The Dating Intervention: Book 1 in the Intervention Series (21 page)

On Saturday, for the second day in a row, she woke up with a horrible headache, which she drowned in coffee before getting dressed. Although she hadn’t officially gotten a job, she needed to buy a new coat and some reasonable shoes.
How’s that for putting it out to the Universe?
 

Just as she was leaving the house, Summer texted her, which reminded her to listen to Summer’s CD. Once she loaded it into her car’s CD player, she checked the message:
You have a date tonight with Mitchell. He’s intrigued by your offer to spend more time on the water tower. Meet him at Rowdy’s at 7.
 

Before she could answer, Josie chimed in:
Rules, schmules. Do whatever you want.
 

You guys, I’m sorry!
 

No answer.
 

She’d grovel later. For now, she had shopping to do. And after that, she had to prepare for her second date with Mitchell.

***

Seven o’clock had just passed, so Rowdy’s was still relatively tranquil. A group of younger guys played pool, and another couple occupied the tall table in the corner.
 

“You’re quiet tonight,” Mitchell said to Delaney. They sat at a table in the back and Delaney was grateful for the darkness.
 

“I know. Just tired.”

“Up late last night, huh?”

His eyes crinkled and the hint of a smile played around his lips. She felt embarrassed.
 

“I went dancing with my friends. Summer and Josie? I mentioned them last time, I think. We’ve been best friends since junior high. Anyway. Josie needed a little cheering up, so we went dancing. That always does the trick.”
 

“I think you got a little cheering up, too, judging by that message.”
 

“Don’t remind me.”

“Hey, you called in sick and you show up to drink?” Benjamin said as he approached the table.
 

“I didn’t call in sick. I took a mental health day. I seem to recall a certain Benjamin Walker doing that a few months ago after his dog died. You showed up here that night, too. And I practically had to pour you into a bucket to get you in the back of that taxi.”
 

“True.” He switched gears. “The usual, then?”
 

“Just water, thanks,” Delaney said.
 

“Hair of the dog,” Benjamin said in a sing-songy voice.

Delaney declined the offer again, so Benjamin shrugged and turned to Mitchell, who ordered a Bud Light.

They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, while the jukebox blared out something about pickup trucks. Mostly, Delaney stared into her water glass, noticing the tiny black flecks in her ice cubes. She wondered whether Summer and Josie were still mad at her. Couldn’t they just forgive her, already?
 

Could she even forgive herself?

Why, oh why, did she go home last night and make the infantile decision to get on the computer? It was like drunk dialing, except the messages were right there, fully visible. Illuminated, even. At first, she’d felt somewhat piqued when she discovered Summer and Josie were angry at her. But now her resolve weakened. Maybe they had a point. She couldn’t make good choices on her own. But why?
 

“Look, Mitchell, I’ve got to go.”
 

“What? We just got here.”
 

“Can I take a rain check? I’m just not feeling like myself.”
 

***

After the last snowstorm, temperatures in Juniper shot up, and people switched over to short-sleeved shirts and sandals. Delaney even painted her toenails. Now, just after seven-thirty, it was dark and a definite springtime chill skidded across her skin as she exited Rowdy’s. Her ears buzzed from the loud music.
 

Mitchell had been understanding, she thought. He’d sensed something was wrong from the moment they sat down at Rowdy’s. At this very moment he was probably thinking she was a crazy, moody woman.
 

Maybe she was. She was also mortified. Pausing in front of one of the downtown art galleries, Delaney wondered when she’d grow up enough to buy a real oil painting as a living room centerpiece, or a blown-glass vase to put in the dining room. Something permanent.

At some point, she had to stop decorating with “eclectic clearance” from all over Juniper.
 

Then it hit her: was “eclectic clearance” the story of her love life? The girls were right. Most of the men she dated were cast-offs of some kind. She took them all in, used them to add color and flavor to her collection. The parallel was too much to bear, so she moved on to the next shop.
 

