“You better put those in water. We need to get going.”
I shook my head to clear it out. “Okay.” I walked numbly back toward my kitchen.
“Hey, Kenadie.”
I turned around. “Yeah.”
“You look lovely.”
“Thanks for the flowers.”
“You’re welcome. Now hurry.” He grinned.
I did as he said, but I was dying inside. He looked divine, even in the Braves baseball cap he was sporting backwards on his head.
We walked out into the clear evening. The sun was still shining brightly.
Jason took my hand as we walked to his Jeep. I stopped and looked down at our clasped hands and then back up at him.
“This is how I would behave with a woman I had already taken out, and wanted to get to know better.”
“Oh, so the woman you want to impress is someone you’ve already been out with?”
“Yes.”
“Is it someone with our service?”
“Yes,” he repeated through a smile.
“Will you tell me who it is?”
“I was hoping, as my personal relationship manager, you would have figured it out. If I do my job well enough tonight, it should leave no doubt in your mind who the right woman for me is.”
“So this is my test?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s all mine.”
“My head hurts,” I informed him. I didn’t mention my heart.
He kissed the side of my head. “I’m sorry for that. I hope to make it better.”
If he kept acting like this, he wasn’t going to. I wanted to run, and I even had on running shoes, but I reminded myself, one more night and I was done. If not, he would probably hound me through eternity and that I couldn’t have.
When we were settled into his Jeep, he handed me an orange, pineapple, coconut smoothie.
I held up the drink. “What’s this for?”
“To tide you over. It’s going to be a while until we eat and, by the way, I’m buying, because that’s what I would do.”
“Okay,” I said quietly. “And thanks for the smoothie, it’s my favorite.”
I think I shocked him with my compliance. His eyes widened, but he smiled. “You’re welcome. A man should know his woman’s favorite things. Don’t you agree?”
I nodded.
He pulled out and we were off.
“So, are you going to tell me what we’re doing tonight?”
His illegal grin made its way out. “How would you like to meet some Atlanta Braves tonight and watch the game from first base, field-level seats?”
“Are you serious? How did you swing that?”
“The owner of my company has some connections, so he pulled some strings. They do batting practice right before the game and a few lucky fans, like ourselves, may get to try and hit a few.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“I knew you would think so.” He seemed proud of himself.
“Should I even ask if I can pay for my ticket?”
“What do you think?”
“Thank you, Jason.”
He placed his hand on my bare knee. “Thank you for coming with me.”
I don’t know why I was thanking him for ruining my life, but he did it so kindly that I had to.
We fought our way through traffic to Turner Field. Our tickets allowed us special access so we didn’t have to wait in line. Jason held my hand the entire time. It was some of that heavenly torture I had talked about before. He was getting an A+ for being the world’s best man to date, but an F for killing me and making me pretend to be his date.
I had never been on a professional field of any sort before, so I was kind of in awe. It wasn’t a bad sight seeing some of those professional baseball players up close. Not like they held a candle to the man who held my hand and my heart, but they were easy on the eyes. Well, mostly. I was always surprised by the few who seemed out of shape, but I won’t name names.
The team’s manager came out and greeted us. They could only let a few of us go up to bat, so I let Jason have the honor. Besides, watching him was much more enjoyable than doing it myself. He was like a kid in a candy store. I had never known anyone as good-natured as him. He winked over to me as he came up to bat. I was impressed when he hit the first ball, and even more impressed when he hit three in a row. Some of the guys teased him that they may need him tonight.
He came back all smiles. He hugged me tightly and I let him. I figured my heart couldn’t break any more than it already had, and this was our last time together.
“That was amazing,” he whispered and held me tight.
Something was amazing all right. “You looked great out there.”
He pulled back and impishly grinned. “So you’re saying you find me attractive?”
“I think we both already know the answer to that.”
“Yeah, but a guy likes to hear it every once in a while.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, Jason Hadley, you are definitely passable.”
“Passable?” He pretended to be hurt.
I laughed. “You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say, for a heartthrob.”
He raised his eyebrow at me and grinned. “Much better.”
Not for me.
“And just for that, I’m buying you dinner,” he teased.
“Gee, thanks.”
He took my hand and led me to our seats. We had a perfect view of the field. I could smell the grass and see the players up close.
“Great seats,” I commented.
“I know this is a shock, but I’m starving,” he said.
“I guess we had better eat.”
“Thanks for not being one of those girly girls who refuses to eat.”
“Have you encountered that problem lately?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to tell me who so I can mark her off the list?”
“Oh, no. You will have all the clues you need tonight to figure out which woman I want.”
“You know, it would be easier if you just told me.”
“I don’t think so,” he said seriously.
I tilted my head and looked into those inviting eyes of his. “If you say so.”
“I do. Now, let’s eat.”
