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Nikki took a breath, then blurted it out. “That you arranged to bring Lucas and me together.”
Maizie smiled. She was surprised that it had taken Nikki so long to come to this conclusion. “I see. Well, those were just the circumstances that arranged themselves, dear.”
“That you took advantage of,” Nikki said, knowing the way her mother operated.
Maizie tried to understand what her daughter was getting at. “You’re not telling me that, after all these years of marital bliss, you’re going to get upset with me for meddling in your life, are you?”
Untangling her fingers, Nikki gripped the chair’s armrests to keep her hands apart. “No, I’m not.”
“Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.” Maizie smiled at her. “Anything else?”
Nikki still hadn’t gotten to the reason she was here. “Yes, um...”
“Go ahead, dear,” Maizie urged patiently.
“I need you to meddle again, Mom.”
“You’re looking for another husband?” Maizie asked wryly.
Nikki’s eyes widened. For a moment, she didn’t realize that her mother was kidding. “No!”
“Good, because I really do like Lucas.” Still smiling, Maizie became serious. “Talk to me, Nikki,” she encouraged. “It never used to be this hard for us to talk. What’s on your mind?”
Nikki decided to choose a roundabout approach instead of being direct. “Do you remember my friend Michelle McKenna?”
“Mikki? Of course I remember her. Lovely girl. Not the best parents,” Maizie recalled, “but a lovely girl. She was over at the house a lot when you were younger and you two went to medical school together,” she said to prove that she really did remember the girl. “What about her?”
“I want you to do for her what you did for me,” Nikki said.
Ah, now it was all beginning to make sense, Maizie thought. “Does she know you’re asking me to...matchmake?” Maizie asked tactfully.
“Oh, no, no, and I don’t want her to know,” Nikki said with feeling. “She’d never agree to it.”
Maizie was well acquainted with that sort of reaction. “Why would you want me to do it, then?”
“Because she’s a wonderful person, Mom,” Nikki cried. “And she deserves to be happy. But I’m worried she’s going to wind up alone. She’s so afraid of making her mother’s mistakes, she won’t even think about going out with anyone.”
Maizie looked at her daughter thoughtfully. She was well aware of the other young woman’s situation. Mikki’s parents had fought constantly and then went through a vicious divorce when she was a preteen. Her mother went on to marry—and divorce—three more times. She had no idea how many times Mikki’s father had gone that route. The man had dropped out of sight, from what she gathered.
What she did know was that all this had taken a heavy toll on the young woman. She’d had Mikki stay over for sleepovers as often as she could to spare her daughter’s friend from witnessing the acrimony manifested by her parents.
“Will you do it, Mom? Will you work your magic for Mikki?” Nikki asked her.
Maizie was more than happy to help. “Yes, of course I will. On one condition, though,” she added, eyeing her daughter.
“What?” Nikki asked.
“You tell me how you found out that I had a hand in bringing you and Lucas together.”
Nikki laughed, relieved. “You mean other than the fact that I’m brilliant, like my mother?”
Maizie smiled. “Yes, other than that.”
“Jewel figured it out and told me,” Nikki answered. Jewel was Cilia’s daughter and she, like Theresa’s two offspring, was Nikki’s friend.
“I see.” She nodded, accepting the explanation at face value. “All right then, I’m going to need some current information about Mikki—it’s been a while since I’ve seen her,” Maizie told her daughter. And then she smiled. “Don’t worry, this’ll be painless, and Mikki will never know that you came to me—unless you want her to know,” she qualified.
“Heaven forbid,” Nikki cried. Then, in a more subdued voice, she asked, “Will you let me know who you pick out?”
Maizie smiled mysteriously. She knew it would be for the best if her daughter remained in the dark until the proper meeting was arranged and pulled off.
“Oh, darling, a magician never reveals her secrets,” Maizie told her daughter with a wink.
Chapter One (#ud9ad6dfc-c045-5e53-bf8c-312562824536)
“There’s someone to see you, Mrs. Manetti.”
Melinda Jacobsen’s announcement as she peered into Theresa’s back office was accompanied by a giggle best suited to the teenager she’d been eight years ago when she had first come to work for Theresa’s catering company in an apprentice capacity.
Theresa jotted down a last-minute thought about a menu she was creating in her notebook and then looked up.
“Bring her in, Melinda,” Theresa told the young woman whom she’d eventually placed in charge of baked goods.
