Page 16 of Romance Reset
“I’m—”
“Ah, man. He pulled me asidetwicethe night of your party to warn me off, and here you’re the one who went after her.” Carter’s chuckles drew the attention of those nearby. “That’s funny.”
“It’s not like that.”
Carter’s chuckles died down after Lincoln’s tone settled in.
“Well, if it’s not likethat, what is it like?”
Confession time. Lincoln supposed there was no time like the present. “I… might have hired her.”
Lincoln struggled to keep his cool in light of Carter’s smirking expression.
“Seriously?”
“Don’t.”
“Yeah, no, Ihaveto. You actually did it? Hired Marsali to find you a date? Why not just go online?”
“Because I don’t want clients and colleagues seeing my picture online like some— Can we not talk about this?”
“Show hasn’t started yet. Nothing better to do.” Carter took a long drink from his bottle and shrugged. “I guess that’s smart, though. Online dating isn’t great anyway. Same people on all the sites, and you have to wonder if they ever get off even if they wind up dating someone.”
Lincoln didn’t comment but that was exactly what he didn’t want. Who would? He supposed there were those who wouldn’t care because they weren’t online for a serious relationship, but he wasn’t the type to share. Some things were meant to be private and that definitely included relationships.
“I’m just glad you’re finally dating. Seriously. You put the kids first and mourned Jill, and that’s exactly what you should’ve done. But it’s time to move forward. Have you gone on a… Whoa, isthatwhere you were last night? How was it? What happened?”
“You sound like Breanne and one of her friends,” Lincoln grumbled.
“Who cares?” Carter asked with a grin. “I wanna know. Did you like her? Was she pretty? Where’d you go?”
“Yeah, yes, and Wrightsville, like I told you.”
“Could you be a little more vague? Come on,” Carter demanded. “Was it a bad date? Cut yourself some slack. You’re out of practice, sure, but it couldn’t have been that bad. Unless you’re just being nice about the pretty part?”
“It wasn’t bad,” Lincoln said, shaking his head at Carter’s question. His brother could be a little short-sighted sometimes. “It was… It was a great date except for—”
“What? Don’t leave me hanging, Linc. What happened?”
“Marsali arranged the date, right? So I knew very few details beforehand. I got there and the date Marsali arranged was with Amelia Porter.”
“Amelia… your old high school girlfriend?”
Lincoln nodded. “She’s not old.”
“She’s still hot, huh?”
And then some.
“Wow. What are the odds?” Carter asked, scratching his head. “Yeah, I don’t care if I sound like a teenage girl. I want details.” Carter sat forward in his camp chair, staring intently at Lincoln while he waited. “Don’t leave anything out.”
Lincoln knew avoiding the conversation was futile, especially when he had nowhere to go with the concert about to begin, so he filled Carter in, starting with the gut-wrenching surprise he’d had finding Amelia at the table, to the fact her legs looked a mile long in that skirt and those heels.
“So she’s back in town and looking… and you’re looking. And low and behold your”—Carter lowered his voice—“matchmaker,”Carter said with a wide grin, “hooked you up as being compatible.”
“I guess so.”
Carter’s gaze narrowed at Lincoln’s tone.
