Bad Boy Valentine Read Online Free Page A

answering.
    Kate tried not to cringe. “Why can’t they just—”
    “Hammer more quietly?” Georgie wrinkled her nose, parroting the last words Kate had shouted at the contractor just before he’d stormed out that morning. “All I’m saying is… try to go easy on the next guy. He might just be the last.”
    “Assuming he shows up.” After today’s guy had left, she’d debated calling a new contracting company, but at this late stage, it was unlikely she’d find anyone to take on the work with her tight budget and deadline. So she’d done the next best thing: called the guy’s manager to grovel.
    After ten minutes of begging, and adding in an extra five hundred bucks and the promise of free pastries for a week, she’d convinced the manager to send her a different contractor. “The new guy,” the man had said. “He’s all I got. Take it or leave it.”
    Not like she had a choice.
    “Hey,” Georgie said. “I’m serious. Let them do their job, and it’ll be done before you know it. Come on, you need to focus on these promos. I’m leaving for Colorado Tuesday and I won’t be able to work on it much after that.”
    “I’ll bet.” Kate gave Georgie a conspiratorial grin, enjoying the sweet blush that flooded her friend’s cheeks. “And how is Ronan, anyway?”
    Georgie had crashed into Ronan’s life—quite literally—on a trip to Colorado over Christmas, and the girl had been floating along on cloud nine ever since, spending so much time in the Rockies that Kate was lucky to get an appointment with her in New York this week.
    Georgie pressed a hand to her heart and sighed happily.
    “That good, huh?” Kate got up to refill their lattes.
    “You have no idea.”
    Over the whir of the cappuccino machine, Georgie chattered a mile-a-minute about her upcoming plans. She and Ronan would be hiking into the backcountry, camping out in the snow. Definitely not Kate’s idea of a good time, but Georgie was practically vibrating with excitement. Kate couldn’t blame her—Ronan was sexy as hell, and he adored Georgie. Meeting him had been so good for her.
    Kate’s heart squeezed, just a tiny bit. She was so happy for her friend, but prolonged talk of romantic trips and passionate kisses always left her with a dull ache inside, poking at painful memories that should’ve been long gone by now.
    She’d tried to move on like a healthy, normal, non-obsessive person. But dating certainly hadn’t helped. Yoga hadn’t helped. Knitting, bar-hopping, learning French, spending more time with Georgie and her other friends… none of that had helped. All she had was her work, and she’d been pouring herself into that for almost a decade—working out of her Gran’s apartment for years before she got the bakery—wondering when the day would come that she’d finally get her spark back. Finally feel that pulse of energy inside, that inner fire that seemed to burn for only one man, no matter how long ago he’d walked out of her life.
    You are so much better off without him.
    The words echoed in Kate’s head, her own personal mantra. She’d repeated them so many times in front of her bathroom mirror, but no matter how often she’d said them—no matter how much the evidence pointed to the truth in those words—she could never make herself believe them.
    Putting her smile back into place, Kate loaded up a tray with their lattes and a plate of black-and-white cookies she’d made that morning, and headed back to the table.
    “What do you think about these images?” Georgie flipped her iPad around to show Kate a few different comps for the final online ad campaign they’d launch this weekend. Kate picked out her favorites and made a few suggestions while Georgie took notes. Unlike Kate’s contractors, Georgie was a total pro, and Kate had no doubt that she and her designers would knock the campaign out of the park. That part, at least, she didn’t have to worry about.
    As they finished going over the designs