Hearing Melinda giggle again, Theresa wondered what had come over her. Melinda was usually very levelheaded.
“It’s a he.” This time the giggle came before the words, further arousing Theresa’s curiosity.
In less than ten seconds, her curiosity was laid to rest. Jeff Sabatino stepped around Melinda and entered the small, crowded office where she took her calls and created the menus that made her catering business such a prosperous success.
As if reading her mind, the young woman reluctantly left the room before Theresa could ask her to leave.
The tall, broad-shouldered man with thick, slightly unruly dark hair smiled at his former boss. “Hello, Mrs. Manetti. I hope you don’t mind my stopping by without calling first.”
Jeff had gotten his start with Theresa’s catering business before branching out and opening his own restaurant a handful of years ago. Theresa had been one of his first customers and was proud of his success. She had always thought of him as a protégé.
“Of course I don’t mind. And Jeff, you own your own restaurant, and I saw that you’ve been getting some really stunning reviews lately. I think you can call me Theresa now,” she told him warmly. Theresa gestured toward the two chairs that were facing her desk, the ones where clients usually sat when they came to engage her services. “Please, sit.”
“That’s all right,” Jeff told her. “I’m not staying long.”
“Looking to buy me out?” Theresa asked with a trace of amusement. She knew that wasn’t the case, but Jeff appeared way too serious for this to be strictly a social call. “Or are you here because you need help—because your restaurant is doing so well, you find that you just can’t keep up with the demand?”
“Neither,” Jeff answered, “although I’ll never forget the debt I owe you. I would have been nothing more than a short-order cook if it hadn’t been for what you taught me.”
Theresa thought back to when he’d first walked into her establishment, a very handsome, very nervous young man with a great deal of promise. The memory warmed her heart and made her smile.
“Ah, but you had the potential to do so much more than that, and you wanted to learn. Desire is something I can’t teach, Jeff. Everything else, I can.” She assessed him more closely as she stood. She saw worry in his light green eyes. “This isn’t a social call, is it, Jeff?”
“Not exactly,” Jeff confessed.
Theresa made her way behind him to the door of her office and closed it. She had a feeling her former protégé would prefer privacy.
Turning around to face him, she said, “I’m listening.”
Now that he was here, Jeff wasn’t sure how to start. He wasn’t in the habit of asking for favors, especially not from the woman he credited with giving him not only his start, but also the push to open his own restaurant—not to mention that she had also lent him the money to get started.
He’d paid off the latter, but in his heart, he would forever be in Theresa Manetti’s debt. Which made coming here, hat in hand, rather awkward for him.
But this wasn’t for him, Jeff reminded himself. It was for his mother. Thinking of that now, he pushed on. “I remember that you once said one of your close friends has a daughter who’s a doctor.”
“I might have mentioned it,” Theresa recalled. “And if I did, I was talking about Maizie. Her daughter, Nikki, is a doctor.” A slight note of confusion entered her voice. “But Nikki’s a pediatrician and I don’t imagine that you’re looking for a baby doctor—are you?” she asked suddenly, looking at him in surprise.
It had been a while since she’d been in contact with Jeff, and although she would have liked to think he would have gotten in touch to tell her if he was getting married, she really had no guarantee of that. After all, he was a very busy young man these days.
“No,” Jeff quickly answered. “But your friend’s daughter does interact with other doctors, doesn’t she?” he asked. “At the hospital, I mean.”
She wasn’t accustomed to seeing Jeff this unsure of himself, not since he’d first come to work for her. She tried to set him at ease.
“Nikki’s a very friendly young woman, so yes, I’m sure she does. What’s this all about, Jeff? Are you ill?” she asked, displaying a deeply ingrained mother’s sense of concern.
He suddenly realized how he had to be coming across. “Oh, no, not me—”
“Your wife, then?” she asked, watching his face to see if she’d guessed correctly.
“No, no wife. No time,” Jeff added, then told her, “You know I’d never get married without inviting you, Mrs. Man—Theresa,” he corrected before she could. “You’re like a second mother to me.” He sighed. “Which brings me to my first mother.”
“Your mother’s ill?” Theresa asked, recalling how supportive the woman had been of her son when he’d first opened his restaurant, Dinner for Two. “What’s wrong, Jeff?”
“That’s why I need the name of a good doctor—preferably one with a really good bedside manner about him—or her,” he added quickly. “Actually, I think my mother would prefer a her,” he told Theresa. “As for me, I’d just prefer a good doctor.”
