Want Me

“I love this idea,” Ariel said. “I really do.”

“It works. It’s safe, too, because the person who submits the card sets up the date. And no one outside the group knows the cards exist.”

“Including the guys?”

“Especially the guys.” Shannon made a point of looking Ariel in the eyes. “The whole thing is a secret, very private. No one knows outside the group. Understand?”

Ariel nodded, took a healthy swig of her beer and grinned, showing off her expensive dental work. “It’s brilliant.”

“I know,” Shannon said, not even a little bit embarrassed to say so since the whole concept had been her idea. “We’ve only been swapping cards for a couple of months, and it’s exceeded our expectations. The only problem we haven’t solved is how to keep increasing the dating pool while still keeping it a secret. Very tricky.”

“Shannon.” The deep voice behind her made her look because she couldn’t immediately identify who was speaking. It wasn’t a cousin, which was astonishing, but he might as well have been. “Hello, Mike.”

“I was wondering if you’d like to take a turn with me?” He nodded toward the dance floor.

Mike was a nice man, almost thirty, owned a bookstore that was holding on by a thread, and she felt guilty for not liking him more. They’d tried dating once and there’d been no chemistry whatsoever. Maybe she should put him on a card. He really was sweet. “Oh, sorry. Maybe later? I’m in the middle.”

“Sure, sure thing,” Mike said, giving her a dejected smile. “I’ll be around.”

As soon as he was out of earshot, which was a matter of two steps, Ariel leaned in again. “What kind of men are on the cards? Are there any restrictions?”

“Nope. Except that they need to be local. And looking. There’ve already been some epic matches. Like Charlie Winslow and Bree Kingston.”

Ariel’s jaw dropped. “That was you?”

Shannon smiled. “It was.”

“Holy cow. That’s incredible. I’m in.”

“Great.” Shannon pulled out a tiny little notepad that fit in her tiny bridesmaid’s purse that matched her pale green dress perfectly. “I’ll give you the address and—”

Ariel was no longer listening. She was staring over Shannon’s shoulder. “Is he on a card?”

Shannon looked where Ariel was pointing. “Danny? No. I decided not to put my brothers into the mix. Too complicated. Besides, since when have you been interested in—”

“Not Danny, the guy with Danny.”

The guy in question looked kind of familiar. His body, on the other hand …

“What? Who is he? Do you know him?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’d remember,” she murmured as she checked out his shoulder-to-waist ratio, which looked to be perfect. He was in a white oxford shirt, top button undone, dark tie loosened. His slacks were a great fit, designer, not off-the-rack. The whole package was hot. His dark hair, the way he tilted his head back as he laughed, his smile …

“Oh, my God.” Shannon stood up, stuffed the unfinished note back in her bag. “That’s Nate Brenner.”

“Who?”

“Danny’s friend. I haven’t seen him in ages.”

“Well, go find out if he’s single, would you? He’s a total babe.”

Shannon nodded as she headed his way, staring hard to make sure she was right. Yep. The closer she got, the clearer it became that the boy who’d practically grown up with her family was not a boy anymore. How had that happened? Time, of course, but because she hadn’t seen him in so long, he’d continued to be eighteen and skinny and more than a little obnoxious to the thirteen-year-old sister of his best friend. No more obnoxious than her own brothers, though. All four had been insufferable. They’d made fun of her hair, of her desire to be on the stage. It hadn’t helped that they’d been forced to come to the various pageants where she’d posed and danced and belted out her off-key songs. She’d made them miss games. The unforgivable sin.

When it came to her four older siblings every topic of conversation was centered on sports. Every conversation. Even when the discussion was about, say, books, they were sports books. Movies—sports. Okay, that and car crashes, but those were sports films in a way. Women entered the picture only if they first passed the team test. If they were crazy about Notre Dame football, they were in. The Yankees? In. The only variable was the Boston Celtics. They weren’t the favorite, but they were acceptable.

She’d suspected there was more to Nate; he’d been more pensive, more intense than her hooligan brothers, but she’d been young when he disappeared, so she’d stopped wondering.

The transition from teenager to man had been very, very good to Nate, that was for sure. He would be thirty-two now, same as Danny. She’d never once thought of him as being good-looking. Passable, yes, cute, maybe. But hot? Not a chance.

“Hey, Princess,” Danny said, as she got within talking distance. “Look who’s here.”

Nate’s eyebrows lifted and his smile widened. “That can’t be Shannon.”

“It can and it is,” she said, and then they were hugging, and it felt weird as hell for a whole list of reasons. His chest, for one thing. Firm, strong, broad. The feel of her breasts against it was sparking things that she had no business even noticing. This was a guy she’d known since she could remember. She’d seen him in his Spider-Man pajamas. They’d been his favorites, although sometimes he’d worn a cape or carried a light saber.

She pulled back to look at him. “Where the hell have you been? It’s been forever.”

“All over the place. It’s too long a story to bore you with now. I want to hear what you’ve been doing.” He looked her over then did the vertical version of a double take. “Aside from … you’re all grown up.”

“That tends to happen,” she said. “So are you.”

“I’ll admit I got older. But I’m not sure about the grown-up part.”

“Do you still put cherry bombs in toilets?”

He and Danny cracked up. “No,” Nate said. “I’m very proud to say that I stopped doing that.”

“It’s a start,” she said. “Did you come back for the wedding?”

“Coincidence. I’ve got business. Selling my father’s firm. And looking for a town house.”

“Selling your father’s … Oh, God. I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry.” He’d passed away two years ago, and she’d meant to write Nate.

“Thanks,” he said as if it were nothing, but then his jaw tensed.

Shannon wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been staring so rudely. “Did something happen to your house in Gramercy?”

“My mom sold it. She’s living in Tel Aviv now. Got remarried. She’s working at the university there.”

“That’s quite a few major changes.”

“Not really. You Fitzgeralds are amazingly stable, that’s all. What, it’s only you and Brady still living in that huge brownstone?”

“And the parents.”

“Uh, sorry to interrupt,” Danny said. “I’m going to see if I can get Megan to dance with me.” He poked Nate in the chest. “You can tell the Princess here all about your adventures. And the good news.”

Shannon watched her brother dive into the heart of the crowd.