The Dating Dare (Gambling Men Book 2) Read online

  “Some or most?”

  “Okay, lots.”

  I heaved a sigh. I wasn’t exactly disappointed, since I’d known the answer all along. Still, it didn’t renew my faith in men in any way.

  “Women are no better,” James said.

  “We’re not obsessed with looks.”

  “You’re pretty obsessed with looks, but you’re even more obsessed with power and prestige.”

  I couldn’t completely disagree. “We also want compassion and a sense of humor.”

  “A sense of humor is pretty hard to quantify.”

  “I suppose. And you can’t exactly see it coming from across the room.”

  James tapped his mug on the table as if for emphasis. “See? Women are just like men. It’s human nature to start with looks. Maybe it’s because they’re the easiest benchmark when you first meet.”

  “I wish I had them.” The minute I made the admission, I wanted to call it back.

  James wasn’t my best friend, and this wasn’t a heart-to-heart Saturday afternoon talk in yoga pants.

  Now he was scrutinizing me, and I wished the floor would open right up and swallow me whole.

  “Why do you say that?” he asked.

  The answer was painfully obvious. “Because it would be nice. You must get it. You were with Brooklyn all those years.”

  Anybody who fell for Brooklyn understood the appeal of a beautiful woman.

  “I mean, why do you think you don’t have them?”

  It was my turn to stare back at him.

  “Hello?” I said. I pointed to my chin. “Plain Jane librarian here.”

  “Well, you’re not exactly glamorous,” he said.

  “Thank you for making my point.” I tamped down the ego pinch. I hadn’t really expected James to insist I was beautiful. Still, blunt honesty was hard to take sometimes.

  “But you’re pretty.”

  I shook my head. “Oh, no. You can’t backpedal now. Your first reaction is your true reaction.”

  “My first reaction was that you have the raw material.”

  “Be still my beating heart.”

  He grinned at me.

  I had been joking. Well, I was mostly joking. I could make light of my looks or I could get depressed about them. I wasn’t going to get depressed.

  Plain was fine. It was ordinary and normal, and people led perfectly happy lives with plain looks. In fact, most did—the vast, overwhelming majority of people had looks that were plain in some way or another. The bombshells among us were few and far between.

  “You did get a look at the guy Brooklyn married, right?” James asked.

  I definitely got a look at him. I hadn’t attended Brooklyn’s wedding to Colton Kendrick, but I’d gone to Layla’s wedding right after when she married Colton’s twin brother, Max. Colton and Max were rich, rugged and handsome. They also seemed to be truly great guys.

  I nodded to James.

  He made a sweeping gesture down his chest. “Then you can guess how I feel.”

  “You have the raw material,” I said.

  I tried not to smile. I knew heartbreak wasn’t funny.

  James shook his head and seemed to fight his own smile. “Are we going to sit here and wallow in it?”

  “That’s the opposite of what I want to do,” I said.

  “What do you want to do?” he asked.

  I gave my racket a pointed look. “I wanted to play tennis.”

  “Not this minute. I mean more broadly, in life, going forward?”

  “I was thinking about getting a cat.”

  “Seriously?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “A cat’s a big commitment.”

  “You don’t like cats?”

  He seemed to ponder the question. “I’d probably go for a dog. But I’d have to get a house first.”

  I knew he and Brooklyn had planned to go house shopping right after the wedding. I wasn’t going to touch that one.

  “A dog does need a yard,” I said instead.

  “Maybe I’ll buy a house,” he said. But he didn’t look enthusiastic about it.

  I wished I could afford a house. It would be years before I had a down payment saved up for even a condo. I’d be staying in my loft apartment for the foreseeable future.

  “Real estate is a good investment,” I said.

  James was an economist. I didn’t exactly know what he did on a day-to-day basis in his job, but it seemed to me economists would be interested in good investments.

  “It’s definitely a good time to lock in an interest rate.”

  “But?” I could hear the but in his sentence.

  “It’s hard to know what to look for when you can’t picture your future.”

  The statement seemed particularly sad.

  While I searched for the right response, my phone rang.

  “Go ahead,” James said, lifting his beer and sitting back in his chair.

  “It’s Sophie.” I was curious about her lunch date, but I wasn’t about to have an in-depth conversation here in front of James. I swiped to accept the call. “I’ll tell her I’ll call her back.”

  “You want privacy?” He made to leave.

  “No.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to chase him away. “It’s fine.”

  “Hi, Sophie,” I said into the phone.

  “Bryce has a friend,” she said.

  “Uh...that’s nice. Listen, can I call you—”

  “As in a friend,” she said. She was talking fast, enthusiasm lighting her voice. “A friend for you, a guy who wants to meet you. We can go on a double date. Dinner tonight. Does tonight work for you?”

  I found myself meeting James’s gaze.

  “Nat?” Sophie asked. “Are you there?”

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  I didn’t know why I was hesitating. No, I didn’t have plans for Saturday night, and of course I wanted to meet a new guy. What single girl wouldn’t want to meet a new guy?

