Queen of First Dates Read online

  “Arrest her for what?” Betsy chose that moment to come waltzing through the kitchen door, her blond hair hanging straight down her back and her cheeks flush with pink. Her blue eyes looked back and forth at me and Jeff and she gave us an impish grin. “Don’t tell me, Jules went and stole a cupcake again?”

  “I didn’t steal a cupcake,” I said at the same time that Jeff pouted and said, “She hit me.”

  It was then that I froze in shock, not because he was complaining that I’d hit him, but because Betsy gave him a look of sympathy and rubbed his shoulder over the counter. My heart started thudding as I saw Jeff giving her pitiful puppy dog eyes. What the hell was going on here? I’d never seen the two of them acting like that before. And if I had anything to do with it, it wasn’t going to be happening for very long. I couldn’t stand Jeff and he couldn’t stand me. The last thing I needed was for Betsy to start dating him.

  “I didn’t hit you,” I said finally, hoping to break the moment up as soon as possible. I needed to talk to Betsy more than ever now and there was no way that it was going to be in front of Jeff. “You’re just as bad as Nolan. Betsy, I really need to talk to you.” I gave a pointed look at Jeff and then said. “Alone.”

  “Oh Jules, what is going on?” Betsy’s cheeks looked very rosy and pretty. My eyes narrowed as I noticed that she had makeup on. Betsy never wore makeup. Not even when I dragged her out to go dancing. What was going on here? And what did she mean what was going on? She knew what the hell was going on. Her brother was trying to ruin my life and the great love of my life, Fitz was back (Yes, I didn’t exactly know who he was, but if his letters were anything to go by, he was a real sensitive sort of guy).

  “Are you leaving now?” I turned to Jeff, even though I saw the little container of Belgian chocolate that Betsy used when she made us hot chocolate. I didn’t care that Jeff had been waiting on this special treat. Betsy was my best friend, and this was an emergency.

  “I wasn’t planning on it.” His voice was dry, and I gave him my best, “please leave now” look. Didn’t he have work to be getting on with? Cases to be solved or something. “But I’m guessing you want me to go?”

  “What gave me away, Sherlock?” I asked and I could see an aghast look on Betsy’s face at my words. “Just joking,” I lied, but I didn’t want to seem rude and have Betsy all mad at me. Not that I normally cared what Jeff thought about me. He was just as bad as Nolan, but I knew that Betsy cared and I didn’t want to make her upset. Especially not when I wanted to moan about Nolan to her. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I was cognizant of the fact that at the end of the day, he was still her brother.

  “Uh-huh.” He gave me one of his, “sure, you are,” faces, but then I saw him glancing at his watch for a few seconds and he sighed. “You’re in luck, Jules. I have to get back to work.”

  “Back to solving all the crimes of Canyon Beach, then?” I faked an impressed look. “All the serial killers and psychopaths?”

  “Jules, you should count yourself lucky that you live in a town with no crime,” he said with a shake of his head. “Because if this were a big city, I have a feeling the serial killer would be coming for you first.”

  “That’s a horrible thing to say.” I made a face at Betsy then, how could she like this guy? “Really horrible.”

  “You’re such a drama queen, Julia Gilbert.” He grinned and then patted the top of my head. “Drama Queen, with a capital D and a capital Q.”

  “What’s your point, Jeff?” And then because I couldn’t stop myself, I said, “Why don’t you and Nolan go and take a long walk off of a short cliff.”

  “When did you graduate from high school again?” He rolled his eyes and then muttered under his breath, “No wonder you need help getting a date.”

  “I do not need help getting any dates, thank you very much.”

  “What dates?” Betsy gazed at me with a confused expression on her face. “You have a date?”

  “No, not exactly,” I mumbled under my breath. “I have to go on some dates for my job. Malcolm wants me to write an article about dating. And he’s going to have me followed and photographed. By your brother.” I sighed loudly. “I can’t believe my bad luck. Why me?”

  “Oh my.” Betsy’s eyes widened, and she looked like she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “Go behind the counter and grab a cupcake and then we can discuss more. Let me just say goodbye to Jeff.”

