The Greenes
My Beautiful Neighbor
My Almost Ex
My Vegas Groom
The Greene Family Summer Bash
My Sister’s Flirty Friend
My Unexpected Surprise
My Famous Frenemy
The Modern Love World
Charmed by the Bartender
Hooked by the Boxer
Mad about the Banker
The Single Dad’s Club
Real Deal
Dirty Talker
Sexy Beast
Hollywood Hearts
Mister Mom
Animal Attraction
Domestic Bliss
Bedroom Games
Cold as Ice
On Thin Ice
Break the Ice
Box Set
Charity Case
Manic Monday
Afternoon Delight
Happy Hour
Blue Collar Brothers
Flirting with Fire
Crushing on the Cop
Engaged to the EMT
White Collar Brothers
Sexy Filthy Boss
Dirty Flirty Enemy
Wild Steamy Hook-up
The Rooftop Crew
My Bestie’s Ex
A Royal Mistake
The Rival Roomies
Our Star-Crossed Kiss
The Do-Over
A Co-Workers Crush
Hockey Hotties
My Lucky #13
The Trouble with #9
Faking it with #41
Missing Linc
Copyright © 2021 by Marika Ray
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Edition: June 2, 2021
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
About Missing Linc
I think I just slept with Mr. Perfect. Too bad he turned out to be my brother’s best friend.
The tattooed stranger rode a motorcycle while helping me collect stray cats. My boots gave me blisters and he carried me on his back. I needed help and he didn’t ask questions before assisting me. Could there be a more perfect man? It just made sense to lick him and claim him as mine right then and there.
But I probably should have asked him more questions before we slept together. Like, what’s your last name? Where’ve you been living before moving here to Auburn Hill? Is my older brother your best friend?
You know. Those kind of questions.
Chapter One
Keva
“Oh my goodness, Miss Lucy is going to kill me!”
I didn’t have much time to make things right. Despite the tough-as-nails narrative men had been screaming from the cave-top since the dawn of mankind, their damn swimmers were fragile little fuckers. One degree north or south for a minute too long and they went belly up.
I held the little plastic cup as far from my person as I could manage while hustling down the road in my brand-new boots. They’d looked as cute as an Instagram influencer when I tried them on, but unbroken leather, plus a bit more than a kitten heel, and I was liable to pitch face-first into a ditch before I got to Main Street and found someone to hitch a ride with.
“Damn car. I swear that piece of shit is going to be the death of me.” The scrub oak tree off to the left didn’t answer, but I could have sworn she nodded those branches at me. She’d been witness to no less than four breakdowns on this road either coming or going from work at Coastal Fertility Clinic.
I’d been trying to do something nice by insisting Lucy go home early to her precious kiddos and hot-ass husband. Transferring this sperm sample to the larger bank in San Jose for further testing that we didn’t have the equipment for was on my way to the fancy restaurant my friends and I wanted to try out tonight. Friday night in the city, baby. The perfect way to find a man. A man not from Auburn Freaking Hill, aka Hell. I may live here now, but my heart still felt at home in the big city.
The echo of a door slamming had me jumping, the newly formed blisters on my heels groaning in protest. The door to Yedda’s National Cat Protection Society gaped wide open, a sight that would terrify anyone from around here. Cats of all sizes and colors streamed out the doorway, their noses in the air, smelling the natural odor of freedom.
And then the odor of freedom hit my own nose. “Oh dear God!” My lip snarled up so violently, my eye started twitching. Holy rotten eggs. That had to be a stink bomb. Nothing else could make that nasty of a smell.
“Get back here, my darlings!” Yedda exited the building and waved her spindly arms in the air, spinning left and right, probably uncertain of which direction to go. The cats had scattered far and wide, all one hundred of them choosing a different path to freedom.
“Need some help?” I called out across the street, forgetting about my own situation. I could tell, even from a distance, her thoughts were frantic with worry over her cats. I didn’t go around bragging about it, but I had a highly accurate telepathy. Came in handy with tricky relationship situations when I could read the other person’s mind. Not so great when I got the real scoop on what someone thought of my new pants. Guess they did make my butt look fat.
Yedda’s head whipped over and she smiled that famous smile of hers. Even in the midst of chaos, she could spare a smile for someone else. “Oh, hi there, Keva. I seem to be having some problems here.”
I walked across the street after looking both ways. Kinda silly since there wasn’t much traffic along Brinestone Way late on a Friday afternoon. Yedda squinted her eyes and watched the last of her precious cats run all the way down the street to the famous roundabout. Hopefully they could navigate it better than Peggy Sue, the old lady who frequently found herself going round and round until her steering fluid ran dry.
“I see that. What happened?” It was fairly common for a cat or two to escape, but all of them at once? That was a new one. I fluttered my hand in front of my face. The stench was stronger on this side of the road.
Yedda’s brightly colored lips opened and closed a few times before she started talking. “Well, I thought Poppy was delivering the mail. The little flipper-flapper thing on the front door flapped and in popped a little package. I went over to investigate, but then tripped over Frankie and ended up stepping on the package. The damn thing popped and out came a stench that seared off my eyelashes. I stumbled and grabbed the doorknob to keep from going down, but I guess the door opened too and my poor kitties shot right out while my eyes were stinging. They didn’t care for the stench either.”
My head bobbed in sympathy. Her thoughts were scattered, but she kept coming back to one thought fragment that left me puzzled. But hey, “no judgies” was my motto when it came to mind reading. “Well, don’t you worry, Yedda. I’ll help you collect the cats and get you back to that porno you intended to watch this evening.”