Page 12 of Forbidden Whispers

“Have you figured out which of your clients is leaving them?”

“No, it’s so strange,” Maggie said. “You know I always ask for feedback from every client. And unless someone is lying to me, so far, everyone has been really pleased with the process and the results.”

“Of course they have,” her friend answered loyally. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, Maggie. You’re bound to overcome a few negative comments.”

“Unless one of my clients ends up...murdered.” Maggie could barely get the last word out.

“I’m sure that won’t be the case. That police officer was probably right and she just went off somewhere on her own. You’ll find her.”

“I hope so.”

After promising to get together soon, they disconnected. Maggie resumed her perusal of Valentina’s file but didn’t find anything enlightening. She looked at her phone again to check the time and realized that Noah would be returning for her soon. She stuffed the pages into a file folder and then ran into the bathroom to check her appearance.

For her morning appointment, she’d selected a pretty, sky-blue summer dress. She knew it complimented her figure well. The length was short without being too short—showing off just the right amount of leg.

She freshened up her eye makeup and lip color, then critically analyzed the mass of blond corkscrew curls that framed her face and hung past her shoulders. Dampening her fingertips, she twirled a few of them to smooth out the frizz that had developed during her morning adventure with Noah. She thought about exchanging her understated necklace and earrings for something a bit more flashy but then gave herself a mental smack. What was she doing? This wasn’t a date. It was a rescue mission. Keep your head in the game, Milena!

But doing that was going to be quite the challenge around gorgeous Noah Riley. He was even better looking now than he’d been in high school. And he could still make her heart skip a beat when he turned those smoky gray eyes in her direction.

Not that he ever knew.

Even though they’d become close friends in high school, he’d spent most of his time jamming with his band and hanging out with his fellow music-loving friends—always with a different girl on his arm—while she’d ultimately wasted her time trying to make her long-term relationship with Joe work. She shook her head at the memory. She’d been loyal to a fault with Joe. No matter how many times he’d cheated on her, she’d always caved and taken him back, determined to make it work.

When she’d finally found the courage to break up with Joe for good during their senior year, it was Noah who had brought her solace. He’d stumbled across her in an empty classroom with tears streaming down her face. Without words, he’d pulled her into a tight embrace and allowed her to cry until she’d run dry.

“I just thought if I tried hard enough, showed him enough love, I could make it work. Make us work,” Maggie had confessed between sobs. “I feel like such a failure.”

“Oh, Mags,” Noah had said, pulling back so he could look down into her tear-stained face. “This is not on you. You are not a failure. True love should never be one-sided, where one person has to constantly fight to keep it alive. It should be effortless, like slipping on silk or gliding on waves. And it should make your soul sing, not weep in the quiet corners of empty classrooms.”

Maggie had smiled through her tears. “That sounds like the lyrics to one of your songs.”

Noah had grinned at that, gently wiping away her tears with his thumbs. Then his face had grown serious. “Joe is a total narcissist, Maggie. He never treated you the way you deserved. To be totally honest, he’s not good enough for you. You are worthy of...so much more than someone like him could possibly give.”

She’d almost imagined a choked sound to Noah’s voice when he’d said that last bit. And when she’d lifted her head to look back up at him, she saw something enigmatic glimmering in the depths of his eyes.

Over the next several months, they started spending more and more time together. Going out “just as friends.” And it wasn’t long before Maggie realized that her feelings for Noah ran much deeper than friendship. Maybe they had for a long time. But she’d been too wrapped up in trying to make her broken relationship work to notice.

Just before graduation, she’d finally decided to risk their friendship by telling Noah how she felt. She’d talked Jaime into coming with her to attend his band’s final gig before summer vacation, determined to talk with him at the end of the performance. But when a girl from his band wrapped her body around his and put him in a lip lock in the middle of the performance, she realized how ridiculous her idea was. He’d always been a good friend, but he’d never made a move beyond that. It was clear that he just wasn’t interested in her in that way. The crowd had cheered like crazy at the kiss, and any hope she’d had of a romantic relationship with Noah evaporated with that applause.

After that, he’d left town for the summer and she’d begun distancing herself from him because she knew that she could never go back to being just friends with him again. Then in the fall, they’d headed off to different colleges, providing the perfect opportunity to simply drift apart. It was painful at first to ignore his texts and emails. But after a while, they stopped coming, and she tried to forget about him and move on with her life.

Needless to say, she was shocked when he’d turned up requesting her matchmaking services. She doubted any woman around was immune to his charms and still couldn’t believe that he needed any help in that department.

Plus, finding the perfect woman for the man she had been in love with was about the last thing she wanted to do. But she squelched her personal feelings, determined to be a true professional with him and do her job.

The ring of her doorbell snapped her sharply out of her memories.

She gave herself one final glance in the mirror and then ran to the door. Swinging it wide, she sucked in a quiet breath as the handsome face of her imaginings looked down at her. He definitely cleaned up well. His deep, gray eyes were fringed with thick, dark lashes that most women would envy. The light bruise on his cheekbone didn’t do anything to detract from the strength of his chiseled jawline or the tantalizing dimple at the center of his chin, which almost seemed to beg for a kiss. His dark curls were still damp from his shower and combed back from his face. And he’d changed into a pair of jeans and a navy blue polo shirt.

“Can I come in?”

“What?” She felt a little dazed. “Oh, sorry! Yes, of course.” She moved back and he stepped inside, filling her small entrance with his lean, muscular frame.

She walked over to her kitchen table and picked up the file with Valentina’s paperwork. “I’ve gone through it but I didn’t find anything helpful.”

He looked disappointed. “Well then, I guess the best thing for us to do is ‘begin at the beginning,’ as Lewis Carroll famously wrote.”

“You know Alice in Wonderland?” she said with surprise.

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