Chapter Two

 

“Sorry, I just had to take that call,” the short woman with platinum hair, dark rimmed glasses and enough power to light up Broadway on New Year’s Eve smiled as she sat back down across the table from Hayes with a smile.

“Not to worry,” the blue and gold dragon nodded. “I’m not even really sure why I’m here.” He started to get up. “I shouldn’t have wasted your time.”

“Sit right back down,” Gerri ordered, looking over her glasses like his grandmother used to when she caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. “You know exactly what you’re doing here. So, stop all the nonsense.” Shaking her head and slapping her hand against the pad of paper on the table in front of her, she continued, “You blasted dragons think you know everything. Hate asking anybody for help.” She pointed at him. “Just like Kayne. I keep telling him I can point him in the right direction, but the boy just acts like he can’t hear me and runs the other way.”

“I’m sorry. I meant no disrespect. It’s just that…”

Holding up her hand, Gerri charged on, her irritation palpable. “It’s just that you’re too damn pigheaded. It’s bred into every man on earth, but dragons get a double dose. It proves the Universe has a sense of humor.” Her mood completely switched gears as she sat back in her chair and smiled, “But just as sure as the Goddess made little green apples, I love every scale on your prickly hides. Look at Lennox and Tessa. Those two kids are happy as pigs in shit, Now, stop all this backpedaling and let’s get on with it. Deal?”

Unsure what to say, Hayes just nodded, knowing full well he was going to have to work hard to keep up with the firecracker of a woman. Picking up his glass, he had just taken a drink of iced tea when Gerri said, “Have you ever thought that you might have two mates?”

Spitting his tea across the table, Hayes coughed and sputtered, “What did you say?” Taking the napkin that Gerri offered, he quickly added while wiping his chin, “Hell no, I never thought I might have two mates.” His hands stilled and his eyes flew to the matchmaker’s as he nearly yelled, “Wait! Do you think, or know, that I have two mates?” Jumping to his feet, flinging the cloth around like a white flag, he pleaded, “Please, tell me I don’t have two mates.”

Laughing out loud, Gerri snorted, “No boy, I just wondered if you’d ever entertained the thought.” She took a breath, still grinning from ear-to-ear. “And before you spit any more tea at me, let me ask, have you ever been with two women?”

“No ma’am,” he answered, unable to look Gerri in the eye then nearly falling out of his chair when she went on, “A guy and a girl? Two men?”

Trying to keep his cheeks from turning red while having questions about his sex life asked by a woman resembling his Auntie Mae, Hayes stuttered, “N-n-no and no.”

“You’re a one man – one woman kinda guy then, huh?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you can drop that ‘ma’am’ crap. I may be older than Methuselah, but the whole ‘ma’am’ thing grates on my nerves.” She winked. “It’s Gerri, okay?”

“Yes, ma…” he stopped then quickly corrected, “Got it.”

With a single nod, she started making notes in a language he’d never before seen as she asked, “Tell me what you want in a mate.”

Opening his mouth to speak, Hayes stopped for a second before replying, “Ya’ know? I never really thought about it. I just always assumed since the Universe would make a woman for me that when the time was right, my perfect mate would just appear.” He looked at the smiling matchmaker as she patiently waited for more of an answer. “But that hasn’t happened. I’m ready, willing and able, but still no mate.”

“And that’s where I come in. Look,” she sat back, took off her glasses and swung them in circles with the arm between her thumb and forefinger. “I’m good, but I’m still just me, not the Universe, no miracle worker, just good, old Gerri Wilder. My job is to find the girl meant for you and get you in the same place at the same time. The more you tell me, the easier it will be for me to find her and get her to you. Make sense?”

“Sure does,” Hayes nodded. “So, here goes.” He blew out a breath and then just began saying whatever came to his mind, “I want a real partner. Someone with her own mind, who says what she thinks and isn’t afraid to tell me when she doesn’t agree or thinks I’m full of sh-crap.” Coughing to hide his blunder, he immediately acquiesced, “Sorry about that.”

“No problem, Hayes. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I don’t hold back.” Gerri slid her glasses back on, leaned forward, and patted his hand across the table. “And you should do the same. The only way this works is if you trust me.” She winked. “So, no holding back. Just go for it. Nothing is out of bounds. Got it?”

“Got it,” he smiled. “Let’s see. Where was I? Oh yeah, I remember. She needs to be strong and intelligent. Spontaneous is good, too.” He chuckled, “I’ve never been much of a planner.”

“Does she need to be a dragon? Cause you know those girls are hard to find,” Gerri laughed. “Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.” Taking a sip from her glass, she went on, “More to the point, do you have a preference whether she’s a shifter or not?”

“No,” he shook his head. “And I’m not picky about short or tall, curvy or not, the color of her eyes or the length of her hair. Heck, I don’t even care if she’s a vegetarian as long as she doesn’t lose her mind when the guys and I grill up a side of beef.”

“Good to know,” Gerri chuckled while nodding and writing. After asking about a hundred more questions, some of which Hayes had no answers for, the matchmaker simply blurted out, “What about sex?”

It took a moment for the Guardsman to answer as he tried really hard not to act shocked while thinking of an appropriate reply. In the end, he just said, “Yes.”

For the fifth, or maybe it was the sixth time since he’d arrived, Gerri laughed out loud. “I tell you, my boy, this may end up going on my list of top ten best interviews.” She sat back and laid her hands in her lap. “You really are something special. The girl that gets you is gonna be a lucky woman.”

Still smiling, the matchmaker sat back up, grabbed her pen from the table and continued, “Alright, let’s try this again since you’re a shifter and one of those hot-blooded dragons, I have no doubt that you like sex, but do you like to be in charge? Or are you just as happy letting your mate take the reins?”

“Like I said, I want us to be true partners, and that includes in the bedroom…or wherever we may be.” Hayes winked, finally feeling comfortable to be his usual cheeky self. “I know the second I meet her that I won’t be able to keep my hands off of her and I’m praying to the Heavens that she’ll feel the same about me.”

Slamming her hand on the table, Gerri whooped and hollered, “Hell yeah, now that’s the kind of answers I’m looking for.” She jumped up to her full height of four feet, eleven inches and practically skipped to the bar, coming back with a fifth of his favorite Irish whiskey and two glasses.

Pouring a healthy two fingers of the amber liquid into each glass, Gerri slid Hayes’ to him, sat down and in one gulp finished her drink before getting a refill and grinning, “Now, let’s get down to the good stuff?”

“The good stuff?” Hayes asked, feeling his eyes go wide.

“Yes, siree Bob, the really good stuff,” she chuckled devilishly.

“Oh crap, pour me another.”