The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)(69)

She looked behind him, then back at his face. “Well, I mean, I kind of have to go—”

“Just one second. Please? Obviously the universe wanted us to meet up.”

She shrugged and stepped out of the foot traffic, settling beside the airport bookstore. She knew she looked rough with no makeup and a messy bun, but she really didn’t care.

“I just want to apologize,” he said, looking incredibly serious. “I am so sorry, Hallie.”

What was with all the men from her past apologizing to her all of a sudden?

She waved a hand and said, “It’s okay.”

“I regret it so much, and I don’t know if you’d ever consider it, but I’d love to take you out to dinner.”

She gave a tiny shake of her head. “That’s very nice, but I don’t think so.” She paused, and because she was genuinely curious, she said, “Can I ask, though, what’s changed since you thought we weren’t meant to be together last week?”

He swallowed and said, “I was an idiot. Remember how we talked about dating apps and organic chemistry, and how—”

“How you thought fate was more important than anything else? Yeah.” Hallie was starting to get impatient because she knew Jack was waiting for her. Also, she still needed to use the restroom. “I remember.”

“Well, when your friend told me about the bet, I got mad, to be honest, because things were going so well that I wanted to believe it was fate. When I found out it wasn’t—”

“What?” Alarm bells started ringing in her head at his mention of the bet. “What are you talking about?”

“Jack. I ran into him when I was leaving your place, the day he brought you the cat toys I had in my car . . . ?”

“Oh, yeah.” Hallie felt a little confused by what he was talking about, but she remembered Jack bringing up the toys Alex had gotten for Tigger. “Um—”

“We were shooting the shit in the parking lot, and when I gushed about you and it being fate, he told me about the bet.”

“What, um—”

“Your bet on who’d find someone first.”

“Oh.” Hallie felt like she was missing something, but she wasn’t sure what it was. “He mentioned that to you?”

“I think he just wanted to set the record straight that you and I were definitely not fated.”

Hallie narrowed her eyes and looked at Alex. Why would Jack tell him about their bet? Jack had known how much she had liked Alex. Why would he interject that into a conversation with a guy he barely knew?

And why hadn’t he mentioned it to her when Alex had dumped her?

“Listen, Alex, the bet was just our way of motivating each other to keep trying to find someone. There was nothing—”

“Oh, I know—that’s what he said, too,” Alex said. “Honestly, I got the impression he was trying to make something happen with you, and I was in the way. But that doesn’t matter.”

She smiled even though she felt unsettled by their entire conversation. “It doesn’t?”

“No, the screwup was all mine. Listen, can I text you later?” He leaned in a little closer and said, “This is a weird place to chat, and I would really like to finish this conversation.”

She nodded and said, “Sure.”

After she walked away from him, Hallie started filtering through everything in her head. She was on autopilot as she went to the restroom, washed her hands, and stepped onto the escalator. Jack’s words, Alex’s words, Olivia’s words—they all looped through her mind, and by the time she approached the baggage claim area, she had it figured out.

And it fucking sucked.

She’d been Jack’s low-hanging fruit, just like Olivia had predicted, and when he’d seen her connecting with someone else after he’d gotten dumped, after he’d spent two weeks in Minneapolis being sad and lonely about his uncle Mack, he’d ruined it for her.

Why else would he have kept his conversation with Alex a secret?

When he’d been holding her in her bedroom, making her feel better about her breakup while she bawled, the right thing to do would’ve been to say, I told him about the bet—that’s probably why.

But he hadn’t said a word.

He’d let her cry her eyes out without even mentioning it.

And then he’d offered to swoop in and be her Prince Charming.

She had no idea what to make of this information after everything that had happened between them last night. It had been an amazing, perfect night for her, but what exactly had it meant to him?

God, was she just overthinking everything?

She knew she was, but on the other hand, she’d thought Ben was about to propose when he actually had realized that she wasn’t someone he could love, as hard as he tried. So what if Jack was happy right now with his easily picked, low-hanging fruit? Would it last? Or would he ultimately realize that as hard as he’d tried to make her the solution to his loneliness, she wasn’t the one?

“I thought you got lost.”

Hallie turned around, and there was Jack, grinning down at her with their luggage piled in front of him. His smile made her stomach drop, and as she turned her lips up into a smile, she kind of wanted to cry.

She said, “I just saw Alex.”