An Engagement For Two. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ 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?”

      To the best of Theresa’s knowledge, none of their children knew anything about this side venture she and her two best friends were engaged in, despite the fact that they’d secretly arranged all four of their children’s marriages.

      “Apparently, Jewel told her,” Maizie said, shifting her gaze toward Cilia.

      Very little ruffled Cilia, but this clearly astonished her.

      “My Jewel?” Cilia asked incredulously. This was the first she’d heard even a hint of this. Certainly Jewel had never said anything to her.

      Maizie nodded. “Your Jewel,” she confirmed. “But the really astonishing thing about this is that Nikki wants me to ‘work my magic,’ as she put it, to arrange a match for her friend Mikki. The two of them were roommates all through college and then they graduated medical school together—”

      “Wait, so this Mikki you’re talking about, she’s a doctor?” Theresa asked, wanting to be absolutely sure she was getting the story straight before she allowed her imagination to run off with her.

      “That’s what usually happens when you graduate medical school,” Maizie replied, her voice somewhat strained.

      A doctor.

      That was all Theresa needed to hear. She clapped her hands together in a sudden, uncharacteristically overwhelming burst of joy.

      “Perfect!”

      Maizie glared at her friend oddly, wondering what had come over her. “I think so, too. But why did you just say that?”

      To explain, Theresa felt she had to backtrack a little. “Do you two remember Jeff Sabatino? That very handsome boy who used to work for me and then went on to open up his own restaurant right here in Bedford?” She looked at Maizie and Cilia, searching for any signs of recognition.

      “Oh, that’s right. Dinner for Two,” Maizie recalled. “I went there when it first opened. Wonderful food. You taught him well,” she told Theresa with a warm smile. And then she paused. “But why are you bringing him up?”

      “Well, initially I wanted to ask if Nikki could recommend a good doctor for his mother. Seems Mrs. Sabatino refuses to go see one, and Jeff thinks she’s in failing health,” Theresa answered. “He asked me to ask you to ask Nikki—”

      Cilia held up her hand, stopping her friend from continuing. “Cut to the bottom line, Theresa. None of us are as young as we used to be.”

      Maizie gave her friend a look. “Some of us are younger than others, Cilia—but yes, Theresa, what is the bottom line?”

      Theresa told them Jeff’s request. “Can you have Nikki recommend a good doctor—preferably female—with a good bedside manner?”

      Maizie hadn’t come this far in life without the aid of well-honed intuition. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

      Theresa loved it when things just all seemed to come together. They all did.

      “Well, Jeff is extremely good-looking. He’s got chiseled features and liquid green eyes a woman could get lost in,” she told her friends. “I’m speaking as a grandmother, by the way,” she added in case her friends had any doubts about her interest in the young man, “and there’s no girlfriend in the picture. He said something to the effect that he’d like to have kids, but he’s too busy right now making a go of his restaurant—and taking care of his mother.”

      Maizie needed no more. Her eyes lit up. “We could get two birds with one stone.”

      “Exactly what I was just thinking when you started talking about Nikki’s friend,” Theresa said. And then a bubble-bursting thought suddenly occurred to her. “This friend, she’s not a specialist, is she?”

      “From what I remember, Mikki is an internist who specializes in cardiology,” Maizie answered.

      She smiled broadly at the two other women sitting at the card table. A single hand hadn’t been dealt yet, and quite possibly, one wouldn’t be, at least not tonight, Maizie thought. Tonight was for making plans and laying groundwork.

      This was going to be good.

      Maizie smiled broadly at her friends. “Ladies, I believe—in the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous character, Sherlock Holmes—that the game is afoot.”

      “I think the quote ran a little differently than that,” Cilia corrected.

      Theresa waved her hand at the possible contradiction. “The exact wording doesn’t matter, Cilia. What does matter is that we just might have ourselves another match in the offing.”

      “Details,” Maizie said aloud what they were all thinking. “Let’s review details.” She turned toward Theresa. “You tell us about your former protégé and then I’ll tell you about my daughter’s friend so that there are no surprises—other than pleasant ones, of course,” she added.

      Theresa rubbed her hands together and smiled broadly at the two other women at the table. “I knew today was going to be a good day.”

      “Put СКАЧАТЬ