Marry Me, Matchmaker

by Kristi Rose

  She swallowed and glanced at his lips. Remembering his proposal and both kisses they’d shared. The slight brush of his knuckles against her stomach was so thrilling, she dare not move or breathe, hoping to extend the moment for as long as possible.

  Her job was to match him, not catch him. Besides, if what his aunt said was true, then William didn’t think that much of her. Right?

  The thought was like cold water being poured over her head. She tugged free from his grip and snapped her clamp over the line. She balanced on the edge of the platform.

  “We have a problem,” she told him.

  “I’m all ears.”

  “My mother has found out about this. She’s hinted at it in her latest blog post. So you can bet when her weekly story comes out, she’ll have all kinds of things to say.” If he’d been serious about a matchmaker, then it was about to be game on. Women were going to come from everywhere.

  To his credit, he didn’t react. “That’s why you’ve been freezing me out?”

  “Your aunt said you called my sister a floozie and I was so bad a businesswoman I depended on the generosity of others.”

  He reared back, surprised.

  “Which I suppose is kinda true because look”—she spread her hands wide— “here I am. Depending on you to make things right for my company.”

  She shrugged a sad half-shrug then kicked off the platform, going down backward. They stared at each other until a jolt on the line startled her into looking away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Monday

  Elizabeth didn’t wait to walk back with the group. Once her feet hit the ground, she undid her harness and hot-footed it to the ranch as fast as she could.

  She hadn’t planned to bring up what his aunt had said. Yet the words tumbled out by a will of their own. They’d been eating at her.

  Her accusation hadn’t appeared to shock, only surprise, which seared the ache in her heart. He’d said them. His expression was the admission she needed.

  She assumed he’d want to explain himself. Why was the question? Was it their tenuous friendship and his belief she deserved an explanation? Or his business ethics and sense of obligation?

  Regardless, she didn’t want one. Elizabeth wanted it to go away. She wanted to focus on saving her business and putting William Darcy and his lot behind her.

  Only she couldn’t. To do so would be stupid. Besides, there was Rushworth’s offer. If she took it, she might still find herself connected to this crowd. Rushworth might ask her to match his friends or even himself.

  Elizabeth dashed to her room and flung herself on her bed, arms over her face, her brain spinning with options of what to do.

  Should she stay? Go? Quit? Was that the same as giving up? So many options. So many emotions. If only Jane were here to help her work through them.

  Her bedroom door flew open and banged against the wall. Elizabeth jerked to a sit. “I’m so sick of people barging in and banging doors!”

  Just as quickly as he’d flung open the door, he slammed it shut. “You can’t accuse me of being a heartless philistine and dash away.”

  She scooted off the bed, standing at the edge. “I didn’t. I asked you a question.”

  “If you’d have asked me a question, you would have stuck around for the answer. What you did was accuse.” He came to stand toe to toe with her. His face was hard, his jaw clenching and unclenching as she assumed he worked to control his temper.

  She crossed her arms. “Okay, so did you say them?” She knew the truth. But hearing it would hurt.

  “Mostly, yes.” He stared her straight in the eye. “But I would never call your sister a floozie. Any of your sisters, for that matter.”

  His words confirmed her worst fears. She was a bad businesswoman. Tears sprung forth. She didn’t want to cry in front of him. But, oh, how she needed a good cry. She’d kept the last few weeks of worry and anxiety pent up, and now she needed to let it all go.

  William’s expression softened. “Hey,” he said and cupped her face between his hands. His thumbs wiped away the tears. “I said it the first week I met you and was going through your books. And I believe I actually said that either you were the worst businesswoman I’d ever met or the savviest. In all my business dealings, I hadn’t come across a company such as yours that involved family and ran so well. The personal touch you all poured into the business showed in the customer satisfaction.”

  She closed her eyes as a way to stop the flow of tears.

  “Elizabeth, look at me.” His voice was low and tender.

  She shook her head slightly.

  “Elizabeth, you have to have faith in yourself. If you don’t, then who will?”

  She sucked in a breath and opened her eyes, meeting his gaze. He continued to stroke her cheeks. There was so much that was unsaid between them as they held each other’s gazes.

  He wanted to kiss away her tears. He wanted to know what they tasted like. He was desperate to be closer to her. In the few days she’d been mad at him, he’d missed her. He missed their banter and ease with each other.

  “I’m sorry my words hurt you,” he said. Knowing he’d brought on her tears cut William to the bone. He searched for words now to make this right, but knew it wasn’t up to him to do that.

  “Darling Elizabeth,” he said, his voice low. “Stop looking at the wrong and look at what’s right. Yes, weaknesses are important. You need to know them. But what you did on instinct was capitalized on your strengths. Yet, somewhere between when I met you and now, you’ve lost sight of that.”

  “I don’t know what to do, and I so wanted to fix this one on my own,” she said, her hands coming to rest on his forearms.

  “And you are.” He pushed the hair from her face, removing the strands that clung to her damp cheeks.

  “But I’m not. You’re fixing it. James Rushworth is offering to fix it. Your aunt will bribe me as a way to fix it. But I want to have the solution. I want to be the one to put my company’s pieces back together. I need to know I can do this.”

