Matchmaker (Empire High Book 4)

by Ivy Smoak

  “You’re ridiculous,” Penny mouthed silently as she took Liam from Ellen.

  Scarlett gave me a big hug and then turned to her mother. She stood up on the couch and looked down at her baby brother. “He was a good boy today. He didn’t cry and scare the animals like last time.”

  “Is that so?” Penny tickled Scarlett’s side.

  “Scarlett,” said Ellen. ”Let’s go get you a bath before your daddy comes home.”

  “Okay. Uncle Matt, tell my Mommy when we can go to the zoo. I’m always free.” Scarlett jumped off the couch and started running toward the stairs.

  She was so freaking cute.

  Ellen took off after her.

  I watched in silence as Penny stared down at her son. The son she almost lost. The miracle baby sitting in her lap. Liam started to whine. And it looked like Penny was about to cry again.

  “Penny?”

  She blinked fast and didn’t look up at me. “Yes?” Liam started to really cry now. “Shh, baby boy.”

  “Are you okay?”

  She laughed, but it sounded forced. “I’m fine.”

  Fine. Women’s universal word for not okay, as far as I could tell. “You know you can talk to me.”

  “Hm?” She finally looked back up at me. She shook her head like she’d been lost in a trance.

  I pulled Liam out of her arms and cradled him in mine. Liam immediately quieted down in my arms. “I can tell when something is bothering you, Penny.”

  She pulled her eyebrows together in an adorable frown. “I can tell when something is bothering you too.”

  “A standoff, huh?” I looked down at Liam. He looked just like James. A head of dark hair and a rather serious face. But he had blue eyes like his mother. I used to want kids. And this was the closest I would ever get. This should have been my life.

  “I always wanted kids,” I said, breaking the awkward silence. “Four of them. I don’t really know why.” But I did. Because my brother and I were practically raised with the Hunter brothers. The four of us against the world. The Untouchables. Before everything broke.

  “You’re going to be a great dad,” Penny said. She didn’t look comforted by my words at all. Instead, she looked even more upset.

  But I didn’t get a chance to ask her why. Because James walked in the front door. Penny plastered a fake smile on her face. I could tell. I’d been wearing one for half my life.

  “Hi, James!” she said and stood up.

  “Hey, baby.” He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the lips, pulling her against him.

  Message received loud and clear. I turned away.

  “Hey, Matt,” James said. “I thought our dinner was Saturday night…”

  “It is.” I stood up. “I just stopped by to say hi.”

  James gave me a weird look and pulled Penny closer.

  I clenched my jaw. As much as I was tempted to, I wasn’t going to ruin his life. Not like he’d ruined mine.

  “Since you’re already here, you’re more than welcome to stay for dinner,” James said. “I’m sure Ellen made enough.”

  “I already ate,” I gestured toward the plate of leftovers. “And I actually have plans tonight.” I didn’t. But I didn’t want to sit here as the odd third wheel. Or like I was one of their kids.

  Penny looked up at James. “Did you know that Matt volunteers as the head coach for the football team at your old school?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What? How did everyone know this but me?” She turned back to me. “When’s your next game? Maybe we can come? I’ve never even seen your high school. It’ll be so much fun.”

  “Tomorrow night,” I said.

  James ran his fingers through his hair. A nervous tic. “I have a lot of papers to grade tomorrow.”

  “That’s okay,” Penny said. “I’ve been meaning to get together with the girls anyway. I’ll ask them to go with me. I bet Bee and Daphne would love to see Empire High.”

  She was right - I was sure Mason and Rob’s wives would love to see where we used to go to high school. And honestly, that sounded better than having the guys there. None of my friends had stepped foot back in that school after graduation besides me. I think they were terrified of the ghosts of their past. And they’d all moved on. I was the only one who kept going back. I was the one who was stuck there.

  “This is going to be so much fun,” Penny said. She was smiling for real again. And I was happy it was because of me.

  “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow, Penny.” I winked at her.

  James frowned at me.

