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Mia dropped her feet and was suddenly on the couch beside her. “Ooh, how do they look?”
They sat beside each other in silence for several minutes, reading the profiles.
“Are there photos?” Mia asked.
“Yep. Which one should we check out first?”
“Both sound promising, but I’m gonna go with the dentist. He sounded more like you.”
Claire’s eyebrows went up. She’d gravitated toward the high school baseball coach. “Why do you say that?”
“That question asking what he’s looking for in a woman. He said independent, good sense of humor, and someone who loves going out to eat. That’s you in a nutshell.”
She had a point. Claire selected the dentist, Matt Foster. The photo loaded and they both leaned back.
“Wow,” Mia breathed.
Claire stared. “Seconded.”
If the photo was authentic and recent, Matt Foster was extremely hot. He stood alone on a bridge, hips against the railing and one ankle crossed over the other. She couldn’t see much of his hair because he wore a baseball cap on his head, but a few blond curls escaped at the bottom. A strong jaw was covered in light brown scruff and a well-built body filled out the T-shirt and slim-cut jeans he wore. His nose was set below a pair of striking blue eyes, with slight lines at the edges that spoke of a man who smiled big and smiled often.
Which brought her to his mouth. Full lips stretched around straight white teeth in a smile that was almost as incredible as Graham’s.
Almost.
“I was just thinking I needed to get my teeth cleaned.” Mia reached for the phone she’d abandoned in her chair. “That’s Foster, spelledF-O-S-T-E-R?”
“Actually it’s spelledN-O-A-H.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “You of all people know I’m madly in love with my husband.” She continued to pull up Google on her phone. “I also happen to need a new dentist.”
Claire toggled back to Matt’s profile and read more about him. He did seem pretty great, but she’d thought that about the real estate agent at first, too.
“You gonna message him?” Mia asked, eyes still on her phone.
“I don’t know.”
Mia’s hands dropped to her lap and she stared at Claire. “What? Why not?”
An image of Graham’s face popped into Claire’s mind.
There was a moment on Saturday night when she’d caught him looking at her with something like tenderness. It had been there but was gone in an instant when he’d looked away, almost as if he couldn’t take it. It wasn’t until the next morning she’d thought back to it, and the intensity in his eyes, but she’d thought about it often since.
It probably wasn’t the best idea to dwell on it given her commitment not to fall for him beyond that of friends with benefits.
“You’re right,” she said. “I should give him a chance, huh?”
Her friend gave her a strange look. “Wasn’t that the whole point of signing up?”
“Yeah, of course.” Just as Claire tapped the icon to start a conversation with Matt, a banner appeared on the screen to inform her their food had been delivered.
She jumped up and dropped her phone on the couch. “Food’s here.”
Later that evening, when she got into bed beside Graham, Claire realized she’d never sent a message to the dentist.
She could roll onto her side and send something quickly, but Graham’s large hand closed around her hip, and thoughts of anything but him floated right out of her mind.
She didn’t message Matt the dentist the next day, either.
