“Where is your path taking you, Amy?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
I swallowed, warmth coursing through me. “My dream is to run this company someday. I’ve worked hard to get this close and I really hope it pays off. What about you?”
He reached up and traced my jawline with his thumb. “I want to stay put, for once. I don’t want to leave another shot at happiness. I don’t want to have to ask anyone to give up their dreams for me. I’m glad I’m here in California until I retire in three years. And after that, I like knowing I won’t need to make any dramatic choices. I could just set up shop right here, and support your dreams as well as my own.”
Chills danced down my spine at the casual way he conjured up an image of us happily together in the future. It all seemed so easy the way he spelled it out. “Right here, as in, on a boat?”
He chuckled. “As long as you’re stuck on it with me.”
Even though I knew it was coming, from the way his thumb brushed over my bottom lip to the way his eyes flickered down toward my mouth, I still lost my breath when he kissed me. I brought my hands up and around his neck, standing on my tiptoes to bring myself closer to him. The smell of his cologne mixed with the salt in the ocean air had me completely intoxicated. My brain grew fuzzy, and the only coherent thoughts were the questions flowing through my mind about why we hadn’t done this sooner.
As Dex kissed me, my body hummed in response to all of the promises that poured out of him and into the kiss. It was as if time stood completely still, even the roar of the ocean and wind seemed to abate so that we only had each other, only had this moment of sweetness in stark contrast to the salty air. And as for how long it had been since Dex had kissed a woman? Well, I was sure he hadn’t lost a single skill along the way.
19
Dex
The collision of senses that tore through my body when my lips met hers had been worth every moment of fear and doubt in the month leading up to it. I don’t know how long I’d deliberated on the yacht’s deck before I’d kissed her—maybe it was a second, maybe a full minute—but when it finally happened, I didn’t want it to end. Because if it did, would she tell me it couldn’t happen again? Or would she throw the rules out the window and choose me?
I hadn’t even noticed the slow song playing over the speakers until it morphed abruptly into the famous opening chords of “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones. The disruptive change in ambience caused our lips to break apart, and I exhaled sharply at the shock of being brought back to reality.
“Argh, thanks a lot, Mick,” I breathed.
She laughed and cuddled into me, pressing her forehead into my chest. “Fan of the Stones?”
I hesitated long enough for her to look up at me with questioning eyes, so I sighed. “Uh, well, don’t make fun of me.”
“Oh, no promises.”
I rubbed my hands up and down her arms, thoroughly enjoying the invisible barrier that had been broken between us that allowed me to touch her. “Bill Gates wanted this song for a Microsoft commercial, so he reached out to the Stones and asked how much they’d charge. They asked for millions because they didn’t think he’d pay it, but he did. And that’s how ‘Start Me Up’ became the official theme song for Windows ’95.”
She blinked up at me, and as the seconds ticked by, my stomach flipflopped. I’d made a fatal mistake. I cleared my throat. “You know, because it had the big start button on the home screen?”
Still, she blinked wordlessly. Finally, after what had to be a million minutes, she let out a drawn-out, “Wow.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Did I just ruin the moment with my epic nerdiness?”
“Strangely enough,” she said, shaking her head, “not even a little bit.”
She lifted back up onto her toes and pressed her lips to mine, and my arms wound tightly around her back. Was this for real? Was I seriously kissing Amy? Yep, it appeared I was. And just like Mick Jagger crooned around us, now that she’d started me up, I definitely didn’t want to stop.
“Dex,” she whispered against my lips, “as much as I’d love to stand here and kiss you all night, I have a job to do.”
I heard words coming out of her mouth, but they didn’t make sense. Had she said she wanted to stand here and kiss me all night? That was a great idea. We should definitely do that.
Oh, right, she also said she had a job to do.
I smiled. “So, you’re saying you need to go stalk people?”
“Exactly.”
“Can I join you?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Hmm, I don’t know. Normally, I just sit by myself with my book.”
“Normally, you sit by yourself with your book and spend the whole time texting me instead of reading.”
“Okay, yes, lately that has been the case. You’re very distracting.”
“I get that all the time.”
“Uh-huh.”
“This won’t be much different, except I’ll actually be with you in real life. And you’ll probably look less lonely.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“What are you gonna do, make me sit out here alone while you sit in there alone? I’ll just text you anyway. We may as well sit together.”
“Ugh, okay. Let me look over some notes.” She stepped out of my arms and reached into her bag, pulling out her planner. “I have two other clients on the boat tonight. The first one is Simon—you remember him, right?”
“Ah, how could I forget poor Simon?”
She chuckled. “Hopefully he has a better date tonight than last time. He may have been too distracted to notice you at the restaurant that night, but even if he did, you probably looked more like my date than a fellow client.”
I chuckled to myself, remembering how much I’d wished that were the case. “And who’s your other client?”
“Her name is Cyn.”
