Page 3 of Bad Boy Crush

“Hardly.” Lou scoffed even as the idea tucked itself into her heart. She’d been close with Ant before and found herself missing him more and more. How did one reconcile a friendship after chucking said friend to the curb?

At the time, not speaking to Ant had seemed reasonable. His betrayal had seemed as large, if not larger, than her husband’s. Lately, Lou had noticed the distinct absence of his steadfast presence. She toed the trunk of the tree with one foot. She supposed nothing lasted forever.

“Oh no!” Elliott let out a gasp and bent over the tree. “Is that a squirrel?” Lou lowered herself to the ground as well. In a pile of soggy leaves was a ball of fluff. “It’s just a baby!”

Lou reached into the mess and carefully scooped up the wet, shivering squirrel. She cradled the tiny animal against the Knight Time concert T-shirt she’d slept in, her heart breaking. It had been all alone in the storm—just like her.

Its eyes were closed tightly, its tail looped over its nose. She stroked her fingertip along its tiny body before swaddling him into the hem of the shirt.

Elliott poked at the nest with a stick in search of more survivors, shrugging when she found none. “I think that’s the only one. An orphan.”

“You’re going to be late, Elli Bean,” Brady said. “Let Lou and I handle this.”

“I’ve got this. You go be a cop.” Lou waved him off. “I have the number of the Evergreen Cove Wildlife Sanctuary saved in my phone. I’ll give Lara a call and ask her what to do.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to hang out?” Elliott would skip her shift if Lou needed her. She appreciated the offer, even as she turned it down.

“Totally sure. Go make coffee for the Cove residents. Sounds like a lot of people are going to need the pick-me-up after being stuck in traffic jams due to storm debris.”

“Come on. I’ll drive you.” Brady took Elli’s hand. To Lou, he said, “Ant will be here within the hour. Let him do his thing, or you’ll be stranded. There’s no way you can back your car out of the driveway without his help.”

He was right. The wide trunk was obstructing the way to the main road. She wouldn’t be able to clear the driveway even if she managed to eke her car out of the garage.

“Thank you, Brady,” he said to Lou.

“Thank you, Brady,” she repeated, shaking her head as she watched her too-cute and too-in-love neighbors climb into his cruiser.

two

Anthony Renaldo pulled his truck to a stop three-quarters of the way down Lourdes’s driveway and parked in front of a massive tree trunk. Damn. Brady hadn’t been kidding. When he’d called about the “giant” felled tree, Ant had hoped his friend had been exaggerating. No way was this a one-man job.

He lifted his cell phone to his ear. Three rings in, Connor’s voicemail picked up. Connor McClain was a good friend and a landscaper, so tree removal was well within his wheelhouse. It was also well below his pay grade. Ant left a message anyway. “It’s Ant. Lourdes Daniels has a tree down, which I can hew into some great furniture. No way can I haul it alone. She lives down the beach from Evan and Charlie. House number nine-oh-four. If you’re available, brother, I could use the help.”

Ant clicked off. There was a reason he hadn’t mentioned that Lou lived next door to Brady. Years ago, Connor and Brady had a standoff involving Connor’s wife, Faith. Nothing terrible, just a territorial pissing match that Faith had nipped in the bud shortly after it’d occurred. There’d been, well, not a rift, but a definite distance between those two ever since. Ant had a lot of friends here in the Cove, and with so many alpha displays of chest-beating manliness, heads were bound to butt. Ant was less inclined to beat his chest. He preferred to stay laid-back, take-life-as-it-comes cool.

Until it came to Lou. The only time he remembered being spitting-nails pissed off was when he’d learned that Liam had been cheating on her. Lou had held Ant accountable for the betrayal as well when he’d made the epic mistake of not telling her the moment he’d found out. What she didn’t know was that he’d shoved Liam against a brick wall, locked his forearm over his pal’s neck, and demanded to know what the fuck he was thinking cheating on Lourdes.

Liam’s pleading had seemed heartfelt at the time. Ant had believed him when he’d said he wanted to tell Lou the truth, go to counseling, and fight for her. As angry as Ant was, he refused to stand in the way of them repairing their marriage. His own parents had divorced when he was a kid, his father leaving and his mother going to work two jobs to support him and his brothers. Ant, an ungrateful teen, had acted out and gotten himself into a heap of trouble. Despite the acrimonious way his parents had separated, he still believed in that sort of forever. In no way would he have been a party to wrecking it.

That year, the Danielses hadn’t visited the Cove as much as they had in previous years, which was what had prompted Ant to drop in on Liam unannounced. Ant had been in Columbus to meet with a client who wanted the tree in his front yard carved into a dragon, and, so long as the weather cooperated, Ant had been confident he could handle the job. He’d popped by Lou and Liam’s house on the way to the client’s but rather than finding Lou and Liam inside, found Liam in the driveway kissing a woman Ant had never laid eyes on before.

Five days after threatening Liam, Ant received a phone call from Lou. She’d accused him and damned him in the same breath. Her voice shook, but she hadn’t cried. He’d tried to interject, but she hadn’t let him. Bottom line, Liam hadn’t told Lou the truth. She’d found out on her own after discovering texts Liam had sent to his new girl.

The whole situation was a clusterfuck, no two ways about it.

Since she’d moved to the Cove, Ant and Lou had been civil with each other, which he took to mean she didn’t hate him any longer. It was a nice change of pace. She gave him hell at every opportunity—she was still Lou, after all—but he gave it right back. Somehow, they’d found a way to banter and bicker without any real venom behind it.

He’d met Lou first, which was probably why he’d always considered her his friend more than Liam. Ant had felt the blast of attraction the moment her blue eyes had settled on his. Before he’d had a chance to act on the palpable heat radiating between them, she’d said something that iced him where he stood. “My fiancé and I are looking for a dining room table. I hear you’re the guy to talk to.”

Fiancé.

Shit.

Over the years, his admiration for Lou as a person grew stronger. That he hadn’t acted on that wayward attraction was his crowning glory. And then Liam had cheated on her, which was fucking inexcusable. Especially when Ant would have given his left nut for a woman like her.

Chain saw in hand, Ant walked the length of the driveway, following the downed tree trunk to its leaved branches resting in the side yard. Lou had a kick-ass place—a big behemoth of a lake house with four bedrooms, three baths, and a comfortable couch Ant had passed out on once. Only once.

He’d woken the next morning to the sound of Liam and Lou having sex in the back of the house. Ant had sworn then and there to never again stay in close proximity to them. Even though he’d stood at their wedding as a groomsman, he hadn’t been able to keep from wondering what could have been if Liam had never entered the picture.

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