She snorted with disgust. “Right.”
Jake laughed again, spun them around, but the song ended and Hannah quickly stepped away. Jake decided that was good. He liked her and they definitely had some kind of chemistry, but this was his best friend’s little sister. If he as much as kissed her goodnight, Luke would probably punch him.
“Thank you for the dance.”
“You’re welcome,” Hannah said, turning and scampering away from him.
Hannah Evans had no idea why Jake Malloy had asked her to dance, but she did know he wouldn’t ask her again. Why? Because she was a dimwit.
Within two minutes of sliding into his arms, she’d had to admit that she had lost her job, which could only make her seem pathetic. Then to make matters worse, she couldn’t keep eye contact because his eyes were so…well…powerful. Dark and focused, they glowed with the confidence of a man who had been around the world several times for business…and for pleasure. Even if she had dared to dream that he had asked her to dance because he was attracted to her looks—and from the once-over he had given her before he’d led her out to the dance floor, she had actually thought he was—she knew men like him preferred their women on the sophisticated side.
If there was one thing the regular citizens of Wilburn—including herself—were not, it was sophisticated. Wealthy residents like Jake and Troy Cramer, who globe-trotted, had formal parties and mingled with heads of state, were the exceptions, not the rule. If Jake hadn’t known that before, she had succeeded in proving it when they’d danced. She had probably also reminded him of why he didn’t date women from his hometown, even if he was attracted to them. Which was why she had been pacing in the open area of the powder room cursing her stupidity for the past few minutes. She wasn’t the kind of girl who had to be the belle of the ball, but just once in her life she would like to dance with the Prince without making a fool of herself.
“Come on, Hannah. We’re about to sit down for dinner.” Hannah’s older sister, Sadie, had opened the door and peeked inside. Dressed in a sleek pink gown and dangling diamond earrings, Sadie not only glowed, she also canceled Hannah’s belief that all of the residents of this town were unsophisticated. Sadie had recently married Troy Cramer, the software billionaire, and from her chic outfit to her demeanor, Hannah’s sister was the picture of poise.
“Okay.”
Hannah left the powder room and followed her sister down the hall. But the whole time she and Sadie walked toward the party she stared at her sister wondering when this transition had occurred. Sure, Sadie had gone away to college. She had attended the police academy. She had also lived in an apartment in Pittsburgh and worked on the city of Pittsburgh police force for five years. Hannah knew Sadie was a little more worldly than everybody else, but she hadn’t noticed her turning into somebody who could fit in at a presidential reception. Yet, here she was.
“Let’s go find Troy,” Sadie said, gracefully maneuvering through the crowd and heading toward the French doors, directing Hannah to Jake’s patio where a tent protected round tables that had been arranged for dinner. Covered in white linen cloths and decorated with fat bowls of fresh roses, the tables formed a large U around the pool. The June air smelled of blossoms.
The elegance of the house, the beauty of the grounds around it, and the casual romance of the night had Hannah almost sighing with longing, not so much out of desire for Jake’s exquisite home as for the man who owned this wonderful place. Jake was handsome, masculine and vibrantly alive. He had as much charm and charisma as his wonderful estate. When she’d danced with him she would have happily cuddled closer—if only because he was irresistibly sexy. But, stunned by the impact of those dark eyes of his, she’d panicked, acted like a schoolgirl and blown any chance she might have had with him.
Sadie began guiding her to the table where Troy sat with Jake, and Hannah stopped abruptly. There was no way she was eating with him. None. She had already made herself look foolish enough. She wasn’t adding to his already miserable impression by dropping a shrimp in her lap, which she would undoubtedly do if he gave her one of those looks again.
Before Sadie got too close to the table, Hannah indicated with a movement of her hand that she was about to go right. “I think I’ll sit with Mom and Dad.” She pointed to her parents, Lily and Pete Evans, who had an empty seat at their table.
Sadie gasped and scrambled back to Hannah. “Why? For Pete’s sake, Hannah! Jake is single…”
“Which is exactly why I’m…Oh, no!” Hannah said, realizing Jake might have danced with her because her sister had put him up to it! Oh, Lord! If Sadie had told Jake to dance with her and was now forcing them to sit together because she was matchmaking, Hannah would die of embarrassment. “No. Now for sure I’m not sitting with you.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Hannah countered incredulously. “Because you’re matchmaking! And it’s obvious!”
“Don’t you like him?” Sadie asked with a laugh.
“Or maybe she does like him.”
Hannah whipped around to face her oldest sister, Maria. Short and cute, with abundant curves and thick black hair that fell almost to her waist, Maria looked more like a Spanish singer than an all-American mom with three kids and a nearly bald husband. Though the sleek red dress Maria wore contributed to her saucy demeanor, Hannah knew a person had to have a certain “something” to carry off the sexy aura Maria projected; she experienced the same rush of recognition that she had with Sadie. Just like sister number two, sister number one had “it.”
“I do not like him,” Hannah said, if only to save herself from the embarrassment of the matchmaking and years of potential teasing that would follow if she so much as admitted she thought Jake was cute.
“I think you do,” Maria singsonged. She leaned closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. “And why wouldn’t you? The man is gorgeous. All that wonderful black hair and those piercing brown eyes. Yum,” Maria said, leaning even closer to Hannah. “In that tuxedo of his, he’s absolutely perfect.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what the women at the bar were saying and exactly why Hannah should have been suspicious of him asking her to dance. Never in a million years would someone as sophisticated as Jake be interested in her.
But, again, there was no reason for Hannah’s sisters to know that she agreed he was gorgeous and, just like every other woman on the face of the earth, found him attractive.
“He’s isn’t perfect. He’s old.”
Maria gasped as if Hannah had struck her. “He’s thirty-three. A year younger than I am!”
“And I’m twenty-four,” Hannah said, pleased with the airtight excuse that would keep anyone from realizing she found Jake Malloy attractive and might even stop her sisters’s matchmaking. “He’s in another generation. He probably still listens to Hootie and the Blowfish.”
This time Sadie gasped. “I listen to Hootie and the Blowfish!”
Hannah smiled smugly. “I rest my case,” she began, but she didn’t finish her thought because she noticed her third sister, Caro, and Caro’s fiancé, Max Riley, taking two of the four remaining seats at Troy and Jake’s table. Dark-haired Max wore a black tux and Caro a strapless blue gown. Caro was so lovely and had such perfect carriage and comportment, she could have posed on the
