by C. Morgan
“I thought so too. I think she’d like him as well. And seeing as how she’d have to spend a week with him, I don’t want her to be stuck with someone she doesn’t mesh with.”
Victoria sighed dreamily. “A week in Paris. If I wasn’t your protégé, I’d be begging you to send me.”
“I know, and believe me, I’d send you if I could.” I paused and studied her over the lid of my coffee cup as I tilted my head back and took a sip.
Victoria arched an eyebrow. “What?”
“He asked me to go with him again.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. He tried to sell me on it and everything. Laid out all the benefits of going with him. It was kind of charming.”
“Nat,” Victoria said as she slid to the front of the chair cushion, “are you seriously going to turn down a trip to Paris? You’ve always wanted to go. And you said it yourself, you like this guy. You think he’s sweet.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because sweet is boring.”
“Sweet is steady,” I said. “Sweet is what you start to look for when you realize the men you’re attracted to are always assholes.”
“Sweet is what you look for when you want a husband.”
I shrugged. “We’re just talking about Paris. Not husbands.”
We heard the office door open, and seconds later, Penny and Halyn strode in with coffees in hand from the same coffee shop Victoria and I always went to. As soon as they came around the curtain, Victoria told them one of our potential clients had invited me to go to Paris with him—two times in a row.
Halyn sat down across from me and swept her long mane of black hair over one shoulder. “Are you going to go?”
“Of course not,” I said. “I have a business to run.”
My computer chimed with the telltale ring of a new email rolling in. A few seconds later, the office door opened again and another girl came in the back.
Moira stopped, let her neon pink purse slide off her shoulder, and looked around at all of us. “You all have coffees?”
Halyn lifted her cup. “Gingerbread latte.”
Moira pouted. “Damn it. I should’ve stopped. I was trying to be strong.”
I nodded for her to go. “Go get yourself one. On the way past my desk, can you tell me what that email was? I’m expecting documents from a new client.”
Moira nodded. She disappeared behind the curtain only to reappear about thirty seconds later with a coy smile playing on her lips. “It was him,” she said.
“Did he send the documents?”
“Yes.” Moira nodded slowly as she looked around at all of us. “And he asked, and I quote ‘So, are you coming with me to rub elbows with the French, Miss Fox?’”
The girls giggled and cooed. They looked excitedly at me as I fought the way my cheeks were beginning to burn.
Rylen was persistent. I’d give him that. I hadn’t sensed this kind of confidence from him and it was surprisingly pleasant.
The girls gushed and spilled over with excitement.
“You have to message him back and tell him you’ll go,” Halyn said.
“We can hold down the fort,” Penny added.
“Do you have pictures of him?” Moira asked.
Halyn clasped her hands together. “Let’s creep his socials.”
Victoria, always one to hop on a little detective bandwagon, rose to her feet and walked purposefully around the curtain to my computer desk, where I knew she’d be opening up search engines and typing in Rylen’s name. The others followed and I trailed in behind them all to stand over Victoria’s shoulder while she pulled up a Facebook account that looked like it hadn’t been touched in a while.
She clicked on his profile picture.
It was a candid snapshot of him and his little girl. The girl was cute as a button, probably no more than three years old, with big brown eyes and messy brown hair. She had a huge smile on her face and was looking adoringly up at her father, who had her on his lap and had his head thrown back in laughter.
I’d seen no trace of that sort of joy in Rylen when I sat down with him last night.
Penny wrapped her hands around her stomach and peered over my shoulder. “Oh my goodness, my ovaries. She’s such a doll!”
Halyn, not one to fuss over children, waved away Penny’s sentiments. “We need a shirtless photo. Keep scrolling, Vic.”
The next several pictures were wedding photos.
Victoria winced and looked back at me. “Yikes. Awkward. So this is the woman whose wedding you’d be going to with him?” She leaned closer to the screen and shrugged. “She is pretty. I’ll give him that.”
“Quite pretty,” Penny agreed.
Moira, who hadn’t said a word so far, crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. “He looks dashing, too. Look how he fills out that suit. Those shoulders.”
“That jawline,” Penny added.
“Girls,” I warned. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Victoria kept clicking. “Come on, shirtless picture. There has to be one in here somewhere. What guy didn’t post a shirtless picture of himself in the first decade of the two thousands?”
Apparently, Rylen was one of those guys. After scrolling through dozens of pictures, we came up empty on the shirtless photo and I was kind of glad for that. What would he think if he knew we’d all stood around looking for half-naked pictures of him on our Tuesday morning?
It certainly didn’t sound very professional.
We made our way back to the first profile picture. Victoria slumped back in her chair. “Well that was disappointing.”
“What are you talking about?” Penny asked. “He’s cute.”
“He’s more than cute,” Moira muttered before turning to me. “You seriously don’t want to go to Paris for a week with Prince Charming? I mean, look at him. You’d make great money and get a vacation out of it. And if you walked into the wedding with him? Oh my God, his ex’s head would spin clean off her shoulders.”
