Heartstrings and Diamond Rings (24 page)

“So you hired me.”

“Yes.”

Brandon closed his eyes, wishing he’d never gone through with this crazy scheme. How could he ever have thought this business would be something he could just toss off, take people’s money no matter what the outcome was, and disappear? Not once had he stopped to think how important he might be to the people who came to him, and how horribly ill‑equipped he was to help them. Christ, he didn’t know the first thing about marriage, family, any of it. And in his own arrogance, he thought he was going to help people find the true love they were looking for?

No. That wasn’t what he’d thought at all. His thought process had stopped at matching them up. That was what they were paying him to do. What came after that, he hadn’t given a single thought to.

How dumb could he have possibly been?

“Don’t you have other relatives?” he asked her.

“An aunt and uncle on my mother’s side in Phoenix, but after my mother died, we drifted away from each other. My father has a brother, but he’s divorced and works overseas. None of my grandparents are still living. So really, my father is just about it.”

Her teary eyes told him how much she loved her father. How much love she had to give, period. He’d felt it when she’d kissed him that night, and he was feeling it ten times that now.

“I need a family,” she said quietly. “Like I need air to breathe. I want a husband and children and summer vacations and Christmas mornings. I can’t bear the idea of going through my life alone, with nothing but a houseful of cats to keep me company.” Tears rolled down her cheeks now, and she swept them away with the back of her hand. “My cats. God, I’m even pitiful about them.”

“Come on, Alison,” he said with a tentative smile. “You’re still one away from being a crazy cat lady, right?”

A smile briefly touched her lips, only to disappear into misery again. “Do you know the real reason I took them in? Because they lost their mother. I knew how that felt. But they had each other. Brothers and sisters. And when the time came, I just didn’t want to split them up. So I kept them all. I know they’re just cats, but…oh, God. See? Pitiful.”

Suddenly what Heather had told him that night came back to him, and he knew now what she was talking about.
She’s lost so much in her life already. I don’t know how many more times she can hit the wall before she just can’t take it anymore.

“And then tonight,” she said, her voice harsh with emotion, “when I saw my father lying on the floor, I was sure the worst had happened. Do you know how horrible it feels to be only one person away from having no family at all?”

She bowed her head, her hand over her mouth, trying to stem the tide of tears that was coming. But she couldn’t. And in that moment, her grief made the heart Brandon swore he didn’t have come very close to breaking.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, and she fell against him, sobbing. Any pain he’d ever felt in his life he’d just shoved aside, pushing it to the depth of his subconscious so he’d never have to face it. But Alison was different. Her pain was so raw and real and so near the surface that all it took was a whisper of a breeze to bare it to the world. Maybe for another person the things that had happened wouldn’t have been so traumatic. But for Alison, who had been cherished as a child, tangled blissfully in the heartstrings of a warm and loving family, it had been excruciating.

She splayed her hand against his chest and then drew up his shirt in her fist, holding on tightly. “I’m sorry,” she said as she cried, but he didn’t care about apologies, didn’t want them, didn’t need them. He just let her curl up in the comfort of his arms as he stroked her hair, remembering now how silky soft it had felt beneath his hand the night she’d kissed him. He murmured nothing words to her until finally her sobs wound down and she lay motionless in his arms. Her hair was mussed, her long, golden lashes wet with tears. She looked like an angel who’d tumbled out of heaven into a world where bad things happened, things she was helpless to face by herself.

He rested his palm against her cheek and brushed away a tear with his thumb. She turned slowly and looked up at him, her head still resting against his shoulder, her soft, full lips parted slightly. Brandon felt the air between them quivering with unrealized possibilities, and every one of them was flashing through his mind right now.

He felt things for Alison he’d never felt with another woman before. As if his emotions were getting tangled up with hers and he couldn’t disengage. His thoughts turned blurry and incoherent, and suddenly all the dangers of being so close to her right now seemed to fade into the background. Without another thought, he slid his arm around her shoulders, pulled her to him, and kissed her.

