Matched For Love (Rocky Mountain Matchmaker Book 3)

by Tamra Baumann

  “Can’t. Got plans.” Rachel stood and stretched her arms above her head. “I’m beat. Thanks for dinner. It was great. I’m starting to get into this eating-for-three biz.”

  Plans? Rachel had said before dinner she was free to help with the house renovations next weekend. “What are you suddenly doing next Saturday?”

  “It’s a surprise. One you’re going to thank me for. Big-time.” She started to walk away but then stopped. “For the next few days, you and I are going to focus on loving ourselves. To stop taking any part of the blame for things others have done to us. To own our decisions, good or bad, and accept we made the best ones we could at the time. Because you know what they say, you can’t fall in love until you love yourself. Good night.”

  “Night, weirdo.” Geez. What had gotten into her sister? Must be pregnancy hormones. Lori picked up the remote again and searched for a movie to watch. She’d read the blurbs for fifteen until she found one that looked interesting. It was a classic called Pretty in Pink. The description read, Being from the “wrong side of the tracks” didn’t stop Andie from pursuing the guy she liked and going to the prom by herself. So what’s stopping you? Fear? Pffshh.

  Fear?

  She had her share of that. Was what Rachel said earlier true? When it came to men, was it fear of getting hurt that Lori was afraid of, or was it really the fear of making her own bad choices? She hadn’t chosen her cheater father. And after Mel’s confession, Lori was sure Joe would’ve never made that mistake again. He was truly sorry, and he’d loved her, so maybe she hadn’t chosen wrong there. And it was just a horrible twist of fate that Joe could never come home so they could’ve worked things out. Maybe had more kids.

  She was a strong, independent woman. She had already proved she could withstand being hurt. A lot. But she did hate to make mistakes. Hated when she fell short of her own high standards. Especially lately, with her slew of over commitments. Maybe she needed to give herself a break. To love herself enough to know that no matter what choice she made or what the world or others did to her, she’d still be just fine.

  It was a good plan, so now she was going to do something for herself for a change. Watch a movie of her choice, not Emily’s or her sister’s, and root for that girl to overcome her fears. And to get her guy.

  And when the next Mr. Right came along for her, she’d be ready, and brave enough to get her own guy too. Screw fear. She was ready to fall in love again.

  Well, after her heart healed, and she didn’t cry every time she thought of Deek, but after that, for sure.

  17

  VICTORIES RARELY COME CHEAP, BUT BOY, DO THEY TASTE SWEET.

  On Friday afternoon, Emily strolled into the kitchen with Asher’s birthday present. “Mom, can you help me wrap this?”

  “Sure. But I thought you wanted Aunt Rachel to help because she wraps prettier?” Lori refused to be insulted by that. Mostly because it was true. She had no time for perfect corners and symmetrically correct bows.

  “I did. But then that Marcello guy called on her computer again, and they started talking in Italian. She told him to wait and then pushed me out of her room. I asked why I couldn’t stay because it isn’t like I could understand what they were saying anyway. She said because she didn’t want me to see anything inappropriate. What does that even mean?”

  It probably meant her inappropriate sister was having video-chat sex. At least she was mending fences. “She has adult things to discuss with her boyfriend. That’s all. Here. Let’s see what we can do with that.”

  Lori laid the awkward five-sided package on the nook table and wished she’d bought a gift bag while they were at the store. Or that they had bought a present that came in a rectangular box. “Scissors, please, nurse.”

  Emily giggled and slapped the scissors in Lori’s hand. “Asher’s going to love this rubber band gun. I hope it’ll cheer him up.”

  “Tape in little strips please.” Lori awkwardly rolled the gift in wrapping paper while Emily tore off little pieces of tape and stuck them to the tabletop. “Why is Asher sad?”

  “Because his mom went back to Peru so soon.”

  It couldn’t be soon enough for Deek’s sake, but she kept that thought to herself. “But I bet he’s happy they finally got married, right?” It made her stomach hurt to think of it.

  Emily lined up the last of the tape pieces and then shook her head. “Asher said his parents got into a big fight last Saturday night, and then his mom packed her stuff. Must have been right before Mr. Cooper came to see you.”

