Page 21 of Matched By Mistake
She admitted to herself that she wanted the next two weeks to be more than she agreed to. She’d been dancing around it—and not doing a salsa where their passion and attraction reigned, but more of a formal dance. Something where they acted the parts that the app and their families had assigned them.
But it was time to end that. She wasn’t going to play any more games. She wanted him but she also realized shewantedto trust him. And the only way that would happen was if she got to know him. Got to know Jericho Winters not because her family wanted inside information or because an app had matched them.
But because she liked him and wanted him and she was tired of pretending she didn’t have desires.
Six
“Thanks, man, for doing your part. Alisha told Mom, who told everyone that the meeting with the Del Rios was a bit contentious.”
He and Trey were sitting by his pool while his nephew played in it with some friends. Both men were drinking beer. “No prob. We agreed to two weeks of dates. Will the IPO happen in that time frame?”
“Yeah, we think so. If it doesn’t, I might need you to extend things with Del Rio.”
Del Rio. It was funny, but most of the time Jericho didn’t see Maggie as the face of his family’s bitter rivals. He had looked at the website of her company, MaggieInk, and he had to be honest—if he didn’t know she was a Del Rio, he might have hired her. She was so accomplished and professional. Brian had sent him some photos of her work and a link to the exhibit she’d directed. Jericho had been impressed.
Which brought him back to his current dilemma. Normally he’d be honest with his brother and get some good advice. But he couldn’t be. Not really. Maggie was the one woman that Trey wasn’t going to be objective about. He rubbed the back of his neck and took another sip of his beer. He felt fucked. To be honest, he should stick to the public dates as they’d agreed.
No more late-night messages. Except he knew she wouldn’t let his challenge go unmet. If he hadn’t realized it earlier, it had become perfectly clear to him that Maggie Del Rio wasn’t by any means meek. She might have given up on dating for a few years, but that was her choice.
“You look...intense. What’s up?” Trey asked.
He shook his head. Having already decided not to burden Trey with everything that Maggie stirred in him, he changed the subject. “What’s up with you and Misha? Is it just a business deal, or is there something more?”
“Just business. You know I don’t mix business and pleasure.”
“I know that we both say a lot of things,” Jericho said.
Trey arched an eyebrow at him. “Like what?”
“Nothing specific. I mean we’ve both made statements in the past that we later retracted.”
“Yeah, like that time you were going to go vegan and lasted about forty minutes into the barbecue,” Trey said, snickering.
“Yeah. Like that.” Jericho paused, taking another sip of his beer. “So, Misha...?”
“Where’s this coming from?”
He downed the rest of his beer to stall for time but he could tell by the limited subjects his mind was coming up with that he wanted to talk about Maggie. “I like Maggie.”
“What? How? I assume she’s not a monster, since she and Misha are besties,” Trey said.
“Yeah, she’s cool, but I like her like her,” he said.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“So, does she feel the same?” Trey asked. “Also, how is that even going to work?”
“It’s not. I know it can’t,” Jericho said. “Forget it. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m not going to let it go anywhere.”
Trey turned his head and looked over at Jericho. “Truth?”
He shrugged. “I’m trying.”
“Well, I guess if things go well on these public dates maybe things can change,” Trey said.
Maybe. That was encouraging, but if things went badly, then he could add fire to the feud, which was the last thing he wanted. He changed the subject to the Mavs and he and his brother talked sports until Dez tried doing “tricks” off the diving board. Jericho and Trey looked at each other. They’d show the kid how it was done.
