Page 52 of The One You Want

Chapter 13

Since Cora’s bar was overflowing with Saturday night crowds, we decided to head to 24 on Second after we unloaded our things. Owen’s place had only been open for a few months but it was already getting a pretty steadyclientele.

Tonight the bar was nearly full but not anywhere near as rowdy or crowded as Cora’s, making it the perfect place to talk without shouting at each other—and hopefully not be overheard. Because there was no way in hell this conversation was going to be anything other thanawkward.

“Hey, Jenny,” Owen said, sliding up to our table once we’d taken a seat. Owen lived in the same condo building as me, so we saw each other quite a bit. He was also dating Cora—apparently they had some kind of rival-bar-owners, enemies-to-lovers type dynamic going on. Riley said they were really happy together,though.

“Hi, Owen.” I nodded across the table. “Do you know Grant? He owns the flower shop over by Libby’sstore.”

Owen threw some coasters down on the table then held out a hand for Grant. “Owen Nichols. Nice to meet you.” They shook hands and Owen flashed a wink over his shoulder at me. “Cora’s definitely mentionedyou.”

Oh, God. I rolled my eyes at Grant. “I’m sorry all of my friends are such annoyinggossips.”

But Grant was only smirking back at me. “I can handleit.”

“You guys orderingfood?”

Owen was still running a pretty limited menu, but the pizza here was really good so we both ordered a flatbread and a round of beer. Once Owen was gone, Grant leaned across thetable.

“You always hear that small towns gossip, but I never really got it before I movedhere.”

“Honestly, you haven’t seen anythingyet.”

His eyes searched my face. “I imagine I’ll get a really good picture for it, if we go through withthis.”

I froze, staring at him. He wasn’t actually considering going along with my idiot plan? Before I could ask him if he’d gone crazy, Owen reappeared with ourdrinks.

“Jenny, tell me you haven’t been infected with the same crazy as the rest of the Libbies,” he said, setting my beer on the coaster and tossing down a few drinknapkins.

“You’re going to have to narrow it down. What crazy would thatbe?”

He sighed. “That freaking book. It’s all Cora has talked about for the last threedays.”

My eyes widened at him. “Seriously? At the meeting, she was giving the whole idea some major side-eye.”

He made a pained expression. “I think Jill got to her. Now it’s all lionesses all the time and telling me not to infiltrate her pride, whatever the hell thatmeans.”

I snorted into my beer. “Sorry, buddy. I guess none of us can withstand the power of Libbies on a mission forlong.”

Owen gave a long-suffering sigh as he passed more napkins to Grant. “Keep an eye out, my man,” he said. “Half the women on this island arenuts.”

“Ooh,” I singsonged. “I’m totally going to tell Cora you saidthat.”

He flipped me off, smiling, as he headed back to hisbar.

“What was that all about?” Grant asked, a smile playing around his lips as he watched me. Something about that smile had heat rushing to mycheeks.

“Do you know Margaret Munson?” I asked and he shook his head. “She’s a teacher over at the Island School and she’s a member of theLibbies.”

His eyes sparkled. “I have a feeling this is going to begood.”

“She showed up to the meeting that night I was supposed to lead and tookover.”

“Hang on.” He was frowning. “She didn’t let you do yourlesson?”

I waved a hand. “No, but it was fine. Apparently she’d just had this really traumatic break-up and she started reading this self-helpbook—”

“Oh,man.”