The Right Swipe (Modern Love, #1)(32)

The last great date he’d had.

He thought about sitting next to Rhi in that dive bar. That heart-pumping, soul-destroying connection.

The truth came upon him like a body blow.

Rhi may have gotten closure, but he hadn’t. That connection was still there, the connection that had urged him to beg her for a second date, even though he’d known she was a tourist in his beach town.

I don’t want to get together with you again.

That was what closure implied, huh? That she was done.

“That’s it. Like that.” Tina made a square with her fingers and peered through it. “Whatever feeling’s making you look like that.”

His brain churned. He wanted to help Belle vis-à-vis this campaign.

Rhi wanted to use him for his connection to his aunt.

He wanted to see Rhi again. Maybe as more than colleagues. No. Definitely as more than colleagues. It didn’t have to be for forever, forever was terrifying. What fell between colleague and happily ever after?

Lovers. Temporary bedmates. Platonic friends. Lots of things.

Why couldn’t they all get what they wanted?

Why should he have to remember his last great connection? When they could re-create it, exactly. “Can you actually stay for a little bit? And get marketing and William on the phone. I have an idea.”





Chapter Ten


YOUR MOTHER’S on the phone, and she said if you don’t answer, she’s going to start posting your most embarrassing baby photos on ‘the Facebook,’ one every hour until you pick up.”

Rhi looked up from her laptop. She was curled in the window seat of her office. “Did you give her that idea?”

Lakshmi shrugged. She was wearing a rose gold crop top and overalls today. “I like your mom.”

“Everyone does.” Rhi rolled her eyes and held up her hand, catching the vintage pink phone headset Lakshmi threw into it. They had normal phones, but since Rhiannon used her desk as a catchall more than an actual workspace, this was how she did her business. This or her cell.

She put the earpiece on. “What’s up, Ma?”

“Young lady, you are avoiding me.”

Rhi cringed. She might be thirty-seven years old, but young lady always made her want to look for the closest cupboard to hide in. “I’m not.” She was.

“Your brother responds to all my phone calls and texts immediately, you know.”

Because Gabe is perfect.

That was unfair. Her little brother was far from perfect, but he was filled with an innate sweetness Rhi lacked. Sweet, kind, and loyal. Yeah, Gabe was sweet, kind, and loyal to a T.

Gabe understood both Sonya and Rhi. He kept in constant contact with their mother, happy to talk to her for an hour or more about nothing, and he kept his texts to Rhi short and to the point and with purpose. He truly was a code-switching saint, able to make his way through any situation.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been busy.”

“I know.” Sonya’s voice softened. “I heard CREATE was a success. I listened to the livestream of your interview. Thank you for having Lakshmi send me the link.”

Rhi wondered if she could give Lakshmi another raise. The woman just went ahead and did brilliant things like facilitate her relationship with her mother. “You’re welcome.”

“You did sound a little tired, though. Are you taking those vitamins I sent you?”

Rhi narrowed her eyes. She had been tired after a sleepless night fretting over Samson, yes, but how had her mother figured that out? Was she a wizard? “Of course I’m taking the vitamins,” she lied.

Sonya clucked. “You’re lying.”

“I am not.”

“I’m going to have Lakshmi put them in your coffee.”

“Well, then, you’ll double-dose me and I’ll die,” she snapped. “Is that what you want? To kill me via CoQ10?”

Sonya’s voice was frigid. “Watch your tone, Rhiannon Claire.”

Her mother invoking both names was worse than calling her a young lady. At what age, Rhiannon wondered, would she stop feeling the need to ram right up against her mother’s limits? “Apologies,” Rhiannon said.

“Hmph.” Sonya thought for a second. “It’s a little vacation you need. You could go to the beach.”

Rhi looked out the window. Crush operated out of a small tucked-away two-story building, surrounded by other start-ups. Her office overlooked a green courtyard. “I live in California. I can go to the beach whenever I want.”

“When was the last time you went to the beach, Rhiannon?”

She pulled her sleeves down to cover her hands. When I met Samson.

She felt a little bit like a sucker, for not hating him, for believing him so easily. But it was fine if she didn’t hate him, so long as she didn’t go and sleep with him again.

You don’t give zombies second chances. “I went to the beach last month,” she said. One of their employees had had a baby shower at a waterfront restaurant with a big patio.

“Sandy’s baby shower doesn’t count.”

“Do you have cameras planted on me?”

“Don’t need them,” her mother said. “I know you.”

Rhiannon imagined her mother in the kitchen of her comfortable Chicago home, a concerned frown creasing her still-smooth forehead, her hair in braids. Sonya had used to put similar braids in Rhiannon’s hair when she was a kid. Her mom had always made them too tight, pulling at her scalp, making her feel too restricted and hemmed in.