Page 87 of Matchmaking On The Menu

“—honestly,” Diane goes back to her conversation, perhaps to hide her feelings? Luke hangs on every word. Hmmm. “Gerald could’ve at least pretended to be sad about the house.”

“Some men don’t know what they have,” Luke says, with a conviction that seems slightly disproportionate to their ten-minute acquaintance. Diane looks at him like she’s reassessing something.

“And Teddy⁠—”

My head snaps toward her. I brace automatically. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Surely that counts for something.

She looks at me with that directness she had at the festival when I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t look away.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?”

I blink.

That is not where I thought this was going.

Shelly chokes on something. Mary goes completely still. Quadri’s expression cycles through three distinct emotions in under a second.

I look at Dannica. Really look, the way I couldn’t let myself fully do before. She’s steady. Not performing steadiness—actually steady, in the way of someone who decided something and stopped second-guessing it. Like she already knows how this ends and is just being polite by asking.

“Yes,” I say.

The word catches on its way out of my mouth, but it’s definite. It’s true.

She nods once. “Good.”

I let out a breath, the tension loosening slowly from the shoulders down.

Yeah. That tracks.

The door swings shut behind us and the noise cuts off clean. It’s cooler out here, quieter. The kind of quiet that changes the size of everything.

“You don’t actually have to,” I say. “The date. If that was just⁠—”

She glances at me. “I know.”

I wait.

“I want to.”

My chest does something I choose not to examine too closely.

“You hike?” she asks.

I let out a quiet laugh. “Occasionally.”

“Good,” she says, like it’s settled.

I shake my head. I’m smiling anyway, which isn’t something I planned.

“All right,” I say. “It’s a date.”

18

DANNICA

BREAKING NEWS: HIKE WAS ACTUALLY FOREPLAY

As I get out of my car, birdsong greets me, soft and peaceful, like the world doesn’t have a single reason to be nervous.