Speed Dating (Preston's Mill Book 2) Read online

  “Isn’t it kind of late to have company?” Estelle asked, frowning disapprovingly at Jace.

  “I’d just stopped by after a bad date,” Isabella explained, not wanting Jace to get the reputation of being a scoundrel with his old-fashioned neighbor.

  Estelle’s sharp eyes moved between her face and Jace’s, as if she were coming to some sort of conclusion Isabella didn’t understand. Then she gave a little smile. “I see. Well, it’s fortunate I ran into you. My friend Gladys has a neighbor who is a fine young man and is recently divorced, so he’s on the market again. He would be a perfect match for you, young lady.”

  Isabella blinked in surprise, while Jace tensed slightly beside her.

  “Really?” Isabella asked.

  “Yes. Shall I tell him you’re interested?”

  “I don’t know. I’d have to know more about him.”

  “Excellent. I’ll arrange it. He’s a fine young man, and it’s long past time for you to settle down.”

  As if the matter was completely decided, Estelle started walking with her laundry basket up the stairs to the second floor.

  Both Isabella and Jace stared after her speechlessly.

  “I can’t believe she wants to set me up,” Isabella breathed.

  “You don’t have to go out with the guy. He’s probably an idiot if Estelle is trying to arrange it. You probably want to take a break from dating after tonight.”

  “No, I really don’t. I’m still committed to finding someone by Tori’s wedding. If someone wants to fix me up, then why shouldn’t I consider it?” She paused, thinking through the possibilities. “Actually, it might be better to do it this way. Maybe I’ll ask everyone I know to try to set me up with guys they know. I’ll probably end up with better choices if people I know can vouch for them.”

  Jace stared at her, his lips parted slightly.

  “What’s wrong?” Isabella asked. “It’s not that much different from using a dating site—I’ll just have a layer of accountability.” She nodded, pleased with this plan. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “I thought you were going to be encouraging.”

  “Right. Encouraging.”

  She took his arm as they headed to the car. “If you were smart, you’d have your friends start to set you up on dates too.”

  He just grumbled in response, and Isabella was irrationally pleased by his reaction.

  She knew it was wrong, but she didn’t want people to start setting Jace up on dates.

  She didn’t like that idea at all.

  Four

  Don’t be boring.

  Don’t be bragging.

  Don’t be gropey.

  Jace looked at the column he’d listed as don’ts and felt fairly confident that he would not fall into any of those categories. For starters, he was a complete gentleman. There was no way he’d put his hands on a woman unless it was by mutual agreement. He certainly wasn’t a braggart. If anything, he tended to want to talk about anything but himself. And although he wasn’t the most interesting man in the world, he knew how to have a conversation where he was an active—and interesting—participant.

  “Okay, so I’m good there.”

  For the next few minutes, he typed up all of the information into a spreadsheet so he could try and find the exact combination of what he needed to become Isabella’s perfect man. For a week he had been listening to her complain about the guys she had gone out with—he had been her shoulder to cry and complain on—and even though he had thought that he knew Isabella well, obviously it wasn’t as well as he’d led himself to believe.

  On the surface, Jace almost wanted to say that she was being overly picky. After all, what was she expecting on a first date? All first dates were awkward, but after listening to her talk about hers, they did all seem to have a rather high-level of dysfunction. Bordering on creepiness.

  “Don’t be creepy,” he said and added it to the list.

  Jace would like to be perfect for Isabella, but even he knew that he had flaws. Plenty of them. But if he could get enough data on everything she was looking for, he could narrow the playing field in his favor and push his faults aside—suppress them, if you will—and hopefully make her fall in love with him.

  With a sigh, he hung his head. “Pathetic. I’m getting totally pathetic.”

  “Pa-thetic,” Beau mimicked.

  Jace groaned.

  Great. The last thing he needed right now was the damn bird mocking him again. He found himself talking to the bird a lot. Why couldn’t the bird pick up on something nice or funny he’d said? Like last night, he’d watched a hockey game, and the Rangers had won. Did the damn bird remember his “Rangers Rule” chant? No. Of course not.

  Birds were stupid.

  It wasn’t until he said that out loud and Beau repeated it that Jace knew he couldn’t take much more. So he got up and placed the cover over the cage to shut the little guy up. It was late enough to technically say it was his bedtime so no guilt.

  Like that’s completely normal—guilt over lying to a bird about its bedtime. I’m seriously losing my mind. He sat back down in front of his computer.

  It was madness. He knew it was. And unhealthy. For him and for Isabella. If he could just get up the nerve to tell her how he felt, it would save them both so much time and energy. But she meant so much to him that he was afraid of saying or doing anything to ruin their relationship. And if she had given him even the slightest hint that she was interested, he might reconsider doing all of this covert research.

  But she hadn’t.

  If anything, her behavior had gotten more confusing.

  The hugging. The sudden kissing thing she was doing whenever she was getting ready to leave. What the hell was up with that? If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear she was torturing him on purpose. Then he immediately rejected that thought because Isabella didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

  Oh God. Don’t start thinking about her body. Just like that, an image of her came to mind.

  Damn blue dress.

