by Ana Sparks
BARE
The Bad Boy’s Baby
Ana Sparks
Contents
Before We Begin
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
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Copyright 2017 by Ana Sparks
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All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
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All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
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This book was previously published under another pen name, Evelyn Troy.
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Chapter One
“I’m sorry, Jennifer, but it’s high time you buckled down and grew up. You’ve always known that going to med school was expected of you. Why else do you think your father and I have funded your ridiculous lifestyle up to now?” Jennifer’s mother, Tracey, huffed.
Jen’s heart sank. Her parents were both doctors; both of them renowned in their particular fields of medicine, and both of them expecting their only child to follow in their footsteps.
“I just don’t know if it’s what I want to do with the rest of my life, Mom.”
Her father, Tim, jumped in, his voice harder than Jen had ever heard it. “Well you still have a few weeks to make up your mind, Jennifer, but I’ll tell you this. If you choose not to go to medical school and don't find yourself a job, then be aware that your mother and I will no longer be funding your frivolous ways.”
He looked over his glasses and frowned at her. “We haven’t worked all our lives just for you to squander our money away on whatever whim takes your fancy.”
She felt close to tears. She loved her parents, and disappointing them hurt her, but she couldn’t help the way she felt about her own future and what she wanted to do with it.
“I haven’t squandered anything, Dad. I got my undergraduate degree like you wanted me too. Hell, I got the highest marks in my year. You both know that I’ve been applying for internships, but if there isn’t a graduate position available, then what else can I do?”
“That’s beside the point, Jennifer; that degree was supposed to be the start you needed to get you ready for a future in medicine, and yet here you are, wasting your time and our money,” Tracey said.
“Whatever career I decide to choose will be important to me, Mom, and I haven’t been wasting anything.” She took a breath and plowed on, knowing that what she was about to say was only going to inflame the situation. “And I have a job to get by on right now. I know you guys have helped me out occasionally, but I’ve been frugal and only ever asked when I had absolutely no other choice.”
Tracey gave a short laugh that was lacking in any kind of humor.
“A job? You’re a bartender, Jennifer. That’s hardly a career now, is it?” Her voice was verging on a sneer, and Jen inwardly cringed. “And you’re so far away! We always assumed that you’d move closer to home once you’d finished getting your undergraduate degree. I just don’t know why on earth you’re still living in Austin.”
Well it’s not right on your doorstep, for starters, Jen thought to herself.
“I like it there. All of my friends are there and I don’t want to give up my apartment to move to somewhere I might hate.”
She didn’t mention that she’d kept her job in the hope that she would be able to save enough money to take a year off to go traveling before settling down into whatever her long-term career turned out to be. She knew her parents would be horrified at the thought, and would class it as nothing but laziness, but nothing could be further from the truth.
However, with the way her shifts had been lately, Jen would be lucky to save up enough to pay next month’s rent. Putting some money back to pay for a trip aboard was nigh on impossible, which would please her parents to no end if they actually knew about it. It was so unfair. She’d done everything they’d asked of her all her life, and now the one thing she wanted to do wasn’t going to be possible.
“You have until the deadline for med school applications to make up your mind, Jennifer. But I’ll tell you this much: if you decide not to put in an application, then you’re on your own financially. Your mother and I will help you all we can if you apply and are accepted, but if you don’t, we won’t be helping you out anymore. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
One word was all it took for the discussion about her future to be terminated, and the three of them finished their lunch in relative silence, much to Jen’s relief. It was the last day of her short visit home, and even though she'd hoped that her days off work would have proved more relaxing, she couldn’t wait to get in her car and drive back to Austin—the place she really thought of as home.
Chapter Two
The drive back to Austin was a long one, and gave Jen plenty of time to think over what her parents had said. She had tried everything to not have to borrow money from them in the past, but she knew that they meant what they said, and would cut her off if she didn’t at least apply for med school.
She had just a few weeks left to come up with a miracle, but deep down she knew that she was probably going to do as they insisted and apply. What else could she do?
Her best friend and roommate, Karen, was still up watching television when she got home.
“How did it go?” Karen reached for the remote and muted the volume, turning to her friend with an expression of curiosity on her face. “Were they as pleased with everything as you’d hoped they’d be?” Her voice was filled with sarcasm and Jen grimaced.
“What do you think? They were horrified that I hadn’t already put in my application for med school, and informed me that if I don’t do it, then I’m being cut off.”
Jen plonked herself down on the couch next to her friend and reached for the glass of wine that Karen had been drinking. “It seriously sucks, K. I mean, I might want to become a doctor, but I want it to be because it’s what I want, not because they’re forcing me into it. Does that make any sense?”
