Page 23 of First-Time Caller
“I heard what you said, I’m just—”
“Which part of that sentence is a problem for you?”
I scratch above my eyebrow.All of it?All of it feels like a problem for me. And I have no idea why. “I don’t—” I start and stop. I swallow twice. “How—”
“I called her yesterday and asked if she’d be interested in joining the show. Our listeners have skyrocketed since that interview went viral.” She holds up her phone. “Most of the comments want her to find her happy ending. I plan forHeartstringsto help.”
I frown. “How canHeartstringshelp?”
Maggie looks at me like I’m stupid. Jackson coughs into his fist. Eileen ignores everyone, still scrolling through her phone, head tilted in concentration, completely oblivious to the rest of the room. I have no idea what Hughie is doing behind me.
“Are you not the host of a romance radio show? Do you not think you’re capable of helping one woman find the love she deserves?”
“Like a . . .” My hands are sweating again. “Like aBachelorette-type thing?”
“Exactly like that.”
The rejection sits heavy on the tip of my tongue. Not because I don’t want Lucie in my booth but because it doesn’t feel right. Not for what Lucie wants. She said on the phone that she wants magic. That she wants love to find her exactly where she is. I can’t imagine that participating in a radio show where dates are lined up like appetizer options at an Applebee’s happy hour will be very magical.
I clear my throat and shift in my seat, very aware that I’m on thin ice with Maggie and any disagreement with this plan might encourage her to wedge her stiletto right up my ass. “Did she agree to this?”
“Who?”
“Lucie,” I explain, doing my damned best to stitch together every ounce of my patience. “The woman you plan to extort for engagement.”
Hughie sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth. Eileen sinks down in her chair. Jackson looks like he wants to climb out the narrow window on the far end of the office.
But Maggie doesn’t reach across the desk to throttle me.
She studies me for a long beat, eyes narrowed. Then a smile blooms across her face.
The woman who once hurled an orange down the hallway at me when I told her she had shitty taste in ballpoint pens gives me a wide and toothy grin, her eyes crinkled in delight.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “You’re terrifying.”
She chuckles. “I know.”
I subtly try to shift my chair away from her desk. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you’ve got a big, squishy heart in there, you grumpy asshole.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t,” I say again.Christ.“I just don’t want to drag an unwilling woman into some weird love competition. I’d say that’s baseline decency.”
Maggie rolls her eyes. “Noted. There will be no dragging involved.” Her calculating eyes watch me twitch around in my seat. I feel like a bug pinned beneath a microscope. “I think it’s sweet you’re looking out for Lucie.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“You care.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t want me to take advantage of her.”
“Of course not.” I huff, frustrated. “I also don’t want you to run over a litter of puppies. It doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and adopt a dog.”
