by Noelle Adams
Speed Dating
Preston’s Mill, Book Two
Noelle Adams
Samantha Chase
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Noelle Adams and Samantha Chase. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Epilogue
About Noelle Adams
About Samantha Chase
One
Isabella Warren was trying not to get annoyed with Mrs. Pendergast as she briskly brushed on color and folded foils in the elderly woman’s hair.
Her attempt was gradually failing.
Mrs. Pendergast had been one of her very first clients when Isabella had started at the salon six year ago, and the old woman still came in every week for an appointment to get “coiffed and buffed”—as she called getting her hair and nails done. Isabella appreciated the loyalty and was fond of all of her clients.
But every few weeks Mrs. Pendergast would use the opportunity to give Isabella an hour-long lecture on how she needed to get her life together.
Isabella thought her life was mostly together. She was twenty-five years old and a part-owner of the beauty salon, so she made decent money—certainly more than enough to support herself in a small town. She rented a nice one-bedroom apartment above the coffee shop downtown, just a block away from the salon. And she had a lot of friends and got along well with her family.
Her life might not be extraordinary in any way, but she had done just fine for herself so far.
She didn’t, however, have a husband—or even a boyfriend—and to Mrs. Pendergast this signified the need for a lecture.
Today, the lecture was on how she couldn’t keep waiting around to find a man and how when Isabella’s sister, Tori, got married in a few months, Isabella would be the only one of the four Warren sisters left unmarried.
“But Mrs. Pendergast,” Isabella broke in, finally unable to just listen in silence. “I do date whenever I can. There aren’t that many available men in town, you know.”
She’d lived in Preston, Virginia for most of her life, so she was used to the small town atmosphere and everyone knowing her business. She’d gone out with three different men in the last year—never for more than a few dates—and each time she’d faced endless inquisitions afterwards about what had happened and what had gone wrong.
She added, “I haven’t found the right man yet.”
“That’s just an excuse, dear. I hear it all the time from young women like you. You think the right man will magically appear and that there’s nothing you can do to hurry him along in the meantime. But men aren’t the way they used to be. They used to have backbones, you know. They used to pursue a woman. Now they’ve gotten spoiled and wait for girls to make moves on them.”
“Spoiled,” Mrs. Henson repeated from where she sat in the chair next to Isabella’s station. “They’re used to getting what they want without trying. It’s a whole different world from when I was a girl. I read magazines and watch TV, you know. If you want a man, you’ve got to put yourself out there.”
Elise, Isabella’s partner in the salon, was working on Mrs. Henson’s hair, and she met Isabella’s eyes in the mirror with a look of suppressed amusement.
Isabella cleared her throat. “How do you suggest I put myself out there?”
“Firstly, you need to not spend so much time with that young man,” Mrs. Pendergast said.
Isabella blinked. “You mean Jace?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“But he’s my best friend.”
“Perhaps, but what man is going to ask you out when you’re always with another man?”
“But there’s nothing romantic between me and Jace. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that.”
Elise laughed. “Everyone knows, but not everyone believes.”
“But there’s really not! We’ve always only been friends. And I’m not going to drop my best friend just because a potential date might feel threatened.”
Mrs. Pendergast didn’t argue, but she shook her head and tsked her tongue, which was almost as annoying as a verbal response would have been.
Isabella bit her lip and made herself resist the urge to keep arguing. She’d had to explain the nature of her friendship with Jace so many times since high school that it wasn’t really worth the effort anymore.
“Be that as it may, you still need to put yourself out there. Everything I hear is about The Internet,” Mrs. Pendergast said, pronouncing the last words in a way that made it clear they were capitalized—as if she were referring to a deep, dark, unknown force.
“Online dating,” Mrs. Henson agreed, nodding vigorously in a way that required Elise to step back with her scissors. “I hear about it on the shows. That’s the way it’s done nowadays.”
“I’ve got a cousin who met her husband online,” Elise added with a half-smile, slanting a mischievous look at Isabella that made it clear she knew exactly what she was doing in mentioning it.
Isabella groaned. “Not you too.”
“Nothing’s wrong with online dating,” Elise said. She was a couple of years older than Isabella and already had three children. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried it before.”
Isabella shrugged. “I’ve thought about it. It just seemed… I don’t know. Not really like me.”
“How do you know what’s like you until you’ve tried it?” Mrs. Pendergast demanded. “Now that we’re agreed, who knows how The Internet works?”
The sound of laughter from the waiting area caused Isabella to turn her head and see that her next client, Michelle Woodward, a former classmate, had been listening in on the conversation. She was pulling a tablet out of her bag. “I can go online. Elise, what dating site did your cousin use to find her husband?”
