Page 23

I swallow a large drink of my wine. “We did go out. We went to that new bar downtown. It was really cool, good drinks. I didn’t hang around long enough to try any of the food, but it all sounded good. We should all go one weekend.”

“That sounds great, but let’s get back to the chicken. Because I can’t let that go.”

“Ah, and that was Dan’s main problem as well,” I tell Ronan. “He had dinner cooking in a slow cooker back at home. He was concerned his chicken would either burn or he’d burn his whole house down. He called or texted his roommate fifteen times to check on said chicken.”

The way Bryce’s brows knit together, then his head tilts like he’s trying to solve a hard puzzle, almost makes me laugh. “I havesomany questions.”

I wave my hand, signaling him to ask away.

“First, the whole point of a slow cooker recipe is that you can walk away from it while it cooks, and it’ll be fine.”

“Dan thinks that’s a conspiracy theory.”

The last of Bryce’s resolve shatters, and a snort of laughter comes out. “What?”

I grin over the lip of my wineglass. “Next question.”

“Fifteen text messages or phone calls in the, what, hour you were there?” Carter asks. “And you didn’t even eat?”

“Forty minutes,” I correct. “Dan was twenty minutes late because he was worried about his slow cooker. Then he took about twenty minutes telling me about his slow cooker. We’d just ordered when I fled.”

“Is this real life?” Kat asks. “I feel like you’re messing with us. Did he even want togo on this date?”

I nod. “He did. I asked him after the third phone call. He’d been looking forward to our date all week. He even asked me out again after I told him I couldn’t do it.”

“You said no, right?” I glare at Josie, who holds her hands up in surrender. “I’m just checking! We have got to find a better way to vet these people.”

“Um, can I ask a question?”

I look toward Ronan, who I’d momentarily forgotten was here. “Sure, go for it.”

“The guy was on a date with you, right?” I nod. “You were getting dinner together?” Another nod. “Why the hell was he cooking dinner in his slow cooker then? Was he meal-prepping for the week or for another date?”

“Very observant. You see, Dan wanted to get laid tonight. That was his ultimate goal. No shame in that. The slow cooker chicken was either for us after we hooked up or for his hookup buddy he had on standby if things with us didn’t go his way.”

Ronan’s face screws up in pure disgust. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you all that.”

“He did. Proudly,” I confirm. “He even asked me what position I prefer for my first time with a new partner.”

Bryce chokes on the drink he’d just taken of his beer. Josie takes it from his hand while Carter claps him on the back. When he finally regains control, he looks at me with tears in his eyes. “What thefuck, Mia?”

“Dating apps are scary as hell, Bryce. Everyone seems normal until you get them out in the real world.”

“Then I think you should stop. Therapy mandated or not,” he argues.

I don’t have to look at Josie to know she’s nodding in agreement. I’m sure the two of them have their own plan for who I should endup with, especially since we’ve slowly started to talk again, but that’s not happening. “Eh, I’ll give it a few more shots. If nothing else, it’s entertaining.”

“That’s not what this is supposed to be,” Kat argues. “Don’t you want to find someone you want to be with?”

“Well, it’s definitely not going to be Dan,” Ronan adds, saving me from answering a question I didn’t want to get into tonight. “Let’s leave him to his precious slow cooker and order some pizza so Mia doesn’t starve.”

Bryce is already pulling out his phone to order when I give Ronan a smile and mouthed, “Thank you.” I get a nod and a small smile as he raises his beer bottle. “Okay, what does everyone want?”

Ronan’s voice echoes off the mostly empty pool, yelling out some instruction to Emmie. The sound bounces off the walls, but there’s no anger behind them. No harshness or sharp whistles that a lot of people attribute to coaches, especially ones who are trying to catch a kid up. It’s solid instruction and gentle pushing.

Standing from the couch in the common area, I make my way over to the large windows overlooking the pool. Ronan is leaning against the starting block, stopwatch in hand, while Lezak is following Emmie down the length of the pool, offering supportive barks and yips whenever she turns her head toward him to breathe. It makes the corners of my lips tug up in a smile.

If someone had asked me all those years ago what I thought Ronan O’Brien would be doing after swimming, I would have never guessed this. I definitely wouldn’t have pictured him advocating vehemently to get a young woman on a team at no cost to her, giving up his own time and money to help get her caught up with the rest of the team. The man who stormed into Bryce’s office two weeks ago had taken me by such surprise, almost like he did when we were younger and his reputation was all anyone saw.