The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            She missed her best friend. He’d been gone for almost two weeks, and even though they talked and texted every day, it wasn’t the same as him being there.

            And things were going great with Alex—they were. He was attentive and funny and easy on the eyes, so she had no complaints. In fact, she’d decided while running that morning that she was going to do it.

            She was going to ask him.

            After he sat down and they talked about what’d happened at their respective jobs that day, she did it. She’d been dreading it for ages, but it wasn’t going away and she really didn’t want to go alone.

            Hot mess shit show was still too fresh in her mind.

            “I know we aren’t really a ‘thing’ yet,” Hallie said, awkwardly looking at her Frappuccino instead of Alex’s face, “but would you want to go with me to my sister’s wedding? It’s a destination wedding at a resort in Vail—just family and a few close friends. You could be my plus-one, but there are no strings—”

            “I would love that so much,” Alex said, taking her hand. “I would really like for us to become a ‘thing,’ if that’s okay with you.”

            “You would?” she asked, not sure if she was ready to be a thing. Even though—shit—she’d been the one to bring up whether or not they were.

            “Absolutely,” he said, smiling. He had a nice smile, complete with the crinkles at the corners of his eyes, and she knew he was a catch. Alex was a great guy. He leaned forward and pressed his mouth against hers. It was sweet, and she closed her eyes, trying to fall into it. His tongue touched hers briefly—they were in Starbucks, after all—before he pulled back and squeezed her hand. “I can’t wait for us to go on a trip together.”

            She was thrilled that she wouldn’t be dateless at her perfect sister’s wedding, but after she got home, she couldn’t shake the reality that she wasn’t excited to go with Alex. Everything with him was great, but it was great in the way a Hallmark Christmas movie was great. Everything looked perfect—the clothing, the setting, the words—but none of it felt . . . real.

            It felt forced, like they were each playing the part of two people falling in love.

            She texted Jack, needing to shake off the unease and not think about it.

            Hallie: Guess what? Alex said he’ll go with me to Lillie’s wedding.

            Jack: You’re taking him to Vail? You really want to do the family thing with him already?

            Hallie shrugged in her empty apartment before texting: Maybe . . . ?

            Jack: He’s not the one, you know. You’re not going to win the vacation with that guy.

            Hallie: Have you ever thought that you might be wrong? What if he IS the one?

            She waited for his response, feeling a little breathless with anticipation. Conversation bubbles started and stopped, started and stopped, and then, after an entire five minutes had passed, he texted: I guess time will tell.

            She didn’t know why, but she was disappointed with his response. She’d wanted him to care that she might be close to winning the bet. She’d wanted him to argue with her that the notion of Alex being the one was asinine.

            But he hadn’t.

            And what was up with Kayla? He never really mentioned her, but she knew he was still talking to her. So what did that mean?

            Was he falling in love with the beautiful grad student?

            Hallie tossed and turned all night, kept awake by the uncomfortable realization that things with Jack could be changing. And as much as she wanted both of them to find their happy endings with their true loves, the thought of change, especially with Jack, made her stomach hurt.





Chapter

FIFTEEN



Jack


            Jack pocketed his keys and headed for the door to Hal’s building, a tiny little pouch of catnip in his jacket pocket. He’d landed a few hours before, and he’d had to force himself not to come running over to her place the instant he’d touched down.

            Because he was dying to see her.

            He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do or say, but something had changed in Minneapolis. He had changed in Minneapolis. He’d realized that as scared as he was of screwing up what they already had, he wanted to move forward.