  “He was here on Saturday?” Lori’s mind raced for reasons Deek hadn’t called her since then if he and Annie didn’t get married as planned. Maybe they’d just put the marriage off?

  “Yeah.” Emily stuck her tongue out as she taped the end seams on the gift. “He was talking to Aunt Rachel while you were at the store getting breadcrumbs.”

  She was going to kill her sister for not telling her. “So, did Asher say his parents were getting married later?”

  Emily shook her head. “His mom told him that Mr. Cooper ruined everything, so now they wouldn’t get married and she wouldn’t ever live with them. It was why she had to leave before his birthday.”

  Then why the hell hadn’t Deek called her? If he’d meant all those things he’d told her, why wasn’t he down on his knees and begging for her to come back? Telling her how sorry he was for choosing that user Annie over her?

  “I have to go run an errand. Tell my sister when she gets done that she’s got a lot of explaining to do and to be prepared to die.”

  Emily’s eyes went wide. “To die? Like daddy did?”

  “No. I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s a figure of speech.” Lori hugged Emily. What a bad choice of words. She’d never have used them if she weren’t so upset. “I just meant that Aunt Rachel is in big trouble with me. I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

  “But what about the gift?”

  Lori grabbed her purse and dug for her keys. “We’ll make Aunt Rachel do it when she’s done. Don’t bother her unless you’re bleeding, understand?”

  “No. But fine. Can I have a cookie?” Emily frowned as she tried to finish the wrapping job herself.

  “It’s too close to dinner.”

  Emily grumbled, “Who knows how late that’ll be now. I’m starving.”

  “Okay. But just one.” She kissed the top of Em’s head. “It’s Friday pizza night, so ask Aunt Rachel to order it as soon as she’s done. I’m sure she’ll have worked up an appetite too. Bye.”

  “I don’t know why both of you are acting so grumpy today.” Em went back to concentrating on her present.

  Yeah, well, Deek was about to see just how grumpy she could be.

  She did her best to keep a reasonable rate of speed as she drove to Deek’s house. She tried, but couldn’t come up with a logical explanation for his behavior, except for one. He’d lied about his feelings for her.

  And she and her newfound confidence that she and Rachel had been working on all week were not putting up with that without having a say in the end.

  When she arrived at Deek’s gate, she poked the call button. Asher’s voice rang out. “Who is it?”

  Lori took a deep breath to calm her voice. “Mrs. Went. Is your dad home?”

  The gate started opening before Asher answered, “He’s downstairs being grumpy in his study.”

  Must be a grump epidemic going around. “Thanks.” Lori drove up the long drive and parked under the tall portico. She grabbed her purse and walked to the open front door, while Asher waited for her with a sweet smile on his face.

  “Hi, Mrs. Went.” Asher closed the door behind her.

  “Hey, you. Happy birthday. Emily is looking forward to the party tomorrow.”

  He nodded. “Me too. See ya.” He ran up the stairs and left her standing all alone in the foyer.

  Lori walked toward the study and found the door slightly ajar. Should she knock? Or just barge in and blast him with the temper that she’d
brewed up on the drive over? Plan B sounded the most satisfying, so she poked the door open and walked inside. Deek had his head inside a Pac- Man machine, and only his fine, jean-clad rear end was visible. She didn’t want to scare him and make him hit his head like she’d done when he’d been fixing the pipes in her kitchen, so she cleared her throat. Loudly.

  He called out, “Just leave the plate on the desk, Mrs. Tomas.”

  Mrs. Tomas? That must be the housekeeper he mentioned before. “It’s me, Deek. And I need to talk to you. Now!”

  His shoulders jerked, and then he hit his head on the top of the machine with a loud thunk. He rubbed it as he turned around. He had his sexy glasses on and a T-shirt that said, Bad Spellers of The World—Untie! It was funny, but she refused to laugh. She’d stick to ripping the man a new one.

  Still rubbing his head, he said, “Hey, Lori. What are you doing here?” When he dropped his hand, it was covered in blood.

