Everyone turned to stare at Miriam. Today the little old lady was dressed in a pair of red plaid slacks and a red sweatshirt with a big graphic of Rudolf on its front. She had a pair of dangly Christmas tree earrings in her ears. Her eyes twinkled behind her 1950s-style trifocals.
Miriam was about eighty-five years old and widely regarded as Allenberg County’s premier matchmaker. Not that Miriam considered herself a matchmaker. She always told folks she was a match finder. She said God made the matches, but sometimes He would clue her in.
Her matchmaking advice sometimes resembled the messages you might find inside a fortune cookie. But the weird thing about Miriam’s marital forecasts was that they almost always came true.
“I declare,” Ruby said to Miriam, “when did you give Annie any advice?”
“Oh, I think it was last week after church.”
“And what advice did you give Annie?” Thelma leaned forward, her romance book forgotten.
“I told her to get a cat.”
“What?” Lessie turned her head, and the roller Ruby was trying to secure came undone.
“And I told her that I wasn’t so lonely that I needed a cat.” Annie folded her arms across her chest. “I need to get out and have a social life now that Mother’s gone. I don’t need a cat.”
“Miriam,” Ruby said, “you didn’t really tell Annie she needed a cat, did you?”
“What’s wrong with suggesting that she get a cat?” Miriam looked honestly surprised.
“Because you don’t tell a single lady of a certain age that she needs a cat. It’s, well…” Ruby’s voice trailed off.
“It’s pitiful,” Annie said into the silence. “It’s bad enough that I’m sleeping under a quilt my grandmother made and living in a house with old-fashioned mohair furniture. Getting a cat would be like sealing my fate.”
“Yes, exactly,” Miriam said.
Ruby, Lessie, and Thelma stared at Miriam as if she’d lost her mind. Miriam was a little quirky, but she’d never been mean.
Jane pulled Miriam’s hand out of the soaking solution and said, “Clay said something about a big soldier finding a cat in the manger down at the church last night. This guy came strolling into the sanctuary with a little kitten, interrupting choir practice, and Dale almost had a stroke.”
“Really?” Miriam asked. Somehow Miriam didn’t sound very surprised.
Everyone turned toward Annie. Her face flamed. “His name is Matt Jasper, and he did find a cat in the manger. He came in on the bus from Charlotte last night, and he was looking for Ruth Clausen.”
“Oh dear,” Ruby said. “Is he one of Nick’s army friends?”
“Yes, he is. He’s come here to deliver Nick’s last Christmas gift.”
“What?” the women asked in unison.
“Evidently, Nick bought Ruth’s present before he died last year. Matt has been carrying it around Afghanistan for a long time.”
“Oh my,” Thelma said. “He has no clue, does he?”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Did you tell him about Ruth?” Thelma asked.
“Well, I told him that she’d been sick and a little out of it. But I didn’t say anything else. He’s committed to making this delivery. It’s kind of sweet, actually. His heart’s in the right place.”
“So he didn’t spend the night at the motel, did he?” Jane asked.
“Uh, no, he didn’t.”
Miriam snorted. “See, I told ya’ll. Annie needed to get a cat. The Lord was very specific about that part.”
While Annie went to her appointment at the beauty shop, Matt showered and shaved and put on his civies. Holly kept him company, trailing after him like a little lost soul.
He and the cat were kind of alike. If anyone could understand how a man could come looking for a warm place by a holiday fire, it would be a stray cat.
But he didn’t really belong by Annie’s fire, did he? And what was the point of delivering Nick’s gift to his grandmother if she was senile and sick? How could that possibly brighten her day?
He’d come for his own selfish reasons, not to do any favors for Nick. And now, here he was, staying at Annie Roberts’s house, thinking things about her that he had no right to think.
He should leave, right now, and take the cat with him as a consolation prize. He started packing his bag. He had just brought the bag downstairs and set it in the corner when Annie’s key slipped into the front door.
She came prancing into the foyer like a young girl. She stopped just a few feet from where he was standing and gave him the biggest grin. She was red cheeked from the cold outside, and there was a spark of something in her eyes that hadn’t been there last night or even this morning. Something had changed. She seemed lit up from the inside.
“Uh,” he said, suddenly tongue-tied, “I was thinking that with Ruth so ill, it might be best if I just…” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Holly pussyfooted across the floorboards and meowed a welcome. She rubbed up against Annie’s legs and tried to wrap herself around both of them simultaneously.
Annie laughed. The sound was so merry and full of life. She bent down and picked up the kitten. “You need some cat food and a litter box,” she said to Holly. “I hope you’re housebroken.”
She glanced up at Matt, and he had a feeling Annie was talking about something other than the cat.
“I understand your hesitation about Ruth,” she said, her blue eyes darkening with some emotion he couldn’t quite fathom. “But there’s no rush. The Ladies Auxiliary always visits up there on Christmas morning, and you could tag along with them. I offered to drive Miriam Randall and the rest of the ladies up there, since I don’t have a big family. So, if you want, we can all go together tomorrow morning. In the meantime, if you came to Last Chance for a Christmas like Nick loved, you’re free to stay here at my place. In fact, I could use some help with my errands.”
The tension he’d felt all morning suddenly eased. He’d been given permission to live out his deepest fantasy and let tomorrow slide. War had taught him the benefits of living in the moment. He didn’t have to think very hard about her offer.
“I’d be happy to help. But I’m warning you, I’m really inexperienced in this whole Christmas thing.”
“It’s okay. There are plenty of people in Last Chance willing to give you pointers on how to celebrate the season.”
Annie held out her hand, and he took it. It was small and warm, and it seemed to fit in his like it had been custom made.
They went to Orangeburg and practically bought out the Target there. Annie seemed to be hell-bent on taking advantage of every cut-rate deal on Christmas decorations. It being Christmas Eve, she made a few spectacular bargains-especially on a glow-from-the-inside snowman that had caught Matt’s fancy. She had refused to let him buy it for her. She told him she needed to spruce up her lighting display before the neighbors complained about her lack of imagination.
She also bought some new sheets and a blanket-a move that made Matt just a little bit uncomfortable, since she asked his opinion on every choice. When he’d wrinkled his nose at the girly flowers on one set of sheets, she’d changed her mind about them.
Shopping for sheets with Annie was definitely sexier than it probably should be. He kept thinking about what it might be like to lie down on those new sheets with this amazing woman.
He needed to watch it. She had been Nick’s girlfriend, and he was already perilously close to losing his grip on the real world.
Annie was brimming over with good cheer. Her day with Holly and Matt had been so happy. But then she could hardly fail. Miriam Randall hadn’t been speaking literally last week in church. She’d been finding Annie a match.
And Annie couldn’t be more pleased with the way things were going. Matt was tall, dark, and handsome. He was kind, and he seemed to understand the inherent problem associated with his grim chore. And yet she got the feeling he still wanted to deliver that present, even if he wondered whether it was the right thing to do. His conflict made him all the more loveable. And she knew she was falling for him. Maybe she did believe in love at first sight after all.