Betwixt Two Hearts (Crossroads Collection)

by Amanda Tru

  She’d just performed a seamless date-swap.

  On her way back across the minefield to their own table, Bailey stopped the waitress and said a few words before sliding back into her seat across from Camden and picking up her fork to eat as if nothing happened.

  “What just happened?” Camden asked expectantly.

  “I just saved two dates for the website and proved that I’m a better matchmaker than you,” she said, smiling before popping a bite of shrimp into her mouth.

  “You switched the dates?” Camden asked, annoyed that she simply wouldn’t explain. “You chose another random couple and flip-flopped the dates? Exactly how is that proving you’re a better matchmaker?”

  “The other couple wasn’t random,” Bailey said, her face expressive in its excitement. “They are Betwixt clients as well. I recognized them because I’d reviewed their profiles. They were a couple that was also matched by your algorithm, but I had checked them out when seeking matches for my matchmaker clients. After all, now that the free promo is over, paid clients are eligible to be matched with others even after they receive their own match. After I recognized them and realized they were also on a Betwixt date that just hadn’t been formally scheduled on the site, I started watching them as well. Unfortunately, they weren’t faring much better than Trevor and Jacee.”

  “If you knew they were Betwixt clients, why didn’t you tell me?” Camden asked, unable to keep the irritation from his voice.

  “I was trying to be nice,” Bailey answered simply.

  “You? Nice to me?” Camden raised a brow skeptically. “That’s a first.”

  Bailey rolled her eyes. “Yes, I was trying to be nice. Clearly, your algorithm is lousy. I didn’t think it would help to point out that it had screwed up two dates in one evening and not simply one.”

  Camden scowled. “I suppose this other couple was bored, too?”

  Bailey shook her head. “No, not at all. But they clearly annoyed each other. In this case, the discrepancies are too much in all the wrong areas. Susie thinks Darrin is an idiot. He’s a lot more adventurous than she is, and she likes the kind of adventure that’s safe behind a white-picket fence. She thinks he’s a thrill-seeker, and he thinks she’s boring.”

  “You got all of that from reading their profiles and watching them eat dinner?” Camden asked, not sure if he felt skeptical or impressed.

  Bailey shrugged. “Some things are obvious. Susie barely managed not to roll her eyes every time Darrin spoke, and Darrin kept checking his phone. Your algorithm got it right that there were discrepancies in the personalities and preferences, even though they both seem to share the same core values, but it got it wrong that the discrepancies would be appreciated by this particular couple.”

  “So, you thought you could switch the couples like we switched our plates and have equal success?”

  Bailey smiled confidently. “Yes. Yes, I did. Jacee will be a better match for Darrin. She’s introverted and shy, but she longs to be more adventurous than she is. Trevor is a better match for Susie because he’s more of a traditional kind of guy who would appreciate Susie’s no-nonsense dependability.”

  Camden looked over at the couples, secretly hoping to see that Bailey’s new dates were crashing and burning. Unfortunately, that was not the case. As they enjoyed dessert, each of the four people eagerly hung on his or her date’s every word.

  And all were smiling.

  “So, what did you do?” Camden questioned irritably. “Did you simply march up to them and announce that they belonged with someone else and that you’d like to introduce that someone right now?”

  “Pretty much,” Bailey said, seeming to enjoy Camden’s obvious irritation. “I explained that I was a matchmaker for the Betwixt Two Hearts website. I asked if they were on a date set up by the website and told them that I recognized them from their profiles that I reviewed. Then I said that if they didn’t mind experimenting with something strange, I’d like to ask them to swap dates with another couple for dessert, just for fun. We’d do our own little speed dating version, just for tonight, and I really thought these other clients would make for great matches.”

  “Here you go!” their waitress said brightly, handing Camden the check for their dinner.

  “Thanks,” Camden accepted the bill and glanced at it. “Wait a minute, there are a bunch of desserts on this. We didn—”

  “I did!” Bailey said, snatching the bill from Camden’s hand. She then handed her credit card to the waitress before Camden could recover from his shock.

