It was going to be the wedding from hell . . .
Lara needed a miracle.
Not only was she having to attend her stepsister’s wedding without a date.
But her stepsister was marrying her ex.
No amount of chocolate, wine, or cute puppy videos were going to make her feel any better.
Not when she needed a miracle . . .
Enter Butch Malone.
Sexy. Funny. Lover of chocolate chip cookies.
He was her dream man.
Well, except for the fact that he was a bit overprotective and bossy.
Oh, and he wasn’t looking for a relationship.
That could be a slight problem . . . since she was falling for him fast.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
“I’ll pay you five thousand dollars to come to your sister’s wedding.”
Lara swallowed heavily. Wow. Just wow.
Why had she answered this call?
Oh, because it was from her mom’s phone, and she’d thought she might need her for something. Or that she might even be calling to ask her how she was.
Something nice and normal. Not this.
“Hi, to you too, Chandler.”
“I don’t have much time to talk, Lara. So let’s just get this negotiation done.”
Get this negotiation done?
Awesome.
There had never been any love lost between her and her stepfather, but sometimes he still managed to surprise her with how much of an asshole he could be.
“I’m not coming to Emily’s wedding.” She didn’t care that Emily was her half-sister. She was a bitch, and they’d never been close. Lara was six years older than her, and Emily had always been the spoiled brat of the family.
“Why are you calling on Mom’s phone?” she asked.
“Because you wouldn’t answer my calls.”
Yeah. There was a reason for that. The man had to get a clue.
But Chandler only ever thought about himself and Emily. Well, her mom, too. He didn’t care about Lara. She was just an inconvenience he had to suffer through.
“Is Mom okay?”
“Of course your mother is fine. Why wouldn’t she be?”
Maybe because she lived with a narcissist? Or because she hadn’t heard from her in months, despite Lara’s many attempts to call her?
Once, she and her mother had been close. But after her daddy died, her mom had fallen apart. And Lara’s life had changed forever.
Her mother was the sort of person who didn’t cope well on her own. Her daddy had only been dead a few months before she’d met and moved in with Chandler.
“I will give you five thousand dollars to come to Emily’s wedding,” Chandler offered.
“No.”
Although, damn, five thousand dollars would help her out a lot.
“You should want to come to your sister’s wedding. I shouldn’t have to pay you.”
Half-sister.
But she didn’t say that. It sounded petty, even to her ears.
“I didn’t say you had to pay me to come, because I’m not coming, Chandler.” She really, really didn’t want to. It would be a total disaster.
“Ten thousand.”
Fuck. That was really starting to hurt.
“I know you need the money, Lara.”
“You don’t know that.” But she did. She desperately needed it. Her van had broken down and gotten towed, and she didn’t have the funds to pay the fines. So, she’d been couch surfing for the last month. And last night, she’d interrupted an argument between Lizzy and her boyfriend, whose apartment she was currently living in. She’d overstayed her welcome.
Why was her life such a mess?
If she could just get a few more singing gigs . . . but they were hard to get. She’d started street performing just to get by.
Ten thousand dollars would mean she could get her van fixed up.
But was it worth her soul?
“Lara? Are you coming?”
She’d rather stick a rusty nail in her eye.
“No. I’m not coming.” She ended the call before she could do something stupid like say yes.
She took a shuddering breath and sat down on the sofa that also doubled as her bed. She’d cleaned the house from top to bottom and soon she needed to start dinner. It was the least she could do for Lizzy.
But her time was running out.
She was exhausted and run-down. She’d been living on ramen noodles because there was only around five hundred dollars left in her bank account.
Closing her eyes, she knew what she had to do. She needed to give up on this ridiculous dream of making money from singing and get a proper job.
Her phone rang in her hand. She ignored it.
A tension headache was forming in her temples.
Ten thousand dollars.
She could pay back her friends. Fix her van. Buy some clothes that actually fit her since she’d lost twenty pounds from stress and barely eating over the last eight months.
Ever since Axel and the guys . . .
No, don’t think about that.
Her phone started ringing again.
Anger had her answering the call before she could think better of it.
“Chandler, I’m not fucking coming!”
“Lara!” her mother reprimanded.
Oh, shit.
“What sort of language is that? I can’t believe you’d speak to Chandler like that. After everything he’s done for you.”
This is just what she needed. To be made to feel guilty for talking to the asshole the way he deserved.
But her mother would never hear a bad word against her husband. He was her hero.
“Sorry, Mother,” she muttered.
“Yes, well, I suppose we don’t have to tell him what you said. It can be our little secret.”
Do not say anything. Do not.
Her mother was quiet, as though waiting for her to say thank you. She wasn’t going to do that either.
“How are you, Mom? What’s happening?”
Her mother sighed. “Lara, you know why I’m calling.”
That was pretty obvious. But she thought the other woman might try some small talk or to ask Lara how her life was going.