Two Last First Dates

  Two Last First Dates

  A romantic comedy of love, friendship and more cake

  Cozy Cottage Café Series

  - Book 2 -

  by

  Kate O’Keeffe

  Two Last First Dates is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Comradery

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

  ISBN-13: 978-1548465148

  ISBN-10: 1548465143

  Edited by Chrissy Wolfe at The Free Every Chance Reader

  Cover design by Sue Traynor

  Copyright © 2017 Kate O’Keeffe

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  I COULD NOT BELIEVE we’d done this. Again. I glanced at my friends, chatting excitedly, sipping their glasses of champagne, smiling and laughing as though they had no cares in the world. I let out a long, deep sigh. I mean, how many pacts to marry the next guy you date could a girl reasonably make?

  Two, it would seem.

  You see, we’d done this before, my friends Cassie, Marissa, and me. A year ago, around a bonfire much like the one I was standing beside now, on this very beach, in fact. And it had turned out just nicely for Cassie—well, not exactly in the way she intended, but it had worked out all the same.

  And now we’d gone and done it again, this time with our good friend Bailey replacing the loved-up Cassie. We’d agreed to One Last First Date. Only, I’d already been on my One Last First Date, and considering I’m single and alone, it’s fair to say that hadn’t exactly worked out the way it was meant to for me.

  “Hey, Millsey!”

  I turned to look at the man approaching me. My heart skipped a beat and my tummy knotted into an elaborate rug as I took in his chiseled jaw, his dark, scruffy hair moving in the gentle breeze. The chatter from the others on the beach faded into nothing.

  There he was, Will Jordan, the man of my dreams. Shame about his girlfriend. And just to add further agony to an already heartbreaking situation, she was one of my closest friends. Naturally.

  “I just wanted to say thanks for this.” Will smiled, gesturing at the bonfire and the picnic blanket. He raised his champagne flute and clinked it against mine, smiling, the edges of his dark eyes crinkling in a way that sped my heart rate up. “Here’s to you. You’re awesome, you know that, right?”

  “Thanks.” Just not awesome enough to want to date. I put the flute to my lips, took a large swig, and swallowed. The bubbles tickled my nose. I tore my eyes from Will’s handsome face and looked down the beach and out to sea.

  He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and my legs instantly turned to jelly. “You mean a lot to her, and to me.”

  Against my better judgment, I looked up into his eyes. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Why did his arm have to feel so right around my shoulders?

  “And we’re . . . good?” he asked, hesitatingly.

  “Oh . . . um . . . yes. Absolutely.” I shot him my hundred-watt smile I knew could fool anyone, anytime.

  He gave me a squeeze. “Great. I’m really glad.”

  Anyone looking at the two of us would think we were the perfect couple, standing beside a bonfire on a perfect summer’s evening, the sunset over the horizon casting a beautiful, warm glow over us.

  Cassie sidled up to our little group of two, grinning like the cat who got the best flavored cream in town, and considering she had Will, I guess she did. “So, how did I do on the swim?”

  I smiled at my friend. Although she was dressed in dry clothes now, her hair was damp and had begun to curl. She still looked beautiful. Damn her. “You did great.”

  Will let his arm drop from my shoulder, stepped toward Cassie, and collected her in an embrace. “Hey,” he said, all gooey-eyed, as though he hadn’t seen her in weeks rather than mere moments.

  “Hey,” she replied, smiling back at him.

  I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

  Without letting go of Will, Cassie reached out and took my hand in hers. “Thanks for this, Paige. I’m so happy you’re okay with . . . everything.”

  By “everything,” she meant her and Will. Oh, and the distinct lack of Will and me. But what else was I going to do? As I’d lectured myself countless times since Cassie had told me they’d fallen in love, the heart wants what the heart wants. And I was powerless to change that.

  Still, it should have been me.

  “It’s fine. I’m happy for you both.” I swear I didn’t nearly choke on the words. Suddenly cold, I wrapped my arms around myself, watching Will out of the corner of my eye.

  I shook my head. I needed to give myself another stern talking to, that was for sure.

  “Hey, Paige!” Marissa called over to me. “Get over here. The fire’s toasty warm.”

  I shook myself out of my reverie and flashed her a smile. “Sure.” Glancing at Cassie and Will, I said, “See you two lovebirds soon.”

  I joined Marissa and Bailey by the fire. It worked its magic, warming me up immediately.

  “You okay?” Marissa asked in a hushed tone as she leaned in to top up my glass with more champagne. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I’m . . .” What was I? Well, I’d gone on my One Last First Date with a guy who had about as much interest in me as I had in quantum physics, rejected me, and was now loved up with someone else. “Heartbroken” seemed about the best way to describe it.

  “Hold on, if you look like you’ve seen a ghost, it’s not that Goddess of the Beach, is it? I mean, she’s not . . . here, is she?” Marissa’s eyes darted around nervously.

  I let out a chortle, shaking my head. “I didn’t think you believed in the Goddess of the Beach?”

