The blood heating Jo’s face turned cold. “You didn’t—”
“’Course, I didn’t.” She pulled a card from her coat pocket. “He said if you needed anything…”
Jo took the business card—thick, matte black with embossed gold writing, simple yet elegant. Expensive.Preston Enterprises. Avery Preston, VP of Finance.But then she already knew that from her research.
Viv bounced again and started toward the door. “You should let him take your mind off your troubles. Your clothes, too, for that trifecta.”
Jo snorted and shoved the card in her hoodie pocket, glad she hadn’t told Viv the specifics of her run-in with him. She’d never stop hounding her.
She followed Viv to the door and gave her a hug. “Thank you for everything.”
“I gotchu.” Viv winked and jogged down the hall.
Jo closed the door and turned to Brooke, who’d been quiet throughout Viv’s revelation. She had that look in her eye, the one that said she was hatching a plan.
“What?”
“You should call him.”
“Oh my god, not you, too.” They were supposed to be on her side, but one little gesture, and they’d turned traitors.
“Maybe he’s not such a dick after all.”
“Believe me, he is.” Jo skirted the peninsula and started loading the silicon molds into the dishwasher. “A man like that isn’t used to taking no for an answer. He’s used to getting what he wants, and he gets it a lot.”
Just thinking about himgetting itmade her belly quiver.Shit.
“Sounds to me like he’s trying to make up for his dickishness.”
“Ha! More like, kicking a dog while she’s down.” Or what was that other one Grandma used to say. Striking while the iron’s hot? He was hot and, from what she’d felt, iron-hard.
“That’s entirely my point. I think you should take him up on his offer.”
The baking sheet in Jo’s hand slipped, clanging against another. She turned around to stare at Brooke. “You can’t be serious.”
“No, listen, it could work.” Brooke grabbed a soda from the fridge. A soft hiss escaped as she twisted the top. “You obviously don’t like him. He just wants a date. If you set some hard boundaries for him, you can do this. Just think of the contacts you could make. And hey, what better way to get back at him than to make him pay?”
“Revenge, huh?” Propping a hip against the counter, Jo folded her arms and considered getting even with the entitled asshole. He certainly deserved it. And she could recoup her savings. But the strange things he did to her libido were dangerous. Not to mention the stupid things that came out of his mouth. “Nah, I’d probably murder him before I got anything out of the deal and spend the rest of my life living in a gray-walled six-by-eight and wearing orange.”
“The orange would be punishment enough,” Brooke said with a soft laugh, her eyes twinkling with the shared memory of junior prom.
Jo had mopped floors at the grocery store for months to order the dress of her dreams—a silk sapphire sheath. She’d been so excited to wear it. The morning of prom, Jo and Brooke came home from helping decorate the community center to find out Jo’s stepmother, Lydia, had returned Jo’s dress and replaced it with a monstrosity of pumpkin ruffles.
Jo was devastated, but Brooke had rallied, and that night, when she came to pick up Jo, she had dyed her white dress orange to match Jo’s, and they’d had a great time reliving the look on Lydia’s face.
Good times.
“Viv seems to like him.” She really wasn’t going to let this go.
Jo popped in a pod, closed the dishwasher, and started the load. “Viv can’t resist a hot body with a pretty face.”
“So, he’s hot?”
With a roll of her eyes, she clicked her tongue. “I’m not blind.”
Or immune, which would be the biggest hurdle. But she could handle guys like Avery Preston.
No, no, no, don’t even think about it.
