It was a blustery Sunday afternoon in November, and they were all sitting around Allison’s family room, baby Nicholas asleep upstairs, waiting for the football game to start. Matt would have been there, too, but he’d begged off, citing an early dinner with some business associates.
“Matt plays his cards close to his chest,” Quentin said. “We’ll never know whether being the last unmarried Whittaker was his goal all along or whether things just happened that way. As we all know, Matt’s always been sort of enigmatic.”
“Well, I think it’s time we got Matt to his happily-ever-after,” Allison said. “After all, I tried to get you and Noah married off, and, Noah, you and Quentin helped me get married off. We practically owe it to Matt. I, for one, consider it almost my duty.”
Noah and Quentin groaned in unison.
“What?” Allison demanded.
Noah and Quentin exchanged looks before Noah said, “Let’s just say sometimes we wish you’d stop taking the sisterly loyalty thing to its illogical extreme.”
“Ha, ha,” Allison retorted. “The fact of the matter is, we have to do something—”
“And you’re not above enlisting my help and Quent’s,” Noah finished.
Allison lifted her chin. “I’m not above making strategic alliances.”
He snorted. “You’re also not willing to concede defeat.”
“The fact of the matter is,” Allison said, ignoring him, “Matt doesn’t stand a chance. I’m not above some scheming, and you and Quentin obviously know something about snagging a lifelong partner to head down the aisle with.”
Noah cast her a skeptical look. “Just how are we supposed to get Matt shackled? He’s notoriously private. I’m his brother, and I don’t even know if he’s seeing anyone.”
Allison glanced over at Kayla. “Kayla would know. She gets the dirt on a lot of people.”
Noah turned to gaze at Kayla, too. As usual, just looking at her made him feel good. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her ice-blue turtleneck contrasted nicely with the creaminess of her skin. He thought again about how much he loved her. “You know,” he said, “you never did tell me who tipped you off about me for your column.”
“Um.” Kayla’s eyes strayed to Allison.
Noah followed her gaze. “Don’t tell me,” he muttered.
Allison stopped with a glass raised halfway to her lips. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Noah arched an eyebrow.
“Oh, all right.” Allison made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “I may have said at a cocktail party or two, There he goes! Go get ’im! But only because I didn’t want Kayla sniffing around me for a story.”
“So you’d throw your own brother to the bloodhounds?” Noah asked in mock offense.
“No,” Allison said archly, “but I’d feed him to the single women in the room.” She looked from him to Kayla.
“And I don’t see you complaining.”
He looked again at Kayla. He’d found love in the most unexpected place, but it worked for him. With her help, he’d put the past behind him instead of trying to forget it with an endless stream of women and parties. Though he and Kayla came from different backgrounds, it was like finding the other half of himself: the better half.
He dropped his arm onto Kayla’s shoulders, pulling her to him. “Have I been complaining, Kayla?”
Kayla looked at the man who’d opened her eyes to a whole other level of closeness. Thanks to him, she’d learned that rejection and hurt and distrust weren’t the inevitable consequence of loving someone who’d grown up in better circumstances than she had, just as she’d learned that those same circumstances of birth were the least important aspect of her relationship with Noah.
She looked now into Noah’s green eyes, so happy that she was nearly giddy, and so secure in his love that she could tease right back. “Mmm, no complaints, but I’m spreading the word to Jody Donaldson and Sybil LaBreck that your title of Boston’s most eligible bachelor should be passed on to Matt. As far as I know, he isn’t seeing anyone.”
Allison laughed.
Noah raised his eyebrows. “Honey,” he pretended to plead, “don’t tell me you’re taking a cue from Allison and using the society pages for matchmaking.”
Kayla smiled at him, while Quentin and Connor joked about Noah joining the “married men’s club,” and Liz said, “Hear, hear!” in approval.
“You know what they say,” Kayla said sweetly, just before Noah’s lips claimed hers, “you can take the girl out of the gossip column, but you can’t take the gossip columnist out of the girl.”