“No!”

He shook his head, smiling ruefully. “She told me about it afterward, said I might start getting e-mail from ladies interested in going on dates with me.”

“And?”

“I thought, am I so pathetic my daughter needs to intervene in my personal life?”

“I wouldn’t say that’s pathetic. It’s kind of sweet, actually. Like an older version of Sleepless in Seattle.”

“Anyway, I figured I’d better log onto the Web site and see what the heck she’d gotten me into, and before I could stop myself I was looking at your profile and e-mailing you.”

“Wow. I’m the first person you contacted?”

“The only one. When I saw that self-deprecating smile of yours, I knew there had to be something special about you. Not many people could communicate so much with one facial expression. But you…it’s all written right there on your face.”

Julia blushed. She’d been told before that she wore her emotions on her sleeve, but she’d never quite gotten used to the fact that she could be so easily read.

“Self-deprecation is underrated,” Frank said. “A person who knows how to laugh at herself is a person I want to call my friend.”

“I’m glad you e-mailed me,” Julia said. “I heard from a bunch of men. It was kind of bewildering to get all that e-mail once I signed up on the site.”

“What made you join?”

She laughed. “Foolishness, mostly. I clicked on one of those ads by accident, and next thing I knew, I was looking at your profile.”

“It wasn’t foolishness-it was fate.”

“That sounds far more romantic than my version of it.”

He sipped his coffee. They’d already done a lot of the getting-to-know-you conversation via e-mail and phone, which, Julia realized now, was probably a mistake. It left them with less to talk about face-to-face.

“I was thinking, maybe you’d like to take a walk after this?” Frank said finally.

“Where to?”

“I do a little sculpting. I have a studio down the street. I don’t normally bring people to it, so it’s a mess, but something tells me you might enjoy it. Also, my wily daughter will be there, so you can meet the person responsible for our having met.”