“Manfred was supposed to be safe.”
“Safe?” The urge to apologize evaporated as Sophie plucked a thin dried branch out of her hair. “What do you mean, safe?”
“Safe as in you shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“I didn’t get hurt.” She shifted around to look at him, that uneasy, quivering feeling fluttering in her stomach again. “Manfred did. And in case you didn’t notice, Gideon, despite whatever else you think of me, I am a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.”
“Believe me, I am well aware.”
Didn’t he sound positively thrilled about it. Sophie pursed her lips, the urge to grab that ridiculous Tuesday yellow tie and strangle him with it making her palms itch yet again. “I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for the matchmaking. I didn’t expect Prince Charming right out of the gate.” Good thing, too, since she hadn’t even found Prince Tolerable yet. “There’s no liability issue, if that’s what has you worried.”
“That’s not it.” The way he ground out each word, as if they were glass under his heavy boots, didn’t do anything to alleviate her nerves.
“Then, what is it? I can’t seem to win with you, Gideon. First you imply I’m too stupid to understand how my own business works, and now I’m too fragile to go romping around in the woods with a character from the Proton Patrol.”
“I love that show.” A smile cracked his stony face. “But that’s not what this is about. And why would you ever believe I thought you were stupid?”
“History.” She exhaled sharply. “I don’t need or want your protection, Gideon. If that’s what’s going on in your head, you kick that sexist, controlling idea aside right now.”
“I don’t have any intention of controlling you. As if I could.”
“Then, what is it? One minute you’re nice, the next you’re surly, not to mention grumpy, too.” She flopped back against her seat and glared at him. “Admit it, already. I drive you nuts. You can’t stand me.”
She gasped and grabbed hold of the door handle as he screeched the car over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. He unhooked his seat belt as he shoved the car into Park and turned toward her.
“What on earth—” Sophie panted as her heart hammered against her ribs. “Gideon—”
He reached across the seat and gripped her upper arms, dragging her toward him. Before she could process what was happening, he kissed her. Not one of those tentative flirty kisses that, when done right, made a woman smile and blush. No, this was a fireworks-going-off-in-her-brain type of kiss. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t do anything but hold on to him and take the wild ride.
When he lifted his mouth, his breathing was stable. She could feel the tension coiled in his body, as if he were trying to stop himself from doing something...something she just now realized she’d always wanted him to do.
“I don’t kiss stupid women, Sophie.” He brought up one hand and trailed a finger down the side of her cheek. “I don’t think about kissing stupid women every hour of the day, and I certainly don’t go racing off to Windhawk Forest to search for them in the dark. Tie and all.”
“But you came after me.” She should have kept the thought to herself, but all she could think, all she could say was “You kissed me.”
“Yeah. I did.” He pushed her away and settled back in his seat, shifting the car into Drive again, and resumed their journey into town. “That was probably a mistake.”
“Oh.” That wonderful, warm, fuzzy cloud she’d been drifting on vanished and she plummeted back to earth. Her throat tightened and her eyes burned, but she straightened her shoulders and folded her hands. “Okay.”
“Not that way, Soph.” Gideon sighed and shook his head. “I can’t seem to do or say anything right when I’m around you. I meant I shouldn’t have started something that can’t go anywhere. I’m not staying in K-Bay, Sophie.”
“It was a kiss, Gideon.” The words constricted in her throat. “You didn’t put a ring on my finger.” That Gideon, Ty and Coop dreamed of futures beyond their hometown was one of the worst-kept secrets in K-Bay. Until this moment, she didn’t understand how much that mattered to her. Or how serious he was about leaving. Her stomach ached. Deep down where she thought it would never stop. “But thank you for clarifying.”
“Sophie—”
“Do me a favor? Could you take a bit of a risk with whomever you match me up with next? I’d actually like to begin a social life and not have it end before it starts.”
