My Favorite Mistake (A Love Like That #4) - R.L. Kenderson Page 0,1

present?”

“From you?” I said as I headed for the bedroom door. “No.”

I heard the dresser drawer close behind me and the click of Harris’s dress shoes on his hardwood floor as he followed.

Thank God it’d never become my hardwood floor.

Harris had asked me to move in more than once, but I always had a reason to say no.

Now, I knew the reason was gut instinct.

“Madeline, I don’t understand.”

I grabbed my jacket and purse from the couch on my way to the front door without answering right away.

The man was undeniably clueless.

I yanked open the thick oak door and turned around as the cool autumn air hit my back. “I don’t need your birthday present because I am giving myself the best one.”

He frowned. “And what’s that?”

I grinned. “I am getting rid of you.”

“What?”

“It’s over, Harris. I’m done.”

A thousand pounds fell from my shoulders, and I felt freer than I had in months.

I turned toward the outside air and sucked in a deep breath before pulling on my coat.

Damn, it felt good.

“You can’t break up with me.”

I looked over my shoulder at Harris. “I just did. Have fun on your business trip. Please don’t call me when you get back.”

I stepped out onto the front stoop and closed the door behind me. “Good riddance,” I muttered. I hit a button on my phone and lifted it to my ear.

“You got Griffin,” a deep rasp said in my ear.

Hearing his voice made me realize I had made the absolute best decision. My bestie was going to be so proud of me.

“Hey.”

“Hey. I was wondering if I was ever going to hear back from you.”

“I did it.”

“Did what?”

“I broke up with Harris.”

Griffin laughed in disbelief. “You’re shitting me.”

I smiled at the sound of hope in his voice as I unlocked my car and got behind the wheel. “I’m serious.”

“About fucking time,” Griffin said a little too loudly in my ear, and I pulled the phone back with a grin.

I heard his big boots hit the floor and then the creak of his office door opening. I pictured him walking the hallway to the main room of his bar.

“She dumped his ass,” Griffin shouted to the room, and I heard a bunch of cheers erupt. He put the receiver back to his mouth and said, “Hear that? Everyone’s excited for you.”

Griffin had worked hard on opening his bar, and he had a steady stream of regulars who liked to hang out almost every night. They all knew about my boyfriend and how Griffin didn’t like the guy.

I grinned. “Yeah, I heard.”

“They all want you to come in, so they can buy you a drink,” he told me.

I didn’t know if that was true, but I didn’t care. I could use one right about now. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“See ya then, Mads.”

Two

Griffin

The second Madeline walked into my bar, I slid over a cold bottle of her favorite beer.

She took a long swig before she even sat down.

“Ahh…” she said as she pushed her dark blonde hair over her shoulder. “That tasted better than it should have.”

I grinned. “It’s the taste of being single.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you would know.”

“Hey,” I said as I picked up a glass to dry it. “I’m not against relationships.” I was just against relationships where my best friend dated assholes who thought they were better than other people.

“Then, why are you never in one?” Madeline asked with a sparkle in her brown eyes.

She liked to put me on the spot.

But the joke was on her because I wasn’t embarrassed.

I shrugged. “I date. I’ve just never met anyone I wanted to get serious with.”

She eyed me over her beer as she took another sip. “Mmhmm,” she said knowingly.

“He’s too busy sleeping around.”

I turned my eyes to Albert, one of my regulars. He was in his eighties and was in my bar every afternoon. He said alcohol kept him young. I was pretty sure his liver might disagree, but I wasn’t going to judge. After all, he never got wasted, and his moderate drinking habit helped pay the bills.

I spread my hands out onto the bar and leaned in. “And how would you know, old man?”

Albert wasn’t wrong. I did like to have sex, and it wasn’t always with the same woman.

But I didn’t shit where I ate, which meant I never took a woman home from my bar. This was my place of business, and I wasn’t going to jeopardize everything I’d worked so hard for. I didn’t