Breaking the Bachelor (Entangled Lovestruck) (Smart Cupid) by Maggie Kelley Read Free Book Online Page A

blue-pinstripe suit, his jet-black hair neat, as always. He flashed a quick smile, full of fun, teasing charm. He was all kinds of trouble, a man with commitment issues so deep, the matrix didn’t apply. A matchmaker’s worst nightmare. But whether or not he’d ever cop to it, her brother had a heart of gold.
    “Always thought you were the go big or go home type,” Nick said, moseying into her office. “But even I didn’t see that one coming.”
    “Guess you watched The Today Show this morning.” Like most of New York City.
    “DVR’d it, too.” His phone pinged. A text from his current friend with benefits, no doubt. “Not every day my baby sister goes down in the annals of television history.”
    Another ping. She tried not to roll her eyes. “Don’t you think that’s a little much?”
    “After the whopper you pulled? No, no, I don’t.”
    “I meant the texts. Your phone is literally going to explode one day.”
    He threw out a fast grin and a wink. “Can I help it if I’m just that charming?”
    This time, she did roll her eyes, saved from commenting by the appearance of Smart Cupid’s match recruiter and hard-core numbers girl, Marianne McBride. She’d only joined the company five months ago, but they’d grown close and she’d been a better friend than she could’ve ever hoped for. “Got the match analysis for…” M.A. stopped mid-sentence and blinked at Nick, her blue eyes wide behind her glasses.
    Jane sighed into the silence and pulled back the wrapper on the Reese’s. Mid-sentence speech deficiency. Her brother had that effect.
    “Hello, new girl,” he said, reflexively offering that full-wattage smile. “I’m Nick.”
    She shot her brother a pointed look. “Don’t you have a case to go win, Romeo?” Another ping of his damned phone. Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe a phone call to return?”
    He cruised over and planted a fast kiss on her cheek before leaving. “I am due in mediation actually, but I wanted to stop by and remind you.”
    “Remind me?” she asked.
    He stopped briefly in the doorway. “To go big or go home,” he said with a mischievous grin. He winked at M.A., who blushed a bright Crayola pink, smoothed her A-line skirt, and watched as he disappeared down the hallway.
    Jane sighed and bit into a peanut butter cup. Didn’t she have enough trouble?
    A minute later, the recruiter blinked her way back to the office and turned around all aflutter, waving her ubiquitous tablet. “Omigosh, Jane, where was I? Oh, right, the match analysis for your ex.” She strode fully into the office. “With his photograph splashed across the newsstands, clients are calling in, begging for a date. The online response is incredible, too. An early morning thread about his bachelor status crashed the NY Singles page on Facebook.”
    “You’re joking.”
    Her eyes widened behind the oversized tortoiseshells. “I never joke about bandwidth.” She handed over the tablet and pointed at the top screen. “Take a look. The site posted a photo of Charlie and a quote from his New York interview.”
    Jane focused on the quote beneath Charlie’s photo, a photo so hot she wasn’t surprised it had ignited a five-alarm fire across the Internet. “Love is the only good kind of accident.”
    She winced. For a guy who’d lost his mother in a car wreck, that was one hell of a definitive quote.
    “Forget the quote, focus on the numbers.”
    Jane looked back at screen. “Over fifty-thousand Likes?”
    “That’s over fifty-thousand singles waiting to fall for our bachelor,” M.A. said. “Even better, I think I’ve found The One.”
    “The One?” She handed back the computer.
    “Summer Sweet, a neonatal nurse, originally from California, currently residing in Tribeca. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from NYU and a Master’s from Columbia.” Marianne tapped to another next screen. “A health food nut, she makes an exception for ice cream, enjoys sports, yoga, and taking a well-timed risk.