by Josie Kerr
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Matchmaker
A DS Fight Club Novel
Josie Kerr
This is a work of fiction and does not in any way advocate irresponsible behavior. This book contains content that is not suitable for readers 17 and under. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.
Any resemblance to actual things, events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, places, brands, products, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademark status and ownership of any location names or products mentioned in this book. The author received no compensation for any mention of said trademark.
Edited by Bethany Pennybacker
Cover image:
Photographer: RLS Model Images Photography
Model: Chris Hubbard
Cover Design: HWCC Author Services
Copyright © 2017 Josie Kerr
Published by Hot Words and Cold Coffee, LLC
All rights reserved.
Digital Edition
For All My Readers
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Buddy & Molly’s Playlist
Letter to my Readers
Also by Josie Kerr
About the Author
Chapter One
“Wait just a minute, Daddy.”
“Sure thing, Lucy.”
Buddy Thomas stood beside his daughter as she mentally prepared herself to go into the crowded entryway of the elementary school. He watched Lucy adjust her crossbody bag to where it sat just so and then straighten her shoulders. She inhaled, nodded her head once, and then took his hand and headed toward the cluster of students and parents gathered around just on the other side of the propped-open steel doors.
The kindergarten rosters were tacked toward the front of the hall, right after those of the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Buddy lifted Lucy up to his hip, and they perused the lists of names. Lucy spied her name before her father did, and let out a little squeal.
“Daddy, Maude’s in my class!” She clapped her hands in delight and grinned at her father.
“That’s great, sweet pea.” His baby girl, an extremely shy and anxious child, had been fretting for weeks about the uncertainty of her new school. Buddy sent up a mental prayer of thanks that her cousin and best friend ended up in the same classroom. “You ready to head down and meet your teacher?” She nodded enthusiastically, and when Buddy set her on her feet, she practically pulled him along behind her.
Lucy came to a screeching halt once she reached the classroom threshold.
“Lucy? You good?”
Lucy looked up at Buddy, her mouth in a tight line. “I think so. Come on, Daddy.”
No sooner had she stepped into the classroom than Buddy heard a high-pitched squeal, and a curly-haired little girl pounced on Lucy, who immediately hugged the pouncer.
“Come meet Miss Mayhew, Lucy!” The curly-haired girl tugged on Lucy’s hand. “Oh, hi, Uncle Buddy. Bye, Uncle Buddy.”
“Hi and bye, Maude.” Buddy chuckled and sauntered behind the two little girls. Maude clasped Lucy’s hand and talked a mile a minute as she led the other girl toward three adults, one of whom Buddy assumed was the teacher, as the two others were his sister, Bailey, and her husband, Colin. Colin had the younger of his two daughters balanced on her belly on his forearm. He eyed several careening children warily before giving Buddy a nod.
“Hey.” Colin Carmichael was a man of few words. Buddy’s sister and their older daughter made up for his taciturnity.
“Buddy, there you are.” Bailey stretched up onto her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Have you met Mrs. Mayhew yet?”
The teacher had Lucy’s hand in hers and was listening raptly to the little girl.
“This is my daddy. His name is Baylor, but no one calls him that,” Lucy said by way of introduction. “Daddy, this is Miz Mayhew.”
Buddy grinned at his sister’s rolling eyes at her niece’s correction. He stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Mayhew.”
“Nice to meet you as well, Mr. . . .”
“Thomas. Buddy Thomas.” Buddy appreciated the fact that this teacher didn’t assume he and his daughter had the same last name. It showed that she was conscientious of nontraditional situations. Buddy would be sharing Lucy’s own nontraditional situation as soon as possible. Forewarned was forearmed, especially when it came to Natalie Rabineaux.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Thomas,” the teacher greeted him warmly. Her voice was rich and soothing, the kind of voice that was made for reading books aloud. Buddy immediately liked the woman. “I have to say, I would assume that Maude and Lucy were sisters, not cousins. You’re obviously the ones who are related.” Ms. Mayhew looked from Buddy to Bailey and back. Buddy snorted. He and his sister looked very similar, but Bailey got her father’s strawberry-blonde hair, where Buddy’s was more of a sandy blond. Buddy and Bailey, as well as their daughters, all had Leigh Thomas’s gray eyes, though Buddy secretly hoped that was the extent of what his child inherited from her paternal grandmother.
A bell sounded over the intercom, and the principal announced the availability of refreshments in the cafetorium.
“Cafetorium? What the hell, er, heck is that?” Buddy wondered aloud.
“It’s the lunch room. There’s a stage at one end. Cafeteria plus auditorium.” Ms. Mayhew leaned in conspiratorially, as if to whisper something to him, but then seemed to think better of it.
Buddy wrinkled up his nose. “It sounds like vomitorium, which, no. Ugh.”
