Meeting His Match (Single In the City 1)

“A cover story?”

“Yeah, you know. How we met. Stuff like that.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her with an outstretched palm. “Don’t worry, I already took care of it.”

“I’m afraid to ask,” she muttered.

“I did some digging and discovered you had a cat.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How exactly did you go digging?”

He shrugged. “Okay, so I called Mel.”

Marti gasped, then shot a glare toward her friend’s desk. “Isn’t that against HIPPA or something?”

He waved her off. “It’s fine. So, we met in the bar, then at the doctor’s office, just like real life. But when you took your beloved cat to the vet across from my office, she bolted out into heavy traffic just as I was leaving for lunch, and I saved her from a medallion taxi.”

“You saved my cat?” she asked, brow furrowed.

“Precisely.”

“Um, why on earth are we going with that for our story? It seems really far-fetched.”

He rolled his eyes. “Because people will need some convincing to believe that the Queen of Single is hanging up her hat. And who doesn’t love a hero? How can you not fall in love with the guy who risks his life for your cat?”

He has got to be kidding me.

“Well, first of all, if you go with that story, you need to know my cat is a he, not a she.” Marti reached out and snatched the coffee cup from his grip and took a long drag.

“Hey.” He frowned.

Smacking her lips, she said, “If I’m going to listen to the rest of this, I need caffeine. Besides, what’s yours is mine now. Right, Love?”

THE SECOND LOGAN LEFT and Marti opened the door to the conference room, Caroline and Mel all but dragged her down the hall and into the freebie closet. They pushed aside racks of the upcoming spring fashion items to make room to squeeze through onto the upholstered bench in the center of the room.

Caroline flung Marti down like an unruly toddler and pointed. “Talk.”

Marti rotated her arm like a starting pitcher. “I think you pulled my arm from its socket.”

Mel leaned up against the wall opposite her, grinning. “I am going to enjoy every second of watching you navigate your way through this relationship,” she said making air quotes with her fingers.

“Ha ha.” Marti scowled.

Caroline pushed her blond locks from her face and sat down next to Marti. She had little tiny hearts in her eyes. Where Caroline was concerned, love trumped all. Her head was probably already spinning with a million romantic scenarios of how Marti and Logan would end up together. “The last time we spoke, you said you’d rather die than date him. What’s the scoop?” she asked.

“I take it you saw the Times article?”

“And the Instagram posts. Castille was all over this like wildfire,” she said. “I was so excited when I saw the picture of you in that green gown, pressed up against him, I nearly peed!”

Yikes. Marti needed to get her to dial it down a notch.

Marti exhaled, resigning herself to telling them everything. After all, she had an article to write, and it just so happened she had her subject, whether she liked it or not. Blue would certainly be pleased. The sooner she filled them in, the sooner she could get back to her desk and get to work.

She explained everything, ignoring Caroline’s love-struck expression, when she sighed and tucked her legs up underneath her and sat back. “Wow. It’s like the storyline of a romantic comedy,” she said in a breathy voice.

Marti frowned. “I wouldn’t know, but it’s almost too good to be true. Too easy.”

Mel stepped forward, arms crossed. “Wait . . . so he doesn’t know that Blue wants you to do this for the article?”