A GUY’S BEST FRIEND, Copyright © 2011 by Shawna Hansen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of the author.
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition June 2011
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Shawna Hansen
Copyright © 2011 by Shawna Hansen
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To my husband, Lars, and my daughter, Aerin.
You keep me young and inspire me to remember to have fun with each page.
Special Thanks to my critical readers for keeping me on my toes.
Preview A Guy's Worst Nightmare (coming fall 2011)
Summer was more than halfway over and “more than halfway over” summed up how Emma felt about being engaged to Ryan. They’d been engaged for almost four years and lived together their last year in college. After three months apart and three solid months of fighting, all she could think about was how today would have been their Two Month Anniversary if they’d eloped to Vegas in June after college graduation like they’d planned since last Christmas when he’d turned down her first proposal to elope.
Ryan shocked her at dinner after their last college final by telling her he had bought his uncle’s failing auto dealerships with their savings. He was leaving Florida for Boston the next day. Emma could handle packing up their condo on her own and her parents would be down Memorial Day weekend. She’d join him in Boston for the summer. He had it all planned out.
Emma was too heartbroken to cry. He’d picked a public place to tell her he was leaving her. He’d said eloping to Vegas was too sudden when she asked him last Christmas and said if he got into Stanford for his MBA, they’d drive out to Vegas after graduation in June and spend the summer as a honeymoon. He got into Stanford and she hadn’t even sent out one resume for a job because she was planning to spend the summer with Ryan before starting a new life as a married couple in California.
Their first real fight in their entire four year relationship was Memorial Day weekend when he showed up to get his clothes and then immediately flew back to Boston to work out problems in the new business. She’d told him she was going home to New Hampshire and had bought a Jeep from another dealer in town.
Ryan said no way was she keeping a Jeep she bought from another dealer. The soft top was a bad investment and he’d find a way to get her money back, but she said to leave it alone. She loved the soft top and couldn’t wait to take it off and remove the doors all summer. He said she should spend the summer with him in Boston, but she said no, she was going home to New Hampshire. Her mind was made up.
Ryan promised her he’d be back for graduation and they’d work everything out then. If she wanted to be all alone in New Hampshire away from him, he’d get her to change her mind. He loved her and promised her they would get married in Vegas at the end of summer and that he’d been looking into honeymoons in Tahiti. He won the fight by convincing her he was doing everything for her and for their future.
Emma’s parents were flying in to spend the last two weeks before the graduation ceremony with her and his parents were coming down the week before the ceremony. He said he’d fly down with his parents and he’d make everything up to her then. He left with his clothes and a promise from Emma that she’d calm down after she saw the potential in this new business, think things through and live with him in Boston for the summer. She said, ok, we’ll talk with my parents when they’re here, but I’ll need to spend the first weeks of summer helping them with the B&B.
Emma broke up with him in June when he didn’t show up for graduation ceremony and she ended up spending the week before the graduation ceremony alone with his parents, her parents and her best friend, Katie. They got back together in DC when he met her halfway home on her road trip to New Hampshire from Florida.
They broke up again over the 4th of July when he’d spent their romantic weekend together working, but he convinced her not to do anything except give him a chance until he could come see her in person in North Conway. He hadn’t shown up here and his calls had nearly stopped except for a Tuesday night call which was probably put on his calendar by his secretary.
Even after their second makeup weekend over the 4th of July holiday, Emma couldn’t stop herself from looking out her office window and thinking if she really loved him the way she should, she’d be counting forward three months to October when they’d talked about getting married for real this time, but she couldn’t stop looking back and wondering why she’d wasted almost four years on a dead-end relationship.
Emma had only seen Ryan twice over the summer. She’d stood her ground and come home to work for her parents’ B&B for the summer. Both visits, he’d been eager to get out of North Conway. He wasn’t the guy she’d lived with in Florida anymore and he wasn’t acting like she’d expected him to after they’d made up yet again. She had to admit he wasn’t doing anything differently than he’d been doing since New Year’s.
Ryan hardly called her and took forever to call her back. He didn’t email or return her email except an occasional text message. He’d cancelled plans to come up for the weekend so many times, she knew she close to getting the courage to make the one decision that would put a complete stop to all the makeup weekends and tell Ryan that she wasn’t going to marry him.
Emma spent the last three months getting used to the idea that loving and marrying Ryan wasn’t her reality. She couldn’t imagine not loving him or being married to him, but the guy she’d loved had been a fantasy. The real Ryan was someone she’d never met until she met her best friend, Austin.