  She lurched forward. “I’m here for an explanation. But your head is bleeding. Let me see, please.”

  He bowed down so she could look at his wound. It didn’t look too serious. She dug through her purse and found her travel pack of tissues to stop the bleeding. She pulled the whole stack out. “Why haven’t you called me? I heard Annie’s been gone almost a week since you broke up with her.” She moved his bloody hand on top of the tissues. “Keep pressure on this for a few minutes.”

  Deek stood and blinked at her through his thick lenses. “I needed to come up with a story to tell you. Rachel looked at my idea on Wednesday and said I needed a Plan B. You’re a day early, and there are a few things to work out, but I think I can still show you.”

  She shook her head. “Why did you go see my sister? And what story?”

  Deek looked puzzled. “I never went to see your sister. I wanted to see you.”

  Lori drew a deep breath for patience. It was Deek, Mr. Literal, after all. “Okay, why did you come to my house last week?”

  “Oh. To apologize. But then Rachel said words mean jack, so I needed to do better than that.”

  Deek stood before her with a bloody hand on top of his head, looking utterly confused and making it very difficult to stay mad at him. But she was willing to make an effort. “So you thought waiting a week, and letting me imagine you and Annie getting married at the courthouse, and sleeping in the same bed this whole time was going to be better than saying, I’m sorry? Or, oh, and guess what? Annie’s out of the picture so we can be together again? Well, that plan stank, Deek! Maybe you’d better try some of those jack words on me quick before I really lose it!”

  “I didn’t know for sure you wanted me too. You never said how you felt about me. So I had to make you fall in love with me. That’s what I’ve been doing all damn week! Do you know how hard it is to do that? I’m no poet, Lori!”

  He was right. She hadn’t told him that she was falling in love with him. “You’ve been writing me poems?” She was quickly getting the sense that her anger might be a little premature.

  Deek winced. “I tried, but that wasn’t my forte. So I wrote you a new Pac- Man game. And if this doesn’t do the trick, I have something a little more commercial for you upstairs. I made the game extra hard because you’re so good at it. I didn’t want you to be bored.”

  “You wrote me a video game? Because you didn’t want me to be bored?” That was pretty sweet of him. But she still wasn’t understanding.

  He laid a hand on her back and moved her in front of the console. After he had closed the machine up, he pushed some buttons. “I wrote a lot of this on my computer back in college when I was too broke to buy that real machine upstairs. I bought this broken machine and gutted it this week, so it’s filled with brand-new electronics. The graphics are out of this world. I just modified the program. So I could tell you a story. You’ll get a little more after you beat each level. Kind of like Dungeons and Dragons married to Pac-Man.”

  He pressed the main button, and a smiling Princess Lori appeared on the screen. Before she began, she asked, “So this is some sort of apology?”

  “Yes. Well, no.” He lifted his free hand in frustration. “It’s my way of saying I’m in love with you, Lori. And hoping by the time you reach the end, you’ll be in love with me too.”

  She studied his eyes, which were slightly bigger than normal behind his glasses. What she saw in them, sincerity, kindness, sweetness, love, all the things that were Deek, made up for his blunder of not calling her. And it gave her the courage to tell him how she felt about him.

  She slipped her hands around his neck and said, “Would it ruin everything if I just told you I love you too, Deek?”

  “Oh, no you don’t. I haven’t slept in a week. You’re playing this damn game!”

  She laughed. “Asher’s right. You are grumpy.” She gave him a quick kiss. “But it’s kinda cute. Okay. Here goes.”

  She quickly did all the tasks on the first level that would’ve been like level five on the original game. She smiled when she saw she had earned a red-soled shoe along with her points. “That’s a nice touch, Deek. And it’s probably the closest I’ll ever come to owning my own.”

  He’d snuggled up behind her to watch. And to nibble on her neck a little, but he was careful not to distract her.

  “Oh, it gets better than shoes. Keep going.”

