Mister Match (The Match Series Book 1)

by Morris, Catherine Avril

  Lisa scowled at the street and crossed her arms over her chest, and he did his very best not to reach out and wrap his arms around her.

  She was just so beautiful. And he loved her. And he didn’t think there was any good reason they shouldn’t be together, if she felt about him even a tenth of the way he felt about her.

  “Why didn’t you ever pick up the phone and call me?” she asked. “If you were really dying without me, you could’ve called.”

  “I didn’t call you,” he said simply, “because I was scared. I felt like I’d screwed everything up. I was waiting for you to get in touch with me. But not calling you was a big mistake—another one in a long line of mistakes I’ve made.” He took a step toward her, and risked putting his hands on her upper arms. “I should have called,” he said, “so I could tell you I’m in love with you, and that I can’t live without you.”

  Chapter 35

  ____________________________________

  Lisa’s shoulders relaxed a degree, and her expression softened. But her eyes were still troubled, and she wasn’t saying anything.

  “What is it, sweet?” Adam murmured, rubbing her arms to create some warmth. The sun had gone down, leaving the streets of downtown breezy and cool.

  “I need to go kill Willow,” Lisa said after a moment. She frowned. “Or at least talk to her. We have some stuff we need to straighten out.” She turned and began walking down the sidewalk, hugging her bag to her chest.

  Adam loped behind her to catch up. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Whatever,” she said, without breaking stride.

  That didn’t exactly warm his heart, but he wasn’t going to let her push him away anymore.

  When they reached her car, Adam got in on the passenger side and swung the door shut with its loud, metal-on-metal squawk.

  Lisa shot him a look. “Be gentle with Betty.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sorry.” He patted the cracked dashboard. “I’ll be gentle.”

  She cranked the engine over, and the car sputtered to life.

  The car protested only mildly as Lisa yanked her around corners on their way to Willow’s neighborhood. Adam could sense Lisa didn’t want to talk, so he didn’t say a word, just held onto the little plastic handle affixed to the ceiling and watched the road.

  After a few minutes, Lisa steered them into a small neighborhood just east of Mopac, and then onto a little tree-lined street that was dotted with cars and trucks. She pulled up in front of a little house with a brand-new, silver Volkswagon bug parked in the drive.

  Lisa steered Betty to a stop right across the foot of the driveway, and shut off the engine.

  “Here we are,” she muttered, eyeing the house.

  She had only gotten a few steps up the front walk, with Adam a few paces behind her, when Willow opened the screen door and moved out onto the small concrete stoop.

  “Clare called a little while ago.” Her gray eyes were like placid lakes. “She said you’d be over. She said you’d probably be on the warpath. I guess she was right.”

  “How perceptive of her.”

  “Well, we’re your best friends,” Willow said mildly. “We know you pretty well by now. I guess that’s why we felt like it was okay to take your love life in our hands, seeing as how you weren’t doing anything good with it.”

  “Not doing anything good—” Lisa started.

  Adam could see the tension in the set of her shoulders, and in the way she held her hands clenched at her sides.

  “My love life is my own business,” she finished after a beat. “Not yours.”

  “It’s my business when you make it mine,” Willow countered.

  “What are you talking about?” Lisa demanded.

  “I’m talking about all the times we went out to the Dive Bar,” Willow said gently, “and dissected Rodney and your breakup over drinks, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. I’m talking about after the IRS came and repo’ed your things, when I loaned you some money.”

  “Oh,” Lisa spat. “I’m almost finished paying you back, but I’ll be sure to get the rest of the money to you first thing—”

  Willow shook her head. “Sweetie, you’re missing my point. I don’t care about the money. I care about you. I care about your happiness. That’s all. That’s why I tried to help you. And that’s why, when I saw you with Adam, and I saw the way you two were together—the chemistry between you, the connection that was so obvious, right from the start—” She shook her head. “I did what any good friend would do, in my position. I did my best to make sure you didn’t let him slip away.”

