Читать книгу Moonlight Cove - Sherryl Woods, Sherryl Woods - Страница 6

“We have an idea,” Laila Riley announced when she and Connie Collins turned up in Jess O’Brien’s office at The Inn at Eagle Point on a Saturday night.

There was a twinkle in her eye that immediately made Jess nervous about what her friends had in mind. “Is it going to get us arrested?” she inquired suspiciously. Not that she was unwilling to take the risk, but she would like to know about the possibility in advance, calculate the odds and have a backup plan.

Laila grinned. “If there were anyone interesting working for the sheriff’s department, we’d consider it, but no. This is just doing something outside the box, something none of us would ever consider unless we all decided to do it together.”

“Do I dare ask?” Jess wondered.

“Online dating,” Connie revealed. The lack of enthusiasm in her voice suggested that this had been Laila’s idea and that Connie had only agreed because of the same boredom that had been affecting Jess’s mood recently.

Jess, however, wasn’t quite that desperate. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, but we are,” Laila confirmed.

Jess studied the two women who’d invaded her office on a night of the week when most attractive, intelligent women should have been out on dates. Connie and Laila were related to her indirectly by the marriages of their siblings to hers. They were friends by choice despite the differences in their ages.

Connie was the forty-one-year-old single mother of a teen who’d recently left for college. Her younger brother, Jake, was married to Jess’s sister, Bree. Laila was the thirty-six-year-old manager of the local bank and younger sister of Trace, who was married to Abby, Jess’s oldest sister. Jess, at thirty, was the youngest. At times it seemed as if everyone in Chesapeake Shores was related to an O’Brien one way or another.

“Okay, now, let’s think about this,” Laila said, making herself at home by pouring a glass of tea from the ever-present pitcher on Jess’s desk. “What are you doing tonight? I mean, seriously, here you are in your office when you should be out on the town, right?”

Jess glanced at the ever-present mound of paperwork on her desk. It was the worst part of her job. She was beginning to see Laila’s point.

“And does that make one bit of sense to you?” Laila pressed. “What is wrong with the men in this town that the three of us are alone on a Saturday night? We obviously need to broaden our horizons. Put ourselves out there. Stir things up.”

“And find some geographically unsuitable men who’ll never be around?” Jess replied. “Seems counterproductive to me.”

“I thought the same thing at first,” Connie said, beckoning for her own glass of tea. Laila poured it and handed it to her. “But the sad truth is that boredom has made me more open-minded. For the longest time I couldn’t wait until my daughter was grown and off to college, but now that Jenny’s actually gone, the house feels so empty I can hardly stand it.”

“And I’ve been mind-numbingly bored ever since Dave and I broke up three years ago, which is saying something, since dating him was about as stimulating as watching grass grow,” Laila said. She sat up straighter. “Online dating is the perfect way to change the status quo. It’s trendy. It’ll be fun.”

Jess remained unconvinced. She turned to Connie, who was known for being sensible. “Are you really in favor of this?”

Connie shrugged. “I can see some advantages.”

“Geographically undesirable,” Jess repeated with emphasis.

“Not a problem,” Laila insisted. “It’s a new local service. These men are all right around here.”

Jess couldn’t quite wrap her mind around either the idea or the fact that Connie was willing, if not eager, to try online dating. Looking her in the eye, Jess began, “But I thought…” Her voice trailed off. She wasn’t supposed to know that sparks had been flying between Connie and Jess’s uncle, Thomas O’Brien. Her brothers Connor and Kevin both had sworn her to secrecy. She sighed. “Never mind.”

Connie studied her with suspicion, but since it was a kettle of fish she clearly didn’t want to dive into, she remained silent.

Laila, seemingly unaware of the undercurrents, jumped back in. “It’s perfect, don’t you think?” she asked excitedly.

“Are there any single men around here we don’t already know?” Jess asked, still skeptical. “Isn’t that precisely why we’re sitting here on a weekend without dates?”

“The region does extend beyond the town limits,” Connie conceded.

“It includes Annapolis,” Laila explained, pulling a brochure from her pocket and handing it to Jess. “See, Lunch by the Bay. Doesn’t that sound lovely? And that’s all we’d be committing to, an occasional lunch with someone new. It has to beat waiting around to be noticed in the bar at Brady’s. If I spend any more time in there, Dillon’s threatened to name a barstool after me.”

“At least you’d have a lasting legacy of your life in Chesapeake Shores,” Jess teased. “Much better than having your picture on the wall of that stodgy old bank your family owns and that you’re so attached to.”

“Make fun of me all you want, but I really think we should do this,” Laila insisted. “We’re intelligent, attractive women. We deserve to spend time with exciting, successful men who aren’t related to us.”

