Free Bad Girls Don't by Cathie Linz

those instant lottery tickets. Apparently, one of them was a winner and he insisted on giving it back to her.”
    “Generous of him. So how much did she win?”
    “A lot.” Angel nervously plucked at the floaty, tie-dyed Indian-cotton skirt she wore.
    “A hundred?”
    Angel could forgive him for starting low, since to her a hundred dollars was a lot of money. “A million.”
    Tyler almost choked.
    Angel patted him on the back and nodded. “I know. It’s a lot of money. Not to someone like Adam, maybe . . .”
    “Did you return his call yet?”
    Angel shook her head.
    “Why are you avoiding him? Are you afraid that if you talk to him, your old feelings for him will come back?”
    “Of course not!”
    “Then what are you afraid of?”
    “A lot of things. Global warming, mercury in fish, the disappearance of the rain forest, schoolchildren getting obese from soft drinks in schools.”
    “Do you hold Adam responsible for all those things?”
    “Well, he is a capitalist pig.”
    “With whom you had a child.”
    “A long time ago.”
    “It’s still a bond the two of you have.”
    Angel shifted in her seat. “I wish you wouldn’t put it that way.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it makes it seem as if . . .”
    “As if the two of you had sex?” he demanded.
    Totally stunned by Tyler’s comment, Angel leapt to her feet and shouted, “I haven’t had sex in thirty years!”

Chapter Five
    “You haven’t had sex in thirty years?” Tyler rose to his feet, but took his time doing it. “What do you call what we did last night?”
    “I meant that I haven’t had sex with Adam in thirty years.” Angel’s voice was much calmer and a lot quieter now.
    Julia might be out of town, but she’d have a hissy fit if she heard via the grapevine that her mother was yelling about sex in the middle of Serenity Falls.
    Skye wouldn’t care.
    Angel’s two daughters were polar opposites, which often left Angel feeling like she was being torn apart in the middle.
    And now she had Tyler acting weird. “Where is this coming from?”
    He just shrugged.
    That shrug was the last straw. “I hate it when you do that. I read your gesture as you telling me that I’m not worthy of a reply.”
    He looked at her blankly. “What gesture?”
    “Your shrug.”
    This time he rolled his eyes instead.
    “That’s not a real good substitute,” Angel informed him. “Just talk to me. Tell me why you’re so manic about Adam all of a sudden.”
    “It’s not all of a sudden,” Tyler said softly.
    “Well, you haven’t acted like this before.”
    “How am I supposed to compete with one of the richest guys on the planet?”
    “There is no competition.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    “Is this some male thing I’m missing here?” Angel was totally mystified.
    “You’re obviously avoiding speaking to him.”
    “And that makes you think I want to have sex with him? I avoid talking to the mayor of Serenity Falls. That doesn’t mean I want to have sex with him .”
    “Aren’t you curious?”
    “About having sex with the mayor? No. Yuck.” Angel made a face, the same one she made at the thought of eating a caribou burger. “Am I curious about Adam and what he wants? No, not really. Will it make you feel better if I promise to return his call tomorrow?”
    Tyler sighed and kicked a stone in the path.
    Angel sighed right along with him. “You’re dying to just give me a shrug as an answer, aren’t you?”
    “Yeah.”
    “So what, exactly, is it that you want me to do?”
    Tyler got a look in his eyes that let her know his thoughts had returned to sex . . . and her . . . with him.
    “I can read your mind sometimes,” Angel said.
    He smiled, slow and sexy. “Yeah, I know.”
    “But not all the time. So when you’re feeling insecure or upset about something, you need to tell me. Deal?”
    Tyler took her in his arms and kissed her, but he never did agree to her deal.
     
     
    “You boys better not let yourself get out-pretzeled by some