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CADE KNEW HE SHOULD probably be enjoying the food Griselda managed to arrange for the wedding reception, but he couldn’t drag his eyes away from the cute little lady across the room.
What had her name been? Jay-something? He’d heard someone mention it during the craziness right before the wedding, and since then, he’d been trying to figure out how to get closer to her.
“She’s pretty, huh?”
The voice—coming from that purple-haired matchmaker lady—had him jerking in surprise. “What?”
The doctor—Michelle? Rochelle?—had snuck up on him. “Jami,” she said, nodding across the room to the curvy lady who was taking photos and jotting notes on a tablet she carried around. “Dr. Jami Boatright. She’s an anthropologist, doing a book about me. Well, I’m in it.”
A doctor? Cade swallowed, suddenly worried she wouldn’t want anything to do with him.
But the matchmaker was waiting for an answer, so he managed a, “Uh, yes, ma’am.”
“Oh, don’t call me that,” the woman said, flicking her fingers dismissively. “I’m Lachele. Doctor Lachele, if we’re feeling formal. Are you? Feeling formal, I mean?” She peered at him. “We’re at a wedding, after all. Are you interested in getting married, young man?”
Cade held his hands up, palms out, as if it’d protect him from the crazy lady. At least she wasn’t licking her fingers.
“I want to get married. But not right now. It’s Bob’s wedding!”
“And Tessa, don’t forget her.”
He wilted under her stern glare. “No ma’am. I mean, Lachele. Bob and Tessa’s wedding. I was just wondering...”
Unconsciously, his gaze darted back to the woman across the room. Dr. Jami Boatright. She was pretty, yeah, but there was something about her...
When he looked back, Dr. Lachele was studying him thoughtfully. “Wondering about Jami, hmm?” she finished his sentence for him.
And he didn’t—couldn’t—deny it.
Her eyes lit up. “Well then, wonder no more, my boy! I’ll go fetch her! Be right back.”
Panic spiked in Cade’s chest as she hurried across the reception hall, cheerfully greeting people she couldn’t possibly know already. She wasn’t actually going to talk to Jami, was she? Tell the woman he had expressed an interest—
Oh.
She was.
As Lachele reached Jami and began to speak to her, Cade swallowed, more nervous than he expected.
But Jami smiled, and it was as if Grams had laid a calming blanket around his shoulders. She sure was pretty when she smiled, wasn’t she?
And then, at Lachele’s nudge, Jami nodded and began to cross the hall.
Toward him.
And Cade panicked.
What have I done?
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