Matchmaker (DS Fight Club Book 7)

by Josie Kerr

  Chapter Three

  “Hey, man, you get Little Miss off without a problem?” Colin poked his head around the corner of the doorjamb.

  Buddy nodded, his attention still directed at the whiteboard where he was pairing up potential sparring partners.

  “Yeah, it was harder on me than on her. I can’t believe they don’t let you walk them to the classroom.”

  “Oh yeah, we should have warned you about that last night. Bailey almost had a fit last year when Maude had to walk to her room by herself. I thought we were going to have a repeat of the hospital incident.”

  Buddy snorted. He hadn’t witnessed his usually mild-mannered sister’s brawl in the lobby of an emergency room, but he could imagine the scene. Even as a little girl, she had always been fiercely protective. She hadn’t changed much in the almost-twenty years that had passed since Buddy had been forced out of the family’s trailer in Texas.

  “Buddy?”

  “Hmm?”

  Colin made a face at him. “You good?”

  Buddy thought for a long minute. Was he good? He’d found the baby sister whom he’d been looking for for almost two decades and who had her own loving family. He had his own baby girl who was the light of his life. He had a job and a place for his little family to live. Yeah, he was good.

  “Yeah, I’m solid. Just thinking about how different things were when I was in school.”

  “No shit, man. Chocolate milk, off-campus lunch . . . ,” Colin mused in a dreamy voice.

  “Asphalt playgrounds, hazing,” Buddy countered.

  “Yeah, you got me on that one,” Colin acquiesced, then grew quiet. After a moment, he asked “You really got hazed? And your old man didn’t say anything?”

  “Hell, Baylor told ’em where to find me. Jumped my ass in the parking lot of the grocery store where I bagged. Baylor watched me get my ass whupped and then gave me another when I got home, for not fighting hard enough.”

  Buddy shook his head. He’d been thinking a lot about his childhood lately, mainly because the reunion with Bailey inevitably conjured up memories of life in that cramped mobile home and the dark years immediately after. He still hadn’t laid bare everything that had transpired in those last days he was in Seagraves, and he didn’t know if he ever would. After all, he couldn’t change what had happened or get back those years they’d missed.

  When he looked back at his brother-in-law, Buddy was surprised at the fierceness he saw in Colin’s eyes, but he shouldn’t have been. After all, he knew the big former champion was no stranger to estrangement. Hell, Colin had been separated from his own half-brother for close to thirty years.

  “It’s all good, C,” Buddy said, hoping to soothe the crackles of emotion he could almost see emanating from Colin. The two of them hadn’t had the smoothest of introductions, and Colin’s temper would spark at the slightest indication of any injustice to his beloved family. But Buddy was thankful for Colin’s loyalty and love, and he knew without a doubt that Colin’s girls would be protected from any and every sort of danger.

  Colin inclined his head toward the whiteboard. “So what’s the status on the pairings? You find anyone to match with Johnson?”

  Grateful for the change in subject, Buddy shifted the conversation to his actual job as matchmaker for one of the most reputable MMA training facilities in the country. Time passed quickly as he and Colin bandied around names, stopping only to move into the kitchen so they could have lunch when their stomachs simultaneously rumbled, and even then, they continued to discuss create hypothetical fight cards.

  “Okay, bud, er Buddy, buddy. Goddamn, you would have to have some sort of crazy ass nickname for a, er, nickname.” Colin screwed his eyes tightly shut. “For crap’s sake.”

  Buddy laughed. “You okay, C?”

  “Yeah, man. I am. Oh shit – I’m late for a meeting. Would you—”

  Buddy interrupted his brother-in-law. “I’ll drop Maude at the house when Sheila delivers the girls to the gym. I’ll call Bailey and make sure she’s home. If she’s not, I’ll take the girls to get a snack or something.”

  Colin looked relieved. “I owe you one, Buddy.”