  But Penny’s smile grew. And that was all I cared about.

  She waved goodbye and I left before James could pull me to the side and tell me to fuck off. It wasn’t like Penny and I were going on a date. I’d be on the field the whole time and she’d be with our friends. There’d be zero funny business going on.

  No, I didn’t kiss Penny. But I still felt a million times better than I had after practice. Penny was the breath of fresh air I needed.

  When I was in the hall my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw the name flash across my screen. Mr. Pruitt. My blood ran cold. Why the hell wouldn’t he leave me alone? I clicked out of the text without reading it. I knew exactly what it would say. He sent me the same text every few months for years. Telling me we needed to talk. That it was important.

  But nothing that came out of that man’s mouth was important to me.

  My heart started beating the same way it had when I thought I’d seen Brooklyn walking around the streets of the city. None of my ghosts were leaving me alone tonight.

  I needed another drink. And to talk to someone who actually understood. Someone who hadn’t frozen me out. I fired off a text and headed to the closest bar.

  Chapter 4

  Thursday

  “Hey man,” Tanner said and slid into the stool next to mine. “What’s up?”

  I could always count on Tanner. No matter what he had going on, if I said I needed to talk he’d show up within 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn’t know how he managed it with the ridiculous traffic in this city. It was like he could teleport or something.

  I didn’t respond. I just downed my glass and slammed it on the bar top.

  Tanner grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

  I nodded. My parents had forced me to go to therapy after Brooklyn died. And I did that whole thing for years. But it didn’t help. I just needed someone I trusted to talk to. Back and forth. Not someone staring at me taking notes. My best friends growing up didn’t want to talk about Brooklyn. Or anything high school. I got it. I was pretty sure they felt as guilty as me. But they’d all moved on. And I…couldn’t. Tanner was my only friend who seemed to care to listen. And he’d become my therapist of sorts. He never seemed to mind me talking about the past. He liked talking about his too.

  I slid my phone over to Tanner.

  He looked down at the text from Mr. Pruitt. “Again? What a dick. It’s like every time you start to move on, he pulls you back into this shit.”

  It was kind of Tanner to say, because we both knew I was never even close to moving on.

  “Maybe you should just answer him and get it over with,” Tanner said as he ordered us another round.

  “I have nothing to say to him.”

  “I know. But he clearly has something to say to you.” He handed me my phone back.

  I looked down at the text. I could practically hear Mr. Pruitt’s voice: “Matthew Caldwell, it’s Richard Pruitt. We need to talk. It’s urgent. Please stop by tomorrow at 7 pm. The staff is expecting you.” He even put his address.

  Pretentious prick. Why would he just assume I was free tomorrow at 7? I wasn’t. And I knew his freaking address. His apartment was ingrained in my head, no matter how hard I tried to forget. The last place I ever saw Brooklyn. Her crying in the foyer. I’d left her alone with that monster. My stomach turned.

  Tanner leaned over to see some of the previous messages. “Today’s message is dif
ferent than the others. Apparently now it’s urgent.”

  “Everything with Mr. Pruitt is urgent.”

  Tanner laughed. “Why do you still call him Mr. Pruitt?”

  Tanner was weird about titles. It was respectful to call someone Mr. or Mrs. that was older than you. Especially someone that I grew up around. I’d never heard Tanner call anyone Mr. or Mrs. even if they were 50 years older than him. “I just always have,” I said. I hadn’t spoken to Mr. Pruitt since the funeral. He’d let me take a few of Brooklyn’s things. And that was it. He was going to be my father-in-law. And now I wanted nothing to do with him. Because as much as I blamed myself for what happened to Brooklyn? He was the real reason she was dead. And even though Brooklyn was his daughter, I was the only one that seemed to care that she was gone. Mr. Pruitt could go to hell.

  “Want me to set his car on fire or something?” Tanner asked without a hint of humor in his voice.

  I laughed even though he definitely seemed serious. Car fires sounded a lot more like something Mr. Pruitt would do. And I didn’t want to stoop to his level. “Maybe some other time.”