“Sin?” I made a face. “As in the deadly variety?”
“Cyn, as in Cynthia. It’s what she prefers to be called. Wouldn’t be my nickname of choice if my name were Cynthia, but whatever.”
I shrugged. “Any chance she’ll know I’m a client?”
“Hmm,” she sighed, closing the planner and holding it to her chest, “we should be okay. Unless you had some kind of memorable interaction with one of them at the office the one time you were there, I don’t think anyone will know.”
I rubbed my hands together. “Awesome, let’s do this. Give me the breakdown. What’s your strategy?”
“Strategy?”
“Yeah, do we post up somewhere with a good view of both couples? Do you have some kind of secret sign language you do with them? Are the waiters in cahoots with you so they can report back about what they overhear? I’ve always wondered that.”
“Slow down, tiger. This isn’t an RPG. It’s my job.”
“Eh, details.”
“I’m serious. This isn’t really stalking. It’s keeping a careful eye on two people with really high hopes, and then being there for them if they need support. There’s an art to it. It’s not as easy as it looks.”
“I can see that,” I said, tucking my hands into my pockets. “It’s kind of like just because a game’s video walk-through makes it look easy, doesn’t mean it really is.”
She snorted. “I had no idea the world of gaming was so complex. Makes sense you like it so much.”
“Well, yeah, video games are the only legal place to kill stupid people.”
With a raised brow, she looked me up and down. “Do I need to add homicidal to your list of traits, Dex?”
“Psh, no. When you kill people online, they don’t really die. They respawn. That’s not homicide.”
She choked out a laugh. “You’re too much. Now, come on. Let’s get to work.”
An hour later, after we’d successfully checked on her other clients and inconspicuously consumed the three-course meal at the most discreetly located table on the boat, I found myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. I
probably should have just relaxed and gone with the flow, but that had never been my strong suit.
“So,” I began, my own words threatening to get stuck in my throat out of protest, “I hate to risk ruining our night because it’s been amazing, but … I’m wondering if this is going to continue once the boat docks.”
She looked over at me out of the corner of her eye and my whole body went cold. I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have just let it ride. Played it cool. Rolled with the punches. You know, all of the analogies that chill guys would use when describing a play like this. Except it wasn’t a play and I had no chill. So I had to know where we stood before I did something really dumb like get my hopes up.
“Um, well,” she fidgeted with the bag on her shoulder as we walked along the deck, “I’ve been thinking about that actually.”
“And?”
“And, I’m not sure how we’re supposed to manage this. You’re a client of FCL, Dex. I’m literally being paid to match you up. Your mom paid a lot of money for you to find love, and it feels really unethical for her to have paid for this service that results in you matching with your matchmaker.”
“Something tells me that’s like splitting hairs to my mom.”
“Still. And that’s not the only issue. We can’t forget about Julia’s very strict no-dating-the-clients policy. How are we supposed to get around that?”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Well, I might have an idea that solves both problems. If you’re up for it.”
“I’m listening.”
“Does Julia have an issue with her employees dating former clients?”
Amy made a face. “Uh, I’m not sure. But would that mean you’d fire me in order to become a former client? Because I have to tell you, there’s something else going on at work that would make that a serious issue for me.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t thinking that. I don’t want to mess up whatever you have going on.” I held out my hands and wiped the idea away. “I was just thinking about the twelve date guarantee.”
“What about it?”
“Well, what if—through no fault of your own—I was such a loser that I couldn’t be matched up in less than twelve dates? Julia would have to refund my mom, which would take that ethical issue out.”
She tilted her head from side to side. “Yeah and replace it with the ethical issue of you going on twelve dates with hopeful singles who think they have a chance when they don’t.”
“Oh, come on. I’m sure there are more Anias in your client pool that you can pair me up with for some fake dates.”
Amy bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
“Would it help if I said I’d go into each date giving them a fair shot?”
She stopped short and crossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, you know,” I reached out and pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her, “I’ll promise to give them a real chance. But I have to say, they’re up against some pretty stiff competition.”
Something changed on her face when I said the word competition, but then she shook it away and laughed slightly. “Dex, I never ever saw myself dating a client. It’s probably career suicide, but I just—”
I leaned down, brushing my lips over hers, then straightened again. “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”
“Yeah, neither can I. That’s the problem.”
“So, do you wanna try my twelve dates idea?”
I watched her deliberate for a few moments, loving the way her bottom lip kept getting pulled between her teeth while she literally chewed it over.
Finally, she melted against me. “Okay, fine. Twelve dates it is.”
“And just think, I’ve already had four of them.”
She let out an exasperated noise. “Oh, trust me, I’ve been counting. I guess for tonight I’ll relax and enjoy this time with you. I’ll deal with what this means for my job tomorrow.”
I had no idea what she meant by that specifically, but I hoped that whatever it was, it wasn’t dire enough for her to have to choose between me and her job. Because again, as that hard-rocking anthem of Windows ’95 repeated over and over, now that we’d started this up, I never wanted it to stop.
