Free Test Drive (The Bachelor #1) by Avonlea Cole

burning cement with two glasses of wine. The sweet liquid went down easy. I tried to pull off a toast, "To a hot day and a cool pool." But she responded with an eye roll and continued to sip her beverage.
    Okay, I get it. She didn't really know me. All I am is the boss’s lazy son, but I could be different. Hell, I was already changing, and maybe if I could show her, I might actually interest her.
    Beth gulped down her drink and set the glass on the side of the pool. She made one last trip to the diving board, and I watched her gracefully dive in. She swam underwater to the other side of the pool and exited without so much as another glance at me. I covered my chest with my hand signaling the sharp knife had penetrated my chest, but she continued to walk in the opposite direction towards the shack housing her clothes. I could see through one of the windows as she dried her hair with a towel and patted the soft cloth on her shoulders and face.
    Her eyes darted over to me, and once again I was busted. What can I say? I am not the type to hide my attempts to woo a woman. I want whomever I am with to feel like she is the only one I could be staring at. Beth, however, glared at me like some peeping Tom and shut the wooden blinds blocking out any view. It wasn’t like I was watching her change.
    Rejected! Nice, Drew. My losing streak was starting to get to me.
    I hopped out of the pool and went over to my parents' table carrying the empty glasses with me. The water dripping off my arms splattered onto the table as I reached for the picture of wine. "Honestly Andrew, have you no manners? You couldn’t have changed before showering us with your pool water?"
    I reached for a handful of the chips and salsa my parents were sharing and said, "Beth is in there right now. Not like we can both change at the same time."
    "That’s right," my father said sternly. "Beth is a very nice girl and a hard worker. Don’t you go messing that up." He snapped the newspaper back open and disappeared behind the gray shield.
    "And how would I do that, Father?" I knew what he was thinking already, but my father had a way of spinning things that had happened in my life into something I caused instead of something I had to work through.
    "Boys, I won’t have you fighting in front of company," my mom said in a stern voice, cloaked in a wide smile she was flashing to our guest. Beth was coming out of the pool house in her beautiful sundress. Her wet hair crinkled into loose curls, and I wondered if that was her natural hair type.
    "Beth, will you be joining us for dinner? We are so happy to have you here." My mother swooned over our guest. I would love to be able to say that my mother’s sugary sweet personality was fake and that I didn’t constantly roll my eyes when she spoke, but that wasn’t the case. My mother was the most perky, loving person I had ever met, which must be why I am so irresistible. Okay. Well, I thought I was until I met this assortment of women who kept resisting my charm.
    That daunting reality smacked me in the face like a sledgehammer every time my eyes met with the unimpressed, uninterested Beth. You know what that meant? Challenge accepted.

 
     
     
     
    AFTER BETH HAD TURNED down my mother’s dinner proposal and politely left the premises, I realized my date with Claire was this evening, if she managed to clear her schedule. I sent a text message to find out where and if we would be seeing each other this evening.
    Claire responded, "Yes, I am free for dinner tonight. I was wondering how you’d feel about coming to my place for dinner? I have a few recipes I want to test on you. ;)"
    The winking smiley face at the end hit the mark. My thoughts had been diving deep into the gutter thinking about all the things I’d like her to test on me. "Sounds great! Just send me the address and what time you want me there." The words in my head sounded so different from the words I quickly swiped on the screen.
    She sent me the