Mister Match (The Match Series Book 1) (30 page)

“I can tell you really care about this guy. That’s not something to play around with, you know? I mean, by all means, give him hell for a while, if you need to—make him pay for being such a dumbass that he almost lost you. But then, take him back.” He shrugged. “I just think that when you find love, you should hang onto it, no matter what your pride tells you to do.”

Lisa felt tears pricking her eyes, pressing like a hot ball in her throat. “You’re right,” she started to say, but then she glanced ahead, down the sidewalk, and stopped.

Her heart gave a fast, hard tumble before picking up the pace double-time.

There was Adam, standing ten paces away, as if frozen, staring right at Lisa and Roberto.

Chapter
34

____________________________________

A
dam’s homecoming already hadn’t gone exactly as he’d planned, and now—now this was happening.

He’d called Lisa at work, but she’d been with a client and hadn’t returned his call.

Dan had, though. Dan had called him about fifty times since that morning, after Adam had left the message on Dan’s voicemail, letting him know he was canceling the interview in San Francisco, the Dream Date for that weekend and everything else on his schedule, because he had to go back to Austin and make sure the woman of his dreams wasn’t falling for another man.

Adam had finally set his phone to block Dan’s calls. He’d deal with him later, and with the destruction of his company, his life, his dreams.

As long as he had Lisa, he’d be okay.

But he hadn’t been able to find her all day, much less patch things up quick-and-easy, as he’d fantasized. By mid-afternoon, he’d faced the fact that he didn’t have anyplace to stay. Booking a room at the Keiko had really been his only option, though it was hollow comfort compared to his vision of sleeping in Lisa’s bed, curled up with Mr. Monkey at his back and Lisa in his arms.

And then he’d gone down to Indulgence, where Clare, working late, had calmly informed him that Lisa was out on a date with her current yahoo. Clare had even been so kind as to tell him exactly where he could find the lucky couple, probably so he could go watch the woman he loved and her new yahoo feed each other sips of wine and coo like doves at each other, while Adam’s heart was slowly ripped out of his chest.

The entire day and its succession of events would have tried the patience of any man.

And now the yahoo was staring at him, nearly expressionless, apparently sizing him up. Adam found himself wishing, briefly but fervently, that they were living back, oh, about twenty thousand years ago. Then he could just pick up the nearest tree branch, club the guy over the head, toss Lisa over his shoulder and drag her to his cave.

Things sure were a lot easier in the Paleolithic period.

“It’s Mister Match,” the yahoo said, amazement in his voice. “I can’t believe it. Adam Match. It’s an honor to meet you, man.”

Lisa rolled her eyes.

Adam scowled. “You know,” he started, and then stopped. Maybe leading with both guns wasn’t the best tactic. “Look, hi,” he said, addressing the yahoo. “I’m Adam Masters. Lisa’s boyfriend. Nice to meet you.”

“It’s great to meet you,” the yahoo gushed, grabbing his hand. “Seriously. I mean, I entered the drawing for the Austin Dream Date, but I didn’t win, so I never guessed I’d get to meet you in person.” He gulped, visibly.

Lisa, watching the guy in disbelief, snorted. “Don’t trip over your tongue,” she said irritably to the yahoo, who looked instantly contrite.

“Look, Lisa,” Adam said, “I came to find you because Clare told me you were—”

“Clare?” She narrowed her pretty eyes and crossed her arms, and shifted her weight onto one foot. “Clare told you where I was?”

Clearly, he’d better play this delicately, or he might be paying for Clare’s funeral by tomorrow morning. Or at least her hospital bills. “I pried it out of her, okay? I basically threatened her with—” He could have made it a plausible story if threatening people were his style at all. But it wasn’t his style, and he hadn’t pried anything out of Clare.

Better be honest. “Ah, look, I didn’t threaten her with anything. I just told her the truth—that I’m crazy about you. I’m head-over-heels in love with you, Lisa. So when I heard you were going out with someone new, I just—” He raised his hands, dropped them again. “I needed to come see you. To see if I could stop you from making a mistake.”

“A mistake?” she repeated, incredulously.

“Yeah,” he tossed back. “You and I were meant to be together, Lisa. Not you and this guy. Not you and those other yahoos your friends set you up with. You and me.”

She glared up at the yahoo. “Roberto, would you mind walking me back to my car now, please?”

