“I’m supposed to be hooking him up with a down- to-earth woman.”
Candace held out her hands as if to say, voilà. “Have you told him about your humble origins?”
“Dad works for the school board, and Mom is a schoolteacher. Hardly fancy, but I wasn’t running around barefoot, either.” She didn’t bother explaining down-to-earth for someone in Matt Whittaker’s position meant a woman who was polite to the household help.
“Work with me.”
“I am.” She tossed the plastic wrap into a garbage bin. “I hired you after you struck out on the first nine interviews the employment agency sent you on, remember?”
Candace shrugged. “What can I say? My charms as a gum-chewing smart mouth are lost on some people. Go figure.”
Lauren laughed despite herself. She’d hired Candace when she’d first started her business and couldn’t afford to pay market rate even to a receptionist. Since then, the two of them had been through thick and thin together.
Candace watched as she fiddled with the flower arrangement. “I’ll never understand why you haven’t taken your pick from the men who’ve walked through the door here.”
“You know why. We don’t date the clients.”
“Well, you don’t.”
She stopped and gave Candace an inquiring look.
Candace shrugged. “Only the continent-hopping scuba diver after he was a client here.” Pause. “And, oh yeah, maybe the airline pilot with the hot—”
“I get the picture.”
Candace shrugged. “Do you think I took this job because of the fantastic pay? A girl’s got to fish at the nearest stream.”
“Yes, but does it have to be off the company pier?”
Candace held up her hands as if to express, what can I say? “Let’s get back to Matt Whittaker.”
“Too starchy around the collar.”
“But fat in the pocketbook,” Candace countered.
“Have you no shame?”
“In a word? No.”
“He was a groomsman at the infamous nonwed- ding.”
Candace’s eyes widened. “Yours?”
“Who else’s?”
“Is he still in touch with Parker?”
“I don’t think so, though Matt said, last he heard, Parker was traveling the world.”
“You know, if I’d been your maid of honor, you wouldn’t have to wonder where Parker was. He’d have been chopped liver long before now.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, as you’ll recall, the two of us hadn’t met yet.”
Instead, her sister, Meghan, had been her maid of honor. The two of them had flown to Bora Bora, dined on mahimahi, sipped kava drinks and danced under the stars.
Candace shrugged, as if the fact the two of them hadn’t known each other back then was beside the point. “So, are you going to hold it against him?”
She didn’t have to ask what Candace meant. Yet, it wasn’t just that Matt had remained impassive on the day that would live on in infamy to Lauren.
“Well?” Candace asked.
“Our relationship was always…awkward.” She stared down at the flowers she was fiddling with before dropping her hands. “There’s always been a sort of quiet intensity in his eyes.”
“Oh…wow.” Candace sighed—a dreamy look crossing her face—then snapped back to attention. “And that’s a bad thing? Honey, if he’d fixed me with those magnetic blues of his, I’d have been the one doing the jilting at the altar.”
Lauren wondered why she was standing here talking about Matt. He was her past, and the only way he was useful to her now was as a cash cow for Ideal Match.
“Don’t you have some work to do?” she asked pointedly.
Candace cracked a smile, then handed her a piece of paper. “Heartbreak Phil left two messages.”
“Only two?”
Heartbreak Phil was their name for a client who was all smiles, but had axed more dates than she could count.
“He had a flight to Phoenix to catch, so his day was cut short,” Candace said. “The first phone message was about his date last night, the second at our backup number was to make sure you’d gotten the first.”
“Naturally.”
Candace grinned. “Wonder how he’s broken up with her this time.”
Lauren grimaced. “I don’t want to know.”
At first, Heartbreak Phil had tried to insist it was her responsibility as his matchmaker to do the breaking up for him.
“That’s why I hired you,” he’d said.
She’d finally convinced him that breaking things off was a social skill he needed to master.
Unfortunately, Heartbreak Phil had implemented her advice in unexpected ways, such as delivering a “Dear Jane” letter by e-mail—with a confirmation copy by overnight courier for good measure.
The phone rang, and Candace strode over to Lauren’s desk. “Let’s hope it’s not Heartbreak Phil for round three,” she said over her shoulder, before picking up the receiver.
“Feeling lonely? Feeling blue? Have we got a match for you!” Candace went on more sedately, “Ideal Match. What can we do for you?”
Lauren rolled her eyes. She’d tried to get Candace to drop the ridiculous theme song, but most of her clients seemed amused by it.
Candace laughed at something the caller said, then pressed the hold button and gave the receiver to her before taking a step toward the door. “Our favorite CFO holding for Dr. Date.”
Four
“Thank you for the flowers. They just arrived, and they’re lovely.”
Matt tried to read Lauren’s voice as he paced in his Atlanta hotel room. This business trip had been one difficult meeting after another, and he was ready to head home.
Loosening his tie with one hand, he said, “You’re welcome. My secretary didn’t arrange to send them. I wanted you to know your tutoring isn’t going to waste.”
“What a relief.”
“So have you come up with some matches yet?”
In reality, it was the last thought on his mind. He’d called her because he’d had a moment…because he’d wanted to know if she’d gotten his bouquet…and because, frankly, he’d wanted to talk to her—judge her reaction.
He hadn’t been able to put her out of his mind since their dinner together a couple of days ago. He’d told himself it was only because he’d been giving some thought to this whole matchmaking business.