He should hand her the phone. But he wasn’t going to do that because if he handedherthe phone, she’d actually try to pick someone he might be interested in. Or worse, someone actually interested in more than a one-off date with a musician.
He shivered because he was a lone wolf, and he didn’t want to catch feelings.
"I’ll go through and figure out the thousandth." Courtney made a gimme motion with her fingers.
"No." Mach shook his head. "Because you’ll try to find someone perfect for me. Not do it the math way. I don’t want someone perfect for me, I prefer the math way, so she’ll be horrible."
Courtney rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
"Time to hit the stage," their band manager Hans said, striding into the room.
"Hans could pick the thousandth," Courtney said. "He doesn’t care who you match with. There will be no strategy at all."
"Are you still fighting with that?" Hans held out his hand. "Give me the phone."
Hans was the type of person you didn’t ignore. Which meant that Mach didn’t have a choice, so he handed over the cell.
Hans didn’t even glance at the screen as he clicked the matched button. "Whoever that was? That’s the thousandth. Deal with it." He tossed the phone back to Mach.
Mach caught the cell. Then he stared at the screen, straight-up shook. The cute blonde with bangs and the sweet smile made him pause. Her heart-shaped mouth had him grinning right along with her as he scanned her profile.
What do you do? Emergency Room Nurse
What makes you different? I stay calm in the middle of chaos.
Perfect Date? Netflix marathon with Chinese takeout
Yeah, hello… Darla Davis.
Chapter One
DARLA
Darla Davis was backin the dating game and ready to give love a second…or third…chance. Who was counting at this point? She licked her lips and let out a long sigh because it’d been ages since she actually went on a date with somebody other than her fiancé. Ex-fiancé, actually. And, really, they didn’t date much in the last few years. He was a super busy orthopedic surgeon. A big deal, and all that.
This guy tonight checked a lot of her boxes. Musician, check—she was so done with academics. Handsome—check, check. And he had tickets to see Dimefront at Brek’s Bar—check, check, check.
Dimefront wasn’t really her band of choice, but she understood why people liked them. And she figured maybe she should re-evaluate her taste in music as she re-evaluated her taste in men. This was a whole new life for her. A huge step.
Darla paused briefly to take in the people with all the cameras milling about outside the bar. There were over a dozen of them with their eyes trained on the door. Trained on her.
Paparazzi.
She did an internal eye roll.
Of course, they’d be watching the door. It was a big deal when Dimefront played. You didn’t know which celebrities would show up.
Oh, what if it was that Dr. Phoenix Stone? Wouldn’t that be fun?
Sure, she was off of dating doctors for forever, but he was the one hall pass she’d allow. The only one. And, if he were here, and she and her date didn’t click, then at least she’d have a good view.
A little bubble of laughter rose up inside her on that thought, but she swallowed it down as she said, "Darla Davis. I should be on the list?"
The bulky bouncer with tattoos winding up his muscled neck grinned wide.
"Hey, Darla Davis," he said in a seriously deep baritone. "Have a good time."
Then he opened the door to let her inside.
