Looking for Love (Boxed set) by Rita Herron

that she had no intention of playing nursemaid to two scrawny boys.
    Yeah, he'd seen the hopes and happiness of a couple in love countless times, then he'd witnessed the devastation when it all ended. He'd been the innocent bystander, the one wondering what had gone wrong and wishing that those stupid fairy tales his teachers had read in books came true—but knowing they didn't.

Chapter 6

     
    Jenna stared into the last dregs of her coffee in misery, grateful Colleen had agreed to meet her at the bookstore coffee shop. She didn't feel like facing her empty apartment, not with the sexually-charged scene at her store haunting her with what ifs.
    What if she'd let Zack make love to her? What if it turned into more...
    No. Hadn't Heloise insisted that you could not change a man? And she was right.
    Certainly she wanted Zack. She wanted him with every fiber of her being.
    But wanting and needing were the stuff of fairy tales.
    And fairy tales didn't always come true.
    Although a night in bed with Zack would be fabulous... Even a night of phone sex or sexting...
    Colleen slid into the seat across from her. "You look bummed. What's wrong, Jenna? Are you having problems at the store?"
    A red flush crept up Jenna's neck. "Uh, sort of."
    Colleen stirred cream and sugar in her coffee. "Oh, no it's slow?"
    "No, business is good," Jenna said. "My new lingerie for Christmas arrived, and it's spectacular. You'll have to come in and take a look."
    "I can't wait." Colleen giggled. "Not that I need new lingerie."
    Jenna forced herself to smile. "Married life must be suiting you?"
    "It's better than I imagined," Colleen said, "I love Mark and he loves me. Last night we climbed out on the deck..." She hesitated as if she realized she shouldn't spill intimate details. "Well, never mind."
    Jenna patted her hand. "Seriously, I'm happy for you. I know you dated your share of jerks before Mark."
    Colleen nodded. "Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs."
    "That's all that's out there now," Jenna said morosely. "Complete toads."
    Colleen curled her hand over Jenna's. "Honey, don't give up. There's someone for you. You just haven't found him yet."
    Or maybe she had and he was unavailable.
    Jenna drummed her nails on the counter. "Maybe it's me. I seem to be attracted to the wrong kind of men. The ones who hate marriage." Jenna sighed. "Colleen, I don't want to be single forever."
    "There's no one in the class you're taking?"
    "So far just weirdoes and nerds." Jenna made a face. "No one I want to spend one night with, much less the rest of my life with."
    "How about that cooking club?"
    "I changed my mind about that I met the stripper at the mixer."
    "God, say no more." Colleen pinched off a piece of chocolate cake and inhaled it. "Isn't there anybody else you're attracted to? Maybe someone you met through business."
    "Well, there is someone..."
    "Do I know him?"
    "Yeah, sort of." Jenna squirmed in her chair, reached for the sweetener and accidentally spilled the packets across the table.
    "Uh-oh." Colleen frowned.
    "I didn't mean it to happen," Jenna said, scrambling to scrape the packets together.
    "Don't tell me."
    Jenna choked back the guilt at her own stupidity. After all, Mark had warned her.
    Colleen sat her coffee mug down with a thud. "You've got the hots for Mark's brother, don't you?"
    Jenna nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
    "No wonder you're miserable." Colleen looked stricken. "This could be trouble."
    Jenna dropped her face in her hands and moaned. "I know. I can't seem to help myself."
    Colleen tilted her head sideways. "Well, I hate to say it but it is understandable. Zack is awfully cute," Colleen conceded.
    "Cute?" Jenna shrieked in exasperation. "He is undoubtedly the sexiest, most handsome man I've ever met."
    Colleen winced.
    "I can't keep my hands off of him and he can't keep his hands off of me."
    Colleen shook her head in sympathy.
    "We almost made love right in the middle of my store!"
    Colleen leaned forward, her