So Revealing (Happy Endings Book Club, Book 3)

by Kylie Gilmore

  Table of Contents

  So Revealing

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  So Revealing

  Happy Endings Book Club Series, Book 3

  © 2017 Kylie Gilmore

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  The last thing Charlotte Vega needs is a cocky HOT stuntman like Ty Campbell in her life. But when he pulls the ultimate stunt—a sexy romantic gesture that ends with a charming invitation to a sunset dinner cruise—she finds him impossible to resist. Cue disaster.

  Their rocky first date goes from bad to worse when his yacht (okay, it's actually borrowed) gets stranded in deep mud. Turns out there's nothing Ty can do but wait hours and hours for high tide with no power, no way to cook dinner, and a hangry sexy-as-hell woman.

  But Ty is determined to salvage the date, so he starts a game to pass the time. Only what Ty learns makes him realize he may have just botched a date with the perfect woman. How will he ever win her now?

  Author’s Note

  The Happy Endings Book Club was inspired by my own wish for a romance book club. I hope you’ll feel right at home with Hailey, the leader/matchmaker of the club, and all the single women there hoping for a happy ending. Charlotte’s not looking for love, but somehow Hailey works her magic. Or maybe that’s Ty. Read on and join the club!

  Hidden Hollywood (Book 1)

  Inviting Trouble (Book 2)

  So Revealing (Book 3)

  Formal Arrangement (Book 4)

  Bad Boy Done Wrong (Book 5)

  Mess With Me (Book 6)

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  Chapter One

  “How romantic are you?”

  Charlotte Vega stifled a laugh at her friend’s question aimed at the Campbell brothers and their guy friends sitting further down the bar. Men were not romantic. Hailey was on the edge of her seat, eager for any juicy romantic nugget.

  No juice. No romantic nugget either.

  Charlotte could’ve saved Hailey a lot of time and frustration tonight if only Hailey had listened. Men liked food, sports, and sex. Romance didn’t enter the equation. Exhibit A: the men in question snarfed down brownies and beer, eyes glued to the March Madness college basketball game on the TV mounted over the bar. Charlotte had to admit the men were easy on the eyes—most of them of the tall, dark, and muscular variety. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine sex was never far from their minds (once they had their fill of food and sports).

  “Scale of one to ten?” Hailey asked, her voice rising in desperation. As Clover Park’s one and only wedding planner, Hailey Adams was hell-bent on matchmaking the single women in the Happy Endings Book Club and felt it her mission to better understand single men to do so. She was under the delusion she’d already caused three members to find their special someone.

  Charlotte was about to tell Hailey to give up already when God’s gift to women swaggered into the bar, wearing a black leather jacket, faded blue jeans, and hiking boots. His dark hair was cropped short; his dark brown eyes crinkled at the corners with a smile that flashed white against the dark shadow of stubble on his square jaw. Of course, he completely ignored her, just like before. He exuberantly greeted the guys—his brothers—with pound-on-the-back bro hugs. Then he stopped to greet some of her friends, kissing Hailey on the cheek, who sat on one side of Charlotte, and ruffling the hair of his sister, Mad, who sat on her other side.

  Like Charlotte cared if he ignored her.

  “Hi, Charlotte,” Ty said casually like he hadn’t dissed her big time the last time she saw him. “Long time no see.”

  “Hello,” she said coolly.

  Ty settled on the bar stool next to Hailey. Even though there was only one person between them, Charlotte refused to look in that direction. She’d had the unfortunate experience of meeting the arrogant Ty Campbell at his brother’s wedding last Christmas. It had been three months and it still bugged her the way Ty purposely asked all of her friends to dance at the wedding reception, even his own damn sister, and not her. Then he’d had the audacity to act like he hadn’t been playing a game to gain her attention and get her to ask him. Ha! Charlotte had had enough bad relationships to last a lifetime, from cheaters to liars to men with serious emotional baggage. And she sure as hell didn’t play games.

  She took a sip of martini and turned to talk to Mad. She waited patiently for Mad to focus, given she was in her fiancé’s lap and he was nuzzling her neck.

  Ty’s deep booming voice was impossible to ignore. “What’d I miss? I’ll answer all your questions, sweetheart.”

  “Thank you,” Hailey replied sweetly. “I was asking the guys how romantic they considered themselves on a scale of one to ten.”

  Charlotte risked a look over.

  Ty chose that moment to peel off his leather jacket, revealing a black T-shirt and massive biceps covered in tribal tattoos. Her pulse kicked into high gear at the spectacular arm porn. “On a scale of one to ten,” he drawled, his gaze fixed on Hailey, “I’d say ten.”

  “Ha!” Charlotte blurted. The man had dissed her big time. That was not romantic.

  Ty’s eyes met hers, a small smirk of a smile playing over his lips. “I can turn up the heat when I want to.”

  “Heat is not the same as romance,” Charlotte returned. Clueless man.

  Ty ignored that. “What else you got, sweetheart?” he asked Hailey.

  Hailey beamed, her pale blue eyes shining with adoration. “I must say you’re much more cooperative than your brothers and brothers from another mother.”