  Buddy scoffed. “No, I owe you one. The fact that That I don’t have to deal with afterschool child-care? It’s you that’s done me a solid.”

  Colin looked uncomfortable, but then slapped Buddy on the back and practically ran out of Buddy’s office to his meeting. Buddy shook his head and laughed, then turned back to the white board. For the remainder of the day, Buddy tried to do more matchmaking but he kept looking at the clock, waiting anxiously for his daughter and niece to arrive at the fight club. After the sixth time checking the clock, Buddy gave up doing any real work and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the members of the DS Fight Club roster spar. When that was finished, he worked off some nervous tension by punching the heavy bag until he heard Lucy’s voice.

  Buddy forced himself to appear casual as he approached the front of the fight club where Sheila Doyle, the wife of DS Fight Club’s namesake stood with an amused look on her face as she listened to Lucy and Maude babble excitedly at Nanda Maldonado, the gym manager.

  When the girls stopped to breathe, Buddy caught Lucy’s attention and she flung herself at him.

  “Daddy! I have so much to tell you!” She hugged him tightly, and Buddy found himself with a lump in his throat.

  “I can hardly wait to hear, sweet pea, but—”

  “You’re off the hook – meeting’s over, Buddy. Go to dinner, and we’ll catch up tomorrow, okay?” Colin slapped Buddy on the back and gave him a sympathetic look lifting his daughter in his arms. “Okay, little baby doll, let’s go see Mama and Nora and you can tell us all about your day.”

  “Bye, Maude!” Lucy waved frantically to Maude. “I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye, Miss Sheila!”

  “Bye, darlin’ girl. I’ll see you tomorrow in the car ride line.” Sheila leaned over to Buddy and asked conspiratorially, “You don’t have an issue with cursing, right? Because lives will probably be lost if I can’t vent my spleen in the car ride line. Jaysus, those women are insane.”

  Buddy laughed and Colin let out a pained groan, and with another wave, Buddy and Lucy left the fight club.

  Chapter Four

  Molly stumbled through the door of her small bungalow, two tote bags on one arm and a stack of mail in the other.

  “Honey, I’m home!” she called, her voice bouncing off the pictureless walls. She dumped the mail on the entry table and set the tote bags on the ground just as a single loud bark reverberated through the living room. “Hey, sweetheart, how was your day?” she said to the mastiff, flipping the catch on the crate and opening the door. “Mine was good. No, it was stellar. I had the best first day I’ve had in years.” She kissed the dog on the top of its head and rubbed its ears and jowls. “Let’s have a treat in honor of a great first day.”

  After taking the huge dog out in the front yard to do its business, Molly kicked off her shoes and went into the small kitchen, the dog lumbering behind her. She gave the mastiff a few treats out of a bag and then retrieved a single slice of pie from the refrigerator. She’d slipped into a small gastropub she’d recently discovered and managed to get the last piece of coconut cream pie. She’d thought about eating it last night, especially in light of Boone’s visit, but had decided to wait until after her first day—she figured the pie could be either celebratory or palliative.

  She stood in the kitchen, savoring the creamy deliciousness, nothing on her mind except how much she was enjoying this pie. She reveled in the relative silence of her little home. No babbling of kids, no raucous laughter emanating from the teachers’ lounge, only the soft crunching of Louise eating her kibble.

  Molly was swiping the last bits of pie off the plate with her finger when her doorbell rang. She frowned, looking at the time, and wondered who it could be. Whoever was at the door knocked three times, loudly, eliciting an irritated huff from Molly and an inquisitive moan from Louis
e.

  “I’m coming!”

  Molly crossed the living room quickly and pulled open the door just as the bell sounded again.

  “Can I help you?” Molly asked with an exasperated huff.

  Then she saw the roses. Not a half-dozen roses in a vase, or even the ubiquitous rectangular box that held a dozen. This was more like a shrub, one so big, it obscured most of the torso of the skinny delivery guy. Only one person would send her that obnoxious of an arrangement.

