Page 23 of Dating Mr. Right A Collection
Jeanne: Wait! Five hours for what—
A new message landed, and she clicked on it, opening a photo. Her eyebrows lifted. They were toasting each other on a plane? In first-class seats? What was that all about? And where were they going that took five hours to get there?
Yet they were having fun and already flying together.
Perhaps she was a better matchmaker than she’d thought.
With a satisfied grin, she went inside and prepped for her own date, grateful that Joe had had the gumption to call her up after the auction. They’d already gone to a classic car show the other afternoon in South Beach, and they’d had such a fantastic time that he’d asked her to go to the racetrack tonight. That man was a handsome devil, and she was delighted that he didn’t seem to care that she was fifteen years older. Did that make her a cougar?
She roared at herself in the mirror and brandished her cougar claws.
“So be it.”
She swiped on mascara, some lipstick, and headed to the racetrack.
* * *
Her phone dinged once more as a hot green sports car cheetahed its way around the track.
“You waiting for a girlfriend to give you an out?” Joe teased.
She patted his leg. “Puh-leaze. If I didn’t like you, I’d tell you to your face.”
He flashed an I’m waiting smile. “Well?”
“You know I like you. The question is, how much do I like you?” She smiled.
“I’d like to know how much.”
“So would I,” she said flirtily then grabbed her phone. “Let me see if it’s Kristen.”
She flinched when the photo loaded. What were they doing there? Were they truly in Sin City?
“Look,” she whispered, showing him the picture of Kristen and Cameron beneath the Vegas sign.
“Seems they like each other. Just wanted to get away for a night in Vegas.”
She knew Cameron had been heading to Vegas for work, but had Kristen gone along with him? Didn’t she have to work the next day? Vegas was . . . well, a five-hour flight.
Her phone buzzed once more.
She startled.
And what was this? Elvis? And a chapel?
She froze. Kristen, her sweet, darling, clever Kristen, had fallen so quickly she’d eloped in Las Vegas?
She shook her head, like there was water in her ears. “She was supposed to look at urban art, get a cup of coffee, and maybe have a kiss,” she blurted out.
Joe cocked his head, stared at her quizzically. “Come again?”
She shoved the screen at him, showing him the string of texts. “They eloped! They ran off to Vegas and got married.”
Joe nearly spat out his drink as he gawked at the photos. “What is up with kids today?”
“I knew they’d like each other, but this seems a touch extreme.”
“Just a little.”
But at the same time, she couldn’t help but pat herself on the back. It was extreme, but sometimes you just knew.
15
Cameron
As the hotel executive shares his ideas for where he wants to introduce a Lulu’s Chocolates cart in the lobby of The Luxe, a newer Vegas resort, I listen furiously, giving him my undivided attention as best I can.
Because my attention these last twenty-four hours has definitely been divided.
I’m here, chatting in the lobby of this hotel.
But my mind is back in Miami, running around the city as we pranked Kristen’s grandma, making her think we loved our setup so much we’d run off to Vegas to tie the knot.
Photoshop for the win.
Right now, I’m hardly thinking of photo-doctoring software that made us look like we were in a first-class cabin or under the famous Vegas sign. Nor am I thinking of poker chip–themed chocolate, though I know I should be.
I’m remembering that last kiss.
An airport kiss.
The kind that makes you want more. That makes you wish one person wasn’t going one way and the other person going another.
Heck, I’d love to be hopping on a plane to Miami again tonight, rather than returning to New York.
When the meeting ends and the exec tells me the deal looks good, I ought to be happy.
Too bad when I hop on a plane that evening, I’m not exactly jumping for joy.
As I fly over the country, I tell myself it was only one date. “Get over it, man.”
16
Kristen
The next morning, I hit the roller rink at the crack of dawn, working out on my skates. I have an hour before I need to be at work, so I skate then return home, ready to shower.
Grams pounces on me the second I walk through the doorway.
She grabs my wrist. “Tell me everything.”
I clasp my hand to my chest, flutter my eyelids, and do my best starry-eyed impression. “Oh, it was magical, and I’m in love.”
Her eyes twinkle. “You are?”
The funny thing is . . . it doesn’t feel far from possible. Not today, but down the road. Maybe in a few months, I could honestly see myself falling for Cameron.
