Four Christmas Matchmakers

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “The quadruplets are going to miss Zeus,” Sarabeth predicted, still holding on to the leash. “They’ve never really been away from him.”

  Or their mom, either, Cade thought. Since it was Shawn who traveled constantly for his job as tech company sales VP, and Sarabeth who stayed in Laramie with the kids. A fact that seemed to have taken a toll on their marriage, if the aloofness between them was any indication.

  Predictably, Shawn dismissed the worry. “They’ll be fine,” he said. “Although speaking of our girls.” He looked at Cade. “I understand you won’t be helping out Allison after all.”

  “She wasn’t too happy we even suggested it.” Sarabeth sighed, moving even closer to their dog, petting the very top of Zeus’s head. “Which makes me wonder if I should even go.”

  Cade knew that would be a mistake, if the couple wanted to get their relationship on a better footing. “Hey, you have to be there for Shawn’s big award. Luxury hotel. Champagne and room service. Prime skiing. You have to go.”

  Shawn looked at his wife, with just a fraction of the hope he’d possessed when they had married seven years prior. Sarabeth tensed, her reluctance coming through loud and clear.

  “I’ll make sure everything is fine here,” Cade reassured her.

  Sarabeth hesitated. “But if Allison won’t let you help...”

  He was still hoping he could change that decision. “Then I’ll enlist my family or some of the other moms from the Laramie Multiples Club. She’s a lot less likely to say no to any of them.”

  Sarabeth tensed. “I just hate to impose, especially during the holidays because everyone is so busy.”

  Shawn looked at his watch. Done arguing. “We really need to leave, honey. It’s going to take us two and a half hours to get to the Dallas airport.”

  Cade walked with them to his pal’s car. “Allison will be fine,” he predicted. “You know what a perfectionist she is. She probably has everything planned down to the last second.” In fact, she’d still be organizing every second of their life if they had stayed together.

  “I know.” Sarabeth sighed again. She turned the leash over to Cade. “That’s kind of what worries me...”

  Figuring if he stayed much longer Sarabeth really would talk herself out of going, Cade wished them a good weekend, then headed down the sidewalk and helped Zeus into the front seat of his pickup truck. The Lab sighed loudly and lay down across the bench seat, then put his head in Cade’s lap.

  “I hate to do this to you,” he said, “but I’m going to have to run off almost as soon as I get you settled at my place. I have an appointment this morning. And it’s one that really has to go well,” he added, as Zeus looked up at him, listening intently. “I promise, though, I’ll take good care of you.”

  The pooch snuggled closer.

  Back at his place, Cade took everything inside. Set up Zeus’s bed and water dish, then went to change clothes. By the time he returned, the Lab was already curled up in his bed, his chin resting on the bolster edge. Cade knelt to pet him. “See you later, buddy.”

  Zeus looked up at him, as if silently trying to communicate something. What, Cade wasn’t sure. Wondering if he were already homesick, Cade reassured him, “Your family is going to be fine.”

  Zeus’s brow furrowed.

  “Sarabeth and Shawn will be back from their trip before you know it.”

  Zeus continued to stare.

  Cade scratched him behind the ear. “The quadruplets will be with Allison. I know you’d like to be there, too, but she’s been pretty clear. She doesn’t need any assistance.”

  Zeus made a short snorting sound of disagreement.

  Cade rolled his eyes, sharing the Labrador’s frustration. “Yeah, well, that’s my ex for ya. I can’t exactly change her, not at this late date.”

  Zeus lifted one eyebrow, then the other. His eyes remained locked on Cade’s, beseeching silently. “I promise,” he said firmly, giving him a final pat. “If there’s trouble, we’ll find a way to help. Whether Allison wants us to or not.”

  In the meantime, he had a very important meeting to attend.

