He hadn’t been able to get their kiss, the way her body softened in his arms, out of his head. Nor could he forget the look on Meredith’s face as she drove away. He could’ve followed her home and picked up where they’d left off. But he wasn’t that type of guy and he wasn’t going to make assumptions.
“Fuck it,” he said out loud and dialed the number. He had nothing to lose by asking her to dinner. He’d prepare for a no, and if she said yes, he’d run with it.
It rang a couple of times before a voice message kicked in.
Hi, you’ve called Meredith, I’m unable to take your call. Please leave me a message.
“Hey, Meredith, it’s Linc. I was, uh, wondering if, um, never mind. I’ll call back later.”
He tossed the phone on the couch beside him. The last thing he wanted to do was ask Meredith out via voicemail message. That had to be a Dating 101 no-no. Then again, in this current digital age, people were being dumped via email, text message, and, in all likelihood, voicemail.
His phone buzzed and his heart rate kicked up when he spied Meredith’s number flashing on the screen. He’d stared at it long enough he’d memorized the damn thing.
“Hi, this is Linc.”
“Linc, hi, it’s Meredith. I’m sorry I missed your call. I don’t answer numbers I don’t recognize.”
That made total sense to him, but he was a little miffed that Isabella hadn’t shared his number with her. Or maybe she had and Meredith had decided not to do anything about it.
“It’s okay. Probably a safe bet to do that with the amount of spam calls everyone gets these days from bots.”
“Right. So what can I do for you? What were you wondering?”
Linc had always had a silver tongue when it came to women. With Meredith, he was tongue-tied in a way he never had been before. But it was a few simple words; he could do this. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out for dinner with me.”
“Oh.”
His stomach dropped. Who knew two little letters could convey so much? Her reaction was not entirely unexpected, even after the kiss they’d shared only twenty-four hours ago. His determination to live the life of a bachelor was beginning to shift. He was drawn to Meredith and he wasn’t going to give up.
He wanted to get to know her better. He’d enjoyed being with her the previous evening. “Look, I know you aren’t keen on a relationship. I accept that, but it’s just dinner, not a lifelong commitment.”
He gripped the phone tighter. If she said no, that would be it. He’d put her firmly in the friend basket and move on.
“You know, I think I’d like that, Linc. Yes.”
A breath whooshed out of him and he relaxed further into the couch. “Great. How about dinner tomorrow night? I know this great little Italian restaurant. Shall I pick you up at 7:30?”
“Sure, that sounds great.”
Huh. He’d expected some pushback for the way he’d just drilled out his plans for their evening.
“Excellent. So, how’s Buster doing?” He wanted to prolong their conversation. Build on the connection forming between them.
“He’s wonderful. Currently, he’s curled up next to me on the couch, snoring quietly. We went for a long walk this morning and now he’s exhausted.”
“I imagine it wouldn’t take much to wear the little guy out.”
Meredith laughed, and he enjoyed hearing her happiness. “Oh, you’d be surprised. I thought that too. But I’ve been proven wrong. I bet in another five minutes he’ll be up torturing his toy lion. He tosses that thing around like it’s a leaf. And he has this cute growl when I play tug of war with him with the toy.”
He refused to acknowledge the stab of disappointment in the region of his heart. He’d done the right thing by giving Buster to Meredith.
“Okay, well, I’ve got run,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Sounds good. Um, Linc?”
“Yeah.”
“Is everything all right? You… I don’t know. You sound a little down.”
Linc sighed. “I’m okay. Just coming to a few realizations.”
“Well, if you need to talk, I’m here.”
His heart squeezed. “Thanks, Tink. Bye.”
“Bye.” The connection cut, and for a few seconds, he sat there staring at the black screen of his phone before looking around at his empty living room.
The quietness and lack of a pet had never bothered him before because he’d always been around activity on base. He’d been able to come home, decompress, and do his own thing. But now he was going stir crazy. He missed working. He wasn’t made for sitting around.
Getting up, he grabbed one of the business cards on the side table and walked over to his laptop resting on the kitchen table.
He opened up a search browser and typed in the name of the security firm Officer Judson had given him and clicked on the website. Well, at least with all the hits, it told him the company was legitimate.
As he studied the various pages, his interest in the company escalated. He could see himself working for this firm. Helping them rescue people who were lost. Search for missing people. It definitely wasn’t as dangerous as what he’d done in the army, but it would be just as fulfilling. Best of all, the company was legitimate, unlike the company in San Diego.
An excitement he hadn’t felt in a long time grew inside of him.
Decision made, he grabbed his phone again and dialed the number. He was back in the game.
Chapter Twelve
The glass door of the sperm donation clinic loomed in front of her like a portal into the unknown. Meredith had received a phone call from her doctor to say that her tests had all come back clear and she could start the process of choosing her donor. By the time it came to insemination, her body would be healed.
Indecision rode her hard. As she’d explained to Isabella, she could time insemination to have the baby during summer break. But that would mean she’d have to put off the process for at least six months. Her miscarriage and the job opportunity she wasn’t expecting had thrown her plans into disarray.
