CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE MATCHMAKERS

“Well, when you’re good, you’re good,” Elliot says with a wide grin.

Laughter breaks out from the gathered matchmakers.

“And sometimes you get lucky,” Charlotte remarks. “Sadie and Mack only needed a little push in the right direction to see what was already there.”

Sandra grins. “You mean like you and Mr. Jacobs?”

Bright pink pops up on Charlotte’s cheeks. She clasps her hands over them and the color intensifies. She didn’t know at seventy-six she could still blush. Then again, she also didn’t expect to find love again at her age, so apparently anything is possible.

“You’re never too old for romance,” Brooke argues.

“That’s for certain.” Linda sighs, pressing her clasped hands under her chin. Something about all this love business makes her positively giddy. Being an insurance adjuster for years people would have been surprised at this softer side of her. She knows she was thought of as uptight and also unfeeling. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. She loves nothing more than a gushingly sweet and hopefully steamy romance novel.

Margot puts up a picture of the happy couple on their matchmaking board.

“And Yvonne reports that Mack has an appointment with an audiologist next month.”

“Poor man. Hopefully he learns hearing aids aren’t the end of the world,” Roberta says, reaching up and pointing at her own.

Deborah shakes her head. “Ahhh... the foolishness of youth. I’m grateful to be old and wise.” She cracks a smile. “Though I wouldn’t mind having all my original parts back.”

“Isn’t that the truth!” Margot exclaims.

Agnes looks around the room at the smiling and happy faces of the eight other matchmakers. Pride fills her at what they’ve accomplished.

Six couples have found love because of them. Nine lonely grandchildren, one great-nephew, one best friend of a granddaughter, and one sweet tattoo artist have all found their happily ever afters.

It’s more than she ever dreamed when the idea of finding someone for her grandson Seth first came to her. Speaking to her friend Roberta, Agnes wasn’t surprised to find she also had a single and lonely granddaughter. It was then the idea of forming the matchmakers came to be.

Talking with other ladies that they knew, Roberta and her grew the group to eight. They spent weeks talking about their own experiences with love. What had worked and what didn’t. Personality traits that seemed to align against all odds and different quirks that made people individual and unique.

It was Charlotte’s idea to combine the group’s shared love of bingo into a scoring system to match up the grandchildren... and great-nephew. Once it was in place, that was when the real fun began.

Now it was over. Mission accomplished and they could sit back and bask in the happiness on their families faces whenever they visited. Which was an added bonus of successfully matching them up with their perfect partner. They had all started visiting and calling more often.

Oh yes, the matchmakers were quite popular and envied by many other residents for their loving families’ regular visits. And the treats that the ladies happily shared with all.

Standing, Agnes waits until the conversations have died down and all eyes are on her. “I suppose that’s that,” she declares with a thread of regret in her voice. “The matchmakers can pack up the papers, notes, and the pictures.” She pauses at Charlotte’s waving hand.

“Well… Fred has a single grandson and after hearing all about our successes he was hoping we could help him find his perfect match.”

Agnes’ eyes light up, but she tempers her excitement. This isn’t solely her decision to make.

She looks at each of the other ladies in turn. “Should we put it to a vote?”

“We must,” Elliot declares with a firm nod.

“All in favor of finding someone for Fred’s grandson, say, aye.”

Every lady in the room cries out aye.

Needing to keep things official, Agnes says, “All opposed say nay.”

Only the sound of someone biting into a crunchy cookie can be heard.

Grinning, Agnes turns to Charlotte. “Looks like all the girls are game, but we’ll need Fred’s grandson’s information.”

Flashing a cheeky grin, Charlotte picks up a few papers in front of her. “Already got them!”

Roberta crackles with laughter. “You sneaky girl! You knew we couldn’t say no.”

“Noticed you didn’t even hesitate,” Margot says, giving her a gentle nudge with her elbow. Roberta’s granddaughter Tracy has made her grandson Dylan extremely happy and Margot will forever be grateful for that. She worried about the boy and now that strain is gone.

Shrugging, Roberta grins. “What can I say, matchmaking is addictive.”

“I was hoping you all would feel that way,” Charlotte says.

“But we don’t have any more single grandchildren,” Brooke pipes up.

“Or great-nieces,” Elliot puts in with a wink at Linda.

Sandra stands. “But we have other friends. Friends who have single family members that they want to see happily settled before they die.”

“Oh how morbid,” Brooke says with a shudder.

Deborah rolls her eyes. “Morbid or not, I know we all felt that way and feel a hell of a lot better knowing we got to see ours find love.”

Brooke can’t argue with that. Alice is her only granddaughter, and it pained her to see her being unhappy. “Fair enough.”

Agnes claps her hands for attention. “Sounds like the plan is to canvas the center and get people to fill out the forms so we can see if we can locate Fred’s grandson’s perfect match.”

“How many should we do?”

Elliot speaks up, “At least four. If we don’t find a match, we’ll ask around some more.”

The ladies mull it over and murmurs of agreement fill the air.

Agnes grins. “Okay, let the search begin!”