Instead of smiling at her attempt at humor, he frowned. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Sophie pressed her lips into a straight line, giving up the last word. She reached over and dug her fingers into the knot of his tie, loosening it with more strength than she realized she had. He caught her hand when she sat back, gave her fingers a quick squeeze, and for an instant, she hoped they understood each other. But then his hand left her and went back on the wheel.
Pressing her fingers to her lips, she could still feel the warmth of his kiss on her mouth.
Something that, in all honesty, she wished she didn’t know.
* * *
“I’LL BET SOPHIE’S still pulling twigs out of her hair,” Coop said, laughing once Gideon finished regaling him, Ty and Coach about Sophie’s date with Manfred when he got back to the bar that night. He left out the part about their argument. And that he’d kissed her.
The silent drive to her house had culminated in her slamming his truck door so hard his teeth rattled. The fact that he could smell the trace hints of her perfume—all flowery and fresh—grated on his last nerve.
His life could now be divided into sections: before he’d kissed Sophie Jennings and after. After was going to be a very long, very lonely time, and ever since the wager had been made, he’d never been tempted until now to back out and see if maybe there was a future in K-Bay after all. With Sophie. Except he couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to his friends. They were in this together.
“I’m trying to figure out why you paired Sophie and Manfred to begin with.” Coop compared the questionnaires in front of him. “I’m not seeing any overlap in their answers. Was there a computer glitch? Or did you get bored letting the computer do the work and wanted to try this yourself?”
“Yeah, well, they were two of the last to submit and I...I screwed up, okay?” There, he’d said it. He didn’t say he’d screwed up purposely. It would take far more than the gallon of coffee he’d since ingested to admit that; coffee that would probably keep him up the rest of the night so he could dwell on his agonizing drive to Windhawk Forest. When he’d prayed and hoped that he wouldn’t find Sophie at the bottom of some ravine.
“You know the funny thing?” he told his friends as they glanced around the Bar & Grill at the few couples still mingling. “She wants me to match her again. I swear that girl can smile through anything. Nothing gets her down.” Come to think of it, her request had come with a significant amount of fire behind the words, as though she were challenging him.
Sophie challenged him all right. Because of her he’d taken his eyes, however quickly, off the prize.
“Tell me you’re going to be more careful with who you pair her with on the Polar Dip,” Ty said. “I told you—”
“Does it look as though I’m in the mood for an ‘I told you so’?” Gideon growled.
“That’s what friends are for.” To Ty’s credit, he refrained from uttering another word on that topic.
“I didn’t hear any bells ringing tonight,” Coop said. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t soon. From what we saw there are some promising matches being made. I bet by the time we get back from the lake that bell will be chiming like the cathedral in Anchorage.”
“Don’t ring your bell
s too soon, boys.” Coach ambled up to their section of the bar and refilled Gideon’s coffee and Coop’s soda. “You’ve got a long way to go to claim your winnings.”
“Those jobs are as good as ours,” Gideon said with a finger jab at their former coach’s chest. “You be ready to pay out like a slot machine.”
“I’ve got my ears open,” Coach said. He angled a look at the brass bell over the bar. “From where I’m sitting, you lot have some work to do to land two more couples. Things might seem fine and dandy to you right now, but earlier I saw at least one beer get tossed in someone’s face, one parachute call be implemented and one young lady duck out the bathroom window and run home. At least, that’s where I assume she went.”
“Ah, man.” Gideon slumped lower on his stool. “Tina Charlotte I bet.” That girl would run from her own shadow. “Who deployed his parachute?”
“Jed Parker’s phone went off about fifteen minutes into his date with Eleanor Clambert. Begged off, stating problems at the mill.”
Coop frowned. “Didn’t he get fired from the mill last month?” His confused gaze landed on Gideon. “Dude, what were you thinking? Eleanor needs special care and attention. She’s, well, gentle.” As gentle as any woman who worked six days a week with a group of loud, demanding toddlers could be.
