Page 238 of A Matter of Time

“Actually,” I said quickly, “I’ve gotta go, but Abe is free.”

“Well, not free,” she teased me. “But dinner sounds like heaven.”

Rick’s smile was warm, and he was obviously taken with her, with the energy you could feel, taste in the back of your throat, the passion that radiated off her and the glowing smile that lit her face. The girl just had it. The it factor where she was so animated, so there in the moment that you just knew that if you missed her, it would be a real shame. I was crazy about her already. I loved her hair—long and curly, the color of copper, red, and gold at the same time, completely wild—and her freckled skin and smiling rosebud mouth. When she took a pair of lacquered chopsticks out of her purse and put up her tresses, pieces tumbled out, stray curls falling down the back of her long neck and forward into her lovely pale blue eyes. Rick reached out and twisted a piece around her ear. He was drowning in her after only moments.

“I should cut it all off,” she lamented, looking down and then quickly back up into his eyes. Her long lashes looked like they had been dipped in gold.

“Oh no,” he assured her, taking her hand again, this time slipping his fingers between hers, keeping her close to him. “Never.”

She grunted. “We’ll see, Mr. Jenner.”

“Yes, we will,” he said quickly, pointing at me. “You good?”

“Yessir,” I answered quickly, because I knew he wanted out. He was desperate to get the lady alone. Take her to dinner so she could see what a gentleman he was. Have her ride in his car so she could see he had money. Hopefully show her his house so she could see the life he could provide. At twenty-six, I knew love at first sight when I saw it. Cupid had just hit Rick Jenner with a Mack truck. It was funny that it usually happened that way. Some guy went along dating for years, a real catch—like my brother, Dane, the eligible bachelor of the century—then suddenly he met the woman, the one who would be the mother of his children, and usually within six months they were married. Guys went from player to dad in, like, a year after meeting the one.

As I watched Rick walk out with Aubrey Flanagan on his arm, talking a mile a minute to her, I had an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. It had nothing whatsoever to do with me. In actuality, Adam had been the instrument of love and not me, but still, I felt good. I had introduced them, after all. It was my lap she had been in. I still had it. I remained the love god.

“Jory.”

I looked up at Adam. “Hey, I⁠—”

He clapped my shoulder hard. “Thanks, man, you saved my life.”

Funny that he had no idea how amazing the woman he had just let walk out of his life was.

“No problem,” I said softly, pulling on my jacket and turning to leave.

“Jory.”

Brandon walked around in front of me.

“What a screwed-up evening. I’m so sorry for⁠—”

I shook my head, pulling out my phone as it rang for the second time. “Don’t worry about it.” I smiled at him. “Thanks for inviting me. I’ll see you,” I finished before I stepped around him and answered my phone. “Hello?”

“J?”

“Oh, hey, Sam,” I said like I talked to him every day. Even after three years apart, I knew the man’s voice as well as my own.

“Sorry to bother you while you’re on your date and all but⁠—”

“No, it’s okay. I’m done.”

“Sorry?”

“I said I was done.”

“You’re done? Whaddya mean you’re⁠—”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’d love to hear it.”

“Not worth the telling except for the fact that I am now, and will forever be, the love god.” I said dramatically.

“I know,” he rumbled. “So what’re you doing now love god?”

“You mean tonight?”