Lucy’s teacher cla
pped her hands in delight. “Yes, exactly. Oh my goodness. I thought I was the only one.”
Ms. Mayhew’s cheeks pinked up and her eyes sparkled, and Buddy found himself glancing at her left hand.
No ring.
The two of them locked eyes, and Buddy had the insane urge to ask Lucy’s pretty teacher what she was doing after the open house.
“Daddy! Come on!” Lucy pulled at Buddy’s hand, breaking the spell. “It’s refreshment time!”
Buddy grinned and took his daughter’s hand. “Lucy . . .”
The little girl halted. “Are you coming for refreshments, Ms. Mayhew?”
“I don’t think so, Lucy. I have to make sure everything’s ready for your class.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll see you in a few days, then, Ms. Mayhew. Come on, Daddy!” Still with a firm grip on his hand, Lucy set off.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Mayhew,” Buddy called as Lucy pulled him behind her.
Very nice to meet you.
Chapter Two
Molly Mayhew waved at Lucy and her handsome father and then encouraged the rest of the stragglers out the door toward the cafeteria (She steadfastly refused to call it a cafetorium. Buddy Thomas was spot-on in his assessment. Yuck.) When the last family unit crossed the threshold of her classroom, Molly shut the door and collapsed into a small, molded plastic chair next to a kidney-shaped table.
She loved teaching. She loved interacting with the children. Plastering a smile on her face and making small talk with parents? Not so much. There was a reason she’d stayed in kindergarten for almost twenty years.
Molly picked up the school newsletter and examined her photo, which was prominently displayed under the banner proclaiming “Welcome, New Additions!” All these new teachers looked so young. Hell, they were young—most of them fresh out of college. She was the only veteran teacher who was a new hire. Thankfully no one had asked her why she’d left her previous school, because she hadn’t figured out a pat answer that didn’t leave the door open to a more embarrassing line of questioning. She figured that stories would start filtering through the school-system grapevine any day now, if they hadn’t already. Once that happened, she could offer excuses and posit alternate justification until she was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t matter; therefore, she was just going to stay mum until she couldn’t avoid speaking up.
She shook her head and sighed and then decided she didn’t need to stay any longer because she had all the next day to finish setting up her room. So Molly began to gather up her belongings to head home for the night. She was standing by the door, taking one last look at the classroom, when a spot of sparkly magenta caught her eye. Frowning, she crossed the room and picked up a smallish crossbody purse that was made from the happiest purple glitter fabric she’d ever seen. To add to its sparkle, a sequined letter L was emblazoned on the side. Molly had an immediate suspicion as to who the purse’s owner was: Lucy Thomas. While Lucy had on practical denim shorts and a heather-gray T-shirt, said T-shirt had a very sparkly magenta star embroidered on the front, and her shoes were tied with glitter shoelaces.
“Well, Miss Lucy. It’s not every day that a student gets something put into the lost and found before school even starts.” Molly chuckled and then exclaimed with delighted surprise upon discovering that the sequined material changed colors from purple to an aqua blue as she ran her fingers over the material.
“How cool is this?” she murmured. “Six-year-old me would kill for something like this. Hell, forty-year-old me would kill for a pencil skirt in this material. Talk about releasing my inner mermaid.”
She heard a soft chuckle and whirled around to see Buddy Thomas standing in the doorway. The man’s amused expression told her he’d heard every bit of her fawning over the shimmery accessory.
“I see you found Lucy’s bag, not that it’s hard to miss.”
Molly felt her face heat, but she just shrugged and handed the purse to Lucy’s father. “Here you go, Mr. Thomas.”
“Please, call me Buddy. Mr. Thomas is someone I’d rather not think about.”
Molly paused at his comment, filing it away for examination at a later time, before remarking, “I’m glad it got back to her before the first day of school. She seems like a child who likes her routine.”
The two of them stood in silence, Buddy shifting his weight nervously. He shook his head and sighed. “Aw, hell. I need to talk to you anyway. Do you have a moment?”
Molly blinked. Should she be talking with this man, alone, when the school was obviously almost empty? Buddy’s earnest expression convinced her to hear him out. “Anything for a student, Mr., I mean, Buddy.” She inwardly cringed. Her “anything for a student” mantra is partially what got her into such a pickle at the last school. Well, shoot.
He smiled again, but it wasn’t the large, confident smile from earlier. Conversely, this smile was tight and a little bit uncomfortable.
“Lucy’s mother is . . . not a consistent presence in our lives. She was supposed to be in town tonight, but she ended up not being available.” He cleared his throat and gave Molly another weak grin. “Lucy is a child who thrives on consistency, and her mother’s lack thereof is . . . an issue.”
