Susan Mallery - Meant To Be Yours

He studied Renee, taking in her freckles and the cute way her nose turned up a little at the end. She had green eyes—although hers were more gray than his. There was something about her smile he liked. If he were to describe her in a book he would probably mention her long bangs and...

And what? Her height? Her eyes? The shape of her mouth? Did anyone care about that kind of crap? Dammit—he was a number one New York Times best-selling author and he couldn’t describe a woman? His career was obviously over.

He pushed that thought away. He would dwell on his inability to write later. Tonight was about having a good time.

“What’s the game?” he asked as several of the servers started passing out board games. “Ah, Monopoly. Excellent.”

Carol picked up the piece of paper that had been left on the table. “Traditional rules,” she read. “Whoever has the most money at the end of an hour goes on to the next round. After that, rounds are thirty minutes.” She glanced at her teammates. “That sounds easy enough.”

Renee nodded and turned to Jasper. “While you were gone, we had a Monopoly Junior tournament and odd number rolls didn’t count. Things got quite heated.”

“I’ll bet.”

Her conversation was completely normal. He must have imagined whatever had happened before. Only was she leaning toward him or was he imagining it?

They unpacked the game and chose tokens. Mathias counted the money and passed the right amount to everyone, then they rolled to see who would go first. As usual, Jasper rolled the highest number and got to start. He rolled double sixes, followed by a five. He bought the Electric Company property, then collected two hundred dollars from the Community Chest card he drew from the top of the stack. Carol was on his left, so he handed the dice to her.

She stared at him. “I’d forgotten what it was like to play against you. I don’t think I like it.”

He flashed her a smile. “What can I say? I’m a lucky guy.”

She made a huffing sound and rolled a seven. “How did the cleanup go yesterday?” she asked Renee.

“We are back to normal. The water is gone, everything is dried out and there’s not really any serious damage.” She glanced at Jasper. “We had a little accident at the firefighter wedding on Saturday night. Someone bumped the hose fountain and nearly flooded the place.”

“What’s a firefighter wedding?”

She took the dice from Mathias and rolled. “Weddings Out of the Box does theme weddings. In this case, the theme was firefighters. The wedding colors were red, yellow and orange. The flower girl carried flowers in a fireman’s helmet. That sort of thing.”

“People do that?”

Renee grinned. “Jasper, you’ve driven by Weddings Out of the Box. One side of the building looks like a Tuscan villa and another looks like a castle. What did you think was happening there?”

“I thought Pallas was quirky.”

“Theme weddings are big business,” she told him. “There are the usual ones. Princess, pirate, weddings based on books or movies. This fall we’re having a Halloween wedding, a football wedding and an apple wedding.”

“What’s an apple wedding?” he asked.

“They’re apple lovers.” She laughed. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

An apple wedding? Was that really a thing? He felt as if there was a whole world out there, about which he knew nothing. First women and now weddings. He needed to work on his life skills education.

Mathias rolled the dice and then moved his token. “I’m going to make a quick call to our nanny,” he said, then shrugged sheepishly. “Like we said before, it’s the first time we’ve left Devon at night, so...”

“You should absolutely check in,” Renee told him. “You’ll feel better.”

Carol watched him go. “It’s funny. All the things I worried about before we had Devon haven’t been a problem. Instead there are so many other things to worry about. Like leaving her alone.”

Renee patted her arm. “It will get better. You’re a terrific mom. She’s lucky to have you.”

“Thanks.”

Jasper looked at Renee. “Do you have kids?”

“Me? No. I’m not married.” She flushed slightly. “Not that you need to be married to have children. I wasn’t saying that. Or judging. I just mean...” She cleared her throat, lowered her gaze, then looked at him. “Um, no. You?”

He shook his head.

Okay, there was something going on with her. He was sure of it. Fairly sure. Reasonably sure, at least. He really had to get out more. He hadn’t felt the need before, but being around people again made him aware of his solitary state. Not to mention the lack of sex in his life.

He looked at Renee. She was small, but everything was in the right place. She had a sense of humor and he liked her smile. What were the odds she was looking for a brief but satisfying fling that would go absolutely nowhere?

Mathias returned and took his seat. “Everything is fine,” he told Carol. “Devon’s asleep and nothing is wrong.”

Their eyes locked. “I want to go home,” Carol said softly.

“Thank God. Me, too.” Mathias sprang to his feet. “Sorry about this, but it’s a baby thing.”

Renee waved her hand toward the door. “Go be with your beautiful baby. Great progress was made tonight. Next time you’ll stay the whole first hour.”

Carol laughed. “Thanks for understanding. See you at lunch tomorrow.”

“You will,” Renee told her.

Seconds later, they were gone. Jasper looked at Renee. “I guess the odds of one of us heading to the finals just went up.”

“They did.”

She held his gaze a second past what he would consider normal, friendly interaction, shifting them into the maybe I’m interested category. Or was that just wishful thinking on his part? He really had to get this whole man/woman thing figured out. At sixteen, being socially awkward could be considered a little charming. At his age, it was pathetic.

“Monopoly is less fun with just two players,” he said. “Could I buy you a drink instead?”

RENEE TOLD HERSELF there was absolutely no pressure. Jasper had invited her for a drink and she had said yes. Big whoop. Men and women met for drinks hundreds of times a day and it was all completely normal. Boring even. Only sitting across from Jasper wasn’t anything she would describe as normal, and it could never be boring.

For one thing, the guy was hot. He was tall, with broad shoulders, but more than that, there was an air of casual strength about him. As if he could handle himself in any situation. Should scary-looking bad guys burst into the place, Renee knew Jasper would handle the situation. She, on the other hand, would run screaming into the night. Or hide. Or faint.

He also had that hint of slightly wounded male about him. He’d been damaged in his past and it showed. It took a stronger woman than her to resist that kind of yumminess. Although this was just a drink, she reminded herself as Jasper walked over to small corner table they’d moved to. He set a cosmo in front of her before taking a seat across from her and picking up his gin and tonic.

He took a sip, studying her over the glass. She had no idea what he was thinking, nor did she know what to say. Nerves gripped her tightly, making her feel awkward. She hadn’t been on a date since moving to Happily Inc, and before that she’d been getting over a shattered heart, and before that she’d been in a nearly three-year relationship, and before that...

“So, how was your book tour?” she asked brightly, hoping the question and his answer would distract her brain. “You were gone a long time.”