Prologue
“We’ve got a problem.”
Carmella Lopez watched as Emily Winters looked up from the report she was reading. Emily’s desk was in front of a wall of windows, and the lights of the Boston skyline twinkled behind her, highlighting her brown hair and sapphire-blue eyes. The nighttime view also illustrated that it was long past the hour when most of the employees of Wintersoft, Inc., had gone home. Emily was as intelligent and dedicated as she was beautiful, and that was why Carmella was so annoyed by the conversation she’d overheard Emily’s dad having with his sister that afternoon. Emily didn’t need to have a man “help” her run her father’s company when he retired, any more than she needed help finding a husband.
Emily said, “Spill it.”
Carmella stepped into Emily’s office and closed the door behind her. She had been Lloyd Winters’ executive assistant for twenty-five years, first when he was an investment banker and now at his financial software company. But she also came from a family that had survived being chased out of Mexico several generations ago by Pancho Villa, and she knew that sometimes discretion wasn’t the better part of valor. Action was. Though she would never do anything disloyal to Lloyd, she felt a sense of responsibility to his daughter. In a way, acting on her loyalty to Emily protected Lloyd.
“Your dad is about to play matchmaker.”
Emily’s face lost its color. “Again?”
“I think he’s forgotten that he already tried this and failed. This morning, he took one look at our organizational chart and saw that most of our senior vice presidents are eligible bachelors and wheels started turning in his head. I overheard him telling your Aunt Anne in Florida that each of the guys on the chart makes a respectable salary. All of them have proven themselves. And all of them are acceptable son-in-law material.”
Emily looked as though she’d faint. “Dear God. Fixing me up with one Wintersoft employee was bad enough,” she said, speaking of the disastrous marriage that had resulted when Emily had tried to please her dad by marrying one of Wintersoft’s former executives, Todd Baxter. “Marrying me off to everybody who’s available will make me a laughingstock.”
Carmella softened her tone because, in spite of his sometimes overbearing, old-fashioned tactics, Lloyd’s heart was always in the right place. “He doesn’t mean it that way.”
“He didn’t mean it that way the last time, either. But that’s exactly what happened. The tension was so thick when my marriage to Todd collapsed that Todd had to leave the company, and I lost credibility with most of the staff. It’s taken me five years of working nearly nonstop to prove myself again.”
“But you did it. And earned a senior vice presidency in the process. Plus, the five years it took you to be promoted proved you didn’t just get your job because you’re Lloyd Winters’ daughter. No one can say that you don’t deserve your position.”
“No, but they can lose respect for me. Who’s going to take seriously a woman whose dad is trying to auction her off to the highest-ranking corporate officer?” Emily raked her fingers through her thick, shoulder-length hair. “I’m going to have to quit.”
Carmella shook her head. “You can’t quit. That would mean explaining to your dad why you were leaving and it would kill him to think he pushed you away. He’s not trying to push you away; he’s trying to help you. It might be old-fashioned, but I’m guessing your dad believes marrying you off to one of the senior vice presidents—someone who could take over the company when he retires instead of you—is a way to give you options. If you don’t have to replace him, you would be free to be a wife and a mother—if that was what you wanted.”
“I don’t know what I want. Maybe I do want to be a wife and mother one day, but that’s my decision. I just need time.” Emily drew a frustrated breath. “Things would be so much easier if my dad and I could talk about this. But since the mess with Todd, it’s like we don’t even speak the same language anymore.”
“Talking won’t help. Once your dad gets an idea in his head, it’s impossible to get it out. He has hundreds of reasons to want to see you married and a mother. You would have to have a hundred arguments to change his mind.”
Emily groaned. “I’m doomed!”
“Not really. Not if we think of something to distract him before he starts hooking you up with his senior VPs, or if we come up with a way that makes it impossible for him to play matchmaker.”
“We could just marry off everybody who’s single before my dad gets to them,” Emily said flippantly.
Carmella laughed. “Now, that would be something,” she said, but she paused. “Actually, that would be something.”
“Oh, no!” Emily said. “Don’t you start! This isn’t like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!”
“You’re right. I don’t think we have that many matches to make.” Carmella rushed around Emily’s desk and reached into the top desk drawer for a copy of the organizational chart. The first block listed Emily’s dad, Lloyd Winters, as CEO and President of Wintersoft, Inc. Nine lines led from that box to the next row of blocks holding the names of the senior vice presidents. Listed below each of them were the names of their staff members.
For the present, Carmella concentrated on the senior vice presidents themselves. “Alan Richards and Chad Evers are already married.”
Carmella watched Emily’s eyes widen as she apparently considered being paired up with either of the fortyish, balding dads, and she laughed. “Dodged a bullet on those two, didn’t you?”
“Very funny.”
“Okay,” Carmella continued, once again pointing to the chart. “Melinda McIntosh, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, is female. So she, Chad and Alan are out. That leaves these five. Matt Burke, Grant Lawson, Brett Hamilton, Nate Leeman, and Jack Devon.” She pointed to one more block. “Reed Connors is only a vice president, but I’m pretty sure he’s about to be promoted to senior vice president, and he’s single. So I don’t think we should leave him out.”
Emily stared at the chart. “I can see why my dad’s striking now. The iron is definitely hot. Except for Jack Devon who’s so elusive even I wouldn’t know where to start with him, any one of these other guys is ripe for the picking.”
“Which means we have our work cut out for us.”
Emily peered at Carmella. “I can’t see how our marrying off six unsuspecting men is any different than my dad marrying me off.”
“It’s very different,” Carmella assured her. “Because we would be smart and careful. We wouldn’t just pair these men up with women willy-nilly. We would approach it like a business problem.”
Thinking that through, Emily sat back in her seat. “Okay. If we handled this the same way we would any business undertaking, we would have to work in earnest to find the right mates for these guys.”
Carmella smiled. “Yes, we would.”
“We would have to be fair, and look out for the best interests of all parties involved.”
“There’s