Debra Clopton - Meeting Her Match

“Okay,” redheaded Esther Mae Wilcox was saying. “We made a list of all the single cowboys.” She paused, as if waiting on an imaginary drumroll. “There’s still some great pickin’s out there. You needn’t worry you’re getting the runt of the litter.”

That did it! Sheri bolted up from the table so fast it shook. “You have all had your fun,” she said. “But for the last time, lay off. I am more than capable of finding my own cowboy. If and when I’m interested in finding him—”

“Well, we never said you couldn’t find a cowboy,” Esther Mae interrupted. “You just can’t seem to find the right cowboy. You know, the one…”

was a 2004 Golden Heart Award finalist in the inspirational category. She makes her home in Texas with her family.

Says the Lord, “You will seek me and find me

when you seek me with all your heart.”

—Jeremiah 29:13

This book is dedicated with much affection and

admiration to Mitzi Poole Bridges.

Without your encouragement

I might have given up…thank you.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Says the Lord, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

—Jeremiah 29:13

Sheri Marsh stared in wide-eyed amazement at the three women around the table with her at Sam’s Diner. They were her official nightmare come a-calling.

Oh yes, it was true. These deceptively innocent-looking little old ladies were the infamous “Matchmaking Posse” of Mule Hollow. And they’d just informed Sheri that they had a plan to wipe her woes away. Whether she wanted them to or not!

“Okay,” Esther Mae Wilcox was saying, her hands held out in front of her as if she were about to deliver the biggest punch line of all time. “So, are you ready? Here’s the plan.” She paused, as if waiting for an imaginary drumroll. “Me and Norma Sue made up a list last night. And Sheri, you are just going to love it!”

Well, Sheri thought, looking at the bright side, at least the truth was on the table now—no more hints, no more hemming and hawing. The posse had come clean. They’d admitted what she’d already deduced was going on behind her back.

They were setting her up!

Tamping down her escalating temper, Sheri leveled her gaze at each of the women at the table.

First she zeroed in on Esther Mae. The woman was like Lucille Ball and her sidekick, Ethel, rolled into one.

Then Sheri shot her gaze to Esther Mae’s partner in mayhem, Norma Sue Jenkins. She had a very full figure and the willpower of a steamroller. Sheri could just see herself looking like a flattened Gumby after Norma Sue got through plowing over her with her matchmaking notion.

Last but not least, Sheri settled her gaze on Adela Ledbetter, a wisp of a woman who balanced the other two out with her serenity and godly wisdom. Okay, she usually balanced them out. At the moment, to Sheri’s dismay, she wasn’t balancing anything with that soft smile and twinkling eyes! Nope, Sheri could tell that obviously Adela had more important personal things on her mind, like the cute-as-a-wrinkled-raisin Sam, owner of the only diner in the rustic town of Mule Hollow, Texas.

Yep, Adela was just sitting there letting Sam place a steaming cup of coffee in front of her, in the special china cup that Sam used only for Adela. It was no secret that there was romance in the air between the spry proprietor and the truly special lady. In fact, nobody seemed to understand what was keeping them from taking the trip to the wedding altar. Plus, unlike the way they’d latched on to Sheri, her cohorts didn’t seem in any hurry to tie Adela and Sam up in a neat little match-made-in-Mule-Hollow-heaven package. And as far as Sheri was concerned Adela and Sam needed some help. At the pace they were going they’d be batting eyes at each other forever. They’d never experience wedding bliss unless someone stepped up and lit a fire beneath them.

Sheri bit her lip. Was it too much to ask that the focus be taken off her single status and applied to Adela?

Lastly, Sheri glared at her best friend, Lacy, who was sitting on a stool at the counter and had spun to face them. She was just as intent as the senior posse on trying to find Sheri a husband. Her mischievous grin and laughing eyes proved it as she met Sheri’s glare.

“What we did,” Norma Sue continued, drawing the words out as if she were about to make a major proclamation, “was make a list of all the single cowboys. Then we listed all their truly wonderful attributes. Let me tell you, Sheri, there’s still some great pickin’s out there. You need not be worried that you’ll get the runt of the litter.”

“That’s right,” Esther Mae broke in. “After all, love is a very idiosyncratic view—”

“A what?” Norma Sue exclaimed.

The previously full-figured Esther Mae threw her recently achieved size-twelve shoulders back and looked down her nose at Norma Sue. “I-di-o-syn-cratic,” she said slowly, as if pronouncing it to a child.

“It means subjective.” She smiled proudly, ignoring Norma Sue’s frown. “I’m learning new words out of the Reader’s Digest. It’s supposed to keep my mind alert, so y’all get ready. I’m gonna be bustin’ them out on occasion. You know, when the opportunity arises.”

Sheri joined everyone in staring openmouthed at Esther Mae. It was a known fact that Esther Mae couldn’t get the words she already knew into the right context. Where she’d go with bigger, better words was anybody’s guess.

“I think that’s a grand idea,” Lacy said at last, breaking the silence. “You learn them first then teach us.”

“Are you crazy?” Norma Sue asked incredulously, finally finding her voice. “Esther Mae—”

Esther Mae harrumphed. “Now you just hush, Norma Sue Jenkins. Just because I get a word tangled up here and there is no call to get in a tizzy.”

Sheri wanted to laugh, but she didn’t dare call attention to herself. At least for the moment they weren’t focusing on her and the list of local eligible bachelors.

“That’s right, ladies,” Adela chimed in, reeling her friends back in. “Nobody’s crazy. Now back to the topic at hand…. Sheri, I’m sure that you know love is a lasting connection that God orchestrates between a man and a woman. We’re simply nudging people in the right direction. No one can actually understand the mystery that binds couples together except the two people themselves.”

Well so much for being out of the hot seat, Sheri thought drily.

“True, that brings us back to our list.” Norma Sue slapped Sheri on the back and smiled her mile-wide smile. “The best thing for a broken heart is to get back in the saddle, and so we think we’ve got the field narrowed down for you. I have to tell you that it hasn’t been an easy job. You know as well as we do that there’s not just any man out there who can keep up with you, Sheri Marsh.”