Chapter 8

AN: Thanks for the reviews, everyone. I know Kevin isn't our "favorite" person by any means, but it was nice to give him a gracious send off!...Now she knows...what now?

Derek was truly ready to give up on this whole disastrous plan. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be? Each of the women had been nice enough—they'd fit his standards he'd set with MeetYourMatch. Honestly, he didn't know what it was about the women that he'd been dating. They just hadn't seemed right to him. Being with them, talking, flirting, laughing with them, just wasn't very enjoyable. He'd found it to be a frustrating amount of work. Not only that, he'd felt highly uncomfortable, and he was usually so comfortable in his own skin.

To top it off, Penelope had felt the same way about the women he'd gone out with. That was the kicker for him. She'd brought up a lot of things he'd already thought about, and he'd known they weren't going to work.

He sat at his desk and put his face in his hands. He felt horrible thinking the way that he did about most of these ladies. He never thought he was that fickle when it came to women. His plan was to pick a nice woman. All of these women had been nice; they just had qualities that had irritated the crap out of him.

That was the crux. He didn't want to bring his children up in an environment where he was annoyed with their mother a huge percentage of the time. He didn't expect that he'd have a relationship that was warm, loving, and fun, but he did expect that he wouldn't want to grit his teeth and bear it with his wife. That wouldn't do.

He'd thought he was ready to settle for less; he'd thought he'd be fine with any woman. Instead, he found himself wanting more. He wasn't willing to settle for just anybody anymore; he wasn't willing to waste his time.

He wanted beauty, brains, and common sense. He wanted humor and light and charm. He wanted caring and compassion, empathy and sympathy. He wanted someone he could love, someone he already loved.

He wanted Penelope.

Her being there had made things so much more difficult now. Asking her along on the dates had been a terrible idea. Seeing her, sitting there so gorgeous, smiling and laughing with Lynch, charming everyone at the table—including his dates—had made his dates look even more lackluster and even less desirable.

Blowing out all his breath, he wiped his face with his hands, and then slumped in his chair. He could want all day and night, he could want for years and years, he could want until the cows came home, and it wouldn't do him a damned bit of good. She was taken. She didn't want him. He needed to seriously face facts: he wasn't going to get what he wanted—and he needed to keep up the search, no matter how dismal it was.

Disgusted, he sat up and tried to snap himself out of his pity party he was throwing. He took a loose paperclip off of his desk, and with frustration, tossed the stupid thing against the wall.

"Hmm…Hot Stuff? Got an aversion to paper clips?"

The smiling, twinkling-eyed object of his thoughts now stood in his doorway. She was in an obvious good mood. Her cheeks were rosy, like she was thinking naughty thoughts, and the mischievous dimples in her cheeks—the kind she got when she was going to tease him—were showing.

He chuckled in spite of himself; she was too damned adorable for him not to. "Yeah, that must be it."

"Can I come in?" she asked, a hopeful look on her face.

"Sure…for a minute," he answered, "but don't get too comfortable. I'm leaving soon."

She gave him a curious look. "Where you headed?"

"Not on a date, that's for damn sure!" He smiled as she laughed, and then continued, "Going to workout. I need to get some frustration out."

Her smile lessened, her obvious compassion showing for him. "I'm sorry, Sweet Cheeks. I know this has to have been tough."

"It's been hell," he answered honestly, and then grinned at her before he said, "but I'll survive."

"Gonna keep trying, then?" she asked, sounding a little surprised, like even she thought it was a lost cause.

That irked him—he needed her to rally the troops! He couldn't blame her after the abysmal dates she'd seen.

He guessed he'd have to rally the troops for himself.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm meant for someone. Miss Right has to be out there—I just have to meet her."

She nodded, looking apologetic. "Oh, I know. I just think…" She paused, and then sighed a little. "Never mind."

"Hey, there's three hundred women on my e-dating list, and I've dated four of them. Who knows if she's one of the two hundred ninety-six I haven't met?" he asked, trying to pump himself up, trying to think positive...

Since he wasn't going to get the girl in front of him.

Inhaling, she beamed a bright smile at him again that looked just a trifle forced to him. "You're right. She might be on her computer right now."

"I happen to think the future Mrs. Morgan may like to be on computers," he teased, shooting her a half grin. "You may have something in common with her after all."

She continued to smile as she said, "I gotta go."

"Okay, see you later, honey."

She dashed out of his office.

Back in her office, Penelope quickly shut the door, leaned against it, and let the brittle smile she'd plastered on her face fall away. God, that was awful! Was he really planning to meet almost three hundred Ms. Wrongs?

She wanted to tell him that she'd broken up with Kevin. She wanted to let him know she was free, and she wanted to know if he was free, too—for the next fifty years. She was planning on going in there, planning on asking him out on a date, but then it all went horribly wrong. He started treating her like a buddy, all gung ho about this damned dating site, and she froze.

After she'd left Kevin last night, she'd thought positively about a relationship with Derek, but then she'd also felt somewhat guilty for not really giving the women he'd dated a chance. She couldn't be non-supportive again; she felt like she'd sabotaged him enough—although not on purpose!—in this endeavor.

Besides, just because she wanted him, didn't mean he wanted her. Just because she thought it could be so right between them, didn't mean he did.

Just because she loved him like she'd never loved anyone ever before, didn't mean he felt the same way.

She just wanted a chance—one moment to see if they could be perfect—but if he felt like she was a buddy, if he felt she wasn't dating material, if she were plain old Garcia to him…then it wasn't going to work.

A second later, Penelope began to smile as a light bulb went on over her head. She had an idea…and she was going to put it into fruition.

Starting right now...