  She dropped her forehead to rest on his chest. Instinct and desire had him wrapping her in his arms. He took in a breath of her and closed his eyes as he let the moment sweep over him. Then her words penetrated his brain.

  “James wants to what? My aunt did what?” He wanted to be Elizabeth’s white knight. He would not allow that honor to anyone else.

  She pushed away, wiping a finger under her eyes. Her cheeks were stained a light pink. He yearned to hold her again. This moment was not helping him get over her.

  “I said too much. Just forget it.” She slipped from his embrace, then moved across the room to the desk to fidget with loose papers.

  “I don’t think I can. More so what my aunt did. She tried to bribe you?” He moved to stand at the wall, leaning his back onto the hard surface. He crossed his arms.

  “Do you not see that all this can be misinterpreted? My mother is going to spin this in a way that doesn’t help either of us. I was hoping you’d have a few potential matches before we let word get out. Once my mother names you, my company will be flooded with gold diggers, and the cleanup from that mess would be atrocious.” She bit at her thumbnail. “Maybe I should leave. Maybe this was all done too hastily. We need to get ahead of this before she names you.”

  “It won’t do to panic,” he said.

  She blew out a breath. “Panic? Consider this. What if word got out that your aunt offered to pay me to stay away? Can you imagine what the headlines would say? Particularly my mother’s. Or how about the man jilted at the altar who now wants to invest in a matchmaker company? The media would rake him over the coals. All of this could be manipulated in such a way that”—she gave a harsh laugh—“is less than flattering, and Meryton Matchmakers would once again be at the center of it all. Never mind finding you a match.”

  “How could anyone find out about those things? The guest list was vetted. Mostly. And the people who brought friends were trustworthy.”

&
nbsp; She gave him a look that expressed her doubt in his three-digit IQ. Right, how did her mother find out he’d hired her?

  “Why is this even newsworthy?” he asked. “I always wonder why we are such targets.”

  Elizabeth plopped into the desk chair. “Because we are, me specifically, selling hope and happiness, and that’s not tangible. And because you have all the money in the world, therefore you should have everything you desire, but you don’t. You have heartache like us middle-class folks. You have loss and broken dreams, and that proves money can’t buy everything and we all are at the mercy of…” She spread her hands wide. “Whatever it is that propels us forward in life. Fate, God, the universe.” She shrugged, then clasped her hands in her lap. “Hope comes from the actions a person takes when faced with an opportunity or a circumstance. My mother, for example, has lost hope, and she’s angry about it. She resents me trying to give it to people.” Elizabeth rocked forward in her chair. “And truthfully, I’m teetering on holding on to my own hope. And I’m scared I’m going to lose it and become her.”

  William pushed off the wall. He walked to her and held out his hand. “You won’t ever be like her. Running away and hiding isn’t how you fix this. Facing it is. Do you think Hannah could be a good fit for me?” Was manufacturing hope a bad thing?

  “I think she could be, but I’ll need more time.”

  He wagged his fingers. “Come on, let’s go find out. And while we’re at it, get your oomph back.” He waited for a sign from her that she was ready.

  She placed her hand in his, held tight, and he pulled her up. “Oomph?” she said.

  He arched a brow. “Gumption?”

  She shook her head. “Too old sounding. Spirit?”

  He smiled. “Yes, and cleverness.”

  She laughed. “Oh, well now you’re just teasing me. Using fancy words is a way to this girl’s heart.”

  “Acumen, ability, wit, industry, sagacity, perspicaciousness… Shall I go on?” He clasped her hand tightly as he led her from her room where she’d been hiding.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Monday

  Lunch was on the lawn, rustic style. Large spits turned pigs and sides of beef. Blankets were spread out instead of tables. William was asking his guests to get comfortable and be less formal. Elizabeth liked it.

  She’d managed to escape back to her room briefly to repair her makeup, and William had waited for her at the foot of the stairs. Together they walked outside, not holding hands. Odd how natural it had felt to have her hand clasped with his. Was it because they were more friends now than strangers? The transition to that place had been so subtle. Or maybe it was because she was tired of fighting him and anyone else who tried to help her.

  They stood at the open doors of the deck that led outside.

  “By the way,” William said, stepping closer to her and lowering her voice. “Under no circumstances are you to take help from James Rushworth before you take help from me.”

  She gave him an incredulous look. “Under no circumstances are you in the position to tell me what to do.” She dug an elbow in his side. He twisted out of reach, laughing.

  “I’m serious,” he said.

  “I’m serious, too,” she answered, then nodded to the crowd. “Are you sure you want to continue with this. I can leave now, and we can say something like you were consulting with me about the business.”

  He shook his head. “I want you here.”

  That said a lot coming from a man who liked to control all aspects of his life. Having her here, having her mother announce to the world that he’d hired a matchmaker, was going to take the control out of their hands and leave it up for grabs.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked. Why was he adamantly standing with her? Not that she didn’t appreciate it.

  He glanced away, his gaze sweeping over the crowd outside before looking back at her. “I have all this to share with someone.” He pressed the spot on his chest where his heart beat underneath. “Someone besides my sister. The right someone. The one.”

