Which was probably exactly what the matchmaking committee had been counting on.
And honestly? I was starting to think they might be onto something. For the first time since I’d found out that Derek had cheated on me and wiped out my savings, I felt my clit twitch when I looked at Declan. Even if he was simply flirting or being nice, it felt good.Ifelt good for the first time in a while.
Nine
DECLAN
Venue Reconnaissance
I arrivedat Holly’s house at exactly seven o’clock Wednesday evening, despite the fact that I’d spent the previous twenty minutes sitting in my parents’ kitchen, ostensibly reviewing venue measurements but actually trying to figure out why the prospect of spending an evening alone with Holly Winters had me feeling like a teenager preparing for his first date.
It wasn’t a date. It was a professional venue assessment with the woman who happened to be my festival co-chair, my best friend’s sister, and increasingly, the person I found myself thinking about at inconvenient moments throughout the day, the worst being in the shower.
Which was precisely why I needed to keep this evening focused on practical planning rather than whatever romantic atmosphere the Everdale Falls matchmaking committee had been hoping to inspire.
Holly answered the door wearing dark jeans and a forest green sweater that brought out the unusual color of her eyes, and she was clutching a clipboard with the kind of determined focusthat suggested she’d approached this evening with the same professional-boundaries mindset I’d been trying to maintain.
“Ready for some serious venue assessment?” she asked, and there was something slightly forced about her cheerfulness that made me think she was as aware as I was of the potential complications of spending the evening alone together.
“Ready,” I confirmed, holding up my own folder of floor plans and measurement notes. “I brought all the technical specifications, just in case we need to get deeply into logistics.”
“Perfect. Nothing kills a romantic atmosphere like detailed discussions of electrical outlet placement and fire code compliance.”
The comment was obviously meant to be light, a joke about the town’s obvious matchmaking agenda, but the way she said it, like it was something to be avoided, made me unreasonably disappointed.
“Absolutely,” I agreed, following her to my car as she stuffed her arms into a warm, black winter coat. “Though I have to admit, I find proper emergency exit planning surprisingly sexy in a venue coordinator.”
Holly laughed, and the sound was surprised and genuine. “You say the sweetest things, Declan. Really know how to make a girl feel special.”
“It’s a gift,” I said solemnly, opening the passenger door for her. “Years of law school with a side of seductive technical competence.”
The drive to the community center took exactly four minutes, but it was long enough for me to notice that Holly seemed nervous in a way that went beyond professional preparation. She adjusted her seatbelt twice, checked her phone, and made small talk about the weather with the kind of determined chatter that suggested she was filling silence to avoid thinking about something else.
“Holly,” I said as we pulled into the community center parking lot, “are you worried about something specific tonight? Besides the obvious potential for more matchmaking interference?”
She was quiet for a moment, staring at the community center’s cheerful holiday decorations through the windshield.
“I guess I’m worried about disappointing you,” she said finally. “Yesterday’s meeting was... a lot. All that enthusiasm about how wonderful we’re going to be together, how perfectly suited we are for collaborative planning. What if we’re not? What if we get in there and realize we have completely different visions for this thing?”
The vulnerability in her admission hit me harder than it should have. Holly was worried about professional compatibility, about living up to expectations, about proving herself worthy of the confidence people were placing in her.
“Holly,” I said gently, “we’ve already proven we can work together. Yesterday’s planning session went great, even with the traditional-versus-innovation disagreement.”
“That was just vendor lists and logistics. This is bigger. This is the space where it all has to come together. Where we have to actually create something magical out of folding tables and extension cords.”
Something magical.She said it with a mixture of hope and anxiety, making it clear that this wasn’t just about festival planning for her. This was about proving to herself—and to everyone who’d laid her off, everyone who’d doubted her competence—that she could still create something beautiful and meaningful.
“Then let’s go create some magic,” I said, getting out of the car before I could do something inappropriate like reach over and kiss her like I meant it.
The community center after hours was a different creature entirely from the bustling meeting space we’d experienced yesterday. The main hall was half-lit by security lighting, casting long shadows across the polished floor and making the space feel both larger and more intimate than it had with fifty community members packed into folding chairs.
“Okay,” Holly said, flicking on the Christmas lights that had been erected earlier today before consulting her clipboard with renewed focus, “vendor booths along the east wall, entertainment stage at the north end, family activity area by the windows for natural light.” The space lit up with twinkling lights and sent a spark of Christmas cheer through me.
Holly moved through the space with a confidence I hadn’t seen from her before, gesturing at different areas and explaining sight lines, traffic flow, and the logic behind her proposed layout. This was Holly in her element—not the defensive, uncertain woman who worried about disappointing people, but someone who understood space and people and how to bring them together effectively.
“The stage positioning is smart,” I said, following her across the room. “Good acoustics from that corner and positioned so people can gather without blocking the vendor areas.”
“Plus, it gives us flexibility for different types of entertainment,” she said, warming to the subject. “Mrs. Brooks mentioned that the high school choir wants to perform, but we might also have some of the local musicians doing more informal sets.”
