Page 98 of The Grand Duel

“You’re going to blame the pups? That’s low.”

She seems to come back to life a little. “Well, without you around cracking the whip, I won’t be working late and getting myself into compromising situations. I actually have a date.”

My stomach drops. “You do?”

“Yes, I do. Why sound so shocked?”

“I’m not shocked.”

“You sounded shocked. You said,you do?” she mimics me, giving it a little more than what’s fair. “As if it’s wildly out of your comprehension for me to have a date.”

“Well, she’s awake.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Who is he?” I ask.

“I don’t know yet. I matched with someone on the site I signed up to last night, and he asked if I wanted to go for a drink.”

“You’d go alone?”

I can tell she’s frowning without needing to look at her. I do anyway.

“No, I’m going to take my mum with me.”

I pop a brow and focus on the road. “Don’t be smart. You don’t know him.”

“That’s normally how first dates go. I forget you’re celibate.”

“I’m not celibate.”

“I don’t even want to know the logistics of how that works.”

No, you really don’t.I swallow down the guilt rising in my throat. “Where are you meeting him?”

“We haven’t decided yet. I still feel kind of bad that I lied about my name. I didn’t think I’d actually get matches or entertain them if I did. And now I’m going to meet up with him and what, tell him my last name isn’t Aldridge, and I don’t want to talk about what it really is. I sound like a catfish.”

Lissie Aldridge.

My heart jolts, and I tighten my hands on the steering wheel. “Then why are you meeting up with him?”

When I look down at her, I catch her watching me, her cheeks pinking. “London can be a lonely place sometimes. It can’t just be me forever.” I lose her eyes and hate it. “I don’t think I’m very good at it.”

“Being on your own?”

She nods.

“I don’t believe that.”

She gives me a doubtful look. “No?”

“You seem to be doing fine on your own to me. You hold down two jobs. You’re good at them. You live alone in one of the most cutthroat cities in the world.” She contemplates my words. “You are happy—or you bring happy.”

“I bring happy?” Confusion laces her words.

Probably because I’m so fucked, they don’t make sense.

I swallow. “Yeah. In the office. Edna, the dogs, and me.” I shrug, wondering where the fucking full stop in this sentence will be. “We like you enough.”