Chapter Ten

<^> <^> <^>

Bianca sat up straight in her chair. “Are you going to interrupt every date we have? What about our wedding? Do we have to take you with us on our honeymoon?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Are you two getting married soon?”

“It’s possible. It’s been pretty good between us so far. I mean, it could happen, except that we keep getting interrupted. We’ll have to see how it goes.” She stared meaningfully at him.

The sheriff stared back. “Just a coincidence. I’m not always going to barge in on you. At least I hope not.”

“I’m just kidding, Sheriff.” Bianca winked at Warrick, then stood up and blew him a kiss.

“Call me later,” she said, handing Warrick a card with her phone number on it.

“Dinner at my house, right?” She nodded, and he added, “I’ll call later with directions.”

Bianca gave the sheriff a salute and walked out of the diner. She headed toward Bubba’s Psychic Readings, at the last-minute darting down the alley to the rear entrance instead of going in through the front door.

She found Bubba alone in the manager’s office. Astrid must be up at the front reception area. Bubba’s head was bent over what looked like some sort of ledger. Bianca rapped on the doorframe. “Knock knock. You wanted to see me?”

He looked up and nodded. “I did. Come on in. Have a seat.” Once Bianca sat in the chair next to the desk, Bubba stood up to close the door.

She bit her lip and thought about the client she’d almost blown it with the day before, the sticky fingered Lilian. “I’m not being fired, am I?”

“No, of course not. Why would you say that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you left me a secretive message last night and didn’t give me any hint as to what it was about? And now you close the door like we’re about to have a discussion you don’t want anyone to hear.”

“I don’t want anyone to hear this.”

“Is it about your gift for Astrid that I didn’t pick up from Warrick? Because I’m really sorry about that.”

“No, it’s not about that either. But it is about Warrick.”

“What about Warrick?” She was back to being worried. She sensed she was about to get bad news. Not in a psychic way, but in that hair rising up on the back of your neck way when people had premonitions before they knew the whole truth.

Bubba picked up a sheet of paper from his desk and handed it to her. She scanned it and realized it was the application she had filled out to become one of his matchmaking Alpha aliens.

“You’re about to match me up with someone, aren’t you?”

Before Bianca could launch into a speech about how she was in love with Warrick, so didn’t need the service anymore, thank you very much, Bubba said, “No. I already have matched you up with someone.”

She stared at him, confusion surely shaping her expression. And then it dawned on her. Oh no. “Warrick. You set me up with Warrick?”

“Yes. Actually, his mother selected you from the applicants I had here in town already.”

“His mother?”

“Do you remember your client Vilma? She is a witch. So far as we know, no Alphas have been able to read the minds of any witch in town, but you handled her brilliantly. She was very impressed.”

“Vilma.” Bianca did remember the sweet older woman. She got absolutely nothing in the way of thoughts from Vilma during her reading session.

Bubba set his elbows on the desk, tented his fingers and leaned forward eagerly. “So, tell me. How did things go between you and Warrick?”

“Well, I’d say it went spectacularly well. We love each other. He’s already asked me to marry him and I just realized not only have I met his brother the vampire, I’ve also met his mother and didn’t know it.”

“That all sounds good. Why do you look so forlorn about it?”

“How am I ever going to explain this to him? I’m crazy about him. But he’s going to think I’m lying to him, that I was in on the setup from the first moment. And I wasn’t.”

“Honestly, Bianca, I believe Warrick will be glad, even though his mother was the one who set this in motion.”

“I don’t think he will believe me. I don’t know that I would believe me. A lie is never a good way to start a relationship. It won’t matter that I didn’t lie, only that he will think I did.”

Bubba shook his head. “I will tell him. He will believe me. He will know you were not in on the matchmaking arrangement when you met.”

“Why did you pick me?”

His eyes narrowed. “Actually, Vilma made the selection.”

Bianca wasn’t certain if that would be better or worse. “I wonder why me?”

“Obviously, she knows what kind of person her son likes. I believe she was impressed that you have a black belt in karate, and an interest in weapons and fighting skills. I’ve met Warrick and I can easily see the two of you together.”

“Would you have selected me as a match for him?” Bianca looked carefully as Bubba answered, searching for truth in his eyes.

“You would have been my first choice had she asked me, but she didn’t. I was very pleased and felt rather vindicated when Vilma selected you, too.”

Bianca gave him a timid smile—it was reassuring he considered her a worthy match for Warrick—and tried not to feel so forlorn. It certainly wasn’t her fault their first meeting had been arranged without their knowledge.

She was telling the truth and certainly Warrick would believe Bubba. Bianca hoped he would simply take her word for it. She wanted him to trust and believe in her, too.

Otherwise, how could they build a life together?