TooHot by Lauren Fraser

me be the reason you
missed out on a good guy, so I helped things along a little.”
    “Helped them along. You made me sound like a pathetic loser
who couldn’t get her own date.”
    His eyebrows wrinkled. “No, I didn’t. I just told him if he
didn’t ask you out I’d see if Rick wanted to take you out.” He laughed. “Rick
has a bit of a reputation with the ladies, so I knew there was no way Marco was
going to risk Rick asking you out. I never had any intention of talking to
Rick. Hell, what kind of uncle would I be if I set you up with someone like
that?” He snorted. “Marco should have known better than that.” He shook his
head. “So you see, it wasn’t really a bribe when it’s what Marco wanted to have
happen all along, now is it? This way works so much better than a blind date
because you’d both already seen each other.”
    How had she never seen what a crafty old romantic her uncle
was? It was convoluted, but hearing him say it, somehow it made perfect sense.
She shook her head. “Uncle Jack, you are an odd duck.”
    He crouched down in front of her chair. “I’m sorry you got
hurt by my matchmaking. That was not my intention.” He tilted his head sadly.
“You should know better than that. You’re like a daughter to me, Josie. I’d
never do anything to hurt you and somehow that’s exactly what I ended up
doing.”
    She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
    “I’m sorry, Josie.”
    “I know.” She held onto him tightly. What if she’d blown her
chance with Marco? She hadn’t exactly been nice to him tonight. Who was she
kidding? She’d been a bitch, implying he was no better than a dog in heat,
fucking anything that moved. She dropped her head onto her uncle’s shoulder and
held on.
    He pulled back and looked at her. “Did you talk to Marco?”
    “Sort of.”
    “Josie? What did you say?”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Let’s just say I didn’t make things
better.”
    “Josie, Josie, Josie. What am I going to do with you, girl?
Did you let that redheaded temper of yours get the best of you again?”
    Heat ran across her cheeks. “I might have.”
    He laughed. “Well, girl, I guess you’re going to have to do
something to make it up to him.”
    * * * * *
    Josie eyed the bottle of forty-year-old Glenfiddich in her
hand. She’d been given it as thank-you gift from a neighbor for taking wedding
photos for them. And not being a scotch drinker, she’d never cracked the
bottle. Marco had taken one look at the scotch and nearly had a coronary. She’d
practically had to wipe the drool off his chin. She hadn’t even realized it was
such a good bottle until she’d seen his face. Hopefully giving it to him would
be the peace offering she needed to sway Marco.
    She took a deep breath and knocked on his apartment door.
Nothing. Damn it, he wasn’t home. She glanced at her watch. Where the hell
could he be? Oh god, what if he was out picking up someone else? Pain lanced
through her at the thought.
    Okay, nope, she wasn’t going to think like that. Marco
wasn’t Dave. He wouldn’t have moved on that fast. He said he wanted to make it
work, and he wouldn’t have given up that easily.
    She sat down and leaned her back against the door and set
the bottle on the floor beside her. Popping in her ear buds, she flicked
through her iPhone for the right song. Sometimes a girl just needed to listen
to a little Heart. Growing up, she’d listened to it a lot. Her mom was a huge Heart
fan and said they had a song to cure anything. God, she hoped her mom was
right. Plugging in the song, she leaned her head back against the door and
closed her eyes.
    The song slowly spread through her, and she hit replay. She
was humming along when she felt as if she were no longer alone. Josie opened
her eyes and found Marco leaning against wall, watching her. Heat ran across
her face. So much for being cool when she saw him. An amused smile spread
across his face as he watched her stumble to