Sparks Fly

don’t.”
    His mother’s peals of laughter could be heard down the hall, which brought in the troops. Half an hour later, Will was sure he had met every doctor, nurse, and secretary who worked in the hospital.
    He was too tired for all of the hand-shaking and small talk, but it was a heck of a lot better than the maternal inquisition.
    When the meet-and-greet had ended, Joyce said, “What do you bet every mother with an unmarried daughter within fifty miles is getting on the phone right about now?” Seeing his look of alarm, she said, “Sorry, honey. Word travels fast when an unmarried, good-looking, successful man comes to town.”
    Taking pity on her son, certain that the troubled look on his handsome face had something to do with a woman—and that there would be plenty of time to get to the bottom of everything tomorrow—she said, “Why don’t you head out to the cabin before the wannabe blushing brides show up? The guest room is all made up for you.” Glancing out the window she said, “I’d hurry to the house if I were you. I think I see the young ladies arriving already.”
    Will grabbed his car keys and gave her one last peck on the cheek. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning.” He raced out to his rental car, pretending he didn’t hear any of the women calling after him.

    * * *
    Angelina just barely made it to the end of an awful day.
    Frankly, she was surprised by her own behavior. She had never been a bitter or jealous person, not to mention the fact that she was the one who had done Susan wrong, not the other way around.
    But now, the dam on her feelings for Will seemed to have broken and she couldn’t figure out how to rebuild it.
    Hoping to clear her heart and soul by working up a sweat in her garden, she stripped off her professional clothes, pulled on her comfortable, faded gardening duds, grabbed her clogs and gloves from the closet, and headed out to the backyard.
    “Weeds. Perfect.” She bent down and started yanking them out. With wild abandon, she weeded like never before.
    Just as she was laying into another patch of weeds, she heard the phone ring and ran inside, kicking off her clogs. She tried to convince herself she was anxious to get the call because it might be an important client, but knew she was hoping it was Will on the line.
    “Angelina?”
    Hearing Susan’s perky voice on the other end, Angelina stifled a groan and pulled off her gardening gloves. “Susan, it’s so nice to hear from you,” she lied.
    “I wanted to call to thank you for working so closely with Will.”
    Angelina gulped in a mouthful of air and choked. She had never dreamed that her life could turn into such a ridiculous soap opera.
    “His office looks better than I’ve ever seen it before. But that’s not really why I’m calling. I hired you because of your reputation as a Feng Shui Cupid to reunite me with Will, as you well know, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve changed my mind.”
    “You’ve changed your mind?” Angelina echoed. “Why?”
    “I’ve finally accepted that I’m not the woman of Will’s dreams. And he isn’t the man in mine.”
    Angelina’s mouth had fallen open and she was completely speechless. “I, uh ...” she began, but thankfully, Susan was on one of her rolls.
    “And Angelina, it’s okay. For the first time, I have a feeling that Will is going to be really happy. Even if it’s not with me. In fact,” Susan added, “I’d like to have you come over to my house for a consultation. It’s time for me to finally get on with my own life.”
    Moments later, as Angelina hung up with a new consultation penciled into her calendar, all of her preconceived ideas about Susan had flown out the window. Susan certainly wasn’t the fly-by-night, ditzy blonde that she looked to be. Hidden beneath her surface perfection seemed to be a deeply intuitive heart.
    Which then made Angelina wonder: If she’d been wrong about Susan, could she be wrong about Will, too?

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Will relaxed the minute he entered his mother’s house. Nearly every room in the small cabin looked out onto the lake, and there were memories of laughter and happiness all around him. After locking the front door to keep out any single women on the prowl, he picked up the phone and dialed Angelina’s number, but he got her voice mail again.
    Not comfortable with the idea of pouring his feelings out to her voice mail, Will vowed to call her again in the morning to set things