“What’s her favorite ice cream flavor?”
Zach was getting tired of Sam’s annoying questions. “I dunno, licorice.”
“Gross!” both men exclaimed at the same time.
“What’s wrong with licorice?” It had been Zach’s favorite ever since he could remember. It reminded him of his father, who loved anything licorice-flavored.
“Um, just about everything?” Spike shook his head again. “And for the record, it’s pistachio, but not the green-dyed kind.”
“Oh.”
Zach hunched over his drink, an ugly realization washing over him. As much as he thought he knew Mike, he really didn’t. Not even in high school would he have known the answers to those stupidly easy questions. But that didn’t mean they didn’t belong together.
“Oh, who cares?” Zach took a big swallow of his drink, hoping it would wash away the pain and embarrassment he felt. “That’s dumb trivia. Doesn’t mean anything.”
He pretended not to notice the pointed glances his buddies shared.
“Zach,” Spike said, dropping his head to catch Zach’s eye. “Listen, I love you like a brother, but man…you need to get a grip and move on.”
“How?” Zach’s voice was barely a whisper. After a lifetime of pining over one person, he had no clue how to “move on.”
Sam answered. “You could start by not dating Mike anymore.”
“Hey, Harvard. Didn’t you hear? According to her, that wasn’t a date, and from what you’re telling me, there won’t ever be one.”
Sam tilted his thousand-dollar lawyer haircut to peer at Zach. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” Zach grumbled.
“That you’ve been dating Mike since high school.”
Zach slammed his empty highball glass on the bar and glared at Sam. “What the devil are you talking about!”
“Dude,” Spike said, drawing his own glare from Zach. “Have you seriously not noticed all the girls you date look exactly like my sister? Which is kinda creepy, since we’re twins.”
“Personally, I’d have to say they’re bad carbon copies,” Sam interjected, swirling the last of his bourbon and tossing it back.
Zach sat stunned. He scrolled through his past girlfriends in his mind and realized his friends were right. All the women he’d dated had been petite brunettes with a passion for outdoor sports, preferably skiing. Most had been really terrific women, and he’d often wondered why none had ever worked out.
Because you’ve been waiting for her.
“You’ve idealized her, Zach,” Sam continued.
“Yeah,” Spike agreed. “Trust me, she’s not perfect.”
“But maybe if I just—“
“Zach,” Spike said, grabbing him by the arm. “You’re one step away from being a stalker. You need to do a one-eighty.”
Zach gave his friend a helpless look.
“What he’s saying is,” Sam offered, “you need to date the total opposite of Mike. Shock your system. Learn about different types of women, and find the one perfectly suited to you. Bet you’ll find a woman who’s not at all what you thought you wanted.”
He’d always thought he wanted Mike, but maybe Spike and Sam were right. Maybe he’d been living in fantasy-land all these years. Maybe he’d never really known her. Besides, what he wanted didn’t mean a thing, if she didn’t want him back.
A switch flipped inside Zach’s brain, and more importantly, his heart. He was twenty eight years old, a successful businessman who loved what he did, he had parents he adored, friends who supported him — even when that support stung — and he lived in the most beautiful place on earth. It was time to leave his childhood crush behind and become a man in all aspects of his life.
Letting go of that unrequited love would be a hard habit to break, but so worth it in the long run. He would never not love Mike. As she’d told Marc, they were practically family, and he could never imagine a life without her in it. But maybe she didn’t need to be his whole life.
For the first time in as long as he could remember, he felt excited about the prospect of meeting some mystery woman, whom he’d fall head over heels for. They’d have two kids — a boy and a girl — and they’d live happily ever after. He blushed at his own sappy thoughts.
Hey, guys can like romance too!
With grim determination, he rolled his shoulders back and sat up straight. No longer would he moon over Mike, hoping against hope she’d eventually fall in love with him. With a deep breath, he set his own heart free by letting go of his childish obsession, and he’d never felt more hopeful.