  He had no idea how much she liked fancy shoes, but she continued to the next level. He was right, the graphics were amazing, and the story characters looked just like her, him, Asher and Emily. She’d started out alone, added Emily to her tribe, and then Deek and Asher joined in to help her battle the creatures at the end of each scene to win more shoes for her, special weapons for Deek, and the kids won slices of pizza.

  And there was even a bad witch who looked like Annie. Lori especially loved capturing her and throwing her in a dungeon. “You can’t ever let Asher play this, Deek.” She held up a hand for a high five. “But good job so far.”

  He returned her hand slap. “No one will ever play this game but you, because of the special part at the end. The grand prize.”

  She hoped that they could celebrate that upstairs, so she hurried to finish and make that happen. By the time she got to the final level, Deek had depicted a story of the four of them, battling dragons, bad witches, and finally heading up a steep trail to a castle that looked suspiciously like his house, but with turrets added and a moat. But in the front yard was a sign on a post with the words “For Sale” hanging off it like the kind Realtors used. Behind it was a big heart with a keyhole in the middle. The instructions above it said, “Congratulations, Princess Lori. With the help of your loyal tribe, you have won. All of this kingdom belongs to you. Place the magic key you’ve earned into the lock. When it opens, you will activate the magic spell that can never be broken.”

  Lori glanced over her shoulder at Deek. “This is incredibly cheesy, but I’m loving it so much.” Lori placed her key into the lock, and the heart opened.

  Glitter and fairy dust filled the screen and swirled to reveal words that flew by too fast until they settled down to say, “You now own Deek’s heart for a hundred years, until the unbreakable spell wears off. After that, it’s up to you whether you keep him or trade up for a better geeky wizard. And because you’ve completed the game in record time, you have earned a timed bonus.”

  The screen zoomed into the castle, then into a fabulous bedroom, and then to a closet filled with designer shoes and gowns fit for a princess. There was even a shelf filled with glittering tiaras. Lori laid a hand over her heart, which wanted to burst with love for Deek.

  She turned around and hugged him. “As geeks go, I think I hit the jackpot. I’ll keep you at the end of the spell if it’s all the same to you.”

  His head had stopped bleeding, so he tossed the tissues in the trash and then grabbed her hand, placing it over his heart. “You told me that all this had to belong to you, Lori. And it does. No one else will ever own any of it. And to think it all happened because of a b
roken science fair project seems like it was fated to this nerd’s heart.”

  Lori blinked at him for a moment. That was something Joe would have said. It couldn’t be Joe’s spirit… No, that was impossible. “So what do you say, nerd? Want to go upstairs and lock the door?”

  “Yes. Because I need to show you Plan B.”

  She shook her head. “Plan A worked just fine.”

  “So indulge me, then. Please? And promise you’ll accept it because I really would like you to have it.” He leaned down and laid his lips on hers, and using his magic moves, shortly had her yearning for more as a warm heat settled into her belly.

  She would’ve said yes to anything at that moment. And she’d love it no matter what it was.

  He slowly leaned away and whispered, “So that felt like a yes?”

  “Yes. I promise to accept whatever it is. As long as you come with it.”

  He took her hand and led the way to the stairs. “You don’t have any choice. I studied ancient voodoo too. That was a real love spell I used on both of us. Can’t you feel it?”

  She laughed. “Actually, I can.”

  She followed him up the stairs as a thought occurred to her. “What if I couldn’t have passed a level? Would that mean I wouldn’t have won your heart?”

  He turned and smiled. “I had complete faith in you.”

  “Well, thanks. But I suppose since you wrote it, you’d know the override.”

  “And there’s that. But I’m super proud that you didn’t have to use it. We need to have that real Pac-Man contest very soon. I think you might be the first one who can legitimately beat me. Maybe.”

  She smacked the fine rear end that she was following behind. “You can count on it.”

  When they got to the bedroom, Deek locked the door behind them. Then he opened his nightstand drawer and pulled out a blindfold. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes. I’m all in.” Her heart skipped a beat at the prospect of benefiting from more of his research.

  After he’d tied the satin strings behind her head, he took her hand and drew her away from the bed and across the room. Maybe it was going to be shower fun and games. That’d work just fine for her.