Dear Future Husband (The Matchmaker Series)

by Angel Devlin

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  THE MATCHMAKER SERIES

  Book Hangover Lounge

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Angel Devlin

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception of the use of small quotations in book reviews.

  Copyright © 2018 By Angel Devlin.

  Book cover design by Dandelion Designs

  Formatting by Tammy Clarke at The Graphics Shed.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Angel Devlin holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  Ella

  We’d only just seemed to have had Christmas and New Year’s, but now Valentine’s Day was approaching. The shops were bursting with cuddly bears holding hearts saying, ‘I love you’, and women were coming into our boutique getting measured for the perfect dress for their weekend away or date night. It was all so romantic, and I was oh so single.

  Jodi came through the door carrying my hopes and dreams. Okay it was my daily latte from HappBEANness, the coffee shop next door, but it was heaven in a cup and woke me up enough so I could make and sell beautiful clothes all day long, so I wasn’t far off.

  Jodi and I ran a boutique called Sew in Style. Front of house were the garments themselves, some on mannequins and others on rails. The back of our counter went through to our workshop so we could be working when we weren’t serving customers. We had an Art Deco vibe going through the boutique and specialized in evening wear. They were clothes for occasions, so lots of mother-of-the-bride outfits, prom dresses, that kind of thing. We did the occasional wedding dress but not standard ones; only if the bride wanted maybe a 1950’s style swing dress or something a little different to the norm.

  “So how are Casey and Audrina today?” I asked after my friends who worked next door.

  “Oh God, they are so happy and loved up. It’s enough to make you throw up in your drink.”

  “Really? I know Casey is with Jared now, but who’s Audrina dating?”

  “A guy called Tom. He works with Jared apparently. Seriously, they kept giggling to each other as they were talking. It’s too much. They need to employ someone single and miserable to make customers like me feel better.”

  “And me.” I sighed, picking up my latest romance book. “No boyfriend has ever brought me flowers like I read about. I want a true old-fashioned romantic relationship. Not swipe-right on Tinder.”

  A customer who had been looking through the rails turned around.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but I couldn’t help overhear. I saw a lady on morning television a couple of days ago who runs a dating agency and she does things the old-fashioned way. You send letters to the person she matches you up with.”

  Jodi pulled a face. “Handwritten letters? Who has time for that?”

  But I was already picturing spritzing the one I was sending with my perfume.

  “Oh that sounds amazing. What was the lady’s name? I must look into it.”

  The woman looked up while she thought. “Grace… now what was her surname? Ah, Graham, like the crackers.”

  “Grace Graham. Thank you so much. I shall research that later.”

  I ignored Jodi’s eye roll.

  The woman brought a dress up to the counter. “I’d like to take this please. Your dresses are amazing. I hope you both know how talented you are.”

  I beamed. “Thank you, and because of your recommendation about the dating lady, I’d like to give you a 10% discount today.”

  The woman held her hand up. “That won’t be necessary. Oh and while I’m here do you do international delivery? Only, I’m off to Dublin in March.”

  “Wow. Dublin in Ireland?” I said.

  She nodded. “Yes. Quite a change seeing as I’ve lived in New York all my life, but an opportunity came up that I couldn’t refuse.”

  “Oooh, what is it?” I asked.

  “Ella, that could be private.” Jodi warned.

  “Sorry,” I bit my lip. “I just love stories about adventure and dreams coming true, that kind of thing.”

  The customer smiled. “I’m going over to be a personal assistant to a member of a rock band.”

  “Oh my god. Seriously? Which one?”

  “I can’t say at the moment. Part of my contract, but it’s very exciting. I’m Harlow, by the way.” She looked at Jodi and me. “So about international delivery?”

  “Just for you we’d consider it.” Jodi said. “I’m sure it would be astronomical postage though. There are probably boutiques in Dublin who’d love your custom.”

  Harlow shrugged. “Maybe. I know nothing about the place, other than they drink Guinness! Anyway, nice to meet you both. Good luck on the dating front.” She added before she left the shop.

  “She seemed nice. What a job, working for a rock band. Ella… Ella, are you listening to me at all?”

  I looked up from my phone. “Oh sorry, I was looking up that woman, Grace Graham.”

  Jodi sighed. “I give up. I’ll go do the outfit of the day and then I’m going to start on the orders. You’d better stay at the front today, your head’s not in a concentrating mood.”

  She was right. My mind had already pictured the slew of romantic posts passing between myself and my mystery man. He of course would turn out to be my perfect man and future husband. We may only meet in person on our wedding day…

  “Your coffee’s getting cold.” Jodi nodded at it. She shook her head and walked into the back.

