Page 70 of Match Me If You Can (Chicago Stars 6)

“I told you they wouldn’t,” her sister replied.

Charmaine reached over to rub her husband’s back. “I’m sorry, honey. You know I tried to talk the women into letting you join our group, but they said you’d upset our dynamics.”

“Besides trying to bully us into reading One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Janine added.

“That is a great book!” Darnell exclaimed. “Y’all don’t want to challenge your minds.”

Kevin had heard Darnell’s lecture on people’s reading tastes before and quickly moved to deflect it. “We know you’re right. And we’re all ashamed of ourselves, aren’t we, guys?”

“I am.”

“Me, too.”

“Can’t hardly stand to look in the mirror.”

Kevin seized on Annabelle as the next distraction to keep Darnell from getting worked up. “So what’s this I hear about you dating Dean Robillard?”

Everyone at the table stopped eating. Heath set down his knife. The women’s heads swiveled. Molly gazed into her husband’s not-so-innocent green eyes. “Annabelle’s not dating Dean. She would have told us.”

“I’m really not,” Annabelle said.

Kevin Tucker, the wiliest quarterback in the NFL, scratched the back of his head like a gorgeous doofus. “I’m confused. I talked to Dean on Friday, and he mentioned that the two of you went out last week and that he’d had a real good time.”

“Well, we went to the beach…”

“You went to the beach with Dean Robillard, and you didn’t think to mention it?” Krystal shrieked.

“It was…a last-minute thing.”

The women started buzzing. Kevin had more mischief on his mind and didn’t wait for them to calm down. “So Dean’s planning to ask you out again?”

“No, of course not. No. I mean…is he? Why? Did he say something?”

“I kind of got that idea. Maybe I misunderstood.”

“I’m sure you did.”

Heath sat stony-faced, a fact that caught Phoebe’s interest. “Your little matchmaker certainly is getting around.”

“I’m glad,” Sharon said. “It’s time she came out of her shell.”

Heath regarded Annabelle dubiously. “You were in a shell?”

“Kind of.”

Charmaine gazed at her across the table. “Are we allowed to talk about your unfortunate engagement?”

Annabelle sighed. “Why not? We seem to be examining every other part of my life.”

“Shocked the hell out of me,” Kevin said. “Rob and I played golf together a couple of times. He had an ugly duck hook, but still…”

Molly covered his hand with her own. “It’s been two years, and Kevin’s still not reconciled.”

Kevin shook his head. “I feel like I should invite him…her…to play again, just to show I’m broad-minded, which I am under ordinary circumstances, but I like Annabelle, and Rob knew from the beginning he had a problem. He should never have asked her to marry him.”

“I remember Rob’s duck hook,” Webster said.

“Yeah, I remember it, too.” Dan shook his head in disgust.

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