Matchmaker (Empire High Book 4)

by Ivy Smoak

  I smiled. “So you read tabloids?”

  “No. I mean, yes. I thought you looked familiar.” She threw her hand over her mouth. “Wait, your friend that set up the dating profile for you? That was Penny? Penny Penny?”

  “Yup.”

  “Oh my God, I casually flirted with her because I thought it was you. Chastity is never going to believe this.”

  I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. No, she didn’t know my friends. But she knew of them. What if the painting thing somehow got back to them? They’d have a million questions. They’d want to see the portraits. They’d think I was crazy.

  “Do you think you could introduce me to them?” she asked.

  Shit. “No.” It came out way faster and harsher than I meant for it to.

  She bit her lower lip and looked down at the smorgasbord of food on the table. “Right. Sorry. Date from hell and all that?”

  “That’s not it.” But honestly, it kind of was.

  “Was it because of the bathroom incident? Because I really didn’t mean for you to see me with my shirt off until at least the third date. That’s like some kind of rule, right? I’ve heard that somewhere. Honestly I’m a little shaky on dating rules these days. When is nudity allowed?”

  “Um…”

  “And we started over. I don’t even think I’ve done anything that weird since coming back out here. Except for the whole admitting that I’m obsessed with your friends thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like you too. But I read all about that huge scandal with James and Penny a few years ago. It was all over the news. And then their wedding night? Oh my freaking God! I couldn’t stop watching the news…”

  “Yeah, I get it,” I said. “They’re famous.”

  She was silent for a moment. “Are you jealous of them or something?”

  I laughed. “No.”

  “It kinda seems like you’re jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous.” Again, my words came out icier than I meant for them to.

  “You’re famous too,” she said. “Matthew Caldwell.” She smiled to herself. “I can’t believe I went on a blind date with you. Such a crazy world. And there’s no need to be jealous of your friends. You’re great too.”

  I’m not jealous. Fine, I kind of was. But not of them. Of what they have.

  We ate in silence as Ash slowly chewed another chicken finger. Until she started squirming and looked like she couldn’t stand it anymore. “So what do you do at MAC International?” She shook her head. “Sorry, you already said. You’re the CEO. I’m sorry about earlier, but please stop with the silent treatment. It’s driving me crazy.”

  I laughed because it had literally been quiet for five seconds tops before she started talking again. “I’m not mad at you. And you’re right. I am a little jealous of them. Of what they have, you know?” This girl was a stranger to me. And I found myself wanting to get all this shit off my chest. I didn’t care if she judged me. I’d probably never see her again. And she’d certainly never meet any of my friends in person.

  “Yeah, I get that. Their lives seem so perfect. True love and all that.”

  She sounded like Tanner.

  “I hope that one day I can experience that.” She sighed and dropped her chin in her hand. “Don’t you?”

  “I have.” I wasn’t sure why I said it. I hadn’t gone on a blind date to talk about Brooklyn. Honestly, I don’t know why the hell I was on a blind date.

  “You have? What happened?”

  I took a deep breath. What was the worst that could happen if I told her? I might feel better. Maybe worse. Maybe this was just what I needed. A stranger to talk about Brooklyn with. “She passed away.”

  “Oh my God, Matt.” She reached across the table to grab my hand. But before she reached me, she knocked over the candle in the center of the table with her elbow. It fell into the olive oil and the whole plate burst into flames. Ash screamed at the top of her lungs. Before I could throw water on the fire, she grabbed the side of the tablecloth, I think to smother the fire. But she pulled too aggressively and flung the fiery oil directly onto my dick.

  I don’t know if it was her screaming again or a high-pitched scream came out of my own mouth. I stood up as my pants lit up like a Christmas tree.

  Ash grabbed her glass of wine.

  “Ash don’t…”

  She flung the contents at me. Luckily she missed completely because she would have made the fire way worse. But the wine somehow went right into my face. Fuck.

  “Ash!” I screamed as I blindly reached for the tablecloth to smother the fire.

