Perfectly Ms. Matched(19)
Jo shook her head. “Please don’t do that ever again.”
The sadness in her voice confused him.
She started to leave, so he wrapped his hand around her waist and pulled her close. “You felt that. It hasn’t gone away. Admit it, Jo.”
She slipped out of his embrace. “Doesn’t matter. It’s simple physical attraction.” She headed for the elevator.
Dammit! What if he’d blown it with her? He just hadn’t been able to resist. “Look, I’m sorry, all right? It won’t happen again. Same time tomorrow?”
She pushed the button for the elevator and didn’t bother to turn around. “Yeah. Strike one, Chad. Two more and I’m never coming back.”
He couldn’t blow his chance to get back into the game. “Got it.”
After the elevator doors closed in his face, he went to the den and grabbed the remote. Propping his aching knee up, he tried to follow the scores on ESPN, but after a few minutes, he gave up and turned off the TV.
Jo was right. Simple physical attraction. Nothing more. He’d be stupid to get attached only to have her dump him again. And reopen the scars she’d left on his heart.
Jo slid her key into the lock of the restaurant’s front door, then moved aside for Shelby and Lori to enter first. “Thanks for coming so fast, you guys. I appreciate it.” She needed a new man, and she needed him quick. Before she did something stupid like fall for Chad again.
“What’s the big emergency, Jo?” Shelby hit the lights while Jo locked up behind the three of them.
“He kissed me.” Jo headed for the kitchen. “What can I get you, Lori?”
“Kissing emergencies are always easier to handle with chocolate.”
Lori was as good-looking as her brother, Shelby’s husband, Nick. She was tall, built, dark-haired, and had stunning green eyes. Jo didn’t think a woman like Lori ate sugar and carbs. She liked Lori better for it. “Have a seat, and I’ll be right back. I’ll bring extra for the pregnant woman eating for two.”
When she returned and handed out four slices of chocolate mousse cake and three glasses of milk, Shelby was filling Lori in on the situation. “Jo thinks if she can find another man for sex, she’ll be able to tamp down her bad-girl urges to rip Chad’s clothes off while she rehabs him. But it seems like the kiss has put a fire under her.”
“This is incredible.” Lori forked up a second bite of cake and moaned. “What kind of man does our bad girl have in mind?”
“I’m sitting right here, you two. I want—”
“She wants someone just like Chad—but not Chad.” Shelby dug into her cake like a starving wolf.
“No, I don’t, Miss Know-it-all. I want a man who’s not so focused on his career that nothing else matters.” Jo took a bite and savored the rich, chocolaty goodness. “But if he looked a little like Chad, that’d be good.”
“You’ve always been attracted to tall, muscle-bound, blond men.” Shelby leaned closer. “So how was the kiss?”
“Can we please stay focused here?”
Lori laughed. “That good, huh?” She turned to Shelby. “So how are we going to help a woman who is so fixated on her career that she’s given up men for two years but doesn’t want a man with equal passion for his own work?”
Shelby started in on her second piece of cake. “Maybe we should go male model. You know, good-looking, not so much going on in the brain department, but good in the bedroom. Jo doesn’t actually have to talk to him much because she’ll be seeing Chad every day for the next few weeks. While being good-looking, Chad’s a smart guy. He’s bought vacant lots and old tear-down structures all over downtown so he can design buildings after he retires from football. Jo used to like the smart part about Chad the most, back in the day.”
“Okay. Stop. I get your point.” Jo pushed her half-eaten piece of cake away. “I’m not attracted to men without brains. That’s true. Let’s start with a clean slate. Pretend I’m a brand-new client.” Jo turned to Lori. “What are your thoughts?”
“I think you’re going to be my biggest challenge to date. But you’re in luck, because, just like you, I happen to love a good challenge. But I may need more cake to figure this all out.”
Jo laughed and headed back to the kitchen.
Yeah, things were going to work out just fine. They’d find her a man to replace the one she’d loved kissing more than any other.
Still.
6
THE GRASS ALWAYS SEEMS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE, UNTIL YOU HAVE TO MOW IT.
Jo used her keycard to enter Chad’s place as she’d been doing for the last few weeks. Luckily, Chad had behaved himself, and while things were still strained between them, they were finding a rhythm they could both live with. When the elevator doors slid open in Chad’s condo, Jo expected to see Ryan waiting for her as was his new habit, but he wasn’t there.