Page 36 of The Wife Finder
“Not exactly.” He rubbed his chin. “It will be a surprise.”
“You hiring a matchmaker...or them falling in love with their perfect matches?”
He sipped his coffee as if he wanted to delay his answer. Or think of one. “Both.”
“Sending your friends on a vacation is a surprise.” This still made no sense to her. “Hiring your friends a matchmaker they don’t want would be a mistake.”
His face fell for a moment, but then his smile returned. “It’s not a mistake. They won’t think so after meeting the love of their life.”
He sounded convinced. She wasn’t. “They must be close friends for you to go to so much trouble.”
His eyes darted around the office. “They are.”
He might believe that, but based on Blaise’s body language, he was holding back information.
She tapped her finger against her chin. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He crossed his leg over his knee. “What do you mean? I have two friends, and I want you to find them wives.”
“Something isn’t adding up. And if Henry’s involved, there’s more to the situation than what you’ve told me.”
Blaise scratched his neck. “If you’re worried, this is like his birthday adventure pairings, it isn’t.”
“Then what is it? Why do your friends need wives now?”
A beat passed. And another.
A sheepish expression crossed his face. “There’s a bet.”
I knew this went beyond friendship.
But she also realized Blaise Mortenson was as much trouble as she thought he would be. She steepled her fingers. “Go on.”
“Five years ago, six of us made a bet. The last single man wins.” A muscle ticked at his jawline. “We each contributed ten million dollars. We created a fund that my company runs and we agreed to use the money to test an investment algorithm I’d been developing. The return exceeded my expectations.”
“How well did it do?”
“The fund is worth five hundred million dollars.”
Her lips parted. That amount explained his motivation for wanting his friends to get married.
“Winner takes all, unless all of us marry within a year of the first person,” he explained. “The first wedding occurred nine months ago. The third was on Saturday. That’s when I decided I wanted to speed things up so I win sooner.”
“By finding the other two wives,” she offered.
“It’s a brilliant idea.”
Cockiness oozed from him. She shouldn’t find that as attractive as she did. Usually that was a turn-off. “That remains to be seen.”
But she had her doubts.
“My friends will have zero complaints once they meet the women of their dreams. Which is where you come in. I need to make sure they end up with the right women. Not gold-diggers or divas.”
Hadley bit her lip, unsure of what she wanted to say next. “What you’re asking goes beyond what I do for Henry.”
“New skills are good to have.”
“Not sure how marketable these would be.”
