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Her Rebound Guy
Jennifer Lohmann
Was she falling for the wrong man again?Caleb Taggert is exactly what recent divorcee Beck Magruder needs—intelligent, handsome, and blissfully uninterested in anything long term. Her first date with Caleb does not disappoint. Yet after a night of passion, Beck realizes she’s looking for more than just a fling. Saying goodbye to an almost perfect man isn't easy.Luckily Caleb offers Beck a deal: no-strings attached fun, plus free advice for online dating. It’s the perfect arrangement, until Beck falls for Caleb. Suddenly, no other man can compete. What started as a fling has the potential to become something more. But is Beck ready to bet her future on it?
Is she falling for the wrong man again?
Caleb Taggert is exactly what recent divorcée Beck Magruder needs—intelligent, handsome and blissfully uninterested in anything long-term. Her first date with Caleb does not disappoint. Yet after a night of passion, Beck realizes she’s looking for more than just a fling. Saying goodbye to an almost perfect man isn’t easy.
Luckily Caleb offers Beck a deal: no-strings-attached fun, plus free advice for online dating. It’s the perfect arrangement, until Beck falls for Caleb. Suddenly, no other man can compete. What started as a fling has the potential to become something more. But is Beck ready to bet her future on it?
JENNIFER LOHMANN is a Rocky Mountain girl at heart, having grown up in southern Idaho and Salt Lake City. When she’s not writing or talking with librarians around the country about reading, she cooks and laughs with her own personal Viking. Together, they wrangle three cats. (The boa constrictor is better behaved.) She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Also By Jennifer Lohmann
Dating by Numbers
Love on Her Terms
A Southern Promise
Winning Ruby Heart
Weekends in Carolina
A Promise for the Baby
The First Move
Reservations for Two
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Her Rebound Guy
Jennifer Lohmann
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08470-3
HER REBOUND GUY
© 2018 Jennifer Lohmann
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
“I’d like to make a proposal,” Caleb said.
He took her raised eyebrow as an invitation to continue. “I like you, Beck. You like me. And you want more sex in your life.”
“Yeah, but not willy-nilly.”
“Nothing I’m proposing is willy-nilly. I’d like to offer you companionship, conversation and sex while you look for the man you want to marry. Or until our relationship has burned its course.”
“A little man on the side.”
“Little? Come on.” He tried to act insulted, but the way her hand came up to her mouth in embarrassment was too cute not to laugh.
“But the on-the-side part is right?”
“I guess, yes. You are free to date other people. I’m free to date other people.”
“So why would we be dating each other?”
“Because we like each other. And because you probably need time to kiss a few frogs before you settle on your prince.”
Dear Reader (#uc8205a00-018e-573a-9ffe-d67265e0bf47),
Like Dating by Numbers, this book emerged out of my own forays into online dating. I...well, I wasn’t good at it. I met the Viking, fell in love and got married, so I was successful, but “good at it” seemed to mean I went on a lot of dates (I didn’t) and knew what I wanted out of the experience (I didn’t). You think, Everyone is telling me to do X, so I’m going to do it. But X isn’t you, and you can’t fight you. Enter Beck. Happily married when you first meet her in Dating by Numbers and on her way to divorce at the end. Confused, frustrated and scared by the entire experience—but determined.
From stage left comes Caleb, who claims to know what he wants and what he’s doing.
The truth, of course, is that dating is scary. There are those who admit it to themselves and those who don’t. But we’re all fumbling our way through until we meet the person with whom our muddy waters suddenly clear.
Oh, and for those curious, the pictures of my dog got more likes than any of the pictures of me.
Happy reading,
Jennifer
In memory of Tweedy, who was always there for me when I needed her. I’ll miss you, dear friend. Take Seamus for a walk for me.
