She sat straighter. “What happened?”
He turned toward her and brought his knee up on the couch between them. “Can I be completely honest about something that I have a really, really hard time admitting to anyone else?”
Dara’s stomach flipped. “Yeah. Of course.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m…um…”
“It’s me, Matt,” she said. “Same thing you told me yesterday—just tell me.”
He lowered his gaze, slowly releasing a breath. Then his eyes flicked up and met hers again. “I’m a virgin.”
Dara stared at him. “Huh?”
“I’ve…never had sex. With anyone. Ever.” The color blooming in his cheeks told her he wasn’t joking.
“But…you’re…” she sputtered. She shook her head and blinked. “Matt, you’re—”
“Rich?”
“—gorgeous!” She waved a hand. “Okay, yeah, and rich. But for God’s sake, there are plenty of women out there who don’t care.”
Matt arched his eyebrow in true Coolidge “yeah right” fashion.
Dara touched his arm. “I’m serious. And it’s not like you have ‘I’m Rich’ tattooed across your forehead.”
He chuckled. “What are you saying? Do I look like I—”
“I mean you don’t flaunt it. But there’s nothing unattractive about you.” Her cheeks burned. “There never has been.”
Well, at least she wasn’t the only one blushing.
“I still suck at talking to women, though. Hell, that date I went on last year?” His lips twisted. “I was comfortable enough with her that I admitted that I’d never been with a woman before. I don’t think she’s ever laughed that hard in her life.”
“What?” Dara nearly flew up off the couch. “I will fucking cut her!”
Matt laughed, though it seemed to take a lot of effort. “Nah, she’s not worth it.”
“The hell she isn’t!” Dara scoffed. “What do you mean she laughed?”
“Well, to be fair, how many other thirty-six-year-old virgins do you know?”
“It doesn’t matter!” She threw up her hands. “What kind of… Who the fuck… Argh.”
“Easy, Dara.” He chuckled. “Yeah, it was obnoxious, but she’s in the past. And thank God she doesn’t live in Aspen Mill.”
“For her sake, yes.”
Matt sort of laughed, but then sighed. “So yeah. She’s in the past, but it’s the future I’m not terribly optimistic about.” He blew out a breath. “My mom’s been putting the pressure on to get married and start a family, but I don’t think she realizes just how tall of an order that is for a guy like me.”
Hearing that made Dara’s chest actually hurt. “So, you’ve never dated, then?”
“Never.”
She stared at him again, dumbstruck. She’d vowed a long time ago to personally choke any woman who treated him wrong, but she’d never imagined he’d be alone in his thirties, never mind that he’d been alone for all those years.
Matt cleared his throat. “The thing is, I had my nose to the grindstone all through college, and then we started the company, and…” He exhaled sharply, and when he met her eyes, he suddenly looked exhausted. “And then one day I woke up and I was thirty-five, on the brink of a heart attack and had never taken the time to have any kind of personal life. Any kind.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.” She paused. “Well, there’s no reason you can’t start now.”
“Sure, but where the hell does a guy like me even start?”
Dara fidgeted, folding her hands in her lap. “I wish I knew.”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice distant. “Tell me about it.”
Chapter Five
Matt had bitten the bullet and taken one of his migraine pills last night in between courses, and he’d gone to bed with only the mildest headache. No auras, no throbbing, no nausea—thank God.
Especially since his sister texted him at five thirty to tell him that both Whiskey and Lady had picked the same morning to foal. Whiskey’s spindly little chestnut colt was on his feet when Beth showed up to feed, and Lady’s bay filly was getting there. By the time Matt arrived about twenty minutes after the text message, the filly was standing up and the colt had already learned the hard way that while galloping was fun, stopping wasn’t as easy as it looked.
The vet was on her way, but so far, all four horses appeared to be doing great. This was Whiskey’s sixth foal, and she was pretty “whatever” about the whole thing. Across the aisle, in typical first-time-mother form, Lady wasn’t quite sure what to think about the wobbly little creature following her around, but she was getting the hang of it.