One Sure Thing (Mamma Lou Matchmaker Series) (2 page)

Raymond hugged his grandmother warmly. “I have yet to meet a woman that I can’t handle.”

Louise nodded and smiled. “I believe your cousin, Tony, said the exact same thing just before he met Madison.

“Okay, I’ll admit it worked well enough with Tony and Madison. But it’s definitely not going to work on me. I’m onto you. I have no intention of getting caught and become an unwilling victim in one of your marriage traps. Understand?” he warned pointedly.

Louise Gates’ mouth gaped, feigning  innocence. Her soft brown eyes sparkled. “Raymond Gates Jr. I am truly appalled that you would accuse me of such a thing. I would never presume to interfere in your personal life. You know very well that I’m not that kind of person. For heaven’s sake, you make it sound like I’m some kind of noisy, busy-body who’s a meddling-matchmaker. What I have is a natural gift.”

After taking a sip, Colonel Wheeler, guffawed so heartily that he nearly choked on his wine. Concern registered on Raymond’s handsome face until finally Colonel Wheeler nodded that he was fine. Raymond turned and looked down at his grandmother suspiciously and shook his head. The look of bemusement he gave her spoke volumes. For the third time in as many hours he had warned her about using her self-proclaimed God-given gifts to find him the perfect mate, which seemed to include every single woman on the planet.

“I don’t see why you’re getting so upset with me. You bring all of this on yourself,” Louise admonished sternly.

“Me?” Raymond said, surprised by the sudden reversal in course. “What did I do? How did I bring this on myself? I’m just an innocent bystander. You’re the one who’s plastered a target that says ‘available bachelor’ on my back and given half the female population of New York City a detailed map of my posterior.”

 Raymond’s sarcasm delivered with his usual wry sense of humor had Colonel Wheeler laughing uncontrollably and his grandmother Louise trying not to snicker at the absurdity of it all.

She shook her head then reached up and stroked the smooth clean-shaven jaw line of her grandson. “You’re just like your grandfather, bless his soul. Now he was a man to be reckoned with.” She smiled remembering the wonderful years she was blessed to spend with her late husband Jonathan Gates. “He was a handsome devil, charming, and clever. The women went wild for him too. But the poor dears, as soon as your grandfather laid eyes on me, it was all over. It was as if there wasn’t another woman in the world. Mind you, I’m not tooting my own horn. I’m simply stating the God’s honest truth. As a matter of fact,” she nodded her head toward Otis Wheeler, “the same thing happened with Otis here.”

Otis Wheeler, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, had been a dear family friend ever since he’d moved to Crescent Island, which was the Gates family home.

Both Raymond and Louise turned and looked at Colonel Wheeler. He instantly threw up his hands in mock surrender. “Don’t look at me. I’m sitting this one out.” He continued chuckling until he was forced to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes with his handkerchief. There was nothing like Louise Gates’ tenacity. When she set her mind to something, nothing on the planet could change it.

Raymond reached down and pulled Louise close to his chest. She yielded easily. “I can definitely see that Mamma Lou. You’ll always be my number one lady. So why would I want anyone else? Who could possibly take your place?”

Louise looked past Raymond to see a tall, rail-thin, overdressed woman in a glamorous sequin evening dress strutting in their direction. Her eyes, like the trajectory of an armed missile, were locked and loaded on the broad shoulders of Raymond’s suit jacket. “Some will try I’ll wager,” Louise warned quietly.

Just then a soft buzzing sound vibrated inside Raymond’s jacket pocket. He reached in and checked his cell phone. “Dr. Gates.” The smile instantly vanished from his face as his voice took on a professional tone. He nodded a few times then responded in medical-speak. After a few minutes, he disconnected and put it back inside his pocket. He looked toward the nearest exit and back at his evening companions. The look on his face said it all. Someone needed him.

Colonel Wheeler looked to Louise, they shook their heads knowingly. Raymond opened his mouth to apologize as Colonel Wheeler took the glass from his hand.

“Go tend to your patient,” Louise instructed warmly.

Raymond looked to Colonel Wheeler, he nodded assuredly. “We’ll be fine.”

Raymond smiled a knowing reply as he took a step back.

“Don’t wait up,” he instructed. Then, with a determined stride, he parted the crowd and disappeared through the exit doors.

Louise watched, humored by the young woman’s dejected expression. Visibly disappointed by Raymond’s abrupt departure, the sequin-clad woman stood pouting with her hands on her skinny hips. She rolled her eyes, turned and headed back to the bar.

Louise shook her head. She had seen so many women come and go in Raymond’s life. Most of them were entirely wrong for him. Thankfully, he’d realized it before it was too late. Yes, she wanted him married and settled down, but she also wanted him happy.

She herself had had many wonderful years with her husband, Jonathan. And several years after his death, she had been blessed to have Otis come into her life. Both men were absolute treasures and had added to her life in a special way. It was only natural that she would want the same joy for her grandson. So she accepted the responsibility of finding someone special for him.

A soft bell chimed indicating the end of intermission and the beginning of the play’s second act. Colonel Wheeler took Louise’s arm and escorted her back to their seats in the small loge on the second level.

Louise settled comfortably into her plush velvet seat. She patiently tapped her toe as a kernel of an idea began to take shape in the back of her mind. She liked what she’d overheard earlier in the powder room. All she had to do was find out where the two women she’d eavesdropped on were sitting and do a little investigating.
Easy enough
, she thought. She had friends who would be delighted to lend a hand. It was risky. It was tricky. It was perfect. A smile of sheer delight spread across her face.