  “What?” Bailey said in response to Camden’s look of accusation. “It was the least you could do. After all, you screwed up their dates. I told them that the website would treat them all to dessert.”

  “What do you mean, it was the least I could do?” Camden paused, a sudden light of suspicion flickering in his gaze. “Wait a minute, was that my credit card?”

  Bailey smiled sweetly.

  “Bailey, where did you get my credit card?”

  “From your wallet.”

  “Where did you get my wallet?” Camden fumbled around all of his back pockets, searching but found no familiar wallet-shaped bump.

  Bailey extended the wallet across the table, offering it back. She quirked an eyebrow. “Call it a business expense. It really was the least you could do.”

  Camden snatched the wallet back and shoved it into his suit jacket pocket. Only has hand went further than it was supposed to, the wallet extending out the bottom and into the open air.

  “Problem?” Bailey asked innocently. “My guess is that suit jacket is pretty old and doesn’t get worn that often. Otherwise, you’d know there is a massive hole in the bottom of one of your pockets. When you moved to switch our plates, your wallet fell under the table and hit my foot. It was like providence telling me I needed to use it to fix those poor mismatched couples.”

  “None of my shorts have holes,” Camden grumbled.

  Bailey laughed. “I bet they don’t!”

  The waitress brought back his receipt.

  After signing it, Camden stood to leave. “At least it looks like it was put to good use,” he said, looking at the two happy couples so engrossed in each other that they didn’t even notice their departure.

  “Very good use,” Bailey agreed. “Your money just saved the website some bad reviews, matched two happy couples, and helped me beat you with winning two points in our competition.”

  “Two points? Trevor and Jacee were my chosen couple. I’ll give you credit for them, but not any more than that.”

  “Nope. I get two points for sure. I made two matches. I took your one bad match and made two wonderful matches out of it. I’m magical. I deserve both points.”

  Camden looked at her in amusement as he held open the restaurant door for her to pass through. He may have made two bad matches, courtesy of his algorithm. He might have just dropped a load of money to fix those matches and use Bailey’s silly competition as a ruse to get her out of the house. He may have lost to Bailey by two points, just on this round. But somehow, those sparkles dancing in Bailey’s eyes made him firmly believe he’d just maneuvered a very good deal.

  Bailey’s phone lit up with the incoming call, and she quickly snatched it up. “Hi, stranger!” she answered teasingly.

  “Hi,” the tired voice greeted on the other end. “I saw I missed your call last night.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Camden look at her sharply, get up and immediately leave the office. She didn’t know what his problem was. They’d actually gotten along well for the past week, and yet every time she mentioned or took a call from her boyfriend, Camden acted irritated and usually just left.

  Maybe he just didn’t want to be disturbed by her side of the conversation while trying to work. Not that Bailey really cared. It was a Sunday, after all. Camden had just popped his head in the office for a few minutes while he waited for his mom to be ready for church. With his dad out of town, Camden had offered to be
his mom’s escort to church this morning.

  “Yes, I tried to call. Several times actually,” Bailey said to Dekker, careful to keep any reproach from her voice. While she had been bothered that her boyfriend hadn’t at least texted her to say he wasn’t available for a call, they had never had a relationship requiring them to check in with each other. Hinting at any hurt feelings because Dekker wasn’t at her beck and call would not be received well.

  “Yeah, we decided on Friday night to make a quick trip down to Vegas.” Dekker’s dull voice mumbled, slurring the words in a way that made them difficult to understand. “We got back early this morning.”

  Immediate questions raised their hands high in Bailey’s mind. Who was “we”? What did “we” do in Las Vegas?

  Dekker continued, “I haven’t slept yet, but I wanted to call you first.”

  At his last phrase, Bailey’s question vaporized. “That’s thoughtful of you,” Bailey said, somewhat surprised.

  “Yeah, I didn’t want you to try to call and wake me up after I went to sleep.”

