I felt bad for implying that Lindie and I hadn’t clicked. Amy was good at her job. In just five minutes with Lindie, I could tell that we probably would have been a good match. But I wasn’t a liar, and I didn’t plan to manipulate her.
I took a deep breath and hoped for the best, “I kind of told her I wasn’t interested. So, when I said we both agreed not to go through with the date, it was because, well, why bother if I wasn’t interested … right?”
Amy’s mouth popped open, and I wouldn’t be surprised if literal steam poured out from her ears like a cartoon coyote. “You did what?”
“I told her I wasn’t interested.” I crossed my arms over my chest, standing my ground, though I was actually shaking in my boots. It was now or never. Do or die.
“Why would you do that? I had this whole date planned for you guys. On a freaking dinner cruise! I fought off another matchmaker who wanted to steal Lindie away for her own client. I tried to fix you guys up once before and, because I was so sure you’d be a good fit, I made sure to do it again. I know you’re resistant to this whole thing, Dex, but you really need to relax and let me do my job.”
“Or what?”
She frowned. “Excuse me?”
“What happens if I say I’m out? That I don’t want you to find me a match?”
“I … um. That’s never happened to me before. I really, really need you to not do that. Please.”
A new, exhilarating boldness coursed through me. “Why not?”
She worried her hands in front of her, not meeting my eyes. “Dex, I know you’re probably still upset about the mix up in the beginning—”
“Amy,” I stepped forward, taking a risk by picking her small hand up and holding it in both of mine, “I don’t want you to find me a match. And it’s not because I don’t think you can.”
She didn’t reply, just stared down at our joined hands.
I took one of my fingers and tucked it under her chin, lifting her face to meet my eyes. “I don’t want you to find me someone else. I want you to go on this date with me.”
Her eyes bore into mine. They were a mixture of sadness and anger, and something else I couldn’t place. “Dex, I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both.”
My confidence slipped. How many times had this happened to her during her career as a matchmaker? Was I just one of the many to come on to her? I rubbed my thumb against the back of her hand, causing little sparks of electricity to course up my arm.
“Do you feel it, too? Or am I imagining this connection between us?”
She sniffed, pausing for a moment. Then she whispered, “I could get fired.”
“Really?” This was new information to me. And as someone who knew better than most how to follow the rules and do as I was told, she had my attention.
“Yeah, it’s not merely inappropriate. Julia has a strict no-dating-the-clients policy.”
I bit back a sigh of frustration. I knew how important this job was to her, and also knew—maybe not from my own personal experience as much as what she’d shared with me over the last month—that she was great at it. Could I ask her to risk her job for me when we hadn’t even explored this connection yet? What if we crashed and burned and she lost her job for nothing? My insecurities seeped in, blackening the moment, making me feel stupid for attempting such a bold move.
She squeezed my hand. “Dex?”
“Yeah?”
“Is this boat moving?”
We looked over the side, confirming what we both already knew. The dinner cruise was underway, and whether she liked it or not, we were going along for the ride.
18
Amy
Of all the clients who’d hinted at having feelings for me over the years, none of them had ever sabotaged a date just to be with me. They’d had crushes, sure, and it was usually because crushing on me was easier than dealing with potential rejection from singles in the client pool. And though I may have found some of them attractive, I’d never—ever—considered risking it all just to be with them.
Until now.
I stared up at Dex, such a handsome and ridiculous man, at a total loss for words. He’d sent Lindie away for a shot with me. And she was a catch. He had to have seen that. Belinda knew it, which is why she’d wanted Lindie for her client. And still, Dex had sent her away … in favor of me.
Ugh, what was I doing?
“I didn’t trap you on purpose,” Dex said, his palms out. “I swear. I didn’t know how long we had before it was going to set sail.”
I chuckled, grabbing hold of my hair as it whipped around my face. “I know, Dex.”
“But I’m not mad about it. That is, as long as you’re not too mad at me.”
I didn’t want to smile. I didn’t want to think he was adorable. And I definitely didn’t want to be grateful for this turn of events.
But none of that mattered, because here I was, totally swooning.
He looked around the boat. “How many other clients are on board?”
“How did you know?”
“You’re nothing if not efficient.”
That was true. He knew me by now. In response, I held up two fingers. Well, at least I had one less couple to keep an eye on thanks to Dex’s brainy idea to ditch Lindie.
“Are they here on the deck right now?” he asked, not turning to search the crowd, but keeping his eyes on the water.
Trying my best to stay inconspicuous, I scanned the faces on the deck. “I don’t see anyone familiar. But still, it really wouldn’t be good for me if someone saw us together. I can’t be seen on a date with a client, Dex.”
“Do any of them know I’m your client?”
I threw my hands up. “I don’t know, what if they saw you at the office? Or what if they tell someone I was on a date in general when I’m supposed to be working? There are way too many what-ifs right now, and my brain is about to explode.”
