Wishing for Wonderful (Serendipity #3)(38)

~

“Go ahead and put the poster on the bulletin board,” Matthew said. “I’ll also ask around to see if I can find out anything.” His voice had the sound of casual consent, but the truth was he had already decided to do whatever he had to do to find that dog.

When Lindsay stepped out for lunch, he took the poster from the bulletin board, scanned it and posted the notice on seventeen different websites. Nine were Bichon Frise breeding farms, seven were animal rescue sites and one was an animal activist league.

~

On Tuesday at eleven-forty-five, Matthew asked Lindsay to check his afternoon appointment schedule.

“At two-thirty you’ve got Heidi for a check-up and there’s Sneakers at three-fifteen…” She rattled off a few more, but before she got to the end of the list he interrupted.

“Nothing until two-thirty, huh?” He gave her a mischievous grin. “Okay, we’ve got time. Let’s grab lunch.”

“Together?” Lindsay stammered.

“Of course, together.”

“But the office,” she said.

He laughed. “No problem. The boss will be out to lunch.” He walked over to the glass door and flipped the Open sign to the side that read “Back in 1 hour”.

Lindsay smiled. This invitation was even more than she’d been hoping for.

As it turned out, lunch lasted for well over an hour. Matthew was so different than the other men Lindsay had dated. There was no pretense, no come on. It was a friendship but a friendship that promised so much more. On the surface it seemed that she and Matthew had nothing in common, and yet they found a world of things to talk about. They spoke about the changes that had taken place in Cherry Hill, about old friends who had moved away and new restaurants they had yet to discover. He told her he loved Italian food and even though the very thought of garlic gave her heartburn, she claimed she did also. His eyes never left her face, and she hung on his every word.

“I’m impressed with your sensitivity over this dog.” He smiled at her and she blushed. “I’m serious,” he said earnestly. “I think you’d be great with all kinds of animals.”

“I’ve never really—” Lindsay was going to explain that it was just this one dog, but before she had the chance he interrupted.

“I was thinking maybe you’d like to learn to work with me as an assistant. You could do some easy things to get started, and I’d be right there beside you to help out.” He smiled, but it was a smile that told her this was would be much more than a job.

“That sounds great,” she said enthusiastically. She wanted him to know how pleased she was without giving away the secret of what she was feeling. What she’d been feeling for the past week. The truth was Lindsay more than liked the idea of being close to him. She wanted his hand to touch hers, his shoulder to brush against hers and she wanted to breathe in his musky scent then turn to find him so close she could again see the green flecks in his eyes.

Yes, she wanted all those things, but there was still that terrible fear. Love came at such a high price. You gave your heart to a man you trusted and then discovered the ugly truth. It was an irony of life that she’d learned the hard way. Men who seemed too wonderful to be true usually were.





That evening after dinner Lindsay remained in the kitchen. Supposedly she was there to help Eleanor with the dishes, but it was also an opportunity to bring up the subject of Matthew and his history with women.

“Has he had a thousand different girlfriends?” she asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Eleanor replied.

“Is he trustworthy?”

“As far as I know he is. I’ve never had reason to think otherwise.”

“Was he ever serious with anyone, or engaged?”

“Yes.”

There was a register of surprise in Lindsay’s voice when she said, “He was?”

Eleanor nodded. “It was shortly after he’d opened his practice. He was engaged to a lovely girl from Cherry Hill. I think her name was Brianna. She wanted to be a reporter, and when she got an offer from the Seattle Inquirer she moved out there.”

“Did he ask her not to go?”

“Whether he did or didn’t, I don’t know.” Eleanor shrugged. “I never asked. A situation like that is too close to the bone. If Matthew wanted to keep it to himself, I felt I should respect his wishes.”

Even though Lindsay couldn’t argue with what Eleanor said, she also couldn’t help but wonder if Matthew still had thoughts of Brianna.

Eleanor had moved on to slicing peaches for the next day’s garden club luncheon when Lindsay turned back and asked, “What did she look like?”

“What did who look like?”

“Brianna. What did she look like?”

Eleanor laughed out loud. “Good gracious, Lindsay, if that’s what you’re worrying about you can quit worrying. Brianna was eight years ago, and Matthew’s dated a dozen different girls since then. He’s not thinking about—”

“But what did she look like? Did she look like me?”

Eleanor shook her head. “Not at all.” She turned back to the peaches then added, “Brianna was six inches shorter than you and nowhere near as pretty.”

Lindsay came up behind Eleanor and hugged her.