Read The Invitation (Matchmaker Trilogy) Online
Authors: Barbara Delinsky
The Invitation (Matchmaker Trilogy)
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way.
Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at:
us.macmillanusa.com/piracy
.
Victoria Lesser strikes again—albeit in a different way this time.
If you’ve read the first two installments of the Matchmaker Trilogy,
The Real Thing
and
Crossed Hearts
, you’ll understand the growing friendship between Deirdre and Neil Hersey and Leah and Garrick Rodenhiser. You’ll also understand why the four jump at the idea of payback, as in matchmaking the matchmaker. Hence,
The Invitation
.
Like its predecessors,
The Invitation
came out in the late 1980s. I just reread it for the first time since then, and I was amazed. Victoria has been a vivacious character from the start, but Samson? Whoa, where did I find him? A Latin professor who both cooks and speaks French, German, and Russian, and, P.S., has an ancient map that he is convinced will lead to buried treasure? If ever there was a man to challenge Victoria’s adventuresome nature, he’s it.
And Shaye and Noah? Ah-ha. You didn’t think Victoria would turn down another opportunity to match-make, did you? Actually, she didn’t do it on purpose, but once
The Invitation
opens and she realizes where the turn of events might lead, she adds fuel to the flames. Not that Shaye and Noah need much help. They butt heads with some of the snappiest dialogue I’ve ever written. Not having read
The Invitation
in all these years, it took me by surprise—i.e., out-and-out laughter—not to mention Caribbean-hot sex.
The Invitation
involves a treasure hunt to Costa Rica aboard a modern-day pirate ship. Well, it isn’t quite so modern, but, shhhhh, don’t give Victoria or Shaye a heads-up on that or they might turn around and fly back home before ever boarding the
Golden Echo
. By the way, the original title of
The Invitation
was
A Single Rose
. You may have already read it, but it’s worth reading again.
Enjoy!
Barbara
Contents
To Jessica Z.,
Whose imagination is an inspiration
1
V
ICTORIA
L
ESSER TOOK A BREAK
from the conversation to sit back and silently enjoy the two couples with her. They were a striking foursome. Neil Hersey, with his dark hair and close-cropped beard, was a perfect foil for his fair and petite wife, Deirdre, but the perfection of the match didn’t stop at their looks. Deirdre’s quick spirit complimented Neil’s more studied approach to life. In the nineteen months of their marriage, they’d both grown personally and professionally.
As had the Rodenhisers. Though married a mere six months, they’d been together for nearly fifteen. Leah, with her glossy raven pageboy and bangs and the large round glasses perched on her nose, had found the ideal mate in Garrick, who gave her the confidence to live out her dreams. Garrick, sandy-haired, tall, and bearded like Neil, had finally tasted the richness of life that he’d previously assumed existed only in a scriptwriter’s happy ending.
Glancing from one face to the next as the conversation flowed around her, Victoria congratulated herself on bringing the four together. It had been less of a brainstorm, of course, than her original matchmaking endeavors, but it was making for a lively and lovely evening.
Feeling momentarily superfluous, she let her gaze meander among the elegantly dressed patrons of the restaurant. She spotted several familiar faces on the far side of the room, and when her attention returned to her own party, she met Deirdre’s eye. “Recognize them, Dee?”
Deirdre nodded and spoke in a hushed voice to her husband. “The Fitzpatricks and the Grants. They were at the lawn party Mother gave last fall.”
Neil’s wry grin was a flash of white cutting through his beard. His voice was low and smooth. “I’m not sure I remember the Fitzpatricks or the Grants, but I do remember that party. We were leaving Benji with a baby-sitter, and almost didn’t get away. He was three months old and in one hell of a mood.” He sent a lopsided grin across the table. “He takes after his mother in that respect.”
Deirdre rolled her eyes. “Don’t believe a word he says.”
“Just tell me it gets better,” Leah Rodenhiser begged. “You heard what Amanda gave us tonight.”
Victoria, who had never had a child of her own and adored even the baby’s wail, answered with the gentle voice of authority. “Of course it gets better. Amanda was just frightened. My apartment is strange and new to her. So is the babysitter. I left this number, but we haven’t gotten a frantic call yet, have we?”
“I think you’re about to get a frantic call from across the room,” came a gravelly warning from Garrick. “They’ve spotted you, Victoria.”
“Oh dear.”
“Go on over,” Deirdre urged softly. “If you don’t, they’ll come here. Spare us that joy. We’ll talk babies until you get back.”
Victoria, who knew all too well Deirdre’s aversion to many of her mother’s friends, shot her a chiding glance. But the glance quickly mellowed, and touched each of her guests in turn. “You don’t mind?”
Leah grinned and answered for them all. “Go. We’re traveling sub rosa.”
“Sub rosa?”
“Incognito.” Beneath the table she felt Garrick squeeze her hand. Once a well-known television star, he cherished his privacy. Basically shy herself, Leah protected it well.
“Are you sure you can manage without me?” Victoria quipped, standing when Neil drew out her chair. “Talk babies. I dare you.” Her mischievous tone faded away as she headed off to greet her friends.
Four pairs of eyes watched her go, each pair as affectionate as the next. Victoria held a special place in their hearts, and they weren’t about to talk babies when there were more immediate things to be said.
“She is a wonder,” Leah sighed. “Little did I know what a gem I’d encountered when I ran into her that day in the library.”
