Confessions of a Mail Order Bride - Complete (30 page)

“That’s crazy,” Marcie frowned. “Are you sure your profile was submitted properly and is actually on the site?”

“Oh yes. I’m on the home page at the top—everyone can see me. But not one man has written me.”

“Hmm, that’s really strange. Did you ask Vic about it? He’s the owner of the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site.

“Yeah, I know who he is. I emailed and asked him if the site was working and he said it was. It’s…it’s…upsetting, to say the least.”

“I don’t understand. You’re beautiful, fun to be with…why wouldn’t anyone respond? I know when I put my profile on I got a lot of responses pretty quickly. And I didn’t even mean to put it on, Elvis did it.”

“Yeah, I remember you telling me that. That was wild.” Marcie had shared how Elvis, her cat, had walked across her computer while she was in the kitchen getting a drink. One of his paws hit the keyboard and the profile information she had prepared for fun—but had no intention of actually submitting—was transmitted to the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site. It had worked out well, though, obviously. She and my brother, Kane, were now married and very happy together.

“Yeah, well, it’s really disappointing,” I swallowed. It was more than disappointing. I was so ready for a relationship. After seeing success from so many of women who had used the site, I was sure it would work for me. But it just hadn’t.

“Give it time, Bree. Things are probably slow right now.”

“Sure...” I muttered. But everyone I knew that had used the site had gotten responses quickly—everyone except for me, that was. Shifters must not like the kind of look I had.

“Hey, pretty lady, how about fixing a cup of coffee for a hard working crime fighter?”

I rolled my eyes as I turned towards the door to the restaurant. I recognized that voice—it was Deputy Bob Griffith’s.

He kind of annoyed me sometimes, but he was out there trying to keep Shifter Villages safe; so the least I could do was get the man a cup of coffee. He slid into a seat near the end of the bar. I sighed as I picked up the warm coffee pot and poured him a cup. He came in everyday so I knew just how he liked it—black with two sugars. After fixing his coffee, I walked over and set the hot drink on the counter in front of him.

“When are you going to go out with me, Sabrina? I’ll take you to a great spot. We’ll have a little wine, a nice dinner…dance a little bit, then maybe go back to my place?”

Bob raised his brows in what I think he believed was a sexy manner, but his efforts failed miserably. Deputy Bob was so full of himself. But he didn’t appeal to me at all. He was loud, blustery, and overbearing. It was probably because he wasn’t a shifter but lived among them and had to try and appear to be as tough as they were. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Um, thanks, I appreciate it, but I’m really busy.” I wanted to tell him to get lost, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

“Did you already meet someone on the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site? Bob asked, cocking his brow.

“How did you know I was on there?” I questioned, surprised. But it wasn’t actually that shocking that he knew. The whole town seemed to check the website regularly to see who had put themselves online looking for love.

Bob’s eyes widened in mock surprise, “duh…maybe because I saw you on there? I just put my profile up there, too.”

“Well, I didn’t see you on there.” I checked the men on the site daily and had never noticed Bob’s profile.

He dropped his eyes. “I guess you never checked out the men in the non-shifter section. It’s a new section Vic recently added to the site.”

“Oh…you’re right.” I hadn’t noticed the non-shifter men section but I wouldn’t have bothered with it anyway. I had always known I wanted to be with a shifter. Though my shifter stepdad wasn’t around a lot, my brother Kane was a shifter, and so were many of his friends. I was used to being around tough, burly shifter men. Regular guys just didn’t cut it for me.

“But,” Bob continued sullenly, “you could have at least responded to my messages.”

“Your messages?” I frowned. “What are you talking about?

“Yeah, I sent you quite a few messages through the site.”

“Weird,” I replied. I was not a rude person, and even though I was not in the least bit interested in Bob, I would have responded to him to be polite. “Sorry, Bob. I never got your messages. Anyway, I need to get back to work.” I could see Tom motioning to me at the end of the bar. Tom was one of the bar’s regulars. He practically lived at Kane’s Bar and Grill.

“Hey, Tom, is Tawny taking good care of you?” Tawny doubled as a bartender and waitress at Kane’s. She had an easy manner and the customers loved her.

“You never wrote me back,” Tom moaned, slurring his words and ignoring my question.

“What?”

“I wrote you on the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site and you never wrote me back!” Tom blubbered.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Tom. I never got your messages. But honestly…when are you going to make up with Stacy? You know she’s the one for you.”

Tom shook his head.

“Just call her,” I urged. Tom and Stacy had dated for years and were like an old married couple, but recently they’d had a huge fight and split up. Now Tom was trying to go out with every girl in town to make her jealous. When he wasn’t trying to score a date, he was moping at the bar.

“Marcie, Marcie…will you go out with me?” Tom pleaded to Marcie, who was standing within earshot by the bar.

Marcie shook her head. “I’m a married woman, and you, Tom, are drunk.”

“Tawny,” I called out to the waitress, “will you please call Howie’s Taxi Service? Tom is going to need a ride home.” I shook my head. I just wished he and Stacy would make up and put us all out of his misery.

As Tawny called the cab company I walked over to Marcie.

“This is so weird. First, Deputy Bob said he tried to contact me several times on the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site and then…”

“Deputy Bob is on the ‘Luscious’ site?’” Marcie interrupted, her eyes widening.

I nodded, “Apparently Vic added a section for non-shifter men—equal opportunity I guess.”

She rolled her eyes. “Pity the poor woman that ends up with him!”