  Jodi had thousands of followers on Instagram as she posted an ‘outfit of the day’. They were often from our own store but sometimes something she’d have found at Goodwill or from a Department Store. With long, sleek dark hair and a tall slim figure honed by yoga, she had the model pose off to a fine art. She kept asking me to do the same thing but so far I’d resisted as I was a little on the plump side, five feet four, was a little shy at times and my bobbed wavy red hair clashed with a lot of colors.

  Sipping at my coffee, I sat on the stool behind the counter and fired up the laptop. I’d opened a stock screen and at the same time a browser page for investigating Grace Graham. It was time to find out what this dating agency was all about and how I could contact them. This could be my New Year’s resolution. To be brave and search for love. I felt a little tickle of excitement in my tummy. Something that had been absent for a long time in anything outside of boutique business or my daily latte! It was a welcome feeling.

  Browser open, I typed in Grace Graham. In the research results came up whattheheartwants.com. I clicked the link to find only a picture of a heart and the words:

  Site under construction.

  Damn it.

  Moving back to the search results, I found an online magazine article all about Grace, so I decided that was a good place to start to find out more about her and her agency.

  Grace Graham has been matchmaking now for ‘more
years than she can remember’. Her agency in St. Louis, Missouri, ‘What The Heart Wants’ is best known for its practice of the matchmade couple sending at least three handwritten letters to each other before they meet or get in touch via electronic means.

  “The letters go through me so they don’t know who they are matched with and therefore can’t cheat the system and get in touch with each other until after that third letter. What they write is up to them, but I always recommend they communicate from the heart about their hopes and dreams and what they are looking for out of life. After they have written their three letters, they let me know whether or not they want to meet and that’s when I arrange their blind date.”

  The system has resulted in a surprising number of success stories and quite a few weddings. What does Grace think it is about her service that makes it so successful?

  “It’s taking the pressure off that initial ‘getting to know each other stage’. No one has to bare their soul face-to-face to find that the other isn’t interested in what they have to say.”

  And what about the fact that the ‘pen-pals’ don’t see each other?

  “I match them with the information they provide to me on their perfect match. If they also get along fantastically in their letters, then I find what that person looks like physically becomes less important.”

  But what about people who want to match with others online in the modern way?

  “I’m moving with the times and I’m currently in the process of setting up a website and a modern system with an app! We can have both running side-by-side.”

  And has Grace found her own true love? At this point she laughs.

  “I’m too busy finding love for everyone else. It’s sad, but true. At the moment it makes my heart happy to match up other people. One day it might happen for me, but I’m in no rush as I love putting couples together. Work consumes me and I don’t think it would be fair right now to ask a man to compete with that.”

  So there you have it. The irony in that in matching up other people, this lovely lady has no time for love herself. If you’re interested in any of her services contact Gracegraham@whattheheartwants.com.

  I wanted to clap my hands together. Her matchmaking service sounded utterly amazing. So romantic. Just imagine writing a letter to someone who could end up being your future husband! Then when you had children you could show them the letters, and they could be saved for their children’s children, ‘Look how your ancestors got together; it was so romantic’. I was so overcome I clutched a hand to my chest. Looking behind me, I could see that Jodi was lost in her designs, enjoying her own feelings of joy. So I quickly opened my email and began composing a message for Grace Graham.

  To: Gracegraham@whattheheartwants.com

  From: Ellacassidy@yahoo.com

  Date: January 11, 2019

  Subject: Joining your dating agency

  Good morning Ms/Miss Graham

  My name is Ella Cassidy and I have been reading about your letter writing matchmaking service. I’m not sure if you cover New York City with you being based in St. Louis, but I am hoping this is the case. I’m single (obvs, although maybe you do get applications from cheating spouses!), and I’m a born romantic. The idea of meeting my future husband through your service and the art of letter writing appeals to my romantic soul!

  Anyhow, I would be very grateful if you could furnish me with further details.

  Many thanks and wishing you a lovely day!

  Kind regards

  Ella.

  I read it back through and pressed send. Then I concentrated on work although I checked my email around 476 times that day to see if Grace responded, but she didn’t. No doubt she was inundated with applications from people like me. But just as Grace liked to match couples together, I liked to match people with their perfect outfit, so my day was spent doing what I loved, with finding love on hold.

  Ella

  Carrying takeout, I entered my apartment and shouted for my roommate. “Finn, you’d better have set the table, I have dinner.”

