Can’t Hurry Love by Nadine Millard (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📗

Paige looked up from her drink, a look of guilt stamped on her face. “Beth, I’m so sorry,” she whispered before Beth could speak. “I don’t know what happened. The algorithm worked for everyone else!”

Beth’s anger cooled a bit in the face of Paige’s distress. It wasn’t the other woman’s fault. The fates just had a sick sense of humour.

“It’s ok,” she mumbled. But it wasn’t. She was bored and embarrassed, and she could just imagine the ribbing she’d get from her brothers at home. They were all here. The whole town was here! Grayson and his pack of rabid dogs seemed to be treating it like a free-for-all. Not that the women receiving their attention seemed to mind.

No, the only one who looked as if she’d swallowed something nasty was Beth. Everyone else, including Josh Larson, looked happy as pigs in poop.

“It’s not ok. I know it’s not,” Paige said sympathetically. “I was so careful with interests, hobbies, ages, sexual preferences. I just— What?”

She’d obviously noticed Beth’s wince.

“I didn’t fill in the age part,” Beth admitted, feeling like a misbehaving child. “See?” She smiled weakly. “It’s my fault. Not yours.”

“Oh, Beth,” Paige sounded so despairing, and Beth didn’t blame her. “Why?”

“Be-because…” Beth felt like an idiot, and she knew her reasons were going to make her sound even more idiotic. But she couldn’t have Paige thinking she’d messed up, not after how hard she’d worked. “…I had just finished reading Emma again right before I filled out the form,” she mumbled self-consciously. “Did you know that Mr. Knightley was sixteen years older than Emma?”

Paige nodded but didn’t say anything.

“And so, I figured if — well, if my soulmate happened to be outside the age group I picked, I’d miss out. I just — I didn’t think of it going the other way.”

To Beth’s shock, Paige let out a giggle before clamping a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I’m not laughing. I just… Oh, Beth,” she said again.

Instead of being angry or upset though, Beth found herself laughing too. It was so unbelievably ridiculous that if she didn’t laugh, she’d probably sob her heart out on Paige’s shoulder.

“Hey Bethy, I didn’t know you were back in the babysitting game,” Seth called as he walked by, his arm draped around a brunette that Beth didn’t recognise.

Brothers were the absolute worst.

“Why do I do these things to myself?” Beth sighed as she climbed into the barstool beside Paige. “Maybe I just need to get real about the world of romance. That whole falling in love so hard you can’t live without the other person? Maybe it belongs on the pages of a book and not in real life.”

Paige seemed to think it over for a minute. “I think it happens for real,” she said quietly but confidently. “Not always, and probably not as often as we’d like to think. But it has to happen sometimes. Every song, every poem, every book and movie — they come from something real. They have to. And if anyone deserves that, it’s you.”

To her horror, Beth felt her eyes fill with tears at Paige’s kind words. And when she started crying in the middle of a dating event, it was probably time to go. “I think I’m just going to write this one off.” She smiled weakly. “I’ll say goodbye to Gerald and head out.”

“I’m sorry, Beth. I know you were looking forward to it.”

“No, no. Please don’t apologise. You’ve put together an amazing event, and tomorrow is speed dating, loads of opportunities still to meet Mr. Right!”

Walking back to where Gerald was waiting, Beth couldn’t stop herself from looking for Josh.

He was gone.

And she couldn’t figure out if she was happy about that or not.

Chapter Twelve

“Morning, sunshine.”

Beth jumped at the voice behind her, and she turned to glare up at Josh Larson. A waste of time since he couldn’t see the daggers she was shooting him behind her very dark, very much needed sunglasses.

She’d barely gotten a wink of sleep last night, and it had taken a monumental effort and about six gallons of caffeine to get her here this morning.

“Don’t you have patients to see? Lives to save?” she asked by way of greeting. “For a doctor, you sure do seem to have a lot of spare time to annoy me. And,” she continued, in her stride now, “to pop up and scare the crap out of me.”

His dimpled grin made her heart flip, which only made her mood darken.

All night, she’d alternated between giving herself pep talks, convincing herself that the speed dating event would turn up some fabulous boyfriend, and wondering how she’d ever be able to fall for someone else when she couldn’t stop thinking about the Adonis smirking down at her now.

“I come in peace,” he said, holding out a coffee cup from her bakery. “Triple shot skinny latte with sweetener.”

“Jenna told you my coffee order?” she asked as she took the cup. “I hope she charged you full price.”

His laugh did funny things to her insides, so she tried to ignore it.

“I didn’t need her to tell me, and yes, I paid full price. Even left money in the tip jar.”

Despite herself, she smiled at how pleased with himself he sounded.

Why did he have to be so charming? And so ridiculously handsome?

If he’d looked like the back of a horse with a personality to match, she wouldn’t be desperately trying to find a match at this thing. She’d still feel as if she had time to find someone perfect if he hadn’t come along and been perfect.

“So, is Prince Charming joining us this morning? Or is he grounded for staying out too late last night?”

And just like that, he was a little less perfect.

“Did you come here just to torment me? Or are you here to fall in love?”

Her question seemed to freeze the air around them for a second, but then that easy grin made another appearance and the moment passed.

“To