AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sam whips his head around to me. “You don’t get credit for us.”
“My work was important.”
“I came back to town specifically to see Harper again.”
“Rude.” I know it’s true, though. He loves me and the rest of our family, but I can’t pretend it was anything but the hope of reuniting with his high school love that brought him back to Texas.
“If anyone gets credit for helping Harper and me along, it’s Grandpa.” Sam smiles softly at Harper. “His constant updates about you brought all the hopes I’d been pushing down back to the surface. I had to come see you again.”
Harper works as a physical therapist at the retirement complex where Grandpa lives. Sam worked there, too, when he first came back, and according to Grandpa’s stories, watched her like a lovesick puppy before he found his courage to ask for a second chance at love.
Which actually proves my point—waiting for romance book scenarios is totally realistic and normal.
“Okay, but my part helped things along too,” I add. “I wasskilled at dropping special bits of gossip about you whenever Harper came into Dogeared. Getting you two together on the Christmas wagon ride just sealed the deal.”
Sam frowns, but Harper nods. “It really did. Seeing you with Finn and Willa was a turning point for me.”
I splay a hand at her. “See? I’m an excellent matchmaker. Just call me Emma.”
Harper gives me a pitying look, like I’m sweet but also a teensy bit pathetic. “You know who Emma winds up with in the end, right?”
I refuse to take anyone’s hints. Miles is across town on a date of my devising as we speak. My upset stomach is from my brother and sister-in-law and their PDA-fest,notmy best friend out with a cute, remarkable woman who won’t be able to help falling for him.
“I’d take Mr. Knightley, too,” I tell her. “Kind, compassionate, humble, and down to earth.”
And one hundred percent imaginary.
Chapter 9
Miles
I’m an author—I know how to create conflict. I constantly write my characters into uncomfortable, sometimes tortuous situations, all in the name of entertainment.
But in real life, here in this restaurant? I’m less skilled at drumming up conflict.
Honestly, I’m not trying very hard. Despite what I said to Owen about planning to sabotage my own dates, it’s not as easy as I’d thought it might be. I can’t just be mean to Kara. I don’t have it in me. She’s cute, funny, and nice to the waitstaff.
She’s also obsessed with celebrity gossip.
“Have you heard the latest about Vance Vickers?” She leans forward over her pasta, ready to spill the juicy details. Dinner conversation has jumped from one rumor to the next, a steady stream of names I can’t remember and events I’d rather not contemplate.
“I don’t think so.” The action movie star has been the subject of some tabloid story or another for the last twenty years. It would be hard to keep up even if I wanted to. Which, for the record, I don’t.
She launches into the rumored cause of his recent divorce,adding salacious speculation about who he might be dating now. Apparently, bets are on his much-younger nanny. It would be fitting, since Kara says that’s how he met his most recent ex-wife.
It’s enough to turn me off the pasta.
“If I could talk to these celebrity wives, I’d tell them to hire the oldest, crankiest nannies they can find,” she goes on. “Mrs. Doubtfire it up. But they don’t always cheat with the nannies. Sometimes it’s the costars. Did you hear about…”
And she launches into a story about two actors who are very much married to other people but supposedly took their on-screen romance off-screen when they were filming overseas.
This is why I have limited apps on my phone. I want curated information only. I’d regress all the way to a flip phone if I didn’t need to keep up with Georgia’s texting habits.
“Of course, they haven’t admitted they had an affair, but all signs point to yes.” Kara smiles as she takes a sip of her soda. “It could have just been PR for the movie, but how disappointing would that be?”
“So disappointing for them to be faithful to their partners,” I deadpan.
“I know, right? Be more interesting.”
