The Wrong Mr. Right (The Queen's Cove Series #2)(6)

I studied the dress and ran my fingers over the coarse sequins. I wanted to be worthy of this dress. I wanted to make the shop profitable again. I wanted to find someone to fall in love with.

I stared at my reflection for one more moment before opening a drawer and pulling out a piece of paper and a pen.

Before 30:

1. Save my failing bookstore.

Since my dad was stuck on keeping the store in the nineties, I would have to get creative.

2. Find my true love.

I cringed at how cheesy that sounded. No one would ever see this list.

I glanced at my reflection again. The sequins reflected pinpricks of light on my bedroom walls.

3. Become a hot girl.

The sparkly dress was a hot girl dress. If I wanted true love, I had to go out and get him. I couldn’t sit in my bookstore with my boring sweaters and wait for him to show up.

This was so stupid.

A thought struck me, and I raised an eyebrow.

Wyatt knew hot girls. Wyatt didn’t really date, but I had seen him with women a few times, and they were always drop dead gorgeous. Shiny hair, perfect makeup, stylish outfits out of a magazine. Hot girls.

The image of him in my bookstore earlier that day flashed into my head. Hot people attracted other hot people. That was a fact of life. And Wyatt? He had girls falling all over him.

The funny thing is, he didn’t seem to care. He only cared about surfing.

Which made women want him even more. I frowned and narrowed my eyes. I was onto something here.

I chewed my lip before writing the last one.

4. Make Mom proud.

A rock formed in my throat, and I blinked tears out of my eyes. There. I said it. I knew she’d look at my life now and wish I had done more.

Alright, enough moping. Once I was in my pajamas, I reached for my laptop on my desk and flipped it open before pulling up a Scandinavian music video.

After a few videos, the tension in my stomach unraveled and I settled into bed. I grinned, watching a video by one of my favorite Europop artists, Tula. She was a tiny woman with a lot of hair and enormous eyes. In this video, she dressed as a mermaid, perched on a rock with a scaly tail, twisted her fingers in her long green wig while she sang in Finnish. Behind her, muscular mermen stood in the ocean, dancing and thrusting to the music. Some held trident spears, some wore fishing nets as capes.

God, I loved Europop.

The video cut to a close up of one of the mermen, and I nearly fell off my bed.

My mouth hung open as Wyatt Rhodes thrust against the air behind Tula.

My eyes were saucers as I scanned over the same muscles I had seen this afternoon in the store. Except these muscles moved under silver body paint, with decorative scales glued on.

Oh my god.

That merman was Wyatt. I was positive. It was his shaggy blonde hair slicked back and painted silver, his lean muscle, his lazy, confident, panty-melting grin.

I watched the video six times to be sure, alternating between cringing and snickering.

There was no way Avery knew about this. She knew I loved Europop, and she hadn’t mentioned this to me, which meant she didn’t know. Which meant Emmett didn’t know.

Which meant no one knew.

Huh.

My eyes narrowed at the screen. Wyatt twirled his trident around in the air, and I snorted.

It was no secret in town that surfing was Wyatt’s whole life, his whole existence. He was out on the water on his board almost every day, no matter how cold or choppy the water was. Everyone knew about his dreams of going pro, and Avery had mentioned he was trying to get a sponsorship deal with some of the big surf brands.

My skin prickled with anticipation and danger. Wyatt had all the hot girl knowledge I wanted, and now I had dirt on him.

I could ask Avery to help me become a hot girl, but she wasn’t like me. She was confident. She wouldn’t understand. She had never wanted to fall in love before Emmett. She actively avoided it. Besides, she would tell me to be myself.

Being myself wasted a decade of my life and got me nowhere. No, I wasn’t going to ask Avery for help.

Wyatt, though, he was perfect. He had all the qualities I needed. I had a little crush on him, but he was the last guy in the world who I would ever fall for. The guy of my dreams was sweet, chivalrous, friendly, and above all, loved books. Wyatt was leaving town as soon as he got a sponsorship.

Despite my little crush on him, Wyatt wasn’t even close to being the guy of my dreams. And he’d never go for someone like me.

Most importantly, I had something in my back pocket that Wyatt didn’t want getting out.

Making the store profitable, I could figure out on my own. The true love thing would fall into place once I became a hot girl like Thérèse. She had said it herself in the store, I’ve been in love many, many times.

My pulse beat in my ears and I sucked in a breath, chewing my lip. I didn’t want to stop him from getting a sponsorship, so I’d never show a soul the video, I’d just use it to convince him to help me.

Wyatt Rhodes was going to teach me to be a hot girl.





3





Wyatt





Just after dawn, I stepped out onto the sand, carrying my surfboard, and stared up at the indigo sky. The sun rose and the sky washed with more blue by the minute.

Fuck yeah.

A light breeze pushed my hair back, and I waded into the water. Like every morning, the water’s cold bite woke me up and reminded me I was alive.