Cleo paused, holding a cute, bright pink shirt in her hands. “Won’t that be expensive, Meredith? Where are you going to get the money to throw all of those social events?”
Meredith waved her hand in the air. “Easy. I’ll set up ice skating down at the rink and talk to the owner and get a discount for everyone from our site. I won’t be paying for their skating, they will but it’ll be a great deal. And for our bonfires on the beach, we’ll just do potluck. Everyone brings a dish and we’ll provide the music and the wood for the fire. Easy.”
Tai grinned and reached up to grab Cleo’s hand. “It kind of sounds like fun. Maybe we should try it, Cleo.”
Cleo grinned and leaned down to kiss Tai on her cheek. “And have all of those gorgeous single ladies going after you? I think not. I’ll plan a few fun social events just for the two of us,” she promised, going back to her clothes.
Meredith glanced at Pule and saw him staring at Tai and Cleo with the same look of yearning that she knew had been on her face just moments before. Meredith sighed knowing that Pule wanted just what she wanted. A love like Cleo and Tai’s. And that was asking for a miracle, because their love was a one in a million kind of love.
“Pule,” she said softly, making him turn in her direction. “I know you want that,” she said pointed toward Cleo and Tai. “I do too. Just give this a chance. I know I can find you a girl you can have a real, honest and loving relationship with.”
Pule gestured towards Tai and Cleo. “That’s what I want. And if I can’t have that, then I don’t want anything,” he said quietly, his dark brown eyes serious and worried.
Meredith frowned, feeling the depth of emotion coming from Pule. This wasn’t like him at all. Pule was always sarcastic, lighthearted and looking for fun. This was a side of him she’d never seen before.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked, moving closer to him on the couch. “Are you okay?”
Pule closed his eyes for a moment and then shook his head slightly. “I’m fine, but it’s just that I’m surrounded, you know? I see Tate and Jane and Kam and Bailey and now Tai and Cleo. It’s hard to see the real thing and then be satisfied with the fake and superficial. I can’t just be in it for the fun anymore. I want substance. I want to know what it’s like to really love someone,” he said, glancing quickly at Tai and Cleo who were talking about the clothes still.
Meredith sighed and felt the weight of what she was taking on. This couldn’t be just a fun, silly little dating website. People were going to come to her to find love. This was serious business.
“If love is what you’re after then you’d be dumb not to join my website. Will you do it?” she asked, frowning at him.
Pule sneered a little and looked away. “It’s just so beneath me, no offense. What if my buddies find out I joined a dating website because I can’t find girls on my own? Pule Matafeo needing an online dating website? It’s laughable.”
Meredith shrugged and sat back, crossing her legs and sneering back at Pule. “That’s not the problem. You can find all the girls you want with the snap of your fingers. You don’t want that. You want to find a woman to give your heart to. That’s different now, isn’t it?”
“Who’s to say all the girls I’ve been dating over the past few years won’t sign up for your dating website? How do you know you’re going to find all of these amazing, mature and beautiful women waiting to fall in love to sign up for your site?”
Meredith straightened her shoulders and leaned over to Pule, poking him in the shoulder. “Because I will and that’s all you have to know,” she said in a low voice that always had her brother Tristan backing out of the room slowly.
Pule narrowed his eyes at her as he stared at her silently for a moment. “Fine, I’ll do it, but if this is a disaster, I will never let you live it down.”
Meredith swallowed nervously as her mouth tilted up in a confident smile. “You mean, I’m going to be the one who gets all the credit.”
Pule’s face relaxed into a smile. “I really hope you can back up what you just promised me, Meredith. I hate being disappointed,” he added before standing up and walking into the kitchen.
Meredith sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned back against the couch. No pressure.
Ten minutes later, Asher walked in the door carrying a large box from Belinda’s Bakery. “It’s time to celebrate,” he yelled as everyone followed him to the kitchen where he lifted the top off the box, revealing cupcakes, donuts and pastries.
