Page 25 of The Very Naughty List

I can tell Hailey doesn’t want to, and I have to stop myself from speaking for her and telling Maeve to go sit on a giant candy cane and get the fuck out of my garage with her not-so-broken car.

But when Hailey grudgingly agrees to help with the setup, I think I catch a bit of rebellion in her voice as she smiles back at Maeve.

“Sure, you’re right. It will be great.”

I can’t help the grin that tugs at my lips as she lifts her chin a little, squaring her shoulders. Despite the fact that Maeve has clearly been trying to bait her, there’s a quiet fierceness in Hailey’s expression that I fucking adore.

That’s right, shortcake. Don’t let the mean girls win.

9

HAILEY

Wakingup in my rented room at Ted’s place is completely underwhelming. At least he wasn’t up all night “jamming” on his guitar again. I managed to get some much-needed sleep after the plunge and my day with Sebastian.

On today’s agenda is my next fake date with Reid. As I get ready to go out, I take a minute to text Lorelai, filling her in on the events of yesterday and telling her a bit about my plans for the day.

LORELAI: It’s too bad you don’t have “dating three guys at once” on your naughty list.

I’m glad she can’t see my face when I read her text. She may be my best friend, and literally the only other person in the world who knows about my naughty bucket list, but it’s still enough to make me blush.

ME: It’s all just fake anyway, remember? So even if it was on my list, I couldn’t check it off. That’s for real experiences only.

LORELAI: I dunno, girl. It seems close enough to me.

I look at the screen on my phone for a long moment.Isit close enough? Nah, I can’t start thinking about things that way. I’ll only wind up getting hurt again.

I let Lorelai know that I need to get going and then set my phone down while I finish dabbing a bit of mascara on my eyelashes. I’ve never been one for a lot of makeup. Besides, I doubt I could cover all my freckles anyway. They punctuate the bridge of my nose and the tops of my cheekbones like the stars scattered across the night sky.

When I was little, I once took a black marker and drew lines between them, thinking that maybe they would form one of those dot-to-dot pictures. I remember being so upset when I tried to wash it off and found out it was permanent marker. But the next day at school, Lucas and the Cooper triplets stuck close by my side all day so that I wouldn’t get teased, and Lucas told me that it looked like I had constellations on my face—which he said meant that I was as beautiful as a galaxy.

I smile at myself in the mirror as the memory washes over me. My older brother has always been there to protect me and pick me up when I’ve needed him. Which is why I should really stop thinking about his three best friends in the way I have been.

I’m sure he would be scandalized if he could see inside my head right now.

Thank god no one but Lorelai knows about my naughty list.

My mind flits back to my text conversation with her. The list was something I wrote after leaving Dylan, right around when I got to LA. It’s mainly a bucket list of all the things I want to try in bed someday that I was too embarrassed to ask him to do with me—although some of them don’t even require a bed.

I sigh as I tuck in my shirt and get ready to leave my room. Unfortunately, I’ve been in a bit of a dry spell ever since leaving my shitty fiancé, so the list has been rendered pretty much irrelevant.

I was too busy trying to get by in LA to have time to date, much less worry about my poor neglected pussy. It goes withoutsaying that none of the items on my naughty list have been checked off. Not even one.

“And we won’t be checking anything off the list in Chestnut Hill either,” I mutter, glancing down at my crotch. “So don’t get any big ideas.”

I wonder if it’s normal to talk to your own vagina. Probably not, but she needs a good talking to right now. The past couple of days have been wreaking havoc on my nervous system, and all the attention from the Cooper triplets is definitely confusing my body. I feel like every little touch from any of them is enough to have sparks flying through my veins, lighting me up inside like the Fourth of July. I’m in a constant state of semi-arousal, and clearly some parts of my body haven’t gotten the message that there will be no follow through since it’s all just an act.

I tell my naughty bits to calm the fuck down one more time, then head out and make my way toward Chestnut Hill’s small downtown area. I’m not feeling very confident that my pussy pep talk is going to do much good though, especially when I arrive and see Reid standing outside the door of the town bistro to meet me for our “date.”

It’s his turn now, and I feel as if I’ve barely even recovered from my day with Sebastian.

Seeing him outside the restaurant makes my heart skip a beat, even from a distance. The way the sun hits the copper strands in his hair and the way his steely blue eyes cut across the street toward me are nothing short of breathtaking. Who knew that such a ruggedly masculine man could be sobeautiful?

But the best part about Reid isn’t his intense good looks, as hard as that is to believe. It’s how warm and kind and charming he is. He’s such a down-home sort of guy that everyone in the entire town wants to be friends with him. Out of all three of the Cooper brothers, Reid reminds me the most of his dad. Heseems like such a family guy, with love overflowing from his heart toward anyone that he cares about.

When I reach the door, he smiles and holds it open for me. And when we get to our table, he pulls out my chair and holds it as he waits for me to sit down before pushing it back in again. He makes this little local bistro feel like a five-star restaurant simply by the way he treats me, and I can’t help but grin as he takes the seat opposite me.

“You’re quite the gentleman.”

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