Molly nodded. In almost twenty years in the classroom, she’d seen the entire range of parental involvement—everything from deliberate neglect to the worst sort of helicopter parenting. At least Lucy’s father seemed to be diplomatic about his relationship with Lucy’s mother. She waited for him to continue.
“So, if there’s any issue you need to be apprised of, should I call the school? Send an email? Last year, the teacher insisted I email the principal, which was fine, but one time she didn’t get the email until after lunch, and Lucy’s mother had come up to treat her by taking her to lunch. It didn’t turn out very successfully.”
“Oh—wait just a moment.” Molly went to her desk and pulled out a box of brand-new business cards. “I just got these today. My email address at the school is listed, as well as the general school email and the phone numbers. Use any of those whenever you need to give me a heads-up about Lucy’s situation.”
She handed him the card, being very careful to avoid touching his fingers with hers.
“Thanks, Ms. Mayhew. I appreciate it.” Buddy picked up the sparkly bag Molly had laid on the desk and held it up. “Lucy will be glad to get this back. She usually doesn’t leave her things, but I think the excitement of the evening got to her. Have a nice night.” He inclined his head and slipped out of the classroom, lifting his hand in a wave before he left.
Molly glanced at the clock and was shocked at how late it was. She and Buddy had talked much longer than she realized. She gathered up her things again and, this time, didn’t pause to look over her room. She stepped out into the hall and turned to lock the door, belatedly remembering that she’d not put her classroom key on her wristlet yet.
Huffing a quiet curse under her breath, she balanced her big tote between her hip and the wall as she rummaged through the contents, searching for the one key.
“Did you lose something, Molly?”
Molly shrieked, startled by the man’s deep voice.
“Melissa said you were still down in your classroom and was getting worried,” the man continued. “I offered to see what was taking you so long so she could finish wrapping up this little show-and-tell session.”
Molly sucked down a calming breath and turned to face the man responsible for throwing her whole life into turmoil.
“Boone! You scared me half to death, sneaking up on me like that.” She gripped the found key in her hand. “What in the world are you doing here, anyway?”
“Since you didn’t see fit to return my calls, I couldn’t share the good news with you, darlin’.”
Molly narrowed her eyes. She trusted Boone Cash about as far as she could throw him. “Couldn’t share what good news?”
“Molly, I am a single man, free and clear. Imagine my surprise when I was looking over the school newsletter and sa
w that you, my absolute favorite elementary school teacher, had taken a position at my youngest’s new school.”
“Scott’s here at Hembree Springs? Okay, back up, Boone.” She squeezed her eyes closed, hoping she appeared more nonchalant than she felt. “You moved to Roswell?”
Boone laughed. “Oh, honey, no. I’m still in Buckhead. Vanessa and the kids moved to Roswell because of, well, you can guess . . .”
Molly’s nostrils flared. Oh, she just bet she could guess. “Out of all the houses in Fulton County—”
“North Fulton . . .”
“Right, North Fulton County—she just happened to pick one that was in the boundaries of my new job. Just happened to do that.”
Boone shrugged. “I might have nudged her a little bit.” He focused that megawatt smile at her. “But, Molly, I don’t think you heard me, sweetheart. I am single. And now that you don’t have to deal with all that . . . negative baggage from the old school—”
“Oh, there you two are.” Melissa Simpson, the principal of Hembree Springs Elementary stood at the end of the hall with her hands on her hips. “I was hoping I wasn’t going to have two missing persons on my hands.”
Molly, relieved to no longer be alone with Boone, set off down the hallway at a brisk clip. She could hear Boone trying to talk to her, but she pretended not to hear his excuses and platitudes. Really, it was for everyone’s good that she was ignoring him, because if she listened or thought about him too hard, she was liable to shove her practical, sturdy shoe directly up his ass.
“I’m sorry about that, Melissa. A student left her bag in the room, so her father came to retrieve it, and we got to talking,” Molly apologized.
Melissa waved her off. “It’s fine. I just got worried when you didn’t come down to the reception. I should have known you were speaking with a parent. But now, let’s get on out of here. We’ve got an early, early day tomorrow.”
“That’s right. We do.” Molly affixed her brightest, perkiest, teacher-iest grin to her face. She turned to Boone. “Morning is going to come super-duper early, isn’t it?”
She could see Boone’s horrified expression out of the side of her eye as she traded chirpy good-byes while she got into her car. She turned on the engine and waved, waiting until Melissa got into her own vehicle. When Melissa began to make her way out of the school parking lot, Molly took off behind her, continuing to ignore Boone, who had crouched in preparation to spew some sort of cockamamie apology at her. No sir, she was through listening to Boone Cash’s bullshit. She stared straight ahead and turned up the radio. The only thing she was going to think about for the rest of the evening was the new school year, and she would be damned if Boone Cash was going to ruin her new start.