At least the guy had the decency to clear his throat in obvious embarrassment. “Of course, but... Look, Lisa, if you need to talk to your boyfriend—”

“He’s not my boyfriend, and I’m out with you, not him. Please walk me back to my car.” She grabbed the yahoo’s arm and charged along the sidewalk with him in tow, her shoulder bag bumping against her hip as she went.

Adam dogged their steps, doing his best to ignore the feeling of dogginess that came with it. “Let’s go talk somewhere. Please. We can all three go, if you want.”

“No, thanks,” Lisa said flatly. “I’ve already done more than enough talking for today.”

“Lisa, there are some things I really need to tell you.”

“Funny, because I have very little to say to you.” She stopped at the crosswalk, apparently waiting for the little figure on the signal to light up so she could go, though there was no traffic in sight. Her date stood by, looking generally uncomfortable.

“There aren’t any cars coming,” Adam pointed out after a moment.

“I know that,” Lisa hissed acidly, and marched out into the street. Both Adam and the yahoo jogged to keep up with her.

“I hope you’ll forgive me,” Adam said, “when I say I don’t believe you. You’re this pissed off at me, and you’ve got nothing to say?”

Her eyes held fire when she glanced at him. “Oh, I don’t think you really want to hear what I’ve got to say.”

“Actually, I do.” He might hate conflict, but he’d take a screaming-mad Lisa in his face over a cold, silent Lisa stomping away from him, any day of the week.

“You do?” She paused for a second, as if weighing her options, then swung insolently toward him. “All right, then. You asked for it. You didn’t call me, not once, but you called my best friend to check up on me. That’s absolutely cowardly.”

“I kept hoping you would call—”

“I’m not finished,” she said with deadly calm. “This has been a hell of a day. First I do six massages, pretty much back-to-back, which, in case you’re wondering, isn’t easy. Especially when you’re already feeling crummy. And then, right when I get home and think I can finally relax for a little while, I find out my best friends in the world have been pulling the strings on my love life, like I’m some kind of marionette. Like I can’t possibly make my own decisions, good ones.”

“I don’t think that’s how they meant it, at all,” Adam said, carefully. She seemed like she was about to blow a gasket.

“And then I find out I have to come meet this guy—” She pointed a thumb at the yahoo. “—because he’s already out someplace, waiting for me, not realizing he’s actually been messaging with my supposed best friend the whole time, and not me.”

The yahoo looked confused. “I have?”

“Yeah. Sorry. That’s what I came here to tell you. It was my friend Clare all along. I had no idea you even existed until about five o’clock this afternoon.”

He looked taken aback. “Whoa. Okay, that actually makes sense. I wondered why you seemed so different in person. Your messages were so...sexy.”

She gave him such a scathing look that Adam actually felt bad for the guy, for a second.

“I don’t mean it like that,” he backpedaled. “I just mean, some of the messages were pretty over the top, and then in person, you seemed a lot more reserved—”

“You might want to stop,” Adam advised him, “before you dig yourself in any deeper.”

The yahoo fell into uncomfortable silence.

“As I was saying,” Lisa said severely, “as if all that wasn’t enough for one day, things were actually looking up just a little bit—I mean, I was having fun with Roberto, even if he and I both knew it wasn’t going to lead to a second date—”

Adam’s heart lifted like a bird taking flight.

“And then
you
show up,” she finished.

His heart crash-landed back to Earth. She’d as good as snarled it, as if seeing Adam were the worst possible thing that could have happened on such an already craptastic day.

A car honked at them. Quickly, Adam took Lisa’s elbow to lead her out of the road. He was grateful to be touching her again, even if it was just that tiny part of her arm.

Which, of course, she snatched away once they were safely on the sidewalk.

“Clare said you talked to Willow about me behind my back,” she hissed him. “I was just trying to get over you, and then you called her up and—” She stopped abruptly and narrowed her eyes. “Wait a minute. Were you in on it too?”

“In on what?”

“Adam,” she said, warningly, her voice rising. “Did you scheme with Willow and Clare on the Mister-Match dates?”

“Of course not!” He was appalled she would even think that for a second. “Absolutely not. I would never do that. But I’m glad I talked to Willow. That’s how I knew where to find you.”

His voice had risen too. He didn’t realize it until Lisa hissed, “Keep your voice down. Someone might overhear. Hell, someone might take a video and post it on the Internet. ‘Mister Match Has Public Brawl with Ex-Fiancée.’ You can’t afford any more bad press.”

Suddenly, he felt pissed off—angrier than he’d been in a long time. “I don’t give a goddamn about any of that, Lisa.”

