Free This Matter Of Marriage by Debbie Macomber

don’t want to hear.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have called if I didn’t. I haven’t got much time, either. I’ve got clients due in five minutes, so cut to the chase, will you?”
    â€œOkay, then—gloat. This guy was a jerk. Big time. He wanted to investigate my family genes to make sure I was qualified to bear his children. When I told him I didn’t think we clicked, he made me pay for my half of the dinner. Then his car broke down on the freeway and I was stuck finding my own way home. To add insult to injury, I had to get my neighbor out of bed and borrow twenty bucks to pay the cabdriver.”
    A lengthy pause followed her condensed version of the previous night. Hallie suspected Donnalee had covered the receiver with one hand to hide her laughter.
    â€œWell?” she challenged. “Say something.”
    â€œOkay,” Donnalee replied slowly. “Are you ready to invest in Dateline yet?”
    â€œNo.” Hallie was determined to pay off her credit cards, not add another two thousand dollars to the balance. “Besides, I have another date.”
    â€œWho?” Donnalee—predictably—sounded skeptical.
    â€œBonnie’s uncle Chad.” Bonnie had mentioned him early in January, but Hallie had wanted to be at her best before agreeing to a date with him. “You know that old saying about getting back on the horse after you fall off? Well, I accepted a dinner invitation this very morning.”
    â€œWhen are you seeing him?”
    Hallie didn’t know what to make of Donnalee’s tone. It was a mixture of wonder and patent disapproval. “Soon,” Hallie said. “Monday night.” Actually she wondered how smart this was herself. Monday was only three days away.
    Chad Ellis had sounded nice enough over the phone, and Bonnie had said he was her favorite uncle. Someone related to a member of her trusted staff seemed a safe bet—especially after the disastrous Marv.
    â€œDid you go out with Sanford last night?” The change of subject was deliberate.
    â€œYes—and it was wonderful. He’s a dream come true,” Donnalee said with the same wistful note she used whenever his name was introduced into the conversation.
    â€œHave you talked to him today?” Hallie didn’t know why she insisted on torturing herself.
    â€œHe sent me a dozen red roses this morning.”
    â€œRoses?” Hallie was almost swooning with envy. While Donnalee was being courted and pampered, she’d been grilled for hours and then abandoned on the freeway.
    â€œI’m falling in love with this guy,” Donnalee confessed. “Head over heels.”
    â€œSo am I, and I haven’t even met him.”
    Her friend chuckled. “I wish you’d reconsider Dateline. Chad might be Bonnie’s uncle, but how much do you really know about him?”
    â€œJust what Bonnie told me. He’s divorced, has been for five years. He sells medical equipment and is on the road quite a bit, but he’ll be back in town after the weekend. For a while, anyway.” She wasn’t sure if that was luck or fate. Their one all-too-brief conversation had taken place that morning. He sounded…interesting. Which, come to think of it, was the same word she’d used following her telephone chat with Marv.
    â€œIf you don’t call me Tuesday morning, I’ll track you down and torture the information out of you,” Donnalee warned.
    â€œI’ll phone,” Hallie promised. No date could possibly be as awful as the one with Marv. Sheer chance assured Hallie that the odds of Chad’s being a decent date were good.
    At this point she wasn’t even looking for Mr. Right. Mr. Almost Right would satisfy her nicely. If she’d learned anything from the experience with Marv—and she had —it was that she needed to lower her expectations. No Mr. Knight-In-Shining-Armor was going to gallop up to her front