Diamond in the Ruff (Matchmaking Mamas Book 13)

  A FUR-EVER FAMILY

  Baker Lily Langtry isn’t one to commit to anything more than her mouthwatering pastries. So when a puppy appears at her door, she’s stunned at her new responsibilities…and how quick she is to fall for the adorable creature. But Lily gets more than she bargains for when she takes the cute canine to visit strikingly handsome town vet Christopher Whitman.

  Unaware of the Matchmaking Mamas’ scheme to bring them together, Lily and Christopher give in to an immediate attraction. The good doctor shows her the ropes—or leash—in pet ownership…among other things, which causes Lily to question her fear of love. Can this shy beauty take a chance on the strong, steadfast man of her dreams?

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to take advantage of you like that,” he told her, still cupping her cheek with the palm of his hand.

  Her voice felt as if it was going to crack at any second as she told him, “You didn’t. And there’s nothing to be sorry about, except…”

  “Except?” he prodded.

  Lily shook her head, not wanting to continue. She was only going to embarrass herself—and him—if she said anything further. “I’ve said too much.”

  “No,” he contradicted, “you’ve said too little. “‘Except’ what?” he coaxed.

  Lily wavered. Maybe he did deserve to know. So she told him.

  “Except maybe it didn’t last long enough,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper, her cheeks burning and threatening to turn a deep pink.

  “Maybe it didn’t,” he agreed. “Let’s see if I get it right this time,” he murmured just before his mouth came down on hers for a second time.

  * * *

  MATCHMAKING MAMAS:

  Playing Cupid. Arranging dates. What are mothers for?

  Dear Reader,

  This Matchmaking Mamas story deals with a topic near and dear to my heart: pets. I got my very first pet in my late thirties, a German shepherd named Rocky. I had always wanted a pet, but my family had been too poor while I was growing up. This four-legged creature running around the house was a new experience.

  When Rocky’s time came to leave us, I couldn’t stand the void. After a short grieving period, we adopted “Audrey Hepburn” from the local German Shepherd Rescue Society. Audrey came to live with us on December 6 (which, if you’re Polish—or Dutch—is also known as Santa Claus Day) and changed our lives.

  Jonathan, the Labrador puppy in the story, is a melded form of Rocky and Audrey—and how they were trained—and trained me. Oh, yes, and two remarkable people are brought together by the dog. Hope you like them.

  As always, I thank you for reading, and from the bottom of my heart, I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

  All my best,

  Marie

  DIAMOND IN THE RUFF

  Marie Ferrarella

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Harlequin Special Edition

  ¶A Match for the Doctor #2117

  ¶What the Single Dad Wants… #2122

  **The Baby Wore a Badge #2131

  ¶¶Fortune’s Valentine Bride #2167

  ¶Once Upon a Matchmaker #2192

  §§Real Vintage Maverick #2210

  ¶A Perfectly Imperfect Match #2240

  ~~A Small Fortune #2246

  ¶Ten Years Later… #2252

  ¶Wish Upon a Matchmaker #2264

  +Lassoed by Fortune #2317

  ¶Dating for Two #2342

  ¶Diamond in the Ruff #2362

  Silhouette Special Edition

  ~Diamond in the Rough #1910

  ~The Bride with No Name #1917

  ~Mistletoe and Miracles #1941

  ΩPlain Jane and the Playboy #1946

  ~Travis’s Appeal #1958

  Loving the Right Brother #1977

  The 39-Year-Old Virgin #1983

  ~A Lawman for Christmas #2006

  ¤¤Prescription for Romance #2017

  ¶Doctoring the Single Dad #2031

  ¶Fixed Up with Mr. Right? #2041

  ¶Finding Happily-Ever-After #2060

  ¶Unwrapping the Playboy #2084

  °Fortune’s Just Desserts #2107

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  Private Justice #1664

  ∆The Doctor’s Guardian #1675

  *A Cavanaugh Christmas #1683

  Special Agent’s Perfect Cover #1688

  *Cavanaugh’s Bodyguard #1699

  *Cavanaugh Rules #1715

  *Cavanaugh’s Surrender #1725

  Colton Showdown #1732

  A Widow’s Guilty Secret #1736

  *Cavanaugh on Duty #1751

  ☐The Colton Ransom #1760

  *Mission: Cavanaugh Baby #1767

  *Cavanaugh Hero #1788

  *Cavanaugh Undercover #1799

  Silhouette Romantic Suspense

  ∆A Doctor’s Secret #1503

  ∆Secret Agent Affair #1511

  *Protecting His Witness #1515

  Colton’s Secret Service #1528

  The Heiress’s 2-Week Affair #1556

  *Cavanaugh Pride #1571

  *Becoming a Cavanaugh #1575

  The Agent’s Secret Baby #1580

  *The Cavanaugh Code #1587

  *In Bed with the Badge #1596

  *Cavanaugh Judgment #1612

  Colton by Marriage #1616

  *Cavanaugh Reunion #1623

  ∆In His Protective Custody #1644

  Harlequin American Romance

  Pocketful of Rainbows #145

  °°The Sheriff’s Christmas Surprise #1329

  °°Ramona and the Renegade #1338

  °°The Doctor’s Forever Family #1346

  Montana Sheriff #1369

  Holiday in a Stetson #1378 “The Sheriff Who Found Christmas”

