Page 55 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“Sam? What happened between you and Carol Jean? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Sam pulled a shovel and rake out of Suzie’s shed and stared into the dark hole of the structure for a few seconds before turning and looking at her. He really did mind, but he was too much of a gentleman to ignore her.

“It just didn’t work, Suzie.”

“I really hate that. She’s a sweet girl.”

“She is that.”

“And you are such a great guy.”

“Well, I hope so.”

“You made such a cute couple.”

“So, people said.”

“What happened?”

Sam faced her.

“Turns out she likes girls better than boys.”

He watched Suzie’s eyes grow wide. “No.”

Nodding, he added.

“Oh, yes. Came as a surprise to me too but she’s happy as a clam now—or so she tells me. She emails occasionally from Phoenix, where she lives now. With her wife.”

“Well, I’ll be. I had no clue.”

“You’re not the only one.”

Suzie laid a hand on his forearm.

“Now, don’t you worry Sam. I’ll help find you a wife of your own. I’m pretty good at it!”

Clearing his throat, Sam squared himself in front of her.

“Don’t you have a book signing to get to today?”

She smiled and nodded.

“I do. And I need to get going. Now, don’t you fret, you here? I’ll be thinking about you.”

She turned and headed back toward her house.

Sam’s gut sank. “Suzie!”

he called out.

She turned.

“No matchmaking for me. You hear? I’m not into that kind of crap.”

Suzie flashed him one of her signature smiles, turned, and sashayed off.

“Crap is right,”

he muttered to himself.

“I need to nip this in the bud ASAP.”

****

People were lined up out the door. At the last minute, Nora and Becca decided to conduct a lottery for tickets to attend the press conference prior the book signing. Nora was a freakin’ mess. Becca was beside herself trying to keep her best friend from flittering away into nothingness, keeping the fans at bay, and dealing with the publicist and the producer from the new cable cooking station, Channeling Food. The author, Suzie Hart, was surprisingly calm.

“This is mega-big,”

Becca muttered while watching the surreal scene before her. Nora was chatting with the author in front of the signing table. The television people were setting up lights and microphone booms. A makeup girl was puffing and brushing and flitting around both Suzie and Nora. And the Channeling Food woman was making a beeline straight toward Becca.

Plum. Her name was Patricia Plum. Not usually one to remember names, Becca had decided early on that this one was a keeper in her brain.

“May I help you, Ms. Plum?”

“Water. We need three bottles of water.”

She nodded.

“Coming right up. I have them chilling in the back.”

She headed for the storage room. The click of Patricia’s heels followed, and she glanced over her shoulder.

“I need a quiet moment, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.”

Patricia followed her into the storage room.

A minute later Becca closed the door behind them, shutting out the noise. Moving to the small cooler with bottled water, she reached for one, wiped it off with a paper towel, and handed it to Patricia. She then gathered two more.

Patricia leaned against a shelf and put the icy bottle next to her forehead.

“I have one mother of a headache.”

Becca understood. She had a wee one, herself.

“I have something for that. Hold on.”

With the keys dangling from the lanyard around her neck, she unlocked a filing cabinet drawer and pulled out her purse. From there, she fished around for a bottle of aspirin and handed it to Patricia.

“Thank, God. And thank you.”

“Bad one?”

Patricia twisted the bottle cap and shook out a couple of white pills.

“Bad enough. Stress. Didn’t sleep much last night. In fact, haven’t slept a lot in weeks.”

She met Becca’s gaze head on, then tossed the pills in her mouth and took a drink of the water.

“My entire career is resting on this new show,”

she added after swallowing.

“Suzie’s show?”

“Yes. It’s different. It could be a winner or a bust. She’s an unknown in New York but I want to give her a shot. Instinct, you know. Feel it in my gut.”

“Seems like she’s pretty popular around here.”

Patricia nodded.

“Yes. We have the local angled covered and tied up with a bow, with additional thanks to your boss, Nora. I have to sell her to the nation though. I swindled this new network for a few episodes. I must make it work. She’s got a unique enough angle. I just hope it flies.”

