The Girl Most Likely To... Read online

  “Back to earth now?”

  “I think so,” Dana said.

  “Good.” Cal’s answer had a determined undertone.

  He scooped her up and laid her on the bed with an ease she found impressive. Still too relaxed to move, she watched as he picked up her dress and his shirt, then dropped them on the armchair.

  When he was finished, Cal took his wallet and set it on the nightstand, then bent over her and divested her of her panties, garters and stockings in record time.

  The mattress gave as he got onto the bed. He had her framed beneath him before she had time to blink.

  “All rested up?”

  Dana looked at him. “Um, I might need a minute or two more to recover.”

  He grinned. “Thirty seconds, then you’re mine.”

  “I can be ready in ten,” she offered after his first kiss. But she was lying. She was really ready in five….

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Sandy Bend, Michigan, which you last visited with me in my February Duets novel The Girl Least Likely To…. This time Dana Devine, best friend to Hallie Brewer, is seeking her bit of happiness.

  The former town wild child, Dana has transformed herself into a savvy businesswoman. But just as she’s about to open a day spa, her past comes back to haunt her. When her best friend’s brother, sexy police chief Cal Brewer, is called to duty, Dana knows her heart is at risk. Can sizzling nights lead to love between a cop and a reformed bad girl? In quirky Sandy Bend, miracles have been known to happen….

  I love hearing from readers! Stop by my Web site at www.dorienkelly.com, or send a letter to P.O. Box 767, Royal Oak, Michigan 48068-0767.

  Happy reading!

  Dorien Kelly

  Books by Dorien Kelly

  HARLEQUIN DUETS

  86—DESIGNS ON JAKE

  94—THE GIRL LEAST LIKELY TO…

  THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO…

  Dorien Kelly

  To Paulette for having the wisdom to celebrate

  her birthday in Chicago. To Sandy, Martha and Annie

  for the added inspiration (and the many martinis).

  And to Tesha, hairstylist extraordinaire.

  Contents

  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

  1

  DANA DEVINE didn’t believe in revelations. That is, until her personal epiphany arrived in the form of carrot cake.

  “Let me get this straight,” she said to her best friend, Hallie Whitman. “You think this cake I whipped up is better than sex?”

  Hallie set down her fork and subtly pushed her slice toward the center of Dana’s kitchen table. “Maybe just the cream cheese frosting…”

  Dana drew a deep breath. With luck, the mingled scents of cinnamon and freshly brewed coffee would have a sedative effect. Otherwise, someone was going to have to die.

  Hallie had activities other than baking to fire up her nights. Dana, however, had occupied herself most of the past year with the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Recently, she had moved on to cakes. She had never imagined the day would come when thoughts of rich, dark chocolate and lighter-than-air angel food cake would make her feel sick and lonely, but there you had it.

  “I know this is going to be a stretch for you, with your blissful newlywed attitude, but pretend you can bake yourself a big, fat carrot cake any night of the week. Now imagine you haven’t had sex in, say…almost a year.”

  “Oh, Dana…”

  “Let’s up the ante,” Dana said, flicking the edge of her plate with one fingernail. “Now I’m talking devil’s food cake. And frosting made with the best Swiss cocoa I can get my hands on. What then? Would you take the cake or the sex?”

  “I’m dead no matter how I answer this, aren’t I?”

  Dana sighed and absently ran her fingers through her short blond hair. “It’s not like you can help it. After all, you married the guy of your dreams. But you know it’s tough on those of us with a choice between carrot cake and…carrot cake. It’s been six months today since my divorce was final and—and—”

  Dammit! She was crying. Dana detested feeling sorry for herself. It wasn’t as though she missed her ex-husband, Mike. After all, it was tough to miss a guy who’d been unfaithful before he had to decide on that traditional paper first-anniversary gift. Dana had presented him with some paper of his own—a divorce complaint.

  Hallie pushed away from the table and retrieved a box of tissues from the counter. She handed one to Dana. “Are you okay?”

