She doesn’t offer to shake on it, and he doesn’t either, not that I’m surprised.
Cole helps Harry up, and we help him get his coat on. He heads outside with us, only staggering a little.
Even so, we need to get food into him, the sooner, the better. I’ve skipped lunch occasionally, when I’m sucked into solving a problem. Not a matchmaking problem, mind you, but one of my programming gigs. The quest for a beautiful solution, a few lines of code to make everything better, is enough to suck my attention away from food. But three or four meals? Nah. Not on my watch.
“You sure you want to take that job, man?” Cole says, glancing back as Nana practically slams the door shut behind us. “That woman’s a real…” He trails off before course-correcting to, “piece of work.”
I snort as we move toward the car. “Please. Anything you’ve called her, I’ve called her.”
“You don’t understand,” Harry says, glancing back at the door, as if to make sure it’s really shut, “it’s been my dream to work on a dating show since I knew what dating shows were. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.” He glances around again, his brow furrowing. “Besides, there’s another reason I can’t back out.”
“What?” Cole asks. His tone suggests he’s at a loss. Then again, he’s not the kind of guy who’d see any allure in watching a dating show, let alone being on one. He’s probably never bothered with a dating app, given he’s a brewery owner, and all the women he could ever want basically plop themselves in his lap.
Like you.
“I’ll tell you in the car,” Harry says in an undertone. Or at least he seems to think it’s one. I’m guessing the alcohol hasn’t totally left his system yet, because it’s more of a loud stage whisper. “You never know who might be watching and listening.”
“Uh, sure,” Cole says, casting me some side-eye. I swallow a chuckle.
We pile into the car, Harry getting into the back because he insists it’ll be easier for him to watch out the back window for anyone following us. Does he think Nana will hop onto a moped and make pursuit? The image is hilarious, and I almost start laughing again. There’s something about tonight that has sucked my sense of humor up very close to the surface.
“Where to?” Cole asks.
I look back at Harry, who says, “Tina’s house.”
Except she still hasn’t answered my call, I don’t think. I pull out my phone and glance at it. Nope.
“Are you sure she’s there and not at Tea of Fortune?” I ask.
“It’s closed by now,” he says, glancing out the back before meeting my gaze again. “And they closed early tonight.” He looks almost…excited. “Are you good at keeping secrets?”
“I don’t like to,” I admit, “but I can, yes.”
After all, I kept my crush on Cole a secret for well over a decade.
“Is it a good one?” I press.
Harry gives an eager nod, and I can tell it’s killing him. “How well do you know Tina?” he asks, giving me a sidelong glance.
“We’re friends,” I hedge. “She sits at our table every time I visit Tea of Fortune.”
“She does that with everyone,” he says, narrowing his gaze slightly. But if I haven’t passed the friendship test, it doesn’t seem to matter, because it’s not thirty seconds later that he says, “I know who the first contestant forMatchmaking the Richis.”
“It’s not Tina, is it?” I ask in shock. “I mean, I know these things are fake, but she has a honker of a ring on her finger, and I have it on good authority that she and Zach have every intention of going through with it.”
“Not Tina,” Harry says significantly. If he expects me to pick up what he’s putting out, he’s going to be disappointed, because I’m not catching the hints. From what I’ve heard, Tina just has brothers, and the only thing I know for sure about the show—besides this new information about the Rolex ceremony—is that the first contestant is going to be a woman.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Cole says in a tone that suggests he’s not very interested in Harry’s revelation and would probably like to go home now, thank you very much. “But Tina and I aren’t on a house-call-level of acquaintance. Where does she live?”
Harry gives him the directions, probably with a level of detail unnecessary to anyone but a field mouse, and as soon as Cole gets going, he returns his gaze to me. I’m still looking back at him, fascinated despite myself.
“So…?”
Harry glances out the back window and through both side windows. He then proceeds to pat down his clothes.
“What are you looking for?”
“A bug. I was unconscious for a while in there, wasn’t I?” I can practically see the light bulb flick on in his head. “Rory Byrne is your future brother-in-law. I’ll bet he has access to microtechnology.”
