Page 2 of The B!tch List

“Hot,” she exclaimed. “Because, you have to admit he is. He looks a lot like Charlie Hunnam.”

And wasn’t that the truth. Okay, so she was right, Shaw was most definitely hot but what was the point of that if you were an argumentative, egotistical idiot.

“Did I ever tell you I met him?”

“Who? Shaw?”

“No, stupid.” Lily sighed. “Charlie Hunnam. My dad was kind of seeing one of the actresses on the show. I say seeing her, he was having sex with her in between her scenes.”

“Was she a main character?” I asked, my interest piqued.

“Hmm, kind of.” She huffed. “The point is I met him, and he was like real nice. He’s English you know and to be honest Shaw has much bluer eyes.”

I felt grumpy all of a sudden. I wanted her to think he was an argumentative egotistical idiot with pale uninteresting eyes, the color of twenty-year old washed-out denim, not the damn South Pacific.

“Okay, whatever.” I sighed heavily. “Now you know I’m not having the spawn of Satan, you can go. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

“Well, it is family night tonight. I do need to prepare my game face.”

I giggled knowing she would be rolling her eyes. Her mom, Kitty, and Jefferson Delaney, Hunter’s dad, were dating. Lily knew they were gearing up to tell her that she and Kitty were moving to the ranch.

It was obvious to everyone they were madly in love and would be taking the next step soon. Kitty and Jefferson however, had been arranging lots of family dinners and activities. All, that Lily was sure, were to prepare her for the big news and to get her used them becoming a family.

“You should just tell them that you know,” I replied. “Then tell them how you want your room decorated.”

“No way,” she scoffed. “It’s far more fun this way. Jefferson buys me so much bribery ice cream he pretty much has shares in the dairy.”

“Up to you,” I winced as a cramp hit. “But I’m going to eat chocolate, drink wine and watch Netflix. So g’night, Lily.”

“No, no, no,” she cried. “Don’t go yet. I have a favor I need to ask.”

I knew I should never have answered the damn phone.

“Honey, can’t you take just a few days off before working for Tate?” Mom asked as she placed a mug of coffee in front of me. “You’ve just finished a real hard year of law school.”

“I want the experience, Mom, and this project that Tate is setting up is important.”

Tate Hallahan had moved to Dayton Valley a little less than a year ago and was already doing great things. Including setting up a specialized arm of his firm that specifically helped single moms, abused women and divorced women—basically any woman that had been wronged by a man. His dad trying to cheat his mom out of millions in their divorce had given him the idea.

“Tate’s got a huge case load as well as interviewing a couple of other lawyers and he needs me to contact a ton of support groups to see if they want to partner with us.”

Mom rubbed my head and sighed. “It’s all amazing what he’s doing, but I just wish you’d been able to take a few days off first. Austen was hoping that you’d go go-karting with him.”

I gave her the side eye. “No,youwere hoping I’d go karting with Austen. He’s too busy doing what Austen does and you wantmeto find out exactly what that is. And if what Austen does is sex you wantmeto make sure he’s being careful.”

Her sigh was heavier this time. “I think I know the answer but he’s sixteen. I’m worried that we’ll have another grandchild on the way. Do you know he went out withthreedifferent girls last month? Three, Shaw. I’d bet money on the fact that he had sex with all of them.”

“How the hell do you know that?” I laughed and reached for a piece of buttered toast and took a bite.

“He got a hicky on consecutive nights and the third night he came in with his shirt on backward.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s having sex, Mom. He might just be making out with them. Admittedly that sounds like pretty hot making out, but that might be all it is.”

She flopped down onto a chair next to me and hugged her own coffee mug to her chest. “At least when he was dating Peggy I knew where he was and that he had no idea that he could do more than pee from his wiener.”

That made me burst out laughing—my mom was so naïve it was unbelievable. Austen had asked me all about sex when he was fifteen. Apparently, I was a much better source of information than Hunter and Carter, who both sucked. So, of course, I’d had to do the big brother thing and explain that they were both underage and maybe they should wait. Then I’d bought him a jumbo box of condoms and given him my copy of ‘How to Please your Woman in bed’.

“Take good care of it,” I’d said as I held out the delicate paperback. “Read the notes in the margins. They’re mine, Hunters, Carters and Alaska’s. They’ll serve you well.” It was a real fucking Obi Wan moment.

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