“Yeah, right, you don’t.” She kept her voice low, but it dripped with sarcasm. “All you have in the whole world is your reputation. Don’t tell me for one second you don’t care about it, because I know you better than that.”

“Actually,” he said, and took a deep, cleansing breath. “You don’t.”

She looked at him hotly. “Excuse me?”

“I canceled an interview in San Francisco this morning to be here,” he said. “And the Dream Date that was happening in D.C. this weekend, too.”

“You did what?” She looked at him as if he’d gone completely insane. “Why would you do a stupid thing like that?”

“Because I haven’t spoken to you or seen you in twelve days,” he said, “and being away from you is killing me.”

That seemed to take the wind completely out of her sails.

In the beat of silence that followed, Roberto raised a hand. “Um. Excuse me?” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m just going to—I’ll just say goodbye, now.”

Adam had actually forgotten the yahoo was still there. “Sure, buddy. Take care.”

“It was really nice to meet you,” the yahoo said. “I love Mister-Match.com. It’s got all the best women. And for the record, I think you two make a really good couple.”

He grinned, and Adam felt a little bad for calling him a yahoo in his head.

“Bye,” Lisa said, listlessly, a beat too late. Roberto was already several paces away.

And now, it was just the two of them.

“Have you missed me at all?” Adam couldn’t help but ask—although he didn’t want to hear it if the answer was no. But somehow, he had a feeling that wasn’t the answer. She wouldn’t be this angry with him if she didn’t care about him, at least a little.

Lisa scowled at the street and crossed her arms over her chest, and he did his very best not to reach out and wrap his arms around her.

She was just so beautiful. And he loved her. And he didn’t think there was any good reason they shouldn’t be together, if she felt about him even a tenth of the way he felt about her.

“Why didn’t you ever pick up the phone and call me?” she asked. “If you were really dying without me, you could’ve called.”

“I didn’t call you,” he said simply, “because I was scared. I felt like I’d screwed everything up. I was waiting for you to get in touch with me. But not calling you was a big mistake—another one in a long line of mistakes I’ve made.” He took a step toward her, and risked putting his hands on her upper arms. “I should have called,” he said, “so I could tell you I’m in love with you, and that I can’t live without you.”

Chapter
35

____________________________________

L
isa’s shoulders relaxed a degree, and her expression softened. But her eyes were still troubled, and she wasn’t saying anything.

“What is it, sweet?” Adam murmured, rubbing her arms to create some warmth. The sun had gone down, leaving the streets of downtown breezy and cool.

“I need to go kill Willow,” Lisa said after a moment. She frowned. “Or at least talk to her. We have some stuff we need to straighten out.” She turned and began walking down the sidewalk, hugging her bag to her chest.

Adam loped behind her to catch up. “I’ll go with you.”

“Whatever,” she said, without breaking stride.

That didn’t exactly warm his heart, but he wasn’t going to let her push him away anymore.

When they reached her car, Adam got in on the passenger side and swung the door shut with its loud, metal-on-metal squawk.

Lisa shot him a look. “Be gentle with Betty.”

He couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sorry.” He patted the cracked dashboard. “I’ll be gentle.”

She cranked the engine over, and the car sputtered to life.

The car protested only mildly as Lisa yanked her around corners on their way to Willow’s neighborhood. Adam could sense Lisa didn’t want to talk, so he didn’t say a word, just held onto the little plastic handle affixed to the ceiling and watched the road.

After a few minutes, Lisa steered them into a small neighborhood just east of Mopac, and then onto a little tree-lined street that was dotted with cars and trucks. She pulled up in front of a little house with a brand-new, silver Volkswagon bug parked in the drive.

Lisa steered Betty to a stop right across the foot of the driveway, and shut off the engine.

“Here we are,” she muttered, eyeing the house.

She had only gotten a few steps up the front walk, with Adam a few paces behind her, when Willow opened the screen door and moved out onto the small concrete stoop.

“Clare called a little while ago.” Her gray eyes were like placid lakes. “She said you’d be over. She said you’d probably be on the warpath. I guess she was right.”

“How perceptive of her.”

“Well, we’re your best friends,” Willow said mildly. “We know you pretty well by now. I guess that’s why we felt like it was okay to take your love life in our hands, seeing as how you weren’t doing anything good with it.”

“Not doing anything good—” Lisa started.

Adam could see the tension in the set of her shoulders, and in the way she held her hands clenched at her sides.

“My love life is my own business,” she finished after a beat. “Not yours.”

“It’s my business when you make it mine,” Willow countered.

