Page 6 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

It was a lark.

CHAPTER 4

“It’s high time you flushed that turd once and for all.”

Hearing her boss speak was always a little shocking to Lark. With her soft, iron-gray curls, vast collection of fluffy cardigans, and round, five-foot-nothing stature, Sherry Willet looked like every grandma in every G-rated Christmas movie ever made. Then she opened her mouth and the vocabulary (and raspy voice) of a chain-smoking longshoreman poured out.

Lark sighed as she tucked the last of the centerpieces she’d been working on into the storage cooler. She’d grown to love Sherry’s blunt nature. But she didn’t really want to hear it this time.

Damn it, she knew what she had to do. It just wasn’t as easy for her as it would be for Sherry. “I’m going to.”

Sherry leaned her denim-clad butt on the sales counter and frowned at her. “Sure you are.”

“He’s got an important dinner with the partners tonight. I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

Her boss was obviously skeptical. But then again, skeptical was Sherry Willet’s natural state.

Lark had been fresh out of college with no idea what she wanted to do with her life when she wandered into Sherry’s Blooms. Truth be told, she’d been in the middle of an existential crisis. Her parents were encouraging her to get married so that she’d have support while she figured out how she wanted to use her shiny new sociology degree. Neal was, of course, 100% onboard with that plan. He’d always assumed she’d want to pop out four or five kids right away and be a stay-at-home mom. Neither possibility really floated her boat. Especially not the marrying Neal part.

But Sherry had taken one look at her tense face, offered her a cup of way-too-strong coffee with a healthy shot of Irish whiskey in it, and within an hour, Lark was a florist in training.

She’d loved every minute of it, too. There was something so…relaxingabout working with flowers. Making beautiful arrangements that made people happy was deeply satisfying in a way that Neal had never understood. Helovedto remind her of her wasted college degree. (As if becoming his brood mare and trophy wife would’ve been a better use of her degree.) But Lark didn’t care. She was good at her job, adored her customers, and had little-to-no work stress to speak of. How many people working high-powered jobs could saythat?

“Don’t you have to get to book club?” Lark asked, hoping Sherry would take the hint and get out of her hair.

Sherry waved her off. “Not for another hour. Besides, I didn’t finish the book. Janice chose it, which means there was no smut or cussing in it. What’s even the point?”

Her sour expression made Lark chuckle. Janice was Sherry’s polar opposite. It didn’t surprise Lark in the least that the two of them would have different book preferences. “What did you choose when it was your turn?”

“My Wild Barbarian Lovers,” Sherry said, as if it was a book everyone had been forced to read in college as part of a literature program.

Lark snorted at the thought of Janice carrying a copy ofMy Wild Barbarian Loversin her Vera Bradley handbag while attending her church’s potluck supper. “I bet shelovedthat.”

Sherry grinned. “She whined like a mule. But that’s not the point. The point is that I can be a little late to book club, because I’m not going anywhere until I convince you to dumpNeal—” she said in a tone that implied Neal was about as welcome in her life as herpes “—once and for all.”

“I’m convinced, OK? It’s just not easy for me to hurt anyone’s feelings. But after what happened the other day…I’m ready.”

Sherry leaned forward. “Ohhh, spill the tea, honey. What happened the other day? Was it a sex thing? It was a sex thing, wasn’t it? He couldn’t get it up, huh?”

Lark blinked at her. If not being able to get it up was a break-up-able offense, she would’ve left Neal in her rearvieweonsago. “It’s not a sex thing. There was a city worker who stopped by the house to investigate a gas leak, and Neal wassorude to him. It was like he was jealous of the guy or something.” She shook her head. “It was gross.”

When Sherry’s eyes narrowed on her speculatively, Lark got nervous. She didn’t have to wait long before her boss hit herwith, “Why did you get that tone when you mentioned the city worker?”

“What tone?”

“The same one you got when you talked that supplier into dropping the price of those peonies by half.”

Lark sighed dreamily. “That was a great day.”

Sherry nodded. “Yeah,thattone.”

Ugh. This was getting embarrassing. “The guy was…attractive, OK?”

More eye narrowing. “On a scale of Gary Busey to Chris Hemsworth, how attractive are we talking?”

“Hotter than Chris Hemsworth,” she blurted without a second thought. “Taller, I think, and with dark hair.”

And tattoos. And a nipple piercing.

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