An Extraordinary Match (The Match Series Book 3)

by Barbara Dunlop

  “I told her she had to change jobs,” said Sam.

  “I know she changed jobs. She closed up her apartment. She changed her phone number. I know it has to be those guys. I think they were ready to beat her location out of me.”

  Sam’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “Ewan and John. After she left. They stopped me on the street. I punched them out. Clive arrested them. I hope to hell they’re still in jail.”

  “Ewan and John approached you?”

  “Yes.”

  “To ask about Jade?”

  “Yes.”

  “You need to leave, Logan. Right now. You can’t be here.”

  “No.” Logan planted his feet apart. He wasn’t leaving.

  “She’s not out of danger yet. We need a week. Two will do it for sure.”

  The reaction made Logan more desperate than ever. “Tell me what is going on.”

  Sam set his jaw and went silent. Logan feared he’d blown it, that Sam was going to refuse to divulge anything at all. The two men stared at each other in silence.

  Just when Logan thought it was hopeless, accepting the fact that he could hardly threaten his uncle with bodily harm, Sam spoke again. “Why are you here, Logan? Before I help you, you have to tell me the absolute truth.”

  Logan wanted to lie. The first person he said the words to should not be Sam, it should be Jade. But Sam was his only lead to Jade.

  “I’m in love with her. I promise you, I will not do anything to harm her or put her in danger. But I am willing to do anything, anything, it takes to be with her. I’m not leaving until you tell me everything you know. And I’m damn sure not walking away from the situation when those two guys are out gunning for her.”

  Sam seemed to hesitate. Then he gave a sharp nod. “Okay. Okay. She’s next door.”

  Logan’s adrenaline surged. “Next door? Jade is here?”

  “Yes, she’s—”

  “Which way?” Logan pivoted for the door.

  “Logan, stop!”

  “No way.” There wasn’t a chance in hell Logan would stop.

  If Sam wouldn’t tell him which condo, he’d try them both. He’d try them all.

  Sam quickly stepped between Logan and the door. “You have to understand.”

  “I do understand.”

  “She has to keep the job. The only way Ewan and John stay out of her life, is if she works for the government.”

  Logan stared uncomprehendingly at Sam. “And?”

  “And, if you want Jade, you have to leave Mirror Falls.”

  “So, I leave Mirror Falls.”

  Sam hesitated. “You’d leave Mirror Falls?”

  “Why do you think I’m here?”

  “To find Jade.”

  “Yeah. But I’m not going to drag her back by her hair. I get that her life is someplace else. My life is with her.”

  A smile grew on Sam’s face.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I’ll tell you later.” Sam cocked his head to the left. “That side. Her grandmother’s name is Lizbet Blythe.”

  “Lizbeth Blythe is your next-door neighbor?”

  “I’ll tell you about that later, too. Let’s go see Jade.”

  Anticipation swelled in Logan. He’d found Jade. He loved her more than anything in the world, and she simply had to feel the same way about him. Nothing else was acceptable.

  *

  Jade had walked through every possible scenario, from part-time work in Jacksonville to telecommuting from Mirror Falls. But the nature of the job she’d accepted meant she had to live in Jacksonville full time. She’d talked about chucking it all, taking her chances with WNT, but Sam had strongly advised against it, and JW had backed him all the way.

  “Mango margaritas,” Lizbet announced, waltzing onto the pool deck with a trayload of orange blender drinks. “I want you to stop worrying, Jade. Let’s give Sam and JW the night to think about the problem. They’re brilliant, and I’m not ready to give up yet.”

  Jade gave her grandmother a brave smile, looking to Jillian as well, but she knew it was over. What she wanted above anything in life came at far too high a cost. She couldn’t sell her soul to WNT, and sitting in jail because of their schemes wouldn’t get her any closer to Logan. She had nothing to offer him.

  Her bare feet curled under her on a padded lounger, she let her vision go soft on the pool lights twinkling under the water. The palm trees glowed with colored spots. The air was warm, even this late in the evening. She accepted the fancy drink but put it on the table beside her. Her throat was too tight to drink.