  She finally seemed to understand and started whacking the front of my pants with the tablecloth as I wiped the wine out of my eyes.

  Oof. It felt like I was about to barf as her hand collided with my nuts. Hard. I looked down as she continued to slap my junk with the tablecloth.

  “I’m so so sorry,” she said when the fire was finally out. “I think it’s okay.” She moved the burnt up flap of my dress pants to the side to see my barely singed boxer briefs. “It feels like it’s okay. I think your pants took the worst of it.” She patted the front of my boxers and then seemed to realize what she was doing. She froze with her hand pressed against me.

  And we both just stood there. Me with wine dripping from my eyelashes and half singed off pants. The whole restaurant could see my boxers and her hand on me.

  “I’m just going to…” she removed her hand from my cock and pointed over her shoulder. And then she ran away as fast as she could.

  I didn’t call after her. She’d just tried to set my fucking dick on fire. This was why I didn’t tell people about Brooklyn.

  Chapter 18

  Sunday

  All our friends were here to watch the big Giants/Eagles game. All paired up in couples. Today I was lucky to be the eleventh wheel. Eleventh. I wish I was kidding. But the games at James and Penny’s place always included all my friends, plus Penny’s old college friends Tyler and Melissa and their significant others. At least James and Rob’s sister, Jen, wasn’t here with Ian. Then I would have been the thirteenth wheel.

  I’d extended the invite to Tanner but he was busy today. Something about a Club Onyx emergency. I was pretty sure he was just trying to get me to offer to come help. He’d been trying to get me to join Club Onyx for ages, but I wasn’t really interested. If that club really was about trying to find true love, then it wasn’t the place for me. And some fake emergency wasn’t going to get me through the doors.

  So yeah, eleventh wheel. At least all the kids were here, and that gave me some little people to hang out with. I was sitting on the floor doing a puzzle with Scarlett. She loved puzzles. And honestly she was better at them than me. But I didn’t mind helping her.

  “Uncle Matt, why is your hand blue?” She poked a splotch of paint by my watch that I hadn’t been able to get out.

  I adjusted my watch to help hide the mark. “An accident with some blueberries.”

  She giggled and stole the puzzle piece in my hand that I’d been holding a few seconds too long apparently. She plopped it in the right place and looked up at me. “Please don’t get paint on my puzzle. You can play with Sophie’s puzzle instead. Hers has a sky so it’s okay if you get blue on it.”

  That was a very good reason. But I think her actual reasoning was that it was Sophie’s puzzle that would get ruined and not hers. Sneaky little devil. “I’m not going to get paint on your puzzle, kiddo.”

  She looked like she was scrutinizing me. “Promise?”

  “Pinky promise.” I held out my pinky to her.

  She wrapped her pinky around mine, we shook, and the promise was made. For a few more minutes she seemed content, silently putting a few more pieces in for every one of mine. “Could you get me a snackie?” she asked.

  I looked over at the coffee table that was covered in game day snacks. All of which she could reach. What was I, her man servant? But instead of complaining, I just asked her what she wanted.

 
; “Two juice boxes, please,” she said.

  “Two?”

  “Mhm.” She didn’t look at me as she put some more puzzle pieces in the appropriate spots.

  “Why two?”

  “Because I neeeeeed two.”

  Whatever you want, kiddo. It wasn’t like I had to deal with her getting all hyped up for the rest of the day. Besides, I was pretty sure one of them was supposed to be for me. I got up off the floor and wandered over to the coffee table. I’d actually been avoiding the grownups. The last thing I wanted was to talk about my disaster of a date in front of all these happy couples. Luckily no one was paying me much attention as I grabbed two juice boxes.

  I turned around and saw that Tyler’s son, Axel, had stolen my seat beside Scarlett. I sighed. Apparently the kids were starting to pair off too. Well, at least those two. Axel had always seemed smitten with Scarlett. And vice versa. I glanced over to James, who was watching his daughter and Axel playing. He had a scowl on his face. At least Scarlett hadn’t ditched him for Axel like she’d just ditched me. I looked at the two juice boxes in my hand, now certain one of them wasn’t for me. Scarlett had literally sent me away to fetch the two of them a beverage. She’d conned me.