  Tanner shrugged. “Just let me know. In the meantime, maybe you should change your number again.”

  I’d changed my number five times. The messages still came. Mr. Pruitt was officially stalking me. “I’ll just ignore it.”

  “You can’t ignore it if you get this shaken every time he texts you,” said Tanner. “Living life in fear is no way to live.”

  “I’m not living my life in fear. And I’m not shaken.”

  “Whatever you want to call it. These messages clearly get under your skin. And if I’ve learned anything in my time on this earth, harboring resentment is no way to live.”

  His grand proclamation was a little shaky since he was a few years younger than me. “It’s not just his text that’s bothering me.” I stared down at the glass the bartender had just placed in front of me. “I thought I saw her again.” I didn’t tell him that I almost got in an accident because of it.

  Tanner winced. “I’m sorry, man. Did that thing happen again? Where it was hard to breathe?”

  I nodded and lifted the glass. “I hate the autumn.” All the memories came flooding back every fall. It was like she was still here.

  “It’ll get better. The memories. They won’t feel so painful soon. One day you’ll be able to appreciate the way the fall reminds you of her.”

  That was another reason why it was so easy to talk about Brooklyn with Tanner. A girl that he was dating died when he was pretty young too. He didn’t grow up around here. All I knew was that it had something to do with an arranged marriage. His parents were old fashioned or from a different country or something. He never gave me all the details. But I saw the ghosts in his eyes too. It was fine that he didn’t want to talk about it. Sometimes I didn’t want to talk about Brooklyn either.

  “You’re sure you shouldn’t see a doctor about that?” he asked. “The trouble breathing thing?”

  It was nice to have one person in my life other than my mother that was concerned about me. But I had a handle on this. “I’m not going to see a doctor about having panic attacks caused by visions of my dead girlfriend. They’d lock me up.” Besides, I knew how to make them pass. Brooklyn had taught me how to help her breathe when she used to get panic attacks. Now I could help myself. I didn’t need anyone’s help.

  “They won’t lock you up.” Tanner took a sip of his drink and stared straight ahead, lost in thought. “So…did you hang out with Penny tonight before texting me?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “You always run to Penny when you’re sad. And to me after because you feel guilty about hanging out with her.”

  Fair enough. I sighed. “Yeah. I did.”

  Tanner’s eyes lit up. “Don’t tell me…you finally got the balls to kiss her.”

  Unlike the rest of my friends, Tanner had no loyalty to James. And he had this weird thing about true love. Like what was meant to be was meant to be. Destiny. Fate. All that.

  I laughed. “No.” I pressed my lips together. “Almost. I don’t know. She seemed so sad tonight. What the fuck is wrong with me?”

  Tanner clapped his hand on my back. “Nothing is wrong with you. It’s normal to not want to be alone when you’re having a shitty day. And Penny’s probably sad because she’s in love with you and trapped in a terrible marriage. If you sleep together, you’ll know for sure.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was true. I knew I loved Brooklyn long before we’d slept together. But Tanner had this philosophy that you had to sleep with someone in order to know if it was true love. I believed the opposite. To me sex had nothing to do with love. No strings attached. Just the way I wanted it. Speaking of which. I scanned the bar and locked eyes with a tan brunette laughing with her friends. I could use a distraction tonight. She caught me looking and flashed me a mischievous smile.

  “So if you didn’t kiss Penny, what did the two of you do?” Tanner asked.

  “She’s setting up a dating profile for me on some stupid app.”

  “What?” Tanner leaned forward so that I’d stare at him instead of the brunette with sex eyes. “You’re going to start dating? Why didn’t you tell me? You don’t need a ridiculous dating app. Those things are useless. Their algorithms know nothing about true love. Delete it. I know plenty of single women to set you up with.” Tanner pulled out a binder from…somewhere.

  I blinked. I was pretty sure that binder hadn’t been there a second ago. “Where the hell did that come from?” I asked. “Did you walk in here with that thing?”

