Once Upon a Matchmaker Read online

  “She’s making that part up,” Micah told his sons. “I was a perfect angel.”

  “When you were asleep, you looked just like one,” Sheila agreed, then added, “Awake, not so much.”

  “Can you tell us stories about when Daddy was a kid?” Gary asked eagerly.

  Sheila’s smile was so wide, her eyes almost disappeared. “I sure can.”

  “But she won’t,” Micah interjected with a note of finality. “She’s going to save those for when you’re older.”

  Gary’s forehead crinkled beneath his blond bangs. “Why?”

  “I’ll tell you that when you’re older, too,” Micah promised him. Changing the subject, he asked, “Now, who’s hungry for pizza?”

  The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a chorus of “We are!” rose up. It was hard to believe that two little boys could project so much volume when they wanted to.

  Micah gazed at his aunt who’d made herself comfortable in the love seat opposite Micah and the boys. “I thought we’d go to that little Italian restaurant you like so much. Giuseppe’s.” The boys bounced up to their feet. His aunt rose to hers, as well. “Luckily for me, it’s kid-friendly.”

  “As it happens,” his aunt said, placing a hand on each boy’s shoulder in order to usher them out the front door, “so am I.”

  * * *

  “You know there’s no one here to impress, right?” Kate Manetti Wainwright said to her friend, Tracy Ryan, as she stuck her head into the latter’s office.

  It was Sunday and the law firm was closed. Or should have been. The sound of typing must have drawn Kate to Tracy’s small office, which meant an interruption.

  Tracy looked up from the brief she was working on. “You’re here,” she pointed out.

  “But I’m not supposed to be.” And neither was anyone else, she added silently. “I just stopped by to grab the sweater I left here on Friday.” She held up the powder-blue article of clothing as exhibit A. “And besides, I don’t count.”

  “You do to me,” Tracy told her, flashing a quick, fleeting smile at her friend. “And for your information, I’m not trying to impress anyone, I’m just trying to catch up on my workload.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “You already work twice as hard as anyone here,” she pointed out. “How much catching up do you possibly have to do?”

  Tracy’s slender shoulders rose and fell in an absentminded shrug. “Enough,” she said evasively, then, cocking her head, she leveled a piercing gaze at the woman who had been her friend all through law school. They’d been each other’s support group through the bad times, and each other’s cheering section through the good ones. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” she asked. After all, today was Mother’s Day and, unlike her, Kate was lucky enough to still have one.

  Kate feigned innocence. “As a matter of fact, I do—and you’re coming with me,” she declared as if she’d just thought of it.

  Instead of automatically demurring, Tracy felt she needed to arm herself with information first so that she could come up with a good reason to say no. Kate didn’t take “no” easily. “And just where is it that I’m supposed to be going, too?”

  “Giuseppe’s. Lilli and I are taking my mother out for Mother’s Day,” she said, referring to her brother Kullen’s wife.

  Tracy shook her head. “That’s okay, I’ll just stay here and finish this brief.”

  “I’m not taking no for an answer, Trace,” she informed her friend.

  “It’s Mother’s Day,” Tracy said out loud, taking care not to lace her protest with emotion. “I’m sure your mother doesn’t want you dragging a stray along on her afternoon out.”

  “Then you definitely don’t know my mother—and you’re not a stray,” she tagged on as an afterthought. “You’re more like family.” She smiled at her. “Like the sister my mother never got around to giving me,” she told Tracy.

  Tracy suppressed a sigh. Mother’s Day was particularly difficult for her on two counts. The mother she adored was no longer part of her life. She hadn’t been for close to three years now. Moreover, added to that was the numbing fact that her blink-and-you’ve-missed-it marriage that came and went four years ago had left her pregnant and hopeful. Tracy had always loved children and the idea of being a mother herself was thrilling. But the thrill became tragedy when her baby came into the world prematurely—and stillborn.