  Charlotte stifled a laugh. Hailey was one of those classy refined women who couldn’t quite pull off slang. The Campbells had a posse of honorary brothers, guys that had grown up close to the Campbell family.

  Hailey tossed her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “Okay, next question. When was the last time you laughed out loud?”

  Ty flashed a devilish grin. “With Park on the ride over here when he told me the guys were going to answer your romance questions in exchange for brownies and free beer.”

  Hailey harrumphed.

  Charlotte bit back a smile, not wanting to encourage Ty. The man was incorrigible.

  Ty’s beer arrived and he took a sip before saying, “Not every guy is in touch with his romantic side like I am. You found that out by now, right?”

  So cocky. So full of himself. Charlotte didn’t want to listen to another word from this unbearable—

  Stop. Don’t let him in your head.

  Hailey elbowed her and whispered, “Bet you his answer to the outdoor question is much better than the other guys’.” That was the only question the guys had answered—to Hailey’s shock and dismay—claiming that sex was their favorite outdoor activity. Probably just to mess with Hailey. Nailed it.

&nbs
p; “I doubt it,” Charlotte murmured before draining her martini.

  “Favorite outdoor activity?” Hailey asked Ty.

  Ty gave Charlotte a wink. “I’d love to tell you that, but I think Josh might throttle me.” He smirked at his older brother Josh, the bartender and manager of Garner’s Sports Bar & Grill, who was pointedly ignoring the conversation.

  Hailey glanced at Josh, who stared back with his deep soulful brown eyes. They had a frenemy thing that had escalated into all-out war. Most recently Hailey had started a rumor that Josh had an affliction that left him impotent. He still didn’t know that was the reason he had big tips and little action. Charlotte really hoped she was around for the explosion when he found out. Some said it would be a quick flip between the pair from hate to love. Charlotte suspected they enjoyed being frenemies too much to ever stop.

  Hailey leaned close to Ty. “Just whisper it to me.”

  Ty whispered something, and Hailey gasped. “Did the guys tell you to say that?”

  “Did they say the same thing?” Ty asked.

  “Yes!” Hailey exclaimed.

  Ty threw back his head and laughed. “What can I tell you, probably all guys would say that. Right, Josh?”

  Josh grumbled something and shifted to the other side of the bar.

  It was like they all read from the same damn playbook.

  “Men!” Hailey exclaimed, throwing her hands up. “Sex on the brain. Where is the romance?”

  Charlotte rubbed Hailey’s back, feeling a little protective of her friend’s naivety. This was exactly why she’d given up on men three years ago. All the heartache had led to a lot of emotional eating. She used to be more than a hundred pounds heavier than she was now. She’d gotten herself into a gym, worked with a personal trainer, and was so inspired with the results she became a personal trainer herself. Now she only dated men on her terms—when and where she chose and never for anything serious.

  Ty piped up. “You can have both sex and romance.”

  Charlotte shot him a disbelieving look before comforting Hailey. “Romance doesn’t exist in real life. Why do you think we read it in book club? It’s a female fantasy.”

  “You can have both,” Ty insisted. “Just because Charlotte never—”

  Charlotte glared at him and he shut up. For a moment, anyway.

  “Damn, woman,” Ty said in what sounded like appreciation, “that’s one lethal look you got going on. Bet that keeps men away.”

  “Shut up,” Charlotte snapped.

  Hailey turned to Ty. “No, don’t shut up. Keep talking. Have you had both romance and, you know, the other?”

  “Once,” he said in a surprisingly subdued tone. “Turned out she was using me for an intro to a director, who she slept with. Next question.” Ty was a stuntman with a lot of movie credits.

  Hailey barreled on. “Would you date someone who makes more money than you?”

  Ty lifted one massive shoulder up and down. “Depends.” He slid Charlotte a sly look. “How much money do you make, Char?”

  “That is an extremely rude question,” she informed him. And a very strange way of flirting.

  Hailey was on a roll. “If you could have dinner with anyone alive or dead, who would it be?”

  Ty stood and shifted around Hailey, right up into Charlotte’s personal space. God, he smelled good. Woodsy, musk, hint of citrus. He smelled like fresh sex in the outdoors. Oh no!

  He smiled down at Charlotte. “I’d like to have dinner with you.”

  “Are you good with your hands?” Hailey asked, standing close to Ty now, completely oblivious to the fact that Ty was making a move.

  But Charlotte was intensely aware, her breath shallow, hot from head to toe. She blinked, trying to formulate a snappy comeback that would give her the distance she needed to breathe normally again. Ty was leaning dangerously close to her. Kissing close.

  He suddenly veered and spoke in a husky voice near her ear. “Very good.”

  Her brain felt foggy. “Huh?”

  He straightened. “I’m very good with my hands.”

  “Great!” Hailey chirped.

  “Oh,” Charlotte said in a brilliant comeback.

  “How do you spend your free time?” Hailey asked.

  Ty answered while gazing into Charlotte’s eyes. “With Charlotte, I hope. Have dinner with me this weekend?”

