I’m settled in the appropriate state, I can beg for additional clues to find you faster. I figure we can coordinate wedding planning through email and phone discussions should I fail to find you promptly.”
“That sounds good. But no tracing my calls. That would be cheating. You also can’t hack into any computers to get my location. You have to find me from my clues or the gentle questioning of those who know my location. No interrogations or anything unscrupulous that might lose me my new job.”
Rick clucked his tongue. “I suppose I can agree to those terms. Do you have any other restrictions for me?”
“When you find me, you can’t tell my brother. You must also introduce me to your dog. I will even give you permission to grab me specifically for the purpose of meeting your dog. I want to be friends with your dog. I might get a dog, because my employer allows dogs in the office, and I’ve never had a dog before.”
“Can I convince you to hold off on the adoption of a dog until you meet my dog?”
“That depends. Can I steal your dog? She’s really that cute, Rick. I might have to steal her and take her home with me.”
“Can we negotiate this after I find you?”
I considered. “Maybe. It depends.”
“On?”
“How long it takes for you to bring your dog to me, how often I’ll be allowed to visit your dog, and how often I’ll be able to visit your dog after you’re married.” Reminding myself he was destined to marry someone else sucked.
Never before had I held much interest in any man. Worse, my job for the next few months—or however long it was for the wedding to be planned—involved marrying a perfect-for-me man to someone else. In some other life, I must have been a terrible person.
Only a terrible person deserved my awful luck.
Rick laughed. “I should be landing in the United States within the next week or two, as I am in progress of finalizing the paperwork required to import my dog. As it would be cruel to withhold my dog from you, I would allow for open visitation outside of work hours, and should I need to take a business trip, I pay well for a trustworthy person to babysit my girl when I can’t take her with me. As for the issue of marriage, that depends on a lot of factors.”
Of course. If we tried to list all of the factors, we might be done sometime tomorrow, and I’d be even more aware of how I intended on torturing myself for the next few months of my life. “As the answers to my first two questions are acceptable, I’m willing to ignore the third question completely for now. However, I’m not going to throw our game just because I want to meet your dog.”
Instead of worrying about Rick, I could have a really good relationship with his beautiful Annabel Lee. She would be easy to love, and I’d happily throw away my dignity in order to babysit her when Rick and his wife went away on their honeymoon.
With my luck, they’d take the dog, and I’d just have to face reality alone.
“That would be boring, and it wouldn’t do if I bored you. Which state should I make arrangements for, Hope?”
My name and his lips were a dangerous and potent combination. I may have disliked my brother’s choice of wife, but I’d hate myself every minute I worked to make certain Rick had the best wedding day possible. Creating perfect memories for him and his wife-to-be would be my pride. It would be painful, although I’d try to look on the bright side.
Men like Fredrick existed in the world, and I could find another, and the next one might be the one for me. I could handle my crush on him like a sane adult.
He wouldn’t realize I admired him, would like a chance for him to be in my life, and work to make sure the rest of his life started with the perfect wedding.
I would need to spend a lot of time repeating that to myself to make sure I didn’t screw up.
“New York,” I finally replied, aware I’d left him waiting in silence for an embarrassingly long time. “Unfortunately for you, New York State has a population of over nineteen million with five major cities with populations of over a hundred thousand. I could be in any one of them. I could also be in