“And I for one am tired of the Saturday night pity dinners at Jake and Bree’s,” Connie added with a shudder. “Ever since Jenny left, they expect me to come there and coo over the new baby. She’s a cutie, but that is not how I see myself spending Saturday nights for the next who-knows-how-many years.”

“I’ve had my share of those dinners,” Jess agreed, “but at least I get passed off from Bree to Abby to Kevin and now even Connor.”

“I don’t even get the pity dinners,” Laila said. “Trace and Abby just count on me to babysit the twins. If I’m not married soon, they’ll probably move me in and make me a full-time nanny.”

“You have a career,” Jess reminded her. “I’m pretty sure you can maintain an independent lifestyle.”

“Independence sucks,” Laila declared.

“Amen,” Connie added. “Not that I want some man controlling what I do with my life,” she said emphatically, “but it would be nice to cuddle with someone in front of the fire at night.”

“Say what you really mean,” Jess said. “You want sex.”

Connie sighed. “Don’t we all?”

“So, are we going to do this?” Laila asked, tapping the brochure.

Though she was hardly known for her caution, Jess couldn’t seem to keep herself from asking, “But what do we know about this company?”

“Only what it says in the brochure,” Laila replied, glancing at the back page. “It promises discreet matches, handled by a psychologist who’s been working with single clients for years. He’s developed criteria for making sure that people have the same goals and values.” She set down the brochure and regarded them earnestly. “Come on, you guys. What do we have to lose? If the dates are awful, we can laugh about them later over drinks at Brady’s.”

“I’m in,” Connie said at once. “Jess?”

Jess glanced at the paperwork on her desk. It wasn’t going anywhere. “What the heck! I’m in.”

She turned and flipped on her computer, checked the link to the company’s website and found it. “Nice design,” she said approvingly.

“See, it looks perfectly respectable,” Connie noted.

“And I love the picture,” Laila said. “I’m pretty sure it was taken right on Shore Road. See, there’s the town fishing pier off to the left.”

“Aren’t you worried that we could wind up being paired off with someone we already know, even someone we used to date?” Jess asked. “That could be humiliating.”

“Or it could make us take another look at him,” Connie responded, her expression thoughtful. “After all, if an expert thought we’d be a match, maybe we were selling the other person short.”

“Or maybe the expert isn’t all that smart,” Jess countered.

Still, when the form for signing up appeared on the screen, she was the first one to fill it out. She considered the temptation to fake her replies just to see what might happen, but Connie and Laila forestalled her.

“You have to take this seriously,” Connie scolded.

“We’re expecting a computer and some so-called expert to do what we haven’t been able to do on our own,” Jess replied. “And you want me to take it seriously?”

“I do,” Connie said. “Because this could be my last chance.”

“It is not going to be your last chance,” Laila said fiercely. “If you’re going to look at it like that, Connie, then maybe you shouldn’t do it. Desperation is never smart when it comes to meeting men. We’re doing this for laughs and a few free lunches, that’s it. We need to keep our expectations low and just concentrate on having fun.”

Jess nodded. Connie didn’t look entirely convinced, but when Jess’s form was complete, Connie immediately nudged her aside and took her place in front of the computer. Laila followed.

When the last form had been sent in, they exchanged a look.

“I need a drink,” Jess said.

“I’m in,” Laila said.

Connie nodded agreement. “I think I’d better make mine a double.”

One of the few things that hadn’t changed since Jake had married Bree was that he, Mack Franklin and Will Lincoln continued to have lunch every day at Sally’s. The lunches had started when Jake needed support after he and Bree had split up a few years ago. Now that they were together again and happily married, the lunch tradition had become an occasion for the three men to keep their friendship grounded. Will counted on these two men more than either of them probably realized.

As a psychologist, Will spent his days listening to other people’s problems, but he didn’t really have anyone other than Jake and Mack to listen to his. Even though the three of them knew just about everything concerning each other’s lives, there was one thing Will had been keeping from them for a while now: his new business, Lunch by the Bay.

The dating service had been born out of frustration. He spent way too much of his time counseling singles on the relationships in their lives and way too little of his time nurturing any kind of relationship of his own. The name of the company, which had come to him in the middle of a lonely night, was meant to be ironic, if only to him. As much as he loved getting together with his buddies, he thought it was past time to start having lunch with people who wore dresses and perfume. Jake might occasionally smell like roses, but it was only after he’d spent a morning planting rose bushes for one of his many landscaping clients. It was hardly the same.

It was also, Will thought, way past time to stop carrying the torch for Jess O’Brien, youngest sister of his friends Kevin and Connor O’Brien. Over the years Jess had had ample opportunities to indicate even a whiff of interest in Will, but she mostly treated him like an especially annoying big brother.

