“She said you needed time to realize I was more to you than an extra brother, more than a friend. Maybe she thought we both had to be miserable apart before we could confront the possibility that we were meant to be together. She did tell me she’d had an idea from the start that we were a perfect match.”
Her brow furrowed. “But I was so sure you’d fall in love with Miranda,” she said. “I’m a matchmaker. I’m supposed to know these things.”
“You’re an apprentice matchmaker,” he confirmed. “And while I’m sure you’re very good at forecasting who’s most likely to fall in love with whom, you’ve got to leave a little bit of maneuvering room for other possibilities.”
She looked up at him, her eyes misting with hope and joy. “You’re sure you wouldn’t rather have Miranda?”
He cupped her face in his hands, thrilled at the possibilities doubling and tripling right before his eyes. “Positive. She wouldn’t have me on a bet…which works out amazingly well since I feel the same way about her. I’m crazy in love with you, Ainsley. Can’t you see that?”
Ainsley bit her lower lip, trying to hide its quivering. “But I’m not like her….”
“No,” he agreed. “You’re everything I want in a woman, everything I could ever hope to have in a wife.”
“A…a wife?”
“We have a lot of possibilities to explore, Ainsley, and while I know you may not be ready to marry me just yet, I think it’s only fair to warn you that I mean for us to spend the rest of our lives together. Starting now.”
She looped her hands around his neck. “You sound pretty certain of yourself, Doctor. Personally, I’d be easier to convince if there was a little less talk in your bedside manner and a whole lot more…”
He cut off her words with action and a kiss that introduced a whole new world of possibilities.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227972
Copyright © 2011 by Karen Whittenburg Crane
Originally published as THE MATCHMAKER’S APPRENTICE
Copyright © 2004 by Karen Whittenburg Crane
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Just What the Doctor Ordered Page 19