“I wasn’t thinking.” Shame joined the other emotions washing over him like a cold shower. Eleanor was one of the shyest people in all of K-Bay. The fact she’d ventured into dating at all should have been cause for a town celebration. Unfortunately it looked as if Eleanor was taking the brunt of the aftereffects of him pulling not one, but three potential matches out of the algorithm in an attempt to find Sophie someone “safe.” “Chalk tonight up to complete stupidity. But I’ll fix it. I swear.” He had to. His friends’ futures depended on it.
“Poor Eleanor can’t catch a break,” Ty said. “That’s the seventh person we’ve tried with her. She wants to find someone so badly. You can see it in her eyes.”
“I’ve got enough guilt, thanks.” Gideon took a slug of coffee and winced. “Between her and Manfred...”
Gideon sat up as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. He reached for the questionnaires, shuffling through the pile until he found Eleanor’s and the one Coop had been reading earlier.
“Between her and Manfred what?” Coop asked. “Seriously, we can’t afford another gaffe like the one tonight.”
“No, this is good, I swear.” Gideon flipped to the second page and tapped on question seven. “It might take some convincing, but I might have found Manfred’s perfect match.”
“Now he finds it.” Ty finished his beer. “What makes you think—”
“He told Sophie this had been his first date.”
“Seriously?” Coop’s eyebrows shot high enough to disappear beneath his hair. “He’s what? Our age? Twenty-five?”
“Twenty-four,” Gideon corrected. “Sophie’s age. I’m guessing with a nickname like his, dates were difficult to come by.”
“And yet you set him up with Sophie,” Ty marveled. “What am I missing?”
If he wasn’t seeing it, Gideon wasn’t going to show him. He doubted his friends would take kindly to his jeopardizing their bet with Coach for the sake of his reluctant feelings for Sophie. “Give me a second.” He pulled out his phone and called Manfred, issuing yet another apology and offering to find him another potential match. A good one. Manfred’s enthusiasm was almost contagious and almost made Gideon forget the evening’s earlier disaster. “Great. Yeah, tomorrow night. I’ll have Coach set a special table. Eight o’clock. What?” He frowned. “No, twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off. Alternate between heat and ice, and if the swelling hasn’t gone down in the next few hours, call Doc at the clinic. No, it’s no trouble. Talk to you soon.” He clicked off. “One potential relationship salvaged. Tomorrow I’ll get feedback from the other matches and we’ll go from there. We’ll have a final list of pairings for the Polar Dip in a couple of days.”
“And just who is going to be bachelor number four for Sophie?” Coop asked, sliding Sophie’s questionnaire in front of Gideon. “And should we perhaps buy her protective gear, or hire a bodyguard for her?”
“Don’t worry. This will be different. I know just the guy. New to town, moved here after his divorce. I met him at the bank last month when he opened his account. As far as I could tell, he’s completely normal and nice. Exactly what Sophie ordered. All I need to do is get him to fill out a questionnaire.”
* * *
SOPHIE STARED DOWN at the empty peanut-butter jar in her hand, the extra twenty-dollar bill she was about to add to Dillon’s bail fund shaking in her fingers. Her disastrous date and kissing encounter in Gideon’s truck faded into memory.
“Dillon!” She tried to remember the last time she’d yelled so loud that she hurt her throat. “Dillon!” She headed out of the kitchen but stopped short when he skidded in front of her, the irritated look on his face so commonplace now she barely noticed. She held out the jar. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“Don’t lie to me. The cash that was in this jar.” She set it on the table. “Where is it?”
“You mean your fun-cash stash?” Dillon’s face softened, but she didn’t for one second believe he was in a teasing mood. He was gauging her reaction to see what he could lie about next.
“Is that what you think that was? Fun money?”
“What else would you leave it around here for?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Where is the money, Dillon?”
“I needed a new chip for my gaming device. And some new controllers and, well...” He shrugged. “You know. Stuff.”
