Page 33 of Surprised By Love

Heat fills my cheeks and I take a sip of my now cold coffee, trying to hide my face.

“Oh my God, she does!” Vicki cheers. “Look, her face is turning red.”

“This is awesome!” Becca claps. “So, what are you going to do about it?”

I look up from my mug. “Nothing. I’m going to do nothing.”

Vicki raised one perfectly arched brow. “Why not?”

“Because… for one, he doesn’t date women from town and two… he doesn’t do relationships. He’s a casual dater, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to date yet.”

“You are ready and this couldn’t be better timing. You have a date tomorrow night.”

“Wh… what?” I spin my head to face Becca.

Vicki laughs. “It’s true. You have a date tomorrow night. He’ll be here at six to take you out to dinner.”

I stand, nearly knocking the plate of cookies off the coffee table. “I never agreed to a date. You said you had a guy in mind, but I never agreed to it.”

I place my hands on my hips as if that would make me intimidating, although I knew it wouldn’t. I’m the shortest and the least intimidating. Before I got married, I was feisty and able to stand up for myself. I need to be that person again and not let people walk all over me and assume I will do whatever they want.

Just then, my phone rings with a video call from Jessica. I answer it, placing it on the table so she can see all of us.

“Hi, Jess,” We all say in unison, taking a seat on the couch.

“Hi guys.”

“How’s work going?” Vicki asks.

“Work is work. I have this event next week and the mother of the birthday girl is driving me insane. I swear I’m going to stop agreeing to do sweet sixteen parties.”

“Ha ha. You say that all the time.” Becca laughs.

“Well, this time I mean it.”

“You need to quit and start your own business,” I say. “You are a great party planner, and that stupid boss of yours needs to recognize it and stop giving you these crappy parties and give you something worth your talent.”

“Aww. Sammie, I love you,” she says.

“Love you too.” I blow her a kiss.

“So, what’s going on over there?” Jess asks, taking a drink of her soda.

“They,” I say, pointing one finger to either side of me where Becca and Vicki are sitting. “Are trying to tell me, I agreed to start dating. Which I did not.”

I glare at Vicki. “And… they already have a guy picked out.”

“You kinda did. Your first night here we talked on the swing and you never said no when I said to give me a week to get you a date. So we did.” She smiles like a cat who caught the canary.

“And besides, this will be good practice in case Josh ever changes his mind about dating girls from town. By the way he looks at you, I’d say he might.” Becca grins.

“Josh? As in Sergant Prescott?”

“Uh-huh. Our Sammie has a crush on the Sergeant!” Becca gleams.

“The way he was looking at Sam tonight, I think he’s crushing, too.” Vicki concurs.

“You guys are crazy. He wasn’t looking at me like that at all.”

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