Hand-Picked Husband

He was talking on his cell phone, so instead of waiting for him, Autumn pushed open the gate and ran up the porch steps.

The outer doors of the Yellow Rose were propped open with a ceramic cat doorstop. Through the glass inner door, Autumn could see Maria in the reception area, but she was turned away.

As Autumn opened the door, she heard Maria calling out to someone in the back. “I’m telling you, Miss Willie, call my sister’s middle girl, Amalia. She’s the best wallpaper hanger in San Antonio. I sewed the flower girls’ dresses for her wedding, so she’ll give you a discount.”

The receptionist smiled up at her, but before she could ask if she could help, Maria turned back around, saw Autumn and looked at the grandfather clock across the hall. “Boy, you sure are eager.”

“Actually, I wondered if you’d had a chance to ask the owner if she’s willing to contribute to the education fund or do you need me to speak to her?”

“No need. I already did and she’s gonna go the whole hog.” Maria looked at the receptionist and they both laughed.

Autumn smiled although she’d heard a variation of every pig joke told since the beginning of time. She continued smiling as she wrote up a receipt for a full-page advertisement and handed it to Mana just as the door squeaked open.

“Morning.” Clay removed his hat.

“And another eager client.” Maria smiled knowingly. “I’ll go get your files.” She bustled down the hallway.

The phone rang, and as the receptionist answered it, Autumn turned to Clay. “Good news. Yellow Rose Matchmakers just took out a full-page advertisement in the program.” Autumn smiled in triumph and tucked the order form into her portfolio.

“Congratulations. I was just on the phone with Garcia and Delgado.”

“The advertising agency?”

Clay nodded. “They’re talking about donating the layout for the program. I’m going to meet with them right after I finish up here.”

“That’s... wonderful.” It was wonderful. After all, they were both working toward the same goal. The more money they brought in, the more there would be in the auction pool for the kids. It was just that the donation would be even more wonderful if it had been credited to Autumn’s Hogs and Kisses instead of Clay’s High on the Hog.

“Here we are,” Maria said, returning, and gave them each a packet.

“There, uh, wasn’t any trouble, was there?” Clay asked.

“What kind of trouble were you expectin’?”

“Well...you were able to find three matches?”

Maria pursed her lips and flapped her hands at him. “We found a lotta matches. These are the best three for you.” She tapped the white envelope with her pen. “What do you think? Your future wife could be in there.”

Autumn stared at Clay’s envelope, an odd fluttering in her chest. His future wife. And she hadn’t looked beyond getting a date for the Champion Buyers’ Ball.

“There are also evaluation forms for you to fill out after each date. Then, if your initial matches don’t work out and you want to be rematched, we can make adjustments on your profiles. Some people say one thing when they want another, you know?”

Clay smiled tightly and whipped out a credit card.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said after he’d scrawled his name on the slip. He straightened, folded his receipt and nodded to Autumn. “Good luck.”

“Yeah.” She gripped her packet, curiously reluctant to even look at the names inside. “Same to you.”

It seemed as though he was about to say something else, but he just nodded again, put on his hat and strode out the door.

Autumn watched him continue down the steps.

“You coulda saved a lot of money if you’d just dated him,” Maria said.

“Why?” Autumn turned back around. “We didn’t match with each other, did we?”

Maria blinked. “Did you want to?”

“Well, no. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have signed up here.”

“Okay, then.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve known Clay forever.” Autumn withdrew her checkbook from her purse. “We grew up next door to each other.”

Maria didn’t say anything, which Autumn already figured out was unusual for her.

“Thank you for your contribution,” Autumn said to cover the awkward silence. “We’ll be sending Yellow Rose Matchmakers two tickets for the Swine Auction Breakfast.” She tore off her check and handed it to Maria.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” Maria said, placing the check in a bank pouch.

What an odd thing to say. Not “I hope one of the matches works for you” or even “Good Luck”.

Shaking it off, Autumn tossed the envelope on the seat of her car and drove over to a coffee shop on the River Walk where she was scheduled to meet with the Hogs and Kisses women.

Clay put off opening the envelope until after his meeting with Garcia and Delgado. It was on the pickup’s seat waiting for him when he climbed in.

Instead of immediately driving off, he punched on the radio to a country music station and picked up the packet.

For the first time since he could remember, he didn’t know what the future held. Of course nobody knew his exact future, but Clay found he could predict the basic details of his life with reasonable accuracy. Money would be short, work would be hard, and Autumn Reese would wander through his thoughts.

He shook his head. He couldn’t imagine a life without Autumn getting on his nerves—or with her always getting on his nerves. In fact, he couldn’t imagine his life without Autumn in it, the way he couldn’t imagine life without the ranch.

He’d been born to it. Four generations of Barnetts had lived on the land, weathered droughts, depression and the ups and downs of the cattle market. For him, the land was a sacred trust.

And Autumn, well... He stared at the Yellow Rose packet. Your future wife could be in there. He fingered the envelope, then ripped it open.

There were three sheets with a biographical summary obviously taken from the profiles, along with a name, post office box and telephone number.

So call him shallow, but Clay wished he had a picture. He flipped through the names and realized he was surprised not to have been matched with Autumn.

Each match listed a percentage of probable compatibility. Clay’s highest was eighty-four percent, which sounded like a B grade to him. The others were in the seventies. The fact that Autumn hadn’t made the cut meant that her profile and his must have had a near-failing percentage of compatibility.

Of course, lately they’d gotten along like oil and water, but not getting matched with her disappointed Clay.

He reshuffled the papers, deciding to call Miss Eighty-four percent, Julia Holbrook. Maybe she was free for dinner tonight.

After the meeting with her Hogs and Kisses committee was over and the women had left, Autumn had a few minutes before she went to her part-time job as a legal clerk for a law firm in downtown San Antonio.

Autumn had always known she would have to have a career or a job of some sort and had worked since she was a teenager. In most ranch families, someone, usually the wife, had to bring in needed cash.