  He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and he’d thought he was in the clear since the bird was covered up for the night. But Beau squawked something about a blue dress.

  “You’re supposed to be asleep under there!” he muttered and then groaned. This was his pathetic life—dreaming about a woman who he desperately wanted and admonishing a bird who he desperately wanted to leave. And on top of that, now he was thinking about that dress after he had been trying so hard to forget it!

  Yeah, that image had been playing on a continuous loop in his head for days. The only thing that stopped it was the reminder of their last conversation and her new plan to let people set her up. Besides Estelle’s lead on a date, Jace had no doubt it would only be a matter of time before people around Preston got wind of it and started finding guys for her to go out with. Then what? What was he supposed to do if she got set up with someone he knew? How the hell was he supposed to handle that?

  Just the thought of it made his head hurt. A lot of his friends were already married or at least in committed relationships, but he did know a few guys that would probably love a chance to go out with someone like Isabella. With a huff, he pulled up another blank document and started making a list of all the guys he knew and what he thought they’d have in common with her.

  By the fourth name, Jace resigned himself to a late night and got up to make himself some coffee.

  ***

  Three days later, his worst fears were confirmed.

  There was everything except flyers being put up around town to announce that Isabella was looking for a nice guy to settle down with. Everywhere he went, it was all people were talking about and even at work, guys were approaching him asking for advice on how to approach her!

  What the hell?

  As he made his way across the street to Isabella’s salon, he did his best to give himself a mental pep-talk so that he didn’t come off as an over-protective or j
ealous jerk when he saw her.

  As he pulled the door open, he knew he was going to be hard-pressed to pull that off.

  “So, my nephew Joe—”

  “No, no, no! You don’t want to go out with him. My Martin would be perfect—”

  “Martin came out last year, Gloria! Stop trying to change the boy—”

  “What about Derek the cop? Has anyone thrown him in the hat?”

  There were a half a dozen women in the salon, and they were all talking at once. Jace caught Isabella’s eye in the mirror and saw her look of amusement. At least one of them was having fun with this, he thought.

  “Oh, Jace! Good. Maybe you can get this girl to see reason,” Mrs. Pendergast called out. “Tell Isabella that my son Adam would be a perfect match for her. He’s an accountant and he loves kids and animals, and he’s looking to settle down. And he definitely would love to settle down with a hometown girl.”

  Jace had to hide his smirk. He knew Adam Pendergast. They’d known each other since elementary school when they’d played little league together. It wasn’t that Adam was a bad guy. He wasn’t. But perfect for Isabella? Definitely not. And not just because Jace didn’t want him to be. Adam was a large man.

  A very large man.

  A very large man who enjoyed sharing pictures of his cat.

  While talking to people at Star Trek conventions.

  Um, yeah. He was pretty sure he could cross Adam off the list of potential competitors.

  “Isabella,” Mrs. Pendergast started up again, “trust me. You won’t find a finer man than Adam. And I just know you’ll love Mr. Whiskers too. And when you see how sweet Adam is with him, you’ll see that he’ll make a good father one day too.”

  This time Jace had to cough to hide his laughter.

  “Oh, Jace! Are you okay?” Isabella cried, but Jace knew she was reacting just to get away from the conversation. “Come on,” she said, patting him on the back as he pretended to keep coughing. “I have some water in the back.”

  Together they crossed the room and went into the back storage area where they both broke out in a quiet fit of laughter.

  “Oh my God!” she said quietly, even as she giggled. “It’s been like this all day!”

  “Have all the offers included examples of how having a pet makes you a good parent?” he asked, trying to sound serious.

  “Stop it,” she replied, playfully smacking his arm. “What am I supposed to do? How do I get out of that?”

  “Honestly? I have no idea. I mean, I still can’t believe how this thing has taken on a life of its own. Everyone in town is talking about finding you a husband, for crying out loud!” He instantly sobered because he realized how he was starting to sound like a disgruntled ex or something.

  “It’s not that bad.” She walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water, handing it to him. “I mean, it’s bad but nothing I can’t handle.” She paced a little and then gasped and ran around and hid behind his back, grasping his arms like a lifeline.

  He didn’t have to ask.

  He knew the drill.

  “You guys should just get an exterminator in here,” he said, looking down and spotting the spider scurrying across the floor.

  “Less talking, more stomping!” she said fiercely.

  So he did what he had to do and then cleaned up the evidence. Turning around, he faced her with a smile. “There. Happy?”

  She seemed to visibly relax, a serene smile on her face. “My hero. What would I do without you?”

  He had the perfect opening there for all the reasons he was the right guy for her and how they’d be perfect for each other.

  “Bella? Is everything all right back there? I think Mrs. Pendergast is ready to go!” Elise called back to her.

  That brought Jace’s ponderings to an abrupt halt. “So what are you going to tell Mrs. Pendergast?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. I just have to comb her out, ring her up, and get her out of here. If I can keep her distracted while I do it, maybe we can just pretend those last few minutes never happened.”

  Jace wasn’t convinced. “When was the last time that woman left here without getting the last word on something?”

