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His father sat by her side every hour allowed by the hospital, withdrawn and refusing to discuss the next steps that needed to be taken. Mr. Stirling showed no emotion either, Rhett had told me, silent and seemingly unaffected by his wife’s demise.
“How are you?” Rhett asked, and I allowed him the turn of conversation, filling him in on my surprisingly peaceful morning and how I’d managed to keep my own sadness to a minimum for a change. While the beach walk hadn’t brought about happiness, it had kept depression at bay.
“When we hang up,” he said, “I want you to get on the app and search—”
“I prefer for ML to find her for us, Rhett,” I said, cutting him off mid-sentence. He knew how I felt about forcing something that wasn’t meant to be. I’d tried for three years and had failed every single time with women I thought might be a good match for us. “It’s what we created the app for—let her do her work.”
Lips tight, Rhett nodded. The hand rubbing over his scruffy jaw indicated his annoyance, but he didn’t argue.
My cell pinged from the cushion beside me, and I glanced down to find the Missing Link logo staring up at me. The slight, lingering heaviness over my heart dissipated as though swept away by a strong wind.
“What?” Rhett asked, and I realized I smiled.
“We have a match.” I propped my iPad on my drawn-up knees and grabbed my cell.
Rhett stayed silent while I opened the phone’s app.
“Red Headed Ray of Sunshine.” I read the woman’s profile name, an actual chuckle rumbling through my chest. The small avatar didn’t offer much at first glance, so I clicked on her image and swiped my fingers open across the screen to zoom in.
“Well?” Rhett prompted while I studied the woman.
“She’s a redhead. Green eyes caught twinkling with laughter.” A zap of excitement raced through me. “No makeup. Freckles. She’s stunning, Rhett. Absolutely beautiful.”
“What does her write-up say?”
A twinge of guilt twisted through me from having focused on her appearance. I tended toward shallow at times, looking for physical attraction first while Rhett would have preferred to see their retirement plan.
“She’s twenty-four,” I noted—perfect age to bear children if she was able and willing.
“Too young.” Rhett grunted over the eleven-year age difference between her and us.
I ignored him.
The short summary she’d written about herself spilled from my lips as I rushed through the words, my grin stretching with every fragmented sentence she’d typed out.
“She’s perfect,” I whispered, flipping back to her profile picture and imagining her barefoot, belly swollen with my child, her laughter in our ears and Rhett’s happiness evident on his face.
“No woman is perfect,” Rhett stated, but I brushed off his warning, too caught up in the fantasy of her sunshine filling us both up to overflowing.
Of all the days to find the woman to brighten our lives…
“It’s fate, Rhett,” I whispered. “I know it—I can feel it.”
Rhett grunted, and I shot him a frown. “It’s possible,” I insisted.
“You need to guard your heart and not let your emotions override your better sense.”
“I’m going to poke her,” I stated, not heeding the advice I’d heard countless times.
“I would prefer to run a background check on her first, Ash.”
He had done so with every single type A woman Missing Link had matched us with, going behind the scenes to retrieve their personal information. I had felt all kinds of wrong doing so, like it was an act of invading privacy, but Rhett’s plans for finding us the right woman wouldn’t be swayed off course.
“No,” I stated firmly, determined to allow things to evolve organically for a change. “No more manipulating the outcomes. You made the decision to give this a shot one last time, so we’re going to do it my way. No sneakiness. No vetting before poking. No digging into a woman’s past to make sure they measure up to your high standards.”
“Ash…”
“You gave me this opportunity by changing our match preference.” I held his gaze, hating that cyberspace hung between us rather than shared air. “Please allow the rest to unfold in the manner we meant for this app to work. Yes, I’ll guard my heart, but you ought to let go of your need for control. Trust me to know what is best for us.”