Ready for Her Close-up

That insight was enough for her to continue to relax her guard. He knew that he wasn’t just starting a new relationship and maneuvering through the normal obstacles that most couples experience. They had the added pressure of his being so unlike her Mr. Right.

She knew that she’d designed her list based on a fictional guy. Her father had divorced her mother when Gail was eight, so she only had vague impressions of him at home. Her mother had dated but never remarried, so Gail was pretty much left with movies and books to form her opinions of what she wanted in a man. Well, that and the men she’d dated, who’d left her wanting more.

“I’m aiming for a win-win here,” she said at last, because, if she was honest, she had no idea what else to say.

“Me too,” he said. “Once we land, do we have to do more camera work?”

“I’m not sure. I think they will tell us when we come down. Why?” she asked.

“If not, will you join me for a nightcap?”

She would have said no just twenty minutes ago, but now she wanted to spend more time with him to talk to him, and get to know his point of view. See how he really viewed the world. His public image was different from this private man, and she was determined to find out how much so.

She took a deep breath. It was easy to say she wanted to change and was willing to put herself out there, but the reality was so different. In her fantasy date, the man was everything that Hollywood and romance novels had groomed her to expect. But Russell was a mixture of those fantasies and reality.

She had to decide if she was ready to step out of those expectations and into Russell’s world. She was. She wouldn’t have signed up with a matchmaker otherwise. “Yes.”

“Good. I knew that this was going to be a good thing,” he said.

“Matchmaking?” she asked. “It’s strange. I’m really not sure if it’s going to work out or not. When I saw the ad for the service, it was New Year’s Eve and I’d had a little too much champagne.”

“And a bad date?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I was all alone and I resolved that I wouldn’t be next New Year’s Eve.”

“Well you’ve gone a good route to find a mate. Matchmaking is an old tradition,” he said.

“Even in Australia?” she asked. She wasn’t that well traveled and didn’t know what the customs were in other countries.

“I’m from New Zealand,” he said. “But, yes, even there. Some of the women in my town were mail-order brides.”

“Did you have any doubts about doing this?” she asked. She had been unsure as soon as she’d signed up. Writing the check had been easy, but as soon as she’d walked out the door of Matchmakers Inc., she’d started to feel so vulnerable and scared. At least the fee had been refunded once she’d been selected for the TV show.

“Lots of them, but then I thought, if a woman was brave enough to do this, I could handle it. Having another person pick a date for you isn’t any worse than meeting someone in a bar,” Russell said.

“I’ve never met a guy in a bar. Most of the men I dated were from work or classes.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “You don’t seem like the type of woman who’d allow a man to pick her up in a bar.”

“Why don’t I?” she asked.

“You wouldn’t have time to ask all your questions. Most men are looking for a quick score,” he said.

He looked over at her, and she wondered if she’d revealed something she shouldn’t have. She knew she didn’t always say the right thing with men. But then she took a deep breath as the chopper banked for its landing, and she saw her own reflection in the window. She was on a matchmaking reality television show with a billionaire playboy…. There was nothing familiar about this scenario, and she was going to just let it play out.

“What are you thinking?” he said, his voice intimately deep in her ears, thanks to the headphones.

“Just how unreal this entire thing is,” she said. “Not reality at all.”

He laughed. “I agree. But I don’t mind it. Dating hasn’t worked out for either of us in the real world, so this might actually work.”

She wasn’t betting on it. They landed and took off their headphones, as the pilot turned off the helicopter.

“Do we have to tell them we kissed?”

Russell caressed her arm and linked their fingers together. “That can be our secret.”

With those words, he made them a couple. They had a secret that was just between them and, in a night of showy emotion and put-on romance, it was the first genuine thing to happen.

“Okay,” she said. “I like the idea of that.”

“Good. I like the idea of you and me,” he said.

She did too. But why? She wanted to figure out what it was about Russell that drew her in so deeply, but she had a feeling that the emotions he brought to the fore in her weren’t going to be logical.

“Ready to face the cameras again?”

“Yes,” she said. And she was definitely ready to get to know this man better, once filming stopped for the night and they were on their own.

She really liked Russell when they were alone.

Russell listened to the producer talking to Gail, and every once in a while, he heard her laugh. The sound was full of joy, and he could tell that she was enjoying whatever they were talking about. She was relaxed with Willow and her guard was down. Russell realized he still had a long way to go to get to know the real Gail Little.

“How’s matchmaking going for you so far?” Conner MacAfee asked as he came up beside him.

“Not bad,” he said.

“Good,” Conner said. “You know Matchmakers Inc. has a one hundred percent success rate, right?”

“Do you?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Did you do anything differently for us because of the TV show?”

Conner shook his head. “No way. We can’t compromise our policies, even for a show. I’m hoping to get some business out of this, and I can’t if we don’t do what we normally do for our clients.”

“Point taken. Do you know anything about Gail?” he asked Conner. He figured it was a fair enough question, given that she had heard of him.

“No. I really don’t get involved in the matching. I just run the company,” he said. He straightened his tie and glanced around the room. “I have to use my MBA from Harvard somehow.”

“Don’t brag,” Russell said with a grin.

“What’s the use in having one if you can’t tell people about it?” Conner said.

“Why do you own a matchmaking company?” Russell asked. His friend was one of the smartest business minds he’d ever encountered. Russell had always thought it was an odd thing for Conner.

“It was my grandmother’s business and I inherited it. I figured it wouldn’t make money and I could take it as a tax loss, but in fact the opposite was the case,” Conner said.