The shelves inside the Paws-n-Whiskers window offered up human-like treats for four-legged companions. The mini donuts, cupcakes and cookies looked good enough to eat, Delaney thought. A colorful display of dog strollers sat inside the picture window, waiting to be wheeled onto the sidewalk as soon as the store opened the next day. At the rate Delaney was going, she was going to need one of those strollers. She pictured herself forty years from now, still single, wheeling her cats (lots of them) around the downtown square in a stroller.
 

“Oh, my God,” she said aloud. A feeling of doom settled over her as she imagined eating frozen TV meals alone on the couch at age sixty, seventy and eighty. She was destined to be alone and lonely forever.
 

Festive music tumbled out the open door of Eddie’s Pizzeria. The big windows cast warm, inviting light on the sidewalk. Delaney didn’t want to spend too long standing there, but a hearty – and familiar – laugh grabbed her attention.

Jake Rhoades sat at a two-person table right in the middle of the restaurant. As Delaney passed, he looked up. Although she put her head down and picked up her pace, it took her just a split second too long. He spotted her. She pretended not to see him.
 

Just as she passed the open door and smelled the spice of tomato sauce with a healthy dose of garlic, Jake stepped out.

“Delaney. I’ve been hoping to talk to you.”

Was it possible to sink into the sidewalk and disappear? The last he’d heard from her was when she’d written him that lewd message on FindLove.com.

Delaney closed her eyes, willing the ground to swallow her up.
It’d probably choke on me
. She opened her eyes. Jake was right in front of her now, his hand on her arm. The scents of cheese and fresh-baked pizza crust followed him out and enveloped her in a warm cloud.
 

“Hey,” she said, blinking rapidly to keep herself from crying.
 

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’ll give you three guesses.”
 

“Okay. I like this game. First guess. You’re heading back to the Teeter Totter.”
 

She rolled her eyes, but her mind hastily tried to remember whether she’d glimpsed him last night when she was coming out of the Teeter Totter. He said something in his FriendZoo message. She didn’t have time to ask, though, because he plowed ahead.

“Okay, sorry,” he said. “Second guess. You’re going to meet someone for a drink.”
 

She scowled.

He grimaced.
 

“Hmm, that one’s no good. You’re probably taking tonight off, right?”
 

“Isn’t your date waiting on you?” she said.

“What? Oh. My brother? Nah. He’s used to me running into women everywhere we go. He’s fine. Only kidding,” he added quickly. “Besides,” he leaned back to look in the door of Eddie’s, “I think he has a thing for our server. He’s probably been waiting for me to leave so he could hit on her. So. What are you doing?”
 

“I’m walking home.”
 

“Can I join you? Maybe you’ll cook for me. I saw you at Country Kitchen and wondered what you’d look like standing in my kitchen with a glass of wine and a thick steak. Maybe an apron with nothing underneath. Some music.”
 

So that’s what he was thinking while he stood there.
She shivered.
 

“Listen, Jake. That message last night – I didn’t mean it. I mean, I meant it, but I wouldn’t have said it if the girls and I hadn’t gone out.”
 

“So you’re telling me you’re not inviting me home to ravish me?” he said.
 

“I didn’t even invite you. And how did you know I was at The Teeter Totter?”
 

“Do you want to? Invite me, I mean?”
 

She didn’t answer, and started walking instead.
 

“Wait.” He grabbed her arm. “Wait right here.”
 

Jake pulled his wallet out of his pocket, slid out a twenty and ran it in to his brother, who turned around to gawk at Delaney as Jake rejoined her outside, falling into step with her.
 

“So, what’s eating at you?” he said.

“It’s that obvious, huh?”
 

“You don’t look a thing like the Delaney Collins I had dinner with the other night. Or the one I saw coming out of the Teeter Totter last night. Or the one I met outside of Porky’s.”
 

“Do I have to tell you?”
 

“Nope.” He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.
 

