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“Stop being so logical,” Willie groused. “You’re thinking with your head—”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Yes, well, it’s her heart we’re concerned with, isn’t it? That’s what we’ve been hired to engage. Why don’t you give the agency a chance before deciding it won’t work?”
“Maybe I’d be more willing to go along if it wasn’t for last month’s foul-up. Does that ring a bell? When your dearemployee kept matching everyone all by her lonesome? Wanda didn’t even have the computer—” He broke off with a frown. “What did she call it?”
“George.”
“She didn’t even have George plugged in.”
“Her success rate was phenomenal. You can’t argue with that.”
“Great, except for one small problem. Yellow Rose Matchmakers is billed as a computerized dating agency, remember?”
Willie dismissed that with another wave of her hand. “Minor details. The bottom line is... The agency made the matches and they all ended in matrimony. What makes you think this one won’t?”
Ty’s memory replayed a slow, husky Georgia drawl, the kind that slid all over a man before seeping deep inside. The kind that went with sultry nights, alarge bed and hours of hot, sweet loving. “I gather the lady is running scared.”
“Then we’ll have to be certain we pick someone who’ll break her in gently, won’t we?”
Ty’s mouth twitched. “You make her sound like a horse.”
Willie nodded. “In a way, Isuspect she’s a lot like a mare who’s had a rough first ride. It’s our job to make sure her next experience is more satisfactory.”
“Wrong.”
“Wrong?” Her eyebrows winged upward. “How’s that, boy?”
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her tanned cheek. “Making sure her next dating experience is satisfactory is your job, not ours.”
Willie simply smiled. “We’ll see.”
“Careful, Mom.Don’t peek.”
“Oh, Hutch. I’m going to trip. Is this blindfold really necessary?”
“I want it to be a surprise. And it won’t be if you peek.”
Cassidy chuckled. “I won’t look, Ipromise. But you’ll have to steer me. If I fall and break a leg, Iwon’t be much good as a waitress.” The words had barely escaped when her size ten sneakers tangled. “Dagnab it!”
Hutch helped prop her up. “Easy does it. Iwon’t let you fall. Now stand here for a minute while I open the gate.”
“There’s a gate?”
She tried to catch a glimpse of where they were headed from beneath the voluminous bandanna that served as a blindfold. Not that she wanted to spoil Hutch’s surprise. But she’d been wearing the darned thing ever since they’d gotten off the bus a few blocks back. It seemed a wise precaution to make sure she wasn’t about to stumble over her own two feet again. With her luck, she’d end up having all five feet eight inches sprawled in a jumbled heap of arms and legs across a painfully hard sidewalk.
She wrinkled her nose a couple of times hoping it might edge the bandanna up a bit, but it remained stubbornly in place. Her son had tied the blindfold with the same thoroughness he gave most of his endeavors.
“Don’t bother. Imade it tight.”
“Come on, sweetpea,” she said with a sigh. “Stop teasing. Where are we?”
“At your birthday present. Okay. Now, here come some steps. Put your hand on the banister. That’s it. And hold on to me with your other hand. One more step and we’ll be on the porch.”
An atypical nervousness assailed her. If she’d considered herself the least bit psychic, she’d have thought something momentous was about to occur. Of course, she no longer indulged in such foolish fantasies. She’d learned that painful lesson years ago. “Whose house is this?”
“Not telling. Just stand there while I open the door.”
