Wish Upon a Matchmaker Read online

  THREE-FOOT MATCHMAKER

  Ginny Scarborough has picked out her new mommy—Danni Everett, the local celebrity chef who hired Ginny’s widowed father, Stone, to renovate her house. And Danni couldn’t deny the immediate zing she felt for the handsome, green-eyed contractor…even if they were brought together by a precocious four-year-old. So why was Stone holding back when everything between them felt so right?

  Stone’s heart had been, well, stone-cold for far too long...that is until he met the beautiful and bubbly chef. Still, Danni was part of a world where Stone and his little girl didn’t belong—better to move on than risk the pain of losing love again. But Ginny wouldn’t take no for an answer, especially after even she could feel the warmth Danni brought to her dad.

  With two stubborn adults to contend with, could little Cupid still make her dreams of a family come true?

  “You don’t want to be labeled a culinary tease now, do you?” Stone asked the question so seriously, for a moment Danni didn’t realize that he was kidding her.

  “Heaven forbid!” She laughed. He was being kind, and she appreciated it.

  “Good, then go whip up something. Impress me with your ability to create something delicious out of nothing.”

  “I’ll do my best.” It felt good to laugh, she thought. Good to feel useful again. A surge of deep gratitude spiked through her. “You’re a good man, Stone Scarborough.”

  He shrugged off the compliment, not comfortable with its weight. “I’m only as good as I have to be,” he told her.

  Why that sounded like a promise of things to come to her she didn’t know, but it did.

  And it sent a little thrill of anticipation through her.

  Dear Reader,

  Here we are again, back in the world of the Matchmaking Mamas. This time around, Maizie Sommers, the Realtor who originally came up with the concept of finding a match for her daughter and the daughters of her friends, encounters a unique client: Ginny Scarborough. Ginny comes into her office and requests that Maizie find someone for her widower dad. Nothing unusual about that—except that Ginny is four, almost five years old, and very precocious. Since Ginny’s dad is a general contractor and Maizie has recently sold a fixer-upper to a newly transplanted young woman who can make taste buds sit up and beg, it takes very little to bring the two together. And with Ginny as their own personal rooting section, how can anything go wrong? Want to find out? Then come, read. Enjoy!

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

  With affection,

  Marie Ferrarella

  Wish Upon a Matchmaker

  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

  Silhouette Special Edition

  ~Diamond in the Rough #1910

  ~The Bride with No Name #1917

  ~Mistletoe and Miracles #1941

  ††Plain 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

  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

  °°Forever Christmas #1426

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  ~Kate’s Boys

  ††The 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

  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

  Andrew Gallagher,

  who mentioned

  his daughter’s name

  to me and

  inspired a story.

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Prologue

  “Are you the lady who finds mommies?”

  The high-pitched, rather intelligent little voice cut a hole in Maizie Sommers’s mental haze. For the last half hour, the successful Realtor had been busy putting together an ad for her newest local real estate listing so that it could be entered on her website. Finding just the right words to place the proper emphasis on the twenty-year-old ranch house’s best features had been nothing short of a challenge. The term fixer-upper carried such a negative connotation.

  Absorbed in the task, Maizie had only vaguely heard the front door to her office opening and closing. It had registered as just so much background noise. Part of her thoug
ht she’d only imagined it.

  Especially when she’d glanced in the direction of the door and hadn’t seen anyone come in.

  But there obviously was a reason for that. The person who had come in was only approximately half the size of an adult.

  Maizie stopped working and after looking around, she half rose in her seat and looked over the edge of her desk. Ten small fingertips were firmly pressed against it. The little girl pushed herself up as far as she could go, standing on the very tiptoes of her black patent-leather shoes.

  Maizie put down her pen and smiled at the child, judging her to be around four, or possibly a small five. Slight and a strawberry-blonde, her newest visitor had exceptionally intelligent-looking blue eyes. She was going to be a knockout in a dozen years, Maizie judged.

  “Hello.”

  The girl, who more than anything resembled a perfect little doll, tossed her head—sending her curls bouncing—and paused only a moment to politely return the greeting, “Hello,” before she got back down to business.