20
Amy
I grabbed Claire by the hand and pulled her into my office, tossing her in and closing the glass door with as much oomph as the slow-closing hinges would allow.
“What in the world has gotten into you?” Claire hissed, fixing the heel she’d fallen off of as I’d pushed her into the center of the room.
“Are you off your juice cleanse? Because I need you to have a clear head right now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, and I had solid food for breakfast. I’ve already been told by no less than seven coworkers that they’re happy it’s over because consuming only the juice from food is not in fact healthier than consuming the actual food.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, waving a hand and yanking her onto the couch adjacent to my desk. “People suck. You do you, boo. Listen. I have tea.”
“Tea? I’m here for tea. Do spill.”
“Last night was Dex’s date with Lindie.”
She nodded. “Eek, yes. I hope it went super well so Belinda doesn’t get Lindie for her client.”
“Well, it didn’t go well for Lindie, so she might.”
“Who did it go well for?”
I wordlessly lifted a hand and held it over me, using just my index finger to point at the top of my head.
Claire gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. “Shut up, shut up, shut up. Tell me more.”
“Dex told Lindie he wasn’t interested before the boat even left the dock. By the time I finished yelling at him about it, and finding out he did it because he wanted to go on the date with me, the freaking yacht was moving, and we were trapped on a three-hour tour of the bay.”
“Shut up.”
“Is that all you can say?”
“I don’t know, tell me what happened next and I’ll let you know.”
“We kissed.”
Claire squealed and slapped my thigh. “Nope, nope, all I have to say is shut up. How was it? He looks like he’d be an amazing kisser in that Sheldon Cooper sort of way.”
I made a face. “You think Sheldon Cooper looks like he’d be a good kisser? His lips are like this thin.”
She laughed and swatted my hand out of the air as I held my thumb and forefinger only a millimeter apart. “Okay, okay, whatever. Dex’s lips look way fluffier. How was it?”
“It was definitely amazing.”
“So amazing that you’ve decided to leave everything you’ve built at First Comes Love behind and let Julia fire you for breaking her stuffy old rule?”
“And just like that, you’ve identified my problem.”
“Oh, you mean you don’t want to throw your entire career away for a guy, even one as hot as Dex? That’s oddly reassuring, I won’t lie.”
I put my face in my hands. “What am I supposed to do? How do I make this work?”
“Did you guys talk about it at all or were you too busy being the Princess Peach to his Mario?”
I peeked out at her with a furrowed brow. “His what?”
“I don’t know, I was going for a video game reference, but my gamer knowledge ends with Mario Kart.”
I blew out a breath. “We did talk about it a little bit. He had this brainy idea to become a former client instead of a current client to get around Julia’s rule and keep me from getting fired.”
Claire made the same grimace that I was sure I’d made when Dex had suggested it. “How did he propose to do that?”
“He wants to go on the full twelve dates without matching with anyone so Julia is forced to give his mom her money back, and then he won’t be a client anymore.”
She gasped and put a hand on her chest. “No.”
“Yes.”
Claire sat back on the couch and I could tell she was thinking it all over. Finally, she sat forward. “It’s not a bad plan. It’s b
etter than just firing you and letting Julia keep his mom’s money. Then it’s like … not your fault he couldn’t be matched up. You did your best. What more could she expect?”
“And what about the women who are going to go on dates with him thinking they have a chance?”
She shrugged. “Just pair him up with people he’d obviously not click with. Or who wouldn’t like him. It shouldn’t be that hard, look how his first two dates went.”
“I don’t know. Then what? I keep my relationship with him a secret from Julia until a year from now when I finally bring him to the company picnic and I’m like, ‘Surprise, we connected long after he stopped being my client, don’t worry.’”
Claire bit her lip. “Uh, hang on. How does Julia stepping down and the competition fit into all of this?”
“I’m not sure. I thought about it last night, and I almost told him about the competition, but I didn’t want him to think I would actually put my career in front of him like I did with the last Marine I dated. I told him all about that, too, so it felt … like history could repeat itself.”
“I see.”
“Besides, I don’t actually know that I would put my career before him. As much as FCL means to me, what if Dex is the real thing?”
“Just playing devil’s advocate here, but if it’s not the real thing—”
“Then I would be throwing my career away for nothing,” I finished for her. “I get it. So I really don’t know if I’m brave enough to put him in front of my career.”
“You want to have your cake and eat it too.”
“Yes. Why is that so bad?”
“I mean, it’s not bad. It’s normal. I just don’t know how you’re going to manage it.”
I got up and began pacing the room. “Here’s a novel idea. What if I just told Julia I fell for Dex? She’s my aunt. Would she really fire me?”
“I would love to say no. But what if she did? Are you willing to gamble it?”
A Match for the Marine: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (First Comes Love Book 1) Page 13
