Free Getting Lucky by Erin Nicholas

out.
    “That’s not the same thing.”
    He shrugged. “Potato, potahto.”
    “I’m not fixated.” That sounded so much…crazier than fascinated.
    “You traveled over a thousand miles, alone, while grieving, to find a man to fill some gaps in your life. You’ve been thinking about him. Planning the moment you meet him. Listed your questions for him. Now you’ve found out that he might not be able to be who you need him to be. So you focus on the next guy who can help you and make you feel better and give you a place to belong.”
    She could have argued. She could have told him that she hadn’t planned the trip at all. She’d found the photo of Dan and Thomas and her mom the day before she’d hit the road. She also didn’t have any gaps that needed filled. She had a great life that she loved. She did not have a list of questions and she didn’t really need Dan to be anything at all.
    But there was a little bit of her that thought having concerned and attentive TJ Bennett around might be kind of nice.
    And that was crazy. She hadn’t truly needed anyone in longer than she could remember. And as he’d pointed out, they’d just met.
    Yikes.
    She took a deep breath. “You sound like a shrink.”
    “Almost a year of therapy now.”
    “And yet you’re still kind of an asshole.”
    “I’m not trying to get over that .”
    “Well, I’m very well adjusted, thank you.”
    “And yet you’re standing on the end of my dock willing to take your clothes off and, I’m guessing, do whatever else I ask you to do. You’re trying to get closer to me and please me, and the easiest way is through sex.”
    “You have a lot of sexual energy. I was in the moment. Geez. So sorry to make you look at my boobs.” Hope couldn’t believe that her pride was feeling piqued. She was typically a live-and-let-live girl. If TJ didn’t want to have sex with her, that was his prerogative.
    But it irked her.
    “If you didn’t have an estranged father and plans to stay around for a while, I’d be happy to look at your boobs,” he said mildly. “But I like the boobs I get involved with to leave the next morning. You’re not going to be doing that. Are you?” He looked almost hopeful.
    She frowned. “No.”
    Probably not. She didn’t know. Nothing about the trip had gone according to plan so far. Which just went to show that she was already screwing up the live-like-Melody thing. Melody didn’t make plans and was a master at going with the flow.
    “Then keep ’em covered up.”
    “I think I know why you’re an asshole,” Hope said, crossing her arms.
    “Oh?” He didn’t look particularly interested in her answer.
    “It’s because you’re conflicted. You are a protector, you do want to help me, but for some reason you’re trying to fight that.”
    “Because you can’t fix crazy,” he said flatly. “I learned that the hard way. Avoiding it is the easiest thing.”
    “You don’t strike me as the type to take the easy way out.”
    “Let’s put it this way—I put my time in.”
    “In the circus?” she asked.
    He nodded. “I’ve cleaned up more than my share of monkey shit. I’m out. Someone else can worry about your cage.”
    “Where’s your monkey now?” she asked, maybe a little beyond fascinated at the moment.
    “Around.”
    “Does she still make a mess once in a while?”
    “She does.”
    “That you clean up?”
    He didn’t answer.
    So he did still clean up after this monkey sometimes. That was interesting.
    “She must be something.”
    “She is.” His tone didn’t make it sound like it was a compliment.
    “I think of monkeys as screechy things that climb all over everything and throw stuff around.”
    “That’s about right.”
    She smiled up at him. “If you don’t want me to be fascinated, you need to stop being interesting.”
    “You’ve been on the road a long time by yourself. I’m not that interesting.”
    “I drove almost straight through. It was only a couple of days. And I