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“Ready?” Imogen asked.
“I have one thing to ask you first. I need to find somewhere else to stay for the rest of my time here. Do you have any rooms? I’m here through the twenty-fourth.”
“Ah, trouble in paradise?” Imogen pulled out a big, old-school calendar book from behind the bar.
“No trouble. I realized that the optics of me staying at the palace aren’t great. I need to come off as more of a neutral party.”
“The only room I have left is a small one without a private bathroom. It’s clean and comfortable, though.”
“I’ll take it from tomorrow night.”
Imogen waggled her eyebrows. “Are you sure you don’t want to take it from tonight?”
“I thought you said he met the doesn’t-live-with-his-parents criteria!” Meaning the goatherd had somewhere they could retreat to.
“He does, he does. I’m merely teasing you. He has a room in aboarding house in town. I’m told it’s very small and cozy.” More eyebrow waggling ensued.
“You’re told or you know?” Cara could dish it out, too. She did her own eyebrow dance.
“I’m told,” Imogen said firmly, and she didn’t glance down the bar, but Cara wondered if that was only because Kai wasn’t here this evening. Imogen came around the bar. “Shall we?”
“Why do I suddenly feel like you’re my pimp?” Had she thought this through sufficiently? With an app, you messaged a bit, got a sense of the other person, and his expectations. “What exactly did you tell this guy?”
“I told him Eldovia was hosting a very pretty American woman who was desperate to have sex.”
Cara gasped.
“Relax. I asked him if he was interested in a blind date with a visiting American. All you have to do is have a drink with him, play some darts. He’s not expecting anything beyond a little company.”
“Okay, okay.” Cara dug around in her bag. “Let me fix my makeup first.” Which she hadn’t been able to do in the car since Mr. Benz had made her turn off the light. He was so—
No. No thinking about Mr. Benz. She pulled out her lipstick. She needed her armor.
Matteo drove up the hill. And then he drove back down.
It had only been three hours since dinner, but he found himself hungry. A plate of Imogen’s chips would be just the thing right now.
Ms. Delaney was nowhere in sight when he entered the pub.Not that he was looking for her. Just that he knew she was supposedly here, so it was notable when she turned out not to be. He took his usual seat at the bar, and soon Imogen was setting a glass of his preferred scotch in front of him.
He ordered his chips and considered moving to a table. Sometimes, a change of scenery was nice. Imogen reappeared as he was looking over his shoulder trying to decide if he should move.
“Looking for your Ms. Delaney?”
“No. I didn’t even know she was here.” And she wasn’thisMs. Delaney, but he feared saying that would sound like protesting too much.
“I thought you dropped her off.”
“I did. But I was under the impression that you had something to show her, and since you’re here and she’s not, I’m assuming that has already happened.”
“She’s over there playing darts with Johannes Miller.”
He twisted the other way in his seat, his gaze following Imogen’s gesture to a little alcove that contained dartboards. Sure enough, there was Ms. Delaney with an enormous blond man. “I don’t think I know him.”
“He doesn’t come in much. His family has a goat farm over near Feldkirch, and when he’s working, he prefers camping on the mountain. But he keeps a room in the village in the winter. Pops in here from time to time.”
Johannes Miller and Ms. Delaney were laughing, and he had his arms wrapped around her as he helped her aim a dart. For god’s sake, it looked like a clichéd commercial for . . . he didn’t even know. Chewing gum. Mass-produced American coffee. Something wholesome. They let loose a dart together, and whenit hit the center of the target, they high-fived. Ms. Delaney’s hair was still down. It was long and bouncy, and with it all in one mass like this, he could see that it wasn’t a solid color as he’d always thought, but rather black streaked through with a dark mahogany.
He sniffed and turned back to Imogen, who said, “What?”
