Dad Bod Contracting—for ALL your domestic contracting needs. Have a leaky faucet or clogged disposal? Need a new patio with intricate brickpaving designs? Want your garage transformed into a yoga studio? Dad Bod Contracting has you COVERED. Our clean, well-mannered, and friendly professionals pride themselves on attention to detail. Every job comes with a 100% customer SATISFACTION guarantee. No job is too small. Hand us your “honey-do” list and we’ll get it done, and we’ll look good doing it! A good job well done is one phone call away, so call Dad Bod Contracting today! It started with a window that was jammed shut. Pretty simple, right? All I wanted was to open the windows while I tidied the house. I’d been after my no-good husband to do it for months, but he never did. And then he shacked up with his secretary, leaving me with a pile of bills, husband-free for the first time in ten years, and with a house that was falling apart. The ad popped up on the side of my social media feed—a local contracting agency willing to do pretty much anything. Since I don’t really know a screwdriver from a ratchet, I gave them a call. And let me tell you, the ad was NOT lying. Jesse O’Neill can do it ALL…and looks amazing doing it. He fixed my window, so I called him back to fix the sagging, splintery front steps. Which led to him fixing my kitchen sink. And then he recarpeted my stairs. And then fixed the squeak in my bed. He was supposed to fix my house, not my rusty, sputtering libido. And certainly not my broken heart.

IMOGEN: Jesse says you better know what you’re doing with Franco. ME: Dude, I’m scared. IMOGEN: !! What? Tell me! ME: He makes me FEEL THINGS. It’s icky and I don’t like it. IMOGEN: You’ve known him what, a few hours? ME: I’m telling you, he scares the sh\*t out of me. But he’s so good I can’t stop myself. IMOGEN: Audra, seriously. Chill. It’s been a couple hours. It’s just insta-lust. I send Imogen another selfie, this one of my face—I'm biting my lower lip, eyes wide, glancing to the side at Franco laying next to me—his mouthwatering and lust-inducing body is on full display from the waist up. I send a caption a second later: ME: YOU DONT UNDERSTAND!!! HE’S GOT A MAGICAL D\*CK AND I’M FEELING THINGS!!! ME: Uh-oh. He’s waking up. Time for round…3? 4? I’ve lost count. Tell me I’m a cold-hearted man-eating b\*tch with no soul. Tell ME! IMOGEN: You’re a cold-hearted man-eating bi\*ch with no soul? Only, you’re not. So…you’re on own with this one. Except if you need me of course. I’ve got All Thai’d Up on speed dial, three bottles of Josh in the rack. ME: if this goes south—or anywhere except nowhere, you’d better make it four. Or six. Because we’re either going to be incredible together, or we’ll destroy each other. There will be no in between. I set the phone aside as Franco’s stunning blue eyes open and fix hungrily on me. He reaches for me, and all thoughts are banished except one: God, I hope I know what I'm doing… I laugh internally at that, because does anyone know what they’re doing? I know I sure as hell don’t.

RYDER: You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Laurel. And if that’s all of you I ever get to see, I’ll be the luckiest man in the world for having seen it. I swallow hard. He wasn’t supposed to make it sweet. He was supposed to leave it dirty and inappropriate, so I could tell myself all he wanted was sex. That all he cared about was getting me naked, or if not that, then at least seeing me naked. Instead, he turned it sweet. And I couldn’t tell myself any lies to keep me on my high horse.

“He has to be ready for it, Jess,” I say, my voice low and quiet. Jesse nods. “I know. It’s just that I’m a fixer, and his broken-ass heart is the one thing I can’t fix.” “No one can,” I say. “I can’t fix his broken heart. He has to be willing to be with me with a whole heart. There’d be pieces missing, and seams and cracks, but offered as a whole. I’m worth more than just taking the screwed up mess of him, just to have part. I want more than that—I deserve more. If he can get there, I’ll be here waiting. I’ve got nothing but time, Jess. I’m not going anywhere, and I told him that. I’m willing to wait—because I think he’s worth waiting for.” I smile at Jesse. “If he can get his head out of his ass and work on rebuilding his broken-ass heart, he’ll be worth having waited for.” Except I’ve already waited so long. For him—for anyone, but especially for him. Endured so much. Spent so long alone, and lonely. And now James is RIGHT THERE, but still out of reach. My heart wants him, my body wants him, but my fears say he’ll only hurt me. And he himself says he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to get over the past—losing his wife. I don’t blame him, but… How long can I wait? And if he does come around, will it be worth it?