Jason ordered two hotdogs with mustard only and two root beers. I don’t know why we kept grinning at each other. You would have thought this was like a first date or something instead of … Well, I wasn’t sure what to call it. Was it two friends hanging out, or was this a business venture? And why wouldn’t he tell me who he wanted to be with? Though I really didn’t want to know, it was going to hurt like no one’s business when I had to match him with the woman of his choice. I didn’t care for any of them, but only because I was jealous. I’m sure they were all lovely women, or at least one of them was or Jason wouldn’t want her so badly.
I tried to concentrate on the game, but I mostly looked at my hand in Jason’s for a good portion of the night. He insisted on holding it. He insisted on showing me what it was really like to date him, to make me see who it was he really wanted to be with. I wasn’t sure how that was helping. I guess I would have to dig deeper into the women’s files and see what I could come up with. Then it would all be over. I would make another perfect match and I would probably get a picture of them to put on my wall of bliss someday. I would hide it behind someone else’s, of course, but I would get to claim another success story. Binary Search would once again be the hero, but in the end, I was going to be the big loser.
I played along for the night. We did the wave, cheered, and booed at the appropriate times. I did my best to enjoy the last night I would ever have with my perfect match. I would pay dearly for it, but I was already gone, at least this time my humiliation would only be known to me.
By the time the seventh inning started, the Braves were up by three. Jason was as happy as I had ever seen him. The crowd around us was in a good mood, too. J
ason so easily made friends. He seemed to know the name of everyone who was sitting close to us. In the switching between innings, the announcers and the mascots did their thing. Then the one thing happened to me that I never imagined would, or even ever thought could. It was like a nightmare and a dream all wrapped up in one. I mean, what were the odds that the Kiss Cam would land on us? I thought all that stuff was staged. I didn’t realize they picked innocent victims. They should ask people if they are even a couple. Heck, for all they knew, we were siblings.
There we were, our faces on the giant Jumbotron for the whole world to see. I swear I could see the beet redness on mine. Jason looked, well, like Jason, as happy as could be. We both looked at each other and I think everyone around us was calling for us to kiss, but my senses were failing me, as was my heart.
“You’re not going to reject me for all of America to see, are you?” Jason leaned in.
I bit my lip.
“Kenadie.” He moved in closer.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, and within a second I felt Jason’s warm lips cover my own. He really got into it, too. His hand moved across my cheek and up through my hair. His lips lingered and I wanted nothing more than for them to take up permanent residence there. I may have even leaned into it, which only made him press harder. He seemed to reluctantly pull away to the cheer of the crowds.
For a moment it was as if only we existed. His eyes were wide and alive as he gazed into my own. I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.
“You do that very well.”
“I’m kind of out of practice.”
“I couldn’t tell.” He ran his hand down my cheek.
I couldn’t take the heat anymore. I turned from him and tried to focus on the game. I had thought I was a goner before; I was so very, very wrong.
Jason was getting plenty of high-fives and pats on the back for “scoring” on national television.
I pulled my hand away from his and kept it securely in my own lap. I’d had more than I could handle.
The walk to the car and the ride home were quiet. Jason didn’t even try to get me to talk. I liked that about him. He knew when to let me be. However, I knew he would never let me walk to my door alone.
When we pulled into my parking lot, I exited the car without waiting for him to open my door. He was out quickly, though, and met me on the passenger side.
I kept my hand out of his reach, in case he tried to hold it. I couldn’t let him touch me, or I would have lost it. We arrived at my door in no time.
He tugged gently on my arm. “Kenadie?”
“I had a good time. Thank you,” I blurted out.
He tilted his head. “Did you really?”
I nodded. I really had.
He pulled me to him. He kissed my forehead and lingered there.
I let him as I soaked him in, one last time.
“Kenadie,” he whispered, “I hope I passed the test.”
I pulled away from him and looked into his intense eyes under the light above my door.
“This wasn’t a test.”
He shook his head. “Choose wisely, please.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I didn’t sleep a wink. I stayed curled up on my couch with the television for company. What was I going to do? Why had I agreed to help him? What if I refused? He would never leave me alone and that wasn’t going to work for me. I couldn’t bear to think of him with anyone besides me. And why in the world wouldn’t he just tell me who he wanted? I didn’t understand why it was important for me to choose for him.
I held onto a throw pillow for comfort. I don’t remember feeling this bad the night of my almost wedding. This was ten times worse. Maybe because Jason was a hundred times a better man than Brian ever was.
In the early morning hours before I got ready for the day, I pulled out my laptop and pulled up Jason’s profile and mine. I stared at the split screen and the eighty-eight percent match. I changed his choice of category from the ‘nothing serious’ one to ‘long-term committed relationship’ and re-ran the profiles against each other. Ninety-four percent glared back at me. I wanted to tell him we were perfect for each other. I wanted to choose me for him. I wiped at the tears that fell down my cheeks.
