Page 37 (1/2)

Chapter 1

Nobody went roller skating anymore At least not in Te on a pair of old brown kicks with orange wheels At one point they had probably been neon, but now they were the color of dirty pu made her feel less like the Disney princess than the failed prince she had standing on her right

I’row to like him

The truth was, she’d tried She really had When she’d visited the Happily Ever After Dating Agency, she’d known they’d set her up with soined vanishing in a cloud of vaht aith a wolf shifter, but instead she’d been outfitted with a guy who looked like he’d stepped out of a cheesy seventies disco video His shiny gold jacket had nearly blinded her the h the rink’s front door

At first, she’d laughed, and thought ht Fridays His chest hair peeked out of his jacket zipper which was pulled doay too low, and that unruly tuft of thick hair was in desperate need of tri Burt Reynolds beneath that jacket The sunglasses he wore at night and the toothpick dangling from his lips seeht normally wear out of the house When her date made his way toward her, she’d been alht past her, but then he stopped and said, “Hey toots, you Penny?”

Toots? Do people really say that nowadays? Did people ever say that?

It was that word, toots, that ier felt the need to be nice to this douchebag If she hadn’t gotten dolled up for her date, she would have left hio ahead and hang in there She would take one for the tearoup of her girlfriends sitting so her on, and thanking God she was re on the date, so they wouldn’t have to fill in for her Penny decided the best solution was to have some fun with this and pretend she was on one of those TV reality shohere she would only win the big bucks if she remained on the date

Stay inside your head, Penny You can do this Deal with this guy and win the big bucks

“I’m Penelope,” she said “Penny”

“Rico,” he replied “You ready to do this?”

Do this? Are we about to set out on so couple around the rink to a soundtrack sung by Air Supply or Chicago? And of course, his na else?

Penny glanced up at the ceiling and looked over her shoulder to make sure there weren’t hidden cameras somewhere This seemed way too concocted to be real It had to be a joke

“Let’s do it,” she replied, doing her best not to laugh

Suzanne at the dating agency had said this guy’s naht’ve made sense, but Rico? Seriously? Penny wasn’t a bitch She really wasn’t She’d only wanted to find a guy who made her limbs flimsy She wanted to be weak in the knees, but with Rico standing in front of her, she only felt them knock in dread She wanted to feel her heart race with passion, but instead it did loop-de-loops in anxious frustration She wished the date were over long before it began

No way this is my happily ever after

Rico’s paranormal secret was a complete mystery to her since he’d shown no ounce of extraordinary skills If she had to guess, she’d say garden gnonome