Free An Unexpected Match by Dana Corbit

blandly.
    Haley hoped her mother wasn’t trying to be sly with this interrogation because she was about as subtle as a steam-roller taking down a rubber duck. If she really wanted to know something new about Matthew, she could ask him why he hadn’t spoken to his child’s sitter all night or why he kept tossing sour looks her way. But clearly Trina was on a mission, and that mission didn’t involve intervening between Haley and her boss.
    â€œDo you enjoy classical music, as well, because Caroline—”
    Haley didn’t know whether to be horrified or relieved when Elizabeth interrupted the next round of the sales pitch by letting out a shriek that made the globed oil lamp on their table vibrate.
    â€œI don’t want any dumb pizza!”
    â€œElizabeth.”
    Matthew’s warning voice would have silenced Haley, but Elizabeth must have taken it as encouragement because her voice became a wail.
    â€œNo pizza! No pizza!” Bracing both hands on the edge of the table, Elizabeth pushed back her chair, at the end of the booth, sending it teetering backward.
    Matthew leaped to his feet, deftly nabbing the back of the chair with one hand and his daughter’s pint-size form with the other. His arm slipped around her waist, allowing her limbs to dangle downward. Though Elizabeth wailed, her flailing arms and legs occasionally connecting with his thigh or side, he didn’t even look at her.
    His glare was for Haley alone.
    â€œWell, we’ve had about enough fun for one evening.” He turned to his mother and her best friend. “Forgive us, but we have to call it a night.”
    From the hooks adorning the booth, he retrieved coats, shoved them under his free arm and then strode to the door. As Matthew moved aside for the host to open the heavy wooden door for him, Haley watched, waiting for him to glance her way before he crossed through the doorway. They’d come together after all. He didn’t look back even once.
    As the door swung closed, it appeared to Haley that more than a man and his overtired child were slipping away through that sliver of remaining light. She couldn’t let him leave. Not without at least another apology.
    She turned back to the other women watching their exit as she had been. “I’m sorry. I have to go, too.”
    â€œBut all this pizza.” Her mother was frowning, probably more for the loss of Matthew’s company than hers.
    â€œJust package it up. I love it cold.” Haley put an arm into her coat sleeve. “It reminds me of college.”
    With that, she hurried across the room and out the door. She was responsible for this outburst, so she owed it to him to help now if she could. She caught up to him outside, just as the parking lot lights switched on. Busy wrestling someone from the thirty-five-pound weight class into the shoulder strap of her car booster seat, he didn’t notice Haley’s approach.
    â€œNow hold still, silly. Let me get this done so I can get you to bed.”
    â€œI don’t want bed.” Instead of a shriek, this time her words came out with a sniffling moan.
    â€œI know you don’t, but you’re tired. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
    â€œI’m not sleepy,” she whined.
    Finally, Matthew must have had her buckled the way he liked because he closed the back door and pulled openthe driver’s-side door. His shoulders stiffened the moment he saw Haley standing a few steps away.
    â€œWhat are you doing out here?”
    Haley pulled her coat closed over her neck. “We rode together, remember?”
    â€œI need to get her home.” He gestured to the child already dozing and unaffected by the dome light. “I’m sure one of the others will give you a ride home.”
    â€œMy car’s at your house.”
    â€œOh. Right.”
    Haley could almost see the wheels turning in his mind as he thought of a way to avoid sharing oxygen with