RUTH GARRISON WALKED into her favorite bar in Green Valley while forcing a smile on her face. She hated blind dates and had no idea why she’d let her friend Savannah talk her into this one.
Not that the date was truly blind. She’d known who Carter Wilson was since she was sixteen years old.
In her junior year of high school, Ruth’s mother had remarried, so the two of them had moved to Green Valley, North Carolina—a small town on the outskirts of Charlotte that had been built up around two ultrarich gated communities and so boasted an inordinately wealthy population. Ruth’s new stepfather, with four children of his own, was a security guard at the country club, so at sixteen Ruth had been thrown into a new town, new school, new family. That was when she’d first seen Carter. Six years older than her, he’d recently graduated college and moved back to Green Valley to work with his father in the family hotel business. He’d had no idea who she was, of course. Just a regular teenage girl who’d never been popular in a town where she was clearly an outsider.
Carter had been a god king to Green Valley girls. Rich. Handsome. Smart. Thoughtful and polite. Loved by everyone. Ruth had been clever and more cynical than she should have been at that age, but she’d also been incredibly lonely. She’d had her share of teenage daydreams about Carter, usually involving him rescuing her from a life she didn’t particularly want.
So he wasn’t a stranger to her on that Saturday night in October, although they’d never actually said a word to each other in the ten years since Ruth had learned his name.
Milhouse Bar was one of the two trendiest places in town, and it was always packed on the weekends. Ruth peered around, searching for Carter’s brown hair, broad shoulders, and strong, chiseled features amid the sea of faces.
He wasn’t there yet, despite the fact that Ruth was exactly on time.
Just great.
It was entirely possible she was about to get stood up by Carter Wilson.
Ruth wasn’t an optimistic person, but she mentally acknowledged to herself that he was probably running late. She stood awkwardly near the entrance until she saw a couple getting ready to leave a small table in the corner. Her mission immediately clear, she slid around a large group of college students and came at her target from the opposite side, beating out a middle-aged couple and a former high school quarterback who were also trying to snag the table.
She sat down, pleased at her victory and even more so when the quarterback (who’d gone to school with her for two years but obviously didn’t recognize her) gave her an outraged scowl. Searching for someone she knew with whom she might celebrate her table-claiming success, her eyes landed on the bartender across the room.
Lincoln Wilson. Carter’s rebellious older brother who’d left the Wilson fold a long time ago and only recently reconnected with his family. They weren’t friends, but she came in there often enough that he recognized her. He was the only person who’d observed her victory just now. He gave her an ironically dorky thumbs-up that made her giggle.
She entertained a fleeting thought that it was too bad Lincoln was happily married and obviously in love with his wife. The man was every bit as handsome as his brother but also had a slightly dangerous air that appealed to Ruth more than the solid, nice-guy vibes Carter always projected. But Lincoln was married. Not surprising. Ruth’s dating life had been sporadic and disappointing, and she had no real expectations of that changing.
Her blind date with Carter was her first date in six months, and she was very possibly getting stood up.
A depressing thought. But not a surprising one.
She checked her phone to verify there were no messages from Carter (there were none) and then distracted herself by browsing through Twitter and Instagram.
Ruth should have said no to Savannah’s suggestion that she and Carter might hit it off. Yes, he was by all evidence a genuinely good guy—a rare occurrence among the wealthy and notoriously entitled Green Valley-ites—but the Prince Charming types were never interested in Ruth. And she was always vaguely suspicious of what sins men like that were hiding beneath their projected decency. She’d known this setup wouldn’t work. She should have refused Savannah and saved herself the embarrassment.
When her phone vibrated with a text, she assumed it was Carter canceling.