Neil was more facetious. “We didn’t think she was such a gem when she stranded us on her island up in Maine. I don’t think I’ve ever been as furious with anyone before.”
“You were pretty furious with
me
before that day was out,” Deirdre reminded him.
His grin grew devilish. “You asked for it. Lord, I wasn’t prepared for you.” He shifted his gaze to Leah and Garrick. “She was unbelievably bitchy. Had her leg in a cast and a mouth—”
Deirdre hissed him into silence, but couldn’t resist reminiscing on her own. “It was just as well there weren’t any neighbors. We’d have driven them crazy. We yelled at each other for days.”
“While Leah and I were silent,” Garrick said. “We were isolated in my cabin together, barely talking. I’m not sure which way is worse.”
“Amazing how both worked out,” Leah mused.
Deirdre nodded. “I’ll second that.”
“We owe Victoria one,” Neil said.
“Two,” Garrick amended.
Deirdre twirled the swizzle stick in her spritzer. “It’s a tall order. The woman has just about everything she wants and needs.”
Leah frowned. “There has to be something we can do in return for all she’s given us.”
“She needs a man.”
Deirdre was quick to refute her husband’s contention. “Come on, Neil. She has all the men she wants. And you know she’ll never remarry. Arthur was the one and only love of her life.”
Garrick exchanged a glance with Neil. “That doesn’t mean we can’t treat her to some fun.”
Leah studied her husband. “I’m not sure I care for that mischievous gleam in your eye. Victoria is my friend. I won’t have you—”
“She’s my friend, too,” he interrupted innocently. “Would I do anything to harm her?”
Neil was on Garrick’s wavelength all the way. “The idea is to do something for her that she wouldn’t dream up by herself.”
“But she does just about everything she wants to,” Deirdre pointed out. “She lives in luxury, dabbles in ballet, ceramics, the cello. She travels. She has the house in Southampton.…” Her eyes brightened. “We could rent a yacht, hire a crew and put them at her disposal for a week. She’d be able to go off alone or invite friends along.”
Garrick absently chafed his mustache with a finger. “Too conventional.”
“How about a stint with Outward Bound?” Leah suggested. “There are groups formed specifically for women over forty.”
Neil shot Garrick a look. “Not quite what I had in mind.”
Deirdre had caught and correctly interpreted the look. “You have a one-track mind. Believe me, we’d be hard put to find a man with enough spunk for Victoria. Can you think of anyone suitable at Joyce?” Joyce Enterprises was Deirdre’s family’s corporation. Upon their marriage, Neil had taken it over and brought it from stagnation to productivity to expansion. Of the many new people he’d hired—or clients and associates of the company—Deirdre couldn’t think of a single male who would be challenge enough for Victoria.
Neil’s silence was ample show of agreement.
“It would be fun,” Leah declared, “to turn the tables on Victoria.”
“Someone good-looking,” Deirdre said, warming to the idea.
Leah nodded. “And bright. We want a match here.”
Neil rubbed his bearded jaw. “He’ll have to be financially comfortable if he can afford to go in for adventure.”
“Adventure,” Garrick murmured. “That’s the key.”
Deirdre’s brows lifted toward Neil. “Flash?” Flash Jensen was a neighbor of theirs in the central Connecticut suburb where they lived. A venture capitalist and a divorcé, he was always on the lookout for novel ways to spend his time.
Neil shook his head. “Flash is a little
too
much.”
Leah chuckled. “We could always fix her up with one of Garrick’s trapper friends. She’d die.”
Garrick nodded, but he was considering another possibility. “There’s a fellow I’ve met. One of my professors.” Earlier he’d explained to the Herseys that he was working toward a Latin degree at Dartmouth. “Samson may well … fit the bill.”
“Samson?” Leah echoed in mild puzzlement. She knew who he was, but nothing of what Garrick had told her in the past put the man forward as a viable candidate.
“He’s a widower, and he’s the right age.”
Deirdre sat straighter. “Samson. From the name alone, I love him.”
“That’s because you’ve always had this thing about full heads of hair,” Neil muttered in her ear. He’d never quite forgotten their earliest days together, when, among other things, she’d made fun of his widow’s peak.
Deirdre hadn’t forgotten either. As self-confident as Neil was, he had his sensitivities, and his hairline was one of them. “Forget hair,” she whispered back. “Think strength. You have it even without the hair.”
“You’re putting your foot in deeper,” he grumbled.
“I think you’re right.” Hastily she turned to Garrick, who’d been having a quiet discussion with Leah during the Herseys’ private sparring. “Tell us about Samson.”
Garrick was more than willing. “His name is Samson VanBaar. Leah thinks he’s too conservative, but that’s because she doesn’t know him the way I do.”
“He smokes a pipe,” Leah informed them dryly.
“But that’s all part of the image, love. Tweed jacket, pipe, tattered briefcase—he does it for effect. Tongue-in-cheek. A private joke.”
“Weird private joke,” was Leah’s retort, but her tone had softened. “Do you really think he’d be right for Victoria?”
“If we’re talking adventure, yes. He’s good-looking and bright. He’s independently wealthy. And he loves doing the unconventional.” When Leah remained skeptical, he elaborated. “He’s a private person, shy in some ways. He takes his little trips for his own pleasure, and they have nothing to do with the university. I had to coax him to talk, but once he got going, his stories were fascinating.”
