Page 30 of Sunset Serenade
Then again, Rose didn’t want to assume. “Why is that?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Just haven’t met the right person.”
“That’s what Seymour said until I pushed him.”
Craig blinked a few times, frowned, then let out a breath. “I feel like I’m in the hot chair.”
“You’re not! I’m just giving you an idea of how I work.”
She sat back, trying to contain her smile. If only Lucy and Lillian could see her now. She was talking as if she knew what she was doing, not as though she was a total fraud.
Craig kept his head down, staring at the one lonely slice of pizza left on the pan. “My last two girlfriends both said I was closed off.” He looked up, his eyes locking onto hers. “It’s partially why I made the app. I figured people could use it to get all those questions out of the way. It’s stupid, I know. It doesn’t replace getting to know someone.”
“It’s not stupid!” Rose launched herself forward and her hand ended up on top of his. She quickly snatched it away when she realized what she’d done. “Sorry, bad reflex. I tend to touch people. I don’t mean anything by it.”
He smiled an easy smile. “No problem.”
It was strange to hear a calm, in-control guy like Craig admit to any sort of self-consciousness. Rose had reacted to that – to seeing a bit of herself in him.
“I think it’s a brilliant system,” Rose finally managed to say. “If people answer the questions honestly, they have a great chance at finding a ‘right’ person. A match.”
He nodded and sat back, crossing his arms over his chest.
Rose had never seen him in anything but a suit. Now he was in a T-shirt, his muscles exposed and distracting. She stared at him, her mind blanking out for a moment…
No. Stop.
She was not doing that. There were a lot of ways she could mess this job up, the most spectacular being if she developed feelings for her boss.
He wasn’t just her boss; he was one of the guys who’d started the company. There could be no dumber way to ruin a perfect gig.
He spoke again, jarring her from her thoughts. “Why haven’tyoufound The One, Doctor of Love?”
She cleared her throat and forced herself to look down at her plate. “I can’t tell you.”
“Is that off-limits?”
Rose looked back up at him. He had a half-smile on his face and a playful expression in his eyes.
Why did she have to go and find such a cute boss?
She shook her head. “Nothing is off limits. I’m not even an open book – I’m a megaphone.” She paused. “It’s just…it’ll make you think less of me.”
He scrunched his eyebrows. “I doubt that, but I won’t put you in the hot seat. I’m nicer than that.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me.” She put her hands up. “I’m sort of stuck in a holding pattern with my ex-boyfriend. We broke up, but there’s still a lot between us. You know how these things go.”
“Oh.” He was quiet for a moment, eyes wide. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
She tilted her head. “Why not?”
He grimaced and tapped his finger on the table. “It seems like…” Craig shrugged. “Like something you wouldn’t put up with. The uncertainty, I mean.”
“I’m notputting up with it,” she said, using her fingers for air quotes. “Our timing has just been off. We’re a great couple. Meant to be, really.”
Rose stopped. She knew how this sounded. She should’ve stopped talking before she even started. Lucy and Lillian wouldn’t have let her babble this long. “But there’s your answer. That and the fact that I was bitten by a werewolf a few years ago and every month I run into the woods to hide my beastly form.”
He grinned. “There’s that funny bone acting up again.”
