MATCHED ONLINE
LACY WILLIAMS
ROBIN PATCHEN
SUSAN CRAWFORD
JULIE JARNAGIN
CONTENTS
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Dates by Lacy Williams
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Dear Reader
Also by Lacy Williams
A Package Deal by Robin Patchen
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Dear Reader
Also by Robin Patchen
Rival Hearts by Susan Crawford
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Dear Reader
Also by Susan Crawford
Engaged by Friday by Julie Jarnagin
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Dear Reader
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Dates by Lacy Williams
Acknowledgments
With grateful thanks to my local writers’ group, OCFW, for suggesting (and in some cases living through) many of Angela’s awful dates. You all rock!
Prologue
Why had she ever agreed to this?
Angela Hudson picked her way across the potholed high school parking lot. In early August, the summer break wasn't over yet, and the lot was empty save three other cars.
The other three schmucks who'd been wrangled into joining the reunion committee. Schmucks, because who wanted this job? No one.
She’d been too nice to hang up on the high school principal when he'd called and pleaded for her to take a spot on the committee.
It wasn't that she didn't have the time. She was a busy single mother with a cake decorating business, but she could carve out an hour or two out of her schedule.
It was the humiliation factor.
She’d been homecoming queen. Head cheerleader. Voted by her classmates as Most Likely to Succeed.
Ten years later, and she was a failure. Failed marriage. Failed relationship with her own dad. Failed business—or close enough.
And she really didn't want to walk in and face off with three former classmates who probably had it all together.
But she also wasn't one to back out when she'd committed to doing something, so she straightened her shoulders and the cuffs on her Anne Klein blouse and pushed inside the dim, cool building.
Why they'd chosen to meet here instead of someplace like the coffee shop Cup of Joe on the town's small Main Street was a mystery.
Sounded like they were all here already as voices echoed down the shadowed hallway. Someone had left the overhead lights off, and sunlight from the bank of windows at the front of the building angled along the floor before disappearing. One of the classroom lights was on, spilling out of the room and onto the floor.
She braced herself and sucked in her tummy before passing through the door.
"Angela!"
"Hi!"
A chorus of female voices rang out. She was momentarily blinded as her eyes adjusted to the overhead fluorescents.
"Mary Beth. Jo." Angela nodded to the music teacher and to the UPS store owner. Both women were local to Ross, Oklahoma, population two thousand forty-three, though Angela mostly greeted them in passing and hadn't had a real conversation with them in years. Real conversation meant admitting to the imperfect status of her life.
"And Morgan. I haven't seen you since graduation."
Morgan had been in a vastly different social circle than Angela's popular cheerleader friends back in high school. Though she'd occasionally crossed paths with Mary Beth and Jo, Angela realized she didn't know anything at all about the other woman.
Back then, Morgan had been voted Most likely to leave town and never come back, and she had. She didn't look entirely happy to be here now, chin propped on her hand with a glum expression.
Awkwardness descended, and Angela let her eyes roam the room. It was a math classroom, the chalkboard she remembered now replaced with a white board, but the linoleum and desks seemed to be the very same from ten years ago. Everything had seemed bright, important and life-or-death back then. Now the classroom looked tired and faded. Or maybe it was her jaded eyes.
"So we all got roped into the committee?" Angela tried to inject some brightness into her voice, but it felt false. Like her smile. "Are we waiting on anyone else?"
"I don't think so," Mary Beth said.
Morgan tapped a pencil on the desk. "Principal Jay said there were four of us who volunteered."
Volunteered…yeah. Sure.
"Let's get down to it then," Jo said, flipping open a binder. "I need to get back to the store soon."
They worked together relatively well, quickly deciding on a theme, assigning tasks for contacting vendors and classmates, and scheduling their next meeting for a month from now.
Angela couldn't help sighing, glancing out the window.
"What?" Jo asked.
Angela debated whether to say what she was thinking. She shrugged. "I'm not sure I even want to go to the reunion."
Morgan's eyes flicked up from where she'd been staring at the desk. "You too?"
Mary Beth glanced between them, wearing a bemused smile. "What's the big deal?"
"Nothing for you," Angela said. "You've got a boyfriend. I have an ex, and a failing business, and I'm not looking forward to making small talk with everyone who'll want to catch up."
"Tell me about it," Morgan agreed.
Mary Beth looked to Jo. "What about you?"
Jo nodded slowly. "I never thought I'd still be single by our ten-year." Some shadow passed behind her eyes, one that Angela couldn't recognize. She vaguely remembered a prayer request from Bible class. Had Jo battled some illness? Was that why she was still single?
"Too bad we can't just manufacture boyfriends for the occasion," Morgan muttered.
