Page 14 of A Match Made at Christmas

“Pru.”

His voice called her back to reality. She really needed to get a hold of herself. This crush was worse than she thought. She looked at him. His brow was knit in a straight line, and he looked genuinely concerned. Happy-go-lucky Hayes McGuire was . . . worried?

“Why do you seem so shaken up?” she asked.

“Open the box.” His knee was bouncing—a surefire indication that he was panicked.

Her imagination ran off, and before she could catch it, she’d decided he’d found proof of his adoption or a death certificate with his own name on it or maybe a map that led to a sunken ship full of gold.

Instead, what she found inside the box was a small scrapbook, a stack of papers, some photos, and a small notebook labeled “The Rules.”

“What’s this?”

“That is from my Aunt Nellie,” he said. “Who has decided to pass down a very special tradition. To me.”

She thumbed through the scrapbook. Photos and names of various couples looked back at her. “What tradition?”

He waited until she met his eyes, stopped bouncing his knee, and leveled his gaze on her. “The tradition of Noni Rose.”

Pru frowned. “The matchmaker?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t understand.”

Hayes took a breath, then unloaded the most unbelievable story she’d ever heard. Not nearly as dramatic as his being adopted or discovering a lost treasure would’ve been, but unbelievable becauseWhat on earth was Aunt Nellie thinking?

He stopped talking and looked at her.

“Did I say that out loud?”

He nodded.

“It just seems a bit crazy, doesn’t it? I mean you—the notorious bachelor. You’re not married. You’re not even in a relationship. Have you ever even had a real relationship? Would you even know how?”

He eyed her. “It’s nice to know you think so little of me.”

There was something about the way he said it that made her wonder if she’d hurt his feelings. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “And I don’t completely disagree with you. It does seem a little crazy.”

“Then why did you say you would do it?”

He sank into the couch and let his head rest on the wall behind him. He released a heavy sigh. “She guilted me into it.”

Pru shook her head. “How?”

“She flattered me and told me she had a sense about me. Said I could read people. That I could disarm them. Said I was the only person she’d even considered asking to do this big favor for her.”

“Ah, so she stroked your ego,” Pru said.

“I guess.”

She grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him, hitting him square in the face. “Then it serves you right. You let your pride get you here, Hayes McGuire.”

He stuffed the pillow on his lap and leaned forward over the top of it. “This is crazy, Pru. I’m not a matchmaker.”

She watched him. “So, don’t do it.”

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