Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (126 page)

I scrolled up and down the screen on my
computer, looking at but not seeing the contents of the page in front of me.
The real problem, at the end of the day, was that I genuinely, truly liked
Natalie. Above and beyond what we were to each other as coach and client, even
beyond just the fact of having had sex with her, I liked her. She was smart,
funny, and charming. I smiled to myself, remembering the way she’d been during
our last date together. I knew that she felt ambivalent about taking the
concert tickets from me, but I’d really wanted to make an impression on her, to
mend fences after the fight we’d had before. I wanted her to think of me
fondly—and I knew that I wanted her to really and truly like me.

I liked Brady, too, although I never
expected to be able to do more than tolerate him on the few practice dates he
came on with Natalie and me. I had liked playing with him. He was an adorable
child and obviously precocious for his age—I’d thought more than once when I’d
been around him that his big, expressive eyes took in everything like sponges.
He was the cutest kid I’d ever been around—not that I’d been around many—and if
I stopped seeing Natalie, I wasn’t going to see any more of Brady, either.
Once I’m not in coaching anymore, I could be
her friend. I could see her socially.
But even as I had that thought, I
pushed it aside. I couldn’t just be Natalie’s friend, not after having sex with
her. If I saw her socially, it would just lead to me wanting to date her for
real, which would make all my efforts with the agency beside the point.

I considered my problem carefully while I
continued to pretend like I was working. Fortunately, I was a little bit ahead
of the game on the tasks I had in line for the day. I couldn’t be with Natalie
the way I wanted to be—that much was obvious. She didn’t want to overstep that
boundary again, and I respected that. But I couldn’t get her out of my head,
either. She was so smart, so funny, and so much fun to be around, even when she
was coaching me and giving me feedback on how I could be better.
You could steer them in the direction of
picking someone
like
Natalie,
I
thought. At first it seemed wrong. I should let Katie pick people that she
thought would match me well—she was the expert, after all. But I knew what I
wanted. I knew what I liked. I wanted and liked Natalie. If I could steer Katie
in that direction, then she would have me matched up with someone I could be
with in a shorter period of time.

I picked up my phone and found the
agency’s number in my contact list. I took a deep breath and considered what I
should say, to steer Katie towards the right type of woman. After a couple of
minutes, I tapped call and waited.

“Hello?” I smiled to myself.

“Hey, Katie—this is Zeke Baxter. You told
my assistant Trevor you wanted me to call in?”

“Hey, Zeke! Good to hear from you,” Katie
said. “And yes, I did. Based on Natalie’s reports, I think you’re just about
ready to start dating for real, so I wanted to get some feedback from you in
regards to what kind of women I should line up for you.” I bit my bottom lip,
thinking.

“Isn’t the whole point of a matchmaking
service that you know better than me who I should be with?” If I deferred a
little bit, I thought—hoped—that she’d keep my preferences in mind a little
more thoroughly.

“Well, I know what the profiles say,” she
explained, “but we want to take what you think into consideration, as well.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said, keeping my
voice as neutral as possible. “So is this like—a questionnaire or is it more
free-form?”

“Kind of in-between,” she replied. “I’ll
ask you a few general questions, and you tell me what sounds ideal, and we’ll
try and select those women who match both what you want and what your profile
and Natalie’s reports say would be most compatible.”

“Let’s get started then,” I told her.
“What’s the first question?”

“Do you tend to have any preferences in
terms of hair color, eye color, skin tone, things like that?” I pictured
Natalie in my mind.

“I definitely tend to prefer brunettes,” I
said. “Though of course if there’s a blonde or a redhead who’s a better match
personality-wise, I’m sure she’ll be beautiful.

“We all have preferences,” Katie told me, her
voice encouraging. “I tend to like redheads, myself.”

I chuckled. “Going for that elusive
recessive genetics?”

Katie snorted. “There was a boy who stole
my heart in elementary school—very red haired, down to the freckles and blue
eyes. Stuck with me. Any preference in terms of eye color or skin tone?”

“None on skin tone,” I said, not wanting
to make my preferences too obvious. “But I do love dark eyes.”

“Okay,” Katie said. “Any personality
traits that you know you’re fond of?”

“Hmm,” I replied. “I definitely want
someone who’s strong and independent-minded. A sense of humor is a must, of
course—I can’t be serious all the time. Someone who takes their work seriously,
but knows how to cut loose.” I considered how to capture the traits I liked the
best in Natalie.
How would I describe her
to my friends if I were dating her?
“Someone who’s educated and
intelligent, but she doesn’t have to have a PhD or anything. At least some
college, though.”

“Any particular major?” I thought about
it. It would be too telling to specify Psychology—I knew that Natalie had been
in that field of study.

“No particular major,” I said. “Just some
level of college education.”

“Okay,” Katie said. “What about
interests?”

“Music is a big one,” I replied. “Movies.
I’d prefer someone who likes to be a little active, who likes to get out and do
things. Going to the park, bowling, things like that.”

“Someone who’s social?”

I nodded, even though Katie couldn’t see
me. “Exactly. Someone who wants to do more than just go out to dinner and go
home.”

“Okay, I’ve got that noted,” she said. “Do
you have a preference on someone who’s got kids or not?”

“I am okay with someone who has kids,
especially at my age,” I said, smiling to myself. “I mean, after all—I don’t
want to limit the field for no reason, right?”

“Very good of you,” she said, and I could
hear amusement in her voice. “There are some guys who very specifically want a
woman who has no kids already—so the question made its way onto the list for
that reason. Any other things you want to add?” I thought about the question
and tried to think of anything that I could say that might push her in a
direction closer to the type of person Natalie was.

“I think that covers it,” I said. “If I
think of anything, can I call you back?”

