An Unlikely Match

An Unlikely Match
Arlene James

High-powered lawyer Asher Chatam has no time for love. He's far too busy with his career.Then his eccentric aunts summon him to Chatam House on urgent business. And introduce him to Ellie Monroe. The beautiful young teacher needs his help, and one look at her violet eyes and sunny smile leads Asher to take the case. Ellie's laid-back attitude is a breath of fresh air in Asher's smoggy world, and soon he realizes that man cannot live on work alone. And that even the most unlikely match can lead to true love.

“God can heal a broken heart, you know,” Ellie told Asher gently.

“Yes, of course, but—”

“But you must allow Him to do it. You must be willing. Because He surely has some lucky woman picked out for you.”

Asher lifted his eyebrows. “Oh, really?”

Ellie nodded. “She’ll admire all your sterling qualities.”

“What exactly is a sterling quality?”

“Well, in your case, confidence, kindness, intelligence. Plus, you obviously value family. And, of course, you’re handsome.”

“Handsome,” he repeated.

Then she ducked her head and confessed, “You have gorgeous eyes.”

His world tilted, leaving him clinging to the very edge of reason. What on earth was going on? He couldn’t be attracted to Ellie Monroe. She was too impulsive, too talkative, too…everything!

Especially too pretty.

From now on, he would be on his guard—stern, disciplined, wise—just as a man in his position ought to be.

But something told him that being on his guard might not be enough to combat the charms of Ellie Monroe.

ARLENE JAMES

says, “Camp meetings, mission work and church attendance permeate my Oklahoma childhood memories. It was a golden time, which sustains me yet. However, only as a young widowed mother did I truly begin growing in my personal relationship with the Lord. Through adversity, He has blessed me in countless ways, one of which is a second marriage so loving and romantic it still feels like courtship!”

The author of more than seventy novels, Arlene James now resides outside Dallas, Texas, with her beloved husband. Her need to write is greater than ever, a fact that frankly amazes her, as she’s been at it since the eighth grade. She loves to hear from readers, and can be reached via her website at www.arlenejames.com.

An Unlikely Match

Arlene James

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips.

—Psalms 21:2

For Faith Itai Manase, adventuress, world traveler, nurse, friend, daughter of my heart.

I am so proud of you!

Love always,

DAR

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

Attorney Asher Chatam recognized a summons when he received one, though he could not imagine what legal advice his aunties needed so urgently that it would require his immediate presence. He shrugged out of his camel hair overcoat and surveyed the front parlor of Chatam House, the antebellum mansion where Chatams had resided for generations, including his maiden aunts, triplets in their seventies who had lived in the great house for their entire lives.

As always, Odelia first captured the eye. Wearing royal blue, she had anchored a crown of matching feathers in her fluffy white hair. Speckled, light blue beads the size of robin’s eggs dangled by golden chains from her earlobes, completing the theme of her costume. Hypatia, her sister’s polar opposite, in expensive bronze silk and a neat silver chignon, placed her delicate Limoges teacup on its matching saucer and graced him with a smile from her customary wingback chair. Meanwhile, Magnolia—known to her many nieces and nephews as Aunt Mags—garbed in her usual frumpy cardigan and shirtwaist dress, her iron-gray braid hanging over one shoulder, beamed her frank enjoyment of his surprise at the room’s occupants.

Kent Monroe, a pharmacist well past the usual age of retirement, was Odelia’s erstwhile fiancé from at least half a century ago. A barrel chest had long since given way to a serious paunch, now bisected by gray suspenders and shielded with a pale blue shirt, topped with a jaunty red bow tie that sat atop his jugular like a strangled cherry crowning a generous scoop of blueberry ice cream. After his failed romance with Odelia, it was generally assumed that Kent Monroe would forever keep a cordial, mannerly distance. And he most likely would have, in the normal course of events. But the normal course of events had been greatly altered.

Asher narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his baby sister. At twenty-three, a full fifteen years his junior, Dallas was as impulsive as her short, frothy hair was red. An inveterate romantic, she had sighed over Odelia’s failed engagement since girlhood, even going so far as to strike up a friendship with Ellen Monroe, Kent’s granddaughter.