Free Broken Series by Dawn Pendleton Page A

invited me into her bed.”
    “Hot damn! Why didn’t you tell me this last night? Did you get some?” he asked.
    Typical Baker, I thought.
    “No! I thought she was talking to me, but then she said the name of some other guy, who was definitely not me. Probably some douche from Boston,” I explained.
    “Ahh.” Baker finally understood. “So she’s seeing someone in Boston, then?”
    “I guess,” I mumbled. “I don’t really know. It’s not like Mal and I have been overly friendly since she got back.”
    “That’s true. Want me to have Rainey do some fishing?”
    “I thought you were on Rainey’s shit list?”
    He grinned. “Well, she must have forgiven me, since she called me to check in on you.”
    “You know, she’s a big-time LA screenwriter, Baker. She’s not interested in some small-town hillbilly.” I laughed at his hurt look.
    “I could say the same to you about Mallory, except she’s working at the bank.” He raised his brow at me and I knew he was right.
    “We’re hopeless, you know that?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, the only way we could be any worse was if we were hanging out with Gabby’s ex, and he was complaining, too.”
    “Have you ever met Wolfe?” I asked.
    “No, I don’t think so. He’s not from here, is he?”
    “He’s from Florida, I think. He spent summers here as a kid, but he’s a few years older than us, so that’s probably why you don’t remember him. He moved here permanently when he started dating Gabby. I met him a few times and didn’t think he was a bad guy. I wonder what happened with those two?”
    “Gabby is nuts. That’s what happened to them,” he said.
    “Don’t be an ass. Every woman is crazy and that’s a fact.”
    “Ain’t that the truth? We should call him up and have him join our ‘Love struck without a chance’ support group.”
    “We should. I heard he’s still living here until after the divorce is final to make it easier on Gabby,” I said.
    We both laughed, at him and ourselves. We’d all fallen in love with a woman who wanted nothing to do with each of us.
    “Call him up and have him meet us at the bar tonight. Rainey is helping Mallory out with her dad, so we know they won’t be at The Landing tonight. I’ll ask Gabby to go over and give them a hand,” he said.
    “That’s a great idea. And tomorrow, when Joe kills us for sticking him with three angry women, we’ll at least have had a good night of drinking to think on and decide it was worth it! I’ll call Wolfe a bit later. I have to get to the site and do some work today. You working at the site with me?”
    “Yeah, I guess. I don’t have anything else to do until the bar opens at four.” Baker sighed.
    He loved the bar, but it had drained him financially, so he helped out at whatever jobsite I was on whenever he could and J.P. paid him under the table. That’s the way it was done in a small town.
    “Want to drive me in?” I asked. “I just need to change.”
    He nodded and waited for me. On the way to the jobsite, I called Wolfe and he agree to come to The Landing, but only if we could guarantee Gabby wouldn’t be there. Baker called Gabby and she fell for his plan perfectly, so we promised Wolfe she wouldn’t be there.
    We made plans to meet at The Landing at seven.
     
     
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Nine
    Mallory
     
    I had a hard time getting my dad settled in. The fact that he wasn’t the same amazingly strong man I remembered was killing me. Rainey pulled up as close as she could to the steps of the front porch and even walking from the car to the living room seemed to exhaust him. It didn’t seem likely he would suddenly surprise everyone and beat the cancer. I was more worried about him with every step he took.
    Luckily, our house was a single story, which meant he didn’t have to climb any stairs once he was inside. But he was still tired. He sat on the couch and rested for nearly an hour before he felt well enough to make the trek to his bedroom. Once