Page 132 of The Merry Matchmaker

“You know, I’ve got some things I need to do early tomorrow,” she lied. “Maybe we should call it a night.”

Griff nodded and turned the car back out of the housing development they’d been in and onto the main street.

The ride back to her place was silent. Corky had run out of steam and was asleep. So was Stef’s brain because she couldn’t think of a thing to say.

They pulled up in front of her place, and Griff parked the car and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I clammed up. Sometimes...”

She laid a hand on his arm. “I understand. I really do.” This man wasn’t ready for a relationship. She managed a smile for him, then kissed his cheek. “Thanks for the burger.” Then she left the car and ran up the walk. She slipped inside her condo without looking back and shut the door behind her.

Frankie and Mitch spent the evening cuddling on her couch, watchingDie Hard—you had to over the holidays. It was the perfect way to end the day. Later, as he was leaving, he suggested she start thinking about what kind of honeymoon she wanted.

“Maybe someplace tropical,” she said.

“Just me and you and a bikini. Bikini optional,” he added with a grin.

Enjoying a tropical paradise with Mitch sounded wonderful.

Frankie was turning into her mother, because that night she, too, had a dream. This one wasn’t a pleasant dream of cruise ships and Santa hats. Or even tropical islands. And Elinor had inserted herself into the dream.

They were at sea, all right, but they weren’t on a big ship. Instead, the three of them were in a tiny life raft, floating in the middle of nowhere in shark-infested waters somewhere in the tropics. The sun was blazing, and they were sunburned and scraggly-looking with cracked lips. And Elinor was hysterical.

“Go ahead, feed me to the sharks,” she screeched. “You don’t care about me. All you care about is yourself! And Mitch. You didn’t even want him until I had him.”

“That’s not true,” Frankie protested. “I do care about you.”

“No, you don’t!” Elinor stood up, and their raft began to wobble like a floating bouncy house. “I’m going to jump. Nobody will care if I get eaten by sharks.”

“Mitch, do something,” Frankie cried.

He shrugged. “I can’t. Only you can save her.”

“It’s too late,” Elinor wailed, and jumped into the water with a great splash.

Frankie woke up just as a shark was swimming toward poor Elinor.

Okay, she really had to do something before Elinor got eaten by sharks.

Natalie was enjoying her usual Saturday home with her family, so it was Frankie, Elinor and Adele minding the shop. If Elinor’s attitude was any indication, the sharks had already been nibbling on her. Frankie was glad to have her mother with them as a buffer. Not only was Elinor’s expression glum, but any sympathy she might have felt for her widowed employer had vanished, and she kept looking at Frankie with judgy eyes. As if Frankie had deliberately set out to ruin her life.

“I didn’t,” she said to her mother after sending Elinor upstairs to start setting out Valentine decorations in their changing seasons section. “I mean, I knew I would, but... Darn it all, if she’d only given William a chance, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“William is a dear,” said Adele, “but you put him next to Mitch, and he fades. Mitch is the kind of man who makes women salivate. Add to that the fact that he’s just plain nice, and it’s no wonder she preferred him to William.”

“But William is also nice. And can’t you see him and Elinor curled up side by side in front of a roaring fire, reading books? If she’d wound up with Mitch, she’d have been hiking the Cascades. Does Elinor strike you as a hiker?”

“No, but neither do you.”

“Very funny. I’ve hiked with Mitch.”

“Hmm. I thought I heard you complaining about your feet hurting the whole time the last time you two went hiking.”

“My boots were pinching. Anyway, that’s not the point. Elinor needs her eyes opened. I don’t want her going into the new year miserable.”

“Frankiestein rides again,” Adele said with a shake of her head.

“Not this time. I had a dream, Mom,” Frankie said, and recapped the dream for her mother. “I know it meant I have to save her.”

“Or tell her not to go near the water.”

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