Page 68 of The Matchmaker Club
12
Spin the Bottle
Another chance. I did believe people deserved second chances, but I wasn’t so sure about this one.
A knock rattled my door. I folded Austin’s letter and tucked it under my pillow. “Come in.”
“Hi. Are you busy?” Lucas stood in the doorway, freshly showered, hands tucked into his pockets. There was a light about him that wasn’t there the first night I’d met him.
“No, come on in.” I sat up on my bed. “How was your ATV lesson?”
He grinned. “Loved it. We’re going back out Saturday with Ed and Rod.”
“Great, just be back by five so you have enough time to get ready.”
“Ready for what?” Lucas explored my room, his eyes scanning over the picture collage I had made in high school of Thelma and me.
“We’re having a dinner party.”
“You are? Who is invited?”
“Bill and Javier.”
He looked over at me. “The guys that own the landscaping business?”
“We’re pretty sure Bill has a thing for Lainey, and I think she likes him, but they’re both kind of shy. I figured inviting them as a thank you for all they have done for us would be a good way to get them together.”
He smiled. “Playing Matchmaker, I see.”
I grabbed my shoebox of mixtapes off my nightstand. “I’m going to try.”
“Anyone else coming?”
“Charlie will be there… and Austin.”
Lucas stopped in front of Lainey’sPicking Up the Pieces. “You invited him?”
“Yeah, he actually invited me to have dinner at his parent’s house. He never did that before.” I scanned through the titles and saw the tape I had listened to over and over that summer.Mixtape #4: First Love. “Maybe he really has changed.”
He didn’t look my way, still focused on Lainey’s artwork. “Are you two dating now?”
“No, we’re just going to get to know each other again as friends… then maybe see what happens from there.”
“If that’s what you want, you should do it.”
“You think?”
“You deserve to be happy.” He half smiled at me and then went back to exploring. He stopped at a framed picture of my mom holding me up toward the sky, both of us laughing. “Is that you and your mother?”
“Yes.”
“You have her eyes. Beautiful picture.”
“It’s my favorite one of us.”
He looked down at my chest of memories. On top were my childhood buddies, Muffy and Tuffy. Lucas picked up one of the stuffed dogs. “You weren’t into teddy bears?”
“No. When I was a kid, I really wanted a dog, but Lainey is allergic to them. I got Muffy and Tuffy instead.”