  That, more than the painfully short marriage she’d endured, had left her with the feeling that she was one of those people who was meant to go through life alone. She faced that the same way she faced everything else she found overwhelming: she threw herself into her work. Buried herself in a hundred and one details. Anything so that she didn’t have any time to think, to dwell on her own situation—or lack of one.

  When the loneliness came at her full force, as it did sometimes, Tracy just worked a little harder until she was able to make herself numb again.

  The important thing was not to feel. Since she was a normally caring person, she channeled her emotional connections into the cases she took on—and the people whose hand she figuratively held while she worked on their cases.

  “I am not taking no for an answer,” Kate repeated with more feeling, adding, “And don’t worry, this isn’t some kind of a setup. Jackson is out of town on bank business this weekend, so it’s just going to be us girls,” she promised. “C’mon,” Kate coaxed, “It’ll be fun.

  “That can wait,” she insisted, nodding at the brief on Tracy’s desk. “Unless it suddenly grows legs—and if it does, we’ll have bigger problems than just your workload—it’s not going anywhere,” she concluded with finality. Her tone left no room for a rebuttal. Tracy was coming with her even if she had to find a way to carry the woman out of the office and to the restaurant.

  For now, she made a show of tugging on Tracy’s arm, gently but insistently nonetheless.

  With a sigh, Tracy gave in. She supposed that being around pleasant people was preferable to being here by herself. Except for the very low hum of her computer, the office was bathed in silence. Silence allowed memories to pop up, painful memories that were liable to sneak up and ambush her at any time.

  She knew the danger in that. Dwelling on either one of her losses for even a minute tended to devastate her. As long as she outran the memories or banked them down, she was all right. She could function. She desperately needed to function.

  The alternative, sinking into a darkness where grief could eat away at her until there was nothing left, was not an option she was willing to accept. She’d been there once, and once was more than enough.

  “Okay, I guess a girls’ afternoon out does sound pretty good,” Tracy agreed.

  “Great!” Kate declared, already way ahead of her. Coming around to Tracy’s side of the desk, she nimbly pressed a combination of keys to save the document Tracy had been working on, and then shut down the computer. “Done,” she informed Tracy, then hooked her arm through her friend’s the moment Tracy got up from her chair.

  “Knew you’d come around,” Kate told her, doing little to hide the triumphant note in her voice. “Let’s go. I don’t want to keep my mother waiting. Oh, by the way, did I tell you that Nikki and Jewel were going to be there with their mothers, too?”

  It was in the form of a question, but Tracy knew her friend was dispensing information slowly. Tracy could acknowledge Kate was a dynamo in the courtroom and the complete opposite in a private setting.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” Kate added. “My mom and those women have been friends forever. I knew she’d enjoy things more if they were there, too.”

  What was that saying Mom used to say? In for a penny, in for a pound, Tracy recalled. Since it was Mother’s Day, she’d follow the old adage.

  With a nod of her head, Tracy allowed herself to be dragged along.

  * * *

  Tracy had met Theresa Manetti a couple of times, once at Kate’s wedding, the other at Kullen’s. The woman reminded her a little of her own moth
er. Consequently, she had taken an instant liking to the intelligent, savvy woman as well as the two women she’d introduced as her “best friends since third grade,” Maizie Sommers and Cecilia Parnell.

  She’d discovered that by combining the three women’s characteristics, she came practically face-to-face with her own mother. She savored the experience for a moment, then refocused herself to enjoy the individual company of each of the women.

  “See,” Kate said as she, Lilli and Tracy all sat down at the extended table, “I told you it was going to be girls’ afternoon out.”

  Theresa laughed shortly. “You’re stretching the word, dear,” she told her daughter. “I haven’t been a girl since the last century.”

  “It’s all in your attitude,” Maizie told her. “Me, I’m never getting old.”

  Theresa suppressed a laugh and asked Cecilia, “What’s the female counterpart to Peter Pan?”

  “Happy,” Tracy chimed in without hesitating.

