Page 10 of Feels Like the First Time
To which Bridget gave a horrified,Did you see the flowers on the table?
Bitch isn’t becoming on you.
“A co-ed shower sounds nice, Dad,” Bridget said sweetly—too sweetly. “Something small and intimate. One of those hometown girl wins big-city man’s heart themes. Jamie is a big commercial developer. High-tech campuses are his specialty.” She turned to Ali, and proved that bitch was the new black. “You can invite your new friend, Nolan Landon.”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be nice,” Gail said. “Jamie will be thrilled. He’s been angling for a meeting with the famous designer. Oh”—her smile went mischievous—“he’s bringing his brother to dinner. Stew is the best man and I bet he could help you out with what Jamie likes.” Then to Ali, “He’s handsome, a snappy dresser, successful, not as successful as Jamie, but quite charming.”
“Every good shower needs a snappy dresser behind it,” Ali joked.
“He’s also single.” Gail practically giggled. “I figured he would even out the partners.”
“Partners?” Ali looked at the eight table settings and felt her right eye twitch. “So Bridget brought champagne to toast her engagement, and you brought me a blind date to my dinner. I don’t know what to say.”
She knew exactly what she wanted to say, but yelling would only make her head throb.
“When you told me your friends were coming, I figured it would be fun to couple up,” Gail said, giving Marty her bestHello, big boybat of the lashes, and Ali threw up in her mouth a little.
Because bycouple up, her mother seemed to mean that she was looking for a reunion of her own. One that involved cheap beer, bad decisions, and good old reliable Marty.
“What about Chad?”
“Chad and I broke up months ago. I am back in the saddle, ready to go for a ride.” Gail gave an unconscious laugh that was free, full of life, and contained enough confident allure to tempt the Pope.
Poor Marty looked as horrified as he did helpless, because while Gail had married and divorced six times—twice to Marty—her father had never been interested in dating again.
He said he’d found his soul mate, married her twice, and both times she’d run off with the town doctor. The first was a podiatrist, the second a plastic surgeon, and he wasn’t interested in nursing a third shattered heart.
Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off his ex-wife.
“I’m not sure tonight was about coupling up,” Ali said. “I think I’m able to manage coupling on my own. How about you, Dad?”
When Marty didn’t answer, Ali elbowed him. “Ali’s right. Tonight’s about celebrating our amazing daughters.”
“Oh, are you dating someone?” Gail asked Ali, but her question was directed at Marty. “I didn’t realize.”
“Yup, I’m dating,” Ali jumped in, saving her father from having to admit to the woman who shattered his heart that, yes, he was indeed still single. “Pretty serious, too. He runs a business in town.” And when it came to telling lies, Ali never knew when to stop shoveling, so she dug herself deeper. “Actually, he owns it. A big business guy. We met at the Destiny Bay Business Owners Association and now we go to meetings together every week.”
“How…quaint,” Gail said.
“Don’t you go to the meetings with Andrew Sweeney?” Marty asked, clearly not comprehending his part in the diversion. Ali having a boyfriend would (a) give Gail something to focus on instead of Marty’s dating status, and (b) save Ali from another one of her mother’s matchmaking schemes. Because being a successful businesswoman paled in comparison to being a well-married woman in Gail’s eyes.
“Andrew Sweeney?” Gail’s brow furrowed and Ali sent her dad anAre you being serious right now?Because he’d named the only Andrew in town that Gail would remember. “Isn’t he Dan and Susan’s son?”
“He owns the realty company in town,” Marty explained as the doorbell rang and Ali let loose a breath of relief.
“That’s probably Kennedy and Luke,” Ali said. “I’ll be right back.”
The doorbell rang again, confirming that her backup had indeed arrived. And just in time, too, because Gail’s eyes twinkled with recognition and she snapped her fingers. “Isn’t Andrew the gay son?”
“All relationships have obstacles,” Ali said, then excused herself to answer the door.
She took a quick peek out the peephole, to make sure it wasn’t her blind date, and when she saw the big red pie box blocking the view, she flung the door open.
“I could kiss you,” she said.
“Well, if a pie was all it took to get on your sweet side, I would have bought out Sweetie Pies years ago.”
“You?” Ali said, her heart doing this annoying flip in her chest. Because instead of a five-foot-nothing pie maker with a box full of pie, Ali was staring down a mountain of mouthwatering muscles and yummy man who had plagued her dreams since high school. Looking like a walking ad for sex in a pair of dark button-fly jeans and a cream Henley, Hawk had a large shoulder leaned against the doorjamb, and a wicked smile aimed right at Ali.