  “I have a floral delivery for a Miss Molly Mayhew,” came a muffled voice from behind the lush blooms.

  “I’m Molly Mayhew, and I do not accept this delivery. You can take them back to wherever you came from. Thank you.”

  She shut the door in the sputtering delivery man’s face and stomped back to the kitchen. A year ago, she would have called up Boone and given him a piece of her mind. Now, she was going to stomp around the house, fume, and celebrate the fact that Boone didn’t have her phone number.

  She halted with the sudden realization that Boone shouldn’t know where she lived.

  Dagnabbit.

  “Shoot, Lou. Someone ratted me out.”

  Her mind raced as she paced around the living room. Who had access to her home address? More so, who would give out that information?

  Her phone rang, and she absentmindedly answered it, expecting her mother to be on the other end. But of course, it wasn’t her chirpy mother calling to conduct her annual quiz about how her first day of school had gone, just like she’d been doing for the past seventeen years.

  “Boone, how on earth did you get this number?” she demanded immediately after he greeted her with an ingratiating “Hello.”

  “Well, pumpkin, that’s no way to greet someone who just sent you one hundred of your favorite flower.”

  “I am allergic to roses, you self-absorbed jackass. Wait—how the hell did you know they’d been delivered?” she ground out. “So help me, if you’re sitting across from my house like a damn creeper, Boone Cash, I will call the cops so fast—”

  “Whoa! Simmer down, girl. The delivery service texted me that your flowers had been delivered.”

  “Did they inform you that I didn’t accept the delivery?”

  “Come again? You did what?”

  Molly couldn’t help but gloat a little at the shock in his voice. “It’s what I didn’t do, Boone. I didn’t accept the delivery. I don’t know what you’re playing at, Boone Cash, but it ends right here, right now. I don’t know where you got my address and phone number, but as of right now, you are not to call me or attempt to contact me in any way, anywhere. That means at school. There is no reason you and I need to interact at the school. Do you understand me, Boone?”

  “Sweetheart . . .”

  “I take that as a no, then. Let me make it clear. I am having nothing to do with you, period. Good-bye.”

  She slammed the phone down and pressed her hands to her face.

  The phone rang again, and she merely unplugged it. He wasn’t going to stop—he never did—so she was just going to have to either change her number or get rid of the landline. Screw it. Just get rid of the landline, Molly.

  The familiar sproing of her mother’s text message notification sounded.

  Why aren’t you answering your phone? Are you dead in a ditch?

  Molly laughed, and she realized it was most likely her mother, and not Boone, calling. So she plugged her phone back in and called her mother back.

  “So you’re not dead in a ditch, but there’s obviously something going on.” Barbara Mayhew wasn’t one to mince words.

  Molly groaned. “Mother, I am fine.”

  “You are not. What is going on, Mary Susan Mayhew?”

  “Oh my God, you did not just use my full name. I am forty years old, Mother.”

  “And I am still your mother, and I will use as many of your names as I want to, whenever I want to.”

  Molly groaned again. Arguing with Barbara was a losing proposition.

  “Boone sent a literal shrub of roses to me today.”

  Barbara was quiet for a moment. “At school?”

  “No, at the house. And then he called me.”

  Silence for two more beats. Not a good sign.

  “You need an alarm system. Your father and I will pay for it.”

  “What are we paying for?” Heath Mayhew’s cool London accent appeared on the line.

  “Molly’s alarm system. That fuckwit Boone sent her flowers today and then called her. All at home.”

  Molly snorted. Her mother had never liked Boone, not one bit, and well, after the events that transpired during the course of last year, she never would. Actually, Boone would be lucky if Barbara didn’t go up and knee him in the gonads the next time she saw him.

  Molly briefly fantasized about calling Boone and telling him to meet her at Pickett & Spence and then sending her mother to flatten him.

  “Molly!” Her mother’s sharp voice snapped her attention back to their conversation.

  “What, Mother?”

