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She laughed again. “I’ll forgive you for not being absolutely fascinated with the notion of love, like my daughter, if you tell me you have some handsome single friends.”
Eva gasped. “Only if you’re into men afraid of a real grownup relationship.”
“Or maybe they just reject the notion of being tied to one person for the rest of their lives,” I shot back, feeling my pulse kick up when she stood and got in my face.
“Or maybe they’re too emotionally stunted to appreciate what it means to share a life with someone.”
“Ball and chain,” I said, enunciating each word slowly. Carefully.
“Five. Finger. Girlfriend. At some point, you’ll be the gross old guys at the club.”
I barked out a laugh. “Never gonna happen, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she practically growled, but it had all the ferocity of a newborn kitten.
“Sure thing. Honey.”
Mirabelle cleared her throat. Loudly. “Seems like you two have some, ah, tension to work through. Maybe not in this room, though?”
“Mama, please. Get your mind out of the gutter while I go find your doctor.” She stomped from the room, as pretty as a picture and as skittish as a housefly.
“So, Oliver, are your people from Texas or is that a hint of Louisiana Bayou I hear?” It never got old, the way people down here asked about family.
“Some. My great-grandfather spent a few years down here writing and I came to research him. Never left. Most of my family is from Oregon.” Though how many still lived there at this point was anybody’s guess.
“Good. How does your mama feel about raising a confirmed bachelor?”
“Completely devastated, Mira, but I have two siblings she can keep pestering for grandchildren.”
Mirabelle sighed. “And I only have the one, so about those handsome friends of yours?”
I laughed as Eva walked back in, a small woman with gray and brown hair behind her. “Mama, focus on your health for the next five minutes, please. This is Dr. Evans.” As soon as the doctor occupied her mother, Eva grabbed my arm and practically dragged me from her mother’s hospital room. “If you stay any longer, she’ll have your mama’s name and we’ll both be sunk, engaged to each other by end of summer.”
“What?” I didn’t even know what she was talking about or how the topic of marriage had come up so quickly. “Seriously, what are you talking about?”
Eva laughed and shook her head. “Exactly. Remember that reaction next time you want to get chummy with my mama, or anyone’s mama. And call Olive to reschedule. ASAP.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I gave her a smile and a salute, satisfied everything was fine, and left the hospital feeling better.
Much better.Eva“Don’t you even think about it, Mama.” I pointed a finger at my mama, who wore a gleam in her eyes that I recognized well. Too well.
“What?” she asked, feigning innocence when we both knew better. Oliver was exactly the kind of perfect blond-haired, blue-eyed gorgeousness that she gravitated to. Especially for me. “A handsome man rushes to the hospital to make sure my daughter is all right and it’s a crime for me to be curious?” She huffed in offense, sniffing the air for good measure as she turned toward the window.
“Mama, he’s the man who trashed my business to hundreds of thousands of men. Single men.” That was the hardest part of the matchmaking business—getting single men to own up to the fact that they actually wanted to get married and start a family. “Now I’m stuck with this stupid bet to get him to be a decent human being.” Even as I said the words, they felt wrong on my tongue. I knew they weren’t true. Oliver was the type of guy who gave up personal time to hang out with a kid on the cusp of trouble or greatness. And, like Mama said, he had rushed here to check on me. He was a decent human being. More than.
“No, not that. My goal here is to get him to say something nice about dating and relationships, maybe even Time For Love.” That would be a battle on its own, when I managed to win the bet, but the terms were set. It was too late to back out.
Mama nodded, a wistful smile on her face as she leaned back and stared up at me. “Your father was a gorgeous man and all the girls panted after him, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” I groaned, happy the doctor was gone and wouldn’t be privy to any other private conversations.
“He had no reason to want to settle down and I knew that, but I wanted a husband. A man with a good job that I could love and raise a family with. On our very first date, I told him as much. I know you girls don’t do that these days, but times were different.”