  I shook my head and walked back over to them. “Your juice boxes, madam,” I said with a slight bow.

  She giggled. “Thank you.” She grabbed both and then handed one to Axel.

  Ouch. I wasn’t really offended. It was actually cute. Even though she was a manipulative little thing. She’d probably waved him over as soon as I stood up.

  “Let me know if you two need anything else,” I said.

  I sat down next to Rob’s daughter, Sophie, instead. “Hey, Soph.”

  She’d abandoned her puzzle. Well, kind of. She was building a 3D house with the pieces instead. I lifted up a piece to help.

  She grabbed my hand. “Uncle Matt, don’t. You’ll make it fall.”

  I laughed. “I’m not going to make it fall, Soph. Look.” I gently placed a piece on top of her makeshift house. And the whole thing fell over. Shit. “Sorry, let me…” I reached for a piece to start the building over.

  But instead of letting me take one, she reached both her arms out and raked the pieces back toward her. “No thank you,” she said.

  “Come on, I won’t make it fall again. I was just getting used to it.”

  “Go play with my daddy instead. He’s bad at houses too.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. I knew when I’d been dismissed. Soph and Scarlett had both refused to entertain me today. Apparently I was the outcast in this social group too.

  “Later, Soph,” I said and patted her head.

  She ignored me, her little tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on her construction.

  I walked over to my friends and sat down in an empty spot next to Tyler. Probably because out of everyone here, he was the only one who wouldn’t ask me how my dating life was going. “Hey,” I said.

  Tyler cursed under his breath as the Eagles fumbled. He was an Eagles fan like Penny since they both grew up close to Philly. “Hey, Matt,” he said when he calmed down. “The kids giving you a hard time?”

  I laughed. “Just the usual.”

  Tyler turned his head to glance over at Axel and Scarlett silently doing the puzzle. “I always wonder if they’re up to no good when they’re quiet.”

  “Just drinking too many juice boxes and being controlling over puzzle pieces.”

  Tyler laughed. “Axel hates puzzles. I don’t even know what he’s doing right now.”

  Flirting. The kid was already a pro. Although, I couldn’t actually see Axel and Scarlett being together one day. They weren’t related, but they called each other’s parents aunt and uncle. It would just be…weird. They were pretty much cousins.

  “What have you been up to recently?” Tyler asked. “You haven’t been to the last few game days.”

  Seriously? Even he was going to question me? Come on, Tyler, I sat here for a reason. “Just been busy with work and stuff.”

  “And stuff. Right. It wouldn’t have anything to do with that app that Penny’s constantly on?”

  What the hell? I looked over at Penny and she was laughing at something on her phone, not even paying attention to the game or anyone around her.

  Did everyone know that I was on a stupid dating app? “She told you about that?”

  Tyler laughed. “No. I happened to see her screen when I was grabbing a drink. And she was texting some girl and they were talking about you. I think it was safe to assume Penny is not on a dating app as herself hitting on other women.”

  “Fair.” If Penny was looking to date someone that wasn’t her husband…it would be me.

  “I thought you didn’t really date,” Tyler said.

  “I don’t.”

  “So the dating app thing…”

  I sighed. “All Penny’s idea.”

  “That woman is relentless,” he said with a smile.

  Yes, yes she is. “If you’ll excuse me for a second.” Penny had just gone into the kitchen and I needed a word with her. In freaking private. I followed her through the archway. She was laughing quietly again as she texted. She was completely oblivious to the world around her. For just a few seconds I watched her smiling down at her phone. Her red hair fell like a curtain over one of her eyes. God she was beautiful.

  And I shouldn’t be staring at her like this. “Penny.”

  She jumped and slammed her phone down on the counter. “Hi, Matt. What’s up?” She pressed her lips together like she was about to burst out laughing.