  Dana wiped her eyes then rid herself of the tissue as if it were a smoking gun. “I’m fine. Really.” At her friend’s disbelieving scoff, she added, “I guess I’m a little tired.”

  Hallie accepted that, at least. “No shock, with the hours you’ve been keeping lately.”

  Life in their hometown of Sandy Bend, Michigan, generally made for a skewed existence of empty winters and wild summers. A sleepy town nestled between the Crystal River and the sugary dunes of Lake Michigan, Sandy Bend had been “discovered” by wealthy city-dwellers from Chicago seeking a more relaxed pace. Each summer, growing numbers of them packed the town. Enormous shoreline vacation homes were gradually replacing quaint cottages. Trendy boutiques occupied formerly vacant storefronts.

  Some longtime residents resented the influx of both cash and trunk-slammers, as the weekend residents were called. Dana wasn’t upset. She could sniff out an opportunity at fifty paces and design the perfect plan to seize it.

  Dana was big on plans. After all, a girl needed to be prepared. Her current plan filled half a notebook and most of her waking thoughts. She’d been working at a frantic rate to expand her hair salon into a full-service day spa to cater to the summer population. It was only late February, but already she felt as though she were running out of time. Dana said as much to Hallie.

  “What’s the point of having the day spa done if you’re too exhausted to run it?” Hallie asked before digging into that cake she found better than sex.

  Dana moved her piece aside. She wasn’t very hungry, at least not for cake. “Tell you what, I’ll be my own first customer.”

  “Very funny.”

  Seeking neutral ground, Dana asked Hallie for more detail on the mural she was planning for the Eden Room, one of several private spa rooms Dana was adding to Devine Secrets. It wasn’t as though she was really worried about the design; Hallie was a fabulous artist.

  As her pal moved on to other topics, Dana lapsed into silence and served up another slice of cake. She was feeling pretty absurd for letting loose on Hallie about Mike. While Hallie wasn’t directly involved, she wasn’t a disinterested party, either. Back in high school, Hallie had been Mike’s date for the senior class bonfire. It had been a one-time thing—Hallie had been trying to get over a crush on wealthy and older Steve Whitman, who was now her husband. Mike was being a total ass, and trying to prove to Dana, whom he had a thing for, that she wasn’t the only girl he could get.

  Dana had taken the bait, just as he’d planned. One thing had led to another, and Hallie had stumbled on the two of them in the midst of a fully naked “apology” session in the back of Mike’s car. Hallie had treated them to a beer bath, then escaped.

  Dana had carried a case of the guilts over the incident until this past summer, when Hallie had returned to Sandy Bend after several years away. Hallie and Steve Whitman had fallen in love, and Dana and Hallie had made their
peace and become true friends. Theirs was Sandy Bend’s most unlikely friendship, which made Dana cherish Hallie all the more.

  Hallie pointed her fork at Dana. “You’re not listening to a word I’m saying.”

  Dana winced. “Guilty as charged.”

  “I was saying that you need to focus on something other than work for a while.” With only the shortest pause, she added, “Have I mentioned that Cal broke up with Linda Curry last week?”

  “Several times.” Cal was Hallie’s older brother, and somewhere along the line, Hallie had decided that her purpose in life was to nudge Dana in Cal’s direction. Dana was pretty sure her purpose in life was to steer clear of Cal Brewer. Being around him made her crazy—and not a good kind of crazy, either.

  “You know, I’m sure all you two need is—”

  Dana reached across the table and hijacked Hallie’s carrot cake.

  “Hey, give that back!” Hallie made a grab, but Dana was too quick.

  “No way. You can have it when you agree to stop talking about Cal.”

  The mutinous set of Hallie’s jaw battled with her yearning expression as she eyed the carrot cake.

  “Fine, no more Cal,” she finally agreed.

  Dana slid the cake halfway back. “Promise?”

  Hallie seized her plate. “At least until the cake’s gone, I promise. Here’s a non-Cal question for you…. When was the last time you got away?”