“What are you talking about?” Lisa demanded.

“I’m talking about all the times we went out to the Dive Bar,” Willow said gently, “and dissected Rodney and your breakup over drinks, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. I’m talking about after the IRS came and repo’ed your things, when I loaned you some money.”

“Oh,” Lisa spat. “I’m almost finished paying you back, but I’ll be sure to get the rest of the money to you first thing—”

Willow shook her head. “Sweetie, you’re missing my point. I don’t care about the money. I care about you. I care about your happiness. That’s all. That’s why I tried to help you. And that’s why, when I saw you with Adam, and I saw the way you two were together—the chemistry between you, the connection that was so obvious, right from the start—” She shook her head. “I did what any good friend would do, in my position. I did my best to make sure you didn’t let him slip away.”

L
isa was almost enjoying the feeling of the mad percolating under her skin. She approached the front stoop and came to a stop, her fist on her hip. “The thing is,” she said to Willow, “I didn’t give you permission to do that. Any of it. I’m not a child, and I don’t need you and Clare to treat me like one.”

“Oh, Lisa.” Willow’s gaze turned pleading. “We didn’t mean to treat you like a child. We were just doing what we thought was right. We wanted to help you.”

“Well, you didn’t,” Lisa insisted. “You manipulated me. How could you do that to me? You knew how much I didn’t want to sign up on Mister-Match or go on those dates, but you pushed me to go. Why would you do that?”

Willow was pale, even paler than usual. “I thought I was helping.” Her voice had gone high and tight. She sounded like a little girl about to break down crying.

Whatever Lisa had intended to say next, she didn’t say it. Suddenly, unexpectedly, her own eyes were blurred with tears, and her throat felt as if she couldn’t get another sound out if she tried.

Willow looked stricken. “Lisa. You’re my best friend. I never meant to hurt you, sweetie. You have to believe me.”

In that moment, all the fight went out of her. Of course Lisa believed her. What her friends had done had been misguided, at best. But she knew it hadn’t been malicious.

She just wished they’d never appointed themselves her Fairy God-Cupids in the first place. She wished the whole, stupid past month had never happened.

Well. Maybe she would keep some of it. Like Adam. The way he touched her and looked at her, the conversations they had, and the way she felt when she was with him.

Just then, she felt his arm, warm and strong, go around her shoulders. “Maybe,” he said, his voice calm and soothing, “we can all step inside, sit down and talk about this together. I know we can work it out.”

Silently, still looking pale, Willow stood back and held the screen door open for them to pass through. “I made hibiscus iced tea.”

“Perfect,” Adam said. “Would you pour Lisa a glass? She’s had a hard day today.”

Well, this was annoying. The whole point was that she didn’t want to be treated like a child, yet here she was, letting him guide her into Willow’s living room and seat her on the couch. And letting herself be gently guided was a relief.

After a moment, Willow returned with the tea. Her eyes were still watery and red-rimmed. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I’m so sorry. I really was trying to help.”

“It’s okay,” Adam said. “We’re going to work this out.”

“You don’t get to tell her it’s okay,” Lisa informed him. “This is our fight, not yours. And I’m still mad.” She took a sip of her iced tea and winced at its tartness.

“This may be your fight with Willow,” Adam said, “but you’ve also got some things to work out with me. I think we all have things to say to each other. So how about I go first?”

Lisa blinked, and Willow looked at him as if realizing for the first time that he was there in more than just mediator capacity.

“Fine,” Lisa said. “Say whatever you need to say.”

He took a deep breath and spread his hands. “I’m here because I love you, Lisa. I don’t care what happens with Mister-Match, the company, my reputation, any of it. I just want to make things right with you, and to be with you.” He took her hand and pressed it between his. Dazedly, she noticed her fingers were shaking.

“I love you, Lisa,” he said again. “And it’s not the vetiver in your scented oil, either. It’s you. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman. You feel like home to me, and I want to be with you. Forever, if that’s possible.”

“Oh,” Willow breathed softly, clasping her hands over her chest.

Lisa felt as if she couldn’t breathe properly—as if there weren’t quite enough oxygen in the room. Maybe this was what altitude sickness felt like: a lightheaded pinginess that made you wonder if you were fully conscious or dreaming.

Adam stayed focused on her. “And the truth is, I couldn’t have done this—any of this—without Willow’s help. Or Clare’s. I can see why you’re mad right now, but they love you, and they really were trying to help out their best friend.”