“Asher, you shouldn’t have,” Meredith whispered, picking up a gorgeous looking Matafeo cupcake and taking a large bite.
Asher grinned and picked a cronut. “Of course I should. We just went into business with Brogan Moore and we’re going to be wildly successful. We have to celebrate.”
Cleo groaned as she bit into a large, gooey, chocolate filled croissant. “I’m not even going to think about all of the carbohydrates and fat grams I’m eating.”
Tai laughed and picked a coconut, pineapple cupcake. “We’ll both ignore calories tonight. Besides, we have to support Asher and Meredith. We wouldn’t be good friends if we didn’t join them in this bounty of bad nutrition.”
Pule laughed and took another bite of his own cupcake. “Bad nutrition never tasted so good,” he said, his voice warm with happiness. “But you’ll have to tell me how you got Brogan to go into business with you. If Taryn finds out he’s working with Meredith she’ll throw a fit,” he said with a grin.
Meredith concentrated on chewing her bite and looked down at her feet before answering. “Taryn knows and she’s very supportive of Brogan’s decision to do business with us. She might not like me personally but as a business woman she knows this opportunity could be huge for him,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.
Asher bumped his hip into hers. She looked up and caught his eyes and saw the compassion and understanding there.
“Taryn had some concerns but she knows that we could have gone to anyone else to get a website built. We’re offering Brogan a great opportunity and she’ll keep her opinions to herself. Besides, she might change her mind about Meredith. Who wouldn’t like her?” Asher said smoothly.
Pule choked on his cupcake and Tai had to pound on his back as tears of laughter slipped down his cheek.
“Who wouldn’t like Meredith?” Pule asked, gasping as he leaned against the counter.
Meredith glared at Pule and felt like kicking him.
“I can give you a list,” he said, shaking his head before he looked at her. When he did, he stopped smiling and looked slightly abashed. “Ah, Meredith. You know I’m just kidding. I used to think you were the biggest brat in Washington until I got to know you better. Now I think you’re a sweetheart. Feisty, tough and willing to throw a punch here and there, but underneath it, you have a good heart.”
Meredith sighed and took another bite of her cupcake. So what if people hated her? She was who she was and she didn’t pretend to be anyone different. But dang, it would sure be nice to be able to live down her past.
“Well, I know Taryn and I know Meredith and if you ask me, they could be twins,” Cleo said as she patted her lips with a napkin.
Tai laughed and put his arm around Cleo’s waist. “Honey, are you feeling alright? I could swear you just said Meredith and Taryn could be twins. Those two are polar opposites and should be kept that far apart,” Tai said, glancing at Pule who nodded his head in complete agreement.
Cleo shook her head and frowned at Tai. “Actually I think they’d make good friends. Look at them, they’re both feisty, strong and smart,” she said, smiling kindly at Meredith.
Meredith smiled at Cleo, thankful she had someone in her life who would always have her back.
Asher nodded. “Don’t forget, they’re both gorgeous, too.”
Meredith turned her head and stared at Asher. He had been kind of flirty lately. Well, a lot flirty. And he had kissed her a few times over the past couple of months, but she hadn’t known that h
e thought she was gorgeous. She blushed and lowered her eyes, not sure how to take this sudden intensity coming from him.
Pule sighed and took a donut out of the box. “I guess you’re right, Cleo. Two women who are strong willed, smart, feisty and beautiful. Yeah, I’m sure that one time they got into a fight was just an anomaly. If they hung out, I’m sure they’d get along perfectly,” he said dryly as a small smile lifted his mouth.
Meredith threw the rest of her cupcake at Pule, hitting him squarely in the nose. Pule sputtered, laughing as he wiped chocolate off his face and Cleo and Tai stared at her with twin grins. Asher pulled her into his arms and kissed her on the cheek.
“I’ve just decided that we better keep you and Taryn apart,” he said and let her go to grab a dishrag and hand it to Pule.
“I’m going to get you back for that,” Pule said, narrowing his eyes at her dangerously.