  It was one thing for Dana to dwell on the rotten state of her life. It was another to admit to it aloud. “Counting the hair show in New York?”

  “The one last fall where you got food poisoning and didn’t make it out of your hotel room? No dice.”

  “Okay, not counting New York, it was when I went Christmas shopping in Grand Rapids.”

  “A couple of hours down the road to shop isn’t much of a vacation, but it’s better than nothing.”

  Dana couldn’t help the smug smile working its way across her face.

  Hallie’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute…Christmas which year?”

  She knew she was beat. Dana leaned back until her head touched the top of her oak ladder-back chair. “Never mind,” she said, staring at the arched pattern on the pressed-tin ceiling.

  Hallie stood and starting pacing the small but nicely updated kitchen, one modern marvel in the middle of an otherwise thoroughly Victorian house. Dana sat up and followed her with her eyes.

  “You’ve done wonderful things with Devine Secrets,” her friend said, “but it’s making a mess of you. Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

  Dana snorted. “It’s kind of tough to miss a mirror in my line of work.”

  “No, I mean have you looked at you, not your clients? You’ve got shadows under your eyes that even Trish, your cosmetics queen, couldn’t cover, and I haven’t seen you do anything new with your hair in months.”

  “I’ve been meaning to get around to it.” Except she hadn’t, really. She wasn’t taking an interest in her appearance, which was a pretty scary concept for a woman whose looks and behavior were crucial to her business’s success.

  Lately, she’d had the bleak feeling that nothing mattered. No matter how sophisticated she looked or how hard she worked, a certain Sandy Bend faction was always going to view her as the wild thing she’d been in high school. And—to be honest—for more than a few years thereafter.

  Hallie cut into her thoughts. “How about a sanity break, just for a couple of days?”

  “And who will mind the shop?” The upside of having no partners was there was no one to second-guess her decisions. The downside was being held hostage to her ambition.

  “You’re closed Sunday and Monday. Shift your Saturday appointments and ignore the renovations.”

  The drab, blue-suited businesswoman who’d taken up residence in Dana’s conscience barked, “Certainly not! You have obligations!”

  Dana told her to clam up. Hallie was right; this was a matter of sanity. After all, she’d just lost it over a piece of carrot cake.

  “So, hypothetically speaking, where would I go?”

  A smile spread across her friend’s expressive features. “We’ll go to Chicago.”

  “Chicago.” Dana sighed the word, making it sound like the paradise it was. She’d moved there after high school graduation, attended beauty school and then talked her way into a position as an assistant at a trendy salon just off Oak Street. She’d always had talent, and eventually that talent had earned her a chair of her own. She’d hooked up with a group of people who lived for the city’s nightlife. Mike, who’d moved up in the ranks from a frequent fling to a sometimes-boyfriend, had come down from Sandy Bend almost every weekend. Life had been fast, hot and perfect.

  While Dana daydreamed, Hallie apparently endeavored to push all the right buttons. Dana tuned back in just in time to hear, “We’ll window-shop for shoes along Michigan Avenue….”

  Shoes were Dana’s one remaining indulgence—the sexier, the better. Deep discounts didn’t hurt, either. Slowly, the rest of what Hallie had said sunk in. “Did you say we?”

  “Sure! I could use a break, too. I mean, I love Sandy Bend, but sometimes it’s easier to appreciate it after a couple of days away. A girls’ weekend sounds great.”

  It did, but the reality of Dana’s finances was a downer. “Except I have no money to spare and no place to stay.”

  Hallie smiled. “Easy. We’ll drive together. You cover your meals and I’ll take care of the hotel room. We can stay at the Almont.”

  “Yeah, right.” That was like saying they’d bunk with the queen if they were in London. The Almont was a four-star hotel not far from the exclusive area where Dana used to work. “Are we going to rob a bank first?”

  “No, really. Steve’s family owns it, and I can guarantee we’ll get a good deal, as in free.”