  “I’m serious about the security system. You hush, Heath. I want you to get one, and we will pay for it. I know you’re on a tighter budget.”

  “Mother, I don’t need you to pay—”

  “Wrong. We will discuss this further at dinner tomorrow night. That is, if you don’t have any plans.”

  Molly sighed. She never had plans anymore, not since she and Boone had ended their scandalous relationship. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  “Well?”

  “Okay, Mother. I’ll meet you for dinner.”

  “I want to go to this pub called Foley’s,” Heath piped up. “That Pickett & Spence place is boring and overpriced. This Foley’s place is supposed to have authentic pub fare and a bartender who can pull a proper Guinness.”

  “Oh, the truth comes out, Dad,” Molly teased. “Sure. Seven, our usual time?”

  “Let’s make it five thirty, to beat the crowd. Remember, honey, be aware of your surroundings, and don’t be afraid to call the police.”

  “I’m not, Mother. I’ll be fine. I’ll see you two tomorrow night.”

  They said their good-byes, and Molly hung up the phone. Next, she checked that her locks were securely fastened, both front and back doors, and went around the house, checking the windows as well. She couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal about the fact that someone gave out her home phone number and address. Tomorrow she was going to bring this up with Melissa and the office staff. She didn’t know exactly what she was going to say because she didn’t want to rehash the past eighteen months. On the other hand, most likely everyone knew anyway because of the school grapevine.

  Molly stretched and yawned, suddenly exhausted. “Princess Louise, are you ready for bed? Because I sure am.”

  The dog gave her a “No duh” look, and Molly turned off all the lights in the living room and headed to bed, hoping she wouldn’t dream of rosebushes or ex-boyfriends.

  Chapter Five

  Buddy and Lucy stopped off for an early dinner at Lucy’s favorite restaurant after her first day of school. She seemed full of energy, telling him all about her day, but Buddy could tell his little girl was exhausted. He was unsurprised when she fell asleep almost instantly on the drive home. She didn’t wake when he got her out of her booster seat nor when he put her in her pajamas. Now, a few hours later, it seemed Lucy was going to sleep through the night, and Buddy took advantage of Lucy’s early bedtime for some quality alone time on the back deck of their small ranch.

  He was watching the last fireflies of the season flit around the small backyard pond when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the number and, with an irritated huff, answered.

  “Hello, Natalie. Nice of you to call.” He couldn’t keep the crossness from his voice, as much as he tried.

  “Well, hello to you, too, Buddy. Since you are obviously in a rotten mood, you don’t even have to talk to me. It’s Lucy I wanted to speak to anyway.”

  “Sh
e’s asleep, Natalie.”

  “Asleep? This early?”

  Buddy glanced at his watch. It wasn’t that early anymore, but who knew where Natalie was calling from.

  “She’s worn out from school today, and besides, it’s after eight. She’d be in bed anyway.”

  “School? What do you mean she’s in school?”

  Buddy sighed. He’d sent her emails and texts and left voicemails about the start of school, and they’d even had a conversation about her being in town to attend the open house. Of course, that hadn’t happened, and Lucy’s disappointment had been palpable. But, as it always was with Natalie, it was best to just move on to the next thing.

  “She started school today. I know, silly to start on a Thursday, but I don’t make the district calendar.”

  “But it’s just the beginning of August!”

  “That’s when they start school these days. I told you, Natalie. I sent you a copy of the calendar, and for heaven’s sake, we had a long discussion about the open house. You promised you’d be there.” So much for moving on, Buddy.

  “So I’ll come to the open house.”

  “It was yesterday, Natalie.”

  “Oh.” He heard her sigh. “Oh, Buddy. I am so sorry.”

  “You’re always sorry. But you should be apologizing to Lucy, not me.” Buddy rubbed his hand over his closed eyes. “I’m sorry, Natalie. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Lucy’s starting school is hitting me a little harder than I expected. She’s growing up so fast.” He swallowed the lump in his throat.