Meredith rolled her eyes and took a napkin and walked over to wipe a smear of chocolate off his chin that he’d missed. “You and what army?” she asked with an impish smile.
Pule surprised her and picked her up in his arms and ran with her into the family room where he dumped her on the couch and began tickling her mercilessly while she screamed and begged for mercy.
“Stop! Pule, you better stop right this second,” she squealed as she fell off the couch and onto the floor as she attempted to crawl to safety.
Pule just reached over and pulled her back, as he continued to tickle her. “That’ll teach you to throw cupcakes at people. If you dish it out, you better be able to take it,” he said, growling at her.
Meredith wiggled out of his arms and was grateful when Asher pulled her up and out of Pule’s reach. “Thank you,” she said breathlessly as she grinned at Pule and stuck her tongue out at him. “Nice to know there are still men who will rescue a poor, innocent woman from the clutches of evil.”
Pule grinned slowly at her. “Until next time then.”
Meredith laughed and glanced at Asher who was frowning darkly at Pule. She blinked in surprise but when she looked again, he was smiling and helping Pule up from the floor. She must have imagined it. True, Pule and Asher hadn’t gotten along in the beginning but in the last couple of months they’d clicked and even hung out now. No way would Asher be mad at Pule for tickling her. Would he?
Meredith went back into the kitchen and cleaned up the rest of the scattered crumbs from the demolished cupcake.
“I’m meeting up with the band tonight to go over some new material so I’m going to take off,” Asher said, as he stood in the kitchen and watched her. “I wanted to hang out with you and talk business and throw around more ideas about the company but I forgot I’d promised Ivy I’d be there tonight. Can we get together tomorrow?”
Meredith nodded and smiled as she dumped the crumbs in the trash. “Of course. I’m so glad the band is back together. I remember the first time I heard you play. You guys sound better than anything I’ve heard on the radio lately.”
Asher smiled at her and crossed his arms over his chest. “Thanks. Having Ivy back as the lead singer definitely helps.”
Meredith frowned and walked over, putting a hand on Asher’s arm. “It’s gotta be hard though being around a woman you used to love. Are you okay?” she asked, feeling compassion for him. She knew what it was like to still have feelings for someone who had moved on to someone else. It wasn’t fun.
Asher shrugged and grabbed her hand off his arm, holding it in his. “I’m fine. I’m not sure my feelings for Ivy were ever really that substantial. I think I was more in love with the idea of her than her, if that makes sense.”
Meredith nodded her head. “It does. But if you ever need to talk, you know I’m here for you. It was hard for me to get over Kam, but now that I am, I can look back and see how far I’ve come.”
Asher’s eyes sharpened and he stepped closer to her. “So you are? Really over Kam, I mean.”
Meredith shrugged and played with the cuff on his shirt. “Yeah, I’ve been over him for a while now. Sometimes I’ll look at him and remember all of the feelings I used to have for him and my heart will ache, but I’m happy for him. Bailey’s the cutest little pregnant woman I’ve ever seen and when I see the way he looks at her and touches her stomach, it’s the sweetest thing in the world. No, he’s right where he needs to be and with who he needs to be with and I’m good with that.”
Asher nodded his head and played with a ring on her finger. “And where does that leave you? Do you think you’re ready to love again now?”
Meredith pursed her lips and thought about it. Was she ready to love a man again? She’d gotten burned last time and she was still tender.
“I think so. Which brings up something I wanted to talk to you about. To get our website up and going we need numbers. We need faces and profiles. Pule already agreed to be our first customer but you and I need to sign up too. I’m not saying we need to even date anyone from the site and we probably shouldn’t, but we’re going to have to put up profiles. Are you good with that?”
Asher frowned and stared at her hand for a moment. “I see what you mean about numbers and profiles but I’d feel weird dating anyone since I’m going to be part owner.”
Meredith smiled. “You never know, Ash. You might meet the girl of your dreams,” she said and pulled her hand out of his.
Asher closed his eyes for a second as if he had a headache and then smiled before looking at her. “The girl of my dreams, huh? I don’t know, my dreams have been pretty specific lately,” he said in a low voice as he looked at her.
