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This excerpt from Amateur Night is the beginning of a Full Free Read series. I’m breaking it up serial-style and releasing parts of chapters every so often. Check under the Bookshelf – Free Reads section for more.

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Chapter 1, Part 1

“So, this is for real, huh?” Kevin leaned back in his leather office chair, running a hand through his hair.

“Dude, we’ve been engaged for three months. You’re acting like this is news.” Hugh, Kevin’s best friend, shook his head. “It took you until the day of my bachelor party to wonder if I was serious? I’m getting married. Tomorrow. I hope you don’t think I’m such a dick that I’d bail at the last minute.”

“Well, are you? Serious, I mean? I already know you can be a dick,” he joked. Kevin watched his friend, amazed that he was ready to settle down. A year ago, Hugh had been on the same path to permanent bachelorhood that Kevin had been.

“As a heart attack,” Hugh replied, placing his hand over his chest with a smart-ass grin. Then his expression became somber, the jesting tone disappeared. “The right woman, she just does something to you. And suddenly you don’t think about what you’re losing, what you’re missing out on. You think about what you’re getting.” A shit-eating grin split his face. “And with Carrie, I’m getting a whole lot of good stuff.”

It sounded great, in theory. Kevin wasn’t adverse to settling down himself. He was thirty-three, and despite his job, he wouldn’t mind becoming a family man. The problem was where to find the woman who would compliment his desires, meet his specific requirements. Oh, hell, who was he kidding. Where was the one woman who could just plain put up with him?

“Where did you find her?” Kevin was only half joking.

Hugh propped his feet up on the sturdy mahogany desk in front of him, the desk Kevin was currently working on. “I found her where a guy finds all the normal women. Out in the real world.” To emphasize his point, Hugh swept his arm across the room, drawing Kevin’s eye to the floor to ceiling windows of his office. “You won’t meet the woman of your dreams sitting in this office. And I can guess she probably won’t be downstairs on the floor either.”

He was right. Kevin loved owning the upscale gentleman’s club. He had started with nothing and through hard work and sweat, he had built a club to be proud of. But the lifestyle was wearing on him. The late nights, dealing with irate patrons and catty dancers. Constantly being hit on by girls hoping to get a job.

But those women didn’t tempt him. Not sexually, not emotionally. He didn’t want a relationship with someone who worked in his club. Many were nice girls, and a few were downright sweethearts. But not for him. He wanted someone who could live a life in the daytime. Who wouldn’t be turned on by his business and wonder what she could get out of it. But also not be completely put off, disgusted by it either.

He wanted a woman who wouldn’t mind that he was looking into selling the club and focusing on his other investments, including a new restaurant, but would still understand that this place would always be a part of him.

Out of the three women he had dated in the past year, two wanted to get jobs dancing at his club and one abruptly ended the date when she found out what he did, making no qualms about the fact that she found his business lewd and repulsive. Was there no happy medium? And would he ever find her?

Kevin stood, kicking the gym bag he brought with him from his workout under the desk, and motioned to the door. “Let’s go down. The other guys are probably already picking out seats in front of the stage. Oh, hang on.” He rifled through his top desk drawer, then tossed something to Hugh, who caught it in one hand.

Hugh looked at the object, then lifted one eyebrow in question. “You want me to wear this? It’s obnoxious.” He held up the gaudy flashing button that announced he was “The Bachelor.”

Kevin flashed white teeth when he grinned. “It’s supposed to be. What good is a best friend and best man if he won’t make you look like an ass your last day of single life?” He elbowed Hugh in the arm as he walked by. “Let’s go.”

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