I knew there was no love lost between Marcie and Deputy Bob. He practically ignored her when he saw her—talking over her, not to her, when he had something to say.

“Yeah, I know, but listen…first he said he tried to contact me through the site. Then Tom said he tried to write me through the site too.”

“Tom, ew! He and Stacy are practically married. You wouldn’t go out with him, would you?”

“No! Of course not! That wasn’t my point. My point is—I didn’t get messages from either of them, or anyone else for that matter.”

“Oh...well, it’s probably just a technical glitch. Vic has had a lot of trouble with profiles disappearing from the website and things like that.”

“Well, I hope someone reported it,” I breathed a sigh of relief. Here I was thinking something was wrong with me, when most likely it had something to do with the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site.

“Speak of the devil…why don’t you ask him yourself?” Marcie pointed towards the door.

I followed her gaze and saw Vic, the founder of the ‘Luscious’ site, walk in. An anxious look was spread across his handsome face!

“Vic, can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked, motioning to him. Vic came in the bar several times a week and we had always enjoyed a light and friendly banter back and forth. He was cocky, funny, and handsome. I enjoyed our chats.

Vic nodded as he let the door to the bar swing shut. “Yes, Sabrina, I…I actually came here today to find you. I need to talk to you.”

“You need to talk to me about the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site, right?” I knew that in a minute Vic would tell me the site was screwed up and that’s why I hadn’t received any of the messages from men interested in dating me. Both Bob and Tom had said they’d sent messages, so something had to be wrong with the site. Hopefully there were other messages too, because I was totally not interested in either of those guys. Maybe Vic was here to tell me the site was broken, but he was fixing it and would forward my emails!

“Yeah, that’s right,” Vic responded quietly.

“I sent you an email and you said the site was working but the site is actually broken, right?”

“Can we go somewhere and talk privately?” Vic asked his pale blue eyes intent on mine.

“You can tell me here. It’s fine. I’m not trying to keep it a secret that I’m on the ‘Luscious’ site.” Not that I could keep it under wraps if I wanted to. The whole town seemed to check on the site daily. “It’s screwed up and no one is getting their messages, right?” I persisted.

“Let’s go talk privately, please,” Vic took my arm firmly and led me to a booth in a quiet corner of the bar. “The site is working just fine,” he added as we slid into the seats.

“Really?” I frowned. “That’s strange, because I just talked to Deputy Bob and Tom Pointer and they both said they sent me messages through the site.” I scratched my head. “I never got them, though. Maybe some of the profiles are screwed up?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Vic replied softly.

“Ok, what’s going on?”

“Yeah, um, well, you know I started the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site?”

“Right, I know that.” Of course I knew that—otherwise, why would we be discussing this?

Vic cleared his throat. “I…I started it to find a mate for myself.”

“I remember reading that in the ‘About’ section on the site.”

“So, uh, you signed up, but you haven’t been getting messages from men on the site…”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Where was this leading?

“Well, umm,” Vic cleared his throat, “it’s because I haven’t been letting their messages get through to you.”

“What?” My mouth dropped open. “And why not? Did I do something wrong when I filled out my profile? Did I screw something up?”

Vic hesitated. I had known him for several months now and he was a confident, handsome man with an easygoing manner. Why was he acting so shy all of a sudden?

“No, that’s not it at all Bree. Your profile is just fine—more than fine. Like I said before, I started the site to find a mate for myself,” Vic muttered, lowering his eyes.

“Right
and
...? What does that have to do with me?” I interrupted. But as the words came out, I noticed the way he was looking at me. His eyes were rich with desire and longing.

“You’re the one for me. You’re my intended—my mate.”

“I’m your…your mate?” I shook my head, puzzled. This didn’t make any sense.

“You’re beautiful. You’re sweet, kind, generous… ”

“Why…why didn’t you say something before?” Vic had been coming into Kane’s several times a week for months now. Why was he only telling me this now?

Vic nodded his head. “I’ve loved getting to know you these past few months. Every time I saw you I wanted to learn more about you. But it never hit me that you were the one for me till I saw your profile on the ‘Luscious Lads and Ladies’ site.”

I scrunched my brows in confusion.

“When I saw your profile on there…” Vic paused, looking down at the floor. “It was like a slap in the face. It killed me to think of you with another man.”

This was such a shock. “Well, why didn’t you say something to me when you saw it?”

“I wasn’t sure how to tell you,” Vic said, his voice raw with emotion. “We’ve become good friends and I didn’t want to mess that up. I wasn’t sure if you’d be interested in me.”

Vic Harris, Mr. Hottie, didn’t think I’d be interested in him? The guy was off the charts smokin’ hot. He was successful and super nice. It had never crossed my mind he’d like me as anything other than a friend. Guys like him went for skinny, model types—not curvy girls like me. So, yeah, I thought he was sexy as hell, but I’d never even considered him as date material before. Why want what you can’t have?

“I’m sorry,” Vic grimaced. “It was wrong of me not to allow the messages that men sent to your profile to be forwarded to you. I’m an idiot. But I…I just couldn’t help myself.”

I pursed my lips. “Did I have a lot of responses?”

“Yeah…you have received a lot. You get a ton every day—probably more than any other female who’s put her profile on the site.”

I narrowed my eyes, giving Vic a stern stare.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I was wrong to hold back the responses. I should have talked to you sooner. I…”

I sat back in the booth and studied him for a moment as he spoke.

He looked miserable, but somehow he still managed to look sexy as hell.

“Hey,” I leaned forward and put my finger to his lips, shushing him. “I’m very interested in you, too.”