#tuesdaytease 10.8.24

So.

I’m working on book 3 in the Heaven’s Matchmaker series, PERFECT MATCH. Here’s the cover:

As you can tell, this one takes place in the Spring ( spring flowers, see?)

Olivia has been trying to find a wife for Hunter for a few months. None of the matches work into a second date though and she can’t figure out why. Hunter, in her mind and on paper, is charming, rich, successful, compassionate, witty and ridiculously handsome. Any women, she thinks, would be thrilled to be matched with him. But…four women have all said the same thing: boring, reserved, not for me. etc. and Liv can’t understand this.

So, she comes up with a idea to find out why his dates turn out so bad. This snippet explains her plan: ( Hvae fun reading this because I had fun writing it.)

“The women I’ve introduced you to have looked perfectly ideal for you on paper. When you’ve met, though, something hasn’t…clicked…between you. From the feedback you’ve given and that I’ve received from the women, I feel as if I’m missing something.”

“What do you mean ‘missing something?’”

Be tactful, Liv. The guy has a good-sized ego, which, deservedly, he should, considering what he does for a living.

“Compatibility, shared interests, even lifestyle choices all go into creating a match between two people. And when all those things align, you can predict a couple will, too. But sometimes, something’s missing, some special something, some unqualifiable…” she raised her hands and snapped her fingers on both of them, “spark, that makes the match a done deal.”

“And you think, what? I’m not,” he mimicked her finger snap, “Sparking? I’ve got something missing?”

“Not you, no. Not at all. This isn’t a blame game. Well,” she tilted her head and grinned, “maybe for me it is, for not considering that after the second date didn’t…take.  I needed to explore further why it hadn’t and didn’t.”

He stared at her for a moment, and she could practically hear the gears grinding in his brilliant brain. “The second match was Jasmine Green,” he said.

She nodded.

“If I remember, I said that I wanted a second date. She was the one who backed off.”

She flapped her hand in the air. “But that had more to do with her than you. She was still reeling from her divorce and then having to move back home. I should have told her to wait, but she wanted to go out into the dating world again, so.” She shrugged. “I should have followed my first instinct.”

All of which was true, but it had been Jasmine who’d told her the morning after their dinner date that she’d found him stiff, ridiculously reserved, and that there was no chemistry there.

“And yet she’s getting married in two weeks to Donovan Boyd, so it seems she got over her,” he put his fingers up in air quotes and said, “reeling, fairly quick.”

“Which just goes to prove my theory. They had sparks from the moment they met, try though she did to deny them. But back to you.”

His brows lifted again.

“I think I need to find out a little more about you to determine exactly what it will take to ignite that spark in the next woman I think is perfect for you.”

“So, you do see me as the problem.” It wasn’t a question

The male ego was such a fragile ball of fluff. She sighed.

Gently, she laid a hand on his forearm and stared him straight in the eyes. “You are not a problem, nor do you have one,” she said firmly. “When it comes to the heart, it can be a fickle bitch when it wants something.”

“So now I’m fickle.” He blew out a breath and lifted his hands in the air.  “I’ve got unidentifiable relationship problems and I’m fickle. Great. No wonder my wife left me.”

For a hot second Liv worried she’d stepped over a line. But when one corner of his mouth lifted as he shook his head, she knew he wasn’t upset. That, and the real reason his wife had left him wasn’t anything to do with him and everything to do with the affair she was having with a partner in his medical practice.

She pursed her lips, narrowed her eyes, wordlessly telling him she was wise to him. His full, thick mouth split into a teasing smile of its own, making her heart skip a beat or two.

Matinee idol handsome was no misnomer when it came to Hunter Reinhart. The guy could have been a mega-star on looks alone.

 Liv’s thought that he’d be on her list if she was looking to get married again shoved back to the front of her brain.

On the list? Hell, no. He’d be at the top of it. Something, when she thought about it, that gave her a moment’s pause and stopped her in her mental tracks. There was no way she should be thinking of him in any kind of personal terms as marriage material, whether metaphorically or literally. He was a client.

A client.

And there were strict rules about clients. Rules that forbade ever –ever– crossing a line from a professional relationship into a…well, something that wasn’t client-based.

She was pulled from her thoughts when he asked, “So, why am I here, Olivia? You’ve obviously given this situation a great deal of thought, something I’m happy about, but in all honesty, I’m getting a bit unsure about this entire matchmaking thing. I thought by now I’d be settling down again. What do you think it’s going to take to find me a wife?”

A shudder ran down her spine as she snapped back to the reality at hand.

Olivia took a breath, eased it out while holding his gaze and said, “I think we should go on a date.”

Intrigued? Hahah.

I need to finish it, but I’m hoping for an early Spring 2025 release. Keep your fingers crossed for me.