Isabella finished foiling Mrs. Pendergast’s hair in a daze as the women together created a profile for her on the dating site, debating over the best way to describe her and the kind of men she was interested in to complete each of the fields of the profile.
Despite Mrs. Pendergast’s high-handedness, Isabella realized the women were mostly teasing her, so she couldn’t be too annoyed by the interference and the fun they were having. Eventually, she gave up trying to resist and posed for a couple of pictures with exaggerated coyness, which made everyone laugh.
When the profile was complete, they all peered at Michelle’s tablet to admire the page. Despite the teasing, Isabella decided it wasn’t really a bad profile. She wasn’t any sort of beauty queen. She was average sized with long dark hair, and her best features were her eyes, which were so dark a blue they were almost violet. She’d always taken decent pictures, and the profile expressed a lot of personality.
Maybe joining the dating site wasn’t a bad idea. She knew most of the available men in Preston, but there were plenty of towns nearby in eastern Virginia with men she’d never met before.
“Should we publish it?” Michelle asked, checking Isabella’s expression.
For a moment, Isabella froze as all the women in the salon stared at her expectantly. Then she finally nodded. “Sure, why not?
I don’t have to go out with anyone on the site, if no one seems good.”
Michelle tapped on the screen to publish the profile, and in the midst of the laughter and excitement, the bell on the salon sounded.
Glancing over, Isabella saw her mother coming in. “Hi, Mom,” she said with a smile, hoping the others weren’t going to tell her mom about the dating site.
She didn’t mind telling her family herself, but she didn’t want to make it a big deal.
Her mother came over to kiss Isabella on the cheek, and her dark eyes were blazing with excitement.
“What is it?” Isabella asked. “Good news?”
“Carla had her ultrasound today. I wanted to bring this in to show you.”
Carla was Isabella’s second-oldest sister, and she was pregnant with her first child. So the conversation about Isabella’s dating prospects immediately changed to ooh-ing and ah-ing over the ultrasound images.
Isabella was happy for her sister. All her sisters. Even her younger sister, Tori, who was getting married in three months. But she occasionally felt a little twinge, like she’d been left behind.
She wanted to get married and start a family too. She’d dreamed of being a mother since she was four years old. And it was sometimes hard to watch her three sisters all get her dream before she did.
She felt selfish and petty whenever she acknowledged those feelings, though, so she tried very hard not to indulge them.
When her mother finally left the salon, Isabella had made a decision.
Maybe Mrs. Pendergast was right. Maybe she did need to be more intentional in getting what she wanted.
She was going to do the dating site for real. She was going to date as many men as she could until she finally found the right one.
In one way, Mrs. Pendergast had been right.
She didn’t have to wait around, doing nothing, hoping for Mr. Right to finally fall in her lap.
If it took a dating marathon to finally find the man she wanted, then that was what she was going to do.
***
Isabella was sweeping up the salon after her last client of the day when she caught a glimpse of a very handsome man reflected in one of the mirrors.
Her heart leaped in excitement, and she straightened up instinctively, but when she turned around she discovered it was just Jace.
Jace Foster—her cute, familiar, absent-minded best friend since high school.
He had the same rumpled brown hair, hazel eyes, and lean body he’d always had, and he was wearing his glasses this evening which meant he’d been working so hard he’d forgotten to take them off. He’d worked for the town of Preston ever since he’d graduated from college. He was absolutely adorable, but she wasn’t sure where she’d gotten the idea he was a handsome stranger.
Always glad to see him, she smiled and walked over to give him a hug, still holding the broom in one hand. “Hi! I’m almost finished up here.”
“Hi,” he murmured, breathing deeply as he wrapped his arms around her, almost like he was smelling her hair.
She pulled away to check his expression, relaxing when he gave her his normal smile.
“You look all excited about something,” he said, scanning her face as he dropped his arms.
“I am! I got this brainstorm earlier, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.” She leaned over to sweep the pile of hair, lint, and trash into the dustpan, wanting to finish up quickly so she and Jace could get out of here. “All this time I’ve been waiting around for the love of my life to fall at my feet.”
She’d glanced back at Jace over her shoulder so she noticed his expression change slightly. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. And the answer was right there, staring me in the face the whole time.”
Jace’s expression changed even more, his whole body tensing slightly. He’d always been a little uncomfortable when she talked about her love life, and she tried to respect his boundaries and comfort zone. But he was her best friend. She had to tell him the things that were important to her. “What’s the answer?” he asked, his voice growing a bit hoarse.
She was about to reply, turning her head back toward the dustpan. As she did, a big black spider began to crawl over the pile of trash and up onto her hand.
She screamed, shook her hand violently, and ran backward several steps in instinctive panic.
Colliding with Jace, she ended up in his arms.
