No Strings__ - By Janelle Denison Page 0,17
makes it easier to find someone who I’m compatible with, like you.”
Her assumption that they were a perfect match when she didn’t even know him was unnerving. Deciding she could use a bit of alcohol to loosen up, he guided her toward the bar.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“Umm, sure.” She thought for a minute. “I’ll take a Roy Rogers.”
He bit back a groan at her choice of mocktail—cola mixed with grenadine syrup and garnished with a maraschino cherry. He ordered her beverage, handed her the drink, and when he gravitated toward the buffet, she followed him. She was quiet and shy, and in order to fill up the awkward silence between them, he tried to keep the conversation flowing.
“So, Joy, where do you live?” he asked as he scooped some pasta salad onto his plate.
“In a small town just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.”
He was a big city kind of guy and couldn’t imagine being confined to a small community. He added a chicken breast drenched in a savory sauce onto his dish, along with a warm roll and butter. “And what do you do for work?”
She selected some raw vegetables and cubes of cheese, her appetite not nearly as hearty as his own. “I’m a first grade teacher.”
Interesting, and very fitting, he thought. “So you like kids?”
“I love kids.” Her voice reflected her enthusiasm. “I can’t wait to get married and have a big family of my own. The sooner, the better. How about you?”
She returned the question with way too much eagerness and hope in her gaze, and warning bells went off in his head. Yes, he wanted those things, too, but the way she was looking at him, as if he’d make the perfect baby daddy, sparked a bit of panic deep inside Aiden.
For the next hour, Joy stuck by his side, and he learned more about her than he ever wanted to. She loved to cook and bake, she sewed her own clothes and enjoyed gardening. She admitted to being a homebody, and had all those traditional, domestic qualities Aiden thought he wanted in a future wife.
This was the type of woman who’d been deemed a match based on the compatibility questionnaire he’d filled out, Aiden realized. On paper, she fit what he believed were non-negotiable requirements for the next woman he allowed himself to get serious with. But in reality, there was no doubt in his mind that she was way too passive and would bore the hell out of him if he had to spend more than a few hours in her company.
It was a very sobering thought.
When another guy with a green wristband started talking to Joy, Aiden used the interruption to quietly slip away and continue mingling. Unfortunately, he found himself bombarded by a steady stream of women with the same matching bracelets, and similar traits to Joy.
He smiled and nodded as the women talked and vied for his attention, but as his gaze spotted Chloe standing a few feet away, surrounded by her own male fan club, she was the one who captured his interest. He wasn’t surprised to see that men with all different colored wristbands had flocked to her. Not only was she beautiful and alluring, but she was charming, intelligent and had a great sense of humor. What guy wouldn’t be drawn to such a vibrant personality?
“Do you have a time frame of when you want to be married and start a family?”
The personal question from one of the women made him feel as though he was starting to suffocate, and he didn’t know how much more of this charade he could take.
The problem was, he really wasn’t here to find a spouse, and it wasn’t fair to all these ladies to even pretend that he was. He didn’t want to be continually pursued by women who believed they were a match when he had no intentions of following through, and he saw that as a potential problem as the week went on.
His reasons for being at St. Raphael were to assess the resort’s current program so he could create a strong marketing campaign, and he knew he could accomplish that without all this other pretense. He had an idea in mind, and if he could get Chloe to agree, then they’d both be better able to concentrate on the business side of this trip.
Without answering the woman’s question, he politely excused himself from the group and walked straight to Chloe. He came up beside her, touched