My Bestie's Ex
Page 23
I open my door to get Lily out and take in the scene.
Shit, there are a lot of kids, and I have no idea where the hell Lily is supposed to go.
My hand is on the handle of Lily’s door when a fancy sports car grabs my attention. It’s red and shiny and sticks out in this small town just like the blonde currently bent over digging through the trunk.
Damn, that ass. I shift my stance and wonder how one glimpse has made my dick jolt for the first time in a month. Well, without the help of Pornhub.
Climax Cove isn’t exactly known for its beautiful single women. Not to say there aren’t any—there are—but they’re all looking for something I can’t give them. Marriage. My last serious relationship didn’t work out so well after Lily’s mother decided she’d rather party than be a mother and I’m not willing to jeopardize my little girl’s heart again.
I can’t pull my gaze from this woman’s long legs. Or maybe it’s the short shorts she’s wearing. She shouldn’t be able to wear those scraps of material around all the single dads. There’s going to be a pissing match at our next meeting over who gets to ask out the new girl in town.
A bang on the truck window pulls me from my trance of imagining those long legs wrapped around my head and I look over to find Lily’s shoulders slumped and her mouth hung open.
“Sorry,” I say and open her door.
She jumps out of the truck and turns her attention to where I was looking. I take the opportunity to adjust myself.
The woman is now standing up, thank God, and she’s propped a box on her hip as she shuts the trunk.
My gaze roams from her sneaker covered feet, up her long and tanned legs, past the too-short shorts, noticing the way her Camp Tall Pines blue t-shirt hugs her breasts and lastly, lands on her face.
“Shit,” I murmur.
“Daddy!” Lily holds her hand out in the air. “That’s a dollar.”
My eyes focus in on the woman across the parking lot and I’d bet my house it’s her.
Caterina Santora.
My client, Bill Santora’s daughter. I haven’t seen her in six years. Not since the time she hit on me. I wince remembering how harsh I was to her, but she was young, barely legal and ‘no’ wasn’t in her vocabulary at the time. Still, I’ve remembered my cruel words more than once since then and regretted them. Especially after I had a daughter of my own.
“Daddy,” Lily’s voice pulls my focus back to her.
I dig my wallet out of my back pocket, finding a dollar and shoving it into her hand.
“Nice doing business with ya,” she says and slides by me to the curb. “Let’s go! I don’t want to be the last one.”
My eyes refuse to look away from the woman. If it is Caterina, she’s definitely all woman now. A smile teases her lips as she passes a camper and his dad. Concentrating ahead, she rounds a car and she scans her surroundings. There. That dimple in her left cheek. It’s her. It has to be her.
Her eyes find me and I smile, moving my hand up in a small wave, but she only returns the gesture with a polite smile. One that says, I have no idea who the hell you are, but just in case I’m wrong, I’ll smile. Then she turns on her heel and heads in the other direction. Great, I probably freaked her out. I’m sure she thinks I’m some pervy stalker-type guy.
“Daddy!” Lily screams and my head snaps back to her.
“Sorry,” I murmur, still processing what I think I saw.
“I don’t want to be late,” she says, walking ahead of me.
I look at the signs, trying to figure out which direction I’m supposed to go in, but I haven’t a clue. There are parents wandering around everywhere with similar looks of bewildered frustration.
“Toby, get out of the car!” I hear to my right. My buddy, Dane is standing next to his Mustang trying to coax his son out into the sunshine. I turn Lily in that direction. If I’m going to be lost, might as well be with Dane. At least he’ll keep things interesting.
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Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
Let us start his ramble by asking you to please trust that we’ll deliver a story that will explain and rectify Sierra’s sometimes cold persona. When we wrote the scene where she finds out about Blanca and Ethan, we knew she might be unlikable to some readers. We thought about softening her but that wouldn’t be her true character, as you’ll see in A Royal Mistake. If you’re a faithful Piper Rayne reader you might remember how a lot of readers were unsure about Dane, Jagger, Dax and all the other heroes who came off as crass playboys who would never change their ways. But you trusted us and look how that turned out! LOL All of those heroes had wounds that cut deep and Sierra has hers. Okay, we’re jumping off that soapbox now.
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We were on the fence about spinning Blanca’s story out of White Collar Brothers. Not because we didn’t want to tell her story, but we had thoughts about ending that world we started back with Modern Love. For a while she was going to go to Climax Cove and live among our Single Dads Club fellas. We wanted her to be close to her brothers so we could cameos out of them, but far enough away that the series had a different feel and she wouldn’t be living in their shadows. Enter the fictional town of Cliffton Heights and a group of young people finding their way in their careers and love.
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You might have gotten a bit of a Friends feel for the set-up in this book. It’s true. We’re both huge Friends fans and liked the idea of having a group of friends all living on the same floor of a building, so we lovingly borrowed the friends-with-nearby-apartments set-up from one of our favorite shows. Maybe we were trying to live vicariously through our characters. LOL
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We know you didn’t get a whole feel for every character in this book, mostly due to the fact that in order for Ethan and Blanca to be on the page together they couldn’t be with The Rooftop Crew. We promise in book two you’ll get more funny group scenes and get to know more of the characters. We have to leave some surprises to come, right?
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Obviously, we’re indebted to the following people because without them, this book never would see the light of day!
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Wander Aguiar for an amazing photo
Florian and Laura for being our models and muses for Blanca and Ethan
Hang Le from By Hang Le for the gorgeous cover
Ellie from My Brother’s Editor
Shawna from Behind the Writer
Dani Sanchez and the Wildfire Marketing gang
All the bloggers who carve out time to read and review our books.
All our early ARC readers
And of course, all our unicorns. <3
About the Author
Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring you romance stories that have “Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle” (okay…you caught us, that’s our tagline). A little about us… We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We’re both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We’re both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.
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Also by Piper Rayne
The Baileys
Lessons from a One-Night Stand
Advice from a Jilted Bride
Birth of a Baby Daddy
Operation Bailey Wedding (Novella)
Falling for My Brother’s Best Friend
Demise of a Self-Centered Playboy
Confessions of a Naughty Nanny
Operation Bailey Babies (Novella)
Secrets of the World’s Worst Matchmaker
Winning My Best Friend’s Girl
Rules for Dating your Ex
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White Collar Broth
ers
Sexy Filthy Boss
Dirty Flirty Enemy
Wild Steamy Hook-up
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The Rooftop Crew
My Bestie’s Ex
A Royal Mistake
The Rival Roomies
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The Modern Love World
Charmed by the Bartender
Hooked by the Boxer
Mad about the Banker
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The Single Dad’s Club
Real Deal
Dirty Talker
Sexy Beast
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Hollywood Hearts
Mister Mom
Animal Attraction
Domestic Bliss
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Bedroom Games
Cold as Ice
On Thin Ice
Break the Ice
Box Set
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Charity Case
Manic Monday
Afternoon Delight
Happy Hour
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Blue Collar Brothers
Flirting with Fire
Crushing on the Cop
Engaged to the EMT