  “Okay.” I smiled at her gratefully. “I knew you would understand. Bye, Jeff.” I turned my nose up at him and headed behind the counter and perused the selection of cupcakes. My mouth started watering as I gazed at the different flavors: red velvet, chocolate, chocolate mint, lemon, strawberry, peanut butter cup, I could go on and on. Each and every cupcake looked absolutely delicious. “Oh my God, Betsy, I want all of them.” I licked my lips eagerly as I debated between my two favorites, red velvet and chocolate mint. She added half of an Andes mint to the top of the chocolate mint cupcake and that just made it even more yummy.

  “Take whatever you want. I’ll be right with you.” She walked to the exit with Jeff and my eyes narrowed as I watched them whispering about something. What was going on here?

  * * *

  “Oh Jules.” Betsy tried to console me after I’d told her about my morning. “It will be okay. Maybe it will even be funny.”

  “Funny?” I paused mid-bite and questioned her. “What do you mean by funny?”

  “Oh no, I don’t mean funny. I mean fun.” She giggled. “It might even be fun.”

  “Nolan is just going to make fun of me.” I groaned. “He loves to make fun of me. He’s just going to be sitting there with his camera judging me and laughing at me,” I wailed as I thought of the smug look on his face just sitting in a corner watching me.

  “He won’t judge you,” she said uncertainly and then made a face. “Okay, he won’t judge you too much then. I hope.”

  “Betsy, this is Nolan we’re talking about. Your brother spawn. He has judged us our whole lives.”

  “I know.” She gave me a sympathetic glance. “To be fair though, it’s always seemed to me that he treats you like a sister even more than he does me. He always seems to be a lot harsher and meaner to you.”

  “Right? He’s horrible, and he’s not even my brother.”

  “Well, he’s close to your brother.” She grinned at me. “We’re like sisters.”

  “You will always be my sister, blood or not.” I grinned back at her. “Best friends forever.”

  “Sometimes, I wish that you and Nolan would get married and then we’d be related legally as well.” She grinned ruefully.

  “Never going to happen,” I almost shouted. “He would be so lucky to even have me look at him, let alone anything else.”

  “I know, I know.” She laughed. “You guys are like chalk and cheese.” She started laughing then. “I do have to admit I’m surprised Nolan took this job. He has always hated you dating.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s like he thinks we’re still little kids.”

  “Well, he seems to be all about me dating now.” I thought back to his smug face in Malcolm’s office. “Ugh, I can’t stand him.”

  “Is that your phone making that noise?” Betsy asked me and I heard the familiar sound of a grasshopper letting me know that I had some new text messages.

  “Oh yeah, I didn’t even hear.” I pulled my phone out and noticed that Nolan was texting me. My heart skipped a little beat until I saw what his message read.

  “Hey, big nose. We should discuss a plan. Free for dinner?”

  “No.”

  “Is it because I called you big nose?”

  “You’re so rude, asshole.”

  “I hope you don’t talk to your potential dates with that mouth or you’re going to be single for a long time.”

  “Ugh. I cannot stand your brother.” I showed Betsy the texts and she laughed. “It’s not funny. He’s so rude.”

  “You know how Nolan is.”


  “How dare he call me big nose.” I touched my nose self-consciously. “I do not have a big nose.”

  “He calls me big ears.” She grinned at me. “That’s just his way to show you he loves you.”

  “I’ll show him who loves who. Imagine if I called him small dick.”

  “Jules.” She giggled and threw her hands up over her eyes. “He’s still my brother, I don’t want to even think about his manhood.”

  “I don’t want to think about him period,” I whined. “Why is this happening to me?”

  “Come over for dinner tomorrow night with my parents and we can discuss this further,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Will Nolan be there?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. The Montgomerys had a family dinner every week and both Nolan and Betsy were always there if they were in town. I went a couple of times a month and loved to spend time with them all, even when Nolan irritated me. But this was something different. I didn’t want to discuss my work problem with her family, when Nolan was half of the problem.