  Isabella’s shoulders sagged. “Damn. I really don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

  “You could just tell her that you’ve changed your mind. Or that you’ve already found the perfect guy.”

  She frowned at him. “I’m not going to lie to her, Jace. That’s not nice either. She’s a sweet woman and a good customer. And besides, if I said I found the perfect guy, she’ll want to know who it is. Then what do I say?”

  He shrugged and decided to throw it out there—lightly—and see how she responded.

  “Me. Tell her it’s me,” he said casually. “Tell her that we decided to give this whole dating thing a try.”

  For a moment, Isabella didn’t move. Didn’t blink.

  Oh God. Was she disgusted? Horrified?

  Then she burst out laughing.

  Hard.

  Like bending in two because of all the laughing.

  Jace didn’t take that as a good sign.

  When she straightened, she looked at him and reached out to squeeze his shoulder. “Oh my goodness! Could you imagine? That might be a great temporary distraction but she’d see through it in a hot second!” She wiped away tears of mirth and then checked her reflection in the small mirror on the wall. “But thanks for making me laugh. I’ve got to get back out there and ring her up. Feel free to come out when the coast is clear.”

  And then she was gone.

  And Jace was left standing there wondering what his next move was supposed to be.

  ***

  Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did.

  Isabella had invited him to lunch, and at first he had taken it as a good thing, but then she added, “I need to get some info on a guy from you. Can you meet me for pizza at one?”

  “Yeah,” he said wearily. “Sure.”

  At lunch, they ordered and grabbed a booth. No sooner had he taken his jacket off then she was firing questions at him.

  “So my friend Julie set me up with her cousin Greg, who he works for the town. Do you know him? Greg Channing?”

  He nodded and took a bite of his pizza.

  “Well? What’s he like? Is he cute? Is he nice? Am I going to have anything in common with him?” She sighed. “Is it crazy that I’m going out on a blind date like this again?”

  His immediate answer was yes, but he kept that to himself. With a shrug he said, “This is what you wanted to do, so…”

  “Okay, you’re right. You’re right. So? Tell me something about him?”

  “I don’t know him all that well.”

  Lie number one.

  He and Greg had worked together on several projects, played poker together on numerous occasions, and talked almost daily.

  “Oh, come on. You have to know something about him,” she prompted, picking up her own pizza as she looked at him expectantly.

  “Well… uh. I have no idea what I’m supposed to say here.”

  “Is he good looking?”

  “I guess.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “Fine. Is he funny? Does he have a good sense of humor?”

  “He does.”

  Lie number two.

  Greg had a really weird sense of humor. Very dry. Very analytical. It was the type of humor he and Isabella normally mocked.

  “Oh. Good,” she said with relief. “Does he have any interests?”

  Politics. The guy loved to talk about politics. Another topic that he knew Isabella shied about from. “Current events. He’s a good one to talk to about what’s going on around town and that kind of thing.”

  Lie number three.

  If she brought up anything local, Greg was likely to turn it into a political discussion. And no doubt, that was going to frustrate her to no end.

  Hmm…

  “I bet if yo
u talked to him about some of the town stuff—the things you like about Preston and all that—you’d end up having a great conversation”

  That seemed to please her even more. “Wow! Okay, great! I love that!” She took another bite of her pizza and after a minute asked, “So you think he’s a good guy, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  A good guy to prove that you shouldn’t be set up on dates.

  ***

  Later that afternoon, Greg came into his office. “Hey, Jace. You got a minute?”

  Looking up, he nodded. “Sure. What’s up?”

  “You’re tight with Isabella Warner, right?”

  Oh, for the love of… “Um, yeah. Why?”

  “I’m taking her out tomorrow night. She’s friends with my cousin Julie and, well, you know. So I don’t know her all that well, but I figured since you do, you could sort of give me some tips so that I don’t mess things up.”

  Remembering his earlier conversation with Isabella, Jace figured this was his perfect opportunity to make sure this date was of the one-and-only-one variety.

  “Sure. What would you like to know?”

  “Well, what is she interested in? What kind of topics should I avoid?” Greg asked.

  “Isabella loves to talk about politics! I think the two of you are going to have some lively conversation on that topic. She’s heavily invested in the political workings of Preston so you’re gold there.”

  “Really? Okay, that’s awesome! What else?”

  “Let’s see. She loves a good sense of humor. But the mature kind. Nothing overly silly or anything like that. I’ll bet if you even pulled out some of those jokes and commentaries about the election, she’ll enjoy them.”

  “Wow, so she is really into politics, huh?”

  “You have no idea,” Jace said with a small grin.

  “And where does she like to eat? She told me to pick a place and just text her and let her know, but I’d love to pick a place that she’d like.”

  This could really put a final nail in this date’s coffin, but Jace figured he was doing this for all the right reasons so…

  “Thai food. She loves it!”

  She hated it.

  With a passion.

  “Oh, that’s perfect! It’s my favorite too.” He smiled and sank down in the chair opposite Jace’s desk. “I really appreciate the help, Jace. From everything Julie’s told me, Isabella sounds like an amazing woman. I don’t want to do anything to mess up. You know how awkward first dates can be.”