The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)(35)

“Hello, Tiggy,” she said as she crouched down and petted his fuzzy orange head. She still couldn’t believe she had a cat, but she was grateful to Ruthie for the whole weird moving-out debacle, because she was head over heels obsessed with Tigger. “Let’s get you some tuna.”

She opened the can and poured the contents into a saucer. Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she turned to toss the container. She expected it to be Alex, but it was Jack—who’d been weirdly quiet over the past few days. But perhaps he was as smitten with his PhD girl as she was with Alex and didn’t have time to text.

Jack: How was dinner?

She took the phone into the bedroom and plopped down on her bed. OK, so listen to this. I told you Alex made reservations at the Aquarium, right?

Jack: Yep—so fancy.

Hallie: Well, we got there, and there was no reservation and no tables. Alex’s face got all red and he looked pissed.

Jack: Did Jekyll become Hyde over expensive fish?

Hallie: No, Jekyll became fucking Romeo.

Jack: He poisoned you?

Hallie: He went outside and made a phone call, and then asked if I minded going on a walk for a bit.

Jack: So he called his mom to talk him off the rage ledge.

Hallie: Shut up and wait for it. We took a walk, and then after like thirty minutes he led me to an igloo in the park. We went inside and there was heat, twinkling lights, and a picnic blanket on the ground with to-go burgers and fries.

Jack: Shut the fuck up.

Hallie laughed and still couldn’t believe it. Right?!

Her phone started ringing as she looked at it, and the second she raised it to her ear she heard Jack say, “Are you telling me that when your reservation fell through, the blond clown arranged a burger picnic in the park?”

“That is exactly what I’m telling you!” Hallie flopped back on her bed and closed her eyes. “Can you believe how charming that is?”

He made a noise that sounded like a snort. “It sounds to me like the guy knew he couldn’t get a table and made up the whole reservation story just so he could look charming.”

Hallie opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. “That is ridiculous.”

“And you’re home at ten, TB, so obviously there isn’t a lot of sexual chemistry there.”

“I know you want that stupid World Series ball, but don’t ruin this for me.” Things with Alex were amazing and perfect so far and were exactly what she’d been looking for. But Jack was a tiny bit right on that front. On paper, Alex was perfect. But she’d yet to feel any sort of burn for him.

She liked it when he kissed her—he didn’t cram his tongue down her throat or lick her face off—but it definitely didn’t have the these-clothes-must-come-off vibe she’d had with Jack during that drunken elevator ride.

But that would come.

And probably wasn’t all that important to the overall relationship, anyway.

“Sorry, sorry.” She heard him clear his throat before he said, “How’s Tig?”

Hallie rolled over onto her side and grinned. “Everything I could ever want in a bestie.”

His chuckle was deep and raspy, like he was tired. “I should bring him some catnip. I can’t give it to Meowgi anymore because he gets too hyper.”

She loved the way he sounded annoyed and in love all at the same time whenever he talked about his kitten.

“You should. He misses you.” Hallie kind of felt like she did, too, because they hadn’t hung out in a while. “He wants to show you his new place.”

When she’d gone back to the shelter with Alex to officially adopt Tigger that day, she’d been shocked to see Jack after she’d told him he didn’t have to come. He said that he was on his way home and just thought he’d swing by to see if she needed any help, and then he’d been surprisingly friendly to Alex as the three of them got her fluffy boy into his carrier.

It had been unexpectedly sweet, and she honestly hadn’t known what to make of it.

He said, “I’ll be in Minneapolis for the next two weeks on business, but I’m having dinner with Kayla the Friday I get back. Maybe I’ll swing by afterward.”

“Sounds good.” She looked over at the window and at the darkened city beyond it. “How are things going with Miss PhD, by the way?”

“Good.” He cleared his throat and said, “We’re both so busy with work that we haven’t talked a lot, but good.”

“Dinner is promising, though, right?” she asked, wishing he’d share a little more about Kayla. He said things like She seems great, but he never really went into any detail.

“Yeah, it’ll be great,” he said. “I imagine I’ll be over at your place around ten, if that works.”

It’ll be great. What did that mean? She said, “We can DoorDash ice cream and watch a movie.”

“It’s a date,” he said.

Hallie turned her eyes back to the ceiling. It’s a date. She wondered, not for the first time, if she was being honest, what it would be like to actually date Jack. She didn’t want to—she loved their friendship—but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t think of their hot hotel sex and their Pride & Prejudice moment in her living room from time to time.

They ended the call not long after that, and then Alex called her.