Angela snorted. Wouldn't that be nice? "I wish."
"You could," Mary Beth said. "What about online dating?"
Angela froze, watching to see that Jo and Morgan had done the same.
Mary Beth went on. "If all you're looking for is a date for the reunion, why not? Maybe it could even be more."
Angela's mind spun faster than a mixer on high speed. She'd resisted dating since her divorce, knowing her baggage was a lot to take. But if a guy knew the whole sordid tale up front
because he'd read her profile...maybe it could work.
"I'm up for it," she blurted.
"I...might," Jo said.
All three turned to Morgan, who blushed.
"C'mon," Angela said. "If we both do it, you have to participate."
“What about Mary Beth? She has an out,” Morgan protested.
Mary Beth shrugged. “If, by some tiny chance, things don’t work out between me and Todd, I’ll sign up for a dating site.”
Angela and Jo turned back to Morgan with raised brows. They waited her out until she huffed. "Fine. Can we please get back to business now?"
The meeting broke up soon after. Each woman had been assigned reunion tasks to complete before their next meeting.
As Angela walked across the parking lot back to her car, she felt a slight stirring of hope. What if she could find someone again? There were plenty of nights she went to bed lonely, remembering the camaraderie, the feeling of belonging, before everything had gone wrong with Rob.
Maybe she could find that again. Was online dating the answer? She'd promised to try, and for the first time in a long time, she was open to life again.
1
What are the most important qualities you're looking for in a match?
SenseiSam: "I'm looking for a girl who’s fun-loving, pretty, and athletic."
"And I was the youngest partner in the history of the company."
Angela dredged up a smile, knowing it must be reflecting her feelings. She wasn't that good at hiding them.
This was a disaster.
Sam L. Peterson, Esquire—aka SenseiSam—didn't seem to notice. He was still going on about his important work and his eighty hour workweeks for an Oklahoma City law firm.
She'd promised herself she wouldn't fall for someone climbing the corporate ladder again. Not that there was much chance of falling for this guy.
When he took a breath, she jumped in. "Well," she said as brightly as she could, "thanks for meeting me."
His mouth opened as she stood from the table for two in the small but busy coffee shop. She wanted to walk straight out, but she couldn't. Thad was at a table in the corner, poring over a coloring book.
Sam said, "But—"
"I think if we're both honest with ourselves, this isn't a perfect match." She couldn't bear another minute with him, but she made herself smile anyway.
He looked perplexed, but then nodded slowly. She waited until he'd gone before she joined Thad in the corner booth that nearly swallowed him up. A deep breath brought a small sense of calm and the pungent aroma of coffee beans. Afternoon sunlight slanted through the window and warmed them slightly.
"You okay, buddy?" she asked.
"Mmhmm." Thad was her seven-year-old pride and joy. He was completely focused on a coloring page, his chestnut head bent low as he filled in the superhero's shield with blue crayon, careful to stay in the lines.
A shadow fell over the table. "One cinnamon roll," said a male voice.
Angela looked up to see the shop's owner, Wes, set a white plate in front of Thad. On the plate was the biggest cinnamon roll she'd ever seen. It was steaming, and the scents of cinnamon and sugar wafted to her.
"I didn't order that," she said, even though her mouth was watering. She aimed a look at her son. "Thad?"
He affected an innocent look. One she didn't buy.
Wes crossed his arms, and she realized this man wasn't Wes at all, though they shared the same dark hair and movie-star good looks.
This version of Wes had a tattooed sleeve from his right wrist all the way up his arm until it disappeared into his T-shirt. Had Wes's shoulders ever been that broad beneath his red apron? And then her eyes tracked to his face, noticing the dangerous five o'clock shadow and the small scar that bisected one dark eyebrow.
"Are you Wes's brother?"
His gaze didn't change at the impertinent question. How did someone cultivate a poker face like that? "His twin," he finally said. "I'm Drew."
Drew. He raised one eyebrow at her—the one with the scar—and she blushed, realizing she was still staring.
"I'm Thad," piped her son.
"Yeah, I got that. And your mom is...?" Somehow his gaze remained on Thad, but she felt his focus shift to her with an almost tangible touch.
"Angela." Thad went back to his artwork, attention span met.
Which left the tattooed barista free to shift that steely blue gaze back to her.
She cleared her throat. "I didn't know Wes had a twin. Where are you from?"
"NYC. Just down for the summer to help my brother."
Something shifted behind his eyes as he said the words, and curiosity piqued in Angela's gut. Not that it was any of her business. So she tried to stifle it.