  * * *

  To Allison’s relief, retrieving the girls from preschool went smoothly. Of course, all she had to do was drive Sarabeth’s Suburban through the pickup line and wait while the prekindergarten volunteer moms shepherded Amber, Jade, Sienna and Hazel to the SUV and loaded them inside the vehicle. As soon as all the safety harnesses were on, she followed the directions of the dad directing traffic and eased away from the school, heading back to the Bailey home.

  And it was only when they walked inside that trouble started. Amber looked around and saw Zeus’s downstairs dog bed was missing. “Where’s Zeus?” she demanded in concern. Like her three sisters, she had chin-length naturally curly brown hair and cornflower blue eyes. They were allowed to pick out their own clothes, so they only dressed alike on special occasions. Today, in deference to the chilly winter weather, they were wearing wool socks and sneakers, corduroy pants and turtleneck tops in a rainbow of colors.

  Determined to get off to an organized start, Allison helped the girls off with their coats and hung them up in the front hall closet, while they took their backpacks and empty reusable lunch sacks to the kitchen. “Zeus is staying with Cade Lockhart while your mom and dad are away, remember?”

  “But I want him here!” Sienna said stubbornly.

  Jade moved closer to Allison and curled her fingers in Allison’s wool skirt. “He might be lonely.”

  Hazel did a series of cartwheels through the front hall alongside the staircase, then stuck her index fingers at the edges of her mouth, wrinkled her nose and pulled her lips taut while making a goofy face. “I want to go get him!” she said.

  “Me, too!” Amber chimed in.

  “I’ll get his leash,” Jade said, eager to help. She frowned, staring at the newel post where it was usually looped. “It’s gone, too!”

  Amber started to cry loudly. Her sisters joined in. Soon, all four were sobbing as if their hearts would break. Allison did her best to calm them. To no avail. One minute passed, then several more, and they were still all completely distraught.

  Not sure what to do, just knowing she couldn’t possibly call Sarabeth for advice because their plane for Switzerland had already taken off from Dallas, she took her cell phone into the kitchen and, referring to the emergency numbers left on the front of the fridge, called Cade. To her relief, he picked up right away. “What’s going on there?” he said.

  Allison tried talking, but he couldn’t hear her, even when she shouted to be heard over the din. So she stepped into the laundry room and shut the door behind her. The racket could still be heard, but it was muted now. “The girls miss Zeus!”

  “Want me to bring him over for a visit?” Cade asked.

  Grateful to find him sounding helpful instead of smug, given how positive she had been that his assistance would not be necessary, she drew a bolstering breath. “Can you?”

  Cade paused, and just like that, she could picture him trying to work out the logistics, his ruggedly handsome face creased with concern.

  “Yeah. It’s going to take me about twenty minutes to get there, because I’m not home right now, but I can do that.”

  In the living room, the sobbing increased exponentially. Abruptly, they weren’t the only ones who needed a much stronger shoulder to lean on. “The sooner the better.” Allison pushed the words around the growing lump in her throat.

  “In the meantime,” he said, as gentle as always in traumatic moments like this, “why don’t you let me talk to them for a second.”

  Allison opened the laundry room door. “Okay. I’ll try.” She walked back into the living room, where the drama continued. While she had no doubt the girls were genuinely sad, and a little worried because this was the first time since they were born that they had been away from
both parents for more than a few hours at a time, she could also see there was a little bit of the budding thespians in the situation. Because they were now definitely trying to outdo each other with operatic intensity.

  She put Cade on speaker and signaled a time-out. “Girls!” she shouted. “Cade wants to talk to you about Zeus!”

  To her surprise, they immediately stopped wailing.

  “Girls.” Cade’s voice rumbled out of the cell phone speaker. “Zeus misses you, too, and I’m going to bring him right over, but it’s going to take me a little while to get there. So, are you cool with that? Because if you-all keep crying like that, you’re probably going to scare him,” Cade warned dramatically. “Or at least make him very sad.”

  Amber smeared the moisture from her face. “We’ll stop crying.”

  “We promise,” Jade agreed.