Becca wondered what Nora had to do with all of this. The book signing, probably. She didn’t realize Suzie had an angle though. She should really pay more attention to the foodie trend, she guessed. “Angle?”

Handing the aspirin bottle back to Becca, she said.

“Oh, yes. Suzie is The Matchmaking Chef. Didn’t you know? That’s her new show. And we’re featuring her newly contracted cookbook, Perfectly Matched in the deal. Helluva marketing plan. We’re even going to feature some of her matchmaking successes on the show and in the book.”

She glanced at her watch.

“Damn. It’s almost time. I have to get back out there.”

She capped her water bottle and exited the storeroom.

Becca stared after her. Suzie Hart from Harbor Falls was a matchmaker? Who knew?

Quickly, she left the storage room herself and joined the others near the signing table. Nora stepped up beside her, her face beaming. She knew this moment was important for Nora and the store. Becca heard things like.

“quiet on the set”

an.

“places, please,”

and “rolling”

and then Suzie was being interviewed for the local television, followed by the television crew taking footage of Suzie’s publicist announcing the launch of her book tour. Then, Patricia Plum stepped up to the mic and announced Suzie’s new show, The Matchmaking Chef, on the new and upcoming cable food channel, Channeling Food.

Nora was practically squirming beside her. Becca glanced again to her friend’s face. Something was going on.

“And we are so happy to share,”

Patricia went on.

“that one of Suzie’s first episodes on The Matchmaking Chef, will feature recipes from her upcoming cookbook, Perfectly Matched, along with a matchmaking episode featuring Harbor Falls very own Nora Patterson, owner of Nora’s Novel Niche!”

The crowd clapped and hooted and Nora was waved closer to the camera and mic. She skittered forward, glowing and grinning, and glanced sideways at Becca—who was sure her mouth was hanging six inches from the floor.

The tramp!

****

Later, after the book signing was over, the crowd diminished, the camera crew gone, the New York people tucked into a cab headed toward the airport, and Suzie and her cute hubby on their way back to Sweet Hart Inn, Becca looked at her best friend and said.

“What in the world are you doing?”

Nora shrugged.

“I hired her. Sort of. Well, that’s how it started, anyway.”

“What?”

“Well, we were talking, Suzie and me, about the matchmaking thing. I was going to hire her to fix me up. We talked about a nice picnic lunch in the mountains. Maybe a blind date. Then that Plum woman overheard us, and the thing started snowballing. Before I knew it, I was signing something that said I agreed to be on an episode. Ack!”

“But you’re off men.”

“It’s just TV. Acting.”

“Oh, yeah. Right, Nora.”

“Truly!”

“Sounds a bit like reality TV to me.”

“Well, maybe a little.”

One corner of Nora’s mouth drew up.

“Patricia said I had good looks for television.”

Well, of course you do. That’s a given.

“And it would be wonderful promotion for the bookstore.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. Are you really doing this?”

“Yes!”

Becca shook her head.

“You forgot all about our calamari vow.”

“I’m not sure that vows made over calamari and martinis can be taken seriously.”

“I took it seriously.”

Dammit, I sacrificed a date with Mr. Hunky Gardener.

Nora stared at her.

“Becca, I want a boyfriend! Okay, so I’m breaking the calamari vow.”

“Dammit.”

That time she said it aloud. It came from her own mouth and she wasn’t quite sure why. What did it matter if Nora wanted to date? To be on a television show? What was it to her?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It didn’t change things one bit in Becca’s life.

I just don’t want to have to pick up the Nora pieces again.

“This is a good thing, Becca. Be happy for me! It will be fun.”

She jumped a little and twittered about.

“Hey! You can come with me. Check him out for me from the side. Give me your advice.”

My advice is to steer clear of blind dates!

Becca studied her friend’s face.

“No, Nora. This is your doing. Don’t drag me in the middle of this, you hear? Because I am off men. Totally. I am keeping our calamari vow. You hear me? I am so off dates, especially blind dates, and picnics, and reality TV shows…and men.”

Nora gave her a hug and squeeze, her eyes twinkling.

“Sure, you are. Got it.”