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Quinn’s head swivelled toward her; Marie bit her lip, reminding herself to speak more quietly. Candy wouldn’t want her date discussed all over town.
“He didn’t mention seeing me again.”
“How did the rest of the date go?”
“Fabulous.” Candy sounded distinctly dreamy. Take that, Chuck. “We had such a good time.”
“Did he flirt?”
“Yes, but not insistently. I mean I was surprised when he asked to come in. I think he was, too, actually.”
“Good.” Marie nodded firmly at her drink. All good news.
The “oh, gosh” belonged in the positive column.
“Oh, but at one point he said he’d been online and saw another woman who looked enough like me to be a twin. I nearly passed out.”
Marie made a dismissive noise. “None of his business.”
“But I felt really dishonest and kind of creepy.”
“You are approaching the dates with him honestly, right?
Open to whatever feelings develop?”
“I
guess…”
Marie rolled her eyes. Candy was practically climbing into the phone tonight after being ho-hum about all her other dates, and she still wouldn’t admit how much meeting Justin excited her. Damn the Chuck Syndrome. “You’re being honest in all the ways that concern him. As for him leaving abruptly last night, put yourself in his place. He’s in a new town, maybe he left a girlfriend behind…”
She paused, hoping Justin had filled Candy in so Marie could mention the relationship without breaching client confidentiality.
“He implied a woman had dumped him recently.”
“There you go. We’ll assume he had a tough ending to a tough relationship. Last night he had a great time with you, but maybe he went further than he meant to, or maybe he felt particularly vulnerable to rejection. Either way, when you refused him he was off balance. Hard to keep cool when you’re crazy hot for someone.”
Candy giggled. “He did seem into the kissing.”
“I’ll bet he had wood the size of the Washington Mon-ument.”
Quinn glanced over sharply. Marie cursed silently and lowered her voice further. His hearing was entirely too good.
“Give the guy a break and don’t assume you know what he’s feeling. I bet he’ll call. Or if he doesn’t right away, after a while you can call him, or do something completely neighborly and unthreatening like…I don’t know, take over brownies to welcome him to the block. Something like that.”
Candy snorted. “What is it with the baking? Abigail said the same thing.”
“Way to a man’s heart. Stomach, then zipper.”
Quinn chuckled. Marie turned and met his eyes, sending a firm butt-out message. Did the guy have bionic hearing? To her shock, he winked, which completely ruined her indigna-tion because she blushed hydrant-red, impossible to hide with her fair skin. Score one for bionic hearing.
“This whole dating thing is so confusing. Everything was easy with Chuck.”
Marie turned deliberately away from Mr. Hottie. Yes, easy with Chuck because Candy didn’t have to—or wasn’t given the chance to—think for herself.
“I understand. But if you can stand a little advice from Aun-tie Marie, remember, this is only the first guy you’re attracted to after Chuck, and there are lots and lots of fish swimming around Milwaukee. Take your time, date around, get a feel for what’s out there, how different men behave toward you and toward your various personalities. You have the power to choose the one you want, remembering that what seems familiar may not always be good for you, and that hormones aren’t the best judge of a mate, either. You deserve some pure fun after what you went through last year, so concentrate on lightening up and flying free for a while.”
“I will.” The smile was back in Candy’s voice, which had been uncharacteristically flat without it. “I feel much better.
I’ve been sitting here a complete mess, and now I’m ready to work on penis-shaped cookies for the bachelorette party tomorrow.”
“See? That was all you needed, to work on—” She peeked at Quinn, who was staring unconcernedly ahead, but could probably hear her eyelashes when she blinked “—those cookies. I bet you anything he’ll call. But if he doesn’t, it’s not the 90
