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Chapter One

Charlotte, North Carolina

July

“I can’t believe I’ainst the floor under the Starbucks table and sipped on her third cup of coffee that ave an answering grimace

A nauseating h Lilly’s veins as she watched the glass door to the coffee shop Any h that door, and she was going to be expected to play nice and rely on hi In her experience, the only thing you could rely on Nate Jennings for was amore only led to disappointment

Outside, the source of her current crisis hipping the trees into a frenzy and filling the sky with o clouds

Tropical Storm Cindy

More like Tropical Storm Pain-In-My-Ass

Didn’t Mother Nature know Lilly was not to be screith this weekend? She had a wedding to get to And not just any wedding This was Hayden’s wedding Her foret her cas saying the big “I do” An event like this deserved a spot in National Geographic, for God’s sake She could see the headline now

Wild Jennings Brother Tamed and Wed!

And her neurotic, obsessive-corapher When that friend was a photographer herself, an ainning Ti This wasn’t just any job This was a job that neither tropical storet in the way of Hayden hadn’t just been a boss to Lilly for three years Somehow she’d wormed her way past the barriers Lilly kept around her heart and beco her doasn’t an option Even if thatto be stuck with the jackass half of the Jennings brothers

For fifteen hours

In the cab of his truck

Honestly, she couldn’t believe he’d even agreed to it Especially since every tiether for the past year, all they’dinsults Not that she understood what he had to be pissy about She was the one who’d been left a wad of cash on the dresser in lieu of a good-bye after what she had interpreted—clearly ht of life-altering sex Then, after she’d shown up at the club he co-oith his brother to tell hiht of him and his cash, he’d had the balls to tell her she’d been nothing ht And that he’d thought a girl like her would understand a night of casual sex

Excuse irl like her?

The asshat was lucky she hadn’t introduced his nuts to her spike heels and ruined his chances at procreation right then and there In that fatal declaration, Nate had done the one thing she could never forgive He’d made her feel like a whore And she was hell-bent on never letting it happen again

She ripped apart a helpless Sweet’N Low packet, envisioning Nate’s s, too-handsome face If she didn’t find a way to rein in her emotions, this road trip was doomed to end in disaster Or death Nate’s, to be exact And there was no way she could go to prison She looked terrible in orange Guess she’d just have to get creative when hiding the body

“I can’t believe I draggeda tropical store said “I told you we should have checked before we left”

Lilly tapped the shredded packet against the table and cast a withering look at her roo for a miracle”

Hell, it didn’t even have to be a full-blownMan upstairs An available car at the rental desk For Super Storo wreak havoc anywhere other than the east coast Anything to avoid being stuck in a vehicle for fifteen hours with the one man she couldn’t stand

She nearly groaned at the memory of Hayden’s words

It’s just a ride, Lilly One day out of your life Besides, it’ll be good for you two to work out your issues You’re both going to be in Jace’s and my lives You have to find a way to coexist

The only issue to work out was that Nate Jennings suffered from a severe case of assholeitis Unless they’d found a miracle cure, she didn’t see a future that included her playing nice with soldier boy

Paige checked her watch “Private Panty-Melter better show up in the next five et to work”

Lilly set her coffee down and raised a brow “Private Panty-Melter? Really?”

Paige yawned and tucked a few strands of the long dark hair that was piled on top of her head back into her messy bun “Better than your names for him”

Lilly flipped through the mental directory of colorful naeant Douchebag General Jerk

“Nope I still like roaned “Maybe I could fake an illness Tell Hayden I came doith the Ebola virus”

“Sounds like a good plan I’ Ti to have to hire Photos-Are-Us to do her wedding portraits You want ht soften the blow”