An Engagement For Two

To the best of Theresa’s knowledge, none of their children knew anything about this side venture she and her two best friends were engaged in, despite the fact that they’d secretly arranged all four of their children’s marriages.

“Apparently, Jewel told her,” Maizie said, shifting her gaze toward Cilia.

Very little ruffled Cilia, but this clearly astonished her.

“My Jewel?” Cilia asked incredulously. This was the first she’d heard even a hint of this. Certainly Jewel had never said anything to her.

Maizie nodded. “Your Jewel,” she confirmed. “But the really astonishing thing about this is that Nikki wants me to ‘work my magic,’ as she put it, to arrange a match for her friend Mikki. The two of them were roommates all through college and then they graduated medical school together—”

“Wait, so this Mikki you’re talking about, she’s a doctor?” Theresa asked, wanting to be absolutely sure she was getting the story straight before she allowed her imagination to run off with her.

“That’s what usually happens when you graduate medical school,” Maizie replied, her voice somewhat strained.

A doctor.

That was all Theresa needed to hear. She clapped her hands together in a sudden, uncharacteristically overwhelming burst of joy.

“Perfect!”

Maizie glared at her friend oddly, wondering what had come over her. “I think so, too. But why did you just say that?”

To explain, Theresa felt she had to backtrack a little. “Do you two remember Jeff Sabatino? That very handsome boy who used to work for me and then went on to open up his own restaurant right here in Bedford?” She looked at Maizie and Cilia, searching for any signs of recognition.

“Oh, that’s right. Dinner for Two,” Maizie recalled. “I went there when it first opened. Wonderful food. You taught him well,” she told Theresa with a warm smile. And then she paused. “But why are you bringing him up?”

“Well, initially I wanted to ask if Nikki could recommend a good doctor for his mother. Seems Mrs. Sabatino refuses to go see one, and Jeff thinks she’s in failing health,” Theresa answered. “He asked me to ask you to ask Nikki—”

Cilia held up her hand, stopping her friend from continuing. “Cut to the bottom line, Theresa. None of us are as young as we used to be.”

Maizie gave her friend a look. “Some of us are younger than others, Cilia—but yes, Theresa, what is the bottom line?”

Theresa told them Jeff’s request. “Can you have Nikki recommend a good doctor—preferably female—with a good bedside manner?”

Maizie hadn’t come this far in life without the aid of well-honed intuition. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

Theresa loved it when things just all seemed to come together. They all did.

“Well, Jeff is extremely good-looking. He’s got chiseled features and liquid green eyes a woman could get lost in,” she told her friends. “I’m speaking as a grandmother, by the way,” she added in case her friends had any doubts about her interest in the young man, “and there’s no girlfriend in the picture. He said something to the effect that he’d like to have kids, but he’s too busy right now making a go of his restaurant—and taking care of his mother.”

Maizie needed no more. Her eyes lit up. “We could get two birds with one stone.”

“Exactly what I was just thinking when you started talking about Nikki’s friend,” Theresa said. And then a bubble-bursting thought suddenly occurred to her. “This friend, she’s not a specialist, is she?”

“From what I remember, Mikki is an internist who specializes in cardiology,” Maizie answered.

She smiled broadly at the two other women sitting at the card table. A single hand hadn’t been dealt yet, and quite possibly, one wouldn’t be, at least not tonight, Maizie thought. Tonight was for making plans and laying groundwork.

This was going to be good.

Maizie smiled broadly at her friends. “Ladies, I believe—in the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous character, Sherlock Holmes—that the game is afoot.”

“I think the quote ran a little differently than that,” Cilia corrected.

Theresa waved her hand at the possible contradiction. “The exact wording doesn’t matter, Cilia. What does matter is that we just might have ourselves another match in the offing.”

“Details,” Maizie said aloud what they were all thinking. “Let’s review details.” She turned toward Theresa. “You tell us about your former protégé and then I’ll tell you about my daughter’s friend so that there are no surprises—other than pleasant ones, of course,” she added.

Theresa rubbed her hands together and smiled broadly at the two other women at the table. “I knew today was going to be a good day.”

“Put your cards away, Maizie,” Cilia said, noticing that the deck was still out. “Looks like we’ve got work to do.”

Chapter Two (#ud9ad6dfc-c045-5e53-bf8c-312562824536)

“Oh, come on, Michelle. Come to the party with me. You work too hard, darling. Don’t be afraid of having a little fun.”

Mikki McKenna suppressed a deep sigh.

Served her right for answering her cell phone without looking at caller ID. But she’d just pulled into her parking spot in front of the medical building, and because of the hour, she had naturally assumed that it was someone in her office or the hospital calling.

Either that, or it was one of a handful of patients she’d entrusted with her private line in case of an emergency.

She hadn’t expected her mother to call. That came under the heading of an entirely different sort of emergency. Something just short of the apocalypse.

It had been several months since she’d heard from her mother. Thinking back, Mikki vaguely remembered that it had been right between her mother shedding Tim Wilson, husband number four, and going off on a cruise to some faraway island paradise, the name of which presently escaped her. Her mother always went off on a cruise after every divorce. Cruises were her mother’s primary hunting grounds for potential new husbands. She kept going on different cruises until she found someone to her satisfaction.

“I’m not afraid of having fun, Mother,” Mikki began, attempting to get her mother to see her side for a change even though, in her heart, it was a hopeless endeavor.

Veronica McKenna Sheridan Tolliver Wilson—her mother thought that having so many names made her seem like British royalty—immediately interjected, “Well, then come! This promises to be a really wonderful party, Michelle. Anderson throws absolutely the very best parties,” she said with enthusiasm.

Anderson. So that was the new candidate’s name. She wondered if the man had any idea what he was in for.

“I’m sure that he does, Mother,” Mikki said, humoring her. “But—”

Veronica was quick to shut her daughter down. She’d had years of practice.

“Michelle, please, you need to have a little fun before you suddenly find that you’re too old to enjoy yourself. Honestly, I don’t know how I wound up raising such a stick in the mud,” Veronica lamented dramatically.

Possibly because you didn’t raise me at all, Mother, Mikki thought.

Between her parents’ arguments and the almost-frenzied partying they both indulged in, singularly and together, she’d hardly ever seen her parents when they were still married.

She remembered being periodically dropped off to stay with various relatives as a child. As she got older, there were sleepovers at friends’ homes instead, especially her best friend, Nicole. Envious of the family unity she witnessed, Mikki had made sure she was the perfect houseguest, going the extra mile by cleaning up after herself as well as her friend and even preparing breakfast whenever possible.

It was her way of ensuring that she would be invited back.

By the time she was twelve, her parents had divorced, and they’d professed to want shared custody of her—which meant, in reality, that neither parent really wanted to be saddled with her upbringing. Each kept sending her to the other. Money was substituted for love. The only interest from either one of her parents came by way of the actual interest her trust fund accrued.

If it hadn’t been for her great-aunt Bethany, Mikki would have felt that she had no family at all. It was Great-Aunt Bethany who took an interest in her education and suggested that she consider attending medical school.