Hold Me Close(33)

“There,” she said. “There’s the one.”

She turned the phone to show Dee the shot that was going to work. Dee’s head, thrown back in laughter, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. It was an incredibly sexy and fun picture. With a few edits using a photo app, Effie played with the colors and smoothed some rough edges.

“It’s not cheating. It’s enhancing,” she explained and emailed the photo from her phone so Dee could upload it to her profile.

Dee was still hesitating before hitting the submit button that would take her profile live. “I don’t know, Effie. I’ve heard some nightmare stories.”

“Just keep this in mind. You don’t have to go out with anyone. You’re not obligated to be nice. And if someone doesn’t return your messages, you’ve just saved yourself a whole lot of wasted time.” Effie leaned over Dee’s shoulder to study the screen. “C’mon. Do it.”

With a sigh, Dee clicked her mouse, and within seconds, the LuvFinder site populated her “matches” section with suggestions. Giggling in much the way their daughters were doing from the other room, Effie and Dee scrolled through the possibilities. Effie saw a few names she recognized from her own suggestions list. She steered Dee away from one or two of them but recommended a few others.

“You wouldn’t think it was weird if I went out with one of them after you did?” Dee asked.

Effie shrugged. “Would you?”

“Yeah. Maybe. What if I meet someone amazing and we fall in love and get married and then you’re my maid of honor and you’d already slept with my future husband?”


For a second, Effie started to protest that she hadn’t slept with any of the guys from the site, before she saw Dee’s grin. “You’d never make me your maid of honor.”

“You never know.” Dee waggled her eyebrows and turned back to the computer. “So, should I send a message to any of them, or should I wait for them to... Holy shit. I just got...one, two...four messages in my inbox?”

Dee looked stunned. Effie laughed. “Yeah, get ready. It is a little bit like tossing chum in the water. The sharks come out right away. Remember what I said. You don’t have to answer everyone.”

Dee scrolled through her inbox and clicked on a profile picture. “What about this guy? He sent me a nudge.”

“That means he’s interested, and if you are, you nudge back, and then eventually one of you gets the balls to send an actual email.” Effie laughed and took a seat on the lumpy futon in Dee’s office.

Dee moved her mouse over the list of suggestions, pausing at one. “Oh, my God. Jon Pinciotti.”

Effie remembered him. She’d had a crush on him in the seventh grade. He was a soccer player.

“He was my first kiss. My first everything, really,” Dee said and spun in her computer chair to look at her. “Holy shit, he’s on LuvFinder.”

“Send him a message!”

“No. No way.” Dee shook her head. “I couldn’t.”

“Why not? You could just say hello.” Effie leaned forward to try to get a glimpse of Jon’s profile.

“Sure. To my high school boyfriend. My first love. Right. That’s going to work out so great.”

“You never know until you try,” Effie said.

Dee took a deep breath and put her hands on the keyboard. “Okay. Fine. I’m going to do it.”

A half minute later, she let out a low hoot of triumph and spun her chair entirely around a few times before stopping herself abruptly to give Effie a scandalized look. “I can’t believe I did that. What if he doesn’t answer me? Oh, shit. What if he does?”

“One step at a time,” Effie said with a laugh.

Dee groaned, then giggled, her cheeks flushed. “Thanks, Effie. None of my other friends have done this.”

“No? That’s crazy. It’s the age of internet dating.”

“I should know,” Dee said, the gleam of giddiness in her eyes fading. “It’s where my ex met his new wife.”

Effie frowned. “Sorry.”

“Nah. It’s fine. He’s better with her than he ever was with me, and she can deal with all his shit now. I don’t have to. I just wish that Meredith had handled it better. He swore he wasn’t going to let his new family interfere with his relationship with her, but I guess his stepkids that actually live with him take up a lot of his time.” Dee’s voice rasped.

“Sorry,” Effie said again, softer this time. “That sucks.”

Dee wiped away the brightness in her eyes and gave Effie a sad smile. “How did you help Polly deal with it? Not having a dad, I mean.”

“I guess I never had to, really. She’s always had Heath. We’ve been up front that he’s not her father, but...yeah. He’s always been there.” Effie’s smile felt sad, too.

Dee spun her chair in a circle with her head back. “He’s very good-looking.”

“Yeah.” Effie laughed lightly. “He is.”

“You’ve been with him a long time,” Dee said.

Effie nodded. “I’ve known him since I was thirteen.”

“He was your high school boyfriend, then,” Dee said and looked stricken. “Shit, Effie, I’m sorry, that was a really stupid thing to say.”