Free Hot Seduction by LISA CHILDS Page B

swung over the booth.
    â€œWhat did Cody do?” Tammy asked, her brown eyes narrowing with immediate suspicion.
    â€œIs he suing you?” Fiona asked.
    Serena shook her head. “Cody didn’t do anything.” Which could be part of the reason for her frustration. After that afternoon when they’d realized what a bad idea sleeping together would be, he hadn’t hit on her again. The other part of her frustration she didn’t want to think, let alone talk, about...
    â€œIf it’s not Cody, then what’s wrong?” Fiona persisted.
    Serena blinked again and forced a bright smile. “Why does something have to be wrong for me to call my friends for drinks?”
    â€œOh, something’s definitely up,” Tammy said. She raised her hand and waved over a waitress. “And we’ll get it out of you once we get you liquored up.”
    Serena laughed, a real laugh that eased the tight pressure in her chest. This was why she’d called her friends—to get her mind off her troubles and off Cody. If she’d gone home and run into him again...
    She wasn’t sure what she might have done. She might have dragged him to her bed. If she let Tammy liquor her up, she still might.
    â€œYou are not getting me drunk,” she insisted with another laugh. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been out with them, though, and it felt good. So she didn’t protest when Tammy ordered a round of shots.
    She picked up and downed her Fireball, then sputtered, “I hope you know one of you is driving me home.”
    â€œOh, we’ll get you a ride,” Tammy promised. She drank her own shot. Then she called for another round. She obviously didn’t intend to be the designated driver. Of course she lived in town and could walk home from the Filling Station.
    Fiona slapped her empty shot glass back on the table. “Good thing Wyatt’s meeting me here when he’s done at the firehouse,” she said, “because I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk home if we keep drinking like this.”
    â€œIs he bringing any hunky Hotshot friends with him?” Tammy asked with a salacious smile.
    â€œDawson,” Fiona said, “but you had your chance. He’s taken now.”
    â€œDawson and I were just friends,” Tammy said.
    They’d told her how he had saved her from the bar fight. For some reason Serena was glad that it hadn’t been Cody.
    Tammy arched a perfect brow and asked, “What about their super-sexy boss? Is he coming, too?”
    â€œBraden?” Fiona turned back toward Serena. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
    Serena wasn’t certain she liked the way her friend was staring at her. “What?”
    â€œYou and Braden,” Fiona said. She snapped her fingers. “He’s so your type.”
    â€œWhy isn’t he my type?” Tammy asked with a pout. She considered every man her type.
    â€œHe’s too nice for you,” Fiona said with the bluntness with which only longtime friends could speak to each other.
    â€œHey!” Tammy said. But the twinkle in her eyes suggested she was only acting offended.
    â€œYou’d break his heart,” Fiona said. “And he’s just getting over a bad relationship.”
    â€œAnd that makes him my type?” Serena asked. She’d never had her heart broken—except when her mother had died. She’d never loved anyone else enough to miss them like she still missed her mother.
    She’d had boyfriends in high school, in college. But they hadn’t been serious ones—no one she had envisioned raising her family with in her ancestral home. She hadn’t been ready for that then anyway. And now she might never have the chance...
    â€œHe’s a really great guy,” Fiona said. “He’s responsible and dependable—the kind of man you can count on.”
    Serena smiled. Her