“Of course,” she said. “We can refine your
guidelines any time you want.” I finished up the conversation with her and told
Katie that I looked forward to meeting the women she set me up with. I could
only hope that I could find someone as good as Natalie who would actually be
interested in having a relationship with me.

Chapter
Thirty Three

Natalie

I pulled into the parking lot of the
library where Zeke had told me to meet him and glanced in my rearview mirror to
make sure that Brady was awake in the backseat. “Ready to have some fun, bug?”
Brady grinned, looking up into the mirror at me.

“Mr. Zeke?”

“Yep, he wanted us all to go somewhere
together,” I told him—as I had told Brady when Zeke had let me know he had a
date in mind for the three of us. I was a little wary, but since I hadn’t made
the decision yet of how to tell Katie to take me off the case—or even decided
whether or not I could make myself do it—I had gone along with it. There was no
point in being prejudiced towards anything Zeke had in mind until I figured out
how I was going to handle the situation.
Katie
said she was going to start setting him up with matches soon,
I reminded
myself.
Maybe the problem will just go
away altogether. Maybe if you wait long enough, he’ll meet someone, and then…
Of course, then he wouldn’t be interested in me at all anymore, which would
sting, but at least I wouldn’t have to make a decision and risk my career.

“Where we going?” That was a question I
didn’t know the answer to. Zeke had told me that he wanted me to meet him at
the library, and he’d take Brady and me to the location of our date—it was
supposed to be a surprise.

“We’re going to go somewhere fun,” I said
simply. I didn’t know for sure if Brady would find whatever place Zeke decided
to take us fun—but Zeke had a good track record of picking dates that my son
would like when he asked me to bring Brady along with me, so I was hopeful.

I got out of the car and went around to
the back to get Brady out of his car seat. I had maybe ten minutes before the
meeting time that Zeke had specified. I unbuckled the latches on the seat and
lifted Brady out of it, stepping back from the door. “Remember little man: when
I set you down you stay right next to me, right?” Brady nodded his acceptance
of that condition, and I set him carefully down on the ground at my feet. I
closed the door and locked up the car, and reached out for my son’s hand to
walk to the library’s entrance with him. Normally, people were pretty careful
in the library parking lot—but I didn’t want to risk the one time someone came
careening around the corner.

I gave Brady my keys to amuse himself with
and sat down on a bench outside of the library entrance to wait for Zeke to
arrive, racking my brain to try and figure out where he would take us. I didn’t
think it would be the mini-golf course—that would be too obvious and not a
surprise at all. Laser tag would be a bit dangerous for my toddler son, and I
knew Zeke had too much sense for that.
It
must be something that he thinks Brady would have fun at, but what?

Before I could come up with any real
theories, Zeke appeared, grinning. “I’m not late, am I?”

“Nope,” I said, smiling at him as Brady
rushed back to me, looking up at Zeke with a mixture of excitement and shyness.
“I got here early; I wanted to make sure I had Brady under control a bit before
we went anywhere.”

“How’s it going, Brady?” Zeke crouched
down a few feet away from my son, getting to his eye level. “Been taking care
of your mom?”

“Mm-hmm!” He grinned at Zeke. “How are
you?”

“I’m very well,” Zeke replied. He didn’t
rise up, but looked at me from his position close to the ground. “I think
you’ll really like the place we’re going.”

“Where is that, by the way?” Zeke grinned
even more broadly and looked at my son, one eyebrow raised.

“Do you like getting messy, Brady?”

“Yes!” Brady’s eyes went wide with
excitement and he took a step closer to Zeke, looking fascinated.

“Then you’re going to have a lot of fun
where we’re going to go.” He turned to me again. “I’m glad you’re not in
anything you can’t get wet or messy,” he told me, looking me up and down.

“You did say to dress casual,” I pointed
out. “I took that seriously.” I could feel myself tingling with anticipation
and tried to push down the sensation; this wasn’t a normal date with someone I wanted
to be involved with. This was nothing more than a practice date. I had to
remain at least a little bit professional while I was still working with
Zeke—it was the only way that I could keep my head above water in the
situation.

“Let’s head out then,” he said, rising up
out of his crouch. “I just realized: Brady needs to use a car seat, doesn’t
he?” I nodded. “Can I help you grab it? I’ll be driving us to our destination,
if you don’t mind.” I knew I probably shouldn’t agree to that condition, but it
was easier—especially with Brady in tow—to go along with it.

In a matter of minutes, the car seat was
out of my car and mounted in the backseat of Zeke’s SUV, and Brady was amusing
himself with my keys and a plastic car toy that Zeke had for him.
You can’t keep letting him buy Brady
presents, you need to put a stop to that,
I told myself, even as I climbed
into the front passenger seat. But it was going to be much easier to keep Brady
in a good mood with a toy to amuse him than it would have been with just my
keys.

I was relieved to find that Zeke was a
decent driver. He didn’t speed or try to cut across traffic, as we made our way
to our mystery destination. “Come on, you can tell me already,” I said,
watching out the window for any signs or landmarks that could tell me where we
were going.

“Nope,” Zeke said, shaking his head. “It’s
a surprise. You don’t get to know until we get there.”

“What if it’s not appropriate for my son?”
I looked at Zeke wryly and stuck my tongue out at him. “Got a plan B?”

“According to the person I arranged this
with,” Zeke told me, “it is an ideal place for families—even and especially
families with toddlers.”

“We’re not a family,” I pointed out. He
shrugged, grinning.

“I might have hedged a little bit—but it’s
family-friendly and safe for kids. I think you’ll have fun there, too. Loosen
up a bit.” I looked at him askance, but settled in to wait and find out where
we were going.