Page 68 of Twist of Date

What’s Layla going to do when she sees Mina here with me? Did she always know? Could that be the reason why I haven’t heard from her in the last few days?

I need to find Layla soon before I’m cleaning up the damage this will no doubt cause. Just then someone says Ruth’s name and she excuses herself, pulling my grandma along with her.

“I’m so excited to be here. I’m sad we couldn’t have our date this week, but I understand what it’s like owning your own company. Shit happens.” Mina laughs and takes a drink of her wine.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for canceling last minute,” I tell her. And yeah, I am sorry for canceling our date, but fuck, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have a work emergency like I claimed. I just couldn’t go out with another woman.

“Let’s mingle. There are a lot of people here I know and some that I’ve wanted to meet.” She tugs my hand and I let her, but I drop it quickly once we start to walk in the opposite direction of where I last saw Layla.

I feel like I’m in the twilight zone as I walk around and mingle with people I don’t know. Mina is impressive and if there were even a spark inside of me that had feelings for the woman, I’d find her ability to strike up a conversation with a stranger fascinating. But instead, I’m meeting more people than I care to meet, when I’ve got a woman I need to find.

Every time I attempt to make my escape, she pulls me into the conversation. I’ve met so many people I can’t keep them all straight. The one group of people I’ve met that I actually enjoyed talking to was the Ellis family. The owner of the Indianapolis Renegades, Joe Ellis and his daughter, were hilarious. Montana, the daughter, slipped me her card after telling me she’d love to talk about a partnership with them and RRG at the stadium.

Other than them, every other person I’ve smiled at and was introduced to have all blended together. But after what feels like hours, I finally come into contact with someone I know. More like two someones.

“Cole!” Cassie Winters says with so much enthusiasm I would suspect she was being facetious, but she’s just that happy.

“Cassie.” I grin at her. Her sunny disposition is infectious. “Stella.” I nod to the other woman, who is normally more accepting, but I’m getting all kinds of angry vibes from her.

“Cole, this is my fiancé, Theo Abbot. Theo, this is Cole Reed. He went to IU at the same time Layla, Stella, and I did,” she tells the man standing next to her. He reaches out his hand for me to shake and I get a half smile as I tell him it’s nice to meet him.

“Can I just say how wild it is that we never knew you were Dorthy’s grandson? I mean, I’ve met Dorthy a handful of times. I feel like I know her from all the stories Ruth has told us over the years, but how did we never know you were related?” Cassie says and Theo’s hand wraps around her waist.

“Totally wild,” Stella mutters.

I ignore her and grin at Cassie. “With as nosy as those two peas in a pod are, I’m surprised we never put it all together. I feel like we missed something huge and should all feel like morons.”

Cassie laughs, nodding in agreement. Theo smirks and Stella mutters something under her breath. Cassie was always the happy one and while Stella was never mean. She always looked like she could see down to the depths of your soul. So I shouldn’t be surprised she isn’t feeling me today. I’m not feeling me either.

This whole thing with Mina and the matchmaking and falling for Layla seems like it got out of control.

“Does Layla know you’re here? She was just with us a minute ago,” Cassie says, looking around for her.

“She knows,” Stella says.

That’s when Cassie zeroes in on Stella, and Theo takes over.

“I hear you own SHINE over at the IronWorks Hotel. I have lunch meetings there quite often.”

“Oh yeah, tell me, do you order breakfast or lunch?” I ask him. It’s always fun to find out what people’s preferences are. The food at SHINE is fresh-to-table and while it looks fancy, it’s some damn good food that tastes like it was made fresh from a farmhouse kitchen.

The man grins and I can tell he’s a foodie, which is good, because if Layla and I can figure out this stuff between us, Theo and I will probably end up seeing more of each other.

“I’m a sucker for the Benny Burger. But if I have to eat breakfast, I’ll take the potato waffle any day.”

“Good choice,” I tell him. We chat a bit longer. Eventually, Cassie joins in the conversation and I learn that Theo is the CEO of Eli, Co. Big pharma is a hard place to be these days, but I have a strong gut feeling about people and the man seems legit. Plus, you don’t hear of his company in the news, so in this case, no bad press is good press.

While I would much rather hide behind conversation with Cassie and Theo, not so much the grumpy Stella, I do need to find Layla. I would have thought that if I stayed near her best friends, eventually she would join us, but after more than twenty minutes, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I excuse myself from the small group when I see a flash of her face near the food table in the other tent. Tracking her as I walk her way, I see she’s talking to Ruth and Dorthy. Dorthy catches my eye and winks, as Ruth and Layla seem to talk. Ruth follows Dorthy’s line of sight, glancing at me as she reaches out and places her hand on Layla’s shoulder. She jerks her head to the house behind them and the three of them turn to walk toward the house.

All right, she’s on the move, but fortunately, privacy is better, so I follow.

I’m a man on a mission, so I don’t notice Mina materializing out of thin air as she grabs my arm. “There you are, Cole.”

“Oh, yeah. Here I am.” I halt my process as taking Mina with me isn’t gonna happen.

“I wanted to come meet your friends, but I was cornered by Mr. Samsworth. He’s been thinking about putting his house in the Broad Ripple area on the market and I haven’t been able to get him to pull the trigger. He had questions and I didn’t want to blow him off.” She mock pouts.

“No, it’s fine. They are more like acquaintances,” I tell her. I’d like to call Cassie and Stella friends, but they belong to Layla. I’m not that big of an idiot.

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