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“I’ll be your date for this evening, I hope you don’t mind.”
A weird sounding laugh slipped from between her lips, and she slammed her hand over her mouth before she composed herself.
“I don’t mind at all. Not at all.”
He turned and held the chair for her while she took off her coat and handed it to the hostess. She sat down and Brady pushed the chair in, then looked up at me and winked.
I took my seat at a table where Clare couldn’t see me, but I could see her. After placing my food and drink order, I sat back and watched the scene play out. Clare was so damn animated when she spoke. At one point she stood, acted like she was about to throw a football, then plopped back down in the seat. Brady had been in stitches and seemed to be enjoying himself as well. If the guy wasn’t happily married, I’d be worried.
My drink stopped right at my lips, and I frowned. Why would I be worried if a guy liked Clare? I set the drink down. Then let out a humorless laugh. I was just worried that if she started dating some guy then she wouldn’t be able to date me. Fake date me. That’s all it was.
Wasn’t it?
After two hours of sitting at the restaurant, I tipped my waitress double since I took up her table for so long, then quickly slipped out of the restaurant. I pulled out my phone and pulled up Mark’s name. I worked with him in New York. Brady was his cousin, and he was the only reason I was able to pull this off. He owed me a favor after I told him to buy stock in a certain company and ended up making his clients a hell of a lot of money. I had paid for everything, Brady’s flight in, and the meal.
I hailed a taxi and headed back to my condo. Forty minutes later, there was a knock on my door. Opening it, Clare slammed her body into mine and hugged me. She let go and rushed into my place, tossing her purse on the kitchen island and spinning in circles in the living room. I couldn’t have stopped the smile on my face if I had tried. There was something about knowing I had made her this happy that warmed my insides.
“I can’t believe you did it! How in the hell did you get Brady Thompson to agree to having dinner with me?”
“Did you have a good time?”
“Did I have a good time?” She turned and faced me. “Wes, it was the best night of my life. He is so nice and showed me all these pictures of his kids and his wife. They are going to Australia for Christmas! I asked him a million-and-one questions about what it had been like playing professional football and he was so patient. He even asked me what it was like working for the Red Sox.”
I grabbed two beers out of the fridge and made my way over to the sofa. Handing her a beer, I sat down and took a drink.
“The way everyone was looking at me when we were leaving! I bet I end up in the gossip magazines. I can see it now, who was the brunette on Brady Thompson’s arm?”
“The gorgeous brunette,” I added.
Clare took a drink of the beer and sat down in the chair opposite the sofa. When her eyes met mine, my heart fucking jumped in my chest.
Holy shit. What is happening?
“Thank you, Wes. You must really want Mandy back to go through all of that.”
I forced a smile. Mandy had nothing to do with it, if I was being honest. I had wanted to do it for Clare. Sure, a part of me knew if I hadn’t been able to make it happen, Clare would most likely still help me out. She was that type of friend. I had doneit for her and her alone. And that realization had me second guessing everything now.
“When do we go on our first official date?” she asked before taking another drink of the beer.
Suddenly, I didn’t want to do this plan anymore. But, if we did it, then I could spend more time with Clare. It wasn’t like I was falling in love with her. We were growing our friendship and I honestly liked being with her. Nothing wrong with that.
“How about the cooking class. They’re doing some Thanksgiving thing.”
She nodded. “That sounds like fun. Are we cooking a whole meal?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, I like surprises, so that’s a plus.”
Smiling, I leaned forward and rested my arms on my knees. I wanted to tell her she looked beautiful tonight, that her blue eyes seemed so bright they nearly blinded me. But all I did was say, “It’s a date then. The class is tomorrow afternoon. I’ll pick you up at eleven, and maybe we can grab something to eat beforehand, just in case we botch what we’re supposed to be cooking.”
She returned my smile with one of her own. “That sounds like a plan. I’m going to head on home,” she said as she pulled her phone out of her purse. “Hopefully I won’t have to wait long for an Uber. Brady gave me a ride here.”
Grinning like a schoolgirl at her phone, she was typing away.
“I’ll take you home.”
Her head lifted. “Are you sure?”
