Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,78
they get the wrong idea, they would delight in getting the wrong idea. Do you want to become one of their projects?” She skipped back in and set her mug and the fortune cookies she’d previously left in the kitchen on the coffee table.
“Nope.” He sure as hell didn’t. “Do Eve and Nora know you’re here?”
“No.”
“Why keep it from them if it’s not a secret?”
“Do Sawyer and Jake know I’m here?” she countered.
“Touché.” They had come close to getting busted by Jake last winter. Law still remembered the panic of waking up to someone knocking on his door. “But why?” he wondered out loud. “Why do we care?”
“We care because they wouldn’t understand.”
“They wouldn’t understand soccer?”
“Football. They wouldn’t understand why two people who hate each other are secretly holed up watching football together.”
Right. Except he didn’t hate her. Never had. And he was still grappling with the bombshell news that if he hadn’t ruined Romeo and Juliet all those years ago, maybe she wouldn’t hate him, either. Maybe everything would be…different.
She flopped down next to him, turned her whole body so she was facing him, and flashed a grin. “It’s kind of like we’re having an affair, isn’t it?”
He smiled back automatically and had the jolting realization that she had smiled at him face-on a lot lately. He used to think about how he’d never gotten one of those, only observed them from the side. Though this one was really a smile of amusement: people would think they were having an affair, ha ha, how ludicrous.
“Sneaking around,” she went on, “holed up in your apartment at all hours. Ha! It totally seems like we’re having an affair.”
He wanted to say that no, it did not totally seem like they were having an affair.
Because if they were having an affair, he could kiss her right now.
Which he suddenly wanted to do more than anything.
Her smile disappeared. “But actually, I guess there’s not really any danger of people thinking that now that you have Brie.”
Huh? “Yeah, I guess I will be home more once she starts.” Was that what she meant? People wouldn’t see him with Maya at the bar as much, therefore there would be less fodder for gossip? He really didn’t think anyone was gossiping about them, though.
“Once she ‘starts’? What are you doing? Auditioning her?”
“I thought about doing that—a probationary period.” It had seemed like a way to mitigate the risk of hiring someone who might not be a good fit. “But since she’s moving from Toronto, that seemed kind of cruel.”
“She’s moving here from Toronto?” She whistled. “Wow.”
“I know. I’m lucky. Anyway, the tryout period became a moot point. When I met her, I just knew.”
“You just knew,” Maya echoed, her voice flat.
“I think that’s how it works sometimes.”
“So I hear.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Where’d you guys meet?”
“Online.” It turned out you could hire people through LinkedIn. “I was kind of amazed at how many responses I got. Once you cast your net wider than just this area, and get more methodical than word of mouth, it’s amazing what you can turn up.”
“I bet.” She frowned. “Though I clearly am doing it wrong.”
But she was casting plays. He was hiring bar help. It was different. “Well, even with the huge volume of responses, Brie was obviously the best of the bunch.”
“Obviously.”
He eyed her. Her mood had taken a nosedive, and the way she was responding with flat, one- or two-word responses was kind of odd.
“So she’s moving here.” Maya looked around the apartment with her brow furrowed. “When does she arrive?”
“Three weeks.”
She whistled again. “Wow, you don’t mess around.”
“Well, it’s going to take two weeks for her to get out of her current situation, and then she’s going to take a breather.”
“She’s going to take a breather? After her current situation?”
“Yeah. I feel like it would be rude to try to force her to rush it. It’s not like I need her. I’ve been fine without her up until now.”
She laughed, but it sounded hollow, like a bad actor laughing onstage. And Maya wasn’t a bad actor. “So I guess I’d better enjoy today’s match while I can.”
Huh? “What do you mean?”
She looked as confused as he felt. “Does Brie like football?”
“I have no idea. Odds are not.”
“But she’s going to be cool with me coming over and hanging out for hours on end?”
“I don’t see why she would care. It has nothing to do with her.”
She squinted at him. “Have you sustained a head injury?”