“What the hell?” he asked urgently, tightening his arms around her and pulling her away from the source of her terror.
“A…a spider!”
He relaxed as he realized why she’d panicked, and she could feel rather than see the smile growing on his face.
“Don’t you dare laugh!” She checked her hand, rubbing it vigorously even though she must have flung the spider away. “It was on me. It was crawling on me!”
She wasn’t a particularly squeamish woman about a lot of things, but spiders were her nemesis with their wicked little eyes and all of those creepy legs.
Despite her admonishment, Jace chuckled. “Well, it’s not on you anymore.”
“But it’s still here somewhere. Go do your job and find it.” She was still huddled up against Jace, and she couldn’t help but like the feel of his body against hers.
He’d been skinny and rather geeky in high school, when they’d first become friends. He still tended toward the lean side, but she wasn’t sure when he’d gotten so strong and hard and… masculine.
Still laughing, Jace released her and went over to investigate the middle of the floor. Eventually, he found the spider and stepped on it. “There. All safe now.”
“Thank you,” she said, still feeling prickles run up and down her arm. “He doesn’t have any comrades still lurking over there, does he?”
Jace shook his head, smiling at her fondly. “No spiders in sight.”
She released a breath and slowly walked over to where she’d left her pile of trash. Very hesitantly, she leaned over to finish sweeping it into the dustpan.
“So, what were you saying?” Jace asked, in a different tone.
“About what?”
“About the love of your life being there all the time, staring you in the face.”
Isabella stood up and met Jace’s eyes. He was staring at her strangely, seeming tense for no good reason. Her breath caught in her throat, and she couldn’t look away.
“Isabella?” he prompted, a rough texture in his voice.
“What?”
“What’s been staring you in the face?”
Realizing she was acting like an idiot, she shook her head to dispel the daze. It must be the aftermath of her panic over the spider causing her to respond that way to Jace’s look. “Oh. It’s not the love of my life. It’s just the answer.”
His brow wrinkled. “What’s the answer?”
“The salon ladies were teasing me earlier about me being the only one in my family not getting married and having babies yet,” she explained. “And how there’s only three months left until Tori’s wedding, and then I’ll be the only Warren girl left.”
“You can’t let them make you feel bad about that.”
“I know. But I do want to get married, and I’ve just been waiting around expecting the man to magically appear. They jokingly made me a profile on a dating site. I was annoyed at first, but then I realized, why not.”
“Why not what?”
“Join the dating site. Start actively looking for the love of my life, instead of just waiting around.”
“So, you’re going to do a dating site? That’s your big revelation?” There was an edge to his voice now that was half skeptical and half something else. If she didn’t know better, she would say it was disappointment.
“Don’t make it sound silly. I want to find a man, so I’m going to find one.”
“On a dating site?”
“Why not? I haven’t had much luck here in Preston. I need to branch out and try new things.”
He shook his h
ead and took the dustpan out of her hand, dumping the contents into the trash. “Okay. Good luck with that.”
He didn’t sound excited. At all.
Isabella frowned. “You could be a little supportive, you know.”
“I’ll be supportive,” he said, almost resignedly. He pushed his glasses farther up his nose. “So, what’s the plan?”
Isabella perked up. “I have three months until Tori’s wedding. I’m going to go out with as many men as possible in that time. If all goes well, in three months, I’ll have found the right man to bring to her wedding.”
Jace’s mouth dropped open slightly. “You think you’re going to find someone in three months?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. The point is to give myself a deadline so I really take it seriously. It will be like a dating marathon.”
“A dating…”
“Marathon. If I’m going to do this, then I’ve got to do it right. I haven’t had a serious relationship since Brock, and at the rate things are going, I might never end up with anyone. No more sitting around for me.” She smiled at him, feeling a well of excitement at the idea of doing something intentional and productive to pursue a relationship. “What do you think?”
Jace was still staring at her strangely. “I think… okay.”
She shook her head at him. “That’s the best you can do? You’re supposed to be my best friend, you know.”
“I know. I am.” He took a visible breath. “I am.”
“Good.” She walked over to rub his arm. “You should really consider doing the same thing. Maybe you can find the love of your life in three months too.”
“Right. The love of my life. Right.”
He was definitely in a strange mood today, Isabella thought as she finished sweeping the floor.
***
A couple of hours later, Isabella was carrying plates back to the kitchen from where she and Jace had eaten on the floor of the living room.
Jace was still acting a little strange—not as relaxed as he normally was when they hung out. She hoped everything was okay with him.
Now that she’d had enough to time to think it through, she was really excited about her dating plan. After all, it was better to do something about getting what she wanted then sit around and mope because nothing ever happened to her. But her concern about Jace’s strange behavior was getting in the way of some of her excitement.