  Sienna looked only partly mollified but finally said, “Okay.” While Hazel went back to making goofy faces and doing cartwheels around the room.

  “You got this, Allie?” Cade asked.

  It had been a long time since he had called her that. Too long.

  “I do,” Allison said. She switched off speaker, then, feeling a little more rattled than she cared to admit, murmured ever so softly, “Just don’t take too long.”

  * * *

  “Wow. It’s really peaceful in here, considering what it sounded like twenty minutes ago.” Cade strolled in, Zeus at his side. He was surprisingly dressed up in an expensive sport coat that brought out the espresso of his eyes, a button-up shirt that was a single shade lighter and coordinating tie. Instead of the tailored slacks she imagined went with the pricey ensemble, he was wearing dark denim jeans and boots.

  Beginning to feel a little embarrassed to have been so quick to sound the alarm, she said, “The girls calmed down the instant they heard you were coming over. They went upstairs to play while they were waiting.”

  “No surprise there,” he teased. “I have that effect on all the ladies.”

  Acutely aware she’d been relieved to have him rushing to their rescue, too, Allison rolled her eyes. “And humble, too.”

  He chuckled, the sound as soothing as it was arousing. His handsome face splitting into the wide, charming grin she’d never quite stopped dreaming about, Cade bent to unsnap the leash from the black Lab’s collar.

  Schooling herself to calm down, Allison called up the stairs, “Girls? Cade is here with Zeus!”

  Excited squeals followed. All four girls came running, each of them looking disheveled in different ways. Amber had her sleeves rolled up past her elbows. Sienna’s hair was falling out of her barrette. Hazel had taken her socks off and was barefoot. Jade had exchanged her corduroy pants for a pair of shorts.

  “Zeus!” they yelled in unison. Amber knelt to hug his head. The others followed suit, draping themselves across his body and burying their faces in his sleek, shiny coat.

  “We missed you so much!”

  “Don’t leave us again!”

  “We need you, sweet puppy!”

  Oh, dear, Allison thought, locking glances with Cade. How were the girls going to react when she had to tell them Zeus was leaving with Cade again? Not well, it appeared, since he seemed a little concerned, too.

  Amber let go of Zeus’s head and straightened up. “Is our after-school snack ready yet?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” Allison answered, aware Sarabeth usually scheduled that for 4:00 p.m. “But soon.” She wanted to do things as normally as possible. Sticking to a schedule always helped.

  “Then can we go upstairs and play some more while we wait?” Sienna asked happily.

  “Sure,” she said.

  The girls darted off, running up the stairs. Figuring she owed him something for his trouble, Allison asked, “Would you like to stay for tea with us?”

  Zeus made his way to the space where his bed usually sat beneath the front windows and lay down with a contented sigh.

  Cade ambled closer and gave her a slow, thorough once-over. “Tea?”

  Aware he had always been more of a straight black coffee guy, Allison led the way past the L-shaped sofa dominating the large open living space to the kitchen, where she’d been working both before and after she’d picked up the girls. The Carrara marble island top was covered with homemade goodies. Delicate tea cakes, picked up from the Sugar Buzz bakery in town and covered in holiday shades of white, green and red, were arranged on a crystal dish.

  She’d already put together a platter of beautifully arranged tiny chicken salad sandwiches. “The girls will be having raspberry lemonade. I wanted them to have something special. But I was going to have tea.” She pointed to the kettle on the stove. “I could fix you coffee or some other beverage, as well.”

  “Water is fine.” He lifted a brow in the direction of her camera on the opposite counter and the video recorder on the tripod. Came toward her. “What’s going on here?”

  Her heartbeat picked up again for no reason she could figure. She cleared her throat. “I’m working on tomorrow’s post.”

  “You’re going to write about babysitting?”

  Allison returned his assessing look. “No. Of course not.” She moved to put the island between them and went back to what she’d been doing before he’d rung the doorbell. “My blog is about living the happily single life of a professional woman. Preparing to host an afternoon tea, though, is something my readers really enjoy.”