“I think it makes perfect sense.” Her friend took the glass from her and downed what was left in the bottom before refilling it to the brim. “So what are you going to do?”
Jen shrugged. “Make the most of my freedom while I still have it, I guess. There’s a few weeks before the applications have to be in, so I’m going to live wild while I can.”
Karen threw her head back and roared with laughter, much to Jen’s chagrin. “You? Live wild? That’d be a first.”
“Is it so hard to imagine that I’m capable of knowing how to have a good time?”
Jen knew she shouldn’t have asked the question when her friend dissolved into another fit of laughter. It was a long-standing joke that she was the most sensible one among their group of friends, the one who was the least likely to let her hair down and have a good time.
“Okay, forget I said that, but I really do think that we should arrange a night o
ut so that I can drink myself into oblivion and forget all the bullshit for a few hours.”
“It gets my vote, but everyone knows that I’m always up for a good time.”
The two women laughed together as they planned where to go, and before they knew it, the bottle of wine was empty.
Chapter Three
The following Friday found Jen and Karen fighting over the bathroom and giggling as they got ready for their girls' night out. They drank a bottle of wine as they got dressed, starting another bottle as they undressed again. Karen, in her infinite wisdom, had decided that what they had put on the first time was too boring for the evening she had in mind.
“I can’t wear this! You can almost see my underwear!” Jen stood grimacing in front of the full-length mirror, twisting this way and that as she pulled on the hem of the offending article that Karen had picked out for her. “It’s positively indecent!”
Karen laughed as she put the finishing touches on her make-up. “At least that proves that you’re wearing some. I don’t think I’ll bother, personally.”
“Karen! You're such a harlot!” Jen's words were harsh but her laughter belied her tone. Karen knew that her friend was joking, really. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Yeah, but you love me anyway,” said Karen, throwing a lipstick across to her friend. “Use this one. The color will be perfect with your complexion.”
Jen opened it up and scowled. “It’s bright red.” She’d always been one for stating the obvious. “Do you think I can pull it off?”
Karen stood up straight and put her hands on her hips. “Jen, if anyone can pull it off, it’s you. I wish you had more confidence in yourself sometimes. You really don’t have a clue how gorgeous you are, do you?”
She could feel the blush creeping over her cheeks, but Jen shrugged the compliment away, years of self-conscious doubt making it easy for her to believe that her friend was just being nice in order to boost her spirits. “Okay, what shoes should I wear with this belt-like skirt?” She changed the subject easily and ignored Karen when she sighed dramatically.
“The black ones with the stiletto heels. They’ll show your legs off.”
“Hell, K, the length of the skirt will do that without help from an ankle-breaking pair of shoes.”
She slipped on the offending footwear without arguing, secretly relieved that Karen hadn’t suggested that she wear a pair of knee-high boots. She put on the red lipstick and gave her lashes an extra sweep of mascara that accentuated her almond-shaped green eyes, and then stood back to give herself a final once-over in the mirror.
“What do you think? Will I do?”
“I think that, if you let yourself, you’re going to have a great time tonight,” Karen said. She looked at her friend with a strangely sad look on her face. “I know that you have to make a decision soon, Jen, but I really hope that whatever you decide, you’ll choose what’s going to be right for you.”
Karen wasn’t serious very often. In fact, her inability to take anything seriously was one of the most common bones of contention between them. Hearing her talk with such sincerity now made Jen pause as she reached for her bag.
“I’ll try, K, but we both know that it might not be that easy.” She put her wallet in the bag, hesitated as she looked at the lipstick, and then threw it in as well. “In an ideal world, I’d wake up tomorrow and find that I’m in Asia with a tall mysterious man by my side. My parents would be happy for me, and I’d have a great job that I loved waiting for me when I got back home. But it’s not an ideal world.”
“No such luck, huh?”
“Nope. So tonight I’m not even going to think about my future or what I’m going to do. I’m going to have a good time and pick up a rich guy who can keep me in the manner my parents would approve of.”
They both laughed at the thought, knowing that Jen was the last person to ever pick up a random guy.
Their deliberations were interrupted by the sound of a car horn heralding the arrival of Sara, Debbie, and Rachael, and they swiftly grabbed their bags and made their way out to the car, locking the front door behind them.
“Oh my God! She has legs!”
The jokes started as soon as Jen and Karen climbed into the back of the car, and Jen playfully poked her tongue out at Rachael as Sara pulled out into the early evening traffic.
Debbie turned up the volume on the car stereo and looked back over her shoulder to the three occupants of the back seat. “So, we’re going to that new club, right? The one outside of town?”
