The Matchmakers Read Online Free PDF Page B

lead blanket. He had a stalker. Or maybe a real faerie. Come on. She had to be a magician of
some sort. There must be a reasonable explanation for everything he’d seen last
night. `Matchmaker. Right.´ He laughed as he rolled out of bed and drew up the
window shade on a cool, breezy Friday morning. All that crap about true love.
There was no such thing. Love came and went. He’d been in love once or twice.
At seventeen he’d been desperately in love with a girl in his twelfth grade
homeroom. Sandy something. She’d had the bluest eyes he’d ever seen, and
kissing her made him feel like Superman. At the prom, he’d suggested they sneak
out to the parking lot and spend a little time in the back seat of his dad’s
car. He’d brought a blanket and a fresh box of rubbers just in case. She’d
slapped him and called him a worthless, horny dick. Not surprisingly, that
desperate feeling of love had faded before final exams were over. The next
girl, to whom he’d made a similar suggestion, thought it was a great idea, and
he’d never given Sandy what’s-her-name a second thought. At twenty-five, he’d
met Clair Bainbridge in Tallahassee, Florida and spent four months high on
endorphins. The aspiring dolphin trainer had the body of a sea goddess and she
could swim like a mermaid. Hell, maybe she was a mermaid for all he knew. She sang like a siren and made love like it mattered.
She was the girl of his dreams, and he’d walked away forever after she asked
him to move in with her. That desperate feeling went away again in the months
that followed, and Nick never questioned why. Love faded. That was a fact. The
newness wore off after a while. None of it was real or `true´. He’d made damn
sure all the women who had come after Claire knew that. Tinkerbell was crazy.
Nick had nothing to lose. Life without having to worry about falling in love
didn’t seem like a punishment at all. When the doorbell rang, he shot a nervous
glance at the bedside clock. He hadn’t planned on sleeping until ten-thirty,
but since he had nowhere in particular to go this morning«what if she’d come
back early? Damn. He’d planned to be long gone by noon. Now he’d have to make
up some new excuse to get rid of her. He grabbed a t-shirt from the bureau and
slid into yesterday’s jeans. Raking his fingers through his hair, he headed for
the living room but stopped to snag a piece of cinnamon gum from the nightstand
before he left.
      At least this time she’d rung the
bell. He opened the door a cautious crack, and Miranda threw herself into his
arms. `Nicky!´ He backed up, clamping one arm around her waist to steady her,
then swung her around and deposited her on her feet in the middle of the living
room. He kicked the door shut as he let go of her. `Hey«there, Miranda. How are
you?Śhe thrust one curvaceous hip forward and gave him the look he knew so
well. That dark, mysterious, brown-eyed come-on that said, `What, me married?Ít
had been his undoing three weeks ago when she’d hired him to build her new pool
house. Now it just made him miss the open road. `Skip and I are separated.´ The
announcement came with a triumphant smile, which faded a bit when Nick didn’t
immediately respond in kind. `Aren’t you happy? He moved out last night. He’s
on his way back to Boston right now. He’s got some little bimbo there, I just
know it. But I don’t care. What’s wrong, Nick? You look like you have something
caught in your throat.´ `I just I’m surprised he left. From the way things
sounded last night, I figured you’d be
the one moving out.Śhe shrugged, did a pirouette and plopped on the couch.
`I just reminded him that our pre-nup requires proof of infidelity, and he’s
got nothing on me. I’ve got copies of his cell phone bills and his credit card receipts
from all his business trips this year. He wasn’t on the phone with the Boston
office fifteen times a day, and the firm isn’t sending him to Pompano to get
three-hour