  It seemed like Bryce and Sophie were hitting it off. I knew Sophie had good taste in men. If Bryce was a good guy, it stood to reason that his friend would be a good guy. I’d like to meet a good guy.

  “What time?” I asked.

  “Seven. We’ll swing by your place. You might want to meet us downstairs. I mean...you know...”

  Sophie was not a fan of my utilitarian loft apartment. She bugged me about fixing it up all the time.

  Myself, I didn’t see the point in spending a lot of money on cosmetics. The place was perfectly functional. Then again, if the guy thought like her, I didn’t want to put him off straightaway because of my questionable taste in decorating.

  “Sure,” I said. “Seven o’clock downstairs.”

  “Perfect!” She sounded really happy.

  I ended the call.

  “Sorry about that,” I said.

  James waved away my apology. “Girls’ night out?”

  “Not exactly. Double date.”

  James sat forward again. “Blind date?”

  “Yes.” I took a sip of my beer “I haven’t been on one of those in a while.”

  “I guess your dry spell is over.”

  I didn’t particularly like calling it a dry spell. It made me sound desperate—like I was thirsty for a man.

  All I really wanted was to move completely and permanently on from Henry. I supposed that made me thirsty enough. There wasn’t much point in dressing it up.

  “That’s one way to put it,” I said to James.

  He lifted his mug in another toast. “Well, congratulations.”

  I touched my mug to his again and laughed at myself. I’d just been moaning about my loneliness. I should be thrilled about having plans for tonight. I would be thrilled. I was thrilled.

&
nbsp; “That’s better,” James said. “Smile and be happy.”

  Two

  Since I hadn’t thought to ask Sophie where we were going for dinner, I went middle of the road on an outfit—a pair of gray slacks and a monochrome animal print blouse. The blouse was V-necked, with long sleeves, and the rayon fabric was loose and comfortable. I liked the way it draped over my hips, asymmetrical from front to back.

  I put my hair into a loose braid with a long tassel. My hair grew fast, and it had been a while since my last trim. If I left it completely loose, it felt wayward and messy, making it hard to relax while I ate. This way, it was up out of the way but still wispy around my face, so I didn’t look too severe.

  I wore a little more makeup than usual—though it was always disappointing when the carefully applied mascara got lost behind my glasses. I put in some dangling gold earrings Layla had given me for my last birthday, and went with a pair of medium heel, charcoal boots.

  I threw a sweater over my arm since September weather was unpredictable, and I hooked my trusty brown leather tote over my shoulder. It was heavy. I often thought I should streamline the contents. But the truth was I liked to be prepared—wallet, keys, sunglasses, comb, lotion, tissues and wipes, hair elastics in case of unexpected wind, a couple of coins in each denomination, enough hidden cash for a taxi home within a twenty-five-mile radius, credit cards, my phone, a flash drive—because, well, these days you never knew when you might need to unexpectedly download data—and self-defense spray because, well, these days you just never knew.

  When I met Sophie at the street entrance, I rethought my look. Then again, I usually rethought my look as soon as I saw how Sophie had dressed.

  She was wearing a short black scooped-neck A-line dress with just enough swish to make it fun. Over top, she’d put a faded jean jacket with a few scattered rhinestones on the collar and shoulders. The sparkling gems echoed her choker and earrings. She carried a little clutch purse, and wore strappy black platform sandals.

  Her highlighted light brown hair was thick and lustrous, framing her dark brown eyes and full lips.

  “Hi, Nat,” she said. “You look terrific.”

  I didn’t feel terrific. Then again, I hadn’t been going for terrific. So, there was that.

  “You look fantastic,” I said.

  She linked her arm with mine. “Bryce is a super good guy. He got us a sedan instead of a taxi. Classy or what?”

  “Classy,” I said. “Where are we going?”

  “Russo’s on the waterfront.”

  “Nice,” I said. Russo’s was a very trendy Italian restaurant. “Do we have reservations?” Saturday nights were crowded everywhere downtown.

  “You don’t need to worry about that. Bryce can worry about that.”

  “So, you don’t know if he made them or not.” I wasn’t being obsessive, merely practical.

  “We’re on a date, Nat. Let the guys do the planning.”

  “Okay.” I was still curious, but I wasn’t going to belabor the point.

  Two men were standing in front of a black sedan parked at the curb.

  “This is Bryce,” Sophie said of the taller one.

  Bryce was easily over six feet. His hair was thick and near jet-black. He had a classically handsome face with brown eyes and a nice smile. His shoulders were square beneath a sport jacket and a white shirt.

  “Bryce is head chef at The Blue Fern,” Sophie said.

  “I didn’t know you worked together,” I said to Sophie.

  She supervised food and beverage service at the local high-end restaurant. I’d had the impression Bryce was a customer she’d met while working.

  “I’m sure I told you,” Sophie said.

  She hadn’t. But I decided disputing her memory was pointless.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said to Bryce, offering to shake hands.

  His grip was gentle, his hand broad. “Sophie talks a lot about you to me, but obviously not the other way around.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was offended or not. I decided to take countermeasures just in case. “Our jobs are so different we really don’t talk about work very much.”