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Of course.” It was an easy answer. I hadn’t even needed to think about it before the words popped out of my mouth. I knew a lot of things about Dex after spending the last month talking to him. I’d told myself it was in the name of trying to understand him so I could find the perfect match for him, but I knew it was more than that. The fact that I could trust him was a natural product of everything else I’d learned.
Without another word, he turned and scoped out the deck, then grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the back of the boat. The majority of the passengers were on the main deck under the glow of the Edison bulbs strung in a crisscross pattern overhead. Everyone was ready to view the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, sipping champagne and chatting with their dates. The twinkle lights provided the best lighting and ambience, so it wasn’t surprising to find the back of the boat nearly deserted.
Dex led me to a cafe table, pulling a chair out with a scrape of metal against the deck. He held his hand out for me to have a seat, and I hesitated for only a moment before sliding into the chair with a resigned sigh. “This is not a date. We’re just two people, trapped on a dinner cruise, who can’t be seen together.”
“I guess that means we can’t go downstairs and actually eat dinner after the cocktail hour is over. It’s a three-course meal, you know.”
I shook my head, watching him with a rueful eye as he sat across from me. “Not unless we go individually and pretend not to know each other.”
“That could be fun.”
“Hush.” I couldn’t help but wonder if the blush I felt on my cheeks was visible in the pink glow from the sunset. I hoped not, but judging by the way he was looking at me, I figured I had my answer.
He leaned forward on the table between us. “With all of these cool dates you plan for other people, what kinds of dates do you go on?”
“Dex,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Oh, don’t start with the ‘we don’t talk about me’ stuff tonight. We’re just two people trapped on a boat for three hours
. Humor me.”
This newfound boldness in him was doing the most ridiculous things to my nerves. Where was the nervous Nellie I had to coach about women? Dashing Dex was hard to resist. I shifted in the metal chair, folding my hands in my lap. “I spend too much time planning dates for other people to do it for myself.”
“I mean, you could let the guys plan it.”
“I don’t really have time for guys.” I shrugged.
His brow furrowed. “Are all of the employees at First Comes Love single?”
“Of course not.”
“So they have time, but you don’t?”
The corner of my mouth pulled up. “I guess.”
“What was that you told me about priorities? You don’t prioritize dating either, do you?”
Ding, ding, ding. Not that I would admit it out loud. I looked out over the ocean, taking a deep breath of the salty air.
He smirked. “I just feel like I’m at a disadvantage here. You know way more about me than I know about you. Well, as far as the past, that is. I think we’re pretty even on the present.”
“Oh, really? And what do you think you know?”
He grinned. “I know you love to read romance novels.”
“That’s easy.” I waved a hand. “It’s bad enough I lurk around my clients on their dates … sitting at restaurants, eating alone and all that. If I didn’t bring a book, people would probably think I was a crazy ex-girlfriend stalker.”
“Fine. I also know you love to wear bright colors and care about fashion, or whatever. But you don’t like wearing lots of jewelry and all of that extra stuff.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not a great accessorizer. If that’s even a word.”
“I don’t think it is,” he said, laughing. “And I don’t think you need all that.”
If I didn’t know how much he cared about honesty, I would wonder if he were lying about his lack of dating experience. His attention to detail and charm were miles ahead of some of the men I coached as part of the VIP experience, and he was a nerd with a video game obsession.
I wondered idly if role-playing games ever had love stories in them. In my experience, nerdy guys immersed themselves in fiction because it was better than real life. And most good fiction had a romance arc. My wheels were turning so hard I thought he might be able to hear them. A desperate urge to figure people out was one of the hazards of the job.
“You utilize emojis far more than I would have expected for such a serious businesswoman,” he went on.
I grinned at the reminder of our texting conversations and how sometimes I just needed to send him the emoji of the face with the sunglasses to play it cool during our scary movie conversation. That was better than lying and saying I liked watching them, and a whole lot better than admitting that I did, in fact, have an irrational fear of scary movie characters coming out of my nightmares and into my room at night.
“Your love of sweets is legit,” he continued. “From your coffee order to your cocktail of choice at the bar to the snacks you get whenever you’re doing your date-lurking thing. Always sweet.”
“You’re starting to sound a little stalkerish yourself.”
“I just pay attention.” He winked.
“Oh, now you pay attention? You didn’t pay much attention when we first met. I practically threw myself at you at that café and you still barely paid me any notice.”
“That’s easy to explain,” he said, his eyes locked on mine. “I have a one-track mind. I was focused on the appointment that day, and I didn’t want to be late. And ever since then, I’ve been pretty focused on you.”
My heart picked up speed and I felt the color rush to my cheeks. I had to circle this conversation back around to safer waters before I jumped into his lap and kissed the daylights out of him. “I know plenty of little quirky things about you, too.”
Dex leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure there are plenty of those.”
I noticed the distance he’d created between us by leaning back. Body language was a big part of matchmaking. Not only had I spent countless hours observing people interact with each other and analyze clues as to how the date was going, but I also had an optional add-on service for emotionally stunted singles to learn how to navigate a date. There were tips and tricks about leaning in, making eye contact, licking your lips when you were hoping for a kiss, and so on. But leaning back was a red flag that something was missing in the moment, and I didn’t like that.
