Page 40 of An Inconvenient Plan
He went back to cooking, muttering, “Didn’t know there were rules.”
“Of course there’s rules. Your focus should be on the present moment with the person you’re with. Did you cook for her?”
He glanced at her. “I thought you just said—”
“Forget it. I don’t want to know.”
Feeling unreasonably irritated, she left her wine on the table and walked over to the living room to check on Rose. She was curled up on Josh’s sofa, hugging her new fire hose toy, sound asleep. Didn’t take much for Rose to be content, and hadn’t she warmed to Josh quickly after all that growling and barking? She still didn’t know what had changed Rose’s mind about Josh. It started at that dinner they’d had with their parents. Maybe Rose picked up on Hailey’s moods, and when she was cross with Josh, Rose was too. And when she was calm, Rose was calm too. Huh. What a smart empathetic dog.
She returned to the kitchen and took a seat. Josh was fussing with the steaks. She sipped her wine, watching him cook, going through great effort for her, more than any man ever had. Not that she had a ton of experience after letting her friends-with-benefits situation take the place of any real relationships for so long. Being here like this with Josh, she almost felt like she’d stepped into an alternate universe. Nice Josh, romantic Josh, someone who actually tried to connect with her instead of antagonize her. It made her feel unbalanced like she wasn’t sure who she was dealing with anymore. How much did she know about him anyway?
A short while later, Josh lit the candles and set their plates of food down. “Bon appétit.” He seemed relaxed now that he was done cooking. Maybe it wasn’t pent-up lust that had made him seem tense. Dammit.
“This is amazing. Thank you.”
“Yup. Let me know if your steak’s cooked the way you like.”
She sliced into it, perfectly medium well with just a touch of pink. “It’s great.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes. She couldn’t bring herself to make small talk about the weather or the food, they were past small talk with their history, but she couldn’t think of any common ground besides their mutual friends and their parents, which was a minefield all in itself.
She sighed. “Josh?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me something about yourself. Now that we’re not fighting, I realize I don’t actually know you that well.”
“Sure you do. You know my family, my honorary brothers, you know where I work, and you know I’m a foodie. Nothing else to know.”
She was sure there was more to him. He was complex and didn’t like to show his hand. Mad had said more than once that Josh was a long-term strategist. But what exactly was he strategizing about? Her mind quickly wound through her history with him, looking to fill in gaps in her knowledge. “Remember when you took out women platonically as part of my business plan?” That was another of their arrangements. First he’d been her wedding escort, and then, when she’d seen what a gentleman he was (during his paid hours anyway), she’d farmed him out to single women she hoped to find happy endings. He was just supposed to take them on one date to restore their faith in men by being his gentleman self. Hailey took it from there. Part of her business plan was to bring people together. The more happy couples there were, the more weddings she could plan. In retrospect, she wasn’t sure why he’d gone along with it.
He sliced off a piece of steak. “Yup.”
“Why did you agree to that?”
“The money.” He went back to eating.
“But if you could afford Mad’s tuition and you still had enough to buy Garner’s and do new construction, I find it hard to believe you needed the small amount I paid you.”
“It was fun.”
Curiosity got the better of her. “Where did you take the women I sent your way? What did you do?” Honestly, some of the women she’d helped were so shell-shocked by the wretched men they’d dated, they’d about given up hope. After Josh, they were ready to get back in the dating game.
He chewed and swallowed. “Simple cheap stuff like a walking tour of Clover Park, window-shopping, got them an ice cream, took a walk on the boardwalk down by the shore and won a prize at one of those games.”
“Why did you really do it?”
He set his fork down and met her eyes. “Honestly, to make you jealous.”
Her eyes widened. “Why would I be jealous of a platonic date?”
“I hoped you’d worry it would be more. Admittedly, a real sideways way to go about it. That was before I was in tune to my subconscious stuff.”
She pursed her lips. “Before Clarissa.”
“Yeah.”
“What subconscious stuff?”