Every time she was on the verge of forcing herself to say the words “I am not going to marry you, Ryan”, he’d call or email and they’d start over again. Breaking up over the phone or by email was impossible and she’d tried to say it and failed every time they were together. She wanted to hold onto the fantasy she’d loved for so long.
Since the long drive from Florida to New Hampshire in June with her best friend, Katie, she’d been working nonstop at the B&B and had jumped right into writing for the local paper about restaurants, tourist events and White Mountain destinations. She’d been having a great summer with Katie and her new boyfriend, Gabe, Austin and all their other friends.
Breaking up with Ryan would screw up the balance in her friendship with Austin. Being Austin’s best friend was the third biggest relationship in her twenty-two years behind being a daughter and sister, Katie’s best friend and Ryan’s fiancée.
Emma promised Ryan she’d give them a real chance and a make a decision in October about whether she’d marry him and move in with him in California after he had started classes at Stanford. Lately he’d been pushing her to change her mind and come out with him in August. The more he pushed, the more she wanted to stay in New Hampshire with Katie and Austin.
As stupid as she felt for being upset with Ryan when he didn’t call her, she admitted he had been under a lot of pressure this summer with his new business and when he did call and write, she could tell he was trying to keep their relationship alive.
It wasn’t all Ryan’s fault the summer hadn’t gone the way they’d wanted when they made up in DC. He’d flown down to Florida after the graduation ceremony and missed her and Katie. He got a ticket to DC and met her there. In DC, he’d given her her engagement ring back and she’d left DC on cloud nine thinking things would work out. Then, he’d given her a brand new Jeep as a surprise gift on the 4th of July. She knew she was asking a lot from him after he’d shown her he wanted to be with her.
Ryan had given her big signs that he wanted to get married and she’d only given him one simple promise: to make a decision in October. She knew she shouldn’t throw it all away because he was busy, but deep down she’d felt rejected and ignored by him on a daily basis since Christmas. He was good at saving the day and giving her big messages but even better at forgetting to show her the small signs that he loved her.
Emma reminded herself again that he was extremely busy. He’d promised her on the 4th that he’d be up in a week, but he’d cancelled. He’d promised he’d try to get up to see her for the last three weekends and cancelled. He hadn’t called her to make a promise for the coming weekend yet. He had to be in California before Labor Day, but Emma had her doubts he was even going to go to Stanford.
Ryan has his new business, his busy schedule traveling up and down the East Coast working with the new dealerships and his new secretary to keep him here. Emma actually hoped he was cheating on her with the secretary and he’d make her life easy and break up with her, but so far, he wasn’t breaking up with her and he wasn’t letting her break up with him easily.
Emma had gotten her credit card bill from June late after it was sent from their old Florida address to her change of address in New Hampshire and seeing the hotel charges from Charleston and DC brought back the memories of her Katie’s, road trip home after graduation. The highlight of the 3 day drive had been Ryan calling and surprising her by meeting up with them in DC.
Emma’s best memory of the road trip home was the makeup sex she’d had with Ryan in DC and how romantic and irresistible he’d been. She’d never seem him so excited to have sex and he’d started swimming and working out at a new club in Boston and looked like a confident, young executive in his new Armani suit, Newbury Street haircut and he even smelled successful. He said it was new cologne he’d gotten at Macy’s.
Ryan had looked good when she met him, but she’d felt shabby standing next to him in the hotel lobby and didn’t feel equal to him until they were both naked and he was whispering her name into her lips as he reminded her with his body that they belonged together. He promised he’d show her how much he loved her and he’d brought her engagement ring which she’d left with his parents and told her how it was her ring and even if she didn’t want him; she could keep the ring.
After he’d arrived in Florida too late to convince Emma he was sorry he’d blown off the graduation ceremony, Ryan called and called on Emma’s new cell number. She knew her parents must have given him the number.
At first Emma didn’t want to talk to Ryan, but Katie had talked to him and eventually brought them back together enough to talk on the phone. Ryan had begged Emma to meet him in DC where he had to see her and let her know how sorry he was. Emma decided she could at least tell him it was over to his face.
Ryan had looked really confident and amazing, but his teary eyes had told her their fight was affecting him as much as it was affecting her. When she felt his arms around her again and he told her he wanted her to keep the ring, she wasn’t sure she could let him go yet.
She had loved him deeply for the last four years and his apology for letting her down felt real. DC seemed like such a long time ago now she’d been in North Conway all summer, but in some ways, she’d wondered how they could have screwed up again after such a great makeup in DC.