Contents
Cover (#uc6057e0b-a4fe-5e14-a7ea-8c6af03fe5f2)
Back Cover Text (#u57ce684e-bebe-5cf2-bf48-b0021660114c)
About the Author (#u303057f4-7e69-5987-8070-14b7836bffe6)
Booklist (#u65d40327-fe60-5439-b057-43723dfe2ccd)
Title Page (#u7123cf3b-f594-5d92-ac19-b16174a96c27)
Copyright (#u64b5d976-b48a-5a36-922f-a7c8bcd93617)
Introduction (#uf82c90fe-bcac-539d-9248-0d7becf452bd)
Dear Reader (#u2cf2d7e8-0305-5c10-9db1-35ab3b1b1a3b)
Dedication (#u4974e73d-e02f-5477-8e09-470484787abc)
CHAPTER ONE (#ub8e4f154-0b74-5f4a-b0bb-ee4f78f5c0d7)
CHAPTER TWO (#u31dd0c81-9023-59ba-8e4b-1fe8f368bae7)
CHAPTER THREE (#u9d3d40e1-6e00-5238-873c-9e1441efc515)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u1947389e-06c3-5fd2-acd8-b72e3ae87504)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u25352840-26a4-51a8-be7f-aeb3a90b0b9d)
CHAPTER SIX (#u3acaa18c-3d2e-5150-a5d7-7d9e2b048870)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u39bd2155-0d73-5420-9601-045d09024a95)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#uc8205a00-018e-573a-9ffe-d67265e0bf47)
IT’S A BIT like shopping the J.Crew catalog back in high school, Beck Macgruder thought as she finished posting information about who she was and then took a look at the men on the online-dating site she’d picked to try first. Some of the men were, well, she hated to be uncharitable, but they weren’t attractive at all.
Or, at least, she corrected in her own head as she scrolled past picture after picture, they hadn’t posted a flattering picture of themselves. Perhaps they didn’t have a flattering picture. Maybe they hadn’t known better. Maybe they didn’t have a friend to look at the pictures they posted and suggest something nicer.
There. That was a more charitable version of the story that had resulted in such a terrible picture posted on a dating website. It wasn’t that they were unattractive; it was that they hadn’t known it was a bad picture.
Picking a photo for a dating website was hard. Hard, of course, because there wasn’t a soul on earth who could look at a picture of themselves with anything like an objective eye. At least Beck had been able to get the opinion of her friend Marsie, who had found a man through online dating. Or, not exactly through online dating. Marsie’s fellow is a coworker of hers. They’d challenged each other to see who could find a partner first through an online-dating site, and then ended up deciding they were perfect for each other.
Right, Beck thought as she scrolled past another guy. Online dating wasn’t a guarantee of finding the perfect guy. As Beck figured it, online dating opened your mind to the possibility that there was someone out there for you, so long as you were looking for them. It was like tempting fate, but in a good way.
And it’s not like she was looking for one guy; she was looking for a lot of them. As she figured it, online dating was also a way to sample the merchandise before even deciding if she wanted to buy. Again.
Marriages weren’t returnable and you never got back what you’d paid out.
She clicked on a guy with potential and scanned the information he’d included about himself. Ah, yes, just like catalog shopping. This one looked good, but he wasn’t for her. This one was the male equivalent of spaghetti straps. Bandeau tops. He’d probably make someone else’s arms look good, but not hers.
Dampness bumped against her knee and she absently reached down to scratch the head of the boxer-pit-hound-and-probably-something-else dog she’d picked up at the animal shelter several months before. Seamus was a good-looking dog. All the pictures she’d taken of him in the months since he’d joined her household included a big grin, ears that could flop or perk depending on mood and a tail that looked more like the handle of a delicate teacup than anything that should belong on an animal with a room-clearing fart.
Of course, he was adorable in all of those pictures, so she’d included one of him by himself and one of them together in the photos she’d posted to the online-dating site. Best for men to know that she had a “manly” dog. He didn’t even eat vegetables, for God’s sake. Especially since the other information she put on the site included that she was a coordinator of events, mostly weddings. And she had wicker furniture on her porch.
With her dog’s chin resting on her knee, she hit the back button and scanned over her options again.
There. That guy would fit her like the perfect shoe. At least from his picture. Dark, messy, romantic hair and light green eyes. A man who would sit in her wicker rocking chair and read Byron’s poetry to her. Romantic—at least that’s what she assumed Byron’s poetry would be like.
All swoony.
And, after a nasty divorce where she’d felt every last second of North Carolina’s required year-long separation, Beck needed swoony.