The moment his lips fell against hers, she slid her hand to his shoulder and leaned into him, wanting it every bit as much as he did. He knew he shouldn’t be doing it, but the longer he kissed her, the longer he wanted to kiss her. Just as he’d think about maybe pulling away, she’d thread her fingers through his hair and pull him closer, or she’d drop her hand to his thigh and grasp it gently, asking him to continue, or he’d hear the faintest whimper in the back of her throat, begging him for more. He mentally cursed the console between them, even though he should have been grateful for it. If they’d been anywhere else but this car, he could only imagine what this might already have led to.

Finally he slid back to his senses enough to pull away, but when he looked and saw her heavy-lidded expression of total satisfaction, he damned near kissed her all over again.

“I should go,” he said.

“No,” she whispered. “Stay with me tonight.”

His heart slammed against his chest. Everything he wanted and everything he couldn’t have were wrapped up in those four little words. And when he looked down and saw the gentle, pleading expression on her face, he realized just how badly he’d screwed up. Why the hell hadn’t he kept his lips to himself?

“I can’t,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Tonight has been crazy. I think you just need to sleep.”

“Fine,” she said. “We’ll sleep.”

“Alison—”

“This isn’t like the other night. I wasn’t thinking straight then. But now…now I know exactly what I’m doing.”

She slid her hand to his neck and stroked it with her thumb, sending hot shivers up and down his spine. Then she leaned in and kissed him, taking his face in her hands and angling her mouth to engulf his, answering his kiss with one of her own, making it clear what she wanted and that she wanted it
now
. It took every bit of willpower he had to take her by the shoulders and ease her away.

“Alison,” he said, breathing hard. “Stop. Please stop.”

She blinked, edging back to reality.

“I can’t do this,” he said. “I know I started it, but I can’t do this.”

She looked at him warily. “I don’t understand.”

“This was a mistake. You’re a client. If we got involved with each other, it would be bad for business.”

She leaned away. “Oh, that is
so
much crap, and you know it.”

“Alison—”

“Am I really that unappealing?”

“No!”

“Did you kiss me because you were feeling sorry for me?”

“Will you
stop
?” He blew out a breath of frustration. “I’m just not looking for any relationship right now.”

“I don’t believe that. Look at what you’re doing. You run a business dedicated to helping other people find true love. How can you not want that for yourself?”

He hated this.
Hated
it. Every question she asked made another lie come out of his mouth.

“Someday I will,” he said. “But you want it now, and I can’t be the one to give it to you.”

“God, Brandon. Why don’t you just tell me the truth? You’re not attracted to me.”

“Not attracted to you? I kissed you, didn’t I?”

“Then what the
hell
is going on here?”

He turned away. “This has nothing to do with you. I’m the one with the problem.”

“Oh, please! Will you spare me the old ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ thing? As if I haven’t heard that a thousand times before?” She turned away. “You had it right the first time. Maybe you should just go.”

She grabbed her purse off the floor by her feet and opened the car door. He grabbed her arm. “I’m sorry, Alison. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“But you didn’t do much to stop it either, did you?”

“I’ll find the right man for you,” he said. “No matter what it takes.”

She looked at him with disbelief. “You’re telling me that
now
? After this? You turn me down, but, hey, no problem, my next date is just around the corner?” She made a scoffing noise. “I was right in the first place. You
are
clueless about women.”

She was right. His timing was just impeccable.

“All I meant was that you deserve a better man than me.”

“And you still think you can find him for me? Sorry, Brandon. I’ll have to see that to believe it.”

With that, she turned and got out of the car, slamming the door behind her. She trotted up the stairs and disappeared into her condo, leaving him sitting in frustrated silence, wondering how he could have been stupid enough to get himself into this mess.

He glanced up at her living room window. The curtains were pushed aside, and Alison was standing there, staring down at him. Even at this distance, he could see the look on her face and knew that the anger and sarcasm she’d left him with were nothing but a mask to hide what she was really feeling.

He’d told her the truth, whether she believed it or not. He didn’t have much time left, but one way or the other, he was going to do it. He was going to find her the man she was so desperate for so she could have the family she’d always wanted. Soon her memory of the kiss they’d just shared would fade away into oblivion, and maybe she wouldn’t hate him forever.

