Page 36 of Falling for My Matchmaker

SEND

(Just small stuff).

SEND

Can you reach out to Claudia? She said he was flagged.

SEND

I don’t want to overreact. Just being safe.

SEND

I stared at the screen.

Then, because I didn’t trust my own instincts, I added:

It’s probably nothing.

I hit send again. Then I turned the screen facedown in my lap like that would stop the consequences from existing.

Brad glanced over. “Everything good?”

I smiled, tight and shallow. “Just checking in with my roommate.”

“Still worried about being murdered?”

I laughed—too loud, too hard. “You know me. Caution as a lifestyle.”

He didn’t say anything.

The smile lingered on his face for another beat. And then faded.

I looked back down at my phone. One bar again. Then none.

The first two messages were sent. Now I just had to hope Nate would read them and figure out where “middle of nowhere” was.

I forced a laugh.

“You’re not going to disappear me, are you?”

He laughed too. “Not if you behave.”

Totally normal. Totally romantic. Just two people flirting about not getting murdered in a forest.

A few minutes later, the car turned onto a gravel path that crunched beneath the tires like a warning. The trees got denser. The road narrowed.

Then—like something out of a rustic AirBnB horror film—it appeared.

A cabin.

It was...nice. Kind of. If you liked remote. If you liked zero cell service. If you liked being just far enough off the grid that no one would hear you scream.

I reminded myself that I had watched too many documentaries. That this was fine. That the porch light being dim was “atmospheric,” not ominous.

Brad parked and got out first, moving around to open my door like he was auditioning for Boyfriend of the Year. “Welcome to my favorite place to unplug,” he said.

I stepped out, heels crunching on the gravel. “Unplug. Great. Just what I crave—total disconnection in a place with murder lighting.”

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