  In a flash of self-awareness, in a sweep of emotion that ran through her with such force it made her knees weak, Elizabeth knew. Somewhere between fighting with him about his pride, his bossiness, his desire to keep Jane and Charlie apart, to holding his hand, telling him her fears about her business, and sharing laughter…Elizabeth had fallen in love with William. That’s why his words cut so deeply. That’s why she couldn’t fully commit to putting someone’s name on her list for him. Because she wanted him.

  The moment after her heart revealed its true desire, her brain told her she couldn’t have him. Her mother would constantly dog him, even go after Gigi. His aunt would disinherit him. Caroline would make it her mission to destroy Elizabeth. And her mother would be proven right; Elizabeth had used her company to find the one she loved and crossed the ethical line she’d been accused of.

  Feeling bowled over by all the emotions, Elizabeth reached out to steady herself, placing her hand on his arm. “I didn’t know you believed in the one.” She was unable to hold his gaze for fear her emotions could be read across her face. To think he might be more romantic than she’d ever believed. That he, too, believed what she did. The one.

  “I didn’t either. But I’ve recently come to realize I have an ideal woman in my head and, so far, the ones we’re considering for my list don’t feel like her. That’s why I never made a list.”

  Elizabeth struggled to breathe. She’d been a fool. A shortsighted, stuck-in-her-ways fool. Her love for him went back to when she’d learned he’d helped Lydia and Wickham. It went back to…well, she couldn’t really pinpoint, but the feeling had been there for a long while. And now, because she’d been so stubborn and resistant, she was going to bring turmoil to his life via her mother and her presence.

  Elizabeth needed to get away from William as quickly as possible. She’d be horrified if he discovered how she truly felt. It was one thing for him not to be able to put a name on a list because that person doesn’t compare to some fantasy he’d built in his head. It was another to discover the matchmaker you’d hired couldn’t do her job because she was in love with you. That was all the proof anyone would need to realize Elizabeth’s mother was right. Anyone could easily convince William he’d been played.

  Energy pulsed between them, her hand on his arm the conduit. They stared into each other’s eyes.

  Something had shifted in Elizabeth. He’d watched her change before his eyes. He thought of Marianne and her auras. One moment she was light and smiles and for a second, he thought maybe she felt the same as he did. The next a gray cloud had come to hover over her.

  She was a practical woman, and maybe the notion of one perfect person for him sounded silly to her. As his matchmaker, she might think she was wasting her time. He’d told her he was looking for women, and now he told her he believed in the one. How was she supposed to succeed? Finding such a person would be a daunting task, if not impossible.

  Regardless, William could no longer deny the facts before him. Elizabeth Bennet was the woman for him. He’d known it all those months ago when he’d proposed on her doorstep, believing his strong feelings for her would help them overcome any obstacles. She was, after all, the one. There was no one else. He’d been an imbecile to concoct this plan, believing it would help him get over her. Only death would do that, and he wasn’t sure even then. He should tell her how he felt. He’d been struck down once before by her and survived. Surely, he would again. Wouldn’t he?

  “Elizabeth, there are things that need to be said.”

  She nodded, then clasped her hands to her face. “Yes. What a mess.”

  “Not what I was thinking, but how do you mean?”

  Elizabeth said, “I mean I quit.” She grabbed his upper arms, her expression creased with worry. “Listen to me, William. I’m not running from the problem. I’m doing the best I can, considering.”

  “Considering what?”

  He wouldn’t tell her. The su
dden worry on her face wasn’t because she loved him, hoped as he had, but that she was going to fail at her job and bring him down in the process. To tell her he loved her was one more thing to push her away. She’d only see that he had compromised her livelihood for his own personal gain.

  She shook her head and pushed away. “Distance between us. That’s the only answer.” She turned and went back into the house, her destination the stairs.

  “Elizabeth,” he called. “Stop. Talk to me.”

  “Excuse me!” a loud female voice boomed across the hall.

  William turned to find his Aunt Catherine standing in the foyer by the front door, her bags being deposited behind her.

  “Aunt Catherine? Why are you here?” He knew the look on his aunt’s face. She’d seen something she didn’t like and was here to correct it.

  “This,” she said, waving a tablet in the air. “This is why I’m here.” She brought the screen close and flicked her finger across it. Moments after, she showed them a picture.

  “You, Miss Bennet, you’ll want to see this,” Catherine said.

  Elizabeth returned to where they were and stepped around William to get a better look.

  The image was of him and Elizabeth coming down the stairs holding hands, smiling at each other.

  “How did you get that?” he asked.

  “The whole world has it.” Aunt Catherine pointed a bony finger at Elizabeth. “It’s on her mother’s blog.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Monday

  William scrolled through the images on the tablet while Elizabeth watched over his shoulder.

  “They’re pictures from this weekend. Some from Emma’s as well.” Only Hannah had a camera, and she hadn’t been standing at the bottom of the stairs when they’d come down. She hadn’t been at Emma’s either. Other than her, Elizabeth hadn’t seen another camera. Even now as she scanned the crowd, not a single camera was out.