Page 42 of Just One Fake Date

“You can see why we don’t let him out much,” Damon rumbled.

“What’s he giving you grief about now?” she asked.

Damon shook his head.

“I’m just saying that he could hold up his end a bit better,” Kyle complained. He sprawled in a chair again, one foot braced on the conference table as he balanced on the chair’s back legs. He looked like the quintessential surfer: blond, tanned, and buff. He was dressed, as usual, in jeans that were snug in all the right places and a tight T-shirt that could have been a second skin. His hair was a hundred shades of gold and tousled, his eyes a sparkling blue, and Cassie was glad to be immune to his charm. Kyle had that perfect blend of confidence and style that made him draw women like bees to honey, and he knew it. He also used it. Cassie had never met anyone with a worse case of commitment disease. Despite his cockiness, there was something playful about Kyle that made him impossible to dislike.

He certainly could make Cassie—and pretty much any woman alive—laugh.

Damon rolled his eyes. A little shorter than Kyle, he spent a lot of time at the gym, too. Damon had always been the quiet powerhouse. He was intense and brilliant, and a genius with design. He was also a dark horse, the one who could unexpectedly go the distance, and often surprised Kyle when they competed in the gym.

“You’re the one who came up with the idea of the dance club,” Damon noted. “You’re the one who said it had to be monitored by a discerning individual like yourself. So, quit bitching about the job you custom-made for yourself.”

“All I’m saying is that you could work a Friday night once in a while,” Kyle said.

“Would the world end if you two stopped bickering like old women?” Cassie asked, pulling out a chair for herself. She stood behind it for a moment, wanting Ty to have a chance to notice her new look. “Maybe we should give it a try, just to see.”

“Old women?” Kyle said, apparently insulted. Damon looked taken aback. Theo was trying to hide a smile.

Ty only flicked her the barest glance of acknowledgment. He was connecting his laptop to the big display, which apparently required his undivided attention.

“Maybe elderly sisters,” Cassie said and Kyle shuddered.

“I don’t think we’re that bad,” he said.

Ty whistled, calling them to order. “Let’s get to it. I’ve distributed the agenda and you’ll see that we have a lot to cover tonight.”

“Including Damon ducking shifts in the club on Friday nights,” Kyle said.

“Is it a crime to have a life?” Damon asked.

“I want to know her name,” Kyle countered, leaning forward to tap his index finger on the table.

Damon smiled, which could have been precisely planned to drive Kyle nuts.

Kyle’s eyes lit and Cassie knew what would happen next.

Instead, Ty cleared his throat. “Anyone know why we have this uptick in new memberships?” he asked, with typical focus on the business. He glanced at Cassie. “New advertising campaign?”

She shook her head. “Not yet.”

“It’s the dance club,” Kyle said, addressing Ty. “You were the one who said we needed new members and new sources of revenue. The dance club is it.”

Ty frowned. “I don’t think so. I mean, it’s a good source of revenue and it’s doing well, but we opened it last fall. This is a recent uptick.” He glanced at Theo. “Mentions in the press?”

Theo shook his head. “We had some good visibility in the celebrity papers with the Valentine’s party at the dance club, but that was a while ago.”

“These new members are taking advantage of the fitness buddy offer,” Ty said, typing away, then putting a graph from his computer’s display to the big screen.

“Two memberships for one, if you work out together,” Damon said. “Great idea, Cassie.”

“But we’ve offered it for a while,” Kyle noted. “New ads?”

Cassie shook her head. “Almost no ads, actually.”

“At least the women are taking advantage of it,” Ty said, changing the display to divide the data by gender. “The guys are joining singly.”

“But there’s still more of them than usual,” Theo mused.

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