Page 21 of Bargain Match

“We’re already halfway there in Alaska.”

She just shakes her head and pushes me away. “Come on. I’m hungry, and you promised me breakfast.”

Fueled with my good humor, and the desire to take Hadley back to bed in our room at the inn, it doesn’t take long to push the car out of the mud. Hadley sets a rule that I have to stay on the passenger side of the car while she drives.

“I can’t have you distracting me,” she says. “We don’t want the car to get stuck all over again.”

Little does she know, I’d be happy being stuck with her anywhere.

God, this is such a wild feeling. I guess this is what people mean when they say “overjoyed.”

We’re only a few kilometers away from the next village when my phone starts ringing. In my flannel shirt. Which Hadley is still wearing over her dress.

I start to reach for it, but she raises a hand. “What did I say?”

“I need my phone.”

“I’ll take care of it?” Without taking her eye off the road, she reaches into the pocket and answers the call.

“Hello,” I call out, shaking my head at Hadley. “You have Burke.”

“Burke, just the man I was looking for. This is the Matchmaker.”

I frown even as Hadley’s eyebrows shoot up. Why would she be calling me?

“Yes,” I say cautiously.

“I just wanted to check in to see how our little plan was going. You’ve been in Scotland for a couple of days now, and you had your romantic Valentine’s dinner.”

“That’s true.” And I really feel like this is a phone call I wish I was taking without Hadley listening in on both sides of the conversation. “It’s going… well.”

“Good! I had no doubt you’d do the right thing when I agreed to match you up with Miss Hadley,” she says. “Strictly speaking, it goes against the rules of the contest. But what can I say? When a man calls to say he wants to be matched with the woman he’s known half of his life, who am I to get in the way?”

Hadley slams on the brakes. I lurch forward but catch myself.

“Oh dear,” the Matchmaker says. “Is everything okay?”

Hadley turns to gape at me as I break the rules and reach for the phone from my pocket. “It’s fine.”

I turn the call off of speaker and bring it to my ear. “Listen, I’ll call you back later.”

I hang up before she can respond. The car falls silent. Maybe Hadley is just confused. Maybe this isn’t a problem.

I glance up at her.

Fuck. She’s pissed. More than pissed. If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under.

And Hadley and her electric blue glare would be holding the shovel.

TEN

HADLEY

I glare at Burke as the realization of what he’s done registers in my head.

As the wheels spin in my head, he watches me warily. As if I’m a wild wolf who might lash out and bite his head off.

Which wouldn’t be much of a stretch at the moment.

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