Dex was making the effort to get out of his comfort zone to get me to open up. And if I didn’t open up soon, he was going to retreat.
“My last serious boyfriend was a Marine,” I blurted, bracing for impact.
His brows flew up, almost meeting his hairline. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“I live in Carlsbad.” I lifted a shoulder. Close proximity was one of the number one ways couples meet, and Carlsbad was right down the road from the largest Marine Corps base on the West Coast.
“Right. And how did that go?”
My lips twisted into a sarcastic smile. “Not great.”
Apart from the fact that I didn’t talk about myself with my clients, there was another reason I wasn’t excited to share my history with Dex. I stood from my chair and walked over to the railing, watching the sun’s rays bounce off the water as it moved toward the horizon. There was no going back now. I’d spilled the beans about the past Marine, so it was time to lay it all out. If he saw the parallels between me and Harumi and wanted to run for the hills, I wouldn’t blame him. In fact, maybe that was for the best. But who was I kidding? I really, really hoped that wouldn’t happen.
Dex came up next to me, leaning forward so he could rest his forearms on the rail. After a beat, he cleared his throat, seeming to choose his words carefully. “If you don’t want to talk to me about it, I understand.”
I turned to him, wanting to see his face, watch his eyes, while we had this conversation. He angled his body toward me, his gaze focused and steady. He had one elbow on the railing beside us and brought the other arm out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Before I could think better of it, I turned my cheek into his palm, relishing in the warmth of his skin against the chill in the ocean air. I let my lashes flutter closed and took a moment to enjoy his touch, however fleeting it would wind up being.
Finally, I opened my eyes and met his gaze. “He asked me to marry him and move with him to his next duty station.”
Dex swallowed, his eyes still locked on mine, but he didn’t speak.
“I couldn’t do it,” I said. “I’d just gotten promoted to matchmaker after working my way up for years. Seriously, Dex, if you think I’m career-minded now, you should have known me then. It was like I lived and breathed FCL.”
“You don’t say.”
“Okay, fine, maybe I still do. But since my ex spent so much of our relationship on deployment or in the field, it hadn’t really bothered him that much.”
“Was he a grunt?” he asked, rubbing my cheek with his thumb before lowering his hand and holding mine between us.
“Yeah, infantry. He was constantly gone and half the time he wouldn’t even have cell service.”
He nodded. “Sounds about right. Us computer nerds don’t make it out into the field much. Foxholes usually aren’t the best place for data recovery or conducting a chip-off analysis.”
“I can’t imagine why,” I said with a laugh, grateful for his dry sense of humor to lighten my mood. “Anyhow, I’d just become a matchmaker, so I didn’t want to leave Carlsbad. And he didn’t want to get out of the Marines and stay here.”
“So, he left,” Dex finished.
“So he left.”
“Then what happened?”
“I haven’t talked to him since.”
Just as I’d predicted, hearing that I’d made the same choice Harumi had all those years ago didn’t sit well with him. His hand slipped from mine and he turned back to face the ocean again. Though we were still only a
foot away from one another, it might as well have been a world apart.
Right when I was about to lose hope, he turned his back on the sea and leaned against the railing, crossing his arms over his chest. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“When Harumi broke our engagement to stay in Japan with her family, I thought it was me. If I had been more this or less that, you know. I blamed myself. But I have to wonder …”
“Yes?”
“Did it even have anything to do with me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did your choice to stay in Carlsbad have anything to do with him and who he was? Or was it more about how you two were on opposite trajectories and nothing short of merging them could make you stay together?”
I considered this. My ex had been the perfect guy for me, or so I’d thought. There was nothing about him that I couldn’t live with. We all have our quirks, of course, but his were endearing. Like the way he couldn’t sit through a movie without falling asleep. Or the way he couldn’t pick a spot for dinner to save his life. Or the way he found it hilarious to put inanimate objects on his head. Especially lunch bags. I’d loved the idea of a future with him, but when it was time to choose between him and my life in Carlsbad, it was an easier choice than it should have been.
“I think you might be onto something there.”
Dex’s eyes traveled to mine, and he held my gaze for a long moment. My fingers tingled with the urge to reach for him. How had I not seen these monumental feelings between us? It seemed so obvious, so real, so sledgehammer-y. Logically, I’d known he was gorgeous. But as I stared up at him now, I realized this epic love story vibe was undeniable. The sun had disappeared beneath the horizon, and in the fading light, I knew my professional relationship with Dex was just as over as the day.
He uncrossed his arms and held out his hand. I placed mine in his without even thinking about it, letting him tug me gently into his arms. I planted my feet between his as he leaned back against the railing. I rested my hands on his broad chest as he held me close against him, his heart beating steady and sure.
A Match for the Marine: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (First Comes Love Book 1) Page 12