A Match Made by Cupid. Tracy Madison

she’d had her medium-brown hair cut into a wispy sort of bob that suited the fine features of her face. She looked good. Happy, even. Which meant she was well on her way to recovery.

       “Hello?” Jace said loudly. “Did you hang up on me, Mello Yello?”

       Loretta appraised Melanie with a speculative gleam. “That very masculine-sounding voice can’t possibly be Tara. Who’s on the phone, dear?”

       Uh-oh. Sensing a danger zone rapidly approaching, Melanie covered the phone with one hand. “It’s no one. Just a guy I work with.” Into the phone, she said, “I haven’t hung up on you. Yet. You’ve got five seconds, Jace. What do you want?”

       “That’s a leading question, Mel,” Jace said in a light, almost teasing tone that caused her heart to skip a beat. “But seeing how I promised to avoid any and all types of sexual innuendo, I’ll get right to the point.”

       “Jace as in Jace Foster? I read his columns all the time,” Loretta said from Melanie’s left side. “Why does he want to come for dinner? Oh! Are you two dating?”

       “No,” she said to her mother. To Jace, she said, “Yes, please. Getting right to the point would be—” The sizzling sound of water boiling over stopped her midsentence. “Actually, hold that thought.” Slamming the phone down on the table, Melanie raced to the stove and pulled the pot of pasta off the burner.

       “Is this Jace Foster?” She heard Mom say behind her. “This is Loretta Prentiss. Melanie’s mother? I’m a huge fan of your ‘Man About Town’ column.” She gave a delighted laugh. “Really! I’ve always read the Gazette—even before Melanie started working there.”

      And there she goes, Melanie thought with a great deal of humor. Mom, she knew, would chatter about anything and everything if given the chance. That was fine. Mom could talk to Jace while Melanie cleaned up the pasta mess and finished getting dinner ready. If she was lucky, he’d beg out of the conversation and Melanie wouldn’t have to talk to him until tomorrow.

       “You should come for dinner, Jace,” Loretta all but gushed. “I’ll give you the address. Do you have something to write with?”

       “Mom! No!” Melanie said loudly. Maybe too loudly. “Give me the phone back.”

       “Please excuse me for a second, Jace. My daughter is trying to talk with me. Yes, I know she can be quite stubborn.” Turning toward Melanie, she said, “What is it? And why didn’t you tell me you were involved with someone?”

       “Because I’m not. Did he tell you we were? We are not dating.” She held her hand out palm-side up. “The phone, Mom.”

       Disappointment gathered in her mother’s eyes. “I guess I should’ve known better, but you can’t blame a mother for hoping. And I don’t see why he can’t join us for dinner.”

       Melanie lowered her voice in the hopes that Jace wouldn’t hear her. “I spent all day with him. I don’t want to spend the evening with him, too. Besides, this is supposed to be time for you and me. Remember?”

       Loretta gave her a considering look, but nodded. “I think there’s more to it, and you’ll explain every bit of it to me later.” Pressing the phone back to her ear, she said, “I’m very sorry, Jace. It seems my daughter requires some mother-daughter time tonight. Perhaps we can plan something for the future?”

       “Thank you.” More relieved than she ought to be, Melanie removed the garlic bread from the oven and turned off the stove burners. Then, ready to discover why Jace had called to begin with, she went to reclaim her phone.

       Her mom was pacing the length of the kitchen as she talked. Melanie waved to get her attention. Mom gave her the “one more minute” sign, saying, “Isn’t that sweet of you? If that’s the case, you’ll definitely have dinner with us.”

       This couldn’t be happening. “Mom? I thought we agreed—”

       “No, no, don’t worry about that. We’ll keep everything warm until you get here. It isn’t a problem at all, especially with you going out of your way and all.” Mom shot her a warning glance before rattling off the address. “Okay, Jace. We’ll see you soon.”

       Melanie stared at her mother in disbelief. “What just happened?”

       “Don’t you look at me that way, Melanie Ann. I didn’t have a choice.” She walked around Melanie and returned the bread to the oven. “But I’m sorry if you’re upset.”

       “What just happened?” Melanie repeated through gritted teeth as her mother stirred the sauce, turned the burner on again and covered the pan with a lid.

       “He’s doing you a favor,” Loretta said briskly. “The least we can do is offer him dinner for his troubles.”

       “Uh-huh. I’ve had enough of Jace Foster’s favors for today.” And somehow, he’d talked her into a ridiculous bet that she wished she’d never agreed to. “What is it this time?”

       Pouring the pasta into a large bowl, Loretta said, “He’s returning your laptop, which you apparently left in his office today.” She let the weight of that sit for a good thirty seconds. “What was I supposed to do? Tell him he could drop it off but not invite him in? And if he’s going to visit for a while, we might as well feed him.”

       Oh, hell. Melanie couldn’t fault her mother’s logic. Or, for that matter, Jace’s actions. Even if she hadn’t remembered until now that she had forgotten her laptop. “Yay, we’ll hold dinner for him. How thrilling,” she muttered under her breath.

       Leaving the dinner preparations, Loretta came forward and pulled Melanie into a hug. She smelled like the salon. A combination of fruity and floral shampoos, hair sprays and the chemicals from the hair treatments she’d given that day. In other words, she smelled like Mom.

       “You seem really upset over this, sweetheart. I don’t understand why, but how bad can one little dinner be?” Mom said as they separated. “How about if I plead exhaustion after we eat? That will have him on his way in no time.”

       The balls of stress that had begun to tighten in Melanie’s muscles relaxed. “That would be perfect. Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

       “Yesterday, as a matter of fact. But I can never hear it too often. And I love you, too.”

       Taking three plates and three bowls out of the cupboard, Melanie started to set the table. Jace. Here. For dinner. She almost felt as if the entire universe was working to put them in the same room as often as possible. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I have a professional relationship with Jace. Could we keep anything too personal out of the dinner conversation?”

       “What constitutes as too personal?” Loretta asked with more than a tinge of humor. “Be exact, dear. You know how I am.”

       “Anything that has to do with Dad, for one thing.” Dumb, maybe, but Melanie did not want Jace in on the whole “my father abandoned us and never looked back” story. “Oh, and anything to do with your love life or my dating history.”

       With a snort, her mom said, “What dating history? The boy I had to bribe you to go to senior prom with? Or the blind dates that Tara convinced you to go on? Or—”

       “Right. All of that.”

       “Because I don’t know about anyone else you’ve dated.” Her mom’s razor-sharp gaze zeroed in on hers. “I don’t even know if you’ve ever had sex!”

       “Mom! Jeez, that’s what I’m talking about. Don’t you think that’s a little too much information between mother and daughter? Even as close as we are?”

       “I’ve never had an issue discussing sex with you,” Mom pointed out. “You’re the one who shies away from any talk of intimacy.”

       “Because for most people, intimacy is private. But for the record, so we never have to have