Meredith blinked slowly as her heart sped up. Why was he looking at her like that? Like he was going to pull her into his arms and . . .
“Hey, Ash, can I get a ride with you over to The Iron Skillet? Kam wanted to talk to me and I don’t have my car,” Pule said from right behind her.
Meredith let out a slow breath and wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed as she turned and smiled at Pule while stepping away from Asher. “He’s all yours,” she said with a bright smile and walked into the family room. She waved at Pule and Asher as they walked out a moment later but had a hard time meeting their eyes.
Something had just happened, but she wasn’t sure what. But whatever it was, it made her heart beat fast.
Chapter 4 – Growing Up
Pule stared at Asher’s profile from the passenger seat and frowned. He could see why Meredith would find him attractive. He looked like a grown woman’s Ken Doll. Pule sneered and looked away. What was he doing? Was he seriously jealous that he’d walked into the kitchen and caught Asher holding Meredith’s hand while looking deeply into her eyes?
Pule blew out an exasperated breath and closed his eyes. Meredith was just a friend. Just. A. Friend. Plus, she’d dated his older brother, Kam. That right there put her way off limits. Whenever Kam had talked about Meredith, he could tell that it had never been that serious. At least from Kam’s point of view. From Meredith’s? Yeah, very serious. The woman had gone crazy and attacked Bailey at The Iron Skillet. And he’d been right there watching it the whole time. Of course, he’d been thinking throughout the fight how nice it would be to have a woman like Meredith so passionate about him that she’d fight for him.
And now she was moving on to Asher Murphy. Pule glanced at him again and felt like punching him in his pretty face. Asher was okay. He’d changed in the last couple of months but then so had he. Seeing Cleo come close to dying had brought everyone closer together and had made them all realize what the important things in life were. Family, friends and love. Ever since Cleo had been taken, he couldn’t be the same old Pule anymore. He’d changed and he couldn’t go back.
Not only had he put off his shallow, live for the fun life, he’d signed up for the Police Academy and would graduate in a few months. Tate had already promised him a job when he graduated. It was nice coming home at night and seeing how proud his mom and dad were of him. When Meredith had found out he had started at the academy she�
�d thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.
And now, she was all he could think about. Tickling her on the floor had been too much fun. And by Asher’s face, he hadn’t liked it one bit.
“Why so quiet? Tired from all the training at the academy today?” Asher asked as he flipped through the radio stations.
Pule sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. He was friends with Asher now. Just because they liked the same woman, he couldn’t let their friendship be ruined.
“It was okay. Nah, I just have a lot on my mind,” he said, trying to deflect Asher’s attention.
Asher glanced at him again before coming to a stop at the light. “Worried about signing up for our dating website? I think you’ll be impressed. You haven’t been socializing as much as you used to lately. That’s about to change. You’re going to have women sending you messages every day wanting to meet you. Trust me, you’ll be on top of your game again.”
Pule rolled his eyes and looked out his window. “Yippee,” he said quietly thinking about how cute Meredith looked in her skirt and button down shirt.
Asher frowned and began driving again. “Hey, if you really don’t want to do it, I’ll tell Meredith. She can be overpowering sometimes and you can find yourself doing things you don’t want to do,” he said with an amused smile.
Pule laughed. “Don’t I know it? Just last week she had me re-painting her bathroom and I still don’t know how that happened.”
Asher laughed and pulled into The Iron Skillet parking lot. “Sucker. Well, here you go. See you later,” he said.
Pule saluted him and stepped out of the car, walking into the warmth of the restaurant and heading back to the kitchen where his brother was chef. He pushed through the door and smiled at Candice and Antonio. He caught sight of Kam standing at the stove and grabbed a sourdough roll before walking over and standing next to him.
“So what’s the emergency?” Pule asked before taking a bite of his roll. It looked like Kam was in the middle of making braised short ribs. They smelled incredible.
My One and Only: Book 1 in the Love and Weddings Trilogy Page 3