Her Seven-Day Fiancé

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“No. She’s a financial analyst, but trying to find the perfect man for me has become her latest hobby. Or maybe it’s an obsession. But it’s not because she wants to help me find the perfect guy—she just wants me to find a guy who will convince me to move back to California. And not only is Diego her best friend’s favorite nephew, he lives in the same neighborhood as my parents.”

“That kind of relative and geographic proximity is a definite red flag,” he agreed. “You never want to get involved with somebody that you might run into on a regular basis after the relationship ends, because those encounters can be awkward and messy.”

She studied him over the rim of her glass. “On the surface, that sounds like a valid argument—except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“It assumes that every potential relationship is doomed from the start.”

“Have you ever had a relationship that didn’t end?” he challenged.

“Since I just told you about my mother’s efforts to find my perfect match, it’s safe to assume you already know the answer to that question.”

“There you go,” Jay said.

She shook her head. “Just because I’m not in love—and not looking for love—doesn’t mean that I don’t believe it exists,” she told him. “And I’m not going to let some artificial boundary determine who I can and cannot date.”

Which prompted him to ask the question that had been nudging at his mind for the past two hours: “Is that why you kissed me?”

Alyssa stared at him, certain she couldn’t have heard him correctly. “What did you just say?”

“I asked if you kissed me because you were tired of waiting for me to make a move.”

His response did nothing to clarify his question, but only succeeded in flustering her almost as much as the kiss.

“I was never waiting for you to make a move,” she assured him. “And when I kissed you—that wasn’t me making a move, that was sheer desperation.”

He frowned. “You’re saying that you don’t want to go out with me?”

“Ohmygod—no!” she said quickly, emphatically.

“By all means, take a minute to think about the question before you answer,” he said drily.

She felt her cheeks burn. “I don’t need a minute to think about it,” she said. “I do not want to go out with you.”

Okay, maybe she secretly thought he was the hottest guy she’d ever known, but he wasn’t at all her type. Not that she had a type—but she was certain that he did. She’d seen him around town with different women on various occasions, and they were all tall, slender and blonde. Alyssa was five feet six inches—when she was wearing two-inch heels—and though she wasn’t overweight, she was definitely more curvy than most of the women he’d dated, with dark hair and eyes that attested to her Mexican heritage.

“And seriously, what kind of question is that?” she demanded. “How massive is your ego that you’d think I was looking for an opportunity to get close to you?”

He just shrugged. “A lot of women in this town consider me to be a catch.”

“I’m not interested in catching you—or anyone. I don’t even want to play the game.”

“So I really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

“You really were,” she confirmed.

But even as she spoke those words to reassure him, there was a part of her that wondered if she was wrong—and that he’d been in exactly the right place at the right time.

Chapter Five (#u11dfc7e5-2c74-5cf8-af82-9436bc7b6811)

Jay heard voices in the hall and glanced up when Carter, Nat and Kevin came into the office together the next morning. They had a tray of coffee and box of pastries from The Daily Grind, and he held out his hand for his usual—large, black—desperate for the hit of caffeine to revive his sluggish brain. He peeled back the lid and lifted the cup to his mouth.

“Thanks,” he said. “I really needed that this morning—I don’t think I managed even four hours of sleep last night.”

Carter opened the box of pastries and Jay’s gaze zeroed in on the bear claw—at the same moment Kevin snatched it out of the box and bit into it.

“I thought the bear claw was mine.”

“Did you?” his friend asked around a mouthful of sweet, fried dough. “It really sucks when someone else moves in and takes something you’ve had your eye on, doesn’t it?”

Jay looked questioningly at his other friends. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t about the bear claw?”

“Because it’s about Alyssa,” Nat said.

“What about Alyssa?” he asked cautiously.

Kevin’s only response was to take another big bite of the pastry.

“When we were at The Daily Grind, we heard Megan Carmichael telling Kenzie Atkins that you were locking lips with the new bartender at Diggers’ last night,” Nat explained.

Jay shouldn’t have been surprised. The Daily Grind wasn’t just Haven’s café and bakery, it was where the latest rumors were always as hot as the coffee.

“It’s not what you think,” he said.

“You mean you weren’t kissing Alyssa?” Kevin challenged.

“I mean that’s only part of the story.”

“I don’t care about the story,” his friend said. “It’s Lacey Bolton all over again.”

“Seriously, Kev? That was twelve years ago,” Jay said. “Can you forget about Lacey Bolton already?”

“Can you not see that this isn’t about Lacey Bolton but the guy who screwed over a friend for the sake of a pretty girl?”

“The situation is completely different.”

“Not from my perspective,” Kevin argued. “You put the moves on a girl you knew I’ve had my eye on for weeks.”

“First, I didn’t put any moves on her—she kissed me,” Jay pointed out in his defense. “Second, how is it my fault that you don’t have the guts to make a move on a girl you’ve supposedly had your eye on for weeks?”

“I was waiting for the right moment,” Kevin said.

“How long were you going to wait?” Jay wondered.

“Until last night,” his friend said. “If you remember, it was my idea to go to Diggers’ last night because I knew Alyssa would be working.”

“And if you remember, you left the bar without making any kind of move.”

“She was busy,” Kevin said in his defense.

“That didn’t stop Carter from flirting with her.”

Kevin glared at their other friend.

“But all I did was flirt—Jay’s the one who kissed her,” Carter said, eager to throw Jay under the bus.

He could argue again that she’d kissed him, but he couldn’t deny that there had been kissing. Instead, he said, “Do you want me to apologize?”

“Are you sorry?” Kevin asked.

He thought about the very public and very brief kiss he’d shared with Alyssa and felt desire stir low in his belly. He could tell Kevin that it wasn’t quite as steamy as people were saying, but the memory of that innocent kiss had kept him awake half the night. He could lie, but they’d been friends for too long for that option to sit comfortably with him. “No,” he admitted.

Kevin shook his head. “You haven’t changed at all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s always been about the score with you. Jay always has to be with the hottest girls, the most girls—even the unavailable girls.”

“I was a dick in high school,” he acknowledged. “But we’re not in high school anymore.”

“You don’t think kissing Alyssa was a dick move?”

Of course it was, if he’d done it for the purpose of getting between his friend and the girl he liked. But he hadn’t. Nor could he deny that his friend’s secret crush on the bartender had been the furthest thing from his mind when Alyssa’s mouth touched his.

“Okay, it was,” he agreed. “But when you were talking about the new bartender at Diggers’, I had no idea it was Alyssa. If I’d known, I would have told you—weeks ago—that I knew her.”

“I don’t care that you knew her first—you shouldn’t have kissed her.”

“I get that this is a guy thing,” Nat interjected. “You want to beat your chests to figure out who gets the hot girl, but you’re overlooking two key pieces of the puzzle.”

“What pieces?” Carter asked.

“First, dibs and friendships aside, it’s not up to you to decide who gets Alyssa—it’s up to her. And truthfully, I don’t know why she’d waste her time with either one of you.”

“Thanks,” Jay said. “That’s very helpful.”

“Second,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken, “and this point is really for Kevin...I know you think Jay only kissed Alyssa because he knew you had a crush on her, but that’s not true.”

“How do you know it’s not true?” Kevin demanded.

“Because Jay isn’t a big fan of early mornings, but he’s been the first one here almost every day for the past several weeks.”

“He owns seventy percent of the business—he should be the first one here every day,” Kevin pointed out.

“I didn’t know there was a gold star for being an early riser,” Jay said, giving Nat a subtle shake of his head.