  “What’s up? What are you doing?”

  She pressed her lips harder together.

  “Give me your phone.”

  “What? No.” She pulled it away from me.

  I tried to grab it but she ducked under my arm. “I’m talking to Ashley, okay?” She held the phone tightly to her chest.

  “The girl from my date last night?”

  “Yeah, she rated your date and I needed to know why it was such a low number.”

  “She rated me poorly?”

  “Mhm.”

  “I didn’t even realize you could rate a date. Give her a zero then.” I tried to reach for Penny’s phone again but she sidestepped me.

  “I’m not giving her a zero, Matt. That’s not very nice.”

  “If anything, she wasn’t very nice. She literally ran away halfway through the date.”

  “Probably because of something you did.”

  Wow. Okay. “Did she not tell you what happened?”

  “We were just getting to that. She said she was late and things were a little awkward the whole night. I don’t get it. You’re great at small talk. Why was your date so awkward?”

  “Because she was freaking awkward.” How dare Ash call me awkward? I wasn’t awkward in the slightest.

  “I’m just trying to figure out what happened,” Penny said. “This low rating is going to make finding a good candidate for your next date super hard. Unless you’re planning on going out with Ash again.”

  “I am definitely not planning on doing that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was a train wreck.”

  “But she’s exactly what you’re looking for.” She smiled because she knew I’d just been messing with her. “You requested a petite redhead, so…”

  “It’s not just about looks, Penny.”

  “I know that. So tell me what happened. Regardless of her appearance, I thought she was perfect for you. She seemed funny and sweet.”

  “It was just a bad date.”

  “I need more than that,” Penny said. “We can file a request to get this one-star rating removed.”

  “One-star?” Fuck that.

  “Just tell me what happened.”

  “She tried to set my dick on fire!”

  I heard Rob laugh and turned around. All our friends were standing in the archway staring at us.

  “So we only cau
ght the last bit of that, and we’re all going to need this whole story,” Rob said. “Who did what to your dick?”

  For fuck’s sake. “Penny sent me on a blind date from hell and the girl knocked over a candle into that complimentary oil you dip bread into. It burst into flames. Then she proceeded to fling the flaming oil right onto the front of my pants.”

  “On purpose?” James asked with a straight face.

  “No.” I laughed. Huh. “Maybe.”

  Mason slapped me on the back. “We’ve all been there, man.”

  “I’ve never set your dick on fire,” Bee said.

  “I just meant going on a blind date from hell.”

  Bee slapped his arm. The two of them met on a blind date. As their story went, it wasn’t a perfect start. But in no part of their blind date had Mason’s dick been set on fire. Not sure they would have gotten married if that was the case. Unless they were into some weird shit I didn’t know about.

  “Maybe your second date will be better,” Mason said.

  Oh God. Was he seriously insinuating that Ash and I were meant to be, just like him and Bee? He couldn’t be more wrong. Bee was a sane person.

  “So let me get this straight,” Rob said. “This girl accidentally tried to set fire to your cock?” He put accidentally in air quotes. “What the hell happened before that? I feel like there had to be a reason.”

  I shrugged. “She showed up super late in a sweaty sweatshirt. Then was embarrassed about her outfit and started stripping in the bathroom…”

  “And why do you know she was stripping in the bathroom?” Penny asked.

  “Because she was taking forever so I followed her in.”

  “Of course,” she said, resting her chin in her hand. “Please continue.”

  “She was drying the sweat off her sweatshirt with the hand dryer.” I held up my hand. “It’s not important. I would have freaking walked out right then. But she dropped the bomb that she was going through a divorce with…Cupcake.”

  “Cupcake?” Rob said. “No flipping way.”

  “Who’s Cupcake?” Penny asked.

  “This dick we went to high school with,” I said. “Anyway, I felt bad about how the date started out and the fact that she’d been married to that idiot, so I decided not to walk out. And we were having an okay discussion until she figured out who I was. She was super interested in the two of you.” I gestured toward Penny and James. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was stalking you guys.”