“You spent almost a thousand dollars on stuff?” In a flash, everything Gideon had ever said about her brother, all the gossip about town, everything she’d worried was true and that she’d ignored, coalesced. “Did it ever occur to you I was setting that money aside for something important? Or for you?”
“Then, I just used it early.” Dillon walked to the fridge and pulled out an energy drink, popped it open right in front of her and shrugged as if nothing had happened. “You’re off the hook, sis. Thanks.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that.” The sadness overwhelmed her. Her heart hurt, like a wrung-out washcloth. She’d failed him. Both she and their mother had. Years of excusing his behavior, enabling his antics, had left him completely irresponsible. Now it was time for her—and him—to pay the price. “I’m not going to replenish that money, Dillon.” The statement felt like the first crack in a window. “I worked hard to earn that extra cash so I’d have it when we needed it.” There would be no more trying, no more hoping for the best. She wouldn’t see it. Not with her brother. “I’m going to be making some changes around here,” she called as he left the kitchen.
“Whatever!”
Sophie sank into the chair at the table, the same chair her mother had occupied for so many years. The chair Sophie had avoided sitting in since her mom’s death, as if she were afraid of dislodging a ghost. But the time had come to do what needed doing. For both her and Dillon.
She dialed, hands trembling, and hoped it wasn’t too late at night to get the ball rolling. “Alice, hi. It’s Sophie Jennings. You have a few minutes? Yeah? Great. Listen.” She swallowed the tears and soldiered on. “I was wondering if you could tell me what it would take to put my mother’s house on the market.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“HOW YOU DOING, CARL?” Gideon grabbed hold of the pole behind the driver’s seat as the ancient school bus coughed and sputtered its way out of town and threw off enough exhaust to warrant the EPA asking for new regulations. “Think we’ll make it there in one piece?”
“Roxanne will hold together.” Carl Sheffield, a K-Bay institution for longer than Gideon had been alive, clutch
ed the wheel with white knuckles, enough to leave Gideon cursing Ty’s choice of transportation. What were those weird vibrations coming from under the bus where Gideon assumed the shock absorbers should be? Roxanne gave an odd backfire that caused its occupants—all twenty-five of them—to jump high enough to bounce. “Hear me, baby? Hold together.” Carl’s muttering did nothing to ease Gideon’s mind.
Lake Wakanaba was a good hour outside K-Bay. Who knew how long it would take to get there in this contraption and what shape they’d be in when they arrived? During the planning stage, Coop and Ty had agreed with him that extra time the couples spent together could bolster potential matches, hence their choice of venue for the Polar Dip.
However, getting everyone safely back to K-Bay seemed less than guaranteed at this point. Gideon wouldn’t be able to relax until they were at the Bar & Grill, and he had a nice large beer in his hand.
“Coop and Ty are already setting up at the lake.” Gideon bent over so he could tell Carl the plan for the day. “I don’t anticipate being there very long. Maybe a couple of hours.”
“Don’t make no never mind to me,” Carl said as his spring-loaded seat bounced in time with Roxanne’s rumblings. “You just tell me where and when and me and my girl will be ready.”
“Great.” Gideon slapped a hand on Carl’s shoulder, quickly looking away from the windshield as Carl took a too-wide turn onto the highway.
He grabbed the clipboard off the top of his backpack that he’d left on the seat behind Carl and faced his group. Many of them looked as uncertain as he felt given their method of transport to Lake Wakanaba. Gideon swallowed hard. All the more reason to get their minds on each other instead of the upcoming mountain roads.
“Good morning, everyone.” He injected an overabundance of enthusiasm as he scanned the crowd. “Thanks for getting up so early. Everybody get their coffee okay?”
Grumbles and heads nodding was all Gideon got. The level of excitement was about equal to that of a funeral procession. He felt his gaze being pulled toward the back of the bus, where Sophie was wedged between the window and Chase Peterson, his final choice when it came to finding her someone suitable.
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