  Maizie smiled her approval. “I do like the way you think, Tracy.” Picking up the menu, she began to scan it. “So, what looks good?” she asked the others.

  “Offhand, I’d say he does,” Theresa Manetti answered. She wasn’t looking at the menu but at the occupant of a table three tables away.

  Maizie looked up at the dark-haired man her friend was referring to. She pretended to look surprised. In reality, all three of them—she, Cecilia and Theresa—knew exactly where Micah Muldare would be sitting, thanks to prior arrangements with Sheila.

  “You were saying about Peter Pan?” Maizie teased. And then she leaned forward, squinting just a little. “Oh, I think I know the woman he’s with.”

  Now all the women at the table were looking in the direction Theresa was. “A little old for him, isn’t she?” Cecilia asked.

  “That’s his aunt, Sheila Barrett. I sold her a condo a few years ago,” Maizie explained, slanting a glance toward Tracy.

  “Then she’s really a client, not a friend,” Tracy guessed.

  Maizie smiled as she looked at the newcomer. “She’s both.”

  “Mother makes friends easily,” Nikki confided.

  Tracy looked at the table in question. “Cute little boys,” she commented. Her smile was genuine. And wide.

  Maizie nodded in approval. “Yes, they are. He’s doing a wonderful job, raising them by himself, I hear. Of course, Sheila comes by to help out when she can, but there is no real substitute for a mother’s love, is there?”

  The question was directed toward Tracy, but it was her own daughter, as well as Theresa’s and Cecilia’s, who chorused in a singsong voice, “No, Mother, there really isn’t.”

  Maizie only laughed softly. She had a really good feeling about this. There was a definite smile in Tracy’s eyes when she looked at the children. That was very telling in her book.

  Another match would soon be in the offing, she thought with satisfaction.

  It would be only a matter of time.

  Chapter Two

  Maizie waited until she saw Sheila glancing over in the direction of their table, then she raised her hand high and waved at the other woman.

  Seeing her, Sheila smiled and returned the wave. That in turn had Micah’s sons twisting around in their chairs to see who was waving at their great-aunt—a title, when they first heard it, both boys took to mean that their aunt Sheila was really terrific. Delighted, Sheila never bothered to correct them.

  Micah looked over to his oldest son. “Turn around in your seat, Gary.”

  “I am turned around,” the boy told him, confused by the instruction.

  It took a second before Micah realized the communication problem. At five, his son took everything literally, just like his brother. “Turn back around,” he corrected.

  “Oh, okay.” Doing as he was told, Gary turned his face toward the others at his table. He focused his attention on his great-aunt.

  “Do you know those ladies?” Gary asked her solemnly, doing his best to seem every bit as grown up as his father.

  “What ladies?” Micah asked. This time, he turned around to see what had caught his son’s attention. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  Twisting back around again, Gary said, “Those ladies.” He pointed to the table where he had seen someone waving to his great-aunt.

  “Don’t point,” Micah reminded his son patiently.

  Total confusion descended on the small, angular face. “But if I don’t point, Daddy, how are you gonna know which table has the ladies?” he wanted to know.

  Sheila suppressed an amused smile. She glanced at her nephew. “He does have a point, Micah.”

  “I know,” Micah said with a sigh, then tousled Gary’s hair. “He’s got the makings of a great lawyer. Too bad that won’t be for another twenty years or so. I could use him now.”

  “Why?” She looked at her nephew a bit more closely. Beneath the smile, there was tension. More tension than usual. “Are you saying that you need a lawyer, Micah?”

  “Probably,” he admitted. He upbraided himself for his moment of weakness and flashed her a deliberately wide, easy grin. “Forget that,” he told her. “This is your special day, Aunt Sheila. Let’s not spoil it by talking about lawyers and necessary evils.” Which was the way he viewed lawyers as a whole.

  Given a choice, he would have avoided the whole lawyer route altogether, but he had a feeling that this was something where he wasn’t going to be able to rely on just his wits to get him out. And knowing that he wasn’t guilty of what he was being accused of didn’t seem to matter, or help.