D
ad, you just got out of the hospital. Would you please take it easy?”

Charlie twist-tied the trash bag and started for the back door. “It��s trash day. That means I gotta take out the trash.”

“Why don’t you let me do that?”

“Do I look like an invalid to you?”

No, he didn’t. At least not now. But Alison still couldn’t get that picture out of her mind of her father in a hospital bed and the inevitability that someday it was going to happen again.

She watched out the kitchen window as Charlie headed across the backyard to the alley, Blondie bouncing at his heels. Late afternoon sunlight slanted through the trees, dappling his perfectly manicured lawn. He dumped the trash, then turned around, grabbed a stray ball from the grass, and heaved it across the yard. Blondie took out after it as if her bushy gold tail was on fire.

Alison heard the doorbell. She went to the front door and looked out the peephole.

Bea?

She opened the door. “Bea! What a surprise!”

But thinking about it, was it really?

“Hi, Alison. I just came by with something for your father.” She nodded down at the casserole pan she held. “Is he here?”

“Sure. Come on in.”

By the time they got to the kitchen, Charlie and Blondie were coming through the backdoor. He stopped short when he saw Bea.

“You have food,” he said. “What is it?”

“Lasagna,” she said, then turned to Alison and whispered, “
Vegetable
lasagna.”

Charlie frowned. “I heard that.”

“I figured you wouldn’t be up for cooking,” Bea told him as she shoved the lasagna into the fridge. “So there. You have dinner.” She knelt down and ruffled Blondie’s ears. “And if I’d known you had such a gorgeous puppy, I’d have brought a soup bone instead. What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Blondie,” Charlie said. “As in
dumb
Blondie.”

“Watch it, buster. Before the gray took over, I used to be a blonde.” She scratched Blondie’s ears. “You poor, precious puppy dog. How do you put up with that man?”

“I feed her, brush her, and scoop her poop. What more does she want?” Charlie went to the sink to wash his hands. “So do you want to stay for dinner?”

“Why, Charlie,” Bea said. “How sweet of you to ask.”

“I just want somebody to eat the lasagna first so I’ll know it’s okay.”

Bea turned to Alison. “So what does he think? I’m poisoning him?”

“You stay too, sweetie,” Charlie said to Alison.

Under normal circumstances, she would have. But then the strangest thought crossed her mind:
two’s company; three’s a crowd.

“Nah,” she said. “I have a lot of stuff to do tonight. I think I’ll head on home.”

“You’re leaving me alone with her?” Charlie said. “I told you she’s packing, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, Dad. You did.” She turned to Bea. “If he gets out of line, shoot him.”

She gave her father a quick kiss on the cheek and left the kitchen. When she reached the front door, she heard him say, “So do you like zombie movies?” and Bea said, “What’s not to like?”

Alison stopped for a moment, feeling the strangest push-pull of emotions she didn’t know what to do with. She loved seeing her father happy. But at the same time it magnified her own feelings of despair.

Stop being selfish. Your father deserves happiness, too. Your day’s coming. You just have to stay positive.

But that was becoming harder and harder to do. She didn’t know why Brandon had rejected her after giving her the kiss of the century, but it had chipped away at her hope for the future and made her feel lonely all over again.

The next afternoon, Brandon went to the living room, where Tom was taking a nap on the sofa. He tossed a file onto Tom’s chest. “Tell me what you think of this guy.”

Tom opened one eye. “I think he’s perfect,” he said, then closed his eye again. “She’s going to love him.”

“Come on, Tom. I need your opinion.”

“You’re the matchmaker. So make a match.”

“This is Alison we’re talking about. I think I have the right guy for her.”

Tom’s eyes slowly came open again. With a stretch and a yawn, he sat up and opened the file.

“Okay. Let’s see. Hmm. He owns a uniform-manufacturing business? That’s exciting.”

“Not exciting. Just lucrative. He’s pretty well off.”

“Background check?”

“Clean as a whistle.”

