Today only, NO FOOLIN’ by Lisa Scott is $1.99 at Amazon Kindle!
MATCHMAKER
BY LISA SCOTT
The setup. The Matchmaker. Playing cupid. Why is it so appealing? Why do we like trying to get people together? Why do we think we know the perfect guy for our neighbor’s best friend’s daughter’s cousin? Why do we tell our vet about our newly single cousin? (Or maybe it’s just the romance writer in me trying to find love for everyone I know.) Because the truth is, there is only a very miniscule chance that things are going to work out in our fantasy happily-ever-after scenario. Instead, things are most likely to be awkward at best when that blind date gets as ugly as a muddy puppy on a white carpet—it’s gonna leave a mark. And you might find yourself avoiding your neighbor’s best friend’s daughter’s cousin in the future so you don’t have to face her after the bum date.
I’m guilty of it myself. I introduced my brother to a girl when they were in high school, and they went out for years—until she cheated on him and they broke up. “I wish you’d never introduced me to her,” he wailed to me. And seeing the pain it caused him, I agreed. Never again! I thought.
Maybe that’s why in my early twenties, when my neighbor joined me for drinks with a co-worker—who ended up being quite interested in my lovely 
neighbor—I discouraged his advances. She didn’t seem interested, I gently told him. Well, I moved shortly after that, and learned years later that she had been interested. They bumped into each other again and ended up getting married. They’re considering naming their first daughter Lisa because I introduced them. (Yet, nearly kept them apart!)
Clearly my setup instincts are not good. But that didn’t deter me from trying to find the perfect guy for my beautiful friend who just hasn’t found Mr. Right. “I’m going to find a different guy for you to go out with every month until you find the one,” I told her. And she agreed. The very next day I met a hottie I thought would be perfect for her. They never went out. The second proposed setup fizzled, too.
I gave up on that quest, but it got me thinking about a great book idea: a girl who sets her friend up on hilariously bad dates every month. Then I realized that wasn’t so compelling. But what if you were in love with the person you were setting up? And that’s how Man of the Month was born, book #2 in the Willowdale Romance series.
Jeanne and Brad are best friends and business partners and would make a perfect couple if not for one small thing—a baby. She wants one and he’s decided he won’t ever be a father. But that doesn’t mean they still don’t secretly long for each other. So Brad proposes a crazy New Year’s resolution to get Jeanne out of his system: The Man of the Month. He’ll arrange a blind date each month for a year until she finds love. At least that was the plan. What unfolds could jeopardize everything between them.
Maybe writing about all of Jeanne’s dates will get the matchmaking bug out of my system. Although my daughter’s wonderful, sweet teacher is single…
