The Matchmaker Read Free

Johnny and what time we finish. We might just get a quick steak in the clubhouse. So don’t worry about me, OK?’
    It wasn’t OK but she wasn’t prepared to admit it and nag and fight like some needy woman.
    ‘Listen, Gracey, I’ll let you know if I can call by later. If not I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    ‘Fine.’ She smiled brightly, layering some marmalade on a slice of golden toast.
    He smoothed her tumble of shoulder-length blond hair and then bent and kissed her lips. He tasted of coffee and sugar and his skin and hair smelled of her expensive Jo Malone orange and lime shower gel.
    ‘Thanks for breakfast and everything,’ he said, kissing her one last time as he grabbed his jacket and wallet and keys.
    Resisting the urge to argue with him, she walked him to the door and watched him get the lift.
    Afterwards she stayed sitting for ages, her coffee going cold as she contemplated her relationship with him. Seagulls screeched along the river; a bold cormorant dived up and down as if it was looking for treasure, watching the waves below as it moved across the water. Shane was probably off swinging a golf club somewhere, totally oblivious to the fact that he had upset her. It was stupid, she knew. He hadn’t done or said anything deliberately hurtful. It was more what he hadn’t done, had left unsaid.
    They had been going out for nine months. She knew that didn’t mean she owned him but she hoped that he enjoyed being with her as much she did with him. They saw a lot of each other at work, and that was the way their relationship had started. But outside of work it was different: they needed to make time for each other, no matter how busy their schedules were or how many projects they were working on. She was prepared to make the effort, to give their relationship the time, but she wasn’t sure that Shane O’Sullivan was.
    She glanced at her watch, suddenly realizing it was past midday as the sunshine streamed in the window. She could sit here for the rest of the day moping around or get dressed and go for a brisk walk along Sandymount Strand before heading home for a meal at her mother’s. The comfort of Sunday lunch beckoned.

Chapter Four
    Standing at the bedroom door, Sarah studied her sleeping child: Evie’s long dark eyelashes fanning across her cheek, her black hair in a tangle across the pillow, a smile on her lips. Sometimes it took her breath away just to look at her. Her daughter was utterly, totally beautiful.
    ‘Mummy, are you watching me?’ a sleepy voice asked.
    ‘Of course,’ she replied, clambering into bed with her and pulling the pink gingham quilt up around them.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because I love you, and when you’re asleep and dreaming you make all kinds of funny faces.’
    ‘What are they like?’
    Curled up beside her daughter, she demonstrated and Evie giggled aloud.
    ‘I was dreaming up a dog,’ Evie said slowly, her blue eyes shining. ‘A big white dog, with soft hair and a black nose . . .’
    ‘That was a nice dream then,’ Sarah agreed. Evie was going through a doggy phase. Sarah had searched the mothering manuals, but there was no mention of what to do about a child who was so obsessed about getting a dog that she even dreamed about them.
    ‘His name is Snowy.’
    Sarah just could not afford to take on a dog at the moment with all the costs involved: food and injections and vet’s bills. Evie didn’t understand how tight their finances were and how a hungry dog could be the last straw that would upset the delicate balance of their budget.
    ‘Some day, pet, we’ll get a dog,’ she promised, ‘but not just yet.’
    ‘When?’
    Sometimes she wished that Evie wasn’t so clever. ‘Well, we can’t get a dog while Granny still has Podge. He’s a very old and slow cat and it wouldn’t be fair to him to have a new young dog running around the place and in the garden. It would scare him, wouldn’t it? The dog would probably bark at him and chase him and I think poor old