  “No.” Oh, good. Her brain was working again.

  Ty’s mouth hung open like he’d never been told no before.

  “Well!” Hailey exclaimed. “Wow! Okay! Thank you for your honest answers. I’ll just step back over here.”

  She left.

  “So, back to dinner,” Ty said, leaning his arm on the bar next to her.

  Charlotte gestured to the TV. “It’s a close game. You don’t want to miss March Madness.”

  He straightened, inclined his head, and walked away, joining his brothers down at the other end of the bar. Good. Fine. That was what she’d expected.

  She put him out of her mind and focused on her friends. Nearly an hour passed and she was just thinking about ordering another martini when she felt someone staring at her. She turned to find Ty’s eyes locked on her instead of the game. What was his problem? She glared at him and turned away, determined to ignore him.

  But no matter how funny or interesting her friends were, she kept getting distracted by the feeling she was being watched. Then she had to stop and glare at Ty until he looked away.

  It was like glaring tennis.

  Except she got the distinct feeling his glare was more of a checking you out, babe, kind of look. Super irritating.

  More glaring tennis.

  And more.

  She thought she might be winning because he hadn’t looked in a while. She deflated, not nearly as happy as she thought she’d be with the victory. A martini appeared in front of her.

  “From Ty,” Josh said.

  She glanced over at Ty, who raised his brows before turning back to the guys. Oh, hell, she’d take a free drink. What would it hurt? She lifted the glass, took a sip, and Josh slipped a napkin in front of her with a scrawled note: Dance with me? —Ty.

  She stared at it. Now he was asking her to dance? Here at a sports bar with no dance floor and no music? Was he for real?

  Someone gave her hair a tug. Ty. “Well?” he asked.

  She shifted to face him, trying to think of the best way to handle the situation, when he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the bar stool.

  “Hey, what’re you doing?” she exclaimed.

  He set her on her feet and guided her away from the group, one hand on the small of her back. Halfway across the room, she dug her heels in, and they came to a dead stop.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, working hard to control her temper.

  He held out his hand, palm up. “Dance with me. Let me make it up to you from before.”

  She let him have it, head swivel and all. “First, that wasn’t an apology for before. Second, no one is dancing and I’m not into making a scene just because you feel guilty for before. And third, I don’t appreciate being manhandled.”

  “Sorry for before,” he said, sounding sincere.

  She considered him for a moment, surprised at his sincerity, but quickly decided to cut her losses. She rejoined her friends at the bar.

  Ty’s voice carried across the bar. “What if I said I haven’t thought about anything besides dancing with you for the last three months?”

  Everyone turned to stare at him. Even Charlotte couldn’t help but stare at that bold statement.

  “How many beers you have, man?” Park asked from across the bar.

  Ty slowly shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers.

  He’d thought of nothing these past three months but dancing with her? She flushed because that was kind of romantic, even if it was his own fault they hadn’t danced before.

  “Slow or fast, I’m ready for ya,” Ty called.

  Her c
heeks heated, not used to the public display of, er, interest. Her friends giggled and the guys watched Ty instead of the TV. She crossed to where Ty stood, intent on quieting him down.

  He spoke first. “I should’ve asked you to dance three months ago at the wedding reception and I’ve regretted it ever since.”

  She could feel herself weakening at all that sincerity. Still, he’d really hurt her feelings. “You were playing a game and I told you I don’t play.”

  “Dance with me now.”

  “No.” She turned to go and he blocked her path.

  Charlotte ground her teeth. The man had to learn a thing or two about women.

  ~ ~ ~

  Her beauty struck him all over again up close. Long wavy brown hair with highlights, golden skin that seemed to glow, deep brown eyes, cute nose, sensuous full lips, and a killer body that could only come from a woman who valued fitness as much as he did.

  “Get out of my way,” Charlotte ground out.

  Ty met her brown eyes sparking with anger, and offered the best words he could think of. “Please accept my sincere apology for asking everyone to dance but you at Claire and Jake’s wedding. I was playing a game, you were right, and I sincerely regret it. Your beauty caught my eye and I hoped to draw you in without coming on too strong. Sometimes I do, as you might’ve noticed. Anyway, it completely backfired and that’s on me.”

  She smashed her lips together for a long moment before finally saying, “It is on you.”

  “Let me make it up to you. Have dinner with me. I’m in the city for a month for work.” Home was LA, but he frequently flew to location in New York City for his job as a stuntman. He requested those jobs because his family was nearby in Connecticut.

  “No.” She shifted right to walk around him.

  He stepped in her way. “Why not?”

  Her eyes flashed. “You want a list of reasons?”

  “You have a list?”

  “We’re done here.” She shifted left and he stepped with her.

  “See how good we would’ve been on the dance floor?” he asked with a grin. “It’s like Dancing with the Stars over here.”

  Her lips twitched, but she forced a straight face. That little crack in her facade was all he needed. He poured on the charm, appealing to her personal-trainer side. “There’s a great steakhouse in Brooklyn. You like steak, right? All that protein to build muscle.”