  “Oh,” Bailey said, realizing he hadn’t been considerate of her after all. “Well, did you have a nice time in Vegas? What did you do?”

  Dekker wasn’t exactly the type to enjoy a good conversation, but she hadn’t seen him in almost a month. Though they talked on the phone, Dekker always seemed eager to put in his phone call duty and be done and off on another adventure, and Bailey couldn’t really blame him for that. Dekker’s adventurous personality was one of the things she loved about him.

  Trekking off to Vegas for an impromptu getaway was not unusual for him. He had a pilot’s license, his own plane, and money to burn, which left the world at his fingertips. Though Vegas didn’t top her list of fun destinations, she did enjoy the romance of Dekker suddenly deciding to take her to a fancy restaurant in Portland or even Vancouver, British Columbia. All told, his good qualities far outweighed his lack of communication, making Bailey feel so very proud that he’d chosen her.

  “Vegas was a blast,” Dekker reported, a sliver of life returning to his voice for the first time. “You should have been there. If you hadn’t decided to take off on this stupid website scheme of yours, you could have been.”

  Bailey gritted her teeth. Maybe he was just overly tired and irritable, but would it kill him to at least pretend to be supportive every once in a while? “If I had known you were going to Vegas, maybe I could have joined you there. I can’t exactly read your mind, especially when there is zero communication.”

  Dekker didn’t need to know Bailey wouldn’t have met him in Vegas even if she’d wanted to. She just didn’t have the time or money, and she certainly would never allow him to pay for it. The point was that he didn’t bother telling her anything. If he expected a better relationship, he needed to put some amount of effort into it.

  “Look, Bailey,” Dekker groaned. “I’m really tired. Can I just go to bed, and I’ll catch you when I can see straight?”

  “I need to be going anyway,” Bailey said brusquely. “I have a date with Camden. We’ll need to leave soon.”

  “You have a date with Camden?” Dekker’s voice suddenly sounded more alert than it had been the entire conversation.

  “No. Not really a date,” Bailey rushed to explain, realizing she’d misspoken. “I’m going with Camden to observe one of the dates set up by the website. That’s what I meant.”

  “You’re going to spy on another couple’s date?”

  “Kind of,” Bailey hedged evasively, annoyed that the man who’d just enjoyed himself in Vegas seemed to be taking issue with her innocuous chosen activity. “I know you’re tired, so I won’t keep you. I’d just like to reserve some time in your busy schedule to talk to my boyfriend.”

  “None of this is my fault, Bailey,” Dekker snapped, apparently still very alert. “If you don’t like it, just catch the next flight to Seattle, and you can come back home and see me in person.”

  Great. And now we’re back to this. Would it kill him to be just a little bit supportive?

  She knew from previous experience that it would do absolutely no good to explain to Dekker yet again about how this business venture was important to her and why working for him as a secretary in his company wasn’t something she would ever consider doing as an alternative.

  “I know this hasn’t been easy,” she said, choosing to be encouraging. “But I’ll be back to visit in a few more weeks.”

  “Yeah, when is that? I know you told me, but I don’t remember.”

  “Valentine’s Day weekend. I fly in on Valentine’s Day, and then I get to stay through the weekend and leave Sunday night.”

  “Okay, I’ll make sure there’s room for one more with whatever I have planned for that weekend.”

  “Okay,” Bailey said slowly, not sure she liked the sound of that. She wanted to spend time with Dekker and do things together. Tagging along for his usual extreme adventures didn’t sound like the romantic weekend she had in mind.

  Before she could mention her reservations, the office door opened, and Camden stuck his head in to wave goodbye.

  “I’ll let you get some rest,” Bailey told Dekker quickly. “Why don’t you give me a call after you wake up? We can talk more then.”

  Without waiting for a response, she ended the call, grabbed her purse, and jumped from her chair to chase after Camden.

  “Hey, Camden!” she called down the hallway. “Is it time to leave for church?”

