Page 18 of The Very Naughty List

“Welcome back.” Ted pulls the cigar out of his mouth as he looks up at me and holds it out in his hand.

“No, thanks.” I barely suppress the urge to retch. “I, uh, don’t smoke.”

“Neither do I.” He shrugs, putting the cigar back in his mouth and speaking around it as he adds, “Only when I’m about to jam.”

Oh, dear god, no.

I cringe as he pulls an acoustic guitar out from the side of the couch and starts to play along with the music coming through the speakers. Giving him a vague wave, I make a beeline toward my room, slipping inside and closing the door behind me. I was hoping it would block out the sound, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to make much difference. I’ll have to pray he gets tired and gives it up before too long.

After such a wonderful night, it’s kind of a downer to have to come back to a shitty place like this, but I brush it off, refusing to let it put a damper on my mood. At least I have a safe, cheap place to stay, even if it’s less than desirable.

I get changed quickly, sliding a soft, oversized T-shirt over my head before washing my face and brushing my teeth andhair. Then I climb into bed and try to settle my mind down enough to fall asleep.

I could blame Ted’s atrocious music for the fact that I can’t seem to drift off, but in all honesty, I’m still too keyed up from my eventful day to be able to sleep yet anyway.

So instead of staring blankly into the darkness, I pick up my phone and text Lorelai. It’s not quite as late where she is, so I’m pretty sure she’ll still be awake.

ME: Hey, are you still up?

LORELAI: Of course! I’m doing my nails in bed.

I laugh out loud, because I can totally picture Lorelai doing that right now. It’s just like her to be up late with her dark hair tied up in a messy bun while she paints her toenails alternating shades of pink. I can see her heart-shaped face peering closely at each nail to paint it perfectly.

ME: So remember how you told me not to get distracted by any hot guys while I’m here?

LORELAI: I knew it. You went and fell for some mountain man, didn’t you?

ME: Calm down, lol. It’s actually not nearly as exciting as I made it sound. It’s my brother’s three triplet best friends, and it’s only a sort of pretend situation to get my ex to leave me the hell alone.

LORELAI: Whoa whoa whoa. Back it up there, sweet cheeks. I’m gonna need a hell of a lot more details than that. You’re talking about the Cooper brothers, right? THE Cooper brothers??

ME: Yup. I’m fake dating them. All of them.

LORELAI: Holy. Shit! Fake dating? I didn’t even think that was a real thing! How the hell did that happen??

I fill her in on everything, texting her until my eyelids start to droop and I fall asleep with my phone still clutched in my hand.

When my alarmgoes off in the morning, I wake up feeling a little less enthusiastic about this whole idea.

Not the fake dating plan—which I’m actually very much still on board with—but specifically, my date with Sebastian.

Damn my past self and her inability to back down from a dare.

I throw one arm over my face dramatically, groaning into the quiet morning air. Ted stopped his racket a short while before I fell asleep last night, so it’s blissfully silent in the house now.

“Are you seriously going to do this, Hailey?” I mutter to myself.

I was raised in Montana, so I grew up with cold weather. But I’ve had two years for my blood to thin out while living in Los Angeles, and even before I left Chestnut Hill, I was never really the type to participate in things like the Polar Bear Plunge. I always figured that winter is cold enough. Why add to it by voluntarily jumping into a freezing lake?

But Sebastian was always the daredevil of Lucas’s brotherhood of best friends, and I like to think that I was part of that group more often than not, even if they were just indulging me by letting me join. I can remember how Sebastian had a way of getting me to take the leap on things, even back then. Anytime I felt skittish about something, he always seemed to be there helping me rise to the challenge.

It’s funny, in a sort of sad way almost, how everyone always saw him as such a rebellious kid. I guess that maybe I saw a different side of him sometimes, a side that wasn’t always just about thrill-seeking but about something a lot deeper. He hada gift for making me feel braver and bolder than I actually probably was.

So I’ll rise to the challenge this time too. I refuse to wimp out on him. And to prove it, I’m even going to take things up a notch.

Hauling my ass out of bed, I pad over to the dresser where I put a bunch of my clothes when I unpacked. Then I rifle around in the top drawer until I find the very skimpy bikini I brought. I had several just like it in LA, since it made perfect sense to own a bunch of bikinis there. Of course, here it pretty much makes no sense at all.

Unless you’ve been tricked into doing a plunge into a freezing lake, in which case it’s the perfect outfit to prove that you’re not even a tiny bit scared of the cold.

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