But if she’d learned anything in her life, it was to roll with the punches and hope and pray everything would turn out for the best.
As it was, there was no guarantee the process would work the first time she tried. Also, there was the cost factor. At present, she had enough funds for two tries before she’d have to stop and save up again if those attempts didn’t work. She knew of people who’d taken second mortgages out on their homes to fund fertilization processes.
She didn’t want to think about that, though. After all, she’d gotten pregnant when she hadn’t even been trying. That had to be a good sign, right?
Or a sign that Linc was especially fertile. Maybe she was crazy not to take him up on his offer this time around too. But she didn’t want to go through the process so impersonally with him. No, she’d want to feel him fill her with his hard length. Feel him stroke in and out of her. Feel the buildup of her orgasm. Exactly like she’d experienced in San Diego. The night they’d created a life.
“Shit, Meredith, stop it,” she muttered to herself. That wasn’t going to happen again.
Really? What about your date tonight? If you didn’t want to spend more time with the guy, you would’ve said no to his dinner invite.
God, what was wrong with her? Here she was, about to pore over the fact sheets of various men, and a few hours later she was going to sit across a small table and share a meal with Linc.
Instead of walking into the building, Meredith strode over to the stone bench that faced the garden. She pulled out her phone and went to her favorites list. Her finger hovered over Isabella’s number, yet she couldn’t make herself tap the screen to engage the call. She had a fair idea what her friend was going to say anyway.
The phone started ringing and she almost dropped it. Linc’s name flashed up. He was probably giving her details for their dinner tonight—or was fate giving her another sign about her and Linc’s rel
ationship?
Relationship?
She couldn’t get into a relationship with him. She’d just come out of one.
Have you? You were away for almost a year. Your communication with Mark was almost nothing, and be honest, you didn’t miss him as much as you thought you would. Your relationship was over the second you he phoned you two days before you left to come back to Texas.
Yes, emotionally she’d parted from Mark long before he official broke up with her. If she’d had an ounce of feelings for her ex, she wouldn’t have jumped into bed with Linc so fast after it was over.
The ringing stopped and she let out a deep breath. Right at this second, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to talk to Linc or Isabella. But she could talk to a neutral party about her options.
Perhaps she needed to research her decision a little longer before she jumped into the commitment of having a baby. She’d been determined to have a child the second she landed back in Texas, but life had thrown many obstacles in the way and it was time to look at those to see if maybe she was on the wrong track.
*
At the allotted time, a knock sounded at her front door. It shouldn’t have surprised her that Linc was punctual. He’d been disciplined by the military and they never ran late.
Buster darted past her, barking excitedly in anticipation.
“Settle down, Buster,” she admonished as she opened the door. Her breath caught when she saw the bunch of flowers Linc was holding. “Hi, there. Come in.”
“Hey, Tink. These are for you,” Linc said as he crossed the threshold and held them out.
“They’re beautiful, thank you.” She grabbed the stems and buried her nose in the blooms, inhaling the unique fragrance of the roses. Mark had never given her flowers, not even on Valentine’s Day.
Buster danced around her feet and she would’ve tripped over him if Linc hadn’t grabbed hold of her. She laughed and looked up at Linc. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” His gaze went all intense, and, instead of releasing her, he tightened his grip on her.
In slow motion, his head lowered and her tongue darted out quickly to brush over her lips. A second later, his mouth landed on hers and she sighed. The crinkle of cellophane registered in the far recesses of her mind, but her focus was on the sensation of Linc’s lips caressing hers.
She angled her head and opened her mouth a little wider, and he deepened the kiss. Fire burned inside of her and she didn’t want it doused; she wanted to fan it until she was consumed by it.
She moaned when Linc pulled his mouth away and rested his forehead against hers. “What are you doing to me?”
“I don’t know, but I think you’re doing it to me, too.” Meredith took a deep breath and stepped back and Linc lowered his arms. A few rose petals fell to the ground, landing on Buster’s head as he sat on the ground beside them.
Linc grinned and scooped them up. “Oops, we forgot about the flowers.”
Meredith saw that a couple had a few less petals, but they weren’t wrecked. “I guess we did. Let me go put them in water and then we’ll leave. You can keep Buster company. I won’t be long.”
She headed down the hallway, willing herself not to suggest they skip dinner and head to her bedroom.
That would be a very bad idea.
*
Linc picked up Buster, and the little dog immediately tried to scramble higher on his shoulder so he could get better access to Linc’s face for kisses. “Hey, buddy, are you being a good boy for Meredith?”
Buster’s answer was to snuggle in a little more.
“I’ll take that as a yes. I have a feeling you rule the house.”
“And you would be correct.” Meredith answered as she wandered down the hallway with a vase holding the flowers he’d given her. She placed them on the side table before she patted Buster on his head, and Linc tightened his hold on the dog.
“But really, how can you say no to this face?” she asked.
