Page 6 of Home to Me

Being involved with Jim so intimately, made her privy to all sorts of juicy skeletons that he carefully locked away in his closet. Luckily, Lauren—never one to be comfortable with an imbalance of power—employed the foresight and protected herself by obtaining the metaphorical key to that closet. When threats were made against her, she turned that key over to the authorities in the form of proof of all his dirty doings—among them fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.

When things went sideways, did Lauren get flustered or upset, get her feelings hurt or crushed? No. Lauren didn't function that way. She didn't get emotionally involved when it came to relationships. It wasn't that she was coldhearted. She felt affection for any person she was in a relationship with. But she just didn't get terribly invested in them. That way, if she were betrayed, she would never be left devastated.

Instead, she got even.

Not in a revenge, how-could-you-do-this-to-me, even-the-score, make-him-pay sort of way.

No, it was more tit for tat, a righting of the scales of justice. It boiled down to this: if you wanted to step into the ring with Lauren, you needed to know chances were that you were going to lose, and even if you didn't lose, you were sure as hell going to leave the ring beaten and bloody.

She learned the lesson that the only person she could truly depend on was herself. Trust no one. And never let people get too close.

Her mom made that mistake. Not once, not twice, but five times. The first mistake was with Lauren’s double-life-having father and then with a string of four men, all losers in their own way.

Truth be told, Jim didn’t even rank on her mother’s loser scale. Lauren moved on from her relationship with Jim and honestly held no ill will for the man. He looked out for number one. She understood that completely. His only mistake was underestimating Lauren's ability to do the same.

Lauren knew that she didn't miss Jim. Her feelings on that score were crystal clear. Her current loneliness didn’t muddy them in the least. However, she did miss being with someone. The closeness. The company. The sense of belonging. The spark of flirting.

The sex.

Yep. She missed having a man. And watching her three best friends fall madly in love over the past few months didn't help in that department either.

Not that she wanted exactly what they had. Lauren was a realist. She knew that she wasn’t made up that way. She wasn’t going to meet and fall head over heels in love with her “soul mate.” She wasn't built for that kind of all-consuming, control-releasing romance. She would never surrender her heart to another person because she would never be able to trust them to take care of it as well as she could. Simple.

It wasn't that she had anything against the concept itself when it came to other people. On the contrary, it seemed to be working beautifully for her friends. Lauren was simply not cut out for it.

No. She was looking for three things: compatibility, honesty, and sparks. Not the kind of sparks that set off a three-alarm fire. That was too out-of-control. She wanted just enough sparks to make things fun. Exciting.

She wasn't expecting to be engulfed in a fiery inferno of lust like Amanda, Karina, and Samantha recently succumbed to. No, she wouldn't want that. She just needed a sparkler, not fireworks. Fireworks were for other people.

Lauren felt more than a little ridiculous moping over her lack of a relationship status. After all, she prided herself on her independence. But reminding herself that she was an independent woman didn't take away the fact that she had to admit—albeit reluctantly—that she wouldn't mind having someone in her life. It was just too bad that there was no one she was even remotely interested in.

Suddenly, unbidden, an image of Ben popped into her mind. No. Absolutely not. Shaking her head vigorously to rid herself of that thought, she purged the picture of him mercilessly from her brain.

No. Just...no.

There was absolutely no way that anything was going to happen between her and Ben Stevens. She didn't even like him. He was arrogant, cocky, inconsiderate...annoying. Not to mention leaving. Soon.

Lauren wasn't looking for a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am sort of hook-up. One-night stands did not appeal to her sensibilities, and even if they did, she would certainly choose a more worthy partner in short-lived lust than Ben.

So then why, at the thought of one night with Ben, did Lauren feel her belly tighten and her pulse begin to race?

No. Stop this, she quickly reprimanded herself. Get a grip.

This reaction and the fact that Ben Stevens had occupied so much of her mind today only proved that he’d gotten under her skin, nothing more. It was merely that he was an irritation. That was all. An irritation that would soon be gone.

Her phone buzzed, causing her to startle a little. Good lord, she really did need to get ahold of herself. She took a deep breath and reached for it, hoping that it was the seller's agent calling to inform her that her clients' offer had been accepted.

However, when she picked up the phone and looked at the screen, she saw Karina's dark, lovely face looking back at her. And because it was Karina, of course, she was sticking her tongue out in the photo. Lauren smiled and hit the button to answer the call.

“Hey, Kar. What’s up?”

“Hey, babe. So they ran out of daylight here at the house and production wants to get some 'day in the life' shots around Hope Falls. We're heading over to Sue Ann's to do a dinner scene. Could you meet us there?”

“I don't know, Karina. It's been a really long day and I'm waiting to hear back on an offer I just put in this afternoon.”

“Please, Laur? Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top? Everybody's going—Amanda, Justin, Sam, Luke, of course Ryan...but it's not the same without you. Please please please please please—” Karina singsonged.

“Okay, okay,” Lauren cut her off with a laugh. She’d seen Karina do that routine since elementary school and knew that she could keep it up for hours without breaking a sweat. “Let me run home and change. I’ll meet you all there in thirty.”

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