Page 58 of The Deal Maker

“Since when did you become the therapist?" Hope says with a laugh.

“When my therapist decides to have a breakdown,” I say, leaning in to give her a hug.

When I pull back for a moment, I say softly, “What do you want, Hope? Do you want to wait until he gets back from deployment to get married? Or do you want to get married in less than two weeks?”

I can see the debate in her eyes. I can only hope that she'll figure out what she really wants.

“Well, I want to marry him now,” she says, straightening up like she’s getting ready for a fight.

“Then what's stopping you? If his mom wants to be there for her son's wedding, she'll have to accept whatever date you two decide. This is something you and Jason need to talk about.”

“Am I going to have to worry about this for the rest of my life? If she’ll steamroll holidays and everything?”

“Look, Hope, you're going to have to deal with differences your whole life. The biggest thing is to remember to set boundaries and that once you're married, your new family is you and Jason and whatever cute little gremlins you end up having.” We both chuckle at that last part.

“I don't want to ruin anything with Jason. Everything Dallas has put together has been amazing. I can't complain about that.”

“Then don't let his mom derail your plans.”

Hope sniffles and then leans back in for a hug. “Man, with all the advice you're giving out, it's almost like you've been in this situation before,” she says with a wink.

“No, looking back on it now, I think I was more in love with Zander's family than I was with Zander. Maybe that's why things didn't go as they should have.” It’s all in the past now, but maybe there were hints of what went wrong so I can fix it for the next time. If there is a next time.

But what does that mean for my future? Do I keep avoiding weddings and anything to do with marriage? No, but then again, that would be hard to do with Hope’s wedding coming up.

Maybe if I didn't focus solely on that and the hatred of anything to do with marriage that would be the best place to start. Not hating it might even turn into the positive of looking for a relationship.

For some reason, that makes me think of Duke and why he would still be single. The guy is infuriating and there isn't much stability in his professional life, but he beat a lot of the other people I had dated as far as character.

But we haven't dated.

The scavenger hunt does not count as mini-dates. It's just two people forced together to achieve the deal we've made for the contest.

I wonder what his real reason is for wanting so badly to travel. It's hard enough trying to maintain my business for several days in a row, much less to pack for a getaway. Don't get me wrong, I do like to travel, but in small doses. Duke makes it sound like he's going to travel around the World in 80 Days.

The Candy Jar gets busy after lunch. It isn't until Duke’s face appears behind the ice cream counter that I realize we haven't done our scavenger hunt task for the day.

“What is your favorite ice cream with nuts in it?” Duke asks, giving me a quick wink.

My body and my brain are warring for the correct response. Should I give in to his flirting? Or should I just scoop his ice cream and hope that the humiliation of my ice cream theory will be stricken from his brain magically? Now would be a good time for one of those Harry Potter spells.

“Tin Roof Sundae is a pretty good one,” I say. “Although a lot of people like the butter pecan.”

Duke's nose crinkles in disgust and I do my best to keep from laughing.

“There's nothing wrong with being a level one,” I say, allowing myself to smile wide this time.

“There is if a guy can't change his mind about things. Sometimes we just need a little nudge out of the comfort zone, right?” Duke says with a little grin.

"I don't know," I say, trying not to smile too widely. Why am I suddenly flirting? "I think sometimes it's easier to stay in the comfort zone, but it takes an act of true courage to try something else."

"So you think someone can change their ice cream theory level?" Duke asks after accepting his scoop of Tin Roof Sundae.

"Well, you're already doing much better than you have in the past. I gave you two options, and while pecan hits all the right places, I still would have docked you a couple of points if you had chosen it. It’s my least favorite."

Duke laughs, and I can't help but do the same. It's easy and carefree to laugh with him about something so trivial that I had put so much stock in for so long.

"If you don't mind me asking," Duke says, "where did your ex-fiancé rate on your ice cream scale?"

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