her diabolical plan.
“Okay. Whatever.” Maddie shrugged him off, wanting to quit while she was ahead. “It’s not that important.”
She immediately regretted how cold her words sounded. If she was good at flirting, she could’ve gotten some mileage out of their banter. But the truth was, flirting sort of freaked her out. She could do it up to a point, but when he got too close, she choked. When she choked, her defense mechanisms kicked in and she came across as prickly. Because it was so much easier to pretend like she didn’t care. It was just as well, she supposed. Because she shouldn’t care.
But then Zach was sitting there pretending to look wounded and her stomach flipped.
“Ouch!” he said. “I have been put in my place.”
No! That’s not what I meant. I didn’t know what else to say.
Then he smiled and those dimples winked at her. If her mind had been spinning before, she was at a total loss for words now.
She was glad when his phone rang.
He took it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Sorry, I need to take this call. Excuse me, please?”
She watched him unfold his long body from his place at the table. He answered the call while he was still close enough for Maddie to hear him say, “Hey, how are you?” His voice sounded low and sexy, qualities that suggested he wasn’t talking to a client. Her heart fluttered and then sank. She’d heard him on the phone with clients before. This was definitely a girlfriend. Zach had a lot of girlfriends because he was a flirt. He had an easy appeal, especially with women. He flirted with any woman who would flirt back... Not so unlike the way he was flirting with her.
You’re not special. He flirts with everyone.
That thought was like a cold glass of water, a reality check to remind herself that she really should stop this nonsense before she embarrassed herself. She was already way out of her element carrying on like she had been.
He was good at what he did. And because he was good at what he did, Maddie needed him on her team at Fortunado Real Estate when she took over for her father.
Priorities. Do not muddy the waters. Remember what’s important.
“Speaking of house hunting,” Maddie said, looking at her sister.
Schuyler looked puzzled. “We weren’t.”
“I mentioned it a few minutes ago,” Maddie said. “I have a house to show you. It’s not even on the market yet. One of my clients gave me the heads-up. It’s a dream house so it’ll go fast. When can we go look?”
Schuyler clapped her hands. “Let’s go this week. As soon as you can come to Austin.” She turned and looked at her husband-to-be. “Carlo, can you take some time off next week?”
“Anything for you, my love.” Carlo leaned in and planted a kiss on Schuyler’s cheek.
“Okay, then,” Maddie said. “I’ll call my client and check her availability.”
She started to excuse herself from the table, but Zach was already making his way back.
On second thought, maybe the call to the client could wait until after lunch.
Zach caught her eye as he walked back to the table. His long stride was loose and comfortable. Her mind raced, searching for something witty to say after he sat down. She thought about quipping about the call being personal, maybe teasing him about showing his sensitive side. But they’d worn out that joke. Instead, she resorted to the traditional and polite.
“Is everything okay?”
“Sure,” he said. “But I do need to go.”
Maddie’s heart sank.
“But before I go, I want to thank your parents and congratulate them on your father’s big decision. But first, Ping-Pong.”
Maddie was sure she’d heard him wrong. “Did you say Ping-Pong?”
He flashed that grin and those dimples made Maddie’s toes curl in her sandals.
“It was my favorite pastime when I was nine,” he said. “I’m sure you didn’t know that.”
She laughed. Ping-Pong.
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Do you play?”
“As a matter of fact, I was pretty darn good at it, back in the day.”
“We should play sometime,” he said.
Maddie drew in a sharp breath and nearly choked. She didn’t understand her reaction. He wasn’t asking her on a date.
“You two should totally play,” Schuyler urged. “In fact, I think we still have a Ping-Pong table somewhere around here. Mom never gets rid of anything. She just learns new techniques to masterfully store everything. But I digress. We should have a Ping-Pong date night. It would be so much fun. Totally retro. My money would be on Mads, though. She was pretty good at it. Or at least she was the most competitive out of all of us. She’s always hated to lose. She still does.”
Maddie impaled her sister with a look, to which Schuyler seemed oblivious.
Not true! Okay, maybe it’s a little true.
Even so, she wished Schuyler hadn’t said it.
“It’s a date, then,” Zach said. “The loser will buy the winner’s beer one Friday at the Thirsty Ox.” He turned and started walking away, but stopped and turned back. “And the loser has to tell the other winner five personal things.”
The next morning, Maddie glanced up from her computer and saw her sister Valene standing in the doorway of her office.
“Do you have a moment?” Val asked. “I have some questions about the McKinney listing on West Pine.”
Maddie’s eyes flitted to the time at the bottom of her computer screen. When she’d gotten to her desk at 7:30 this morning, her father’s executive assistant, Rae Rowley, had phoned and asked her to clear her schedule at 11:00. Maddie had been a jumble of nerves for more than three hours this morning, doing everything she could to distract herself. Why hadn’t Val come to her sooner?
The 11:00 meeting was the meeting. The one she’d been waiting for since she’d joined the firm. Probably longer than that—since she was born.
She’d been reading an email about a career day event sponsored by the local school system. She’d volunteered to share everything she knew and loved about the real estate business with elementary schoolkids, but today she was reading the material to distract herself more so than to prepare for the annual event, which was next month.
The