Wrapping an arm around each of his buddies, Zach smiled into the mirror behind the bar. “Fellas, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Spike laughed. “Dude, I think you might be a little drunk.”
“That I am, my good man. That I am. But not so much that I don’t know good advice when I hear it. I want you both to swear to hook me up with any cool non-Mikes you know, got it?”
“Got it,” Sam agreed.
“Aye aye, skipper!” Spike said, snapping a little salute.
“Great!” Zach said, grinning at his awesome, fantastic, amazing friends. “Now, who’s gonna drive me home?”
4
“Let me get that for you.” Marc rushed ahead of Mike to open the door to Mo’s Diner.
“Thanks.”
She felt like a snob thinking it, but she couldn’t help comparing Marc’s choice of restaurants — the greasiest greasy spoon in Silver Springs — to the posh River House where Zach had taken her a few nights before. As a friend, she’d half-expected Zach to bring her to a place like this, but instead, he’d taken her to the nicest place in town. If this was where Marc took “real dates,” she really felt for his past girlfriends.
As they stood at the counter to place their order, she glanced around the dingy interior. The handful of booths still sported sparkly avocado green vinyl from 1978, and the dozen or so two-top tables were thickly shellacked jobs, with faded plastic placemats, featuring mountain scenes embedded in them. Not even the cheesy letter board menu had changed in the last ten years.
Just as her gaze returned to the long-haired, pimply-faced teenage boy in the grungy apron behind the counter, she caught sight of a group of four handsome men seated in a booth in the back. One stood out.
Zach!
Her heart fluttered in her chest as she tried to get his attention by grinning and waggling her fingers at him, but apparently he didn’t see her. Strange since Mo’s was only about the size of her mother’s kitchen, and she could have sworn he’d been looking at her a split second before she’d spotted him. She started to shout his name, but stopped herself just in time. As much as she didn’t think this was a super-terrific restaurant, calling out another man’s name wouldn’t be appropriate on a first date.
Spike, who was seated next to Zach, tipped her a quick wink before returning his attention to their cousin Sam, and their new cousin-in-law Anthony Black. That, at least, confirmed she hadn’t suddenly turned invisible.
“Large Hawaiian,” Marc said to the kid, who sorely needed a prescription for Accutane.
Before Mike could object, the boy hollered the order to the cook. From her vantage point, she could tell the slender man in the back wasn’t Mo, but was probably his nighttime sub. Not wanting to make a scene, she kept her mouth shut, but when she was crowned Queen of the Universe, she’d make the disgusting perversion of Hawaiian pizza illegal. Until that day came, she’d just have to pick off the pineapple.
“Let’s find a seat,” Marc suggested, placing a hand on her lower back to guide her to a two-top near the window.
Having just met the guy, she wasn’t totally comfortable with such an intimate gesture, but she let it slide. This time. She shot a glance over to Zach and caught him shifting his gaze away.
So he had seen her! And he must have seen Marc touching her, which made her feel oddly uncomfortable. But since he had yet
to acknowledge her existence, she sat with her back to the men so she could focus on Marc.
“I didn’t know Mo made pizza,” Mike said, carefully lowering herself into a wobbly chair.
“He started ‘Pizza Wednesdays’ a couple years ago to compete with the hot new pizza place in town.”
“Is it any good?” Having eaten at Mo’s a few times in high school, she was suitably skeptical.
Marc’s apathetic shrug confirmed her suspicions, and left her boggled that he’d bring her here.
“Did you say you’re on the city council?” she asked, grabbing a paper napkin from a dispenser to wipe a mysterious sticky substance from her fingers after touching the table.
Marc beamed. “Yup. Two years now.”
“That’s great. I don’t mean to sound rude, but that can’t pay well.”
“You can say that again,” Marc said with a chuckle. “It’s a volunteer position. No, I have other sources of income, mainly selling cars at a small dealership in Montrose. And of course, the blues festival.”
