CHAPTER 4
HAILEY
“I have someone for you.”
The mimosa I took a sip of spewed out of my mouth and went flying across the table. “What?”
When Meredith suggested we meet for brunch before I had to open my store that afternoon, I had no idea this would be the topic of conversation.
“You’re kidding me.”
She had to be. I was so incredibly specific with the details there was no way she’d found a man who fit every criterion I listed last week.
Meredith picked up the white napkin and patted her cheeks, completely unfazed. That was Meredith. Her husband Tuevo was an uptight prick to everyone but her, but everything rolled off Meredith’s back. I used to tease her that she had to be a faux redhead because of it. It’s not like they were known for their patience.
“Tell me.”
“He’s supposed to text you by tomorrow, so I’m assuming he hasn’t.”
“Nope.” That meant he met with her yesterday and she’d waited a full day to let me know. And he hadn’t called. Great. Now I could be a nervous wreck for the rest of the weekend. Fun times. I knew the rules. Forty-eight hours to initiate contact once Meredith chose someone for the seeker. Laugh all you want, but she was a genius. She started matchmaking when we were in college, and the vast majority of relationships she paired up were now married, most with multiple children. It was at a brunch similar to this where we were laughing about another success, this time to strangers in a bar—to both each other and Meredith—when I suggested she start her own business.
Now, she made as much, if not more money than Tuevo Skyye, her Finnish husband who played professional hockey for the Tennessee Avengers. All because she had a gift of making happily ever afters work.
It was wild.
It was perfect for her.
And until last week’s happy hour, I’d always sworn I’d never let her work her magic on me. Although, up until February, I’d always had Darrick, so I never thought I’d need it.
“It’s tricky, and you’re my best friend, so you need to know the details, but I swear to you, you stick with this guy regardless of the bullshit he spews your way, and he’s your one.”
Um. Red flag. “Bullshit?”
She rolled her eyes and took a bite of her spinach and mushroom crêpe. “I can’t tell. But you’ll be in for a wild ride, so strap yourself in now. Got it?”
With that kind of cryptic warning, where did I sign up? “You’re forgetting one tiny little thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I was pretty sure I told you I wanted someone who didn’t want forever.”
“I know.” She shot me a sassy little grin. “And I know you thought that’d make it harder for me, but I’m telling you, that’s what makes him perfect for you.”
That didn’t make sense. Meredith’s only clients were always someone looking for a forever kind of love. It was a requirement. One of the very few she insisted on when she first started turning this into a career. She ran a matchmaking service, not a hook-up or escort service, and she was adamant about it. If she broke her steadfast rule for me…
“You took on a client who is only looking for something short-term?”
“I prefer to call the timing kismet.”
Kismet, my ass. There had to be something else going on with this, some kind of trick.
“Trust me, Hails. You’ll understand when he reaches out.”
I trusted Meredith with my life, my heart, my soul, the lives of, hopefully, my future children, and every single one of my belongings.
I trusted her, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. “Fine.”
“That’s the spirit.” She grinned. “Now, tell me how Suzanne and Ken are.”
My parents were wonderful, super people. A daughter to a former firefighter captain and middle school math teacher, I’d grown up having the perfect, suburban all-American upbringing. All they ever wanted for their children were to be happy and find their own brand of success. Tate did that by becoming a plastic surgeon currently living out in San Diego. Charlie went to school for art and graphic design and was now working at a tattoo shop in Portland. My sister, Holly, and my closest sibling in age, was the only married sibling. She and her husband lived in New York and were both lawyers.
I was born six years later, at a time when my parents thought they were done having children. I didn’t have two parents, but five, and now that they were all off doing incredible things, I was still very much looked down upon as still a child, still trying to “find myself.” None of my siblings understood I liked the quiet little life I’d created outside of Nashville in our small hometown of Friendswood, Tennessee, where I ran a refurbished furniture business in our town’s small downtown. I scoured Facebook and garage and estate sales to snag incredible deals on vintage pieces, and then I refinished them. For me, it was perfect.
For everyone else in my family, it was supposed to be a hobby. It’d started out that way in high school, when I bought a nightstand for five dollars at a garage sale. From there, it grew. Now, I not only owned my own store, but it was successful. My siblings still kept wondering when I’d go back to college and get a business degree so I could manage it “better.”
“Suzanne is still out hunting for the perfect sword to run through Darrick,” I admitted, and Meredith laughed.
To say my mom was a Mama Bear was far too mild. She was a dragon, and she was pissed the hell off at Darrick for embarrassing me. Not quite so upset I didn’t marry him, though. She’d always tolerated him at a surface level.
Probably should have been my second red flag. The two women who knew me best didn’t quite like him. Sometimes, when I was alone in my small bungalow house, I almost wondered if the only reason I insisted he was perfect was to finally have something to make my siblings proud of me for doing. Get married. Be an adult. Check.
Holly, had called me almost every day since the wedding didn’t happen to check in on me. Two months later, though, her calls were now starting to include the suggestive, “You know what you should do now…” tone, and those things included going back to school.
No thank you. I barely survived college the first time around.
“I can’t wait until your mom gets a hold of him.”
“I’d prefer if we could all go on like he doesn’t exist.”
In a perfect world, I never would have met Darrick. Actually, in a perfect world, Darrick would have actually been the man I naively believed him to be.
“Enough about him.” I didn’t need to go to work with him on my mind.
“You’re right. Subject change. Help me do some shopping for our upcoming trip.”
Tuevo was taking Meredith to Puerto Vallarta next week.
She didn’t need shopping help. She had everything money could buy and everything money couldn’t.
“You’re leaving me now? When this guy is supposed to call me on Monday?”
“You’re right. I’ll text Tuevo right now and tell him we have to cancel the plans he spent months making all because you might be going on a date with some new guy. My bad.” She grabbed her phone and swiped her thumb on the screen to unlock it.