I indulged in a brief fantasy of what it might feel like to get back out in the field. I thought about the adrenaline rush and about how much fun I used to have getting dolled up. I thought about the fancy lingerie, the glamorous dresses, and the diamond earrings. I thought about the way Rylen had looked at me when he first saw me last night.
But I shook my head. “I can’t. It would be unprofessional. Besides, I don’t want to take the chance of a lifetime from one of you. I’m the matchmaker, not an escort. My days out in the wild are done. Moira, Penny, I’ll try to steer him your way.”
Both girls nodded eagerly.
When ten o’clock rolled around, we lit a candle, turned on the open sign, and got ready to start the day. The girls worked on putting up our Christmas tree near one of the front windows, which was the last bit of decor left to be done, while I ringed up Rylen.
He answered on the third call. I could tell he was in his truck.
“Hey,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to hearing from you. Did you get my email?”
“I did.”
“And? Are you going to take me up on my offer?”
I sighed. “I’m very flattered by your invitation but I have to decline. I have a business to run here and unfortunately that means I can’t up and run to Paris in three weeks. If you need help selecting the right girl I’m still here to help.”
“I knew it was a long shot.”
I resisted the urge to apologize. “Come by the office tonight,” I said as guilt crawled around in my belly. The disappointment in his voice was obvious. “We’ll sit down again and we can review some potential matches. I have two girls here right now who really want to go with you—and not just because the event is in Paris.”
“Five thirty?”
“I’ll see you then,” I said.
Chapter 12
Rylen
Kelly held the clinic door open for me as I swept my work bag and travel cup off the reception desk. I slipp
ed outside and she locked up behind us before we both turned and made for our vehicles parked side by side in the lot.
“Cora would be sad she missed the baby bunnies,” Kelly said.
We’d had to scramble this afternoon to fit a new customer in whose rabbit had babies overnight. The owner had no idea the rabbit she’d adopted was pregnant and was completely ill prepared to deal with the six new bunnies, all of which were hairless and, in the customer’s words, kind of weird looking.
I’d checked them out, given them a clean bill of health, and offered her solutions. She didn’t have to keep the rabbits if she wasn’t prepared to take them on. I knew I’d be able to find homes for them in the next month or so as long as she was willing to keep them with their mother for at least the first four weeks of their life.
She’d agreed. We would touch base in a month and see what she wanted to do.
Kelly was right. Cora would be devastated to find out she’d missed a litter of bunnies.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” I said.
Kelly arched an eyebrow as she stopped beside her little red coupe. “Do you seriously think you’ll be able to keep it a secret with Drew in the office? He’ll let it out of the bag as soon as he sees her on Monday afternoon.”
“Fair point,” I said. “We’ll tell her and we’ll make sure it’s my week with Cora when the rabbits come back. With fur this time.”
“Deal.” Kelly grinned. “Have a good night.”
We both got in our vehicles. Like every night, Kelly’s immediately started blasting music. She reversed out of her space first and pulled away. I got stuck waiting for traffic to pass and checked the time.
I was looking forward to seeing Natalie again tonight. Sure, I wished she’d agreed to go with me to Paris, but it wasn’t in the cards. I’d have to find someone else.
Speaking of someone else, I still had to confirm with Mona that I could bring a plus one to the wedding.
I’d been putting off the phone call but now it seemed like I needed to have that conversation. Before pulling out onto the road outside the clinic, I called Mona through the Bluetooth system in my truck.
When she answered, I could hear Cora giggling in the background. “Hi, Rylen,” she said, sounding distracted. “We’re a bit busy over here making Christmas cookies. Can I call you back later tonight?”
“This won’t take long.”
Mona sighed. “Okay. Hold on.”
I waited and listened as she told Logan and Cora that she needed to take my call. I heard them call hello to me and their voices faded in the background as Mona presumably left the kitchen.
Once she was alone, her voice filled the line again. “What’s this about, Rylen?”
I palmed the wheel and took the first righthand turn to head downtown to Natalie’s office. “I was wondering if it’s too late to take you up on your offer to bring a plus one to the wedding?”
Mona sucked in a breath of surprise, and I felt a pang of satisfaction at that.
“A plus one?” she asked. “Who is it?”
“I met someone,” I said lamely. I hadn’t thought about what I would say if she asked follow-up questions, which she inevitably would. “Someone I’m kind of excited about. I’d like her to be there to support me. It’s not going to be an easy day for me to get through but I’m doing this for you and Cora.”
“Of course,” Mona said, sounding a little flustered. “How did you meet her?”
“Does that really matter, Mona? You have Logan. You don’t need to know the details of my dating life.”
“Okay, fair enough. Forget I asked.”
A tense moment of silence stretched between us. My brakes squeaked as I came to a stop at a red light. The Christmas lights lining storefronts winked to life down the block as the sun dipped down and the city descended into night.