  Marissa was my hard-nosed friend who never took any crap from anyone. In some ways, she was the opposite of me: cynical, skeptical, always taking things with several pinches of salt. Right now, I could do with being even just a little more like her. She would never choose a guy who didn’t choose her back.

  Marissa bristled. “I don’t believe in it. It’s just, you can never be too sure, right? And we did just make a pact, supposedly in her presence, right?”

  I let out a sigh. Ah, yes: The Pact.

  I looked over at Will, standing next to Cassie, looking so totally in love, you could almost touch it. I sighed. Bailey and Marissa followed my gaze.

  “Oh, honey,” Bailey said, giving my arm a rub. “He wasn’t the right one for you, that’s all. You’ll meet him some day.”

  My shoulders slumped. I used to believe it. I used to think there was one perfect guy out there for me, and that, somehow against the odds, I would find him and we would be together, happy forever. I guess I believed in the fairy tale. Now? I wasn’t so sure.

  I studied Bailey’s smiling face. She seemed so certain, so hopeful. “How do you know I’ll meet him?”

  “I just do.” Her certainty was impressive—and a little aggravating.

  “I thought Will was the guy for me. And look at how wrong I got that. He was in love with Cassie the whole time. The. Whole. Time.”

  Bailey smiled sympathetically at me. “You weren’t to know. He didn’t tell anyone he was in love with her, right?” Bailey looked at Marissa for confirmation.

  Marissa shook her head. “It came as a shock to everyone, to be honest. Even to Cassie.”

  Cassie, who’d been dating the guy she thought she was going to marry for almost a year, until Will dropped his “I’m in love with you” bombshell and changed everything.

  I took another slug of my champagne. This stuff was going down rather too well tonight.

  “You’ll find him,” Bailey repeated with conviction.

  Tears stung my eyes. “Actually, do you know what? I don’t think I will.” My voice had a definite quaver to it. I hoped my friends didn’t notice.

  Marissa and Bailey both protested immediately. I raised my hand to silence them. “Hear me out, okay?” They both nodded. I sniffed back the tears and continued. “I’ve always been the kind of girl to like a guy for a long time, right? I don’t rush things, I get to know him, and, to be fair, I kind of worship him from afar, too nervous he’ll reject me to do anything about it. And then, when I finally do something about it, it goes horribly, horribly wrong.”

  We all glanced over at Will and Cassie, who were now sitting, huddled up together on the blanket, looking out to sea, totally oblivious to the rest of us in their new love bubble for two.

  “What are you saying?” Marissa asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

  “I guess I’m saying . . . I don’t think I make the right decisions about men. In fact, I’m terrible at it. So, you two can go on your One Last First Dates and I’ll just . . . not.”
r />   “You’re giving up on finding The One?” Bailey asked, her brow furrowed in concern.

  I pursed my lips together and shook my head. “What’s the point? It’ll only end in heartache. For me.”

  “You can’t give up on it, Paige!” Marissa protested. “We only agreed to the pact ten minutes ago.”

  I drained my glass and squared my shoulders. The alcohol had gone straight to my head, emboldening me. “I don’t think I have any alternative. I’ve shown you I can’t choose the sort of guy who’s right for me, so there’s nothing for it but to forget the whole thing.”

  I could see my life flash before my eyes. Watching all my friends fall in love and get married, becoming godmother to a cast of thousands, living in my little cottage with climbing roses along the path. And cats. Lots of cats, clearly. What self-respecting spinster doesn’t have cats? Perhaps a goat, too. Why a goat? I don’t know, but somehow a goat who would eat all the roses I worked so hard to cultivate seemed appropriate in my current state of mind.

  “Paige, come on,” Marissa objected.

  I crossed my arms, resolute. “No, I’ve made up my mind.”

  Actually, until that very moment, I’d had no idea I would make such an outlandish declaration tonight. I’d always been a romantic, always believed in love, in the possibilities it could bring. And now? I could blame it on the champagne, but something had changed.

  After it became obvious to my friends I wasn’t backing down, they gave up trying to talk me around and we stood in silence, listening to the crackle of the fire and the rhythmic waves on the shore.

  “I have an idea,” Bailey said with a smile, punctuating the silence. “Do you want to hear it?”

  “If it’ll knock some sense into Nun Paige here, be my guest,” Marissa scoffed, her arms crossed, clearly annoyed with me.

  “Paige. If you could choose the right man, one who would love you back and want to be with you for the rest of your life, would you?”

  I looked over at Will once more. Choosing the right man wasn’t exactly my strong suit. “The point is, I’m no good at it,” I replied.

  “Just answer. Please?” Bailey was as persistent tonight as she was sweet.

  I shrugged. “Sure.”

  She gave a curt nod. “Okay. That’s all I wanted to know.”

  “Why?” Marissa asked, looking confused. “Is this going somewhere?”

  “It is.” Bailey leaned in closer to us both, her eyes flashing. “I have an offer for Paige.”

  An offer? My interest piqued, I raised my eyebrows in expectation.

  When nothing was forthcoming, Marissa exclaimed, “Well, what is it, then?”