  Finn Edwards was the cousin of my first roommate. She’d decided to go live with her boyfriend and transferred her tenancy to Finn. Thank God we got along. He was an untidy pig, but so was I, so what could have been a tricky situation was avoided by the fact we both lived like we needed to star in an episode of Hoarders. Finn never tidied up his books, DVDs, shoes, vinyl; I had pieces of material and part-projects everywhere. We kept the place relatively clean, but tidy we were not.

  A door opened and Finn walked in to the hall dressed in pajama pants that slung low on his hips. I kept my eyes on his face, despite the fact the man was built. No way would I ever have made a move on my roommate. I loved where I lived and wouldn’t have done anything to jeopardize that, even if at times, it was hard to not ogle him. Finn Edwards was a sex god with his dark, almost black, wavy short hair and eyes that matched. When he looked at me when he wanted something, he’d play on those puppy dog eyes, but if anything riled him, you’d see their piercing depths.

  “I know I’m hot, but please close your mouth, there’s a draft.”

  Having realized I’d been in a daydream, I rolled my eyes at him and continued through to our kitchen diner where I placed the takeout on the small table.

  “Don’t flatter yourself. Did you just get up, you lazy jerk?”

  He rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, been staring at a laptop all day. Made me tired, so I quit early and went back to bed.” Finn was a self-employed book editor and worked from home.

  “It’s okay for some.”

  “Oh give it a rest, you love your job.” He took plates out of the cabinets and set them down on the table, then pulled out some silverware from a drawer.

  “Wine?”

  “Wine, not?” I replied.

  “Oh God, no, just no. That is so bad.”

  “Why are you grinning then?” I challenged him.

  “Just being polite.” He poured us a glass of wine each.

  We sat down and opened the takeout cartons, selecting what we wanted and loaded our plates.

  “So how was your day?” Finn asked me. We had quite the routine going when we were both home at mealtimes, which we were most days. I’d bring food home with me and Finn would set the table and then we’d catch up on our days. I looked forward to it. It was nice to not be lonely and to have some company before I either went out for the evening, or as I did more often than not, escaped to my room with a book while Finn sat on the sofa playing video games. He’d asked me to join him a few times, but gaming was not my thing.

  “Really good. We sold quite a few things today, and… a customer told me about a dating agency. I decided to get brave and I contacted the woman who owns it.”

  Finn coughed on a noodle. “You did?”

  I nodded while smiling. “I know. I actually did something toward getting a date, instead of just reading about love in my many romance novels.” I sighed. “I’m waiting for an email back to see if I can be included because the woman is from St. Louis.”

  “Ah, you probably are out of area then.” Finn went back to his food.

  I checked my phone.

  “Oh my god! She replied!” I started reading.

  “Read it out loud. I want to know what she said.” Finn yelled.

  “Okay, calm down, Mr. Excitable.”

  I read on.

  “Dear Ella. Thank you so much for your enquiry. I would be happy to set you up with a suitor. In the first instance please fill in the attached application form with all your details and send this back to me as soon as you are able. Along with this, please mail me your first letter. This should be an introductory letter telling your match a little about yourself so they can get to know you. I will read your letter to check it meets the standards of my agency. These rules can be found here and include the fact that no information can be included that would tell the other where you live and no photographs or other items can be exchanged. Then there’s a link and an invoice.”

 
; “Probably be an eighty-year-old bloke when the reveal happens.” Finn said scornfully.

  “As long as he’s rich.” I bit back.

  “Well, it’s your life, but I think you’re crazy. At least if you joined a regular site, you’d know what they looked like. How long you got to write letters for?”

  “We have to exchange three and then we can meet.”

  “What a ball ache.”

  “Finn. I don’t know what you’re getting all annoyed at. It’s me that’s doing it, not you. You could at least be encouraging that I’m finally trying to do something about my love life.” I sat up straight quickly. “Hey, why don’t you do it too?”

  Finn folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah, not happening. I can get plenty of dates without paying some dumb agency.” He finished his wine.

  “Well, good for you because I can’t.”

  There was a minute of silence while we both ate.

  “I’m sorry, Ella. I’m being hesitant about it because I know how full of romance that head of yours is and I don’t want you to get hurt. But you’re right. You do deserve love. Go for it. What’s there to lose? I’ll tell you what. If you like, I’ll read your letter through for you and give you my input from a guy’s point of view. How’s that sound?”

  “Really? Would you? That would be so helpful.”

  “And as a thank you, you can empty the trash, and clean the wine glasses and silverware while I go play on the Xbox.” He pushed back his chair. “Thanks, Cinder-ella.”