  She heard the door to Sam’s condo slide open. She hadn’t yet asked how it was that Sam lived right next door. She’d had more important problems in front of her. But now the question spun back into her head.

  “Lizbet?” she asked.

  “Oh my word,” said Lizbet.

  “What?” asked Jillian, and then she gasped.

  Jade twisted her head, fearing the worst. But then she saw Logan, and her chest swelled with joy. He was with Sam, crossing the deck, walking toward her.

  She jumped to her feet, and he opened his arms.

  She sprinted for him, throwing herself into his arms. He lifted her, hugging her close.

  “I love you,” he rumbled in her ear. “Don’t you ever dare leave me again.”

  “What are you doing here?” she gasped. She squeezed him tight.

  “I came to find you.”

  She drew back to look at him, sobering as he set her on her feet. “There are a whole lot of things going on.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s so complicated, Logan. I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t stay. And I couldn’t bear to look you in the eyes and say goodbye. I wanted to remember…” She glanced self-consciously behind her, gauging how far back everyone else stood. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I wanted making love to be our last memory. The way you stroked my hair, whispered in my ear.”

  “I know,” he told her softly.

  She felt marginally better. “Thank you for understanding that.”

  “I mean, I know what’s going on. I know about the job and WNT, and I’m not asking you to come back to Mirror Falls.”

  Jade fought against her disappointment, but her throat swelled, and she could feel hot tears building behind her eyes. He didn’t want her back.

  “I’m staying with you,” said Logan.

  It took a moment for his words to make sense. Even then, she couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

  “If I have to choose between you and Mirror Falls,” said Logan, “you win, hands down.”

  She blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment. “Are you saying you’ll stay in Florida?”

  “I love you, Jade.”

  “You’ll stay in Florida?”

  “That wasn’t what I was hoping you’d say back.”

  Her smile bloomed as her heart sang. “You want me to love you back?”

  “I absolutely do.”

  “Then I absolutely love you back.”

  He smoothed her hair back from her forehead. “Then marry me. I don’t ever want to risk losing you again.”

  “You never lost me. But, yes, I’ll marry you.”

  He kissed her long and deep.

  “We’ll have to live in Jacksonville,” she warned him.

  “I’m guessing they have jobs for pilots in Jacksonville.”

  “I’m guessing they do, too.”

  “And we can take vacations in Mirror Falls. I’m keeping the cottage.”

  Sam cleared his throat, and Logan looked up.

  “We’re getting married,” he told them all with a broad grin. “And we’re moving to Jacksonville.”

  “My darling,” Lizbet cried, while Jillian squealed and rushed forward to hug Jade. “It worked. Oh, I can’t believe it worked!”

  “Huh?” asked Jade, glancing from smug expression to smug expression.

  “You�
�ve been match made,” said JW.

  Jillian drew back laughing. “Sam wrote the program, and they put you in.”

  Jade looked to Logan. “Are you following this?”

  “It’s on his computer,” said Lizbet. “And it works every time.”

  Sam gave a shrug. “A little algorithm I wrote. I entered the family. Lizbet entered her granddaughters.”

  “And poof,” sang Jillian, stepping back.

  JW snapped his fingers. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

  “Poof?” asked Jade, thoroughly confused.

  “You click a button,” said Lizbet. “And then, well, we had to bribe Virgil Emmory of course, to get you to Mirror Falls.”

  The light bulb was slowly coming on inside Jade’s head. “You set us up?”

  “It wasn’t easy,” said Sam.

  “Luckily,” said JW. “Virgil was a very reasonable man.”

  “You set us up?” she repeated.

  Beside her, Logan rumbled with laughter.

  “You think this is funny?”

  “I think it’s amazing.” He gave her a squeeze. “I don’t particularly care how it happened. Do you?”

  “Yes.” She glanced up at Logan. “Do you have any idea how frustrating it was for me to leave New York?”

