Free Hot Finish by Erin McCarthy Page A

into her bed and not reemerge for a good twenty-four hours. She felt beyond whooped.
    Checking her own phone while Nikki called Jonas, Suzanne saw she had a voice mail. It was Jackson, the lawyer.
    “Got a court date. December twenty-third. Merry Christmas, here’s your divorce.” He gave a chuckle then said, “Call me if you have any questions for me.”
    She did, like how had her life become such a joke?
    Chances were he wouldn’t have a clue, any more than she did.
    A sour taste was in her mouth, like she’d eaten too much chip dip and it had curdled. Suzanne fished in her purse for a stick of gum and contemplated a divorce decree under her Christmas tree. That was festive.
    Nikki’s wedding was December twenty-second, after which she would undoubtedly be exhausted and cranky. Then came the divorce, and finally, to cap off the week just right, she would have a Christmas to spend all by her lonesome while everyone else in America opened presents together.
    Where was a goddamn violin when she needed one?
    And she didn’t even have any freaking gum left.
    Suzanne closed her eyes briefly and wondered if this day would have gone differently if she’d had an orgasm at Ryder’s hands the night before.
    Probably not.
    But it would have been good while it was going down. While he was going down.
    Suzanne sighed.
    Her phone vibrated in her hand and she glared at it for scaring her.
    It was a text from Ryder.
    I’m sorry, was all it said.
    So was she.
    For all the things she’d said, and all the things she’d never said.
    Me, too, she wrote.
    Ryder sent her a smiley face back. It was so unexpected, Suzanne laughed. He’d never texted her a smiley before.
    Girl, she wrote, adding a smiley of her own.
    Punk, was his answer.
    “What’s so funny?” Nikki asked her.
    “Just a private joke.” Suzanne held her phone tightly in her hand and decided that the day didn’t suck so bad after all.

CHAPTER SIX
    “THIS is the way it should be,” Ty said as he settled back into a folding chair, the flames from the fire pit dancing in front of him. “Just us guys, relaxing in nature, no women, no complications.”
    There were murmurs of approval from the other guys around the fire, a sort of forced joviality. Ryder gave a similar lackluster response. He wanted to enjoy himself, wanted to sit there in the woods around Lake Norman without a care in the world, drinking beers with his buddies, but he was having a hard time getting into the spirit of this guys’ weekend.
    It had been five days since he had seen or talked to Suzanne. It had seemed like they’d ended on a positive note with their teasing texts, but then nothing. Not a word. And it bothered him, he could admit it.
    “Maybe another time we could bring the women with us,” Jonas said casually, his eyes on his beer can.
    They had decided to start including Jonas in their outings since he had invited them into his wedding, but those kinds of comments weren’t going to win him friends, not when Ty and Evan were determined to pretend they were having fun without female companionship. Elec had stayed home with his wife Tammy and her kids, pleading bonding time with his stepchildren. Nobody had dared argue with that, and Ryder had to admit he envied the guy at the moment. Not that he wanted to be at home, because in his case, he’d be all alone, but he envied Elec his family.
    “What would be the point in bringing the women?” Ty said, but he spoke a little too quickly, a little too sharply. “This is about us, the men. Doing men stuff.”
    “Like what?” Evan asked. “Freezing our asses off together?” He stomped his feet on the ground and shoved his hands deeper in his pockets.
    “Like fishing and hiking.” Ty threw a peanut violently into the fire and watched it burn. “Look, I love Imogen to pieces, and I want to spend a hell of a lot of time with her. But I want to spend time with my friends, too. Excuse me.”
    Ryder laughed, despite his own determination