Emma remembered how safe she’d felt in his arms. Emma thought maybe she had to grow up a little and stop expecting their life to always be perfect. Even her own parents had had bumps in the road. Emma thought the kiss she shared with Ryan was the tenderest and loving kiss they’d shared in months. He was hers, all hers.
Emma stayed with him in DC for the night and the next day, their wedding was back on. Ryan said he’d been looking into Hawaii or Tahiti. Ryan, Emma and Katie had breakfast at the hotel and Ryan told them about how since he was already in DC, he’d found an auto show, so he was staying for a few more days and would come up to North Conway next weekend when he got back to Boston. Emma and Katie resumed their road trip home.
Katie oohed and ahhhed as Emma relived moment by moment and kiss by kiss, the romantic way Ryan had reassured Emma that their relationships could handle some big mistakes and stay strong, but he loved her more than anything. Emma wanted to believe him.
Ryan said he was trying to expand his auto group into New Hampshire and she could live in North Conway. They could have the family they always wanted and live the life they dreamed to have together. Emma was happy. Being together in DC, away from his business, the surf team, school and their parents had let her see and hear that Ryan really was trying to make a better life for them both.
Katie said she was happy to see Emma happy and agreed that Ryan was saying all the right things now. Emma had been happy driving home from DC, but things had quickly fizzed out after Ryan gave her the engagement ring back. He’d said something in DC that had bothered her at the time and he’d repeated it during every fight all summer – that even if they broke up, he’d always want her to keep the engagement ring.
Ryan told her to keep the ring too many times now and she hated feeling like he was paying her off for being with him for four years.
Emma hated it when he said she could keep the ring when they fought. She was starting to hate everything this ring stood for – cancelled wedding, no phone calls, abandoned at graduation, packing up their stuff alone to move out of the condo and all the money he’d taken from their joint saving account which was supposed to go towards the down payment on their first home together as a married couple in California.
Emma twisted her ring around her finger and realized she had to get the ring resized again since she’d lost almost ten pounds hiking, swimming and running in New Hampshire. All she could think about was how funny it was that hours after she’d gotten back together with Ryan and put this engagement ring back on her finger, she’d bumped into Austin for the second time when he pulled her over for speeding inside the North Conway city limits.
Being pulled over by Austin was the second best memory from her road trip home. Emma remembered the adrenaline she’d felt in the last hour of the almost eleven hours of driving from DC to North Conway on Day 3 of their post-graduation-party road trip home.
The last four hours out of Boston had been grueling and her shoulders, neck and rear were all screaming to get out of the Jeep. Ryan had been right that the Jeep wasn’t great for long trips, but she couldn’t wait to get home and take the top and the doors off.
Katie had driven from DC through New York City. Emma had been up late making up with Ryan in DC. Katie had driven all morning while Emma caught up on her sleep in between rest stops to use the restroom and get more coffee and junk food. Emma could feel her skin breaking out from all the junk food and soda she’d devoured.
From Florida to South Carolina, she’d eaten to console herself for breaking up with Ryan and giving him his ring back. Then after making up with him in DC, she was eating because it was there. It was more fun to eat cheese curls and drink soda than to think about how many more miles they had to go before they were home.
Emma had taken over the driving after lunch. They’d made a detour into Brooklyn to see some of Katie’s Emerson friends who were actors and living in New York auditioning for jobs. Emma drove out of New York before rush hour and even got past Hartford without getting slowed down by traffic. Boston was a different story. The Red Sox were playing and Emma and Katie turned on the radio to hear the late afternoon game.
Katie offered to drive once they got past Boston. Katie could drive the streets of New York, but hated Boston. She chose to live without a car when she was working in Boston. Ryan had boasted about his apartment and the parking under the new building near North Station. Emma loved driving the highway between Boston and North Conway and knew every exit and toll booth like old friends.
It was Katie’s turn to nap. Emma had enjoyed the quiet time in the car and was driving faster than usual to get them both home at a decent hour.
Katie had woken up about a half hour before they reached North Conway and the two were finishing off the bag of cheese curls they’d picked up at a rest stop and singing with Pink on the radio. They were stiff, smelly and ready for a shower. Emma knew she looked as bad as she felt, but Katie looked perfect as usual.
The only complaint Katie had was that she hadn’t brought her favorite peppermint foot spray and she thought her feet smelled bad. Emma couldn’t smell anything except cheese curls.
