Free A Bad Bit Nice by Josie Kerr Page A

drink.
    “I think you’re leaving some details out.”
    Em blinked at Ashley in confusion.
    “I sense that there’s more to this because you’re drinking a girl drink, and you never drink girl drinks unless you’re dealing with a girl problem, a.k.a. boy problems,” Ashley went on. “And the only boy that I’ve seen you pay attention to in months is a certain tall widower named Mick, so I guess not technically a boy at all, but that’s beside the point. So, spill.” Ashley took a big slurp from her own margarita. “Oh my God, you did more than kiss him, didn’t you? You fucked him!” she exclaimed, eyes wide. “Good for you!”
    “Ashley, keep your voice down!” Em saw several of the waiters smirking at Ashley’s outburst. “And for goodness sakes, I didn’t.”
    “Damn. I don’t even like tall, dark, and tattooed, but Mick? That man is fine, and he obviously needs someone, so you better hit that.”
    “Wait, how do you know he needs someone?” Em narrowed her eyes. “Is there something you need to tell me ? I didn’t hear from you at all day yesterday. Did something happen with Rory after y’all left the pub?”
    Ashley flapped her hands at Em. “I plead the fifth, and besides, we’re talking about you , Miss Em, and not me. So, I repeat, spill!”
    Em gave Ashley a look that told her that they weren’t finished discussing Ashley’s love life. “He’s pretty intense, Ash. He seems like he’s had a pretty rough time of it. He intimated that he didn’t have a lot growing up and that his mom left something to be desired. I know his family is dead and his wife is dead. I don’t need someone that I have to fix, you know? I spent my twenties trying to heal the emotional baggage of every guy I dated. I’m too old for that shit. Even that idiot Tripp had daddy issues that I tried to fix and look where it got me.”
    “Hold it right there, Em,” Ashley said. “Tripp still has daddy issues. And they’re not going to be fixed, because Tripp didn’t and doesn’t want to do the work. He wants everyone to do everything for him. You know this goes deeper. You took care of your parents for years, even before they got really sick. You way overfunction. And face it, we’re in our forties now. Everybody’s going to have emotional baggage, whether it’s from a divorce or kids or aging parents. Look on the bright side, at least Mick won’t have a psycho hose beast of an ex-wife that you have to deal with every day.”
    “That’s terrible, Ashley! She’s dead!” exclaimed Em, horrified at her friend’s callousness. Ashley shrugged, but had the decency to wince and mouth ‘sorry’.
    “But there’s more to this,” Ashley gently prompted. “I haven’t seen you this wound up about a guy in, well, ever.”
    “This just feels really different, Ashley. Like there’s inevitability to it. Desperate, but not desperation. It’s nothing like I’ve felt before, and it really kind of scares me. Actually, it scares the shit out of me.” Em rubbed her face with her hands. “Nice Wayne’s World reference, by the way.”
    Ashley laughed. “You know it! So what do you want to do? What do you want out of this, Em?”
    “I think I just might want it all. All of it and all of him.”
    Ashley made a low, long whistle. “Girl, you have got it bad. Like scary bad.”
    “Ugh, I know, Ashley, I know.” Em laid her head on the table with a bang. “This isn’t a romance novel where the hero and heroine fall in love at their first encounter. This is real life, and more importantly, this is my life, and the whole ‘immediately hot, bothered, and wanting him to rip my panties off’ thing is most definitely not me.”
    “Okay, enough. Maybe you need to use your heart and not head for once, Em. And anyway, you can’t do anything about it now, right? You’re out of town for the next week or so, right? Get some distance. Maybe he’ll want to come borrow some sugar when you get back in town.” Ashley