  To own an entire hotel was unthinkable to Dana, whose dad had run the local marina until he passed away when she was twelve, and whose mother spent her time pretending she was a yacht-owner instead of a yacht-tender.

  “A free room at the Almont?” she repeated.

  Hallie laughed. “Winter in Chicago isn’t quite the same as springtime in Paris. Unless they’re booked because of convention overflow—which I doubt—there are always open rooms this time of year. I’ll talk to Steve, and we’ll be fine.”

  “Speaking of Steve, how’s he going to feel about you taking off like this?”

  “No problem,” Hallie said with breezy confidence. “It’ll just give him a few days to miss me.”

  HALLIE’S STATEMENT about Steve proved to fall under the category of Famous Last Words. When Dana and Hallie checked in at the Almont’s mahogany-and-marble counter Friday evening, a message already waited. While they were on the road, Steve had blown out his knee in a pickup basketball game.

  Dana was resigned to driving the three-and-a-half hours back to Sandy Bend, but Hallie wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, she arranged for a ride with her in-laws, who were heading to their weekend home on Lake Michigan. Dana could drive Hallie’s car back on Sunday night.

  Yes, Hallie had made it all sound so reasonable. It wasn’t until Dana stood alone in a posh hotel room with carpet so deep it trapped her stiletto heels, that she realized she had no clue what to do with herself. Calling her old friends sounded more like punishment than pleasure. She couldn’t afford to keep up with them, and didn’t want to anyhow.

  So what then? A night watching pay-per-view movies and scarfing down macadamia nuts from the honor bar?

  “Totally pathetic,” she told herself as she gazed out the fifteenth-story window. Below her waited a city offering everything an imaginative woman could envision from opera to nude steam baths rich with the scent and sting of a eucalyptus massage. Dana yanked the drapes shut as though she were closing out temptation.

  She sat on the ivory brocade comforter and wriggled out of her tall, black, man-eater boots. The boots lay on the floor pigeon-toed and unfulfilled. Like her, except the pigeon-toed
part. She considered flopping back on the bed and giving up, but unzipped her overnight bag instead. Dana scowled at its wrinkled contents. She shouldn’t have let Mike take their good luggage set.

  He’d be doing more traveling than she would, he’d said—a reference to the wealthy girlfriend he’d found more useful than the wife he’d charmed and dazzled into marriage. She knew now that all Mike had ever wanted was a free ride.

  Although it said little about her ability to forgive, Dana still felt a certain satisfaction that the wealthy girlfriend had dumped him within hours of the divorce becoming final. That luggage set was gathering dust, and Mike was wifeless, girlfriendless and penniless.

  It seemed the penniless part bothered him most, not that he planned to do anything as rash as find a real, paying job. Sometimes Dana felt as though she’d aged to eighty, while Mike partied hearty in Peter Pan Land. Just last night, they’d had another argument when he’d arrived at the salon to ask for a loan. That he’d even consider asking her for money would be laughable if it weren’t also telling evidence of the way she used to let him manipulate her.

  Sliding open the mirrored closet door, Dana hung up the trim black pants and sweater she’d brought to wear window-shopping. She moved on to the vintage, tight-as-sin emerald-green dress—with matching pumps—she’d brought in hopes of improving her attitude toward men. Fat lot of good shoes and a dress would do if she succumbed to the lure of the television.

  Before inertia seized her, she decided she’d have a shower, then take a trip downstairs for some music. When they were checking in, she’d seen a placard advertising a jazz trio in the bar.

  On a whim, she carried the vintage dress into the bathroom and hung it on the back of the door so the steam could release the fabric’s wrinkles. If she was going to work up the energy for adventure, she might as well be dressed for it.

  Dana stripped in front of the mirror and, instead of taking an “I don’t wanna look” glance she’d become so good at, forced herself to really examine her appearance. The shadows under her eyes were there, just as Hallie had said. She turned sideways and found reason to smile. It appeared that her recent hard work had rid her of the five extra pounds she always carried.