Wish Upon a Matchmaker by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-07-07T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“You’re breaking another date with me?”

Elizabeth Wells’s voice went down an octave as she came to the end of her sentence.

Rather than put off the ordeal, Stone had decided to get it over with as soon as he came home. He called Elizabeth on her cell a few minutes after he’d walked in and greeted his daughter and sister.

He could gauge Elizabeth’s displeasure by whether her voice rose or fell from its normal range. If it went up an octave or so, she was annoyed, but could be persuaded to come around and make the best of it. If her voice went down, the way it did now, then she was really angry, immovable and her forgiveness wouldn’t be forthcoming any time soon.

She made it sound as if he canceled dates on a regular basis. He could only recall twice, and both had been for legitimate reasons.

“It doesn’t happen that often,” he pointed out.

“Often enough,” Elizabeth informed him coolly. “I don’t like coming in third, Stone. I can handle second once in a while, but not third.”

He could almost hear the icicles forming in her voice. “Third?” he questioned. He had no idea what she was talking about.

“Yes, third,” Elizabeth emphasized. “After your work and your daughter. My job is just as demanding as yours, Stone. Probably more,” she told him haughtily. “I haven’t canceled on us even once.”

For a moment, he lost his temper. What had started out as an exceedingly pleasant relationship with a great deal of promise had progressively become less so. The list of red flags he needed to ignore grew rather long.

He knew for a fact that Elizabeth looked down at anyone who worked with their hands, feeling intellectually superior to them. He suspected that the only reason she was still willing to see him was because he had a degree in engineering and had worked in aerospace until the industry had all but disappeared from Southern California.

His ties to the area had him reinventing himself and using his fall-back skill from when he was working his way through college: carpentry. That eventually led to his getting a general contracting license and graduating from making cabinets to building and remodeling almost anything.

Since Elizabeth worked for the mayor’s office and had a degree in political science, she saw herself a cut above the people he associated with. Her attitude was getting to be a bit much to overlook.

“Did your boss ever ask you to?” he asked Elizabeth pointedly.

“What?” She snapped out the word impatiently. Elizabeth didn’t like being on the receiving end of questions that challenged her statements.

“Did your boss ever ask you to cancel your plans for the evening and work on something he needed done ASAP?” Stone asked, deliberately enunciating each word so that there was no mistaking his meaning.

“That’s not the point,” Elizabeth informed him frostily.

“I think it is.” This had all the earmarks of escalating into a full-fledged argument and he didn’t want that. Taking a breath, Stone focused his efforts on calming down.

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