7
Liv walkedalong Lake Shore Drive and tried to pinpoint the emotions she was feeling. She was anxious. Nervous. All she wanted to do was run back to the B&B, crawl in bed, and hide. She thought she’d prepared herself for this weekend, but apparently, she wasn’t as mentally shored up as she’d thought.
After running into Chrissy at the Drawbridge Diner she’d spent the rest of the day in her room writing. For a few hours there she was able to lose herself in the Rogues of Riverglen world that lived in her imagination and on the pages of her books. But when her alarm went off indicating it was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner, she was snapped like a taut rubber band back into reality.
It’s going to be fine. She told herself for the hundredth time.
This weekend was Bridgette’s weekend. It wasn’t about her or Jordan.
Jordan.
Tomorrow she was supposed to walk down the aisle to marry the man she’d been with for most of her adult life. She’d thought she had enough closure in that department but maybe Rasha had been right. Maybe attending the wedding was a bad idea.
As if she’d summoned her best friend, her phone rang and when she pulled it out she saw it was Rasha. She answered the FaceTime and her friend’s face appeared on the screen.
“Hey Rash, how’s—”
“There’s still time to come home.”
Liv couldn’t deny that Rasha’s statement sounded tempting. But she was already here, in Whisper Lake. How bad could the next forty-eight hours be?
“I almost got arrested last night,” Liv changed the subject.
Her friend’s eyes narrowed. “Have you already started drinking?”
“Not today, no. But I was a bottle of merlot deep last night when a cop showed up at my door who I thought was a stripper, thanks to you.”
Her brown eyes sparkled with delight as her face split in a wide smile. “Tell. Me. Everything!”
Liv sat on a small bench in front of Snow White’s Snack Shack and filled her friend in on the events. After going through the embarrassing details, including being detained, Rasha asked. “Did you get Hot Cop’s number?”
“I almost got arrested and that’s what you’re worried about?”
Rasha’s expression remained unchanged. “Yes.”
“No, I didn’t.” But she wished she had.
She’d been thinking of him all day.
Normally, when she wrote and got in the zone, nothing could distract her. World War III could be going on outside and she’d be oblivious. But today, while she was in her zone, a certain police officer’s face kept appearing when she was writing the Duke.
Although she got inspiration from people, she never actually pictured any real-life person while she wrote. But that was before she opened the door last night and saw the most beautiful human being on the planet. That was before she’d heard the gravelly timbre in hot cop’s voice. That was before she’d sniffed the masculine scent that went from her olfactory senses straight to her lady parts.
The Duke of Havenshire was now officially Officer Not A Stripper.
“Mommy!” Tierra screamed in the background.
Rasha’s eyes darted to the left and she sighed. “What did you do, Tie?” Her attention returned to the screen. “I have to go. Your mission, which you will choose to accept, is to find Hot Cop tonight and get his number.”
“How am I supposed to—" The screen on her phone went back to her screensaver. “—find him?” Liv completed her question.
Whisper Lake was a small town, but not that small. She could go to the police station and leave him her number. But…no. How desperate was that?
Liv stood and walked the rest of the way to Lanterns feeling a little better for having spoken to her bestie. She just needed to get through the next two days and then she’d be back to her regularly scheduled programming and she could put Jordan, and this wedding fiasco, firmly in the rearview mirror of her life.
When she got to the restaurant, she caught her reflection in the glass door. Liv couldn’t remember the last time she’d dressed up. It was probably for the launch party for book five in her series and that was two years ago.
Tonight, she’d decided to wear a bodycon dress that Rasha had given her. It was navy blue with a keyhole back and she had on camel espadrille wedges. Her hair was down and she’d curled the ends. Makeup wasn’t really her thing but she’d applied a couple of coats of mascara, a little bit of coral lip balm and a little bronzer to disguise the fact that she spent her days indoors sitting in front of a computer.