an asshole— to a prick— and hopefully help you find what you're looking for.”
Slamming my fingers to my forehead, I cupped my temples. “Are you fucking serious you guys? Did you really hire this guy?”
Gina leaned over, rubbing my elbow. “Kin, I'm going to be honest, you need the help. You were never good with guys since we were kids, and I just really want you to have the chance to realize there's someone out there for you. We didn't do this to be jerks, okay?”
Layne leaned back in his seat, twining his fingers together. “Kinsley, if you don't want to do this, I can't make you. But I promise you, you'll learn a lot if you let me help. But the choice is yours.”
I didn't know what to think. My friends had hired me a handyman to find a boyfriend, what the hell was I supposed to do with that?
And he's the hottest thing I've ever seen on two feet.
What the hell could he possibly teach me? Aside from how to eye fuck him as he spoke, or dream of all the naughty things he could do to me.
Oh my God...
Wait... No.
Stop, just stop.
“Kin, just try it. See what he can do for you... I know I wouldn't pass him up.” Smirking, Lynn teased the ends of her hair. “Come on, you know we would never do anything to hurt you.”
I knew deep down they were right. My experiences before my husband were not exactly perfect, and fault free. Max happened into my world by chance, and I was lucky for that. Before him I had pretty much screwed up all the other chances I had with men.
But I had always played that up to being that I had been meant for Max, and that was why nothing else worked out. Deep down, I also knew my faults.
And they didn't come without a price... It came with a lot of baggage and broken hearts.
Hot air fell from the back of my throat, a deep grunt followed, hitting the roof of my mouth. “Alright. I'll do this, what the hell could it hurt right?” Shaking my head, I snapped it up to look at Layne. “But what if I decide this isn't for me?”
Holding his palms out, he said, “Then you call it off, and we part ways. It's that easy.”
“And how do I know you're not some crazy stalker who hunts down single women?”
“If I was a crazy stalker, Kinsley, you wouldn't be seeing my face right now.” His brow arched up playfully, teeth tugging on his lower lip. “I'm a man of my word, you will find what you're looking for.”
And somehow with that little gesture, he had comforted my worries. I wasn't sure how, or why I suddenly trusted what he was saying... But I did.
Maybe it was the sternness of his voice, maybe it was the confidence he emitted as he spoke, the certainty that he was a man who knew what he was doing.
Maybe I just knew my friends were right, and it was time for me to get back out there.
I wanted to be ready to let go of the life I wanted, and finally embrace the life that had so unkindly been tossed at my feet.
Either way, I couldn't spend my time wrapped up in the dream that one day my husband would come home and my world would go back to the way it was.
The way it should have been.
It's time to move forward, Kinsley.
“Okay, I'm in.”
I hope I'm making the right choice.
Let this be a deal with the devil I won't want to give back.
Chapter Three
Layne
“S o you're telling me you're from the board of directors with the teacher's association?”
The man behind the desk held his hands flat against the wood, eyeing me like a criminal. I couldn't blame him entirely. I was a stranger who had invaded his school unannounced, and uninvited.
As far as a criminal goes, that was only as a teenager. I grew out of that stage a long time ago. A few stolen cars had gotten me into some trouble, but I left that in my past. Money and the wrong people had power over my life at one point, and I definitely wasn't going to go down that road again.
I controlled my life now.
But he didn't need to think that way, not if I could play my cards right. I knew if I wanted to get in, I had to