Worse, since he’d become a psychologist, she regularly accused him of analyzing her because she had ADD. She didn’t trust his slightest bit of attention, fully expecting him to turn her into some professional case study. None of his denials had gotten her off that ridiculous tangent. Since they were thrown together a lot, her suspicion made most of their encounters awkward and testy.

Which meant it was time to move on once and for all, no easy task in a town with a population under five thousand except when tourists and weekenders filled it during the spring and summer. Lunch by the Bay had been created not only to fill a gap in the Chesapeake Shores social scene, but also to save him from growing old alone.

He explained all of this to Jake and Mack, who stared at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted antlers.

“You’re starting a dating website?” Mack repeated, as if checking the accuracy of his hearing.

“Exactly,” Will said. “If you weren’t so busy not dating Susie, I’d encourage you to sign up. You’re one of the town’s most eligible bachelors.”

“You intend to use this site yourself?” Jake said, looking puzzled. “I thought you were seeing some psychologist who bought a summer house here.”

“I was,” Will said. “Two years ago. It didn’t work out, which you would know if you ever paid attention to a thing I tell you.”

“But you’ve been dating,” Jake persisted. “I’m not imagining that. You’ve blown us off to go on dates.”

“What can I say?” Will said with a shrug. “None of them have amounted to anything.”

“I suppose it makes sense,” Mack said eventually. “Susie is always grumbling about the dearth of available men in town.”

Jake barely managed to swallow a chuckle.

Mack scowled at him. “What?”

“I thought she had you,” Jake responded.

“We’re not dating,” Mack repeated for the umpteenth unbelievable time.

“And yet neither of you seems to be looking for anyone else,” Will pointed out. “If I’m wrong and you are open to other possibilities, I can sign you right up on the new website. You’re an ex-jock and a semi-famous sports columnist. I’ll have you matched up with someone new by the end of the week.”

Jake regarded him incredulously. “You already have clients?”

“About thirty so far,” Will confirmed.

“Anyone we know?” Mack asked, then frowned. “Susie, for instance?” There was a discernible hitch in his voice when he asked, proving that there was more to that relationship than he wanted to acknowledge.

“I’m not at liberty to say,” Will told him.

“When did you start this company?” Jake asked.

“Three weeks ago officially, though I’d been working out the criteria for matching people for a while. I finally incorporated, then put out a few brochures around town. I had no idea what to expect, but when the clients started signing up, I figured I ought to tell you all about it before you heard about it from another source. Someone’s bound to figure out I’m the professional psychologist behind it. After all, there aren’t that many of us in the area.”

“So you’re doing this to make money?” Mack said, clearly still trying to grasp his motivation. Before Susie, Mack had had absolutely no difficulty attracting single women, so he didn’t understand Will’s frustration.

“It could be a gold mine, yes, but that wasn’t really my motivation,” Will insisted. “I think of it more as a community service.”

“Nice spin,” Jake commented wryly. “You’ve already admitted that you’re doing this so you can meet women. Couldn’t you just have hung out at Brady’s more often?”

Will shook his head. “That wasn’t really working for me.”

“What about church? I hear a lot of men meet women at church,” Mack said. “Come to think of it, if I’d known you were this desperate, I could have asked Susie to fix you up. She has a bunch of girlfriends.”

“I’m not desperate,” Will said, offended by the characterization. “I’m being proactive.”

Jake and Mack exchanged a glance. It was Jake who dared to ask, “What about Jess?”

Will stilled. “What about her?”

“You’ve always been crazy about her,” Jake said.

“But she’s not crazy about me,” Will said, not denying his feelings since he’d never been all that good at hiding them. “Leave her out of this. She has nothing to do with it.”

Neither of his friends looked convinced, but they backed off.

Mack regarded him with amusement. “So, are you going to hold mixers like they had in college? Have everyone wear cute little nametags? Or what about those sixty-second dating things? You know, the ones like musical chairs? I hear those can be lively.”

Will scowled at his flip tone. “Bite me.” He stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my office to play matchmaker.”

“You and Dolly Levi,” Mack said with an unrepentant grin.

Will stared at him blankly. “Who?”

“Hello, Dolly. It’s a musical. Susie and I saw the revival recently. She’s a matchmaker.”

Jake groaned. “Please do not tell a lot of people that you, once a Chesapeake Shores and college gridiron star, are going to girly musicals these days. It’ll destroy your fine reputation as one of the town’s all-time great bachelors. You’ll no longer be considered a player on the dating scene. In fact, it’s entirely likely you’ll never have another date.”

“He doesn’t need another date,” Will said. “He already has Susie.”

“Who is obviously a very bad influence,” Jake said.