  Camden turned around and nodded. “Mom is already in the car. I just wanted to let you know we were leaving. I didn’t mean to interrupt your call.”

  “Let me grab my coat, and I’ll meet you in the car,” Bailey said, hurrying to retrieve her coat from the hall closet.

  Confusion clouded Camden’s face. “You know we’re going to church, right? Do you need me to drop you off somewhere?”

  Bailey shrugged her coat on and beat Camden to the door. “Yes, church. I thought I’d go with you this morning. Why do you look so surprised? It’s not like I’m a heathen. I’ve been to church before, even if I don’t go as regularly as you.”

  Camden didn’t say a word but followed her to the car and held open the door to let Bailey slide into the back seat behind a beaming Lydia.

  Lydia kept up a steady, one-sided conversation all the way to church, which was good. That meant Bailey and Camden didn’t need to pretend a semblance of a polite dialogue.

  Camden let the ladies out close to the church before parking, and Bailey kept hold of Lydia as they traversed the potentially icy sidewalks and into the sanctuary.

  The church wasn’t large by any city standards. Instead of pews, the sanctuary was lined with rows of dark green, cushioned chairs that hooked together into long strips. A center seating area was flanked by two aisles and more seating on either side.

  Lydia let Bailey choose where they sat, and Bailey was grateful. She carefully studied those already seated in the congregation. With relief, she found just the right spot in the center about three-quarters of the way back, and they were in their seats before Camden could arrive to protest.

  He slid into the seat next to Bailey, and she suddenly wished that she’d sat on the other side of Lydia. With the seats hooked together, Camden’s arm brushed her arm, sending spider-web tingles spreading from the contact. Why did it bother her so much to be close to Camden? It was like his presence created some kind electrical field that made her highly uncomfortable if she got within that zone.

  As the service started, Bailey tried to ignore the discomfort. She heard the music and stood in all the right places, but her focus remained elsewhere. More specifically, her gaze took in every movement of the couple two rows in front of where they sat.

  “Who are you looking at?” Camden’s voice whispered in her ear. His warm breath against her hair and neck sent shivers down the length of her body.

  Bailey shot an irritated glare his way, snatched up her church program, and jotted a few words on it.

&nb
sp; Couple two rows down, she wrote before passing the bulletin to Camden.

  Camden read her words and jotted back one word, Why?

  Bailey wrote again, then proudly showed Camden. My choice for the contest.

  Camden frantically scratched letters on the paper. You set up a date at CHURCH???

  “It isn’t really a date,” Bailey hissed back. They’d run out of room in the margin of the program, and she couldn’t really explain herself with such limited space anyway. “I just emailed them and suggested church might be a great way to casually meet.”

  Camden stopped talking, but she felt the tension like rubber bands tightly winding every muscle in his body.

  The words of the sermon flowed around her, but none of them brought any meaning. Her focus was instead divided between a thorough observation of the two people in front of her and an intense awareness of Camden beside her.

  About halfway through the sermon, Bailey felt Camden tug insistently on the sleeve of her cardigan. When she looked at him with irritation, he nodded his head to the side, clearly indicating that he wanted her to follow him. Though she didn’t want to leave, she also didn’t want to cause a scene.

  When Camden stood and made his way down the aisle to the back of the church, Bailey followed.

  “What?” Bailey asked, already exasperated when Camden swung around after reaching the foyer area.

  “Are both those people out there Christians?” he asked tersely.

  “Of course,” Bailey answered. “Why do you even ask?”

  Camden pointed back to the sanctuary. “The woman just took out a tissue and looks to be crying. The man looks extremely uncomfortable and keeps squirming in his seat as if he doesn’t quite know what to do. Haven’t you noticed?”

  Bailey’s forehead puckered in uncertainty. “I thought that it was just a good sermon.”

  Camden laughed and took out his phone. “What are their names, Bailey?”

  “Gage Anderson and Sasha Meeker,” Bailey replied, her eyes still on the sanctuary as if she could see the couple’s movements from this distance.