Page 77 of Crazy in Love

“Stopping the employee ‘borrowing’ helped too.” Faith laughed.

They walked to the diner and over club sandwiches, she got a sell job from Tess about the dating app.

“I’m surprised you’re pushing that,” Faith said, pulling the crust off her sandwich. “I thought you hated the idea of meeting guys online.”

Tess shrugged, and Faith was immediately suspicious.

“It works for you,” Tess said. “I mean, maybe not that it’s found your soul mate, but it gets you dates.”

“Are you saying this because you feel guilty about Nick? Because you shouldn’t. That whole thing is on me, and I know that.”

“No. Never mind. Forget I said anything.” Tess looked away. “Let’s plan a dinner with Alex and Juliet to celebrate Page Turners’ foray into profitability.”

“Now that idea, I like.”

After lunch, alone again in her office, Faith opened her laptop, and the MatchMe app icon caught her attention. A little red bubble beside it indicated she’d missed several notifications. She opened the program and found multiple unread messages.

Still unsure she was ready to come off the bench and jump back into this game, she perused the messages half-heartedly.

“Your hot,” she read the first line aloud. “Not a good start. And you spelled ‘you’re’ wrong. Grammar matters, dude.” Delete.

Tiger jumped onto the desk and laid down to watch. Faith opened the next message.

“This is my first time on the site, and you’re the first woman I’ve contacted,” she read. “Do you believe that, Tiger? ’Cause I don’t. He did spell ‘you’re’ correctly, but honesty matters.” Delete.

She went through quickly and weeded out the clear losers. Anyone who used the term “looking for a good time” or listed “between opportunities” under employment was an automatic no. As was anyone whose picture did not match their stated age or physical status—i.e., the balding chubster who swore he was a twenty-something bodybuilder.

Just when she was about to give up, she noticed a few messages from the same guy. His online name was Stargazer, and he purported to like astrology, midnight swims, basketball, and bacon.

His intro paragraph talked about the importance of honesty, family, and community. He listed his turnoffs as judgmental, disloyal people and said he had a government job. Under physical description, he claimed he was six foot four, had an athletic build, and a head full of hair. Almost sounded too good to be true.

There was no picture, which would normally be a glaring red flag, but she’d gotten pretty adept at sniffing out the insincere bullshitters, and something about the message struck her as authentic. She moved it to a “maybe” folder and closed the app.

On the walk home, a burst of wind rustled the leaves in the yard of the old Ashford mansion, revealing a flash of red. She passed this place almost every day, sometimes without a secondthought, many times dreaming about how great it would be to fix up and live in. Today, she stopped. The color that caught her attention was from a decades-old “for sale” sign that lay on the ground.

An hour ago, homeownership hadn’t been on her radar. But it was now. She pulled out her cell phone and called Jenny, the town real estate agent.

She’d always figured marriage would come before buying a home, but who said that was set in stone?

Jenny didn’t answer, so Faith left a voicemail. Once home, she unearthed her old vision board and plucked the Ashford picture from the cardboard.

Though she’d been thinking about this house for years, it had never occurred to her to actually do something about it. She’d saved a bunch of money, and with the store on the verge of being a steady source of income, why not buy it?

Faith glanced at the other “wishes” on her board, and Nick’s name jumped out to mock her. “Guess the universe giveth and taketh away,” she muttered.

She’d come to terms with the fact that Nick hated Green Valley Falls and would never move back. Apparently, she wasn’t a strong enough reason to stay. Or even consider staying. And he’d sure made it look easy, watching her walk away.

So, maybe Nick wasn’t in the stars. But she’d gotten the pink Beetle. And if she had anything to say about it, the Ashford house was next.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Another week passed, and Tess was once again in Faith’s office, picking her up for lunch and nagging her about the dating website.

“You hate that I online date,” Faith said. “Why the sudden push?”

“Not pushing, just encouraging. It’s time to get back out there.”

Faith raised an eyebrow. Tess must still feel liable for Nick breaking her heart. Which was crazy, because she was the one who had warned her to stay away from him.

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