to make it up to you and Ariana.”
“What if we don’t want a second chance?” he asked.
“Are you answering for Ariana? What if that second chance guy truly is her perfect match? You like her, don’t you?”
“Yes.” More than he was ready to admit to his sister.
“If you like her that much, don’t you want her to be happy?”
“Yes, of course I do.” He didn’t like the direction Emma was taking with this conversation. He was thinking the same thing, only he wasn’t ready to admit it and concede.
“If BODS finds her perfect match, she has a chance at true happiness. After losing her husband to cancer, she deserves to be happy again, doesn’t she?”
Damn Emma. Damn her to hell. Dillon ran a hand through his hair, wishing he hadn’t answered his sister’s call. He would’ve already asked Ariana to the firefighter fundraiser, and this wouldn’t even be an issue.
His conversations with Ariana each night had meant the world to him. She…balanced him. Made him feel calm and happy for the first time since he’d started his own construction company. If the real BODS match was what would make her the happiest, he couldn’t be the one to keep that from happening. Oh, but he wanted to. He wanted her for himself.
He sighed into the phone. “If Ariana wants to give BODS a second chance, I won’t stand in her way.”
“And if she goes for the second chance, will you?” Emma pushed.
If Ariana chose to go for the BODS true match and found him to be the one for her, Dillon wouldn’t care if he fell off the face of the earth. “I don’t care.”
“I’ll let you know what happens. You won’t regret it. BODS really does work,” Emma said. “Later.”
Dillon ended the call and stared at his cellphone. He’d been ready to call Ariana and ask her to the fundraiser. His heart had been beating fast in anticipation of hearing her voice when she said yes.
He slipped his phone into his pocket and threw himself into work. He picked up a shovel and removed debris from the site. They had crews for that kind of work, but he needed manual labor that worked him hard and made him forget.
Only, with every shovelful of construction debris he threw into the wheelbarrow, he cursed himself for agreeing to step out of Ariana’s way.
They were so new to their connection, Dillon didn’t feel he had a handle on just what their relationship was. He didn’t feel like he had any right to tell her who she could and couldn’t go out with. He hoped she’d only want to go out with him, but that had to be her call.
For the rest of the day, he stewed on what Ariana’s response might be to Leslie’s offer to produce her true BODS match.
Ariana sat in the conference room in the BODS offices where the Good Grief Club had chosen to meet that month. Leslie and Emma, sat across from her, Ava and Fiona. They’d brought their own drinks and lunches, and Leslie had provided a tray of cookies for dessert.
Ariana couldn’t help but smile as she sat in the BODS office. The last time she’d been there, had been her first meeting with Dillon, the tall, dark stranger who’d walked with her down twenty flights of stairs when the lights and elevator had been on the blitz.
“You’ll be happy to know that Tag and I finally got BODS up and running. We installed a backup from a couple days before the storm, and a new server and modem since both took a hit by the lightning, and now everything appears to be up and running correctly.”
Fiona, Ava and Emma all clapped, shaking Ariana out of her happy reminiscing. “What? Oh, that’s really good news.” She gave Leslie half a smile.
“Speaking of working correctly,” Leslie segued into her next topic, “I’d like to run your match.”
Ariana shook her head. “That won’t be necessary.”
“But I feel so awful,” Leslie said. “I promised you a perfect match. When the system malfunctioned, I worried that you and Dillon would lose confidence in BODS. I was glad I caught you both with the news before you went out.” She frowned. “You did cancel the date, didn’t you?”
Ariana couldn’t lie, so she shrugged instead. “I went fishing.”
“With Dillon,” Emma said with a grin. “It was an unqualified disaster.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leslie said. “But then Dillon wasn’t meant to be your match. I’m sure BODS will find the right