Free No Strings... by Janelle Denison

just a distraction. We’re one of the ad agencies here to work on a marketing campaign for the resort. This is just a pretense so we don’t have to mingle like everyone else.”
    Hattie moved to a row of plants on a long table and tested the soil with her fingers before plucking away a few wilting leaves. “Trust me, the two of you were meant for one another.”
    Hattie’s statement couldn’t have been further from the truth, but there was a calm certainty in her voice that made Chloe’s heart skip a weird beat.
    Aiden shifted besides Chloe. “How do you know that the two of us are...uh, soul mates?” he asked.
    Chloe frowned at him and his question. Had he really gotten sucked into the woman’s claim that she had the ability to predict a couple’s compatibility? The man was far more intelligent than that, but he appeared truly interested in the woman’s reply.
    “The easiest answer is your pheromones,” she said with a shrug. “I can’t give away all my secrets, but I come from a very long line of matchmakers, and I’m rarely, if ever, wrong about my predictions.”
    “So, when couples happen into your greenhouse, you can just sense their compatibility?” he asked, a skeptical note in his voice.
    “Yes, I just know,” she said with the conviction of a woman who was confident in her abilities. “But everyone always seems to want some sort of tangible proof in order to believe my claim. This very unique hybrid flower, which is native to this island, provides that.” She indicated the bright pink flower that Chloe had nearly touched. “I call it the flower of love. I like to think it represents love and passion, because that’s the results it produces.”
    “What does it do?” Chloe asked, curious despite her very practical nature.
    Hattie smiled. “When a couple touches the stamen at the same time, it changes color. Sometimes it’s two different colors, which indicates incompatibility. But when the color is the same, well, that’s when the true magic of love happens. Would the two of you like to give it a try?”
    Chloe’s heart was suddenly beating hard and fast in her chest, and she wasn’t sure why. She was torn between wanting to scoff at such nonsense, yet she was tempted to see how the whole color-change thing worked. And did she really want to know the results she and Aiden produced?
    Aiden made the decision for them. “What the hell,” he said unexpectedly. “Let’s do it.”
    Alrighty then. Chloe exhaled a deep breath, and reached toward the flower the same time that Aiden did. With her thumb and forefinger, she lightly grasped the stamen, right below where Aiden touched. Beneath the pad of their fingers, a deep, dark purple hue saturated the delicate stalk.
    “Ahhh,” Hattie said, her voice infused with satisfaction and excitement. “Desire, lust and love. I was right. The two of you are extremely compatible.”
    Chloe quickly pulled her hand back, while Aidan did so more casually. She couldn’t dispute the desire simmering between them, but the other emotion Hattie spoke of, well, that she could argue. “We’re not in love.”
    Hattie tipped her head to the side, her brown eyes gentle yet insistent. “But you have the potential to be, if you open yourselves up to it.”
    * * *
    A S THEY WALKED back to the resort a few minutes later, Chloe cast a glance at Aiden, who’d been oddly quiet since the older woman’s spiel. “So, what do you think of Hattie the Matchmaker and her claims?”
    “Do I believe she just knows that two people belong together, with or without that flower trick?” He shook his head, clearly a man who thought in pragmatic terms. “No, I don’t. However, I think I just found my marketing angle for my campaign.”
    “Really?” No wonder Aiden had asked so many questions, and had so willingly gone along with all of Hattie’s antics. “So, you’re going to spin the fact that St. Raphael has an actual, old-fashioned matchmaker on the