“Nonsmoker…never been married…where’s his photo?”

Tom flipped a page over, revealing the photo, and made a face of disgust. “What’s that he’s wearing?”

“A sweater vest.”

“That’s really dorky.”

“It’s not permanently stuck to him. If Alison doesn’t like it, she can dress him herself.”

“Good point. Otherwise I suppose he’s okay looking.”

Tom flipped back to the questionnaire. “Says here he’s from a big family and wants a big family. Alison should like that.”

She would. Justin Moore had two brothers, and both of them were married with kids. Brandon pictured those Christmas mornings Alison wanted so badly, the ones filled with warmth and family. She’d be right in the middle of things, decorating and cooking and playing with the kids.

So why hadn’t he already set him up with her? Justin had first come to him last week. He’d had plenty of time to do it.

Oh, hell. Who was he kidding? He knew why. In the last week, he hadn’t considered anyone for Alison, with the possible exception of himself.

“What was your feel for the guy when you interviewed him?” Tom asked.

“He was smart. Motivated. Successful. Average looking, but Alison doesn’t care about that. A little dry, but that may have just been a first impression. Sharp businessman, but socially awkward. He has a lot going for him, but he needs help getting things kicked off with a woman.”

“So set them up. What have you got to lose?”

Alison. That’s what I have to lose.

But the truth was that she wasn’t his to lose. She never had been, and she never would be.
Set them up, and do it now.

He took the file to his office, where he sat down at his desk and dialed Justin’s number.

“Just three quick questions,” he said when Justin came on the line. “Have you ever had anything to do with drugs?”

“Of course not.”

“Do you have an ex you’re dying to get back with?”

“Uh…no. Why would I go to a matchmaker if I wanted to get back with an ex?”

“Are you sexually conflicted in any way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever had a desire to be anything but a man with the equipment God gave you?”

“Hell, no!”

“Then I have a match for you,” he said, forcing himself to say the words. “And there’s no doubt about it. You’re going to love her.”

On Tuesday morning, Alison checked for any co-workers who might be loitering near her cubicle. When she saw none, she headed over to Lois’s desk. No matter what had happened between her and Brandon, she’d promised him a yard sign, so she needed to put Lois to work.

“Hey, Lois.”

Lois turned around, and Alison discreetly held up the unmarked bag. Lois whipped back around to stare at her computer, denying, of course, that she’d seen anything at all.

“What’s the job?”

“I need a design for a yard sign.”

“Same branding as the business card?”

“Yep.”

“What do you want on it? “

“Logo. Business name. Phone number. I’ll send you the dimensions. You give me the design, I’ll order the sign.”

“Time frame?”

“ASAP.”

“I’ll have the design for you tomorrow. But it’ll take the sign itself a while to come in.”

“I understand.”

Lois turned her back to Alison and opened her lower desk drawer. Alison dropped the unmarked bag into it and walked away.

Just then she heard her phone ring. She hurried back to her desk and looked at the caller ID.

Brandon.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, hoping deep in her heart that no matter how final he’d made things between them on Saturday night, no matter how much he’d professed that nothing would ever happen between them again, he was calling to tell her how wrong he’d been and that he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him.

With a trembling hand, she hit the talk button. “Hello.”

“Hi,” he said. “It’s Brandon. I just called to tell you I have another match for you.”

Alison felt as if the floor beneath her feet had opened up and the ground had swallowed her.
Please tell me he didn’t say that.

But he had said it. And it was her fault for thinking it was possible he was going to say anything else. He’d made it pretty clear he didn’t want her, and not because of matchmaker ethics. That was just something she’d made up, and he’d used it so he could let her down easy. She’d been an emotional wreck. What else had she expected him to say?

“I think you’re going to like him,” Brandon said, sounding friendly and upbeat and very professional. And she hated it.

She swallowed hard. “So tell me about him.”

“He’s nice looking. Has a good job. A big family. And he wants to get married.”

“That sounds…wonderful.”

“I’ll e-mail you some more information. Then you can get back to me to tell me if you’d like to go out with him.”

