This is going to be bad.
“Are you serious?” she asks. “You aren’t serious. How? No. You can’t be.”
“I am.” Damn it, this is not how I wanted to tell her. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been planning on telling you. I wanted to tell you. It just never seemed like the right time, and when it did seem right, things kept happening.”
She looks at the floor, her head slowly shaking from side to side. I’m panicking, trying to come up with the right thing to say. Is there a right thing to say when you’ve been lying to the woman you’re in love with? If there is, I don’t know what it is.
“Oh my god,” she says, stepping away from me. “Oh my god. I’ve been… and you were… this whole time… and it was… Lexi was you?”
“Yes, Lexi was me.”
“Holy shit.” She puts her hand on her stomach, like she might vomit. “I’ve been telling you things—things about you. And you’ve been using that, haven’t you? You’ve been manipulating me this whole time.”
“No,” I say, putting up a hand. “No, Mia, I swear it wasn’t like that.”
“How can you say that?” she asks. “Oh god, it started in the bookstore. Can I buy you books? I told Lexi I wished a guy would do that, and you used it on me. You picked me up with my own line.”
“No. God, Mia, I didn’t know who you were then. I just thought you were cute and it seemed like a good idea.”
“When did you know?” she asks, finally looking me in the eyes.
I stare at her, suddenly unable to speak. All my logic, all the decisions that seemed perfectly reasonable up until this moment come crashing down around me. The proverbial house of cards.
I really fucked this up.
“Alex, when did you find out who I was?”
“After we had dinner at Lift,” I say, reluctantly. “You messaged Lexi and talked about your date. I knew it had to be me.”
She gapes at me, her mouth dropping open, her eyes widening.
Yep. I’m screwed.
“How could you keep this from me?”
“The only person who knows is my sister,” I say. “I kept it a secret from everybody else.”
“Yeah? Well, you aren’t sleeping with everybody else,” she says.
I wince. “Mia, please. I didn’t mean to lie to you.”
“Of course you meant to,” she says. “Lying doesn’t happen by accident.”
“No, but I wanted to tell you,” I say. “I swear, I was going to.”
She meets my eyes and crosses her arms. “But you didn’t. Why?”
Okay, maybe I should back up and explain why I’m standing in front of the love of my life, trying to make her understand how I’m also a woman named Lexi Logan.
Confused?
Yeah, me too.
It all started a little over a year ago. I know, that’s a big jump, and you want to get to the good stuff. The boy meets girl, they fall in love, have hot monkey sex, are pulled apart by conflict, and come back together for a brilliant happily-ever-after stuff. Believe me, I’m all too familiar with that story.
In fact, I write them for a living.
A year ago, that wasn’t me. Five days a week, I was schlepping off to my job, sitting in a dull gray cubicle, staring at a screen, writing computer code. I had a shitty uncomfortable chair, a boss who needed a throat punch, and a bunch of coworkers who were stuck in just as deep a rut as I was.
But in my spare time, I was writing a science fiction novel. I spent hours doing research, taking notes, drawing sketches. I would work late into the night, plodding away, word after word. The book kept getting longer, but I figured I would deal with that when I started revisions. Or maybe make it a trilogy. I certainly had enough material. More often than not, the sun would be staining the sky with color, and my eyes dry and gritty, before I’d finally fall into bed for a couple hours.
Only to get up and go to my shitty job.
To be fair, the sleep deprivation was probably not helping my attitude toward work.
I’d wanted to be a novelist ever since I was a kid. I almost majored in English, but my dad, ever a practical man, talked me into getting a computer science degree in case the writing thing didn’t work out. The problem is, that practical degree led to a practical career, which led to the soul-sucking existence I was wallowing in.
I didn’t see a way out. My job sucked. I was divorced, after a very brief and tumultuous marriage. My relationship status was basically I love women but I’m not interested in commitment. All I had was my writing.
But as much as I enjoyed the process, I knew deep down that it was more of a hobby than a career, at least the way I was doing it. Even if the finished product—if I ever finished it—turned out to be the best sci-fi epic ever written, it would take a stroke of luck to get it published and make enough money to quit my job. And considering I’d been working on it for years already, with no end in sight, it didn’t seem like I was going to write my way to a better life.
Until my sister, Kendra, said something that altered the course of my life forever.
Keep reading Book Boyfriend
Afterword
Dear reader,
Can I just tell you what a pleasure this book was to write?
It pushes so many buttons for me (yes, Nora, I know you also made a button reference). Weird, quirky, and/or nerdy characters are my FAVE. And two of them together? It wasn’t even my birthday!
Witty banter? Yes, please! These two have some of my favorite dialogue I’ve ever written. They’re both so quirky and smart and totally speak the same language. I loved writing it.
