Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A) by Joss Wood Read Free Book Online

used to say, wig out when he heard that his mother was a) nutty and b) living in a fire hazard.
    She crossed the road, greeted her friends, and took the bottle Jason offered, downing half of the contents in one gulp. When she’d had enough, she lowered the bottle and looked at her friends.
    “So what’s the hot topic of conversation today, guys?” Flick asked, because everyone in Mercy knew that their firemen were the biggest gossips in town. Hmm, how many of them were actively commenting on Mercy OnLine? A bunch, she was sure.
    Kevin, always garrulous and one of Jason’s best friends, answered her. “We were just ragging Jason about his latest barnacle.”
    “Barnacle?” Flick asked, not understanding.
    “Jace’s latest squeeze, who is super attached. She called just ten minutes ago and if you hang around for another ten we can guarantee that she’ll call back again,” Kevin explained.
    Flick didn’t bother asking her name, since, like most of the Sturgiss men, Jason flipped over women with the speed of a spinning top. Jason’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket and held up the display so that they could see that it was someone named Mandy calling. He shook his head, visibly annoyed as the call went to voicemail. “That was exactly five minutes since the last call.”
    “Jason’s got a stalker.” Kevin singsonged the words.
    “I wish I could say that it was the first one,” Jason grumbled. “What is wrong with your species, Flick? I mean, we’ve only dated a couple of times and she’s asking me what I would like her to cook for me tonight. I don’t want her to cook; I don’t even want to see her tonight! She wants to pack my lunches and keeps offering to do my laundry.” Jason looked bewildered. “I thought that we were just going to hook up casually, but she’s reading so much more into this than I am.”
    Flick dropped her eyes from his face and stared down at her battered running shoes. How many times before had she done that with men she’d dated? Once, twice, ten times?
    “At least you’re getting sex, dude,” Kevin commented.
    “I guess but—shit! I just think that if I don’t stop this I’m going to end up in front of the preacher and not know how the hell I got there!”
    Flick hoped that her cousin and friends would attribute her red face to her lack of fitness and not her embarrassment. Because Jason could be talking about her, about the way she conducted her love life. She’d meet a guy, find him attractive, and then she’d have a brief affair or a one-night stand and tell herself that was all it was . . . that she could walk away, that it would go away.
    Except that she never did.
    On the pretext of staying friends or some other stupid-ass excuse she told herself, she’d keep in contact with her latest lover and then she’d start feeding him, or doing his laundry, or running chores for him—usually all three—and, invariably, her no-strings flings turned into relationships. But, unlike Jason’s Mandy, the men she chose were always on the damaged side of the bell graph, men who needed to be “fixed” in one way or another. She seemed to be drawn to the brokenhearted, the insecure, the self-absorbed, and, frequently, the lazy men of the world.
    It was no surprise that her relationships always ended, sometimes with a whimper, sometimes with a bang. And sometimes, as it had recently happened, it ended when she caught her boyfriend with their next-door neighbor. Apparently she had some limits. Her loser boyfriends could siphon her bank account dry and emotionally drain her, but being cheated on was something she wouldn’t accept.The fact that he was cheating on her with someone at least twenty-five years older than her, who was wrinkled and chubby, just took her humiliation to record heights.
    “Why can’t you lot get your head around the concept that sex is sex and that it usually has nothing to do with love?” Jason demanded.
    Flick threw up her hands.