Page 40 of Matchmaking Under the Mistletoe

Everyone in the room looks around at each other, before Huey finally says, “Well, you see there may have been a little bit of meddling going on behind the scenes.”

“May have been?” I question as Huey glances down, unable to meet my gaze.

“All right, fine. Everyone in this room is guilty of being a nosey son of a bitch,” he admits.

Millie and I look at each other before both erupting into laughter. “No shit, Sherlock. So, go ahead and admit whatever it is you’ve done,” I command.

“Well, we might have meddled a bit, okay? We just saw immediately how good you and Millie would be together, so we made sure y’all had an opportunity to really get to know eachother,” Huey says, still refusing to make eye contact with either of us.

“Okayyyyy… How exactly did y’all manage that?” I ask, ready for him to spit it out.

“Ugh, y’all the gig’s up. Plus, it looks like it worked anyway. We might as well tell him what we did,” Bridget says, stepping out of the crowd.

“Thank God,” I murmur under my breath, waiting for her to continue.

“So, basically everything we’ve told y’all since Millie got into town is a complete lie… All those nights that you were supposed to have help, or the lights went out, or Huey had to run, or for an emergency, or whatever… We set all of that up to make sure y’all had to spend time together,” she admits proudly.

“I knew it,” I yell, shaking my head. “Stomach bug, my ass. And every time we couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone…”

Millie just laughs, thinking about all the “accidents” we’ve seen over the last few weeks before gasping. “Wait… My room… There’s no way…”

My eyes widen, looking at Bridget who grins. “Guilty…”

I groan. “Bridget, do you know how many times I’ve called the insurance company and the contractors… I wondered why you kept insisting that I didn’t need to go in there…”

She lets out a laugh before saying, “Relax, Brian. John with insurance and the contractors were all in on it too. And don’t pretend that y’all being roommates didn’t have its advantages.”

Millie and I shake our heads again at her comment before Millie says, “Y’all are too much. Wait…what if we really couldn’t stand each other, or I got freaked out, or…”

“Uhh, and this was where I came in.” I hear a voice say, causing Millie to look around frantically for the source.Wait… Is that who I think it is… There’s no way…

“Is that…” Millie says, continuing to look around at the faces in the crowd.

“Here, sis,” Lizzie’s voice calls and Bridget holds the phone up in front of her face where she’s FaceTiming my sister. “Damn, I really wish I was seeing that expression in person.”

With this latest twist, we’re officially speechless, so Millie just stammers. “Wh-wh-what? How? I don’t…”

“Well, you listed me as your emergency contact when you filled out your employee paperwork that first night, and after Bridget and Huey talked, they realized that y’all could be really good together. But we all knew it would take months for y’all to make the moves… So, they called me to see what I thought about doing a little matchmaking under the mistletoe.”

Millie’s no longer able to stop the laughter that has been building since her sister started her explanation, bursting into a fit of giggles. “Oh my word, you are such a traitor,” she accuses.

“Meh, don’t even pretend that you weren’t into him, sis.” Lizzie shrugs through the camera. “My job was to call Bridget if you started to get freaked out or if you didn’t seem too into him. If I did, she was going to claim that the room was fixed, and all our antics would stop. But we both know that didn’t happen…”

“And what about me?” I ask, not because I’m angry but more because I’m curious what their plan was.

“Uhh, sorry bro,” Will calls out sheepishly. “You know I usually stay out of stuff like this, but Caroline and the girls roped me in. When I showed up the other night, it was to see if their plan was working. If not, I was supposed to text Huey, and more of the volunteers would have shown up. But again…we both know how that went.”

It’s clear neither of us know what to say, because we stare at the room in shock for a few more minutes. Finally, I shake my head and admit. “This is not what I was expecting, and like you said, I can’t be too upset with the outcome. But did anyone evertell you that y’all are the noisiest group of people I’ve ever met? Like seriously, y’all have a problem.”

The room erupts into laughter at that, with several of the ladies nodding and giggling at my statement. Several of the locals start to make their way toward us, either to congratulate us or pester us for details, but before they get too close, I lean down and whisper in Millie’s ear. “Are you ready to get out of here? The band is finishing up, and if we don’t leave now, we’ll never get away from ‘em.”

“Brian, we can’t just leave! What about the clean up?” she asks, clearly already dreading the couple of hours it will probably take for us to get everything put away.

“Bridget can shut it down. Pretty sure it’s the least she can do after everything she pulled the last few weeks,” I growl, making her laugh before adding, “Plus, if I don’t get inside you soon, I’m gonna lose my fucking mind.”

“Let’s go,” she whispers, just as Miss Sally and Miss Ethel come closer. I try not to let my face show my impatience as they start asking questions, but our earlier confession has me completely focused on getting out of here as quickly as possible.

“Well girl, I reckon I was wrong about you,” Miss Sally admits begrudgingly to Millie. “But you just know, I ain't letting my guard down completely yet.”

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