  He looked at the other three occupants at the table. “I just want to have a nice meal with my three favorite people.”

  But Sheila didn’t seem satisfied. Covering Micah’s hand with her own, she looked intently into his eyes. “Well, I won’t be able to have that ‘nice meal’ unless you promise to tell me what’s wrong the moment we get home.”

  It was a compromise he could live with. Micah nodded. “Done.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” she told him.

  Though he would have wanted it otherwise, he knew that the woman was as good as her word. He wouldn’t be able to put her off.

  “I know that.”

  For now, Sheila relented. “All right, then.” Sitting back in her seat, she opened the menu again out of habit. “Let’s get this party started.”

  “You didn’t answer my question, Aunt Sheila,” Gary reminded her, shifting in his seat restlessly.

  The boy had the tenacity of a pit bull. For a second, Sheila’s eyes shifted to Micah.

  “Definitely the makings of a lawyer,” she said, agreeing with her nephew’s assessment of his older son. Leaning her head on her hand, she looked directly into Gary’s sky-blue eyes and asked, “And what question is that?”

  “Do you know those ladies?” Gary repeated with just a trace of exasperation. He slanted a look at his father. “The ones I can’t point at,” he added.

  “I know some of them. The lady who waved sold me the condo I live in. Those two other older ladies are her oldest and dearest friends.”

  “Doesn’t she have any young friends? Besides you,” Gary asked. His smile was broad and earnest.

  Micah’s older son was seated to her left. Sheila leaned over and gave the boy a long, heartfelt hug. “Best present I ever got,” she told him.

  At any other time, Gary would have preened at the compliment. But right now, he was dealing with a more immediate problem. “You’re squishing me, Aunt Sheila,” the boy protested.

  She released him immediately, making a show of raising her hands and removing them from his small body. “Sorry, I got carried away,” she apologized. There was a glimmer of humor about her mouth that only Micah took note of.

  Greg scrunched up his face. It was clear that he didn’t understand the expression.

  “No, you didn’t,” the younger boy told her. “You’re right here. Nobody’s carrying you away.”

  Greg looked around as
if to make sure no one had sneaked up on them. As he scanned the room, he made eye contact again with one of the ladies at the other table. She was looking right at him.

  Shy, he shifted back around and hid his face in his hands.

  “What’s the matter?” Micah asked his son. What had caused this reaction, Micah wondered.

  “That lady, she’s looking right at me.” Greg giggled, saying the words into his hands.

  It was Micah’s turn to look at the women at the table in question. He assumed his sons were both looking at the same table. Scanning it quickly, he saw that there were eight women seated around the table. Seven appeared engaged in conversation and the eighth, a blonde—Greg had to be referring to her—was looking in their direction.

  His eyes met hers unexpectedly and for a very long second, neither of them looked away.

  She had a nice smile, he caught himself thinking. He saw her mouthing something and belatedly realized that she was saying, “Cute little boys.” Not knowing what else to do—and ignoring her seemed rather rude—he mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Her smile curved even more, pulling him in a little further. For some reason, he was having a difficult time looking away. There was something almost hypnotic about the smile, yet incredibly soothing at the same time.

  “How come you’re not making any noise?” Greg asked, then explained the reason for his question. “Your mouth’s moving.”

  “He’s using his inside voice,” Gary informed his brother importantly. Then, raising his chin, he added, “I can hear him.”

  Even at four, Greg knew a lie when he heard it. “No, you can’t,” he insisted.

  “Can, too,” Gary shot back, ready to go to war against his worst enemy/best friend in the blink of an eye.

  “Boys,” Micah interjected sternly, “what did I tell you about arguing?”

  “Don’t,” both boys chorused, their eyes downcast. Both appeared to be properly chastised, although Micah suspected that a little playacting was going into their performances.

  Satisfied that they were going to behave for at least the next five minutes, Micah nodded and turned his attention back to the meal. Their waiter was approaching the table.