Page 1 of Daddy's Little Matchmaker

CHAPTER ONE

Tessica Alvarez clicked her mouse to print the page she’d been working on and then closed the accounting software. She stood up, stretched, and picked up her purse and coat. Pulling the paper off the printer, she stepped out of the office to find Paul, the club’s owner. It was too early for the club to be open, so the hallway was well lit, and the click of her sensible pumps echoed in the silence. In the main room, she found Paul and his business partner, Tucker, setting up for the usual Friday night BDSM party at their club, Connections.

The men set down the massage table they were carrying.

Paul smiled at her. “All done?”

She nodded and handed him the sheet she’d printed. “All balanced for the fiscal month.”

“Great.” Paul glanced at the paper and nodded. “See you next Thursday for Littles’ night?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” Littles’ night was the only time her inner Mommy was truly happy. And once or twice a year, when she couldn’t ignore it any longer, she would discretely ask Paul for a private playdate to let her inner Little come out.

Tucker moved to her side. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Thanks.” She knew there was no point in arguing or saying it wasn’t necessary. She’d tried that a few times over the past five years, and it never worked. In her opinion, both Paul and Tucker were overly protective. But there were worse things for a man to be.

She fell in step beside Tucker and asked, “Did you have a good Christmas?”

“I did. How about you?”

Tessica smiled. “Both of my sons came over for dinner, and Aiden brought his new girlfriend. They chipped in together and got me a new KitchenAid.” When Tucker’s eyebrows furrowed, she added, “It’s a fancy mixer. I make a lot of cookies. It was really nice of them.”

“I do love your cookies.” He opened the back door for her.

Tessica slipped her winter coat over her blouse and frowned at the pouring rain. Her car was parked about twenty feet away, facing them in the back parking lot. “I can see my car. You can watch me from here and stay dry.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “See you next week.”

She flipped up her hood and made a dash past the dumpster against the club’s back wall, and across the lot to her car. She got in as quickly as possible, shut and locked the door, and waved to Tucker.

He waved back and closed the door.

She took off her hood, put her purse on the passenger seat and turned on the car so she could get the heater going. It was almost noon and she didn’t have to be at her secondary job until one-thirty. But her secondary job wasn’t just a job, it was a calling. Her work at the no-kill animal shelter was more fulfilling than her work as an accountant, even though her accounting business was twice as profitable.

Her phone pinged as a new text came in from Fiona, her boss at the animal shelter.

I made extra if you’d like to have lunch with me.

Tessica smiled and responded that she’d love to, because Fiona Doyle wasn’t just her boss. Fiona was also her best friend’s mother, and someone she’d known since high school. Tessica had been off work for the past week, so lunch would be the perfect time to catch up. She wanted to hear all the gossip from Fiona’s Christmas travels. Her three adult children, five adult grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren were scattered across the western half of the U.S. She made a point to visit them all during the last two weeks of December.

Tessica glanced out the windshield at the pouring rain and noticed little ice chunks in the mix. “Great,” she muttered. The constant rain was the only thing she didn’t like about living in Beaverton. According to the weather forecast, it wasn’t supposed to get cold enough to freeze, but hail wasn’t much fun to drive around in.

She put her phone away and turned on her headlights. Two beady eyes glowed back at her from under the dumpster. Tessica gasped and then took a closer look. The eyes blinked and turned away. An orange tabby cat slunk further under the dumpster.

She glared at the rain and then scowled at the roof of her car. “Really? I’m on my way to the shelter when I see a stray in the business district? If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.” She shook her head and muttered, “Thanks a lot. I really wanted to get soaked and possibly scratched today.”

Turning off the engine, she put the keys in her pocket, flipped up the hood on her coat, and got out of the car. She walked over to the dumpster and squatted down to look underneath. The big orange cat blinked at her from the other side. It was dirty and scruffy, and the tip of one ear was missing.

“Here kitty, kitty,” she called, holding out a hand. The cat blinked and didn’t move. “You look like you’ve lived quite thelife there, buddy. Probably seen the bad side of humanity, but maybe the good side, too?”

It still didn’t move. She grunted, stood up, walked to the other side of the dumpster, and squatted down again. The cat stared back from the side she’d just been on. “Sneaky little guy, aren’t you?”

“It’s okay,” she coaxed. “Come here, and I’ll take you someplace warm and dry, with all the food you can eat.”

The cat didn’t move. Sighing, she stood up and looked at the club door. She knew for a fact that Paul and Tucker would be more than happy to help her catch the cat. They’d probably even be irritated and lecture her if she didn’t ask for their help. But seeing more people around might make the cat run away before they could catch him.

Tessica came to a decision and trudged through the rain back to her car. She opened the passenger side, dug through her purse, and found the peanut butter granola bar she kept as an emergency snack. She tore open the package with her teeth on her way back to the dumpster. No longer concerned with keeping her skirt clean, she knelt on the pavement beside the dumpster. Breaking off a small chunk of granola, she put the rest in her pocket, and leaned down to set the chunk on the ground under the dumpster.

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