The irony was that the woman had been in the ladies room at the exact moment she was there was definitely a sign from above as far as she was concerned. Raymond had confessed that he was hopeless. He challenged her to find hope and that’s exactly what she intended to do.

Smiling, she picked up the pearl studded opera glasses and looked toward the stage. The red velvet curtain was still drawn for intermission. Louise’s eyes slowly panned around the room until her small glasses were trained on the two women she’d overheard in the ladies room. They were seated in the orchestra section below, midway from the far left side, in between two other women dressed in deep red evening suits.

Louise smiled, as she grew more confident with her choice. It was as if fate and fortune had put her at the right place and the right time. The
who
in her plan had been found? The careful planning had already begun. Like the evening’s entertainment, the stage was set and the players were all in place. And the following week was the time she’d chosen to begin Act One.

Suddenly Louise felt a gentle hand grasp hers. Colonel Wheeler leaned towards her and whispered into her ear. “You’ve already chosen Raymond’s young lady, haven’t you?”

Louise smiled. He knew her far too well. “Yes, I have.”

“And he has no idea.” Colonel Wheeler shook his head and chuckled softly.

“Not a clue.”

“I don’t suppose you’d consider letting me in on the secret?”

Louise laughed openly causing those in the loge next to theirs to turn in her direction and stare. “Otis Wheeler, you know very well you can’t keep a secret to save your life. Honestly, for more than twenty-five years and two wars you kept some of this country’s most sensitive military secrets. You planned complicated military maneuvers involving undercover operatives and were privy to top secret intelligence. Then you retired and that’s the last time you kept a secret.”

Colonel Wheeler chuckled as his broad shoulder shook. She was absolutely right. Now that he was a civilian, most of the secrets were far too amusing to keep them to himself.

Moments later the orchestra began to play as the curtain rose. The musical was delightful and the beautiful scenery and dazzling costumes added to their enjoyment. Louise glanced down at the woman seated between the two red bookends. The muted house lights shone just enough to give her an added aura of beauty. Her delighted expression said it all. Louise couldn’t have been more pleased with herself and her choice.

Chapter Two

Dr. Hope Adams could feel the tension in her body reach a point that she knew was unhealthy. She knew working in the emergency room was a place where pain and misery were a daily occurrence. But at this point in her career, despair far exceeded the joy she once felt working in the hospital.

Working in the ER had begun to take its toll on her. Unfortunately, burnout was just one of the side effects of her chosen profession.

She was lying down in the lower bunk bed in the doctors’ lounge, staring up at the wire canopy of mattress springs above her. She was completely exhausted. The peace of a restful sleep continued to elude her. Physically and emotionally she was exhausted, yet she was wide-awake. She shifted her weight and placed the neatly folded newspaper by her side and exhaled audibly as she subconsciously stroked the side of her face.

It was an old habit, touching the small scar often comforted her when she was at her most vulnerable. The blemish on the side of her face just under her left eyebrow near her hairline always stirred long ago memories of sadness and pain. Tired beyond exhaustion, she was on a much-needed break. She looked at the florescent glow of the numbers on the face of her watch. She had just a few more hours left of a twenty-four hour rotation, and for the first time in a long time she had the opportunity to get a little shut-eye. Yet, she couldn’t sleep. It was an occupational hazard brought on by long hours and too many patients. By the time she wound down, it was time to get back to work.

Hope looked up at the grid of metal wire underneath the empty bed above her. She had already counted the open squares, and the intersecting points. She closed her eyes again and tried to erase the hundreds of images flashing through her head.

She’d tried everything to relax. She’d counted backwards from a thousand. She even counted sheep, but nothing worked. Then, finally without really trying, she was beginning to drift off.

A ray of light split the darkness.
Damn!
It never seemed to fail. As soon as she was drifting off to sleep someone would find a reason to awaken her.

“Hope, are you awake?” The quiet voice of Maxine Hunter whispering interrupted her slumber. Maxine crept into the small hospital staff lounge close enough to turn on the light sitting precariously on the edge of the cluttered desk. “Hope?” She moved the lamp away from the edge of the desk and adjusted the cord behind it. “Hope?”

“All right, all right, I heard you, I’m up,” she said as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and arched her back in a slow languid stretch. Forty minutes of sleep in twenty-four hours has the tendency to make anyone grouchy.

Maxine turned on the switch for the ceiling light illuminating the room even brighter. She handed Hope the clipboard she’d brought in with her then leaned over and began to straighten up the pile of newspaper, folders, medical journals and books on the night stand.

A low achy-sounding moan escaped Hope’s lips as Maxine turned the nightstand light to its brightest setting.  Momentarily blinded by the bright light, Hope yawned and rotated her neck slowly.

“Somebody’s not in a very good mood,” Maxine said in a sing-song voice as she handed Hope the clipboard.

“I haven’t been in a good mood in close to eight years,” Hope said, as she flipped over the first two pages of the chart after scanning the records. She initialed them and signed her name on the third page. “And I don’t intend to be in a good mood for at least another sixty years.” On the fourth page she read and signed a release form that was approved earlier.

On the last page, she looked over the results of tests she’d ordered earlier for a patient. The patient came in complaining of sudden weight loss, excessive thirst and hunger, irritation and frequent urination. The tests had confirmed her initial suspicions. The patient was diabetic. She referred the patient to an endocrinologist on staff then signed off on the paperwork.