Read The Invitation (Matchmaker Trilogy) for Free Online Page B

portholes. Clever, actually. They’re built into the carving of the hull. I didn’t notice them from the dock.”
    “And they’re open. The air’s circulating. And it’s relatively bright.”
    “All the better to see the simplicity of the decor,” Shaye added tongue-in-cheek. She watched her aunt unpack in silence for several minutes before tipping her head to the side and venturing a wary, “Victoria?”
    “Uh-huh?”
    “How much did you really know about all this?”
    Victoria stacked several pairs of shorts in a pile, then straightened. “About all what?”
    “This trip.”
    “Haven’t we discussed this before?”
    “But something’s beginning to smell.”
    “I told you,” Victoria responded innocently. “It’s the sea.”
    “Not smell as in brine. Smell as in rat. Did you have any idea at all that there’d be just four of us?”
    “Of course not.”
    “It never occurred to you that Samson would be ‘precious’ and that I’d be left with his nephew?”
    Victoria gave a negligent shrug and set the shorts in the nearby locker. “You heard what Samson said. Noah’s joining us was a last-minute decision. I mentioned this trip to you nearly a month ago.”
    But Shaye remained skeptical. “Samson didn’t say exactly how ‘last-minute’ the decision was. Are you sure you’re not trying to pair me up with Noah?”
    “Would I do that—”
    “She asks a little too innocently. You did it with Deirdre Joyce.”
    “I thought you approved.”
    “In that case I did—do. Neil Hersey is a wonderful man.” Shaye had never forgotten that it was Neil, with his legal ability and compassion, who had come to the rescue when Shannon had been arrested.
    Victoria was grateful that Shaye knew nothing of her role in bringing Garrick and Leah together. The less credence given the word matchmaker, the better, she decided. “Noah VanBaar may be every bit as wonderful.”
    Shaye coughed comically. “Try again.”
    “He may be!”
    “Then you did do it on purpose?”
    Victoria felt only a smidgen of guilt as she propped her hands on her hips in a stance of exasperation. “Really, Shaye. How could I have done it on purpose when I had no idea Noah would be along?”
    “Then you intended to fix me up with Samson’s old-fart friend?”
    “I did not! I truly, truly expected that we’d be only two more members of a larger group.”
    Sensing a certain truth to that part of Victoria’s story at least, Shaye sighed. “If only there were a larger group—”
    “So you could fade into the woodwork? I wouldn’t have let you do that even if there were fifty others on board this boat.” She lifted a pair of slacks and nonchalantly shook them out. “What did you think of Noah, by the way?”
    “I thought he was rude, by the way. He could have stood up when we were introduced. He could have said something. Do you realize the man didn’t utter a single word?”
    “Neither did you at that point.”
    “That’s because I chose silence over saying something unpleasant.”
    “Maybe that’s what he was doing. Maybe he’s as tired as you are. Maybe he, too, had other plans before Samson called him.”
    “I wish he’d stuck to his guns.”
    “Like you did?”
    Bowing her head, Shaye pressed the throbbing spot between her eyes. “I gave in because you’re my aunt and my friend and because I love you.”
    Draping an arm around Shaye’s shoulders, Victoria hugged her close. “You know how much that means to me, sweetheart. And it may be that Noah feels the same about Samson. Cheer up. He won’t be so bad. How can he be, with an uncle like that?”
    *   *   *
    W HEN V ICTORIA LEFT to go on deck, Shaye stayed behind to unpack. But there was only so much unpacking to do, and only so much to look at within the close cabin walls. She realized she was stalling, and that annoyed her, then hardened her. If Noah VanBaar thought he could cower her with his dark and brooding looks, he was in for a