Asher: I’m already headed your way
Decker: Not a good idea. I need to bail before someone recognizes me. Meet at my place?
Decker was waiting for a reply when someone slid onto the barstool next to him. “I am so sorry I’m late.”
2
Decker didn’t have to look up to know it was a someone of the female persuasion. Along with that low and throaty voice, a floral and feminine scent wrapped around him like a warm, familiar blanket.
He glanced over and found a pair of voluptuous, mile-long legs encased in denim and attached to one hell of a rack that had his internal warning signal screaming, “Finish your beer and go home.Alone.” Only he made the mistake of meeting her eyes and well, fuck him, he couldn’t seem to look away.
They were the most unique shade of mossy green he’d ever seen and so full of emotion that, even though he told himself to get up and walk out of there, his ass cemented itself to the bar stool.
“I got stuck at work,” she said. “Actually, that’s not entirely true. I got sucked into work and time slipped away from me. Does that ever happen to you?”
“Sometimes,” he said, amused at the speed with which the words came spilling out of her mouth.
She looked relieved. “Then you understand.” She folded her hands nervously in her lap. “I have to be honest. I wasn’teven going to come, but I didn’t want to leave you high and dry sitting at a bar alone. I’ve been there and it sucks.”
Decker had a hard time believing that anyone would stand this woman up. She wasn’t the normal Hollywood type he went for. In fact, besides a touch of gloss on her lips, she didn’t have on a spot of makeup. Her hair was in a ponytail, and her top was more casual than couture. Not exactly date attire, but she clearly thought he was someone else.
Before he could ask who she was there to meet, and clarify that it wasn’t him, she was talking again.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to meet you. I just don’t date that often. Especially when my aunt sets me up.”
“Does that happen a lot?” he found himself asking.
“It’s the worst. Being the single niece of a matchmaker means that she’s determined to find me my soulmate. It never crosses her mind that I’m not looking for a soulmate.” She grimaced, and as she moved, her thigh brushed his. It was like she’d poked him with a live wire. Two minutes with this woman and he felt more sparks flickering in his chest than a forest fire. “Not that there’s anything wrong with looking for a soulmate. Most people are looking, right?”
He leaned an elbow against the bar top. “But you’re not?”
She snorted. “Maybe once upon a time. Nowadays, I’m more focused on things that are in my control.”
“Yet you said yes to a date?”
She let out a deep breath and looked around the bar, then leaned in as if imparting nuclear launch codes. “Can you keep a secret?”
Secrets brought intimacy, something he couldn’t afford tonight, but when he started to say he had to go, out came, “I’m like a vault.” Because when it came to women, he had a hard time turning off the flirt. When it came to this woman, flirting felt like foreplay.
She gave a reassuring nod, but it appeared more like shewas reassuring herself. “Well, my aunt is a big deal in this town when it comes to matchmaking. They call her the Cupid to the Stars.”
Shit.
Decker glanced around for hidden cameras because he knew exactly who the famous aunt was. He’d seen her show and was not interested in being fixed up.
“You mean Opal Hart, Cupid to the Stars?”
“The one and only.” She rested her hand on his and there went that spark again. “Don’t worry. She promised not to film this. It’s part of our deal. So you’re safe. Plus, who would want to see two nobodies on a date?”
So shereallydidn’t know who he was.
“Anyway, you can imagine how many dates she’s tried to set me up on. But I agreed she could set me up this one time in exchange for letting me alter her kitchen back to the original rendering, so I agreed.” Her eyes went a little misty. “In fact, I think it’s her last pairing ever, because her mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Not that she’d admit it to me.”
She released a little sniffle and Decker felt his palms sweat. He grew up in a house full of boys with a mom who knew how to change a carburetor with one hand tied behind her back. Tears weren’t something he’d had much experience with.
Another sniffle.
Decker felt a hive break out on his right arm.