Mack frowned at him. “Do I need to point out that your wife produces plays at her fancy new Chesapeake Shores Theater, including, I might add, the occasional musical? You planning to attend?”

Jake winced. “That’s spousal obligation, not choice. There’s a difference.”

“Will, do you buy that? Is it different?”

“I’m not mediating this one, guys,” Will declared emphatically. “You’re on your own.”

He was going back to his office to see if he could find the woman of his dreams. Maybe she was right around the corner, though if she was, he ought to have stumbled across her long before now.

For the first time since the previous Friday, Will opened his email Monday afternoon to check the new applications for membership in the Lunch by the Bay online dating service. There were a half dozen that had come in over the weekend. He’d input the data from three of them, when he spotted those submitted by Laila, Connie and Jess. His eyes widened. Laila and Connie were one thing, but Jess? What was he supposed to do about her?

Since she’d submitted her credit card payment with her application, professional integrity absolutely required that he put the data into the system and see if his criteria matched her with anyone. The churning in his gut, however, told him to delete the application as if he’d never seen it. He didn’t want to be the man who helped Jess walk off into the sunset with someone else. She might ultimately do that anyway, but he didn’t want to be the one who’d facilitated it.

He wrestled with his conscience for a full ten minutes before he reluctantly fed the data into his system. He deliberately left his own information out of the equation. When the computer came back with no immediate matches, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He told himself to send back her money and tell her to reapply at a later date, but when it came time to push the send key, he couldn’t do it. He knew it was because he was a little too eager to reject her for his own reasons. For anyone else, he’d take a fresh look at the data in a few days. Much as he might not like it, he owed that to Jess, too.

As for Laila and Connie, he had an easier time with their applications. Three potential matches turned up almost immediately for Connie. He sent all of them mutual contact information. There were four possibilities for Laila. Astonishingly, one of the best matches, the man with whom she had the most in common, seemed to be him.

“No way,” he muttered. He’d never once thought of dating Trace’s younger sister…and yet, why not? Maybe this would be the best possible test of the criteria he was using. It was the first match that had come back for him with so many connections.

He’d almost convinced himself to call Laila, when it occurred to him that it was no coincidence that the applications from her, Connie and Jess had come in within minutes of each other on Saturday night. Had they sent them in as some kind of dare? And how would Jess react if he went out with Laila? Would she be offended that her friends had gotten dates and she hadn’t? Would it bother her in the slightest if Laila’s first date was him? And why should he care, anyway, if he was truly moving on as he’d sworn to himself he was doing?

Before he could change his mind, he picked up the phone and called Laila at the bank.

“Hey, Will, what’s up?” she said, her tone friendly.

“You’re probably not going to believe this, but we’ve been matched up by an online dating service,” he told her, not explaining that it was his business. She’d learn that soon enough.

“Lunch by the Bay?” she said. “You’re kidding! I didn’t expect anything to happen this quickly.”

“I’m as surprised as you are, but I thought maybe we should give it a try. Would you like to have lunch tomorrow?”

“Why not?” she said, then hesitated. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked. “Obviously we’re both looking for new ways to meet people, and if a computer says we’re compatible, I think we should at least check it out.”

“At least we’ll have a few laughs, right?”

“Exactly. What do you say?”

“What time and where?” she asked.

“Panini Bistro at noon? Or is there somewhere else you’d rather go?”

“I thought you always ate with Mack and Jake at noon,” she said, proving that his rut had been widely noted.

“I decided it was past time to shake up my routine,” he told her.

“Then count me in, and Panini Bistro is fine. I’ll see you there. Should I wear a red carnation behind my ear so you can spot me?” she asked with a laugh.

“Unless you’ve changed dramatically since dinner at the O’Briens a couple of Sundays ago, I think I’ll recognize you,” he said. He hesitated, then added, “Maybe we should keep this just between us for now. What do you think?”

“Are you ashamed to be seen in public with me, Will Lincoln?” she asked, a teasing note in her voice.

“If I were, we wouldn’t be going to lunch on Shore Road,” he assured her. “I just thought maybe low-key might be best till we see how this goes. Our friends might have quite a lot to say if they hear about it.”

“You wouldn’t be thinking about one friend in particular, would you?” Laila asked knowingly. “Is it Jess you’d prefer to keep in the dark?”

“Of course not!” Will said emphatically. “Why would she care one way or the other?”

“I’m glad you feel that way, because I’m not all that great at keeping secrets, especially not from friends.”

“Okay, then,” Will said, resigned to the possibility that his lunch with Laila could stir up a commotion. “See you tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to it,” Laila said.

Will wished he could say the same. Instead, a feeling of dread had settled in his stomach. Any shrink worth his salt could have told him it was because he was playing with fire.