Tina’s grin widens. “Well…Zach found out they did audience testing, and I guess your grandmother was not popular with viewers. I know…shocking, right?”
“Zach’s getting your gossip for you?” Rowan asks with a small smile. He’s friendly with Tina’s fiancé, and he obviously intends to give him some shit about this. More power to him.
She makes a dismissive gesture with her hand, almost hitting him. “Oh, he’s not ashamed. He’s as entertained by all of this as I am. We are both unapologetically addicted to reality TV dating shows, and it’s wild that there’ll be one filming right here in Highland Hills.” Taking note of the three glowers around her, she shrugs. “Admittedly, she’s not my grandmother.”
Tina knocks on the wooden table and glances over her shoulder at the door connecting Tea of Fortune to our grandmother’s offices, once the home of Mayberry Matchmakers and soon to be part of the set forMatchmaking the Rich.There must be no sign of our grandmother, because she continues. “Anyway, I agreed to post the ad on our board, but I fully intend to ensure one of my friends gets hired.”
Bryn shudders. “Do you hate this person? She’s no picnic to work with at the best of times, and if she thinks her co-host is stealing her limelight, she’s going to be insufferable.”
Bryn would know. Although both of us worked for Mayberry Matchmakers for over a decade, I never took it too seriously. I always did programming on the side, and when I moved to New York, I went full time. My interest was in forming an innovative app, not in fluffing up some jackass’s online profile so he looked like someone a woman wouldn’t want to kick out of bed. Let them make their own profiles. I’d much prefer to help the women weed them out.
Tina’s mouth scrunches to the side. “But she’s a practical woman, wouldn’t you say? From what Zach heard, her deal is contingent on them finding the right co-host. They could pull the plug on the whole enterprise if that doesn’t happen. Wouldn’t she play nice if it helped her bottom line?”
“Sure,” I say. “But if she hides her claws, it doesn’t make them any less sharp.”
She smiles again. “Well, my friend is paranoid as fuck, so I’m guessing he’ll see any attack coming.”
“Sounds like a great fit,” I say skeptically. If he’s paranoid, and she’s uptight enough to turn coal into diamond, who’s going to want to watch the show? Not that I care. The fewer people who watch it, the sooner it’ll be off the air. Bryn, Rowan, and I are still catching flack from other locals for Nana’s first flirtation with reality TV—a show calledMatchmaking Hollywoodthat lasted for all of a few episodes before they decided to take it “in a new direction.” Why people keep giving this woman chances, I’ll never know, but it goes to show that the sentimentnice things happen to good peopleis utter bullshit. I guess it would be more accurate to say nice things happen to people who will cut, stab, and skewer their way to the top.
This show will be no picnic for any of us. In all honesty, I’ve avoided hearing about it whenever humanly possible. The only thing I know for sure is that the first contestant will be a woman. I know this because they announced it on a local radio station last week.
Maybe my attitude is short-sighted, given the app provides free publicity for our family and the Matchmake Me app we’ll be rolling out imminently, something Rory reminded Bryn and me of at dinner last night, but what can I say? My grandmother is not the kind of person who fosters warm, family feelings. With the exception of my siblings, no one in my family seems capable of it. The only older-generation person I’m in touch with is my father, although I use that term loosely.
Although he was a disappointment too, I’ve come to terms with that…and him.
Sometimes, you imagine your absent dad is a brilliant programmer who’s going to make history, and you find out he’s an aging himbo named Auggie the Doggie. Them’s the breaks.
A sudden fear skewers me. What if that’s how things go down with Hot Rod? Maybehe’sa himbo.
“Wait, are you talking about Harry?” Rowan asks Tina, distracting me from my himbo thoughts. “As in our sister Willow’s roommate, Harry?”
I haven’t met Harry yet, but he lives with Willow in Asheville. Actually, she and her fiancé both live with him, so they might not mind it much if he relocated.
“Absolutely,” Tina says, her eyes gleaming. “This town needs Harry. Besides, he just had a super shitty breakup with yet another super shitty guy, and I think he needs a change of scenery. He needs to be in Highland Hills.”
“Is he a tidy sort of person?” I ask. “Or is he the sort of guy who leaves out used plates and expects someone else to clean them.” I shoot a murderous glance at Rowan as I say it.
“Freakishly tidy,” Tina responds.
“Dare I hope he has the compulsion to clean up other people’s clutter?”
She laughs. “Indeed, he does.”
“Well, if he gets the gig, he can move in with Rowan and me.”
Rowan clears his throat and shoots me a narrow-eyed look that suggests he’s displeased. “Shouldn’t you ask me first?”
“Do you disagree?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“No, but I’d appreciate being asked.”
He keeps talking, probably complaining, but my gaze catches on the door.
Well, as I live and breathe…
It’s Cole, and mystery of all mysteries, he’s at Tea of Fortune without Jane in tow.
He looks nervous, as if he accidentally found himself on the steamy side of TikTok, and I watch in fascination while he glances around like a little lost boy. There’s something seductive about seeing this kind of uncertainty in him, but that’s probably because his usual overconfidence annoys me. Zach comes up to him, absolutely in his element in a short-sleeved button up shirt and dark pants that look like they came off a fashion runway somewhere. They exchange a few comments, and Zach claps him on the shoulder. Then Zach points him toward a table near the door.
