Free A Perfect Match: (Raining Romance Series) by Lynn Cooper Page A

day?”
    Pulling the front door closed, she heard her friend’s muffled voice.  “Yep, it just might.”
     
    THE MONSOON-LIKE DOWNPOUR HAD turned to a softer, soothing shower of fat droplets, gleefully splashing against Jaslyn’s windshield.  She sang along with the radio, enjoying the scenic countryside.  Both shoulders of New Cut Road were lined with huge oak trees.  Their leaves shined a brilliant, bright green that only comes after a hard rain.  She often counted her blessings while driving, and this morning was no different.  To her, each day held the hope of happiness, the promise of peace and the opportunity for great success.  She was positive her attitude towards life was practically innate.  It was part of her heritage.  She’d been raised on it.
    Her great grandfather, Soeran Scarpa, was an Auschwitz survivor.  It was January 27, 1945 when the American Fourth Armored Division of the Third Army liberated him and all the other Jewish prisoners from that horrid, God-forsaken concentration camp. Soeran fell to his knees and kissed the snow-dusted boots of the soldier nearest him. 
    Her eyes never failed to brim each time she recalled the story—one her great grandfather, grandfather and father had told many times.  One she would someday share with her own children.  The soldier’s name was Private Gunnar Bennett.  His heroics and merciful actions would live forever in her heart and those of her family.  On that brutally cold morning, Gunnar gently pulled her great grandfather to his feet, wrapped his arm around his waist and helped him make his way to the transport trucks.  When it was Soeran’s turn to board the massive vehicle, he was too weak and emaciated from starvation to lift his foot onto the step-up.  Gunnar scooped him up with ease, placed him on a side bench and covered his frail, shivering body with a blanket.  Before turning away to help the others, the soldier—or angel of mercy as her family called him—reached inside his army uniform shirt-pocket, pulled out a chocolate bar and gave it to Soeran.
    According to her great grandfather, the taste of that rich, sweet candy wrapped in kindness and freedom was the greatest gift he had ever received.
    As Jaslyn turned into the parking lot of Zena Starkler, the irony of the dark, blood-red brick building with its gigantic German flag flying high wasn’t lost on her.  Although it had been seventy years since the holocaust and near annihilation of her people, she couldn’t help but shiver. 
    Reprimanding herself, she parked the car and took a deep breath.  If her family had taught her anything, it was to always have a heart of forgiveness, happiness and hopefulness.  History has its place and should never be forgotten.  But, just as the modern-day generation of Caucasians had nothing to do with slavery and the past mistreatment of African Americans, this German-based company and its employees had nothing to do with the past persecution and extermination of Jews. 
    It was a brand new day, and Jaslyn was thankful for this assignment.  Nothing or nobody could make her feel any different.
     
    THE STORM OUTSIDE HAD quieted, but the one inside Zena Starkler was just firing up.  Rhein Birkner was railing against and raging at anything or anybody in his path. He was a force of hurricane magnitude.  Not one of his fifty employees dared make eye contact when he blew by them. Michael Wiese—legal eagle, closest friend and head of acquisitions—was right on the mogul’s heels.  Michael was a head shorter than his CEO.  His stubby arms flailed goofily at his sides as he struggled to keep stride with the furious man in front of him.  Slamming his office door behind them, Rhein whirled on Michael.
    “There is no way in hell that bastard Voldemar could have legitimately outbid me!”
    “Well, it would seem he did.”  He shook his head, tentatively placing a consoling hand on Rhein’s shoulder.  “As much as we’d like to think