He sat back, looking pleased with himself, but Mike couldn’t understand why. “You drive nearly an hour each way to sell cars in Montrose?”
“Sure! My commute in Denver used to be an hour and a half, and I lived a heckuva lot closer to that job. Forty-five minutes is a snap.”
“Fair enough,” Mike conceded. “Now what blues festival are you talking about?”
Marc balked. “Are you kidding me? The Silver Springs Blues Festival?”
“Sorry.” Mike shrugged, spreading another paper napkin in her lap. “I haven’t kept up with the goings-on around town.”
Marc looked personally insulted she didn’t know about his concert, or whatever it was. In the blink of an eye, however, his pursed lips and furrowed brow were replaced by a megawatt smile. The instantaneous change in demeanor set her red flags waving. Something was off with this guy, she just didn’t know what. Yet.
“Of course. You’ve been out jet-setting around the world with all the rich and famous types.”
Mike almost snorted at that. Certainly she’d met her fair share of celebrities, but most of her friends were fellow ski bums no one would recognize on the street.
“I started the Blues Festival three years ago in an effort to draw more tourists to our wonderful community,” Marc explained. “The first year’s success really boosted my profile in town, which is part of the reason I was elected to city council. I’ve worked tirelessly ever since to grow the event and draw quality acts. Sadly, I haven’t managed to nab Bonnie Raitt yet, but give me time!”
“I met her once,” Mike said, wrinkling her nose in distaste as the pimply kid set an anemic Hawaiian pizza in front of her.
“You know Bonnie?” Marc asked, his eyes popping open wide. “Could you put in a good word for me?”
Mike blinked in surprise at his intensity. “I don’t know her, I met her. Big difference.”
Marc couldn’t hide his extreme disappointment. He reached across the table and pulled two steaming slices onto his paper plate before Mike had a chance to decide which slice had the least pineapple. Very gentlemanly.
She twisted in her seat, pretending to look around when she really wanted to catch a glimpse of Zach. He still avoided her gaze, and she couldn’t help feeling hurt by that. Turning back to the pizza, she grabbed the closest slice, slapped it on her plate and flicked off the offensive yellow chunks.
Why hadn’t Zach called after their dinner the other night? He’d promised to help her figure out what to do with the rest of her life, but he’d left her hanging. At first she thought maybe he was out leading an expedition of some sort, but Spike had mentioned at a family dinner that they didn’t have any trips scheduled for almost a week.
“How’s the za,” Marc mumbled through a mouthful of mediocre pizza.
“Excuse me?” Mike had been taught to never speak with her mouth full. Clearly, Marc’s mother hadn’t bothered.
“Za,” Marc repeated, grinning. “Piz-za.”
“Oh, clever,” Mike said wryly. She was just irritated enough to speak her mind. “I hate Hawaiian.”
She flicked off another speck of pineapple, then finally tossed the slice back on her plate and looked Marc full in the face. If she wasn’t so irritated by this entire evening, she would have laughed at his horrified expression.
“I’m so sorry!” he stammered, frantically looking around the restaurant to find a solution to the problem, which could have been easily avoided if he’d simply asked what she liked in the first place.
“It’s fine,” she sighed, turning just enough to catch Zach in her peripheral vision. He and his buddies were laughing at something. Probably her.
“Want me to order something else?”
“No, I’ve lost my appetite,” she said, fake smiling at him.
He must have taken it as real, because he smiled in return and wolfed down another slice, oblivious to the fact she was so done with this pathetic excuse for a date. Marc might have been a perfectly nice guy, but she expected much more from a romantic prospect. Even her friend had done a better job of it.
“So…” Marc said, his mouth still full of food. “What do you think?”
“Of what?”
“Of the Blues Festival. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Um, sure,” Mike said with a shrug. “Sounds like a great event.”
“I’m so glad you think so! The emcee I had scheduled — a well-known Denver newscaster who shall remain nameless — canceled, and I was hoping you might take over.”
And there it is.