  “Yes, and Jeff will be there as well.”

  “Great, just great,” I said sarcastically, my mind too preoccupied with my own issues to ask her what was going on with her and Jeff.

  “I know you don’t want to talk to them about it, but you know Nolan will be on your case to discuss it and this way you don’t have to do it one-on-one. I can run interference for you.”

  “I guess that’s true.” I didn’t really want to have to talk about it with Nolan at all, but if it had to be done, it would make me feel better to have Betsy there. It would stop me from killing him if he got on my nerves too much.

  “So tell me about Fitz,” she asked me changing the subject. “Let me see the letter.”

  “Okay,” I said and pulled the letter out of my handbag for her to read. “Do you really think it could be Lucas?”

  “I really do. Remember, he was always so shy in school, but I’d always catch him staring at you and I heard he’s back in town.”

  “Oh? Didn’t he get married or something?”

  “He’s divorced now!” she said. “Did I forget to tell you? Grandma Elsie told me, you know she’s friends with his grandma.”

  “Oh wow, no, you didn’t tell me.” I thought back to the boy we’d known in high school. Lucas had been really tall and skinny, with big blue eyes and dark hair. He’d been a bit of a loner, but he and I had connected over our love of British literature. We were both bookworms and I had thought he was sort of cute in a low-key way. However, he had gone off to Brown University and I’d never seen him again after graduation; though I did wonder if he’d seen me. I had received two letters from “Fitz” when I was in college, but then he had just dropped off of the face of the earth.

  “Yeah, supposedly the wife cheated on him with her personal trainer or something and now he’s back. He’s going to teach English at the high school.”

  “No way.” I was shocked. Maybe it was Lucas after all. “Do you think I should meet him?”

  “Yeah, definitely.” She grinned. “Also, this is the first time he’s left a return address, right?”

  “Yeah, but it’s just a PO Box.” I sighed. If he had left his real address I would have been driving to the location to lay in wait to see who left the house.

  “Pity, we totally could have checked it out if it wasn’t.”

  “I was just thinking that.” I giggled and we both laughed.

  “That’s why we’re best friends.” Betsy handed me another cupcake and I took it happily.

  “Yes, but that’s also why you can’t date ‘Wannabe Sherlock.’ I gave her a look. “We could never do all the things we’d want with him around.”

  “Oh, Jules.” She just laughed and then gave me a quick hug. “Go home and write your return letter and I’ll talk to you soon. I’ve got to get some work done here.”

  3

  Dinner at the Montgomery’s was always a big and delicious family affair. I’d been coming for years now and always left with a full stomach and leftovers for days. In the past couple of years it had mainly been just me, Jules, her parents, and Grandma Elsie; with Nolan popping in every now and then. This was one of the first nights Jeff had shown up and I wasn’t pleased about it at all. I certainly didn’t need to see both he and Nolan’s smug faces staring at me as Betsy and I discussed my work dilemma.

  “I know you’re upset about this new series you have to write, Jules, but look on the positive side. You’re going to have a lot of exposure. Everyone in town will be reading your column and watching your videos. You’ll become famous,” Betsy said in a positive tone, trying to make me feel better about my life, but it wasn’t really working.

  “This is not something I want to become famous for.” I knew I sounded like a bratty little kid, but I couldn’t stop myself. “And everyone in Canyon Beach talking about my dates over their dinner table is not me becoming famous. That’s just everyone knowing my business.”

  “Think of it as some sort of adventure,” Betsy said in her most encouraging voice. “I bet it will turn out to be a lot of fun.”

  “As much fun as having a tooth pulled out.”

  “I think going on thirty dates in thirty days will be really exciting.” Betsy grinned at me encouragingly, as we sipped on the Earl Grey tea her mom had made us after dinner. “Just think, you might meet Mr. Right.”

  “Why don’t you swap places with me then? You do the articles and I’ll make the cupcakes,” I said quickly, the idea forming in my brain as I spoke. This could actually be the perfect solution to my problem. I grabbed an oatmeal and chocolate cookie from the plate and took a bite, enjoying the warm sugary goodness in my mouth. Betsy had definitely gotten her baking skills from her mom.

