Page 11 of Flake It Til You Make It

“Okay,phew.” Rocco looked relieved.

“They’re gonna come around,” Taylor said as reassuringly as he could. “I really liked the changes you’ve made to the place.”

“Goat cheese and all?” Rocco asked.

“I’ve got nothing against goat cheese,” Taylor said.

“That’smybig secret, I guess. I love goat cheese and I want everyone else to love it, too.”

Taylor chuckled. “Baby steps, Moretti.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I went too fast before. I get that now. I won’t make that mistake again. But I just need to get people to come back—try the new-old stuff I’ve got. I thought maybe if I could getyouin the door . . .”

“Ouch. Wanted only for my title,” Taylor joked.

“You think you could get the mayor herself—”

Taylor winced. “Sorry to disappoint. She’s a tea-only drinker. But I’ll mention it to her.”

“Ugh, this sucks,” Rocco said, taking another long sip of his martini. “You’ve got it so lucky. Your new job’s all lined up. You just gotta show up, right? And the city council will hire you.”

“That is not . . .notnecessarily true.” Taylor hadn’t meant to say so, but once he’d started he couldn’t quite stop. “Mona’s worried that I’m too young, too single, and then there’s the fact that I’m not originally from Christmas Falls. It’s probably not enough to kill my application, not since there aren’t any other serious candidates. But if anyone else shows up? Ugh, I’m worried. I shouldn’t be, but I am.”

“She doesn’t like that you’re single?”

“Perpetually,” Taylor said wryly. “She was trying to get me to hook up with Heath Kelly—thought maybe I could convince him to smile and wave next to me a few times, I think.”

“And you didn’t want to?” Rocco’s jaw dropped. “Heath Kelly? Man, he is crazy hot.”

“Maybe yeah, but not my type,” Taylor said, embarrassed now. It was one thing to discuss his desert of a love life with Mona and another entirely to discuss it with Rocco Moretti.

“You could always ask . . .ugh, who’s that matchmaker’s name . . .”

“Nick Morgan,” Taylor supplied. “But that’sreallynot my thing, to be honest.”

“I met him, too, and he was,of course, interested in hearing more about me, but I told him, I’ve got too much on my plate with this new business to think about a relationship but . . .” Rocco trailed off.

Taylor thought Rocco’s reluctance to agree to Nick Morgan’s schemes was more along the lines of never needing help getting a date than being too busy, but he let it go. At least until Rocco’s eyes brightened, like he’d just had a brilliant idea.

“That’s what we should do,” Rocco said, snapping his fingers.

“What?” Taylor asked warily.

“Matchmake ourselves!”

Rocco might have been the first guy in what felt like ages to actually have a chance at melting his chilly exterior, but that didn’t mean Taylor was ready to justdate.

Not when the thought of Rocco made his palms sweat.

It would be like strapping yourself to a rocket, when you were only ready for a sparkler.

“It’s not like you think,” Rocco continued. “I don’t meanfor real, I mean . . .like help each other out.”

Taylor’s brain supplied all kinds of ways they could help each other out—in and out of clothes, specifically—but he shut down those thoughts hard and fast. He had a job to focus on getting. And Rocco had his business.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Taylor said.

“So my cousin did this, and itseemedcrazy at the time, but it worked out, in the end. Worked like a charm, too. He fake-dated this guy to get his mom off his ass about settling down.”

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