  “Nice save,” Bryce said, telling me he’d been at least slightly offended.

  Sophie and I really didn’t talk much about our work. But belaboring the point would only make things worse. I stopped talking.

  “And this is Ethan,” Sophie said, gesturing to the other man.

  If she noticed she’d offended Bryce, she didn’t seem particularly worried about it.

  Ethan was shorter than Bryce, about Sophie’s height in her high-heeled shoes—still a good bit taller than me.

  His hair was a sandy blond with a copper hue. His face was on the round side, his eyes a pale blue.

  “Nice to meet you too, Ethan,” I said, giving him my best smile, since he was my date, and since a woman never knew when she might meet “the one.” I tried to imagine Ethan as “the one.” I wasn’t quite seeing it, but the evening was young.

  “Hi, Nat.” His grip was firmer than Bryce’s.

  His mouth was shaped in a smile, but his eyes didn’t quite seem to meet mine—odd. It looked like he was focused on my eyebrows.

  It made me wonder when I’d last plucked them. Did they look messy? Bushy? I sure hoped those little blond hairs hadn’t grown out in between them. That would be embarrassing.

  “Do you work at The Blue Fern, too?” I asked him.

  “Ethan is a computer engineer,” Sophie said. “He has his own business.”

  “That’s impressive,” I said.

  I’d never been strong in science and technology. Layla had always been the brainy one of the group.

  “Our focus is robotics,” Ethan said.

  “He’s a genius,” Sophie said.

  Ethan gave Sophie a warm smile at the compliment. “The team turns big ideas into reality. And Bryce and Sophie have presented some very exciting concepts.”

  I didn’t understand, so I looked to Sophie for an explanation.

  “We’re technologically revolutionizing the food service industry,” she said with a wide grin.

  The way she said it sounded like she was joking, though I didn’t completely get what was funny about a technological revolution of the food industry. In my mind I pictured robotic salad tossing.

  The image was a little bit funny, so I smiled back at her. “You’re turning The Blue Fern into The Jetsons? Jet packs and robot waiters?”

  Their silence told me I’d got it wrong.

  “You’re mocking her?” Ethan asked.

  I sobered. “No. I didn’t... I mean...”

  “It’s a brave new world,” Sophie said, clearly disappointed by my reaction. “You have to progress with the times.”

  I felt terrible.

  “We should get going,” Ethan said, his expression telling me I hadn’t made a good first impression. So much for judging him. He was judging me.

  If Sophie was serious about orchestrating a technological revolution, you’d think she might have mentioned it to her best friend.

  Ethan took the front passenger seat while Sophie climbed into the back and pushed to the middle. Bryce made to climb in behind her, so I went around to the opposite door, feeling awkward and self-conscious.

  “Bryce and Ethan went to high school together,” Sophie said to me while I wrangled my seat belt into the clasp.

  “You’ve been friends all this time?” I was happy to have the conversation move along.

  “We weren’t friends,” Bryce said.

  “Oh.” I left it at that.

  I decided to keep my responses short and sweet from here on in.

  “Ethan was a nerd. I was more of a jock,” Bryce said. “He went off to university, and I went to culinary school.”

  “You must have done well,
” I said. “I mean, if you’re a head chef already.”

  “It’s a small place,” Bryce said.

  “But we have really big plans,” Sophie said.

  “It sounds like,” I said, leaving her an opening to elaborate.

  “You’ve heard about 3-D printing?” she asked me.

  I nodded. I didn’t know a whole lot about it, library materials not normally being 3-D. Our printers were 2-D. We had color for a price, but that was as high-tech as we got.

  The excitement level in Sophie’s voice grew as she spoke. “The three of us are partnering on a tech start-up.”

  “Our patents are pending,” Bryce said.

  Patents?

  “We’ve got a prototype,” Ethan said from the front seat.

  “You should see it, Nat,” Sophie said.

  “It’s too big,” Bryce said.

  “I have some ideas on that,” Ethan said.

  “But you can’t fault the quality,” Bryce said.

  “We’ll need investors,” Sophie said. “We need to scale up.”

  “Once it’s perfected,” Bryce said.

  “We’re very close,” Ethan said.

  I had about a thousand questions for her, starting with: What the heck?

  “How long have you been at this?” I asked instead.

  “A few months,” Sophie replied. “I didn’t want to jinx it, so I’ve kept really quiet.”

  “Even from me?” I felt even more isolated than I had this morning.

  It looked like Bryce wasn’t such a new guy in Sophie’s life, after all. I felt like I was at a business meeting instead of on a date.

  “I did,” Sophie said. “Sorry about that.”

  “Just so I’m clear,” I said. “You are dating Bryce?”

  Bryce threaded his arm through Sophie’s. “We started off as colleagues, then friends, and now, well...we’ve discovered something very special.”

  “And Ethan brought the tech side,” Sophie said.

  I assumed Ethan brought the tech side to the business venture and not to the romantic relationship.

  “Baker’s confectionary is our domain,” Ethan piped in. “We’re upping the level of precision and sophistication with which restaurants, even small establishments, can conceive, refine, create and serve desserts of every variety.”