  “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  “Well, yes,” she admitted. Then she sighed. “Okay, maybe I don’t care all that much how it happened.”

  “They did me and Devlin, too,” said Jillian. “And Morgan and Amelia before that.”

  “No way,” said Logan.

  “It’s magic,” said Lizbet.

  “It’s science,” said Sam.

  In the subtle light, while the palm leaves rattle in the breeze, Logan’s contemplative gaze moved from one senior citizen to the next.

  JW squared his shoulders.

  Sam lifted his chin.

  “Are you planning to do it again?” Logan asked them, a curious tone to his voice.

  It was Lizbet who answered. “Sure, we are. Who’ve you got in mind?”

  The End

  Other Books in The Match Series

  Book 1: An Unlikely Match

  Buy Now!

  Book 2: An Impractical Match

  Buy Now!

  Book 3: An Extraordinary Match

  Book 4: An Astonishing Match

  Buy Now!

  Book 5: An Unpredictable Match

  Buy Now!

  Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from

  An Astonishing Match

  Book 4 in the Match series

  Copyright © 2014 Barbara Dunlop

  The South Florida weather was unseasonably hot for September, humidity hanging thick in the still afternoon air, condensing on the iced tea glasses and bringing a sheen to exposed skin. Still, Daisy Vashon postponed her dip in the pool at the Sunny Autumn Seniors Community in Port Aidin to peer over Sam Finnegan’s shoulder at the picture of a smiling young woman.

  “At least they live in the same city this time,” called Hannah Sprite from where she was perched on the pool’s edge, her feet dangling in the water.

  Sam, the genius of the group and the inventor of their secret computer matchmaking program, had cooked up another match this morning. Daisy had been worrying about it ever since.

  “Exactly who is this Kalie Gray?” she asked him.

  “She’s Morgan’s step-cousin,” said JW Sterling, rising from his deck chair and stretching out his back.

  A former Army general and Green Beret, JW had discovered he had an illegitimate daughter and a grandson named Morgan earlier in the year. Morgan was the group’s very first matchup.

  “How’s that?” asked Hannah, swishing her feet through the crystal-clear water.

  “Kalie is my daughter Nadia’s husband’s sister’s daughter.” JW’s tone was clipped and precise. “She’s the one Morgan entered into the computer.”

  Daisy tried to picture the family tree inside her head. After a moment, she gave up. “It says here she’s a machinist. What’s a machinist?”

  “Machinists make precision pieces out of metal,” said JW.

  “Like jewelry?” asked Hannah. “Gold and platinum?”

  “No,” said JW. “Like stainless steel. They use lathes, milling machines and complex computer-controlled equipment to cut and polish industrial machine parts to tolerances of a thousandth of an inch.”

  Daisy couldn’t help bringing to mind the other side of this particular match, her fastidious, executive grandson Hammond Vashon, who wore suits from Saville Row. “Are you telling us that Kalie works in a hard hat and steel-toes?”

  “I don’t know about a hard hat,” said JW. “But steel-toes, yes. And safety goggles, certainly.”

  Lizbet Blythe spoke up from where she was stretched out on a lounge chair, sipping a mimosa, her wide-brimmed floppy hat keeping the sun at bay. “She probably wears a leather tool belt. I like the woman already.”

  “Is something bothering you?” Sam asked Daisy, craning his neck to see her expression.

  Yes, Daisy was bothered. “I know we’re supposed to have faith in the computer program.”

  “It’s worked every time so far,” said Hannah.

  “This is a ninety-nine percent match,” said Sam. “It’s the highest we’ve ever had.” He proved the claim by bringing up another screen on his tablet.

  Daisy was well aware that each of their previous matches had seemed impossible at first. That was, until each of the couples had fallen deeply in love. But her grandson Hammond was rather uncompromising and very uptight. The photos of Kalie made her seem carefree and rather earthy.

  “I’m worried they won’t make it past first impressions,” said Daisy. “Hammond is particular. He likes women who are very poised and polished.”

