Page 8 of Dating the Rebel
Miranda narrowed her eyes and studied her dark-haired sister. The sisters were all as unalike in personalities as they were physical appearance. While Tabitha was easygoing, Regina tended to be uptight and judgmental.
“What do you mean—my old ways?” Miranda asked, and her temper began to spark.
“Your rebelliousness,” Regina continued disapprovingly. Regina had always followed the rules. Since she’d rarely left her room except to go to school, it had been easy for her, though. “I thought you were going to violate our partner agreement about not dating any members.”
“He’s not a member,” Tabitha said. “She wouldn’t let him join—probably so she could date him without breaking any rules.”
Miranda hated it when they talked about her like she wasn’t there; they often did that to her.
“You need to stop listening at my door,” she chastised Tabitha.
Too bad the young actress had been fired from her latest play. Hopefully she would find another role soon, so she would stop playing at being a receptionist.
“And the reason I didn’t let Grant join has nothing to do with dating him and everything to do with not trusting him to date any of our clients. The last thing we need is him breaking the heart of every female member we have.”
Regina sighed again and nodded. “Of course. That makes sense, especially after you already broke their hearts by giving up Teo Rinaldi to your bestie. That interview he gave is all over the news.”
Tabitha was too focused on Miranda to listen to their sister now. “So you have no reason to not go out with him,” she said.
“What?” Miranda asked, her head beginning to pound from their onslaught—coming so soon after the applicant’s unreasonable demands.
“Grant is not going to break your heart,” Tabitha explained.
Regina actually smiled at the remark, as if the thought amused her. “He can’t break what doesn’t exist.”
“You’re calling me heartless?” Miranda asked.
“It’s a compliment,” Regina said. “It’s much better to be like you than like Mother.”
Miranda couldn’t agree more. But she was afraid she had more heart than her sisters realized, more heart than she could risk going out with Grant Snyder.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not going out with him. I’m much too busy.”
“That’s why you need to go out with him,” Tabitha said. “You have to have some fun. It’s gotta be killing you to be all work and no play nowadays.”
“It’s killing us,” Regina said. “You’re working us to death, too.”
Maybe she did keep Regina busy with the website updates and social media marketing. And Tabitha had been putting in some long hours at the reception desk.
“It’s only because I want the business to be successful,” she said.
“Then you shouldn’t have set up our most impressive member with a freebie date with your best friend,” Regina said.
“If you were going to set up the Italian billionaire with a freebie, it should have been one of us,” Tabitha said. “Not Blair...”
Her sisters had always resented her close friendship with Blair Snyder. They’d wanted her to be their friend like they were to each other. But as the oldest, she’d always felt responsible for them—more responsible than their mother had ever felt for any of them. Her matchmaking business, and the marriages it had led to for her, had always been her baby more than her daughters.
“I’m not going to have this argument again,” Miranda said. She’d already grabbed her laptop bag and purse as she’d shown out the latest potential member, so now she pulled open the door to the hall. But she couldn’t walk through it—not because of her sisters but because of the man filling it. The man who wanted to be a member.
And her date...
“Aren’t you eager?” Grant teased, knowing full well that Miranda had probably been trying to escape before he’d returned for her. That was why he’d returned even earlier than he’d told her.
“Yes,” she agreed—much to his surprise. Then she added, “To go home and have a glass of wine—a big glass of wine.”
He shrugged. “Okay, if you want to skip the date and go straight back to your place, I’m not going to complain.”
She glared at him. “You are not invited to join me.”