“I just wanted you to be happy,” Willow said into the silence.

Lisa just sat still for a moment, digesting it all. She couldn’t quite tell how she felt, anymore. She frowned and looked at where her hand joined with Adam’s. “So,” she said to Willow, “you deliberately steered me toward men you knew it would never work out with, because you thought I should be with Adam?”

Willow’s shrug looked closer to cringing. “I guess I did, yes.”

Lisa nodded, and finally forced herself to look her friend in the eye.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” she said, simply.

Willow sighed. “So do I. Now. But I hope you understand that I thought I was doing it for your own good. Adam is perfect for you. He’s your match. So I did what I could to help you guys come together.”

Suddenly, Lisa found herself fighting back a cackle. She had the wild thought that maybe her friends treated her like a child because she really was one. She certainly was juvenile.

“What’s funny?” Willow asked, confused.

She snorted. “You wanted to help us come together. No pun intended, I’m sure.”

“Oh, boy.” Adam looked away as if suddenly interested in the baseboards.

“Pun?” Willow looked confused, then horrified, and then she let out a peal of laughter. “Lisa! That’s not what I meant!” She pressed her hands to her cheeks, which had suddenly gone pink.

“Look, I actually do appreciate your trying to help me out, okay?” Lisa sighed. “I guess I won’t kill you after all.”

“Well, thank you for that,” Willow said bemusedly.

“But you’re right. After everything with Rodney, I made all my messy relationship crap your business, and Clare’s, and I shouldn’t have.”

Willow frowned. “Of course you should have. We’re your best friends. We were happy to talk about everything with you—”

“But I really needed to figure it out for myself. And I finally did, and I want to do it this time, too. For once, I want to figure this out on my own.”

“But—”

“And if astrology works like you say it does,” she went on, “then Adam and I are perfect for each other, right? Like, we’re destined to be together. Which means it doesn’t matter what I do right now, or what you do, or what any of us does. Because things will happen when the time is right.”

If only she could truly believe that, down in her gut.

But Adam was frowning. “What do you mean, when the time is right? What’s wrong with them happening right now?”

Both Lisa and Willow glanced at him.

Just then, Clare bounced up onto the front porch.

“Yoo-hoo,” she said unnecessarily, peeking through the screen door and then letting herself in. “I just got off work, and I ran straight over to make sure you two weren’t yanking each other’s hair out— Oh.” She stared at Adam as she let the screen door bang shut behind her. “You’re here.”

“That’s right,” he said, shortly.

“Have a seat,” Willow said, moving toward the kitchen. “I’ll get you some iced tea. We’re having a summit meeting.”

“What kind of summit meeting?” Clare kicked off her cork-heeled platform sandals and plunked down next to Lisa, tucking her feet beneath her.

“I guess,” Adam said, staring at Lisa, “the kind of summit meeting where Lisa keeps me hanging while she decides the course of the rest of my life. Not to mention her own.”

Clare stared back and forth between them. “Could you please fill me in on some specifics? I feel like I missed something big.”

Willow returned with tea for Clare and a little ceramic bowl. “I think these might help.” She mixed the contents of the bowl around and then held it out. “Here, everyone choose three.”

Lisa and Adam kept staring at each other. Clare eyed the bowl. “What are those?”

“Angel cards. You can draw three and they’ll tell you what you should focus on for this period in your life.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “I don’t need angel cards to tell me what to do about Adam.”

“No?” he said, and reached in. “I think you do.” He pulled one out, read it, then grinned. “Ha.” He held it up for them to see. “Love.”

Lisa scowled. “Oh, come on. Don’t you think that’s just a little obvious?”

He shrugged, looking a bit more smug than he had moments earlier, and reached in for a second one.

“Forgiveness,” he read, holding it up.

“Wow,” Willow breathed. “This is amazing.”

“What, did you fix the angel cards too?” Lisa muttered, but Willow shook her head.

“He’s drawing those totally on his own,” she said, sounding amazed. “Out of, like, hundreds. Or fifty, anyway.” She shook the bowl. “Draw a third, Adam.”

He reached in, his blue eyes trained on Lisa, and didn’t even bother to read it himself, just held it out for the rest of them to see.

Clare started laughing.

Willow shook her head and clapped her hands to her cheeks. “Amazing.”

Unspeakably annoyed, Lisa looked at it.

“Commitment,” the card read.

“So what?” she said, standing up. “So he picked three cards that seem to apply to us. Big deal. Those are very generic words, if you think about it. And this doesn’t erase the past week.”