Prima Donna Read Online Free PDF Page A

about the fact I need to focus on finding a job and not on trying to keep some guy happy?”
    Maya waved her hand dismissively. “Focus shmokus. I’m not talking about a commitment—God knows the word alone is enough to give you a coronary—all I’m talking about is a distraction. And Carter would be perfect.”
    “You can’t be serious.” She nudged Maya a little farther down the table. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s hot and all, but…
Carter
?”
    “Uh,
yeah
!” Maya’s voice was little more than a tight growl. “You’ll have a good time, he’ll have a good time, you’ll both have some amazing sex, and then you’ll both move on, no harm, no foul. It’s not like he’ll care; he’ll just go find someone else. It’s what he does.”
    Well, that was true. “Yeah, but—”
    “But nothing. If anyone deserves a little distraction, it’s you, and at least with Carter, you know what you’re getting; he’s not going to hang all over you like Todd did, he’s not going to expect a lifetime commitment, and it’ll be good for him, too, because when it ends, he won’t have to deal with some whining sniveling bimbo who thought she’d get a ring out of him.” Maya cast a quick glance at Carter, then raised her brow at Regan. “Sounds like a win-win to me.”
    Maybe Maya was right; maybe a distraction was exactly what Regan needed to help take her mind off losing her salon and facing the fact that unless she won LottoMax in the near future, her mom’s time at Hillcrest was coming to a rapid end.
    Then again, maybe they’d both just had too much to drink. Shaking the idea from her mind, Regan elbowed Maya and tipped her head toward the living room.
    “What about you and Bachelor Number One?” she whispered. “Anything?”
    “Meh.” Maya popped a cherry tomato into her mouth, then proceeded to try and talk around it. “He’s okay. Better than Number Two.”
    “Maya. Just because your bastard cheating ex is a teacher, and a proven dickhead, doesn’t mean all teachers are dickheads.”
    “Yeah, well, you know what they say about one bad apple.” Maya added another tomato to her plate and grinned. “See what I did there? Teachers, apples.”
    “Hilarious,” Regan groaned. “Too bad Ellie’s not here, Jayne could’ve tried to hook her up with one of them.”
    “Better one of them than Brett.”
    “Ha! Not even Jayne would try to hook Ellie up with a cop, especially the one whose signature is on about ninety-five percent of her speeding tickets.”
    “I don’t know,” Maya said, setting a spring roll on her plate. “Jayne’s pretty determined to get us all married off now that she’s become the poster child for happy endings.”
    “I know,” Regan groaned. “Maybe we should hop on a plane and go join Ellie; she’d protect us.”
    “I’d love to, but I don’t even have a passport.”
    “Really? Mine has a grand total of one stamp in it.”
    “Where did you go?” Maya’s eyes widened. “Venice? Scotland? Ohmygod, I’ve always wanted to—”
    “Seattle.”
    “Seattle?” Maya couldn’t have looked less impressed.
    “The continental U.S. doesn’t count.” Carter’s voice startled Regan, tickling against her ear, but at least she was able to stop the shiver before it racked her entire spine again. “That’s like saying you’re going out for dinner when all you’re really doing is going next door for a barbecue.”
    He flashed a quick smile at Maya then immediately focused back on Regan, who took another step away from him and tried her damndest to appear unaffected as she lifted a mini–shrimp quiche in Maya’s direction.
    “Want one?”
    Maya stared back at her with disbelief before a slow smirk worked its way over her mouth. Lifting her brow, she shook her head slowly. “Uh, no thanks. I’d like to live to see tomorrow if you don’t mind.”
    Even before Maya finished, Regan realized what she’d done. One bite of that shrimp and Maya would’ve gone