The Last One Read Online Free PDF Page A

the room spun, panic gripping my heart. “God, are you freaking kidding me? Where is he? You’re joking, right?”
    Laura collapsed against the counter opposite me, holding her middle. “Oh, you should have seen your face. Priceless. Absolutely priceless. Drink your coffee before you knock it over.”
    I reached for the mug and glared at her. “You’re a bitch, you know that? A mean, lying bitch. God, you almost gave me a heart attack.”
    “It wasn’t that far-fetched. You wanted to take Mr. Sexy Cowboy home, don’t you remember? You tried to talk me into it. Hell, he tried to talk me into it.”
    “Mr. Sexy Cowboy?” I frowned, trying to remember. The guy who’d been sending me smolders across the room had asked me to dance, as I had predicted. He’d bought me a drink ... maybe two ... and then we’d danced some more. There was a slow song, and I’d felt his fingers at the waistband of my skirt, slipping down over my ass. I didn’t remember anything after that.
    “Yeah, he was, um, motivated. I had to tell him that you and I were both nuns, and that we’d run away from the convent for one last night of forbidden fun before we took our vows, but that now we had to go back or God would smite us. And him, if he didn’t just let you go.”
    I sipped the coffee, almost moaning in appreciation. “Damn, this is good. So he bought that? He actually believed you?”
    One side of her mouth lifted in a half-smile. “I was very convincing. I almost cried. Plus, the guy might have been Mr. Sexy Cowboy, but he wasn’t Mr. Smart Cowboy. He had more brawn than brain cells.”
    “Nice, Lo.” I took another drink and hummed. “Well, thanks for getting me out of there and making sure I got home safely. I’m sorry if I was a pain in the ass.”
    Laura raised her eyebrows. “So you don’t remember the rest of the evening at all? The part where your car died in the middle of a very dark, very lonely stretch of country road, and the auto service couldn’t send anyone out to us? And where we were rescued by a really nice guy, who towed your car to the nearest garage and then arranged for us to have another car so we could get home?”
    My brows knit together. There was a vague familiarity about what she was saying. I could almost remember her leaning over me, saying something about a belt, and then walking along the side of a road and getting jettisoned into a truck. Then the rest of her words registered.
    “My car? Where’s my car?” I slid out of the seat and ran over to the window. Or I sort of ran; I fast-walked, because my head still wasn’t quite sure it was going to stay on my shoulders, and I didn’t want to risk it falling off.
    In the spot assigned to the sweet little blue Honda my dad had bought me before I started college sat an old ugly brown car. I turned back around. “What did you do with it?”
    “Weren’t you listening to me? It’s at a garage in Burton. That’s the loaner. Calm down, Sam said it shouldn’t be too long. Boomer’s going to call me on Monday.”
    “Who the hell is Sam? And what’s a Boomer?” I was hung-over and my car was stuck in some stupid little town in the middle of nowhere. I was entitled to be a little irritable.
    “Sam is the wonderful man who stopped to help us last night. Boomer is apparently the owner of the garage, and the mechanic who’s going to make your precious car like new.”
    “Hmm.” I turned back and flopped onto the couch. “Do we trust a man named after an explosive?”
    “Since he was our one and only choice, we trust him implicitly. And we will thank him for his kindness when we go back to get the car this week. Or rather, you will. Since I had the fun of getting through last night while you were passed out in the front seat, you get to handle car retrieval.”
    “Awesome. I can hardly wait.” I paused as another image flashed across my mind. “This Sam ... what did he look like?”
    Laura shrugged. “I don’t know. It was dark out