I will confess, I was nervous you wouldn’t hang in there with Hazel. If you found her a little bit hard to understand in the beginning, you’re not alone. My beta readers all had a moment of, “Um… okay, but where is this going, because I trust you, but what is her deal right now?”
That’s a tough place to be as a writer. There’s a line between making a character or plot point intriguing, so that the reader asks why but keeps turning the page to find out, and making the reader ask why in such a way that they drop their Kindle and abandon the book. I definitely don’t want to be guilty of the latter!
But honestly, Hazel made sense to me. And maybe that’s because I could see where she was going. She grows so much, especially in the second half of the book. And I absolutely love writing a strong character arc.
And can we talk about Corban for a second? Sweet, nerdy, clueless Corban. He was a very different hero for me. I had to find ways to balance his nerdiness with sex appeal, and his insecurities with strength. In the end, he spoke to me so clearly. He knew he was a little different, and he was okay with that. He just wanted to love someone, and be loved in return.
Don’t we all, buddy.
The enemies to lovers dynamic was also a TON of fun to play with in this book. That copy room scene? GAH. I’m not going to lie, I’m particularly proud of that one.
I hope you enjoyed Hazel and Corban! If you did, it would be awesomesauce if you’d love a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or Bookbub.
Stay tuned because there will absolutely be more hot romcoms featuring the Dirty Martini Running Club.
Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
CK
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to everyone who helped bring this book to life!
To my team of badasses, I have absolutely zero fist unicorns for you, double or otherwise. Thank you to Elayne, editor extraordinaire. To Kari, for another adorable cover. To my beta readers, Nikki, Jess, and Alex, for offering feedback and virtual high fives. And to Erma, for being lovely and finding those last little typos that somehow slip through.
Thank you to David for hugs, cuddles, love, support, unwavering belief, coffee, and all the millions of other things you do for me and for our family. And also for beta reading, and for finally reading more of my books than Lucy’s.
And to all my readers for your love and support. Thank you! You
’re my favorite!
Also by Claire Kingsley
For a full and up-to-date listing of Claire Kingsley books visit www.clairekingsleybooks.com
Dirty Martini Running Club
Sexy, fun stand-alone romantic comedies with huge… hearts.
Everly Dalton’s Dating Disasters
Free Faking Ms. Right prequel
Faking Ms. Right
A hot fake relationship romantic comedy
Love According to Science
A hot enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy
* * *
The Miles Family Series
Sexy, sweet, funny, and heartfelt family series. Messy family. Epic bromance. Super romantic.
Broken Miles
Forbidden Miles
Reckless Miles
Hidden Miles
Gaining Miles: A Miles Family Novella
* * *
Bluewater Billionaires
Hot, stand-alone romantic comedies. Lady billionaire BFFs and the badass heroes who love them.
The Mogul and the Muscle
A billionaire and her bodyguard hot romantic comedy.
The Price of Scandal, Wild Open Hearts, and Crazy for Loving You
More Bluewater Billionaire shared-world stand-alone romantic comedies by Lucy Score, Kathryn Nolan, and Pippa Grant
* * *
Bootleg Springs
by Claire Kingsley and Lucy Score
Hot and hilarious small-town romcom series with a dash of mystery and suspense. Best read in order.
Whiskey Chaser
Sidecar Crush
Moonshine Kiss
Bourbon Bliss
Gin Fling
Highball Rush
* * *
Book Boyfriends
Hot romcoms that will make you laugh and make you swoon.
Book Boyfriend
Cocky Roommate
Hot Single Dad
* * *
Remembering Ivy
A unique contemporary romance with a hint of mystery.
* * *
His Heart
A poignant and emotionally intense story about grief, loss, and the transcendent power of love.
* * *
The Always Series
Smoking hot, dirty talking bad boys with some angsty intensity.
Always Have
Always Will
Always Ever After
* * *
The Jetty Beach Series
Sexy small-town romance series with swoony heroes, romantic HEAs, and lots of big feels.
Behind His Eyes
One Crazy Week
Messy Perfect Love
Operation Get Her Back
Weekend Fling
Good Girl Next Door
The Path to You
The Jetty Beach Box Set Books 1-4
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About the Author
Claire Kingsley is a Top 10 Amazon bestselling author of sexy, heartfelt contemporary romance and romantic comedies. She writes sassy, quirky heroines, swoony heroes who love their women hard, panty-melting sexytimes, romantic happily ever afters, and all the big feels.
She can’t imagine life without coffee, her Kindle, and the sexy heroes who inhabit her imagination. She’s living out her own happily ever after in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and three kids.
www.clairekingsleybooks.com
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