“When was the last time your mother saw a doctor?” Theresa asked, curious.
He really didn’t have to stop to think. He knew. His mother avoided doctors as if they carried the plague in their pocket. “When she gave birth to my sister. Tina’s twenty-nine now,” he added.
That was really hard to believe. “You’re kidding,” Theresa said.
“No, I’m not,” he said honestly. “My mother doesn’t trust doctors. A doctor misdiagnosed my father’s condition until it was too late to save him.” It had happened twenty-five years ago. At the age of ten, he’d suddenly been the man of the family. “He died.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Theresa said with genuine sympathy. “But that doesn’t mean all doctors are like that.”
He blew out a breath, feeling very weary all of a sudden. “I know that, but my mother, well, it’s hard to win an argument with her. However, she’s getting weaker and I just might be able to bully her into it—if I can find a competent, sympathetic doctor to take my mother to.”
“Which is where I come in,” Theresa concluded.
Jeff nodded. “Could you put me in contact with your friend’s daughter? Or have your friend’s daughter recommend someone to you? I don’t care how it’s done,” he told her, feeling just a little desperate, as if he was fighting the clock.
He had no idea just how serious his mother’s condition was, but she’d been in pain recently. A lot of pain. “I just need it done. I’ll take my mother to see this doctor on your say-so. My mom’s only sixty-five, Theresa, and she has a lot of life left—as long as I can get her to see reason and get treatment for whatever it is that’s making her feel so weak and ill.”
Theresa smiled at him. She found his concern for his mother touching.
“You’re a good son, Jeff,” she told him affectionately.
Jeff shrugged away the compliment. He appreciated what Theresa was saying, but he really needed the name of that doctor. “She’s a good mother. I’d like her to live long enough to see her grandkids.”
Theresa’s ears perked up. “So there is something I should know about?”
Jeff laughed softly. “My sister, Tina, has got two kids and my brother’s wife is two months away from giving birth to their first baby.”
Since he’d opened the door, Theresa saw no reason not to slip in and satisfy her curiosity. “What about you, Jeff? Would you like to have children?”
It wasn’t something he thought about often. “First I’d have to find a wife who would be willing to put up with my crazy hours—”
Theresa’s antennae went up a little higher. “But if you did?” she pressed.
“Then yes, I guess I’d like to have kids,” he allowed. “But right now, I just want to find someone who can get my mom well.”
Theresa nodded. “I’m on it,” she told the young man she thought of as a son. “Consider it already taken care of, Jeff,” she added with a smile.
He paused to kiss her cheek before leaving. “You’re the best,” he told her.
“At what I do, yes,” Theresa replied softly. She doubted that her former protégé heard as he hurried from her office.
* * *
“You’ll never guess who came to see me today,” Maizie Sommers told her two best friends as they all gathered around the card table in her family room for their weekly game of poker.
“Considering all the traffic that your office sees, my guess would be just about anybody,” Cilia Parnell quipped.
“Try harder,” Maizie coaxed, displaying her customary patience. “Who’s the one person you’d never think would come to see me? I’ll give you a hint—it’s about our matchmaking hobby,” she told her friends, her eyes shifting from Theresa to Cilia and then back again as she waited for one of them to make a guess.
“Well, that narrows it down to half the immediate world,” Cilia quipped. And then she took a closer look at her friend. “You look like the cat that ate the proverbial canary. I suggest you tell us or we’ll be sitting here guessing all evening—and getting it wrong.”
“Besides, I have to ask you something—and I have news,” Theresa announced excitedly, “so get on with it, Maizie. You know I hate it when you just leave off the ending like that.”
Maizie shook her head, surrendering. “Oh, all right. You two do take the fun out of this, you know that, don’t you?” she said, feigning disappointment.
“The person’s name?” Cilia prodded her friend, waiting.
She thought she’d at least get them to play along once or twice. However, since they didn’t, Maizie told them, “Nikki.”
Theresa looked slightly confused. “Your daughter, Nikki?”
“I’ve only got one daughter,” Maizie pointed out, thinking it was needless to add her name in like that. “Yes. Nikki.”
“She came to you about matchmaking?” Cilia asked, astonished.
“Yes,” Maizie replied patiently.
It didn’t make any sense to Theresa. “Well, your granddaughters are too young, so Nikki didn’t come about them—” And then something else occurred to her. “How does she know that you’re into matchmaking?”
