Can't Shake You by Molly McLain Page B

friend had loved her and maybe even still did. That Josh slept with her first couldn’t hold a candle in the wind to what Fletcher had given her.
    That his own chest ached at the thought was something he completely refused to contemplate.

Chapter Eight
    B ehind the discretion of her sunglasses, Carissa took a slow sip from her margarita and casually watched Andrew make idle conversation with Dan and his father, Jack. All three of the men lounged against the back railing of the latter Hudson’s patio, tipping back bottles of beer.
    Andrew was handsome in a shaggy, Ashton Kutcher sort of way. He was rougher around the edges than Dan, but their brown eyes shared the same confident and clever lawyer’s glint. Dressed in designer jeans, a white button down with the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of boots that were no doubt Gucci, Andrew would easily catch her eye at any of the local establishments. But for all the wrong reasons.
    He was simply far too pretty and polished, and he’d stand out like a sore thumb among the local men, whose delicious ruggedness came from hours of hard work out in the hot Nebraskan sunshine, not from a salon or a gym.
    Of course, there wasn’t anything wrong with Andrew either. He just didn’t get her heart racing or her blood boiling the way the hometown guys did. Or rather, the way one particular hometown guy did.
    Unfortunately, there was also a familiarity in her indifference to Andrew that didn’t sit well—her reaction to him reminded her of her first impression of Reed, complete with comparisons to the man she really wanted.
    As if he felt her staring, Andrew cast a glance her way, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. She forced a smile in return and crossed one leg over the other, fanning herself with a hand and cursing the humidity. The heat was certainly not conducive to a girl keeping her cool. Literally or figuratively.
    Flirting shouldn’t be this difficult...
    “He’s totally into you,” Maddie whispered beside her. “And did you see that ass?” She mouthed a silent ‘wow’ and fanned her own face.
    “He is quite the looker,” Nancy Hudson chimed in and, holy crap, if it wasn’t just plain weird talking about a guy with Josh’s mother. “He’s a good man too,” the older woman added. “Catholic, which is hard to come by these days. You should snap him up.”
    Carissa bit back a laugh, both at the idea and the woman. “You think so?”
    “Absolutely. A man who goes to church is one to hold on to.”
    Angling toward Nancy, curiosity lightened Carissa’s otherwise tentative mood. “But your boys don’t go to church.”
    Nancy’s exaggerated single eye roll made her look like she’d had a momentary stroke. Obviously she had significant feelings on the subject. “Don’t remind me. At least I can get Dan there for holidays. But Joshua? It’s been years. Lord knows that boy worries me the bejesus out of me.”
    “Why is that?” Carissa gave a soft laugh, enjoying the maternal concern etched in the older woman’s features. She also noticed that Nancy and Josh shared the same deep indigo eyes and an unexpected wave of adoration pulsed along her nerves, spreading foolish warmth through her already overheated body.
    “He works so much, for one. Gives too much and doesn’t take anything for himself.” She gave a worried sigh. “And those tattoos? He’s such a handsome young man. I don’t know why he’d do that to his body. I sometimes wonder if he even believes in God anymore. He seems so inside himself. I don’t know what it is. Maybe he’s just too much like his father. Or maybe he’s an atheist.”
    Maddie giggled, but Carissa found little humor in Nancy’s scattered words. The atheist comment and the tattoos aside, she shared his mother’s sentiments. In fact, the same things had bothered her about Josh for a while now too, but she’d never let herself fully consider why. History had long ago taught her that too much thinking about Josh