Page 24 of Bargain Match

“No man can pretend like that.” She shakes her head. “Not even David Tennant.”

“Oh, I love David Tennant,” a woman at a nearby table explains. “So handsome. So talented.”

Glynis tilts her head as if to say that proves her point.

I shake my head. “But?—”

“The lad loves ye. This I know,” she insists. “And I’d bet me inn he fixed things so yeh wouldn’t fall in love with someone else.”

“That’s—”

“It’s true.”

I turn to find a harried, but somehow hopeful, Burke standing behind me.

ELEVEN

HADLEY

My heart leaps into my throat. Suddenly, I don’t feel mad or even sad looking at Burke.

I’m just happy he’s here. Especially after I kicked him out of the car in a random village down the road without giving him a chance to explain.

“How—how did you get here?”

His thick brows knit together. “I used my phone and called for a ride like you told me to.”

Before I can say anything else, Malcolm strolls in through the door and takes his usual seat at the bar. Well, I suppose that explains that.

I turn back to Burke who is staring at me intently.

“Glynis is right,” he says. “I did what I did because… well because I love you.”

“Of course you love me. We’re best friends.”

“Yes, but…” He runs a hand over his beard. “I’m also in love with you.”

“You’re in love with me?”

I should feel shocked. I should feel… something. But, oddly enough, I don’t. Because, well, because of course he’s in love with me. He’s shown it in how many different ways over the years?

My lips curve up slowly. “You’re in love with me.”

“Crazy in love with you.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I’ve wanted to a million times. There never seemed to be time.”

“How so?”

“You were always dating—or not dating, but seeing—some guy. Or you were in a swearing-off all-men phase.” He moves closer to me. “Then there was the whole fact that I was worried about scaring you off.”

I want to protest that he wouldn’t have, but I know he’s right. I’ve been so anti-serious relationship for so long, I probably would have freaked out.

“When you brought up this trip, I panicked a little,” he says. “I worried that maybe The Matchmaker would do what no one else had before. That she’d find someone you could see yourself settling down with. So I called her.”

“You called The Matchmaker?”

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