  Lisa was almost enjoying the feeling of the mad percolating under her skin. She approached the front stoop and came to a stop, her fist on her hip. “The thing is,” she said to Willow, “I didn’t give you permission to do that. Any of it. I’m not a child, and I don’t need you and Clare to treat me like one.”

  “Oh, Lisa.” Willow’s gaze turned pleading. “We didn’t mean to treat you like a child. We were just doing what we thought was right. We wanted to help you.”

  “Well, you didn’t,” Lisa insisted. “You manipulated me. How could you do that to me? You knew how much I didn’t want to sign up on Mister-Match or go on those dates, but you pushed me to go. Why would you do that?”

  Willow was pale, even paler than usual. “I thought I was helping.” Her voice had gone high and tight. She sounded like a little girl about to break down crying.

  Whatever Lisa had intended to say next, she didn’t say it. Suddenly, unexpectedly, her own eyes were blurred with tears, and her throat felt as if she couldn’t get another sound out if she tried.

  Willow looked stricken. “Lisa. You’re my best friend. I never meant to hurt you, sweetie. You have to believe me.”

  In that moment, all the fight went out of her. Of course Lisa believed her. What her friends had done had been misguided, at best. But she knew it hadn’t been malicious.

  She just wished they’d never appointed themselves her Fairy God-Cupids in the first place. She wished the whole, stupid past month had never happened.

  Well. Maybe she would keep some of it. Like Adam. The way he touched her and looked at her, the conversations they had, and the way she felt when she was with him.

  Just then, she felt his arm, warm and strong, go around her shoulders. “Maybe,” he said, his voice calm and soothing, “we can all step inside, sit down and talk about this together. I know we can work it out.”

  Silently, still looking pale, Willow stood back and held the screen door open for them to pass through. “I made hibiscus iced tea.”

  “Perfect,” Adam said. “Would you pour Lisa a glass? She’s had a hard day today.”

  Well, this was annoying. The whole point was that she didn’t want to be treated like a child, yet here she was, letting him guide her into Willow’s living room and seat her on the couch. And letting herself be gently guided was a relief.

  After a moment, Willow returned with the tea. Her eyes were still watery and red-rimmed. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I’m so sorry. I really was trying to help.”

  “It’s okay,” Adam said. “We’re going to work this out.”

  “You don’t get to tell her it’s okay,” Lisa informed him. “This is our fight, not yours. And I’m still mad.” She took a sip of her iced tea and winced at its tartness.

  “This may be your fight with Willow,” Adam said, “but you’ve also got some things to work out with me. I think we all have things to say to each other. So how about I go first?”

  Lisa blinked, and Willow looked at him as if realizing for the first time that he was there in more than just mediator capacity.

  “Fine,” Lisa said. “Say whatever you need to say.”

  He took a deep breath and spread his hands. “I’m here because I love you, Lisa. I don’t care what happens with Mister-Match, the company, my reputation, any of it. I just want to make things right with you, and to be with you.” He took her hand and pressed it be
tween his. Dazedly, she noticed her fingers were shaking.

  “I love you, Lisa,” he said again. “And it’s not the vetiver in your scented oil, either. It’s you. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman. You feel like home to me, and I want to be with you. Forever, if that’s possible.”

  “Oh,” Willow breathed softly, clasping her hands over her chest.

  Lisa felt as if she couldn’t breathe properly—as if there weren’t quite enough oxygen in the room. Maybe this was what altitude sickness felt like: a lightheaded pinginess that made you wonder if you were fully conscious or dreaming.

  Adam stayed focused on her. “And the truth is, I couldn’t have done this—any of this—without Willow’s help. Or Clare’s. I can see why you’re mad right now, but they love you, and they really were trying to help out their best friend.”

  “I just wanted you to be happy,” Willow said into the silence.

