Marie Ferrarella - Ten Years Later...

She felt slightly flustered, but did her best not to show it.

“No, it was totally my fault,” Sebastian said, annoyed with himself. Drawing back, he’d automatically reached out to steady the woman he’d nearly sent sprawling. He caught her by her slender shoulders. The next moment, his vision clearing, enabling him to actually focus on the face of the woman before him, he dropped his hands from her shoulders, stunned.

At the same time, Sebastian’s jaw dropped.

The one person he hadn’t wanted to run into at the reunion was standing less than five inches away from him.

Looking far more radiant than he ever remembered her looking.

MARIE FERRARELLA,a USA TODAY bestselling and RITA ®Award-winning author, has written more than two hundred books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com.

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To

Patience Bloom

and

her Sam,

who were my inspiration

for this story.

Thank you.

“Maizie, may I speak with you?”

Maizie Sommer looked up from her desk and watched the approach of the sweet-faced, heavyset woman who’d just entered her real estate office.

She knew that look. She’d seen it before, more than once. Not in her capacity as a remarkably successful Realtor with her own agency, but in her role as an even more successful matchmaker.

What had begun several years ago as a determined plan to get her own daughter—and the daughters of her two best friends—matched up and married to their soul mates had turned into a calling.

Since the first time she had gone down this path, Maizie, along with Theresa Manetti and Cecilia Parnell, all three best friends since the third grade, had never encountered failure. Strong gut instincts had guided the three women as they played matchmakers for friends and relatives, unerringly pairing up their targets, not for profit but for the sheer love of it.

As they amassed one triumphant pairing after another, their reputations grew. So much so that at times, their businesses were forced to take a temporary backseat to what Maizie liked to refer to as their “true mission.”

“Come in, Barbara,” Maizie said warmly. Rising, she turned the chair in front of her desk so that the visitor could easily take a seat. “So tell me, what can I do for you?”

Barbara Hunter, whose fondness for rich, good food was evident, sank down into the proffered chair. The retired high school English teacher sighed wearily. This was something she’d been wrestling with for a long time. Coming to Maizie for help amounted to a last-ditch effort before she completely gave up.

“You can tell me how to light a fire under my stubborn son.”

Maizie looked at the other woman, puzzled. “I’m afraid I don’t—”

Anticipating her friend’s question, Barbara elaborated. “He was supposed to come home for his high school’s ten-year reunion, but now he tells me that he doesn’t have time for that ‘nonsense,’—his word, not mine—and that he wants to save that time and put it toward his Christmas vacation so that when he does come out, we can have a nice, long visit.”

Soft brown eyes shifted imploringly toward Maizie. “Oh, Maizie, I had such hopes for him….” Barbara’s voice trailed off, lost in another deep sigh.

Maizie, meanwhile, was busy cataloging information. “Remind me, where’s your son now?”

“Sebastian is in Japan, teaching Japanese businessmen how to speak English. He’s really very good at it,” she interjected with visible pride. “When he skipped his five-year reunion, he told me that he’d attend the next milestone reunion ‘for sure.’ His words,” she said again, more bleakly this time. She looked like a woman clinging to the last vestiges of hope and trying to make peace with the knowledge that it was slipping through her fingers. “I was hoping he’d go to this one and maybe even get together with Brianna.”

The name seemed to just wistfully hang there. “Brianna?” Maizie prodded.

Barbara nodded. “Brianna MacKenzie, the girl Sebastian went with during his senior year. I have this beautiful prom picture of the two of them,” she confided, then added with feeling, “A lovely, lovely girl. I really thought that they’d wind up getting married, but Sebastian went off to college and Brianna stayed behind to take care of her father. The poor man was involved in a terrible car accident the night of the prom. She literally nursed him back to health and was so good at it, she went on to become an actual nurse.”

Barbara closed her eyes and shook her head as she felt the last nail being hammered into the coffin of her dreams.

“I had hoped…” Her voice trailed off, but it wasn’t hard to fill in the blanks. “Now Sebastian’s apparently changed his mind again. I’m beginning to think that I’m never going to see my son get married, much less hold a grandchild in my arms. Sebastian’s my only boy, Maizie. My only child. I’ve tried to be patient. Lord knows I haven’t interfered in his life, but I don’t have forever. Do you have any suggestions?” she asked, clearly counting on a miracle.

The wheels in Maizie’s head were already turning and she was lost in thought. “How’s that again?” she asked, focusing intently.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Barbara Hunter repeated.

But Maizie shook her head. “No, not that. What did you say just before that?” she coaxed.

Barbara paused and thought. “That I don’t want to interfere in his life?” She had no idea what Maizie was after.

Maizie frowned, shaking her head. “No, after that,” she stressed.

Barbara paused again, thinking for a moment longer. “That I don’t have forever?” It was purely a guess at this point.

Maizie smiled broadly. “That’s it.”

Barbara looked at her uncertainly, completely lost. “ What’s it?”

The pieces were all coming together. Maizie almost beamed. “That’s how you’re going to get Sebastian to come home—and incidentally, to attend the reunion.”

Barbara struggled to follow what her friend was saying, but it wasn’t easy. “I think that Sebastian already suspects I’m not immortal.”

“To suspect is one thing—we all know no one lives forever—but to suddenly come up against that jarring fact is quite another.” She watched Barbara expectantly, throwing the ball back into her court.

Barbara came to the only conclusion she could. “You want me to tell Sebastian I’m dying?” Even as she said it, it sounded surreal.