Besides, with her newfound freedom she had a lot planned for herself. She wanted to fix up the house, although she admittedly had very little talent in that area. She wanted to learn to bake, even though she had even less talent in that realm. She wanted to date—where she had absolutely zero talent.
It might seem silly, but to a woman who’d been uniquely unlucky in her love life, Zoe had never gotten the hang of dipping her toes into the wading pool, especially with the audience of her siblings.
But now, with the house empty, it seemed like a perfect time.
Hence blind date number one. And she was ready. She wanted this. She totally almost did.
“He’s off the phone,” Darcy reported, back at the window.
Oh God. “I changed my mind,” Zoe whispered.
Darcy turned to her. “No.”
“Yes!”
“Then why did you tell everyone to set you up with blind dates so that you could get laid?”
“I never said that! I really wish you’d stop saying it.”
“What?” Darcy asked. “That you want to get laid?”
Zoe shot Darcy a look that went completely ignored. “And that’s not why I wanted to go out. I just wanted . . .” She trailed off, because what she wanted was much more complicated than her short list of man requirements.
She had a job she loved: being both a pilot-for-hire and giving flying lessons out of the small regional Sunshine Airport. Sunshine was a sleepy ranching town at the base of the heart-stopping Bitterroot Mountains and didn’t see a lot of action, but she managed to keep busy enough to eke out a living.
She had Wyatt and Darcy, whom she loved fiercely even though on any given day she felt like strangling and/or smothering them, but she was working on that.
And then there was the ancient—and some might argue dilapidated—150-year-old Victorian house that her grandparents had left the three of them, which she loved with the same fierceness she loved her annoying siblings.
Not to mention Oreo, whom she’d rescued not all that long ago and who’d quickly become her favorite family member.
So yeah, her life was good and she was happy, blah blah blah.
But something had been missing for a while now.
Joy.
She’d never given that particular emotion much thought before. She’d always been too busy keeping things together. But now that she had an empty nest, so to speak, she’d decided she was due. Past due—
At the knock on the front door downstairs, she nearly leapt out of her skin.
Startled, Oreo gave a loud bark and farted at the same time, and then as he did every single time this happened, he whipped his big head around to stare at his own hind end in surprise.
Darcy grinned. “Killer protective instincts, this one.” She rumpled Oreo’s fur. “I’m going to sneak out the back door, okay?” At the door, she blew Zoe a quick kiss and then smacked her own forehead. “Oh, almost forgot! Wyatt told me to remind you that his friend Parker could be showing up any time over the next few days. And change your dress and shoes!”
“I’m not going to change!”
Darcy sighed the put-upon sigh of a sister who thought she knew everything. “Fine. But do me a favor?”
“Anything if you’ll leave.”
“For once,” Darcy said, “just once, act spontaneously, okay?”
“Spontaneously?”
“Yeah, like if when you open the door and he’s even hotter up close, step outside your comfort zone and kiss him. Right up front, you know? Set the mood.”
Zoe just stared at her. “Are you completely nuts?”
“Well, obviously,” Darcy said. “But what does that have to do with anything?” She laughed, but then her smile faded. “Listen, most people spend a first date filled with anxiety, obsessing over the good-night kiss. Will there be one, won’t there be one . . .”
“I don’t obsess,” Zoe said.
“Are you kidding? You’re the queen of obsessing. So just get it out of the way, okay? Act spontaneously. And then relax and go with the flow.”
“I always go with the flow,” Zoe said.
Darcy laughed. “You go with the flow never. Try it my way? Just this once? Trust me, if there are sparks, you’ll thank me.”
“And if there aren’t?” Zoe asked.
“Then you don’t need to worry that that dress makes you look like a grandma.”
And then the whirlwind that was Darcy was gone.
Zoe took one last look at herself in the mirror. Okay, so maybe the dress didn’t scream sex, but that was okay. She wanted a guy to want her for her, right?
Right.
The knock came again. Solid. Firm. And the butterflies in her belly once again took flight.
Oreo’s, too, given that he gave another ear-piercing bark and scrambled to hide under her bed. All he could fit under there was his big, fat head, which left the rest of him sticking out.
She thought about joining him, but she’d never been much for hiding her head under the bed. So she made her way down the creaky stairs, her dress catching on her legs. Dammit. Darcy was making her doubt the choice, but it was too late now. Still, if the dress wasn’t going to make a statement, then she’d have to make do with her personality.
No pressure or anything . . .
Oreo followed her, hiding behind her legs as she opened the front door and got her first look at her blind date and . . . stopped breathing.
Damn. He was even better looking up close. Tall, and that leanly muscled build of his spoke of a man who worked with his body, not a guy who sat on a stool with his hands inside his patients’ mouths all day. He had sharp, light green eyes that crinkled in the corners, like maybe he spent a lot of time in the sun or, better yet, smiled a lot. A scar bisected his left eyebrow, giving him a dark and mysterious air. His square jaw had a slight shadow of growth, shown off when his mouth curved at her scrutiny, and this time her heart kicked hard because he also had a killer smile.
“Hey,” he said in a deep, warm masculine voice.
“Hey,” she mirrored back as Darcy’s words flashed in her head. Act spontaneously. Step outside your comfort zone.
Kiss him.
Heart pounding, Zoe let out a breath and moved forward, having to go up on her tiptoes to brush her mouth across his.
His lips were warm, firm, and yet somehow giving at the same time. She could have easily lost herself in him, but sanity returned and she stepped back.
His smile got a whole lot warmer, but he didn’t speak.
“Thought I’d get that out of the way,” she managed. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never met a dentist without having to be in a dentist’s chair.” Great, and now she was rambling. She bit her tongue to keep it from running off with the last of her good sense.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he said. “Who’s the dentist?”
Zoe’s smile congealed and her heart stopped, just completely stopped. “Uh . . . you,” she said, “You’re the dentist.”
Still smiling, he shook his head. “Not me.”
Oh God. “You’re not Newman Taylor,” she whispered in horror.
“No,” he said. “But if your next guess is Parker James, you’d be right.”
Oh God. Wyatt’s friend, to whom she’d agreed to rent a room for the few weeks he was in town. She’d had mixed feelings about it, but Wyatt had vouched for the guy, and Zoe could really use the money for some desperately needed renovations. “You’re my brother’s old friend.”