Page 6 of The Dating Contract

He blinked. What? “Are you saying you’ll… Are you offering to fix the problem you think I have?”

She shook her head. He wasn’t that lucky. “My obligation to clean up your mess ended a long time ago, if it ever existed in the first place.”

Right.

Ages ago.

When he’d been a dumb high school kid who broke her heart.

And according to the script, after she uttered that truism, she’d leave and they’d be done.

Except she didn’t leave.

“Once my sister finishes organizing her ketubahs with your brother, I’m gone.”

That was the addition to the script he’d forgotten; she wasn’t here at all of her own volition. Not in the building, not at the expo, not at his booth. But all he could say was: “Fair enough.”

“You have no poker face,” she continued, as if her entire purpose was to examine him and pick out his faults or analyze his business practices for potential problems. “You need one.”

He did. Need one. But that was what Aaron was for, right?

Or what he was supposed to be for at least. Public-facing glib businessperson, protecting the ridiculously strange sofer who happened to have a nice face.

“Anyway,” she said. “I think my sister has a huge list of things to do, so we should probably move on.”

“I won’t keep you,” he said.

Even though he wanted to.

Even though he wanted to tease her, to give her reason to stay and talk, a buzzer went off on her phone; she lifted it up and he saw something about a cake.

“The cake-tasting area’s been busy the entire time,” he said. “If you have a particular cake you want to taste…?”

“We do,” she said, taking the information as gratefully as he gave it.

“Then,” he said, deciding give her an out of some sort, “you’ll probably have to, you know, head over there soon.”

Leah nodded. He could see the surprise in her expression, as if she hadn’t expected to have this kind of interaction. “Probably sooner than that. Thank you for the advice.”

“Turnabout is fair play,” he replied. “Poker face and crowd control.”

She nodded again, the expression on her face as if he was reminding her of something she’d prefer to forget. “Right. Bye.”

“More like ‘see you around,’” he replied. “Because ketubah.”

“Right,” she said as if she’d forgotten her sister was negotiating with his brother. “One of my maid of honor tasks. So, I guess it is ‘see you around.’”

And as he watched Leah walk away, he wondered what else would happen now that she was back in his life. More importantly, he wondered what he’d do to keep her there.

Chapter Two

Leah had noidea what had come over her. What had possessed her to go along with Samuel’s random scheme?

She hadn’t come up with any conclusion when her buzzer rang.

She got up from the couch, crossed the room and looked through the peephole.

Naomi?

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