  Lisa just sat still for a moment, digesting it all. She couldn’t quite tell how she felt, anymore. She frowned and looked at where her hand joined with Adam’s. “So,” she said to Willow, “you deliberately steered me toward men you knew it would never work out with, because you thought I should be with Adam?”

  Willow’s shrug looked closer to cringing. “I guess I did, yes.”

  Lisa nodded, and finally forced herself to look her friend in the eye.

  “I wish you hadn’t done that,” she said, simply.

  Willow sighed. “So do I. Now. But I hope you understand that I thought I was doing it for your own good. Adam is perfect for you. He’s your match. So I did what I could to help you guys come together.”

  Suddenly, Lisa found herself fighting back a cackle. She had the wild thought that maybe her friends treated her like a child because she really was one. She certainly was juvenile.

  “What’s funny?” Willow asked, confused.

  She snorted. “You wanted to help us come together. No pun intended, I’m sure.”

  “Oh, boy.” Adam looked away as if suddenly interested in the baseboards.

  “Pun?” Willow looked confused, then horrified, and then she let out a peal of laughter. “Lisa! That’s not what I meant!” She pressed her hands to her cheeks, which had suddenly gone pink.

  “Look, I actually do appreciate your trying to help me out, okay?” Lisa sighed. “I guess I won’t kill you after all.”

  “Well, thank you for that,” Willow said bemusedly.

  “But you’re right. After everything with Rodney, I made all my messy relationship crap your business, and Clare’s, and I shouldn’t have.”

  Willow frowned. “Of course you should have. We’re your best friends. We were happy to talk about everything with you—”

  “But I really needed to figure it out for myself. And I finally did, and I want to do it this time, too. For once, I want to figure this out on my own.”

  “But—”

  “And if astrology works like you say it does,” she went on, “then Adam and I are perfect for each other, right? Like, we’re destined to be together. Which means it doesn’t matter what I do right now, or what you do, or what any of us does. Because things will happen when the time is right.”

  If only she could truly believe that, down in her gut.

  But Adam was frowning. “What do you mean, when the time is right? What’s wrong with them happening right now?”

  Both Lisa and Willow glanced at him.

  Just then, Clare bounced up onto the front porch.

  “Yoo-hoo,” she said unnecessarily, peeking through the screen door and then letting herself in. “I just got off work, and I ran straight over to make sure you two weren’t yanking each other’s hair out— Oh.” She stared at Adam as she let the screen door bang shut behind her. “You’re here.”

  “That’s right,” he said, shortly.

  “Have a seat,” Willow said, moving toward the kitchen. “I’ll get you some iced tea. We’re having a summit meeting.”

  “What kind of summit meeting?” Clare kicked off her cork-heeled platform sandals and plunked down next to Lisa, tucking her feet beneath her.

  “I guess,” Adam said, staring at Lisa, “the kind of summit meeting where Lisa keeps me hanging while she decides the course of the rest of my life. Not to mention her own.”

  Clare stared back and forth between them. “Could you please fill me in on some specifics? I feel like I missed something big.”

  Willow returned with tea for Clare and a little ceramic bowl. “I think these might help.” She mixed the contents of the bowl around and then held it out. “Here, everyone choose three.”

  Lisa and Adam kept staring at each other. Clare eyed the bowl. “What are those?”

  “Angel cards. You can draw three and they’ll tell you what you should focus on for this period in your life.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “I don’t need angel cards to tell me what to do about Adam.”

  “No?” he said, and reached in. “I think you do.” He pulled one out, read it, then grinned. “Ha.” He held it up for them to see. “Love.”

  Lisa scowled. “Oh, come on. Don’t you think that’s just a little obvious?”

  He shrugged, looking a bit more smug than he had moments earlier, and reached in for a second one.

  “Forgiveness,” he read, holding it up.

  “Wow,” Willow breathed. “This is amazing.”

  “What, did you fix the angel cards too?” Lisa muttered, but Willow shook her head.

  “He’s drawing those totally on his own,” she said, sounding amazed. “Out of, like, hundreds. Or fifty, anyway.” She shook the bowl. “Draw a third, Adam.”

