Page 31 of The Small-Town Seduction Plan

I snap out of those thoughts to hear a loud banging downstairs. Someone’s hammering on my door, and a moment later, Suze’s voice floats up.

“Are you seriously still sleeping? Lazy bastard!”

I grab a towel, and go open up. “It’s barely seven a.m.,” I grumble, as she pushes past me into the house – with her arms full of drinks containers, and two loud, yappy English poodles scampering in her wake.

“Ani, Tracy, get down!” Suze scolds them gently.

“If you’re going to coo at them like that, they’ll never behave,” I tell her. “They need to know you mean business. Down!”

At the sound of my stern order, the dogs immediately settle.

“See?”

“You’re a god among men, I get it,” Suze says cheerfully. “Now, be nice, or you don’t get your coffee.” She waves a takeout cup in front of me. “It’s just the way you like, too,” she adds. “Bitter and black, just like your heart. There’s a cruller, too.”

I pause. Coffee and a pastry?

“What do you want?” I ask suspiciously.

Suze gasps. “What a cynic!”

I give her a look over the rim of my coffee.

“OK,” she admits. “I was wondering, if you’d thought anything more about it.”

“About what?” I head to the kitchen, to empty the coffee into a real mug. Suze trails after me.

“Quinn’s suggestion. The fake date deal.”

I choke on the cruller. “You’re crazy. In what universe do you think I’d ever play along with that bullshit?”

“Come on,” Suze urges, like the annoying little sister I thankfully never had. “It would be fun! You need to shake things up,” she adds, looking around my spotless, empty kitchen. “You’ve been doing this grumpy hermit routine for way too long.”

“Avery Lawrence isn’t a shake, she’s a goddamn earthquake,” I mutter grimly.

Suze just grins. “You owe me,” she says, sing-song. “Remember the time I told our parents we’d been hooking up, to cover for you hitchhiking to that rock festival?”

I stop dead. “No way. That was ten years ago!”

“A debt’s a debt.” Suze insists.

“To you, not that princess,” I say firmly. I grab some dog treats from the jar on the counter, toss them to the pups, and then steer all three of them to the door again. “I could owe you a million bucks, and it still wouldn’t be enough to sign up for that kind of disaster. My answer, in case it was ever in doubt, is ‘no’.”

And then, just in case she doesn’t get the message, I slam the door in her face.

I’d prefer to forget the whole damn mess, but gossip spreads like wildfire in Blackberry Cove. And those photos– everyone is all too happy to tell me– are the juiciest gossip around.

From the moment I step foot on my latest construction site, the crew gives me no end of grief about my time in the woods with Avery, and even when I escape into town to pick up some lunch, the ladies at the diner are demanding all the details about my hot and heavy new romance. Linette Walters swears our astrological signs make us the perfect match, and even Earl at the hardware store gives me a hearty handshake of congratulations for “hooking a stunner” like that.

“It’s really not how it looks,” I tell them all, but they just give me nods and winks, like they’re in on the joke.

“Sure it’s not,” Earl chuckles. “I’m happy for you, son. ‘Bout time you got back out there. Send my best to Avery.”

I bite back a growl of frustration, exiting the store. Does everyone in this town think I’m drooling all over that woman?

“Hey, Duke?”

When I get outside, some guy I’ve never seen is waiting by my truck.

---