talk with him, but the fact that he hadn’t even tried was even more annoying than any awkward conversation might have been where he actually acted like he cared about her as person.
In all her days she’d never had a more sterile, impersonal conversation, and for some reason that infuriated her. Here she’d been fantasizing about the guy—even going so far as to imagine how he would be as a father—and he doesn’t even try to talk to her for more than a minute?
Suddenly Rori had absolutely no desire to work. Fredrik was right. She needed to get out. To connect with men who would fight for her number and who weren’t afraid to lean in and kiss when the moment was right.
Tossing her phone on the couch, Rori went to get changed.
Chapter 31
Kris gave her brother a high five as he put his phone down. “Perfect, bro.”
Mike’s side of the high five was half-hearted, at best. “Are you sure? It felt a little rude.”
His sister waved that off. “That’s the beauty of it. If she doesn’t like you, then she’s back to what she was doing without a thought. If she does like you, she’s pissed and throwing her phone at a wall right now.”
Somehow Mike couldn’t imagine Rori doing that. “How can you be so sure?”
Kris draped a longsuffering arm around her brother. “Because I danced this dance with Luke my whole life.”
Mike couldn’t help but pull a face of disgust.
“Cringe all you like, but the fact is that I’ve been in love with Luke for a long time. And every time he ever called the house, no matter how many times I answered the phone, he never wanted to talk to me. Always you. So, yeah, I know exactly how it feels to be excited to talk to someone, only to have them blow you off. It’s beyond infuriating, and you never get used to it. Not really.”
Mike could see how that would be the case. “So she’s either mad at me, or already forgotten that I even called?”
“Basically,” Kris agreed.
He considered that, his hopes dipping down a bit. “Well, she didn’t seem mad.”
“Overly perky?”
He shook his head. “Not that either.”
“Hmm. Well, we’ll be able to tell more on the next call. If she prolongs it or tries to cut the call off before you can, we’ll know that she was bugged this time around.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
Kris shrugged. “We’ll go from there.”
Mike stared at his phone for a moment then looked back to his sister. “For the record, it’s totally weird having you help me out with this.”
Kris grinned. “I know.”
“Can you not tell Luke?”
“Oh, he’s cool with it. He’s even starting to bend the story so that it reads that he brought Rori back just so you would meet her.”
This time it was Mike who smiled. “That’s a convenient rewrite.”
“Tell me about it,” she grumbled.
“But still, stay mum about this with him? I don’t want him to feel like he needs to—” he made air quotes with his fingers, “—help.”
“Totally. Just you and me. I won’t say a word until the day you two go public.”
Mike offered her a fist bump. “You’re a pal, sis.”
She smirked and pressed her knuckles to his. “Worth my weight in gold, and don’t you forget it.”
Chapter 32
Going clubbing made Rori feel old. What had been so exciting just a few years ago now felt tired and a bit dirty, like a carnival that was shiny in the nighttime but turned drab and a little sad in the light of day. Although she was clearly in the minority in her sentiment. Certainly Fredrik didn’t share her thoughts as he flirted away with a fireman on the other side of the booth. How the two of them were able to hear each other over the deafening music was beyond her.
Rori had a fireman of her own sharing a seat with her. Handsome, athletic, great smile, but no spark. Dark skin. Dark eyes. Her type. No spark. Here she was trying to do an exhibit on connecting and she was having trouble connecting with one of the most beautiful men in the room. Then again, he was just another man looking to get laid and move on. That was the only connection he was looking for. And while that might have been exciting in college, Rori considered more practical things these days. Things like disease, reputation, and self-respect. And there wasn’t much self-respect to be had in becoming a tick mark on