“Oh, I get it. You’re a love ’em and leave ’em type.”
“No,” he said sharply. “That is Julian. I have been in plenty of meaningful, long-term relationships—”
“You just can’t put a ring on it.”
He frowned. “Something like that.” He sat back, twisting slightly so he could cross one long leg over the other. He planted his hand on his ankle and studied her. “Why did you need a matchmaker?”
“I…” Think, Delaney. You’re not you, you’re Annabelle. “I just got out of a relationship.”
“Not rich or strong enough?” He smiled.
“Not faithful enough.” She rolled the edge of her paper napkin under her fingertips. “Money and physical attributes I can take or leave. After all, they’re both attributes that can come and go depending on the circumstances. But I will not abide a cheating man.”
“Is that why your last relationship didn’t work?”
She nodded, thoughts of Russell ruining the taste in her mouth. “He forgot his phone at my place.” She held her hands up. “I didn’t snoop on purpose. It chimed, I looked and the rest is history. He knew when he came to pick it up he’d been found out.” She forced herself to smile. She was sitting across from an exceptionally handsome man, eating the most amazing brownie she’d ever had. Now was not the time to mope about Russell. “How about you? Why’d your last relationship fizzle?”
“The same reason they all did.” He stared at his coffee. “She wasn’t the right one.”
“How long did it last?”
“Five months. I’ve had longer. Ten months. But she wasn’t the right one either.”
She nodded. “Five months or ten months, either one is long enough to know. Clean break?”
“Not exactly. She thought I was proposing. I wasn’t.”
“Yikes.” Delaney’s brows shot up. “Is this Piper we’re talking about? The woman Vicky mentioned?”
He nodded. “Her family owns the local newspaper.”
“I think I know why you don’t like coming into town.”
He snorted softly. “My relationships don’t often end that badly, but…” He shook his head.
“You probably want to go home, huh?”
He hesitated, and a slow smile curved his mouth. “I’m actually having a pretty good time.”
“Me, too.” She took another bite of the brownie. Hugh was a nice guy. She’d judged him based on his initial reaction to her, but that had been all wrong. He was a guy reluctant to make a commitment for whatever reason, and that was okay with her. After her mother died, her father had remarried so fast she’d doubted the institution of marriage herself for a while. Whatever Hugh’s reason for staying single, it would certainly make things easier. “Why don’t we make a deal?”
Curiosity sparked in his eyes. “What kind of deal?”
“You’re not looking to get married, but you have to make a good show of things for your grandmother, so let’s just agree to have fun for the next twenty-nine days, no strings attached.”
“No strings attached. I can do that. Except…” He squinted. “Didn’t you come here trying to find a husband?”
She couldn’t very well say no to that. Instead, she shrugged. “Sure, but I’m also not going to freak out if that doesn’t happen. You might not even be my type.” He was so her type. She just hadn’t known it until now. She drank the last of her chocolate. Darn, that had gone way too fast.
“And if you fall in love with me? What then?”
“Conceited much?” She laughed. “I could ask you the same question.” She gave him her sexiest look.
He laughed. Ouch. Not the response she’d been going for. Then he pointed to the corner of his mouth. “You have a little chocolate right here.”
Oh. She licked at it. “Gone?”
His gaze seemed to be stuck to the spot her tongue had just been. He closed his mouth and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “We should go.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
He stood and looked toward the street. “Nothing.”
Delaney got to her feet and followed him out. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one bad at lying.
Annabelle was saying all the right things. Whether or not that was on purpose, Hugh couldn’t find it in him to care. Maybe she was a witch. Maybe she’d put some kind of spell on him. When her tongue had darted out to lick away the smudge of chocolate, he’d had the most overwhelming desire to kiss her.
Worse than that, his stomach had done something…odd. Something that felt very much like chemistry.