  “Of course I did.” Tanner flipped open to a random page.

  “But you…” I shook my head.

  He continued scanning the pages, ignoring me.

  I’d had too much to drink. But I was sober enough to know that I didn’t want to go through this binder. Because each page he flipped past contained a headshot of a woman accompanied by a detailed profile.

  “Ah. Right here.” Tanner pointed to some rando on the page.

  “I’m really not interested in your weird binder full of women.” I pulled it away from him and closed it. I didn’t want Tanner’s rejects. Hell, I didn’t even want to date anyone, so this conversation was pointless. “I’m not actually looking for anything. You know that. It’s just a ruse to hang out with her.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s brilliant. You get one on one time with Penny to get her to fall in love with you. Nice plan.”

  I shrugged. I was pretty sure it was more idiotic than brilliant. And it wasn’t really about her falling in love with me. I just liked spending time with her. And constantly dreaming about fucking her. Yeah, it was a problem. But for some reason I had no desire to squash it.

  “Well, if you do go on any dates, make sure you introduce me to the girl before you sleep with her.”

  I looked over at him. “Why?”

  He shook his head. “Because if you sleep with her it could be true love, and I want to make sure she seems like a good fit. After all, I’ll be hanging out with her a lot too if you get hitched.”

  So he willingly wanted to be a third wheel on my dates? I’d been actively avoiding that same scenario with James and Penny tonight. Who actually wanted to be the third wheel? Yeah, Tanner was a weird guy. But he was also my best friend. Which probably made me just as weird. “What about her?” I asked, nodding over to the brunette. “Think she could be a good fit for me?”

  “Wingman on duty.” Tanner saluted me before sliding out of his seat. “I’ll go see.” He had the brunette laughing in two seconds flat.

  I’d never tell Rob, but Tanner was an even better wingman than him. Women just melted into a puddle at his feet. I would have been jealous of his game if I didn’t think I was just as good.

  Tanner whispered something in her ear and she laughed again. And then he walked back over to me, without the girl on his arm. “Nope,” he said and sat back down. “Definitely not a great fit for you.”

>   Honestly, that sounded perfect to me. I went to stand up to go talk to her.

  Tanner grabbed my arm. “Seriously? I just said she isn’t a good fit for you. I told her you owned a finance firm and she asked what a finance firm person does.” He blinked at me. “Finance firm person. Who the hell says that?”

  “It doesn’t matter if she understands what I do. I’m not going to marry her, I’m just going to fuck her.”

  Tanner shook his head. “I don’t get it. You had young love. You know how wonderful it felt to have that. And now you just never want it again? Don’t you miss it?”

  “Do you?”

  He exhaled slowly and then took another sip of his drink. “Yeah. Every fucking day.” He didn’t offer any more.

  I sat back down. “Then why aren’t you trying to find your true love?” I sounded ridiculous saying it out loud. But actually, unlike most people, I did believe in it. Because I’d had it and lost it. And I’d never have it again.

  He took another sip of his drink. “I am. I just…haven’t found her yet.”

  Tanner dated a lot of women. Every time we went to any high society function, he had a beautiful woman on his arm. Always a different beautiful woman. Same as me. So I wasn’t sure why he was judging me here.

  “Well, same with me,” I said.

  He narrowed his eyes at me.

  Sometimes I hated that he was part friend part therapist. “Fine,” I said. “Every woman I go on a date with is someone I 100% don’t see myself with. Happy?”

  “No, that doesn’t make me happy. What would make me happy is if you let me find you someone instead of Penny. Well, not instead of. If you want Penny, I’m all for that. I just mean, if you are actually looking for someone, you should let me handle it instead of her. She has zero experience. She’s an amateur.”

  “I thought you liked Penny?”

  “I do. But she’s not a matchmaker.”

  “She kind of helped push Mason to Bee. And Rob to Daphne. In a weird roundabout way. She didn’t actually introduce any of them.”

  “Great. Two sort-of success stories. And even that’s stretching it. I’ve introduced hundreds of happily married couples.”