Page 9 of Matched By Mistake
She put the daisies in water and then went back to a large wooden bowl where he could see she had the salad already prepared. She put in a few finishing touches. “Corona with lime is my go-to drink with this, but I have lemonade, wine or tequila if you’d prefer those.”
“Corona works for me. Can I help?”
“If you want to grab two beers from the fridge, we should be good to go,” she said. She put the salad bowl on the table that she’d already set with two places. She also got some wedges of lime, which she placed in the center, and he twisted the caps off the bottles and went to join her.
She was so casual that he should be at ease. But he wasn’t. He was conflicted, and he knew that nothing was going to change until he figured out if he was going to try to sleep with her. Also, there was the slight issue of his family.
They sat down and she dished up a portion of the taco salad for him. She did the same for herself, then tapped the top of her beer bottle against his. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” he said.
“So... I’ve been summoned to a family meeting tomorrow morning,” she said.
“I suspect I’m going to be as well. So far I have the family chat on mute,” he said. But he knew he was going to have to respond some time tonight.
“Good idea. But if I do that my mom freaks out and comes to my place,” Maggie said. “She worries.”
He smiled. “Yeah, parents do that. Why’d you bring up the meeting?”
“I want to get ahead of this. I know my dad and your dad really hate each other and I’ve only heard my father’s side, but I get where he’s coming from.”
“Same. And then adding in all of the bad blood that each new generation adds to the feud, it’s a big ask for us to date,” he said.
“It could be,” Maggie admitted. “But maybe it’s time to get over the feud and move on.”
“Do you think your dad will go for that?”
“No.” She shook her head and laughed. “He’s the most stubborn man on the planet.”
“I bet my old man could give yours a run for that title. What are you suggesting, then?”
“That we figure out what we want and then call a meeting with both of our families. Maybe get an unbiased third party to mediate,” she said.
“To what end?”
“Well if we are going to support the match made by k!smet, then I think we are going to have to go on some public dates, and it might be better for us if we set the terms,” she said.
She was making a lot of sense. He didn’t want to have his father or the rest of his family interfering in dates with Maggie. Or would that interference be the excuse he could use to keep his hands to himself?
“What are you thinking for the dates?” he asked.
“Just a set number of public outings where we can look like we are out together. I think the app will continue to suggest things.”
He leaned back in his chair and nodded. “Why a set number?”
“Well, I think we both know this isn’t going to work and a set number gives us an out,” she said. “And it will make our families happy.”
“What if we both don’t know it’s not going to work?”
“You think this could be a real match?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we table all this talk about our families and try to really get to know each other.”
Inviting Jericho into her home had been a calculated risk. But after she’d almost kissed him, she knew she needed to test herself with him before they were in public. See if what she’d felt had just been nerves and the excitement of having a date again after all this time.
Which she knew was her own fault. She could have dated after Randall left her. Some of her friends had encouraged her to find a super-hot guy and hook up just to make Randall jealous, but she hadn’t. She’d been too in her feelings and those feelings had been all the worst, ugliest things she could say about herself.
Now he was suggesting they get to know each other.