She named a place that none of them had been to yet, but all of them had heard stories about. Apparently the club was one of the best that had opened up in years, and apart from Jen, who wasn’t really into the clubbing scene as a rule, the girls had all been itching for an excuse to travel the extra distance that would make going there worth it.
Rather than drive on the main roads, Sara apparently knew a quicker way to get there and took a route that she said was familiar to her. The five of them were in high spirits as they sang along to the music blasting out from the radio. That was until the car started to shudder and misfire.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” Sara said, sounding as worried as they all felt. “I just filled it up, so I know we haven’t run out of gas.”
They all groaned as the car slowed down to a crawl, and Sara guided it to the side of the road just as the engine gave up completely and they juddered to a complete stop.
The five of them got out of the car and huddled over the engine, using their cell phones to give them some light. The road was quiet, and they hadn’t seen another vehicle going in either direction in what felt like forever.
They looked at the engine and then at each other, futilely hoping against hope that one of them would have some knowledge about what could be wrong and, more importantly, how to fix it.
“Shit! We’re stranded, aren’t we?” The seriousness of their predicament sank in quickly as Debbie spoke. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“It’s okay, my insurance company gave me a list of garages and breakdown companies. It shouldn’t take too long to get someone out to help us.” Ever the practical one of the bunch, Sara was already dialing as she spoke, and the girls gave a collective sigh of relief.
Their relief was short-lived when ten minutes later Sara hung up the phone and sighed. “It looks like we’re not going to be rescued as soon as I’d hoped. I can’t get anyone out here for at least an hour.” They all groaned. “The man I spoke to said that there’s a bar not too far from here where we could wait. We could walk there, I guess.”
“How far is ‘not far’? I’m not sure I can walk too far in these damn heels.” Rachael said, voicing what the other girls had been thinking.
“It has to be better than just waiting here though, right?” Karen was already reaching into the car to get her bag. “At least we can sit down and have a drink while we wait. If we stay here, we’re just wasting valuable alcohol time.”
They all agreed with her, despite their misgivings, but when they saw the bar five minutes later, they almost wished they’d decided to wait in the car. It was as dingy on the inside at is looked on the outside, and when everything went quiet as they walked in, they almost turned around and walked straight back out again.
The girls moved a little closer to each other as they made their way to the bar, and the silence changed to whispers as every pair of eyes in the place seemed to follow them as they walked.
“Is it just me, or are we standing out like a sore thumb?” Deb whispered.
“Between the five of us, we’re the whole damn hand.” They laughed quietly at Sara’s reply, still very conscious of the disapproving looks that seemed to coming at them from every angle. “Anyone would think that no one here had ever seen a pair of legs before.”
“Well, to be fair, they do have five pairs to look at. It’s probably more than they can handle.”
They ordered their drinks and looked around for a pla
ce to sit, unanimously deciding to sit on the stools at the bar when they saw that they’d otherwise have to share a table with the locals.
“I wish they’d stop looking at us. It feels like they’re undressing us with their eyes.” Karen sipped at her drink and looked around the room over the brim of her glass. “I’m really not sure I can stay here for a whole hour.”
Sara nodded her head in agreement. “I’m with you on that one. I think I’d rather walk back to the car and wait there.”
Jen put her glass down on top of the counter. “Oh, come on. They’re not that bad. I think it’s just that they’re not used to seeing women in this bar. And we’re not used to them or their ways either, so it’s a two-way street of mistrust and unease.”
“Really, Jen?” Deb got off her bar stool and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Trust you to always find excuses for everything, even redneck hillbillies.”
Jen was about to stand up to leave with the rest of them when Rachael said something that got her blood boiling. “We shouldn’t expect anything else from Safety First Jen though, should we?”
The fact that everyone seemed to find her boring and sensible irked Jen no end, and she felt her nerves grate in response to the snide comment.
“You know what? I think I’m going to stay here. You guys go and wait in the car if you want, but I don’t fancy walking all the way back there in the rain in these heels.” She sat back down on the stool, her mind firmly made up.
“You can’t stay here on your own, Jen.” Karen was visibly horrified at the thought. “I’ll stay here with you and they can pick us up when the car’s fixed.” She started to sit back down, but Jen stopped her.
“It’s okay, K. I think I’d rather be on my own, to be honest. It will give me a little time to think through my options.” The other three girls had already started to make their way towards the door. “And I’m not sure I feel like any more of their company, anyway, so tell them not to bother coming here to pick me up. I’ll get a taxi when I’m ready to go home.”