By the time I dragged my sorry self into work, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I ran into Ellen from downstairs on my way into the building.
“Kenadie, did you hear the news?”
“What news?”
“Wayne and Julie called off their wedding.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “What happened? They were perfect for each other.”
“They both decided they wanted different things in life.”
“How can this be?” Their profiles were highly compatible.
Ellen was taken aback by my reaction. “Not every relationship has a happy ending.”
“I suppose.” I sulked off.
The day only got worse from there.
I walked directly to my wall of bliss when I entered the office and ripped off Julie and Wayne’s engagement announcement. Doing so made me feel like a failure. People came to us to find happy endings, not this. I crumpled up their picture and tossed it in the trash.
Next up was Zander, who had watched the game. I was surprised he hadn’t contacted me earlier.
He stood at my door and grinned. “That was some serious lip action last night, Kenz.”
“It was nothing.”
“I don’t know, you both seemed pretty into it.”
“Goodbye, Zander.”
“Touchy this morning.”
He had no idea. He was going to lose his head if he didn’t make a quick exit.
“Well, I think you two make a great couple.” He laughed as he walked off.
That was the worst thing he could have said to me. I shut my door and tried to hold back the tears. Unfortunately, I agreed with Zander. We would have been great together. Then I thought about Wayne and Julie. Maybe what I did was all for nothing.
I reluctantly pulled up the profiles of every woman Jason had dated. I kept telling myself the sooner I figured out what he wanted, the sooner I would get him out of my life. It wasn’t a comforting thought, but I dealt in reality and the reality was, this was my job and I had to see it through.
At noon I was no closer to figuring out who he wanted and I was exhausted. I lay my head down on my desk just to have my office line ring. I slowly picked it up. “This is Kenadie.”
“Kenadie, this is Meg. A Liz Adair is on line one and she insists that she needs to talk to you.”
What a coincidence. I had just been poring over her file. “I’ll take the call. Thank you.” I pushed line one. “This is Kenadie.”
“Kenadie, this is Liz Adair. Do you remember me?”
“Yes, of course. How are you?”
“Oh, please. Don’t play nice with me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Excuse you is right! What kind of a game are you playing there?”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I tried to say calmly. I had never had an angry phone call like this before, and I was confused as to why I was having one now.
“You aren’t fooling anyone, you tramp.”
I was completely stunned. I had never been called such a name. I was trying to gather my thoughts to reply, but she cut me off.
“You know, I wondered why Jason suddenly didn’t want to see me anymore. We seemed to have something special. Something real. And it’s not to say that I didn’t notice the way he looked at you when we ran into you that one day, but I brushed it off. I mean, you’re tolerably pretty, nothing out of the ordinary, if you ask me, so I didn’t give it much thought. Then it all made sense last night when I was watching the Braves game and guess who popped up on the screen locking lips?”
“No, no, you have it all wrong,” I interrupted. “Jason and I are just friends and it was the Kiss Cam. What were we supposed to do? I didn’t want to embarrass him.”
“The only person here who’s an embarrassment is you and your sham of a business. You wait until I get a hold of the press and tell them what a fraud you are. You take people’s money and then date the men yourselves.”
“No,” I cried. “You have it all wrong. Please listen to me.”
“Tell it to my lawyer,” she yelled before she hung up.
I was shaking as I set the receiver down. This was a horrible misunderstanding. I had to fix this. I picked up my cell phone and immediately called Jason. I was shaking so bad I could hardly hold my phone. His phone went straight to voice mail.
“Jason, this is Kenadie. Please call me as soon as you get this message.”
I sat there for a second, but I had to fix this now. It couldn’t wait. I grabbed my purse and bolted out the door. I barely paused to tell Meg I might not be back for the day.
“Be careful,” she called out, “they’re predicting some nasty weather.”
This was the South. They were always predicting nasty weather. We had more tornado warnings than I could count in the past couple of months and not one tornado had ever touched down.
The sky did look ominous, though. It fit my mood perfectly. I didn’t care if there was a category five coming. I had to get to Jason so he could talk to Liz and fix this. For all I knew, she was the one he wanted. That would have been even better. I prayed she was the one, even though she had called me terrible names and threatened to sue me.
I drove through some torrential rain to Jason’s office only to find he wasn’t there. The secretary said he was on site, but maybe with the weather, he had gone home.
I tried his phone again and again. No answer. I was in a panic. I felt like I was losing everything in my life all at once. Zander called to tell me he was closing the office early and letting everyone go home because of the weather. Better safe than sorry I guessed, but I knew it would all be for naught.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Kenz, go home, or maybe go to your mom’s. Don’t mess around with this weather.”
“Don’t worry about me. I have to take care of something.”
“Are you crying?”
“I said don’t worry about me.”
“Kenz, promise me you’ll go home.”
Dating by Design Series - Box Set Page 28
