Page 109 of Failure to Match

I should have stopped her right there. This was the exact direction I’d been hoping she wouldn’t go in.

But I said nothing. My tongue was swollen deadweight.

“There’s also an emphasis on food… seafood specifically. Either sushi or something very niche within that type of cuisinethat you’ll enjoy together. And I’m being shown a pet. A well-loved one… quite spoiled by the man. It could be his or yours.” She stopped for a moment, her gaze flicking over to my left. Whatever she saw made her smirk again. Almost like this was a game to her. “He’ll have a bunch of tattoos… or perhaps some sort of scarring that’s oddly shaped. Around a dozen of them. Maybe more.”

Wait. Did Jackson have any tattoos? He hadn’t taken his shirt off last night or this morning, so I couldn’t be sure…

“I’m also seeing the letter D being significant in terms of initials or… hmm, perhaps a sign of some sort.”

I frowned. Jackson Parker Sinclair. There wasn’t a single D in his name, and I was pretty sure that if he had a dozen tattoos, I’d have?—

Oh.

Ohhh.

She wasn’t talking about Jackson.

27

Jackson Sinclair may not haveany tattoos, but Daniel Omori sure did. Two full sleeves of them, in fact. Maybe even more. He was also tall, had a spoiled pet, an Australian accent, and worked as a sushi chef.

Oh, and I’d definitely knownofhim before we met. Very much so.

“It’s not him.” Jackson shoved himself into the backseat of his town car, sliding right up against me as the door shut behind him.

“I’ve always wanted to live in Japan,” I sighed wistfully. I may have been poking the bear a bit, but he was so cranky about the whole thing that I couldn’t help myself.

Jackson glowered down at me, and I pouted up at him, pretending like I’d drank the Kool-Aid. “Do you have any tattoos?” I asked.

His brows drew together all unhappy-like. He hesitated for a beat. “No.”

“A name that starts with a D I don’t know about?”

His jaw locked.

“Then it has to be him because I haven’t met anyone else in the last month that fits that exact description.”

“It’snothim.”

I cupped his cheek. “And to think you introduced us,” I said softly, forcing my lower lip to wobble. He had murder in his eyes. “We’ll always be grateful, Danny and I. You’ll get a toast at our wedding for sure.”

Hot air shoved out of his nostrils. This was so much fun.

“Over my dead fucking body, Jamie.”

“You don’t even believe in tarot or anything occult-related,” I reminded him, letting my hand—and the ruse—drop. “Why are you so worked up?”

“You believe in it.”

“I never once said I believed in tarot. The details she gave were kind of freaky, though. She described him to a T.”

“It wasn’t all accurate. Last I checked, Omori didn’t come to you with an offer that would veer you off whatever path you had your sights set on.”

“Wrong. I was going to look for another job as soon as the Immersive was over. If I accept Daniel as a client, I’d have to stay at Charmed. There’s your veered path right there.”

He was going to challenge me every step of the way on this, I could see it in the stubborn set of his jaw. Not that it mattered. I didn’t care who Imogen had been referring to in her reading, or what the details were. I was never going to end up with Jackson.

I wanted love, connection, a partner I could share my life with. Jackson needed a temporary wife who’d sign a contract, maybe give him a child, and happily walk away from it all when the term of their agreement was over. He couldn’t do an ever-after, and I couldn’t do without one.

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