Emma’s heart sank when she saw the police lights flash for her to pull over so close to home. Getting pulled over after three days of solid driving up the East Coast as they crossed into her hometown had been a nasty awakening that her summer home might not turn out the way she had hoped.
Emma was already wondering if Ryan was right and that she should live with him in Boston this summer and then they’d head out to California together. Getting pulled over was going to be a bad way to end a road trip that had brought Emma closer to Ryan and also closer to her best friend, Katie.
Emma turned the car off and looked at Katie like a cat guilty of swallowing a mouse as the officer pulled up behind them in his unmarked SUV and sat in his car running her Florida plates through his database. She watched him in her side mirror as he walked up and she hung her head in embarrassment at being pulled over not even two minutes into North Conway. She’d never gotten a ticket for a traffic violation before and she knew Ryan would be mad when her insurance rates went up.
The police officer walked up and Emma and Katie both giggled and immediately whispered to each other how tall and sexy he was and then made fun of each other for whispering. When he came up to her rolled-down window and Emma looked up, she realized she was looking right into the face she’d secretly been fantasizing about almost every night since New Year’s Eve.
The face of the guy she’d kissed on New Year’s Eve or who’d kissed her, she couldn’t remember how she’d ended up in that kiss and in her fantasy it could go either way with her reaching for him or him reaching for her. She had been calling him her “nice Boston police officer” and now she was embarrassed to think he was the first person she’d run into in North Conway. She turned beet red and shut her eyes and coughed, blowing the cheese curl dust off her dirty t-shirt onto his jeans.
Emma stared at his blue jeans now sprinkled with orange dust and was flustered by how embarrassed she was to have him see her like this and by how much she wanted to reach out the window and pull his face down and kiss him. Emma didn’t need to see the officer’s badge to know this was Austin, the guy she’d kissed on New Year’s.
She was openly staring at his shoulders and down to his waist and completely missed hearing his request for her license and registration. Katie was digging through the junk in the glove compartment for the registration and poking Emma with her elbow telling her to stop staring and give him her license.
Emma handed him her driver’s license. He actually looked at it and then looked at her to see if she matched the photo on her license. She felt stupid for being disappointed that Austin hadn’t recognized her. He looked at her then dismissed her, eagerly checking Katie out and then, looked slightly confused, carefully examined her driver’s license photo and then slowly turned his gaze back to Emma.
Emma saw in his eyes that he didn’t believe that she was the woman in the picture and groaned when he held her license at an angle to see the photo better. She knew she looked bad, but Emma knew that if her driver’s license photo looked better than she did in real life, she was in serious need of a makeover.
Emma told herself to cut him some slack. It had been more than six months since New Year’s, but she was still flushed and had to cough and clear her throat before she could said hi. She’d remembered she’d had to clear her throat before when she’d told him her name on New Year’s, too, but then it had been kind of a sexy rasp and now she was afraid she’d blown more cheese curl dust onto his jacket.
Austin had worn the same leather jacket on New Year Eve and she’d thought it felt incredible against her arms. She didn’t think he’d let her within twenty feet of his jacket now if he had a choice.
On New Year’s Eve she’d dressed up in a new black dress and let her hair flown down her back in soft curls. She’d worn makeup and sexy black underwear and red shoes to impress Ryan. Ryan had said “nice shoes” and then shown her off to the guys at the party and then dumped her with the surf team while he spent most of the night talking up his used car lot and dancing with Emma’s friends from college.
Ryan had met them all before at parties with Emma, but he worked a lot and was in school full time, so he didn’t have time waste on the “college party scene” like Ryan always accused Emma of doing. Surfing, studying with friends, writing for the school paper and all the other things Ryan had loved about Emma when they fell in love seemed to be a waste of time. He wanted them to finish their classes so they could move on.
Emma hadn’t been out to a party without Ryan for over three years and she was sick of him saying she wasn’t a serious student and her high grades were all in “easy A” courses. She took all of the same business and marketing courses he did and was double- majoring in Communications with a specialization in journalism. She had a full scholarship for competing on the surf team and she worked hard to keep her top grades and ranked high on the college surf team circuit.
Emma had been sitting with a bunch of her friends from the surf team where Ryan had dumped her earlier. He’d been on the other side of the room from her for most of the evening and she’d been relieved he’d come over to her about twenty minutes before midnight.
Five minutes later, he said he urgently needed a bathroom and on his way over to the bathroom, she’d seen him dance with several women, some she knew and some she didn’t. Emma lost track of him somewhere between the dance floor and the bathroom with five minutes to go before the countdown.