"You gonna pay for the bun or not?" Drew's chin jerked to the cinnamon roll still sitting on the table between Angela and Thad. She'd like to say she'd forgotten all about it, but the smells still had her mouth watering for the sugary, cinnamony confection.
Angela leveled a look on her son. "Thad?"
Thad's eyes darted up from his drawing. "Please, Mom?"
The man shifted. He was impossible to ignore, not that she was trying all that hard.
"I think you're supposed to ask your ma before you order," Drew said. He reached for the plate.
Thad's shoulders slumped.
Angela touched the barista's wrist before he touched the plate. Heat streaked up her arm at the contact, and he jumped, pulling his arm back.
She swallowed hard. "We'll keep it. Sorry for the trouble."
His lips firmed in a line, and he stepped away from the table.
"You didn't like that guy?"
It took her longer than it should've to make sense of Thad's question, probably because her eyes had tracked Drew's progress behind the counter. She shook herself out of the daze of...attraction?...and focused back on her son, who was peeling away the first layer of flaky cinnamon roll.
"Hey!"
He gave her a cheeky grin even as he popped the piece in his mouth, smearing icing across his upper lip. The moment squeezed her heart. This was a hint of the little boy she hadn't seen often since Christmas break when Thad's best friend had moved out of state.
She huffed and grabbed her own sticky bite off the roll. "SenseiSam was too self-absorbed. And he had a demanding job."
Thad nodded, still chewing. He looked out the window. Outside, a group of adults and kids crossed the street headed for the Cup of Joe.
Was he thinking about his father? Rob had been absent from their lives even before the separation and divorce. Angela had done her best to keep things together, fighting a losing battle for far longer than she probably should've. It wasn't that she was a perfectionist. She just hated failing. She had been nominated Most Likely to Succeed in high school, after all.
The truth was, she'd chosen her husband badly, and now Thad was paying the price, dealing with a father who was content to see his son one or two weekends a year.
Thad jumped up from his seat. "I gotta use the restroom."
He disappeared around the corner of a small hallway leading off of the rear of the coffee shop. She'd been in enough to know there was no outside access back there, only the separate single stall men's and women's restrooms, so she felt reasonably sure he was safe. He was almost eight. She had to cut the apron strings a little more as he grew.
Sometimes she just felt so inadequate to raise a boy by herself. Like lately, when she knew there was something wrong, but he wouldn't tell her what.
She sighed, popping another bite of cinnamon roll in her mouth. The sugary confection made her thirsty, and she hadn't ordered coffee during her terrible date. Had that been foresight? Or had some part of her known she’d chicken out?
It didn't matter. She wasn't interested in falling for someone with a corporate job, not after Rob.
Thad seemed to be taking his sweet time, so she stood and approached the counter. There were no other customers in line, and she felt self-consciou
s, as if she were a teenager chasing a cute guy.
From behind the counter, Drew waited, palms flat on the surface.
"Could I have a tall caramel macchiato?" She pushed a twenty-dollar bill across the counter, plenty to cover the drink and the pastry.
"Sure thing." He wasn't exactly smiling, but he wasn’t frowning, either. Had the impromptu touch affected him as much as it had her?
He turned to start making the drink, and because there were no other customers and because she hated awkward silences—even with the machine whirring and spitting—she blurted the first question she thought of.
"So what do you do back in New York?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "How do you know I'm not a full time barista?"
Somehow, she knew better. Wes owned this place, but Drew seemed like someone who... She couldn't put her finger on it.
"You're not an aspiring rock star or something?"
He laughed, a sharp bark of sound that appeared to surprise him as much as it surprised her.
He turned, liquid sloshing in her paper cup, and moved to pour the foam. One corner of his mouth ticked up. "Definitely not a rock star, aspiring or otherwise."
He snapped a lid on her drink and slid it across the counter. "What do you do?"
She crossed her arms but then realized she had to pick up the cup, so she managed an awkward shift and ended up with one hand on her hip and the other grasping the cup. "No fair. I'm not telling if you don't."
He smirked. "You think I can't find out in about ten minutes in a town this small?"
She shrugged. "You can try." It was a bluff, and they both knew it. Everyone in Ross knew about her home-based baking business, though no one knew how close she was to bankruptcy.
The bell over the door rang, and several people trooped in. Angela couldn't monopolize his time when he had customers.
She raised her cup in salute. "Thanks."
He nodded, already focused on the line building behind her.
Thad was peering around the corner. He caught sight of her, and his gaze darted around the inside of the coffee shop before he returned to the table.
"You'd better finish this," she told him, pushing the cinnamon roll in front of him.
He shoved the remaining half in his mouth.
Matched Online: Anthology Bks 1-4 (Contemporary Romance) Page 1