  °°Lassoing the Deputy #1402

  °°A Baby on the Ranch #1410

  °°A Forever Christmas #1426

  °°His Forever Valentine #1462

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  ∆The Doctors Pulaski

  ~Kate’s Boys

  ΩThe Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock

  ¤¤The Baby Chase

  ¶Matchmaking Mamas

  °The Fortunes of Texas: Lost…and Found

  °°Forever, Texas

  **Montana Mavericks:

  The Texans Are Coming!

  ¶¶The Fortunes of Texas: Whirlwind Romance

  §§Montana Mavericks: Back in the Saddle

  ~~The Fortunes of Texas: Southern Invasion

  +The Fortunes of Texas: Welcome to Horseback Hollow

  ☐The Coltons of Wyoming

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author has written more than two hundred books for Harlequin, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com.

  To

  Rocky and Audrey

  who made my life so much richer

  in their own unique way.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight />
  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Prologue

  “You don’t remember me, do you?”

  Maizie Connors, youthful grandmother, successful Realtor and matchmaker par excellence, looked at the tall, handsome, blond-haired young man standing in the doorway of her real estate office. Mentally, she whizzed through the many faces she had encountered in the past handful of years, both professionally and privately. Try as she might to recall the young man, Maizie came up empty. His smile was familiar, but the rest of him was not.

  Ever truthful, Maizie made no attempt to bluff her way through this encounter until she either remembered him or, more to the point, the young man said something that would set off flares in her somewhat overtaxed brain, reminding her who he was.

  Instead, Maizie shook her head and admitted, “I’m afraid I don’t.”

  “I was a lot younger back then and I guess I looked more like a blond swizzle stick than anything else,” he told her.

  She didn’t remember the face, but the smile and now the voice nudged at something distant within her mind. Recognition was still frustratingly out of reach. The young man’s voice was lower, but the cadence was very familiar. She’d heard it before.

  “Your voice is familiar and that smile, I know I’ve seen it before, but...” Maizie’s voice trailed off as she continued to study his face. “I know I didn’t sell you a house,” she told him with certainty. She would have remembered that.

  She remembered all of her clients as well as all the couples she, Theresa and Cecilia had brought together over the past few years. As far as Maizie was concerned, she and her lifelong best friends had all found their true calling in life a few years ago when desperation to see their single children married and on their way to creating their own families had the women using their connections in the three separate businesses they owned to find suitable matches for their offspring.

  Enormously successful in their undertaking, they found they couldn’t stop just because they had run out of their own children to work with. So friends and clients were taken on.

  They did their best work covertly, not allowing the two principals in the undertaking know that they were being paired up. The payment the three exacted was not monetary. It was the deep satisfaction that came from knowing they had successfully brought two soul mates together.

  But the young man before her was neither a professional client nor a private one. Yet he was familiar.

  Shrugging her shoulders in a gesture of complete surrender, Maizie said, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to take pity on me and tell me why your smile and your voice are so familiar but the rest of you isn’t.” Even as she said the words aloud, a partial answer suddenly occurred to her. “You’re someone’s son, aren’t you?”

  But whose? she wondered. She hadn’t been at either of her “careers”—neither the one involving real estate nor the one aimed at finding soul mates—long enough for this young man to have been the result of her work.

  So who are you?

  “I was,” he told her, his blue eyes on hers.

  Was.

  The moment he said that, it suddenly came to her. “You’re Frances Whitman’s boy, aren’t you?”

  He grinned. “Mom always said you were exceedingly sharp. Yes, I’m Frances’s son.” He said the words with pride.

  The name instantly conjured up an image in Maizie’s mind, the image of a woman with laughing blue eyes and an easy smile on her lips—always, no matter what adversity she was valiantly facing.

  The same smile she was looking at right now.

  “Christopher?” Maizie asked haltingly. “Christopher Whitman!” It was no longer a question but an assertion. Maizie threw her arms around him, giving him a warm, fond embrace, which only reached as far up as his chest. “How are you?” she asked with enthusiasm.

  “I’m doing well, thanks.” And then he told her why he’d popped in after all this time. “And it looks like we’re going to be neighbors.”