  Bailey looked from Marissa to me, her face beaming. “I will choose the guy for Paige.”

  I recoiled in shock. “You’ll do what?” I shook my head with vigor. “No no no no no.” I might be terrible at making the right decisions in the romance department, but I wasn’t desperate.

  Was I?

  Marissa clapped her hands together in excitement, her interest now piqued. “Ooh, and I can help, too!”

  “Sure! Great idea! We can be the two matchmakers, right?” Bailey replied.

  “Yes! We could even come up with a snappy name, you know, something like ‘The Cute Cupids,’ or ‘Two Hot Chicks.’ Oh, wait, Cassie might like to help out, too, so maybe ‘Three Hot Chicks’?”

  Bailey laughed. “We’re not trying to self-promote here, we’re trying to find someone for Paige.”

  “Hello? We need to go on our One Last First Dates too, remember?” Marissa chimed.

  “I know, but let’s focus on Paige first. She needs our help,” Bailey replied.

  I watched, agog, as my two friends discussed me and my predicament as though I wasn’t there, my feet in the sand, right next to them. “Excuse me?” I said. They continued to talk between themselves, plotting and planning my fate. “Hey, you two?” Still, nothing. “Oi!” I shouted.

  They both stopped in their tracks and looked at me in surprise.

  “This”—I gestured to them both—“is not going to happen. Not. So, you can forget what you’re going to call yourselves or anything else for that matter. I’ve made up my mind; I’m giving up on men.”

  “Listen to her, Paige. I think she’s onto something here,” Marissa encouraged.

  My eyes darted between them. They were actually serious about this?

  Bailey pursed her lips. “Look, you said yourself you want to be with someone but you no longer trust yourself to make the right choice.”

  “Yes, but—” I was totally exasperated by these two.

  Bailey put her hand on my arm. “If you do what we’re suggesting, you won’t have to make a choice. We will find him, vet him, do whatever needs to be done, ready for you. All you have to do is go on a date with him.”

  “One Last First Date,” Marissa added.

  I chewed the inside of my lip, my mind racing. I was being honest when I said I didn’t feel capable of making good choices when it came to romance, but this? This was a giant leap for womankind.

  “I know it sounds crazy, Paige, but it might just work,” Marissa said. “Right, Bailey?”

  Bailey nodded. “It might. It’s worth a shot.”

  “What’s worth a shot?” Cassie slunk up to us with Will in tow.

  Immediately, I looked down at my feet, muttering, “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

  Cassie and I had been friends for years. I loved her, and I trusted her with my life. But the whole “Will-and-Cassie” thing was too raw, and tonight was meant to be about me accepting them. The last thing I wanted was for them to know I had sworn off love. It was . . . humiliating.

  “Oh, okay,” Cassie replied, wounded. “I guess I don’t need to know.”

  I bit my lip, my chest tight.

  Bailey pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. “Wow, I have to go. I’ve got to be up early in the morning. My café waits for no woman.”

  Seeing my chance to escape from an awkward situation, I said, “I’ll come with you.”

  “Sure.” Bailey flashed me her beautiful smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her. She may have come up with a totally harebrained idea I wasn’t going to touch with a ten-foot pole, but she had my back.

  After collecting my things, saying goodbye to Marissa, and sharing an awkward hug with the couple of the moment, Bailey and I headed back up the beach toward her car.

  So, that was that. I’d given up on love. No more men, no more dating. Just me, alone.

  Chapter 2

  I CLOSED THE FRONT door behind myself and stood in the darkened hallway for a moment, collecting my thoughts. Bailey had asked me again to think about her idea before she’d dropped me at my house. Again, I’d thought about it for a nanosecond. And, again, I’d decided it was quite possibly the craziest idea I’d ever heard.

  Other than me asking Will out on my One Last First Date, that was.

  “Is that you, lamb chop?” a voice called over the sound of the television from down the hall.

  “Hey, Dad,” I called. I slipped my wedges and vintage seventies jean jacket off and padded the short distance to the living room, where my dad was sitting in his favorite chair in prime position in front of the television. A commentator was droning on about a cricket match being played in some far-flung part of the world. He sounded about as bored as the people watching the game, and I hardly blamed him. Cricket—a sport my dear old dad once played professionally—is the only sport on the planet where two teams can play one another for five whole days and end up in a draw.

  I leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “How’s the game, Dad?”

  He shook his head and tutted. “Not good. We’re down by five wickets with three hundred and fifty-eight to get. It’s a huge target. Huge!”

  I smiled at him, flopping down in an adjacent chair. “If you say so. How was your day?”

  “Oh, it was okay. Work’s work. You know how it is.”

  That I did. My work was . . . well, work, too. I had a job in marketing at AGD, the telecommunications company Marissa and Cassie worked at. In fact, that’s where I met them. And Will. He’d left recently, but I’d had a crush on him from the moment he’d joined the company, over two years ago. Two years? Oh, my god. What a waste of my time.

  Maybe I did need Bailey and Marissa’s help?

  “How about you, honey? Did you have a nice time with your friends tonight?”