Mike sighed in resignation. She would never escape the vultures wanting something from her — not even in her own home town, it appeared. Yet, if she was completely honest with herself, there was something comforting about this routine. Now that she fully understood Marc’s agenda, she relaxed and fell into her role.
“What’s it pay?”
“Pay?” Marc goggled at her. “This is a community event, Mike. I assumed you’d want to support Silver Springs, make it stronger.”
Yeah, play the do-gooder, she thought, narrowing her eyes at him and leaning forward until she was almost nose-to-nose with him.
“Don’t even try that with me, Marc. I know what’s what, and that festival of yours is a nice tidy moneymaker for you, otherwise you wouldn’t bother. Furthermore, no news guy from Denver is going to schlep his ass all the way over here for free.”
She knew she was right when Marc blushed furiously and averted his eyes. Now that she had him on the ropes, it was time to go in for the kill.
“Change the name on the contract you offered him, and I’ll do it. Deal?”
She sat back and watched him without blinking, without moving a muscle. They both knew she had him where she wanted him. The rest was up to him. He proved his intelligence by not testing her patience for too long.
“Fine,” he groused, then stuck out his hand before she could change her mind.
Mike was about to shake when she paused. “One condition. No more dates. You suck at them.”
She should have been offended by his grin, but she’d already stopped caring about this man.
“Deal!”
* * *
Zach tore his gaze away from the way Marc was grinning at Mike. He couldn’t figure out what they were shaking on, but he reminded himself that it was none of his business and he no longer cared. He almost believed it too.
“So I asked you guys here to tell you something,” he started, swallowing hard to brace up his courage. “I have an interview for a job in Denver. Golden, to be precise.”
Spike and Sam’s jaws dropped, while Anthony placidly continued munching on his slice of pepperoni and olive. Before they could find words, Zach explained.
“I took what you guys said to heart, about doing a one-eighty. On a whim, I scanned some job openings and found a youth outreach nonprofit looking for a program director. I figured why not, and applied. Never thought they’d actually respond, much less
ask me to interview.”
“So you’d leave Silver Springs?” Sam asked, incredulous at the very suggestion. Everyone knew how much Zach loved his hometown.
“I guess,” Zach said, glancing at Spike. “Would you be okay with it?”
Spike thought for a moment before answering. “I won’t lie. I don’t love the idea of running RMA without you, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. You’re always going on about starting some kind of outreach program here, so maybe this is the right move.”
“Thanks, man,” Zach said, elbowing Spike.
Spike grinned and punched him in the arm. “My pleasure, doofus!”
“If you two lovebirds are finished,” Anthony chimed in, holding out his phone, “I have a great idea.”
On closer inspection, Anthony was holding Zach’s phone, with the screen lit up.
“Hey, that’s mine!” Zach lunged for it.
Anthony pulled it just out of reach. “I’m aware. While you were yammering on and on, I downloaded this app and signed you up.”
“For what?” Zach didn’t like the mischievous glint in Anthony’s eye.
“A dating service.”
“What!”
Sam and Spike broke out laughing. Zach lunged across the table again and managed to grab the phone. On the screen was his profile, including a selfie he’d taken at the top of Pike’s Peak. Half the information Anthony had typed in was misspelled, and the other half was just plain fiction, but he’d already received three “matches,” whatever those were.
“Swipe on that first one,” Anthony said, pointing at the screen.
Spike leaned over Zach’s shoulder and whistled. Sam pulled the hand holding the phone over so he could see too.
“Hot!”
They had a point. Deidre had long blonde hair, stood an impressive five-ten, and judging from her profile pic, could have easily been a Victoria’s Secret model. The more he read, the more intrigued he became. She loved to read romance novels, go on all-inclusive beach vacations, and her favorite pizza was Hawaiian. A biomedical engineer, she worked at a research lab in Golden, a suburb of Denver, which is exactly where he was headed for his interview.
Rocky Mountain Home Page 4