Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,18

room.

"You're such a hottie," Kristen said. "Why do you always insist on dressing like a forty year old virgin?"

Layla tried to hide her laugh by coughing.

"I just want to make sure that people like me for me. And I work with kids."

"You don't work with kids," Kristen said. "You work with 18 year olds that are super eager to please."

"Don't be gross." I tried to picture some of the boys in my classes, some of the ones that I was friends with on Facebook. The first thing I was going to do once I got home was delete my Facebook account.

"I'm with Momma Bear on this one," Alina said and linked her arm in mine. "Mixing work with pleasure is never a good thing." We all walked out of the store in search of the closest pool.

"I'm pretty sure mixing work with pleasure is what got us both in so much trouble," Layla said with a wink.

Alina laughed. "Fine, sometimes it's a good thing. But it doesn't work so well with guys that are barely legal."

"I'm just saying that some of the guys on Daphne's football team have abs of steel," Kristen said. "Don't pretend like you've never noticed."

I shrugged. I had noticed. But just in a way that compared guys in high school today with guys in high school when I was younger. It just made me think about how much bigger 18 year olds seemed today than back then. There must have been something in the water in New York. Or maybe steroids? Why am I thinking about this?

We walked out of the hotel to an extremely crowded pool. Most of the chairs were already occupied by sunbathers.

"Nope, not this one," I said. Part of our agreement was that I got to choose the least crowded pool. No one was getting to my bracelets until I found a loophole in this stupid game.

We turned around and headed to the opposite side of the hotel. Luckily there were four pools at the Blue Parrot Resort. There had to be at least one that wasn't crowded. We walked past the slutty swimsuit place again and back outside. This pool was mostly shaded by the building, which meant there weren't many sunbathers.

"This one will do," I said and headed toward a chair.

"Oh come on, it's not even that sunny over here," Kristen said. "I need to work on my tan so that I look amazeballs in my maid of honor dress."

"There's a few chairs over there that are in the sun," I said and pointed across the pool. There were already a few people in the sunny chairs, but there were four empty ones. It looked like we had gotten there just in time.

"Oh my God!" Kristen squealed and ducked behind a pool chair.

All three of us stared at her.

"Get down, guys!"

"What exactly are we hiding from?" Layla asked.

"Professor Hunter is here!"

I laughed. "Sure he is." I looked over to where I had just pointed. "Actually, that guy does really look like him."

"Don't stare!" Kristen grabbed my arm and pulled me down behind the pool chair with her.

"Kristen, you're being ridiculous. The chances are that it's not even him. And even if it is, what are you trying to accomplish by hiding?"

"Do you think I should go over there?"

"That depends on what you're planning to do," Alina said and crouched down next to us. "He's engaged, remember?"

"I wouldn't do anything weird," Kristen hissed. "I just want to talk to him."

"You guys?" Layla said.

"Not now, Layla," Kristen replied. "Okay, we need a game plan. Maybe we should just go get those seats next to him?"

Layla laughed and crouched down next to us. "I know one of the guys that he's with. We can walk over and I can say hi and do introductions."

"Which one do you know?" I stood up to look at the group of guys, but Kristen immediately pulled me back down.

"Stop being obvious, Daphne!" Kristen said.

I laughed.

"Mason Caldwell. He runs the marketing campaigns for Sword Body Wash. He helped me become their celebrity endorsement. He's a marketing genius. Actually, he's the reason why we can afford to be here." She laughed. "I owe him a huge thank you. I'm glad we're going to run into him."

"Wait, let me get this straight," Kristen said. "The whole time you knew me, you knew a friend of Professor Hunter's and didn't tell me? You're pure evil, Layla!"

"I didn't even know about this weird crush you have on Professor Hunter until yesterday. Well,