  “Neighbors?” Maizie repeated, somewhat confused.

  There’d been no For Sale signs up on her block. Infinitely aware of every house that went up for sale not just in her neighborhood, but in her city as well, Maizie knew her friend’s son was either mistaken or had something confused.

  “Yes, I just rented out the empty office two doors down from you,” he told her, referring to the strip mall where her real estate office was located.

  “Rented it out?” she repeated, waiting for him to tell her just what line of work he was in without having to specifically ask him.

  Christopher nodded. “Yes, I thought this was a perfect location for my practice.”

  She raised her eyebrows in minor surprise and admiration.

  “You’re a doctor?” It was the first thing she thought of since her own daughter was a pediatrician.

  Christopher nodded. “Of furry creatures, large and small,” he annotated.

  “You’re a vet,” she concluded.

  “—erinarian,” he amended. “I find if I just say I’m a vet, I have people thanking me for my service to this country. I don’t want to mislead anyone,” he explained with a smile she now found dazzling.

  “Either way, you’ll have people thanking you,” Maizie assured him. She took a step back to get a better, fuller view of the young man. He had certainly filled out since she had seen him last. “Christopher Whitman,” she repeated in amazement. “You look a great deal like your mother.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said with a warm smile. “I was always grateful that you and the other ladies were there for Mom while she was getting her treatments. She didn’t tell me she was sick until it was close to the end,” he explained. It was a sore point for him, but under the circumstances, he’d had to forgive his mother. There hadn’t been any time left for wounded feelings. “You know how she was. Very proud.”

  “Of you,” Maizie emphasized. “I remember her telling me that she didn’t want to interfere with your schooling. She knew you’d drop out if you thought she needed you.”

  “I would have,” he answered without hesitation.

  She heard the note of sadness in his voice that time still hadn’t managed to erase. Maizie quickly changed the subject. Frances wouldn’t have wanted her son to beat himself up over a decision she had made for him.

  “A veterinarian, huh? So what else is new since I last saw you?” Maizie asked.

  Broad shoulders rose and fell in a careless shrug. “Nothing much.”

  Habit had Maizie glancing down at his left hand. It was bare, but that didn’t necessarily mean the man wasn’t married. “No Mrs. Veterinarian?”

  Christopher laughed softly and shook his head. “Haven’t had the time to find the right woman,” he confessed. It wasn’t the truth, but he had no desire to revisit that painful area yet. “I know Mom would have hated to hear that excuse, but that’s just the way things are. Well, when I saw your name on the door, I just wanted to drop by to say hi,” he told her, adding, “Stop by the office sometime when you get a chance and we’ll talk some more about Mom,” he promised.

  “Yes, indeed,” Maizie replied.

  As well as other things, she added silently as she watched Christopher walk away, anticipation welling in her chest. Wait until the girls hear about this.

  Chapter One

  Okay, how did it get to be so late?

  The exasperated, albeit rhetorical, question echoed almost tauntingly in her brain as Lily Langtry hurried through her house, checking to make sure she hadn’t left any of her ground-floor windows open or h
er back door unlocked. There hadn’t been any break-ins in her neighborhood, but she lived alone and felt that you could never be too careful.

  The minutes felt as if they were racing by.

  There was a time when she was not only on time but early for everything from formal appointments to the everyday events that took place in her life. But that was before her mother had passed away, before she was all alone and the only one who was in charge of the details of her life.

  It seemed to her that even when she was taking care of her mother and holding down the two jobs that paying off her mother’s medical bills necessitated, she had usually been far more organized and punctual than she was these days. Now that there was only one of her, in essence only one person to be responsible for, her ability to be on top of things seemed to have gone right out the window. If she intended to be ready by eight, in her mind she had to shoot for seven-thirty—and even that didn’t always pan out the way she hoped it would.

  This morning she’d told herself she would be out the door by seven. It was now eight-ten and she was just stepping into her high heels.

  “Finally,” she mumbled as she grabbed her bag and launched herself out the front door while simultaneously searching for her keys. The latter were currently eluding detection somewhere within the nether regions of her oversize purse.

  Preoccupied, engaged in the frantic hunt that was making her even later than she already was, Lily wasn’t looking where she was going.

  Which was why she almost stepped on him.

  Looking back, in her defense, she hadn’t been expecting anything to be on her doorstep, much less a moving black ball of fur that yipped pathetically when her foot came down on his paw.

  Jumping backward, Lily’s hand went protectively over her chest to contain the heart that felt as if it was about to leap out of it. Lily dropped her purse at the same time.

  Containing more things in it than the average overstuffed suitcase, the purse came down with a thud, further frightening the already frightened black ball of fur—which she now saw was a Labrador puppy.

  But instead of running, as per the puppy manual, the large-dog-in-training began to lick her shoe.