Linc looked down at the dog before lifting his gaze and meeting Meredith’s, his heart rate kicking up a notch at her smile. Definitely the right decision to give the pup to her.
“You can’t.” He was talking about more than saying no to Buster. Saying no to Meredith was becoming damn near impossible.
“Shall we go?” she asked, breaking the spell that had possessed him the second she opened her door. Her burgundy dress skimmed her curves and the color accentuated her eyes.
“Linc?”
He blinked and placed Buster on the ground. “Yes, let’s go.”
Thirty minutes later, they were seated at a table tucked in the corner of the restaurant. The place was busy for a Tuesday evening, which wasn’t surprising considering the reputation it had garnered.
“This is nice. I’ve walked past here often and the aromas have always been tempting,” Meredith said, placing the menu on the table.
“It is. I can definitely recommend the gnocchi, as well as the seafood linguini.”
“Been here often?”
Linc sat back and rested his hand on his glass of beer. “A couple of times. The manager is Kerry—you know, Caleb’s fiancée. She works her magic to fit us in if we call her.”
Her eyebrow rose. “Really? Use that privilege often?”
He chuckled. “No, but when I forgot that I promised I’d meet my parents for dinner, I called and she got me in.”
“Well, I guess I should feel lucky that you remembered you asked me out.”
The server arrived and took their orders. Once she’d left, Linc leaned forward and grabbed a piece of bread. “I wouldn’t forget to ask you out, Tink.”
“You say the nicest things,” she teased. “Did you have a good day today?”
Linc couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. “I had a great day. I got a job.”
“Oh, Linc, that’s great. You decided to go to the police academy?”
He forgot he’d mentioned that Meredith. It surprised him how much he’d shared with her. “No. I thought it over and I really don’t want to spend half a year training for the possibility of not working with dogs. That’s my passion. But when I was at the police department, the recruiter who interviewed me gave me the card of a private firm that specializes in search and rescue, as well as providing support to counties in Texas that don’t have a K-9 unit. I called them and went for an interview and they offered me a job.”
“That sounds great. When do you start?”
“I start next week. Best thing about it is I get to train my own dog, and instead of leaving him in kennels at the head office at the end of the day, the dog will come home with me. He’ll be my dog in every sense of the word.”
“You didn’t get that when you were in the army?”
The server arrived with their food and Linc waited until the dishes had been placed on the table and they were alone again before answering. “The dogs we worked with stayed on base. Even when I was deployed, they were kenneled each night.”
“Poor pups. I’m sure they would’ve liked to have been curled up with you guys.”
“No, you can’t miss what you don’t have. They’re trained from a young age, so it’s all they know. It will be different to have a dog at home with me. I’ll have to be strong and not spoil him. He is a working dog, after all.”
“Surely you can spoil him a little. I guess he wouldn’t be the type of dog you’d let on the bed.”
Linc finished the mouthful before answering. “No, I’ll be working with a Malinois. They’re not exactly lap dogs. So he or she will be crated each night.”
“I know it’s wrong of me, but I could never put Buster in a crate or kennel at night. I like having him on my bed with me. I never thought I would. He’s the first pet I’ve ever had.”
He supposed it wasn’t unusual for someone not to grow up with a pet, but he always felt a little sad for the person. Sometimes allergies played a big part with the reason people had petless homes, but there were many breeds now,
like the doodle mixes, that were allergy-friendly.
“I’m surprised you say that. You and Buster look so natural together.”
Meredith smiled, a soft look entering her eyes. “It’s not hard to love a dog as cute and sweet as Buster. You know that. After all, you wanted to adopt him too.”
Inwardly, he cringed. “True, but he’s at the right home. I have no doubt.”
Meredith placed her utensils on her plate and reached over to take his hand. “I know I’ve said it before, but thank you.”
He curled his fingers around hers.
They looked at each other for a few moments and Linc wanted to reach across the table and kiss her. Giving her hand a final squeeze, he extracted his and picked up his fork and twirled some linguini around it. “Tell me how Buster is your first pet. Did one of your parents have allergies to animals so you couldn’t have one growing up?”
Meredith shook her head. “My parents died when I was thirteen. After that I went to live with my aunt, and there was no way she’d let me have a pet of any sort.”
It was like she was reciting instructions on how to change a light bulb. There was a story there, one he would like to ask her more about, but maybe not tonight. He didn’t want to spoil their evening, and he had an idea once he asked her to open that can of worms, it could get messy. “I’m sorry about your parents.”
“Thanks. It was a long time ago.”
“What did you do today?” he asked, changing the subject in the hopes to bring back a smile to her face.
Meredith opened her mouth and closed it, then opened it again. But nothing came out. What was going on? It wasn’t a difficult question, was it?
“I went to a sperm donation clinic today.” She spoke so quietly that he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.
“What? You went to a clinic?”
She nodded and grabbed her glass of water. He noticed the slight tremor of her hand as she took a sip. “I did. I wanted to get more information.”
The Matchmaker’s Match Page 11
