Prologue
Lizzy
With both of my elbows perched on the counter of my best friend’s clothing boutique, I admired the cluster of hot, rich guys in the back trying on the clothes we had picked out for them. It was like Pretty Woman in reverse. They were the ones with all the money, but damn was it ever fun to watch them change in and out of the garments before spinning around the changing area in all their charming glory.
I snapped to suddenly, realizing I was close to drooling down my chin. That was when I realized Angel and Del were no better off than me. They had their chins propped on their palms on either side of me with dreamy looks in their eyes. Well, if they weren’t going to bother hiding their obvious ogling, then why should I?
I shamelessly settled back into my gazing pose, setting my sights on Damon Hunter. He was somewhere near six-foot-three with a thin but muscular build. His skin was soft and the color of chocolate – a combination that made my mouth water. And that smile… He had big, perfect white teeth and every time he flashed a smile, it melted me from the inside out. He was the kind of guy who knew the power he had in that devilish grin, and would use it with slow precision. Like a weapon.
I was so lost in gawking at him that I barely heard the words coming from his mouth. Del nudged me and only then did I hear him thanking me for picking out the shirts for him. He said something about them fitting his style perfectly, but even that was hard to make out over the sound of my heart pounding like a drum. All I could think was, if I can pick out shirts for you that you actually like, you should probably make me your wife.
Del bumped my arm again, prompting me to actually answer the man. “Oh, sure,” I smiled with a nervous laugh, feeling my cheeks turn bright red and hot. “It’s not a big deal...really. Don’t mention it.”
The rest of it went by in a daze until finally, the guys had left and the three of us could breathe again. Del was the only one who felt any form of relief. Her and Nick Ransom, the head of their crew and business, had snuck off to the backroom long enough for us all to know they weren’t just sorting inventory back there.
“I saw that wink Damon flashed at you,” Angel teased, still fanning herself after watching her own crush, Joey.
“Believe me. So did I,” I sighed.
“Uh-huh. Well...I think that was your cue to ask him out,” she added, digging into me with her eyes.
My whole body slumped. That was just the thing I needed, or didn’t need at all, to burst my bubble. “If he wanted to go out with me, he would have asked me out.”
Angel and Del answered with a collective groan, eyeing each other to see which one was going to start lecturing me first.
“This isn’t high school,” Del told me. “Nor is it the sixties. Women ask men out now, and long before that ever happens there’s a lot of shameless flirting.”
“Or shameless sex,” Angel laughed, pointing out Del’s own situation of secretly sleeping with her dream guy for weeks before they finally admitted to having feelings for each other.
The two of them started bickering, leaving me to slink off into the background – which was where I preferred to be. Our trio had been thick as thieves since we were little. That was how small towns like ours worked. We banded together in little tribes at daycare and, for the most part, stayed in those same groups all the way into our adult years.
But I wasn’t like Del and Angel. Del had always been hard-working and independent with a brain for making money and running her shop and not much else. She didn’t let anybody get to her or talk down to her. Angel had the same kind of attitude, but with more of a wild streak. She always had the funniest things to say, and was never too shy to say them. They fed off of each other's confidence to the point where they acted invincible.
I, on the other hand, never felt quite so sure of myself. Or even if I did on the inside, I never quite figured out how to make that show on the outside. In high school, when the two of them went out on dates, I stayed in and read romance novels. I constructed the image of a perfect man and relationship in my head, only to quickly find none of that actually seemed to exist in the real world.
“It wasn’t like that and you know it!” Del shrieked to Angel. I realized that while my mind drifted, the two of them hadn’t stopped bickering even for a second.
“Okay, okay. However the hell this thing with you and Nick happened, I’m just saying our girl Lizzy could use some of that same action.”
I rolled my eyes. “I could never do what you and Nick did.”
Del’s eyes glinted as she tensed up in defensive mode. “What the hell is that supposed to mean!?”
“I’m not saying there was anything wrong with the way it happened!” I assured her. “It’s just not for me. It’s not how I always imagined it happening.”
“Imagined what happening?” Angel huffed skeptically, even though we’d had some version of this talk about a million times before.
“You know...romance. Love. Marriage. I want the whole fairytale dream of it all. The knight in shining armor. Or at least a guy who actually knows what he wants and just comes right out with it. I want him to ask me out. I want him to woo me and win me over. And Damon would never do anything like that.”
Del wasn’t ready to let it go. “Nick didn’t know what he wanted at first. Neither did I. It was all kind of a surprise. We had some bumps in the road, but I like the way it all turned out with us. The confusing parts in the beginning were just a part of our adventure. And an adventure is like a fairytale, right!?”
“I prefer a fairytale where my heart doesn’t get broken before it’s all made right again,” I huffed. “Besides. The problem is not that Damon doesn’t know what he wants. He obviously wants to flirt and have fun and mess around. The end. And I’m just not into it.”
“It might be good for you,” Angel grumbled, making Del snicker.
They both always thought I was too rigid and uptight. They were always pushing me to loosen up and not take everything so seriously. That was why it made no sense whatsoever that I was so enamored with Damon. He had the looks, money, and charm. He was the life of any party – always throwing out the cleverest jokes with perfect timing. He was cool and stylish. Basically, everything I wasn’t. He had trouble written all over him, but all my good sense and self-preservation seemed to fly right out the window the second he came around.
“Life isn’t a movie. Or a book or a fairytale. Or even nice or fair half the time,” Del reminded me. It was something she felt the need to tell me often. “But sometimes, when you take the risk, you find something that makes all the scary, painful parts more than worth it.”
A risk, I scoffed to myself. I had never taken a risk in my life unless it came to lying to cover one of their shifts at the diner. That was when it hit me.
“Ah! What time is it!? I’m probably late!” I raced to grab my phone before running out the door.
“Lizzy...not again!” They scolded me as I spilled the entire contents of my purse across the floor. But they weren’t onto me about my hurried clumsiness.
“You know old Mr. Harold needs all the help he can get these days,” I explained, sweeping everything up into my bag like a broom and a dustpan. “He’s two staff members short since you both left and his health is fading. None of the newcomers in town want to work there. He has a hard time finding people to hire who actually stay longer than a week.”