Rebound Envy (Rebound #2) (14 page)

Rebound Therapy
—
Now FREE!

The best way to get over someone is to get under someone new.

Jenna Anderson is still stuck in her grief a year after her fiance died in a tragic accident. All she does is go to work and spend time at home, her former spark gone. Her best friend decides she needs a rebound guy to have some fun and start to live again.
 

Brian MacCallum is the hot owner of the wine bar where Amy takes Jenna. He has a mischievous grin that he wields like a weapon to convince Jenna to give him a chance.
 

Will his love be enough to pull Jenna out of her grief so she can learn to live and love again?
 

Excerpt:
 

"I've decided what your next step should be," Amy says after the first movie is over. We've eaten half the pizza, and each plowed through half of our respective pints.
 

I groan, both from feeling overfull and with dread from hearing her decision for my life. "I'm stuffed," I say, putting the lid back on my ice cream and getting up to put it in the freezer. "Do you want another Mike's?"
 

"Sure. Aren't you going to ask what I've decided?"
 

"No. I don't want to know."
 

"Yes, you do. It's brilliant, I promise."
 

"What happened to sympathetic Amy that I talked to on the phone earlier? Can I have her back?"

She grins. "Nope. It's proactive Amy's turn. Ask me what you should do next."
 

I take a deep breath and brace myself. "Fine. What have you decided I should do next with my life?"
 

"You need a rebound."
 

"What?"
 

"A rebound. You know, to bounce back."

Players of Marycliff University

Summer Fling
,
Book 1

A chance encounter at a party brings Lance and Abby together.
 

Lance just graduated and has a summer internship. His parents expect him to come back to Texas to work in the family business at the end of the summer. He likes to have fun and doesn't want to be tied down too soon. Until he meets Abby.
 

Abby still has two years left of college and a mom who keeps her anchored near the town where she grew up. She is cautious in relationships, not letting people close. But Lance's persistence wears down her defenses. Knowing Lance is leaving, Abby tells herself it's just a summer fling.
 

Will that be enough to keep her from falling in love?

"
As he turned, someone knocked into Abby from behind. She lurched forward against the guy's chest, crushing her cup against his abs and splashing the remains of her drink all over them both.
 

He let out a surprised shout. He had grabbed her upper arms to steady her when she ran into him, but had pushed her away when he felt the liquid soaking his shirt.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." Abby covered her mouth with her hand, feeling like a complete moron. He stood there with his arms out looking down at the mess on his shirt. Then he looked at the matching stain on her shirt and his lips twitched like he might be suppressing a smile.

He cleared his throat. "It's okay." There was laughter in his voice.
 

Abby crinkled her brows in confusion.
Why is he laughing at me? I just spilled my drink all over him.
Then she noticed that his eyes were glued to her chest, and she looked down.

Abby gasped. Her light pink tank was more or less see-through now that it was wet."
 

Convenient Fall
,
Book 2

Sleeping with your roommate is a bad idea, right?
 

Megan Davidson is scrambling to find a new place after Abby, her roommate and best friend decides to move in with her boyfriend Lance.  With just a week until classes start, the open spot left in Lance's old house looks like her best option.  She moves in with Matt and Chris, shameless flirts and notorious players.  
 

Chris Schwartz first met Megan at their Fourth of July party over the summer, and he's wanted her ever since.  She's now tantalizingly close, and he doesn't want to keep his hands to himself, even if its the worst idea ever.  Chris doesn't do relationships, but once with Megan just isn't enough.
 

With ground rules in place, it seems like everything's working out fine.  But will Chris's history catch up to him and ruin everything?
 

Short Stories

Cure for a Bad Day

Avery has had the worst day. To top it off, she's missed her train stop on the way home. A sexy stranger notices her and invites her out for drinks.

Is this just what she needs to get over her bad day?

"He slowly lowered his head, and fitted his mouth to mine. His lips were soft. The kiss was tender and exploratory, making no demands, giving as much as getting.

He broke the kiss and my eyelids drifted open. Sean's face was still only inches above mine, just far enough away to be able to focus without going cross eyed. His eyes examined mine, and whatever he saw there had him cupping my face in his hands, and kissing me again."

Here is a sneak peek of
Summer Fling
, available now!.

Chapter One

"Hey! Watch it!" The asshole that bumped into Abby didn't even bother turning around when she yelled at him. He'd made her spill her drink, and now Jack and Coke was splashed all over her hand, bare legs, and new sandals.
 