  No doubt, she was a woman on a mission.

  “Are you the lady who finds mommies?” the pint-size strawberry-blonde asked again. “My friend Greg said you found one for his dad and that she’s really nice and now they’re all very happy.”

  Maizie never forgot a name, especially not a child’s name. The little girl was talking about Greg and Gary Muldare. After Sheila, Micah Muldare’s aunt, had come to see her, lamenting the young widower’s state, she and her two dearest friends had strategized and gotten the boys’ father, Micah, together with a bright, up-and-coming dynamo of a lawyer, Tracy Ryan, who solved Micah’s legal problems and along the way wound up becoming Mrs. Micah Muldare.

  Word was getting around faster and faster, Maizie mused with a smile. She’d had walk-in clients before—both for her professional services and for her unofficial ones, but none of her clients had ever come in the economy size.

  “What happened to your mommy, dear?” Maizie asked the girl kindly.

  And just what was the child doing here by herself? Had the little girl run away in order to come see her? Her own daughter had been precocious, but even she hadn’t been this independent at such a young age.

  There was just the slightest hint of sorrow in her voice as the girl said, “Mommy died before I could remember her, but Daddy remembers, and it makes him sad when he does. I want Daddy to be happy like Greg’s daddy is.” Her voice took on conviction as she said, “My daddy needs one. He needs a mommy,” she clarified in case that had gotten lost in the shuffle of words. “Can you find him one? And make her pretty, because my daddy said he wants one as pretty as me. That’s why he’s with Elizabeth now,” she confided. "She’s pretty, but she’s not a mommy, just a lady.” Lowering her voice as she raised herself up as far as she could on her toes so that only Maizie could hear, she said in what amounted to a stage whisper, “I don’t think she likes kids.”

  Before Maizie could recover or comment on either the little girl’s request, or her summation of her father’s current relationship, the door to her widely sought-after real estate agency opened a second time in the space of less than five minutes.

  It wasn’t that Maizie was unaccustomed to a lot of foot traffic, thanks to both her reputation and the popular shopping center location of her agency, she was more than used to a constant flow of humanity. However, the two people who worked for her were currently out showing properties, and she had no appointments on her calendar for at least an hour. She’d been promising herself a quick lunch now for the last ninety minutes—the second she finished writing the ad.

  But something far more interesting had come up and her neglected stomach was pushed into second place.

  Humor curved the corners of Maizie’s mouth. She’d never had a walk-in who wasn’t able to see over her desk before.

  But just as Maizie had gotten her newest would-be client to tell her story, an utterly frazzled-looking woman suddenly burst into her real estate office. The second she did, the woman made a beeline for the tiny visitor who was standing on the other side of Maizie’s desk.

  “Virginia Ann Scarborough, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” the blonde demanded as she fell to her knees and smothered the little girl in a huge hug that utterly reeked of relief as well as panic.

  “No,” the little girl replied in a small, somewhat contrite voice. Her pained expression told Maizie that the girl was merely enduring the hug. Apparently, unlike the distraught woman who’d found her, she hadn’t been at all afraid.

  “I was trying to find a mommy for Daddy,” the child explained, as if that would clear everything up and exonerate her as well.

  “You know you’re not supposed to run off like that, Ginny,” the woman chided.

  Making a swift survey of the little girl, the woman appeared satisfied that the only thing worse for wear were her own nerves. She rose to her feet and only then turned her attention to the other person in the room.

  “I’m very sorry about this,” she apologized to Maizie. “I hope my niece didn’t break anything.”

  “I wasn’t in here long enough to break anything, Aunt Virginia,” the girl protested indignantly.

  Maizie rose from behind her desk, a little bemused. “Are you her guardian?” she asked the woman, nodding at the little girl.

