorious (Book Two)
Dating A Saint (Book Three)
Dating A Metro Man (Book Four)
Dating A Silver Fox (Book Five)
Dating A Cougar II (Book Six)
NEVER TOO LATE
Box Set Volume 1 (Books One-Three)
ART OF LOVE SERIES
Carved In Stone (Book One)
Created In Fire (Book Two)
Captured In Ink (Book Three)
Commissioned In White (Book Four)
Covered In Paint (Coming 2014)
NEXT TIME AROUND SERIES
Next Song I Sing (Book One)
Next Game I Play (Coming 2014)
Next Move I Make (Coming 2014)
SINGLE TITLE (NON-SERIES BOOKS)
The Right Thing
Quickies Volume 1
Paranormal/SciFi/Fantasy Books
FORCED TO SERVE SERIES
The Demon of Synar (Book One)
The Demon Master’s Wife (Book Two)
The Siren’s Call (Book Three)
The Healer’s Kiss (Book Four)
The Demon’s Change (Book Five)
SINGLE TITLE (NON-SERIES BOOKS)
The Shaman’s Mate (Fantasy)
The Shaman’s Heart (Fantasy-Coming 2014)
About the Author
Donna McDonald is an Amazon best selling author in Contemporary Romance and Humor, and lately has been climbing the Paranormal Romance lists as well.
Paranormal reviewers are calling McDonald “a literary alchemist effortlessly blending science fiction and romance”. Contemporary and humor reviewers often write to tell her that the books keep them up reading and laughing all night. She likes both compliments and hopes they stay true forever.
Her idea of success is to be sitting next to someone on a plane and find out they are laughing at something in one of her books. She sincerely hopes that will be you.
McDonald_TWT_GENVers_Feb2014 Page 16
