Page 27 of Every Time My Heart Breaks

“I say, you suck, and I hate you,” I straight up told him before sighing out my defeat and muttering, “But fine. Whatever. Meet up here. I’ll see if I can get Tara or someone to come in and cover for me.”

“Great!” he cheered. “We’ll be there in five. You’re the best, buddy. You know that? The very best.”

“You’re damn right I am,” I agreed. “And you owe me so big for this.”

But Trick had already hung up on me.

I heaved out a sigh and then called my fill-in bartender to see if she could come in on such short notice.

These Ryans, I decided moodily, they were all going to be the death of me, I swear.

7CHLOE

As I pulled away from Dad’s bar, heading toward the restaurant where I was supposed to meet…

Shoot. What was his name again?

Logan! Yes. Right.Logan.

As I went on my merry way to meet Logan, I scowled, still fuming from some of the things Luke had just said to me. “You might as well just put a sign on your back,” I grumbled under my breath, imitating him. “God, he’s so… He’s just so freaking…”

Right.

Sadly, Luke had been absolutely right. And that was the worst thing about it. He hadn’t even needed to lie. Iwasjust about the only single female left in our group. There were my two cousins, Riley and Ayden, but they were only nineteen and seventeen, so they didn’t count. And then there was Lucy, but Vaughn seemed to have staked his claim on her already, so…

Yeah, there was basically just me left. Lonely and pairless Chloe.

A single earring that had no mate.

I couldn’t think of anything sadder than that.

My hand lifted moodily as I turned a corner at a green light, and I started to play with my bare earlobe before growling to myself and jerking my hand down.

But dammit, I was going to keep fiddling with my earring-less ears all night and thinking about stupid Luke and his bothersome, asshole comments if I didn’t do something and soon. Luke was the last thing I wanted on my mind while I was spending time with Logan, so I sent a glance to the time and gnashed my teeth.

This was going to make me so late. Then again, I never arrived on time for a date these days. That had become test number one on my list to see how a man handled tardiness. But I seriously didn’t have time to turn back and go all the way home for new earrings, otherwise, my tardiness would extend too far and would make him think I’d straight up no-showed. And I had to havesomethingon my ears, or Luke was going to ruin the whole night for me.

Hmm… Maybe if there was a department store near the restaurant or someone I knew who lived close by. Pulling up a mental map of where the restaurant was located, I realized that—yes!—Lucy lived just around the corner.

“Perfect,” I announced aloud and gave her a call to see if I could borrow some earrings fromher.

Luckily, she was a new mother and was actually home on a Saturday night, so I was pulling up to the curb in front of her place moments later, determined to wipe Luke from my head so I could concentrate on my actual date and at leasttryto find some kind of connection with Lu—I mean, Logan.

Logan.

You’re going out with Logan, Chloe. Put that name in your memory banks and remember it!

But dear Lord, I was hopeless. I just wanted to move on with my life and find someone to spend the rest of it with. I didn’t want to be alone anymore.

Alone was just…lonely.

I wanted aperson. My own person to share the rest of my years with. I was a simple girl with simple wants. I just wanted to meet someone, get married, and live happily ever after.

And since I’d realized ten years ago that mypersondefinitely wasn’t going to be Luke Hamilton, I’d been struggling and searching to find someone else to fill the role. Except no one was ever quite right, and I was beginning to lose hope.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t even looking for true love anymore. I just wantedsomeone, some halfway responsible, decent companionwho was at least marginally suitable enough to keep me from always feeling so miserable and unwanted. That was all. I’d even lowered my standards and shed most of my pickiness.

Which might be why I now had a creepy ex I’d been forced to put a restraining order out against, but damn. There had to be a man out there somewhere that didn’t require restraining orders, right?

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