Bad Taste in Men (Clover Park, Book 3) Contemporary Romance (The Clover Park Series) by Kylie Gilmore Read Free Book Online Page B

where that dog’s tongue had been?
    “The vet says he’s eight months old,” Liz said. “He probably has some Great Dane in him.” She lifted a giant paw. “See these paws?”
    “He’s going to destroy your house.”
    Liz hugged him. Hagar nibbled at the ponytail band in her hair, pulling more hair out of its ponytail. “Hagar!” She put him on the floor, and he rolled over, showing his stomach. She gave him a belly rub. “He’s already chewed through Ryan’s phone charger and ate a remote. That’s why Ryan changed his name to Hagar the Horrible. Hagar for short. I had named him Dumpling.”
    Rachel snorted. Dumpling? This huge guy?
    “So what’s up?” Liz asked. “Tell me everything that’s new with you.”
    “Well, you know how I wanted to open a café next to Book It?”
    Liz’s eyes lit up. “Did you get the loan?”
    “No.”
    “Oh, I’m so sorry. Maybe try another bank?”
    “I don’t think I’ll get a different answer from a bank that doesn’t know me from Adam. My financials aren’t great. Anyway, Shane offered to invest in it. He said we’d be partners. He’d loan me the money for my half.”
    Liz’s brows shot up. “Really?”
    “Yeah. It’s a generous offer.”
    “Egg?”
    The old nickname referred to the fact that Liz thought Rachel was an egghead, always in her head and not noticing life going on around her. Rachel called Liz “chicken” because she never seemed to go for what she really wanted, but look at Liz now—married to the guy she’d crushed on as a teen, living in a house with a yard, and the dog to boot. Everything Liz had always dreamed of. The two kids to go along with it would likely be happening soon.
    Rachel sighed. She couldn’t call Liz chicken anymore. “What?”
    “About Shane. I think he might have feelings for you, and maybe those feelings led him to offer to help you out financially.”
    Rachel knew that. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t still go into business together. “I told him we should just be friends.” She lifted a finger triumphantly. “Actually I told him that before he made the business offer, so he definitely knew.”
    Liz looked at her sympathetically. “People don’t just turn their feelings off and on that quickly.”
    Rachel felt a stab of guilt. She really needed this to work. She couldn’t lose Book It.
    “Is there any way I can do this without being a total jerk?” Rachel asked.
    Liz considered, pulling her ponytail smoothly back into place. “You’d have to be very clear. Spell it out. This is a business deal, and you don’t want to mix business with pleasure.”
    “Strictly business. Firm boundaries. That’s what I’ve been thinking.”
    “Absolutely. You’re a professional. Pretend it's some fancy-pants rich investor that came along. You’d have papers drawn up, get a lawyer to look it over, and never once take your clothes off.”
    “Well, if he’s rich…”
    They cracked up.
    “You can do this,” Liz said. “Just…be careful with Shane. He’s special to me too. I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
    Shane was Liz’s brother-in-law now. Geez, Rachel was surrounded with O’Hares. And now it felt like Liz was with them instead of her.
    “I thought you’d be on my side,” Rachel said.
    Hagar leaped up and barked at something by the front window. Liz joined him. “Bird,” she said over her shoulder. She coaxed Hagar back with a huge bone. “Of course I’m on your side. I love you both. Now be the professional businesswoman you are and make your café the most exciting thing to hit Clover Park since the O’Hares.” Liz grinned.
    “You are definitely drinking the Kool-Aid now. I remember when you couldn’t bear to even look at Ryan. All you could think about was The Humiliation.”
    The Humiliation was what they called an embarrassing incident at Grand Lake one summer when Liz was only thirteen with a monster crush on Ryan, the seventeen-year-old lifeguard.
    Liz smiled mysteriously.