Page 26 of Accidentally Matched

After browsing through clients' needs and wants and matching up a few—because we believe in a human eye making the matches and not a bot—I devour a glazed donut and a cup of coffee, but now my fingers are sticky.

Sweetpea, sitting like the little princess she is in her little silk basket after daintily eating her own treat, follows me to the bathroom.

I wash my hands, dry them, and then squirt a dollop of hand lotion onto my palm. I’m out of the door while rubbing the cream into my hands, and then I stop dead in my tracks.

The reception ofLeashed to Love, is crammed with about twelve people ranging in age from grannies to aunts to twenty-somethings and even a five-year-old girl with pigtails. They’re all busy talking on top of each other.

Since I’m alone in the office today—Clem and Haley are meeting clients, respectively—I’ll have to handle this by myself.

They don’t see me coming from the other end of the reception. Umm... what is going on?

“Hello?” I say as cheerfully as I can muster. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, hello. Tierney. We’re so pleased to meet you, finally.” They all say at the same time, but completely out of tune. They start again. It sounds like a bigger mess than before. I hear snippets of how happy they are to meet me, and then they gush all over Sweetpea, who enjoys her stardom like a diva.

A tall blonde woman with eyes that remind me of Colter speaks. “Okay. One at a time,” she says, but they all start talking at the same time again. Another beautiful woman, this one reminds me of Nolan, gains control of the room by placing two of her fingers between her lips and issues a commanding whistle that instantly shuts everyone up.

“I’ll do the talking,” she says. “Everyone else, hush.” She turns to me. “Hi Tierney. Such a pretty name. You’re even more stunning in person. I’m Rebecca, Nolan’s sister. And that’s Colter’s sister, Marie, and Jace’s sister, Zoe. And the rest of them are aunts, grandmothers, cousins, and nieces.”

Oh, my god. Their family is in the reception ofLeashed to Love?

“Hi,” I say, waving to everyone. I still don’t know what’s going on.

“You must be wondering why we’ve stampeded your offices,” Marie says. “Only I, Rebecca, and Zoe were supposed to come by, but word got out and everyone and their mother wanted to come.” Marie laughs.

“We would like to hire you to find three brides for our three bachelor brothers,” Rebecca says.

“Me?” I squeak. I force myself to get a grip or hyperventilate. Of all the days, did both Clem and Haley have to be out of the office?

“Pretty, please,” Zoe says. “Since they’re doing nothing about it, we decided they needed a shove. It’s time they tie the knot once and for all.”

“You want me to find three brides for your brothers?” That is not my own voice. It’s not. I can’t help the emotions clogging up my throat or remove the incredible surprise in my voice. One minute they were making me come a thousand times, and the next I’m supposed to be finding them brides.

“Can we talk? Just us, Zoe, Rebecca, and me. Maybe a little privately?” Marie asks. “We have big plans, but this lot over here are all jabber mouths and will give it away.”

“Of course,” I say, so high-pitched, I silence the room. “Let’s talk in my office.”

Sweetpea walks extra close to me, brushing her soft fur against my legs, offering me strength. Okay, I need to find some balance and quickly.

My legs shaking, I lead Marie, Rebecca, and Zoe into my office.

“Please, have a seat.” I gesture to my pink overstuffed sofa. “Can I get you anything to drink?” I ask politely when in truth I’d rather see them go. The thought stops me short. I’m being ridiculous; what is actually wrong with me? Nothing. Everything is good. I got what I wanted, sexual things. They got their land, and now it’s over.

Mentally pulling myself up, I offer their sisters my brightest smile.

“What did you have in mind?” I ask in my sincerest voice.

“Well. We heard that they’ve been spending some time with you, and since you’re now friends, we thought you could matchmake our brothers with their future wives.” Rebecca smiles at me. They think I’mfriendswith Colter, Nolan, and Jace?

“You met them; you know how grumpy—” Marie says

“And pigheaded,” Zoe chimes in.

“And boorish they can be sometimes,” Rebecca takes over. “They refuse to settle down, have children, and our great grandmas aren’t getting younger, you know. What do you think?”

“I... I think... It’s a fabulous, fabulous idea. Fantastic. Brilliant. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this myself.”Shut up, Tierney.I reach for my tablet and start to take notes.

“Except we can’t do this the traditional way,” Marie says.

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