Juliet’s heart stuttered to a stop. This was it. The reason she’d come to America.
What would her future husband be like? Did he enjoy swimming and sailing and could she ask him to take her on trips to the beach? Would he be okay with her family coming to visit occasionally? Did he have a nice smile and laugh a lot?
Most important, would she be able to develop feelings for him that would fill the Finn-shaped hole inside?
Even though Elise guaranteed a love match, replacing Finn was probably too much to hope for.
Contentment would be enough. It had to be.
She swallowed the sudden burn in her throat. “That didn’t take long. I only finished your questions yesterday.”
Shrugging, Elise turned to face the ballroom, her shoulder bumping Juliet’s companionably. “Sometimes when I load the profile, I don’t get a match against someone already in the system and then we have to wait until new clients are entered. Yours came back immediately.”
Juliet wanted to ask for the name. And at the same time, she wanted to dive under the buffet table.
What was she doing here? This man in Elise’s system expected a certain kind of woman, one who could host his parties and mingle with his friends, smiling through boring stories of business mergers and tax breaks. And football. That was so not her.
She wanted to go home.
Then she thought about living in Delamer day in and day out and how often she saw Finn’s helicopter beating through the broad blue sky. Or how she’d stumbled over another photograph of him cutting the ribbon at the new primary school—that picture would never die.
A little girl who would attend the school had sneaked up and wrapped her arms around his thigh just before he cut the ribbon. Finn leaned down to kiss her cheek and presto. Instant immortalization via the hundreds of camera phones and paparazzi lenses in the audience.
The pictorial reminder of the prince’s sweet and charming nature stabbed her in the stomach every time. He was such a good guy, with a sense of honor she’d once loved—until realizing it was a front for his stubborn refusal to see how much he’d hurt her by taking his father’s side. There was no reasoning with Finn, and that trumped all his good qualities.
In Delamer, there were constant reminders of the void her brother Bernard’s death had created.
Any husband was better than that.
“What happens if I don’t like the man your computer picked?” Juliet asked, though surely Elise’s system had captured her exact specifications.
“There are no absolutes. If you don’t like him, we’ll find someone else, though it might take a while. However...” Elise hesitated. “I’d like you to keep an open mind about the possibilities. This man is perfect for you. I’ve never seen two more compatible people. Not even Leo and Dannie were this closely aligned, and look how well that turned out.”
Juliet nodded. Dannie and Leo Reynolds were definitely one of the most in-love couples in the history of time and had never even met each other before they signed on with EA International and got married. If Elise said this man was Juliet’s perfect match, why doubt it?
“I had an ulterior motive for inviting you to the party tonight,” Elise confessed. “Your match will be here too. Soon. I thought it would take some pressure off if you met socially.”
Her match. Already.
Juliet had hoped for some time to learn more about him before being thrown at his feet. She touched her pinned-up hair. At least she’d meet her future husband while looking the absolute best she could, a small victory in her mind.
Deep breath. Bernard would want her to be happy, to move on. The memory of her brother’s smile bolstered her.
A disturbance in the crowd caught Juliet’s attention. People craned their necks to peer over each other, whispering and nodding toward the ballroom entrance.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Elise uttered a very unladylike word.
“I was hoping for a little more time to explain. It’s your match.” Elise cleared her throat. “He’s early. I think that’s a good quality in a man. I mean, along with all of his other ones. Don’t you think so?”
Her future husband, assuming everything went according to plan, had just walked into the ballroom.
Juliet’s pulse took off, throbbing below her ears. “Sure. But why does it sound like you’re trying to talk me into it? Does he have two heads or something?”
“I did something a little unorthodox to find your match.” Elise bit her lip and put her hand on Juliet’s arm. “Something I hope you’ll appreciate. It was a test. I figured if the computer didn’t match you, I wouldn’t say anything. I’d never tell you and I’d find someone else for you both.”
“What are you talking about? What did you do?”
Elise smiled weakly as the crowd pressed closer to the entrance, blocking their view of whoever had drawn so much interest. “You talked so much about him. I heard what was still in your heart. I couldn’t call myself a matchmaker if I didn’t give you an opportunity to rediscover why you fell in love in the first place.”
The first wave of unease rolled through Juliet’s stomach. “Talked about whom?”
“Prince Alain. Finn.” Elise nodded toward the crush surrounding the entrance. “He’s your match.”
“Oh, my God. Elise!” Juliet wrapped her arms around her waist but couldn’t stop the flood inside of...everything. Hope. Disbelief. The unquenchable anger at his inability to side with her. “You contacted Finn? And didn’t tell me? Oh, my God.”
Finn was here. In the ballroom.
He was her match.
Not a quiet American businessman who watched football and would save her from the heartache Finn had caused.
“Open mind,” Elise reminded her and grasped Juliet’s hand to propel her forward, parting the crowd easily despite being half a head shorter than everyone else. “Come say hello. Give me ten minutes. Let me explain to you both what I did and then you can blast me for my tactics. Or spend a little while reacquainting yourselves. Maybe give it a chance. It’s your choice.”
Greedily, Juliet’s gaze swept the crowd, searching for a familiar face. And found a solid figure in black tie, flanked by a discreet security team, moving toward her.
Finn. Exactly as her heart remembered him.
Tall, gorgeous, self-assured. Every bit a man who could support the weight of a crown despite the probability that he never would. Hard, defined muscles lay under a tuxedo that did little to disguise the beauty of the man’s body. His short, dark hair that had a tendency to curl when he let it grow was the same. As was the winsome smile.
Until he paused in front of Elise and caught sight of Juliet. The smile slipped a touch as his gaze cut between the two women. “Ms. Arundel. It’s nice to see you again.”
Finn extended his hand and took Elise’s, drawing her forward to buss her cheek as if they were old friends. To Juliet, he simply said, “Ms. Villere. What a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t aware you were on this side of the world.”
In spite of the frost in his tone, his voice flipped her stomach, as it always had. More so because it had been so long since she’d heard someone speak with the cadence intrinsic to people from Delamer.
“The surprise is mutual,” she assured him, shocked her throat hadn’t gone the way of her lungs, which seemed to be broken. She couldn’t breathe. The ballroom’s walls contracted, stealing what air remained in the room. “Though I’m reserving judgment on whether it’s pleasant.”
Stupid mouth had gotten away from her again. The laser-sharp eyes of the crowd branded her back and she became aware of exactly how many people were witnessing this public meeting between Prince Alain and a woman they no doubt vaguely recognized. Wouldn’t take long to do an internet search and find videos, pictures and news reports of the scandal. It h
ad garnered a ton of press.
His expression darkened. “Be sure to inform me when you decide. If you’ll excuse me, I have business with Ms. Arundel which is not of your concern.”
Finn was in rare His-Royal-Highness mode. She hated it when he got that way.
“Actually,” Elise corrected with a nervous laugh and held a palm out, “Juliet is your match.”
Copyright © 2014 by Kat Cantrell
ISBN-13: 9781460336908
REDEEMING THE CEO COWBOY
Copyright © 2014 by Charlene Swink
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