  He reached in, his blue eyes trained on Lisa, and didn’t even bother to read it himself, just held it out for the rest of them to see.

  Clare started laughing.

  Willow shook her head and clapped her hands to her cheeks. “Amazing.”

  Unspeakably annoyed, Lisa looked at it.

  “Commitment,” the card read.

  “So what?” she said, standing up. “So he picked three cards that seem to apply to us. Big deal. Those are very generic words, if you think about it. And this doesn’t erase the past week.”

  “No,” Adam said. He put the cards down on the coffee table and faced Lisa. “It doesn’t.”

  Clare looked up at them, then tucked her legs under her and reached out. “Mind if I draw some?” When Willow nodded and held out the bowl, she drew a card.

  “What does it say?”

  “Play.” Clare shook her head, looking irritated. “I already play plenty. That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking I should quit doing.”

  “Quit playing?” Lisa repeated. She felt as if she were breaking out of a trance. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Playing’s kind of your thing. Maybe you should just do it more in moderation, or something.”

  “Players can’t do things in moderation,” Clare said. “That’s why they’re players. It’s like alcoholism. You’ve got to quit entirely, or just keep on being a drunk. There’s no in between.”

  “But maybe,” Lisa pointed out, “like a drunk, you can’t just quit cold turkey, or you’ll go into withdrawal.”

  Clare rolled her eyes. “I want to draw another card.”

  She drew Transformation.

  “Wow, that’s a great one,” Willow said.

  Clare stared at it. “Pretty appropriate for me right now.”

  “Really?” Willow asked. “Do tell.”

  “I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking.” She shrugged, the movement studiedly casual, but Lisa thought her bare shoulders looked bony and vulnerable. And young. “I think I might go it alone for a little while. See how that goes. I haven’t really done that, you know.” She rolled her eyes. “Like, ever. At least, not since I was six or seven years old.”

  “You’ve had boyfriends since you were six years old?” Willow sounded dumbfounded. Then she shook her head. “Never mind. Good for you. It’s good to spend some
time alone. Character-building.”

  “Or,” Clare said, “maybe I’ll try online dating.”

  Lisa stared at her friend, and barely held herself back from throwing a pillow at her. “You said online dating was for losers!”

  “I never said that!” Clare shrugged. “And anyway, I am kind of a loser. All I’m good at finding in a man is a great cock and a tendency to run at the first sign of a real connection.” She looked up at Lisa with those tawny eyes that seemed both painfully youthful and far older than their years. “I want what you and Adam have. So would you guys quit torturing us and yourselves already, and kiss and make up?”

  “Finally, someone who’s talking some sense,” Adam said, sounding annoyed and relieved at the same time.

  One step forward, and he was in front of Lisa. In the next instant, she was in his arms, her lips against his, her heart thudding wildly as it beat out the message—I’m yours—I’m yours—I’m yours.

  Chapter 36

  ____________________________________

  “To you guys.” Willow raised her glass. “I’m going to miss you both more than I can say. And this place, too.”

  She looked sad as she glanced around the reception room of Indulgence the next morning, and then took a sip of her vodka tonic. She winced as she swallowed. “Ugh. Drinking vodka at nine in the morning just feels wrong.”

  “Oh, live a little.” Clare topped off her glass with more of the mixture she’d brought in an insulated Thermos.

  “I don’t know,” Lisa said. “I kind of like it.” She held up her own glass to look at it through the morning light streaming in through the windows.

  “You’re wearing it again!” Clare shrieked. “Will, she’s wearing the ring!”

  “Oh, it’s even prettier than I remembered,” Willow breathed. “Wait, you’re wearing it again. What does this mean?”

  Lisa couldn’t help but grin as she looked at the engagement ring Adam had given her. It sparkled and glittered in the morning sunlight.

  “It means,” she said, feeling as if she were brimming over with happiness. “It means we’re going to see where things head between us.”