"Great. What a jerk." Switching her cup to her left hand and shaking the excess liquid from her right, she started to weave her way through the crowd of drunken Marycliff University students to find the kitchen.
 

She'd somehow let Megan convince her that coming to the party would be fun. She'd even made a token effort—a flowy lightweight tank with spaghetti straps, her favorite denim shorts that showed off her legs, and her new strappy sandals. Sandals that were now covered in liquor and soda, and would probably be sticky once they dried.

Megan had abandoned her over an hour ago, shortly after they'd gotten their drinks. Abby had seen her doing body shots a little later, and the last time she'd seen Megan she had been making out with a guy against the wall in the hallway. Abby could only imagine what had happened since.

She finally managed to get to the kitchen, which was just as crowded as everywhere else. A breakfast bar with cups and drinks laid out dominated the room. The real attention grabber was the keg and the idiot doing the keg stand. Abby elbowed her way through the crowd, trying to get to the sink so she could try to clean up a little. She didn't feel like spending the rest of the night sticky.
 

Someone was standing at the sink. His back was to her, and he wore a t-shirt that stretched taut across his shoulders and biceps, and jeans that hung nicely from his hips.
Nice ass
. She allowed a smirk to flit across her mouth before approaching him.

"Excuse me." She tried to pitch her voice loud enough to be heard over the noise of the party without shouting. No response.

She tapped on his shoulder and practically yelled in his ear. "Excuse me!"

As he turned, someone knocked into Abby from behind. She lurched forward against the guy's chest, crushing her cup against his abs and splashing the remains of her drink all over them both.
 

He let out a surprised shout. He had grabbed her upper arms to steady her when she ran into him, but had pushed her away when he felt the liquid soaking his shirt.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." Abby covered her mouth with her hand, feeling like a complete moron. He stood there with his arms out looking down at the mess on his shirt. Then he looked at the matching stain on her shirt and his lips twitched like he might be suppressing a smile.

He cleared his throat. "It's okay." There was laughter in his voice.
 

Abby crinkled her brows in confusion.
Why is he laughing at me? I just spilled my drink all over him.
Then she noticed that his eyes were glued to her chest, and she looked down.

Abby gasped. Her light pink tank was more or less see-through now that it was wet. She could clearly see the pattern of the lace on her bra, as well as her pointed nipples. She crossed her arms over her chest, which made the guy snort a little, starting to lose the battle to suppress his laughter.
 

"Can you move, please?" Her demand was laced with irritation. The smug bastard was still snorting with barely suppressed mirth and staring at her boobs, not even trying to hide it.

He stepped to the side and leaned one hip against the counter, allowing Abby access to the sink and himself a front row seat. His snorting had turned into chuckling and was quickly progressing to full-blown laughter. Abby shot him a glare while she turned on the sink and looked for a towel or paper towel or something to use to wipe off the soda.
 

"Sweetheart, I don't think you're going to be able to do much to help your shirt." His voice was low and rumbly, a slight drawl accenting his words. He had leaned forward to talk to her, and she could feel his breath moving the tiny hairs that had escaped from her ponytail on the back of her neck.

"Yes, I realize that." She spit the words through clenched teeth. "But the soda spilled all over me. I'd like to at least get the stickiness off my skin before figuring out how to get home." When she turned to look at him, his face was only inches away from her own.

Before she could react to his closeness, he leaned back and snagged a roll of paper towels off the counter. The move caused his shirt to lift, revealing a strip of tanned skin. Her eyes snapped back up to his face as he handed her the paper towels, noticing that amusement still glinted in his dark eyes.
 

Abby ripped off two or three paper towels, got them wet, and started mopping up the worst of the mess on her arms and legs. She had to get more paper towels when she got to her sandals. After trying and failing to wipe her sandals out, she gave up and just stuck them under the running water. They were soaking wet, but at least they were clean.

It was bad enough that her new top was now a mess, with a brown stain all over it from her drink. She hoped it'd come out in the wash, but she really wasn't sure. She also hoped her shoes weren't ruined. She'd just gotten them that afternoon—cute flats with silver straps that crisscrossed their way over the top of her foot to where they secured around her ankle. They weren't that impressive, but Abby liked them.
 

And Charlie Chuckles was still standing next to her watching her attempts to de-soda-ify her shoes. He might have a nice ass, and okay, nice arms, but he didn't have very nice manners. She'd think he had a nice smile too, if he wasn't using it to embarrass her.