“Have you told him about me?”

“Yes. And he’s really excited about meeting you.” There was a long pause. Then Brandon said the one thing she should have been thrilled to hear, but instead it sounded empty and hollow.

“Alison, I really think this man may be the one you’ve been waiting for.”

The next Saturday evening, Alison met Justin Moore at a coffeehouse in the high-rent district of West Plano. It had mismatched chairs and tables, oddball art on the walls, and offbeat employees behind the counter. Strange, then, that every patron in the place had laptops flipped open and iPhones beside them, dressed as if they’d stepped out of a boardroom. They were the kind of people who prided themselves on embracing cutting‑edge weirdness, then went home to half-million-dollar houses with Lexuses in every garage.

Justin spotted her first and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around, she couldn’t say it was exactly love at first sight. He was slightly geeky, with glasses perched on his nose and his hair falling down over his forehead, but if she squinted a little, he looked kinda cute. And because he wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, he probably didn’t spend his entire day looking in the mirror and marveling at how irresistible he was. And it also probably meant that he wasn’t expecting a woman who looked like a supermodel. In other words, he was a man who had substance over style. She repeated that to herself a few times and decided she liked the sound of it.

“Cute place,” she said after they got their coffee and sat down at a cozy table for two.

“I come here sometimes on the way to work,” he said. “I thought it would be a nice place to get to know each other.”

As they sipped their coffee and talked, she started a mental list of pros and cons. There was the matter of the way he dressed that went along with the geek thing—polyester slacks, a plain white dress shirt, and wingtip shoes with everything tied down and buttoned up tightly.
Con.

He had a nice haircut and smelled good.
Pro.

She told the candy pusher joke. He didn’t seem to get it.
Con.

He was intelligent.
Pro.

Which he demonstrated by telling her about the intricacies of the machinery his employees used to create a janitor’s uniform.
Con.

Unfortunately, the pro-con thing didn’t seem get her anywhere. By the time their date was nearly over, the pros and the cons had pretty much balanced each other out.

Then he started talking about his family, and things took a turn for the better. He had two brothers who lived within a few hours of Dallas, and they were both married with kids.

“I’ve spent the past fifteen years building my business,” Justin told her. “I guess I’ve pretty much ignored anything else. But I’m getting older, and it’s time for me to take that next step. I want what my brothers have.”

I want it, too
, she thought. She actually felt a tiny surge of excitement as she imagined the possibilities that might lie ahead. He seemed a little shy, but first dates were hard under any circumstances. She decided he just might be exactly what she’d asked for. A nice, reasonably attractive man who was financially responsible and wanted a family, who had the ability to eventually utter the words “I do.”

Later, he walked her to the parking lot. They reached her car and stood there with classic end-of-first-date awkwardness.

“You like antiques, right?” Justin said.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Brandon told me.”

Brandon. Of course he would know that since she loved his house so much. And he’d seen her furniture. And she’d gushed over the period clothes in his grandmother’s wardrobe. And—

Forget Brandon. It’s Justin you’re interested in.

“I can get tickets to the Dallas Antique Show at Market Hall,” Justin said. “Would you like to go to the opening night preview party?”

Alison just about had an orgasm on the spot. That was a big ol’ charity event where posh antique galleries displayed zillion-dollar pieces and charged through the nose for rich folks to come look at them.

“Those tickets have to be really expensive,” she said.

“They are. Five hundred apiece.”

Well, don’t
tell
me
, she thought, even though she was impressed that he had the money and didn’t mind spending it when it was something he knew she’d be interested in. It beat the hell out of the date she’d once had with a guy who took her to dinner at Golden Corral because he had a coupon for two dollars off the all‑you‑can‑eat buffet, and it was crab legs night.

“Yeah, I’d love to go.”

“Good. I’ll get the tickets.”

They said good night, and Alison got into her car to go home. She played the date over in her mind, and one word kept coming to mind.
Nice.
It distressed her a little that she couldn’t come up with a better adjective than that. Then again, when some of her first dates could have been described in terms far
worse
than that, she decided to count her lucky stars.