Free The Dating Intervention: Book 1 in the Intervention Series by Hilary Dartt Page A

Rowdy’s. When they’d first slid onto the tall stools, Benjamin had rushed over, but the greeting died on his lips when they shook their heads frantically and waved him off. He shrugged, then bumbled over to a table where two couples sat, a chessboard set up between them.
    “Do you think he’ll tell her we’re here?” Josie said.
    “Doubt it. He grew up with a bunch of sisters. We’re wearing disguises. He’ll catch the drift.” Summer adjusted the visor of her hat.  
    “He recognized us right away. Don’t you think Delaney will see us, too?” To keep busy, Josie began braiding the long blonde wig she’d insisted on wearing.
    “No. She’s locked in on that flop.”  
    “Why does she do this, Summer? Why?”  
    “I’m thinking that’s a rhetorical question,” Summer said. “But remember in junior high, when we met her? You were the sizzlin’ hot Latin lover type—”
    “And you,” Josie said, “were the beautiful beach babe blonde.”  
    Summer nodded. “And Delaney—well, Delaney was always the best friend. The confidant. Guys loved her.”  
    “Like a sister,” Josie said.  
    “Right,” Summer said. “So you get the double whammy. One, she almost can’t resist a good sob story. Two, she’s lured in as soon as a guy seems to like her like her.”  
    For a few moments, Summer and Josie watched Delaney. Her movements were efficient as she mixed drinks, handed out beers, took orders, carried on a conversation with the dud at the bar who downed rum and Cokes like he’d rather be swimming in them.  
    “She’s totally in her element,” Summer said.  
    Delaney cracked a joke to a college kid who ordered a six-pack of beers and the friends who were crowded behind him jeered and elbowed him.
    “I know,” Josie said. “She’s really good. Why doesn’t that confidence translate to the rest of her life?”  
    “I’m telling you. You’re onto something. It’s that whole I-like-you-as-a-friend thing from junior high. When the pressure’s off, like when she’s flirting with a college kid in whom she has no interest, she’s fine. But when the pressure’s on—” Summer swiped a hand across her throat.  
    Benjamin came back to the table, plunked a vodka cranberry and glass of white on the table.  
    “Thanks, Benji,” Josie said. “Do us a favor and don’t tell Delaney we’re here, okay?”  
    “Glasses, hats, a wig, for crying out loud? Frantic waving? I got it,” he said. “My lips are sealed.”  
    He started to walk away, then suddenly spun around and came back, leaning over their table.  
    “You guys might as well be holding up fluorescent We Heart Delaney signs, though. She looks over here once and she’s going to spot you.”  
    This time when he walked away, he was shaking his head.  
    “We’ve got to stop her,” Josie said.
    “You don’t just want to see how this plays out?”  
    Delaney had stopped in front of the longhaired, rubber-jointed man. Again. Now she was bending down, elbows on the bar, eyes level with his.  
    “She’s looking very sympathetic,” Summer said. “Look at her nodding. Look at her eyebrows.”  
    “She’s already breaking our rules. If we don’t stop her now, when do we?”  
    “We agreed we were coming here only to establish a baseline, Josie. Remember?”  
    Summer sipped her wine, picked up her napkin and began folding it into a crane.  
    “Fine.”  
    At Josie’s use of Delaney’s new go-to answer, the girls dissolved into giggles. When they saw Benjamin look sharply at them from across the room, they slapped their hands over their mouths, becoming even more hysterical.  

    ***
    Sure enough, after an hour and two more rum and Cokes, Mister “Make it Two,” also known as David, spilled his guts.  
    “… and my girlfriend moved to Costa Rica with this surfer guy who looks like Fabio. Right before I was going to propose.”  
    His pale gray eyes shone with emotion, his tie lay in a coil on the bar and