  Kalie was likely a perfectly wonderful person. She was certainly pretty enough, with long, thick raven hair, dark blue eyes and about the most dazzling smile Daisy had ever seen. It was Hammond who worried her. He could be so closed-minded. And once that mind of his was made up, there was no changing it. A woman would have one chance with him, and then it would all be over.

  Lizbet sat up straight, swinging her legs over the side of the lounger and tucking her feet into her pink flip-flops. “Maybe we could maroon them together, somewhere that he couldn’t get away.”

  “Or we could get Kalie a job at Vashon Holdings,” said Hannah. “That way he’d see her over and over again, maybe get past the first impression.”

  “She’s a machinist,” said JW. “Vashon Holdings manages corporate real estate. I’m not seeing an obvious job opportunity.”

  “They both live in Boston,” said Sam. “Getting them together should be the easy part this time.”

  “She seems to wear nothing but blue jeans and T-shirts,” said Daisy. “We’ll have to whack my grandson over the head to get him to take a second look.”

  “That’s JW’s department,” Sam said with a smirk.

  Lizbet grinned at Sam. “You’re the brains, and he’s the brawn?”

  “Something like that,” said Sam.

  “What about the My Fair Lady approach?” asked Hannah.

  Four gazes swung her way.

  “The movie. We give Kalie a makeover.”

  Lizbet was the first to speak up. “Could we do that without her catching on?”

  “Oh, I know,” said Hannah in an excited voice, obviously warming to her own idea. “Maybe we tell her she’s won a contest of some kind. We send her to a day at the spa for a facial, a haircut, some makeup. And then we send her directly to a party or some other fancy event where Hammond will be, and voilà!” She snapped her fingers.

  “I love it when we go covert,” said Lizbet.

  “But she’ll go back to her regular self,” said Daisy. “We need something that’ll last longer than one party.”

  “What we need is a Henry Higgins,” said Lizbet.

  “We could hire one,” s
aid Sam.

  “Or blackmail one,” said Daisy, the suggestion putting an idea into her head.

  “We have plenty of money in the kitty,” said JW. “And I thought we agreed not to break the law anymore.”

  “My grandson,” said Daisy, her excitement level rising. “Hammond’s brother Hunter could be our Mr. Higgins. He owes me. He owes me big-time. And he lives right there in Boston.”

  “Would it be safe to bring him in on the scheme?” asked Sam.

  “I kept dozens of secrets for him,” said Daisy. “Especially his high school senior year.”

  “Do tell,” said Lizbet with a lift of her brows.

  Daisy’s grandson Hunter was a rascal, there was no getting around it.

  “He once stole my car,” said Daisy. “He hid beer in the pool house. And he spent what I understand was a memorable spring break in Miami and told his parents he was staying with me. I never ratted him out.”

  “Daisy,” Lizbet chortled. “You surprise me. You are a very cool grandmother.”

  Daisy shrugged. “It wasn’t like I could stop him, and it kept the lines of communication open. He never drank and drove, and I gave him plenty of advice on avoiding hard drugs and treating women with respect.”

  “And now it’s payback time,” said Lizbet.

  “He could be our ace in the hole,” said Hannah.

  “I’m sold,” said Sam.

  “Daisy,” JW stated with authority, “you’ll need to take a trip to Boston.”

  *

  Kalie Gray had dust in her hair, bright sunshine in her eyes and grit under her fingernails. Saturday afternoon in the Granite Valley, ninety minutes outside Boston, and the sound of hopped-up engines echoed in the distance as the leading, four-wheel-drive racing vehicles zoomed toward the start-finish line and the pit area, completing their latest twenty-mile, off-road lap.

  Her best friend, Liza Merriweather, was an automotive technician and the brains behind the engine for Jarrett’s Jump, the racer driven by Liza’s boyfriend. Jarrett and his co-driver, Ritchie, had done the bodywork from the frame up.

  By comparison, Kalie’s role on the race team was minor. She machined specialized parts for the engine and chassis. But she loved being part of the pit crew on race day. The adrenaline in the air was electric.