“Yeah, I got that impression. Does she greet all your dates that way?”
“I have no idea. You’re the first date I’ve had since I moved here to Cadence.”
“Hard to believe.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that, so she let it go.
“How long have you been in town?” he asked, opening the door of a sleek, black Phantom 3000.
“Four months.” Celinda got into the car. Now, why did her intuition tell her that he already knew the answer to that question? Maybe it was that subtle little pulse in his psi waves.
The passenger seat cradled her like a leather-clad lover. Araminta hopped from her shoulder onto the back of the seat. Davis closed the door and went around the front of the vehicle.
Surreptitiously, Celinda inhaled the unmistakable smell of expensive car and tried not to appear impressed. The security consulting business obviously paid well, she decided. Whatever else he was, Davis was no ordinary PI.
When he got in beside her, however, she was suddenly very aware of just how close and intimate the interior of the Phantom was.
“Where did you live before you came here?” Davis asked, rezzing the engine.
No doubt about it, she was being interrogated. Well, he was a private investigator after all. She must not forget that.
“Frequency City,” she said, cooling her tone a little.
“I’m just making conversation. That’s what you’re supposed to do on a date, isn’t it?” He eased the Phantom away from the curb. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m getting the impression that you would prefer not to talk about your life in Frequency.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude. The thing is, I have to go back to Frequency tomorrow to attend a wedding, and I am not looking forward to it.”
“Whose wedding?”
“My sister’s. Big Covenant affair. You know the drill, I’m sure.”
“Oh, yeah.”
She noticed that his jaw had gone very rigid.
“I’m the maid of honor,” she said.
“I would have thought that a professional matchmaker would enjoy attending weddings.”
This was a first date, and there was a very real possibility that there might never be another. No need to put a damper on things by dredging up her sordid past. She gave him a high-rez smile.
“You’d understand if you saw the dress,” she said.
“What dress?”
“The one I have to wear.”
He flashed her a quick, curious glance. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s pink. The whole wedding is going to be pink. It’s my sister’s favorite color.”
“Got it. Other than the fact that there’s a major pink theme going, you’re okay with the wedding? This isn’t one of those nightmare scenarios where your sister is marrying your ex-boyfriend or anything, is it?”
“Absolutely not. My sister is marrying a wonderful man. I matched them, myself. It’s just that it’s going to be a little awkward going back to Frequency.”
“Why?”
“The usual story,” she said, trying to sound at ease. “I don’t have a date for the wedding. You know how it will be. Everyone will start trying to play matchmaker. It’s particularly awkward when you’re the expert.”
It was true as far as it went, but it was a long way from the full story. With luck maybe he wouldn’t notice.
“Trust me, you have my full and complete sympathy,” he said, sounding grim. “I’ve got a few weddings to attend myself this summer.”
“Alone?” she hazarded.
“Looks that way.”
“Well, it’s the season. Not like you have a lot of options. There aren’t many excuses for ducking a Covenant Marriage if the people getting married are friends or family.”
Max and Araminta were sitting very close together on the back of the seat, chattering enthusiastically.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Davis said, turning a corner.
“Who knows?” Celinda turned her head to look at the pair. “I’ve never watched dust bunnies interact with each other. In fact, until Araminta adopted me, I’d never seen one in person, just in pictures.”
“Same here. After Max moved in, I talked to a biologist friend of mine at the university. He told me that very little is known about dust bunnies. They’ve never been considered destructive pests, so there’s never been any funding to study them.”
“Thank heavens.” Celinda shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about what could happen if some scientists decided that dust bunnies should be studied in a laboratory.”
“Something tells me that bunnies are smart enough to avoid that fate.”
“They do seem to be able to disappear whenever they wish. Sometimes Araminta slips out at night and doesn’t come home until dawn. I have no idea where she goes or how she even gets out of the apartment.”
“Max does the same thing occasionally.” Davis slowed for a streetlight. “Just another dust bunny mystery.”
Conversation stopped. Celinda tried to think of a safe way to restart it.
“What’s it like being a security consultant?” she asked.
He shrugged, watching the light. “It suits me. Can’t think of anything else I’d be good at. What’s it like being a matchmaker?”
Her profession was something else she did not want to talk about tonight. When you were a matchmaker who specialized in Covenant Marriages, you were always focused on the long-term. This was her break-the-rules date with the most interesting man she had ever met, and she was pretty sure the relationship was doomed. On the other hand, she had already shut down one conversational topic tonight, and she had asked him about his job.
“It’s very satisfying when things go well,” she said. “Depressing and frustrating when they don’t.”
“You mean when you can’t find a match for someone?”
“Finding a match usually isn’t the problem.” She hesitated, thinking of the disaster in Frequency City. “True, there are cases where it is impossible to match a client, but those instances, thankfully, are rare. The real problems start when people don’t like the results I come up with and refuse to even meet a potential match.”
He threw her a quick look, brows raised. “Does that happen a lot?”
“More often than it should. Unfortunately, when it comes to Covenant Marriages, a lot of people have very fixed ideas of what they want in a mate. In many instances those notions are flat-out wrong. There are occasions when I can’t convince a really stubborn client to give one of my recommendations a try.”
“What do you do when that happens?”
“Terminate the client’s agency contract and refund the fees that have been paid. Marriage consultants try to avoid being responsible for bad matches at all costs. It’s not good for business in a field where referrals are everything.”
“I can see that. Until the marriage laws get loosened up a little more, getting stuck in a bad CM is the equivalent of a jail sentence.”
Spoken with great depth of feeling, she thought. It was going to be a very long time, if ever, before Davis was ready to trust a matchmaker again.
Chapter 6
SHE HAD TO KNOW THAT THE DRESS LOOKED SEXY AS hell on her, Davis thought. She must have chosen it deliberately to make an impact on him.
He decided that might or might not be a good thing. If Celinda had set out to tantalize him because she was
