The Pitch: City Love 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

much, Cate.
    There at the top of my email list, previewed succinctly for the entire world to see, was the following email from Cate: Blind date Friday eight pm: hot, exotic, willing … and he’s all yours.

Chapter 6
    This was going better than expected.
    I studied my blind date as he pointed to the menu and spoke to the waiter. Apart from his dietary requirements – gluten free wasn’t uncommon these days – he appeared alarmingly normal. And exotic. My girlfriends had been right. Dillon Singh was an attractive man. He’d explained earlier in the night that his mother was Welsh and his father was Indian. For Dillon, this meant he’d inherited his father’s caramel colored skin, dark eyes and dark hair. I suspected his strong, chiseled profile came from his mother’s side. It was an alluring combination.
    After he finished ordering his gluten free meal, Dillon’s eyes settled on me. “Are you ready to order, Maddy?”
    I smiled at him. Unlike Paul, Dillon knew me as Maddy and it made me feel relaxed. I caught the waiter’s attention. “Whole cooked barramundi, please.”
    “An excellent choice,” the young waiter confirmed, then went to give our order to the kitchen.
    “Have you ever been on a blind date before?” Dillon asked.
    “No,” I admitted. “You?”
    He shook his head, tousling his dark, wavy hair. “I’m glad I waited until now though.”
    I smiled. This date with Dillon was far removed from the dismal failure of speed dating last week. I almost wanted to pinch myself. It had only been forty-five minutes, but so far, Dillon had proved articulate, well-read and polite. He’d definitely captured my attention.
    My girlfriends had briefed me beforehand so I already knew he worked in IT. I was pleased to see he didn’t fall into the generalization of a socially stunted computer geek. Not that I really believed the stereotype – my brother was in the same industry and he was anything but.
    I leaned across the table toward Dillon and his eyes flared with interest. “The truth is, you’re my last hope.”
    “A woman like you? I don’t believe that for a moment.”
    He really was doing great things for my ego. “No, I’m serious. I was ready to swear off men completely after my girlfriend forced me to go along to a speed dating evening recently.”
    He laughed, and I liked the sound of it.
    “I bet you were popular.”
    “It wasn’t a good thing. But what about you? Where were you when I needed you?” I joked.
    “Working probably.”
    “Mmm,” I agreed. “Sounds like we’ve both been working too hard then.”
    “Do you enjoy running your own business?” Dillon asked. We’d yet to discuss Grounded Marketing but I knew Cate’s friend, Owen, had already filled him in.
    “Immensely,” I replied. “I’m not sure I could go back to working for anyone again.”
    “Really? Isn’t it stressful?”
    I shrugged and I wasn’t being indifferent. “Early on, it was scary. Now it’s just part of my life.”
    “Do you ever worry about how you’ll handle it when you start a family?”
    I opened my mouth, then chose to have a sip of wine instead while I gathered my thoughts. I tried to ignore the warning bells going off in my head. It was an innocent enough question and he didn’t know this topic was a delicate one for me. “That’s a few years off yet, so I can’t really say. Owning a business has taught me you can’t pre-empt situations. You have to deal with things as they arise.”
    “Do you want to keep working full-time once you have a child?”
    “Longer term, I’d say yes, although it’s not something I’ve really put a lot of thought to,” I hedged.
    Dillon leaned in, his soulful dark eyes serious. “I’ve seen my older sister go through it. It’s impossible to expect things to be as they were before and yet she tries so hard to do everything. It’s exhausting for her.”
    I paused, suddenly feeling helpless. All the doubts, frustrations and the bitter sting of the