  He watched her layer thin slices of cucumber on top of cream cheese, then put the crustless rectangles of bread together into dainty tea sandwiches, the same shape and size as the others.

  His gaze drifted over her white cashmere sweater and green wool skirt. “Also explains why you’re so dressed up.”

  Glad for the extra height her heels gave her, she said, “But not why you are.”

  For a moment, she thought he might tell her what he had been up to that required such fancy duds, but the moment passed and all he did was shrug.

  He turned his glance to the second floor. “Awfully quiet up there.”

  Too quiet, he seemed to think.

  After the riot of tears and drama earlier? “I don’t see that as a bad thing,” Allison murmured.

  The grooves on either side of his mouth deepened. “You wouldn’t. Given the fact you were an only child.”

  The sounds of several doors opening and closing came from upstairs. He remained where he was and continued listening intently, while Allison tried not to notice how handsome he was. An impossible task. Ignoring the tingle of sizzling awareness zipping through her, she retorted, “What’s that supposed to mean?” She hated it when he implied she was clueless.

  He continued standing there, hands on his hips. The edges of his sport coat brushed back to reveal his sinewy chest, trim waist and taut middle. With a crooked grin, he reminded her, “I grew up with four sisters and three brothers. And whenever we were that quiet, it was only because we were doing something we didn’t want discovered.”

  More footsteps could be heard scampering across the floors overhead, signaling the girls were beginning to get a little more rambunctious.

  Allison recalled his crew of siblings. They had definitely been rowdy in their younger days.

  Shawn and Sarabeth’s girls were different, however.

  Yes, they had been overwrought earlier, but that was before Zeus had arrived to comfort them. “I’m sure they are fine,” she reiterated firmly.

  “Maybe one of us should check on them anyway,” Cade said.

  Allison was about to tell him that really wasn’t necessary when her cell phone rang. She looked down at the screen, unable to help her mouth opening in a delighted “oh” of surprise.

  “Who is it?” he asked.

  “Laurel Grimes,” Allison admitted joyfully. “An executive producer from the Home Interior Television Network!”r />
  * * *

  Cade watched Allison turn her back to him, lift the phone to her ear and say hello. “No. It’s a perfect time,” she murmured silkily.

  Upstairs, he could hear the patter of little feet. Running in one direction, then another. More doors softly opening and closing.

  And still Allison talked animatedly. “Absolutely! Yes, of course... I would love to meet Tripp Taylor. Oh, and I’d be happy to do the initial interview via Skype at his convenience, whenever that is. Thank you! Yes, see you soon.”

  She ended the call.

  “I take it that was good news,” Cade remarked, his gaze drifting over her.

  Eyes sparkling happily, she moved close enough he could catch a whiff of her jasmine perfume. It was every bit as feminine and enticing as she was. “Very good news. Laurel said Tripp, the programming director of HITN, wants to meet me, too.”

  He trod carefully. “About...?”

  Blushing, Allison placed her hands on the counter on either side of her. She drew in a deep, enervating breath that lifted the soft swell of her breasts. “I’m in the running for a new TV show aimed at thirtysomething women who are contentedly single.”

  “Sounds like a perfect fit.”

  She turned toward the stove. Taking the kettle off, she poured hot water into the ceramic teapot. Let it sit. “Well, I haven’t gotten it yet.”

  Cade had always believed in her, the way she had believed in him. “You will.” Given how pretty and accomplished and talented she was, they’d be crazy not to take her.

  “I don’t know about that.” Allison emptied the newly warmed teapot. Then inserted several spoonfuls of loose tea, added more steaming water and put on the lid. Leaving it to steep, she turned back to him. “Jennifer Moore is the other lifestyle blogger still in the running.”

  Cade watched the silky ends of her dark hair brush the tops of her slender shoulders. It was shorter now, more sophisticated than when they’d been together. But just as touchable.