Table of Contents Quit Bein’ Ugly Dedication Acknowledgments Other Titles by Lani Lynn Vale About the Book Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Epilogue A Note From the Author Catch up on the rest of the series Copyright © 2020 Lani Lynn Vale All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Sometimes you eat the cookie. Sometimes you don’t. Today I ate the cookie. Acknowledgments Golden Czermak- Photographer My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing Cover Me Darling- Cover Artist My mom- Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred twenty-one times. Kendra, Laura, Kathy, Mindy, Lisa, Penney, Barbara & Amanda—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do. Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale The Freebirds Boomtown Highway Don’t Care Another One Bites the Dust Last Day of My Life Texas Tornado I Don’t Dance The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Lights To My Siren Halligan To My Axe Kevlar To My Vest Keys To My Cuffs Life To My Flight Charge To My Line Counter To My Intelligence Right To My Wrong Code 11- KPD SWAT Center Mass Double Tap Bang Switch Execution Style Charlie Foxtrot Kill Shot Coup De Grace The Uncertain Saints Whiskey Neat Jack & Coke Vodka On The Rocks Bad Apple Dirty Mother Rusty Nail The Kilgore Fire Series Shock Advised Flash Point Oxygen Deprived Controlled Burn Put Out I Like Big Dragons Series I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie Dragons Need Love, Too Oh, My Dragon The Dixie Warden Rejects Beard Mode Fear the Beard Son of a Beard I’m Only Here for the Beard The Beard Made Me Do It Beard Up For the Love of Beard Law & Beard There’s No Crying in Baseball Pitch Please Quit Your Pitchin’ Listen, Pitch The Hail Raisers Hail No Go to Hail Burn in Hail What the Hail The Hail You Say Hail Mary The Simple Man Series Kinda Don’t Care Maybe Don’t Wanna Get You Some Ain’t Doin’ It Too Bad So Sad Bear Bottom Guardians MC Mess Me Up Talkin’ Trash How About No My Bad One Chance, Fancy It Happens Keep It Classy Snitches Get Stitches F-Bomb The Southern Gentleman Series Hissy Fit Lord Have Mercy Quit Bein’ Ugly KPD Motorcycle Patrol Hide Your Crazy It Wasn’t Me I’d Rather Not Make Me Sinners are Winners If You Say So SWAT 2.0 Just Kidding Fries Before Guys Maybe Swearing Will Help Ask Me If I Care May Contain Wine Joke’s on You Join the Club Any Day Now Say It Ain’t So Officially Over It Nobody Knows Depends Who’s Asking Valentine Boys Herd That Crazy Heifer Chute Yeah Get Bucked Souls Chapel Revenants MC Repeat Offender Conjugal Visits Jailbait Doin’ a Dime Inmate of the Month Kitty Kitty Gen Pop Shakedown Standalones: Somethin’ About That Boy About the Book There’s a crush, and then there are the type of feelings that Croft Cruisie evokes from a person. He’s everything that any straight woman would want: tall, handsome, charismatic, muscular, and sweet. At least, Carmichael thought he was sweet, until he brings another woman to the gym she owns with her brother, on the night that’s to be their first date, and lets her know in a quick and painful, non-verbal way that her feelings are not reciprocated. Fast forward six months, and she’s still trying to move on from the rejection. It doesn’t help that the jerk moves in next door to her, and that she has to see him workout shirtless every single day. How can a woman get over a silly crush when that silly crush won’t so much as give her room to breathe? • • • Croft doesn’t know what happened. One day he was supposed to go on a date with the girl that wouldn’t leave his thoughts for even a second, and the next she’s avoiding him like the plague. No matter how hard he tries—and admittedly, it isn’t all that hard due to the biggest case of his career taking over his life—he can’t get her to tell him what he did wrong. She refuses to give him a second chance. At least, not until he’s nearly killed in front of the courthouse, that is. The moment he sees his chance, he pounces. Or, more literally, he limps. But the limping is what draws Carmichael in. The Southern charm that was instilled in him since birth will be what gets her to stay. That’s his plan, anyway. Funny thing about plans… they never seem to work out how you expect them to. PROLOGUE The path to inner peace begins with four words: not my fuckin’ problem. -Carmichael’s secret thoughts CARMICHAEL I was really fucking giddy. Like, so much so that I was practically bouncing my way through my day. Tonight, I would be going out on a date with Croft, and I literally could not contain my excitement. “What’s with that look on your face, girl?” Raleigh, my good friend and a fellow teacher, asked. I looked over at her. Not even the shitty kids that I’d just had to deal with could ruin my high. “I have a date.” I paused. “With your brother.” Raleigh made a disgusted face. “Gross.” I rolled my eyes and picked up the stack of tests that I would need to take home and grade tonight. “I’m excited,” I said and looked at her. “This isn’t going to make things weird between us, is it?” She snorted. “No. Not unless you decide to kick him to the curb because of who his sister is.” I scoffed. “I like you more than him. If he made me choose between the two of you, you’d win hands down.” Raleigh fist-pumped the air. “Score!” We laughed as we walked out to the parking lot together. “Are you going to the gym tonight?” She was already shaking her head. “No, tonight Ezra and I have a date for the first time since two-a-days started. We are going out to eat and grabbing some drinks one final time before practice and school officially starts. That means that I have to go get my toes done and my lady parts waxed before I go.” I wished