She hadn’t given me my answer yet and I didn’t want to ask again. Asking permission to bring a date had already made me feel all kinds of irritated.
Finally, Mona spoke. “You know, Rylen, I really would have appreciated a bit more of a heads-up. Now I’m going to have to request another plate and make another setting and rearrange my seating chart to accommodate a total stranger…” She trailed off as if inviting me to throw my hands up, apologize for inconveniencing her, and telling her to forget about it, I’d come to the wedding alone.
I wasn’t going to do that.
“Mona?” I said her name softly. “This is the least you can do for me.”
She sighed. There was nothing she could say to that.
“Fine, Rylen. Bring your date. Make sure she knows it’s a black-tie affair. It was hard enough to convince my Aunt Maurine not to wear her moccasins. I don’t need a stranger in my pictures dressed for an American country wedding.”
I’d never found my ex superficial until our relationship fell apart. Now I picked up on all the things Mona cared about that meant nothing to me.
“It won’t be a problem, Mona. Tell Cora I say hello and I’m looking forward to Saturday.”
Mona hung up the phone.
Natalie was waiting for me at her office when I arrived. She locked up behind me so we wouldn’t be interrupted by any clients thinking she was still open and we went to sit in those same plush velvet chairs we had last time. Tonight, Natalie was already sipping on a glass of chilled white wine. She offered me a glass, and instead of declining like last time, I took her up on her offer.
We sipped our wine before talking business.
Natalie wore a pair of skin-tight black jeans today and black ankle boots with gold buckles everywhere. They matched her belt and gold accessories. Her hair was done up in a wild messy pile on top of her head. A few coppery red strands framed her face and one got caught in her lipstick as she sipped her wine.
She pulled it away as she leaned back and swirled her wine. “You should have heard the earful the girls gave me when I told them I wasn’t going to Paris with you.”
“They sound wise. But of course, I’m biased.”
“Only a little bit.”
“It takes a strong woman to say no to Paris,” I said. “My ex-wife and I were supposed to go for our honeymoon but life kind of got in the way.”
I frowned. Thinking about that now gave me reason to pause. Mona and I had talked for the year leading up to our wedding that we would go to Paris within the first six months of our marriage. It meant putting off buying our first home by about a year, but that was worth it for us. The small apartment we were renting would do for another year if it meant we got to go to the most romantic city in the world together.
As the months slipped by and the clinic got busier, Paris became less of a priority for me. Mona still brought it up, and I caught her looking at photos or hotels on her phone on more than one occasion, but I’d never pushed to make it happen.
I sort of let it pass us by.
Over the last two years since my marriage had fallen apart, I’d had little moments like this where I realized I hadn’t been the husband Mona thought I’d be. I’d let her down. Otherwise, we’d still be together.
Now she was making her dreams come true with someone else. What was better than a honeymoon in Paris?
A wedding.
“Where’d you go just now?” Natalie asked.
Her sultry voice pulled me out of my reverie. “Sorry?”
“We were talking and then you just started staring into the flame of the candle and you were gone.” Her smile was sympathetic and understanding. “Were you thinking about her?”
“Yeah, I guess. Sorry that still happens more often to me than I’d care to admit. Every now and then, it hits me that I could have been better.”
“She shouldn’t have cheated on you regardless.”
“Sure, but I—”
“No, Rylen,” Natalie said with a firm shake of her head. “Look, I know I’m not the person to give anyone criticism on their ethics because of the work I’m in, but it’s not right what your ex d
id to you. If she was unhappy, she should have spoken up. If she wanted something else, she should have told you. Should have given you the chance to rise to her expectation. You’re not a mind reader. Nobody is. She flushed her wedding vows down the toilet and the commitment she made to you and her family because she couldn’t tell you what she needed.”
I blinked at her.
Natalie turned pink. “Unless of course she did tell you and you never did anything about it. In which case I take back everything I just said. Did I overstep?”
“No,” I said, chuckling. “Actually, it’s kind of refreshing to talk to someone about it who isn’t worried about tiptoeing around me. Grady and some of my other friends like to joke around about it to keep things light but we don’t really dive in deep, you know?”
“Sure.”
“For what it’s worth she never said a damn thing.”
Natalie nodded. “I figured. You seem like the kind of guy who would have given her what she wanted if she’d only asked.”
I would have tried. “It still wouldn’t have been enough,” I said.
“Maybe not. But at least she’d have given you a shot.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way.
Natalie pulled the album back out from under the coffee table—the same one we’d flipped through last night. She set it down, flipped it open, and spun it to me. “I think I have an idea of what will make your decision easier. Which one of these women would your ex-wife hate to see you with the most?”
The answer was easy, if not a little conniving and petty.
“You,” I said simply. “Definitely you.”
Chapter 13
Natalie
This guy just won’t let up!
Rylen was making this harder than it needed to be. Yes, I was flattered, but at some point or another, he was going to have to let go of the idea of showing up to the wedding with me and come around to the fact that he’d have a different girl on his arm.