  “I’m her aunt.” She slanted an exasperated look at the little girl that was nonetheless laced with love. “Her long-suffering aunt. I swear, Ginny, if you weren’t named after me...” Ginny’s aunt let her voice trail off, then flashed another apologetic smile at Maizie as she took a firm hold of Ginny’s hand, her intent clear. She was taking the little girl out of the office. “I’m sorry about all this—”

  “No, please, wait,” Maizie coaxed in her best maternal, nurturing voice. “You look a little frazzled. Let me get you a nice cup of tea.” She glanced down at Ginny. “And I think I might have some lemonade for you if you like.”

  “Yes, please,” Ginny said with restrained enthusiasm.

  “No, really, we’ve been enough trouble already,” Virginia protested.

  “Nonsense. You’re no trouble at all and I must say my curiosity has been piqued,” Maizie admitted as she went to the small island against the wall that housed an all-in-one unit, combining a small refrigerator, a stove with microwave features and a sink on one side. With a minimum of movements, she made a hot Chai tea for Virginia and poured a glass of lemonade for the small whirling dervish who’d been named after her.

  “Now then, Ginny,” Maizie began, addressing Ginny as she handed her the glass of lemonade, “you said something about your daddy needing a wife.”

  Hearing that, Virginia’s eyes widened in stunned amazement. “Ginny, you didn’t—why would you do that?” the woman demanded of her niece.

  “Because she finds them,” Ginny told her aunt, nodding at Maizie. “Greg said so,” she said with the conviction of the very young.

  “This lady runs a real estate agency,” Virginia pointed out, her nerves beginning to fray no doubt.

  “Perhaps I should explain,” Maizie interjected, coming to Ginny’s rescue. “My friends and I dabble in matchmaking on the side—there’s no charge,” she said quickly in case the other woman thought this was some sort of a scam, “just the satisfaction of bringing together two people who were meant for each other but who might never—without the proper intervention—come together,” she said. Her eyes shifted to Ginny. “Like your friend Greg’s father and Tracy Ryan. My friends and I supply the ‘intervention,’ so to speak,” she told Virginia.

  “Is that why you begged me to bring you here, to the ice cream parlor?” she asked her niece.

  “They have very good ice cream,” Ginny piped up innocently.

  “See what I’m up against?” Virginia asked Maizie wearily.

  Maizie did her best to appear sympathetic. In her line of work, she’d had a great deal of practice. “Are you her father’s sister?” she asked.

  Virginia nodded. �
��His name is Stone Scarborough. I’m his younger sister. I moved in with him to help out after Eva—Ginny’s mother—died. That was a year and a half ago. I’m still helping,” she added.

  And you want to move on with your life, Maizie surmised from the other woman’s choice of words and her tone.

  Maizie sat back in her chair, her mouth curving in a smile of anticipation. She could sense the thrill of a challenge taking hold. Nothing she loved more than being challenged.

  “So, tell me about your brother,” she coaxed Virginia.

  “I don’t know where to start,” Virginia said with a sigh.

  “At the beginning is always a good place,” Maizie encouraged.

  “I guess it is.” Taking a deep breath, the other woman began to talk, with frequent interjections coming from Ginny.

  Maizie listened attentively to both.

  And a plan began to form.

  Chapter One

  Stone Scarborough stared at his younger sister, trying to make sense out of what she had, rather breathlessly, just told him.

  Whatever it was, Virginia seemed very animated about it and he’d managed to glean that it had something to do with the business card she had just pressed into his hand. But her narrative came out so disjointed he found himself feeling the way he had back in the days when he’d walk into the middle of a movie with his late wife—Eva never managed to be on time for anything no matter how hard she tried—and he was forced to try to make heads or tails out of what he was subsequently watching.

  In addition to Virginia’s overwhelming flow of words, his daughter, Ginny, seemed to have caught the fever and was fairly bouncing up and down right in front of him. It was as if both were experiencing a massive sugar attack.

  In an attempt to sort out the verbiage, Stone held his hand up to get Virginia to stop talking for a moment, regroup and begin at the beginning.

  “Run this by me one more time,” Stone urged his sister. “From the top,” he added.

  His sister Virginia shook her head, her light blond ponytail swishing from side to side. “You know, for a brilliant man, you can be so slow sometimes.”