  “You can’t bake for shit, Jules.” Jeff’s face looked tight as he spoke. “And you really don’t have the right temperament to be selling anything.”

  “Whatever, I didn’t say I’d be selling them.” I turned away from him, feeling annoyed. I would much rather not have had this conversation with Jeff and Nolan in my presence. “Why don’t you join up to the dating site with me, Betsy? It will make it a much funner experience.”

  “I think it will be a fun experience with it just being you,” Nolan said as he sipped from his beer mug. I was going to make a snide comment about him wasting his mom’s freshly brewed tea, but I kept my mouth shut. “I don’t know that this town is ready for both of you to go crazy on the dating sites. One psycho at a time is all it needs.”

  “You’re so rude.” I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at Nolan. He was insufferable, irritating, condescending and just an all-around jerk. I had to remind myself I wasn’t a teenager anymore. “And really, it takes one to know one. So, if I’m a psycho, you’re a frigging serial killer maniac.”

  “That wasn’t nice, Nolan,” Betsy said with a half-frown. “Maybe I will sign up as well.” She gave me a little wink, and I smiled at her hopefully.

  “Really?” Jeff’s voice was sharp. “Do you really have time to be dating? Shouldn’t you be concentrating on your business? Didn’t your grandma Elsie put a lot of money into it?”

  “Excuse me?” Betsy looked offended as she turned to Jeff and I hid a smile. If there was one thing you never did with Betsy was to infer that she wasn’t a hard worker or to bring up Grandma Elsie. Jeff was about to go down and I couldn’t wait to see it. He needed to get off of his high horse. Just because he was a cop didn’t mean he was the boss of everyone. He and Nolan both needed to be brought down a peg or two.

  “I’m just saying that I don’t think there are any men in the city good enough for you to date.” Jeff shrugged as he grabbed a cookie. I tried to stop myself from rolling my eyes at his comment. He was really trying to suck up hard, and it was so annoying that Betsy just wasn’t seeing it.

  “I agree, there is no one in this town good enough for you.” I grinned happily as I looked at Jeff, whose face was looking even more sour. “Not a one.” I looked at Je
ff and winked. “Not even you,” I mouthed to him and he just took a gulp of beer. Nolan raised his eyebrows at me and I could see him studying my face carefully. I had no idea what his problem was or why he was giving me that look, but it was getting under my skin the way his eyes seemed to be all-seeing and all-knowing. It reminded me of when we were kids and his uncanny ability to always know when I was lying or upset. I didn’t need him trying to analyze me now.

  “I think I’ll leave the dating to you, for the time being.” Betsy gave me a small smile. “I have a lot on my plate right now.”

  “Well, it’s not like I’m really dating. These dates are just part of the job.”

  “But as a good reporter you really have to get into it.” Nolan smirked. “I seem to recall that you have no problem getting into character for a role.”

  “Whatever.” I blushed then as I gave him a sharp look. I knew he was referring to that one night. The incident that was burned into my brain. The incident that I’d never told a soul about. Not even Betsy; especially not her. How could I tell her I’d kissed her brother while pretending he was Romeo? How could I tell her that he was the star of my bedroom fantasies? There was just no way!

  “Huh, What are you talking about, Nolan?” Betsy then looked at me. “What’s he talking about, Jules?”

  “I have no idea.” I feigned ignorance and pretended to yawn. “Anyway, it’s been a long day. I should be leaving now. Got to get up early and all that jazz.” I stretched my arms and stood up. “Tell your parents thanks for dinner and I’ll see you all soon.”

  “Bye, Juliet,” Nolan whispered as he looked up at me and my entire body flushed with heat as I remembered the semester I played Juliet in the school play. The same semester I’d asked Nolan to help me overcome my “fears” of the play. The same semester I’d asked him to teach me how to kiss. I looked away from him quickly as I remembered everything I’d asked him to teach me and my face burned red. Oh God, why had I stayed in this small town?