They walked a block, past another art gallery, the hat shop, a kids boutique. As they came to the corner of Main Street and State Avenue, Jake folded his hand around hers. The gesture was romantic and surprisingly comforting.
 

“Are you wooing me right now?” she asked, smiling up at him despite her bad mood.

They stepped off the curb in unison.
 

“Maybe,” he said.
 

“It’s been a long time since someone held my hand.”
 

“How does it feel?” he said.

“Nice,” she said.
 

“So, how are you? I mean, besides whatever’s eating at you.”
 

“Good,” she said. “I had a good job interview yesterday. Spent the day shopping for essentials.”
 

“What job?”
 

They stopped at the next intersection to let several cars turn in front of them. The lawn on the downtown square was packed for the first time in months. Delaney watched a couple of kids kicking a soccer ball around in the fading light.
 

“It’s for a vet, Doctor Kathryn Rick. She just opened a new position. It went okay. She said she’d call me.”
 

“That’s great. Want to do a few laps before you go home?”
 

Delaney shrugged, and Jake led her along the edge of the square. A pair of teenagers had spread a blanket on the grass and were making out feverishly. The girl had pulled the boy’s shirt up in back, and was clawing at his skin.
 

“That’s what you’re going to do to me, right?” Jake squeezed Delaney’s hand. She blushed. He said, “I thought you liked tending bar at Rowdy’s.”
 

“I do,” she said. “I’m not sure if I told you the last time, but I promised my friends I’d get a new job.”
 

There. That wasn’t saying too much, was it?
 

“Why’d they want you to do that?”
 

“I’m thirty-four, with a doctor of veterinary medicine degree, commensurate loans and a love life I just realized I should have entitled ‘eclectic clearance’ a long time ago.”

When he chuckled, she said, “Pretty clever, right? But seriously, I know they’re right. They’re just more honest with me than I am with myself.”
 

“That’s how it goes, I guess,” he said. “But you want to be a vet, right? I mean, that’s why you went to vet school and everything?”
 

They rounded the corner of the square. An old man walked by with his old dog. They wore matching red sweaters and the gray-faced Chihuahua panted laboriously, its pink tongue hanging out of its mouth. The old man winked at Delaney.
 

“Yeah. I love animals,” she said. “I’ve wanted to be a vet ever since I was ten. We had this dog, Leia.”
 

“Star Wars?”
 

“Of course. Anyway, she was a Boston Terrier. The best dog in the world. We’d had her since I was a baby. I grew up hanging out with her, taking her for walks, reading to her. She slept at the foot of my bed, every night, on her own little blanket. She was my dog, you know? Once when I got the chicken pox, she sat on the couch with me for three entire days, her head on my lap. So, when I was ten, she got sick. Really sick. Cancer. My parents took her to the vet, but I guess there was nothing they could do. It had already spread throughout her body.”
 

Delaney was surprised at the force with which the memory hit her. She swallowed, hard, and continued. “My mom came home from the vet without Leia. They’d put her to sleep. I didn’t even get to say good-bye.”
 

Now she was near tears. Again. “God, I loved that dog,” she said. “Anyway, I resolved to become a vet. So I could help other people’s pets.”
 

Jake took his hand out of hers, and put his arm around her shoulder. He pulled her close and kissed the side of her head. Talking about herself and having someone listen, understand, was like a balm. She inhaled the scent of his skin, soapy with a bit of pizza sauce. They’d made a full lap of the downtown square’s lawn.
 

“So why’d it take you so long to finally look for a job as a vet?”
 

“Honestly? Since being around you, for some reason, makes me extremely honest,” she added as an aside. “I think I was afraid I couldn’t do it – couldn’t save these animals. For Leia, there was nothing the vet could do. How often does that happen? I’m so afraid of disappointing my ten-year-old self.”
 

“But how many pets will you save? I mean, you’ve got to save at least one every month over the course of a career, right? Probably more.”
 

She chuckled. The knot that had formed in her throat loosened.