you probably prefer that we take a taxi, don’t you?”
“Your car is fine,” she said, which annoyed him. She should know better than to get into a car with someone she’d never met before, and here she was, walking with him toward the darkened parking lot without any qualms at all. He wasn’t a psycho, but she didn’t know that, did she? She shouldn’t trust him at all.
But it was none of his business, was it? Wouldn’t hurt to mention it to her later tonight, though. Or tell Anne to warn her friend not to be so trusting of strangers.
“You’re sure Beth will be okay?” she asked, while fastening her seat belt. “I’m still feeling guilty about leaving them together.”
“I’m positive. I never met her before tonight, but I’ve heard stories about her for a while. She won’t take any crap from him. She might even teach him a thing or two on how to treat ladies.”
“You didn’t seem too happy on your date with her.”
He chuckled. “Beth is okay. She’s a sweet kid, really. Just young. Very young.” He grimaced as he twisted the key in the ignition. “Or maybe it’s just that I’m getting old. She made me feel every one of my thirty-two years. All she talked about were celebrities, and I’d never even heard of half these people.”
“How come you were out with her in the first place if you’re so mismatched?”
“Same as you, blind date. My stepsister set us up. I never go on blind dates anymore, but she whined until I gave in.” It was as much truth as he could tell her right now. He’d promised Anne, but the fact remained that he was feeling rather guilty.
“And Beth is a friend of hers?”
“Not quite—little sister of her husband’s friend, I believe. Something like that. She exhausted all the friends a long time ago.”
“I see,” Lea said thoughtfully. “So…You’re a confirmed bachelor, are you, resisting all attempts at matchmaking?”
“Not really…” A playboy, a player and a confirmed bachelor. She had a lot of neat little boxes for him, didn’t she? He shrugged. “My only crime is being single and happy to stay that way. That seems to make me fair game for anyone’s matchmaking hobby.”
“And why is it that you want to stay single?” She canceled the question with a gesture. “Sorry, none of my business.”
“It’s fine.” He didn’t mind giving out his standard response. “I simply like my life the way it is. Of course, if you ask my stepsister or the other match-making experts, they’d tell you it’s just that I haven’t met the right woman yet.”
Lea was staring out into the night when he glanced toward her. “That’s not a valid reason for being single, when you think about it,” she finally said. “At our age, most people seem to have settled down with someone, even if they haven’t met anyone right.”
“That’s a rather cynical thing to say, isn’t it?”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is. And some of those people have been divorced once or twice too. You know what they say about marrying in haste.”
“Repent at leisure,” she murmured. “Or in today’s world: Divorce in equal haste, isn’t it?”
There was a pause in the conversation as they parked outside a restaurant and were seated, but once they were there, Lea picked up where they’d left off, propping her chin on her hands and targeting him with a laser-sharp look. Her eyes were very green, he noticed again. Turning darker when she was excited about something. He liked them that shadowy shade of emerald.
“So,” she said. “Are you saying that you think one should hold out for the perfect partner, rather than settling for someone—less perfect?”
“I don’t know if I would put it like that…” Thomas grinned at her. “That would make me a soppy romantic, wouldn’t it? Not exactly macho.”
She smiled back. “On the contrary. I’m pretty sure romantic men are every woman’s fantasy.” Despite the words, there wasn’t anything flirty in her voice, which was slightly confusing. Then her smile vanished and she lowered her head to stare down at the menu. “Well, it’s mine, anyway. But it’s tricky, isn’t it? Knowing what’s right. I bet a lot of those divorced people thought they’d be together forever.”
“Well. People change. Life happens.”
“Then there are people like my friend Anne and her husband. I don’t think even continental rift could tear those two apart, ever.”
“Some people are lucky.”
“And some aren’t.” She took a deep breath and let it out in an even bigger sigh. “That’s just life too, isn’t it? Luck of the draw.”
Thomas shifted in his chair and tried to read her face. What was behind that depressed expression and those strange questions? “I get the feeling there’s a story behind that sigh. Is that the long one you were going to tell me?”
She nodded. “The short version: I thought someone was it. But it turned out he wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “We broke up a while ago. I took a year out to get over him, and now he’s in the past. So, now I’m trying to figure out how to date for the first time in my life.” She grimaced. “Based on tonight, it’s not fun.”
He chuckled. “It can be fun. A lot of fun. It can also be dreadful—very dreadful. The good thing is that the dreadful bits make for excellent stories later on.”
For some reason, this news seem to be music to Lea’s ears. She perked up and gestured randomly, her cheeks flushed as her voice rose in excitement. “See? This is exactly why I need you!”
“Huh?” It seemed he was being unusually dense tonight. Maybe it was malnourishment. She’d drunk too much and he hadn’t eaten enough. All in all, not a good basis for lucid communication. They needed food. Now. “You need me to tell you my dating horror stories?”
“Not quite—” She stopped talking when the waiter approached their table, and took their order.
Once the waiter had walked away, Lea took a deep breath and glanced around. They’d gotten a semiprivate table, and didn’t have to worry much about other people overhearing their conversation, but she still leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “This is going to sound pretty strange, I guess I better tell you that up front.”
Thomas grinned, feeling more and more intrigued by the minute. What was she up to? “Don’t worry. I’m used to strange females.”
“Good.”
She put her hands on the table, palms up and stared down at them as if trying to read her story from there. “I’ll be honest.” She looked up. “Essentially, what all this is about, is that I’d like to hire you for a job, Thomas.”
“A job?” he asked cautiously. “What do you mean, a job?”
“A
