The Perfect Match by Unknown Page B

the protective mother sheep anxious for her vulnerable little lamb there?' he asked her.
    Jenny shook her head and grimaced. 'All right,' she agreed apologetically, 'perhaps I am being overly anxious and Guy is far too masculine to ever be called a lamb type but, well, they've known each other such a short time and if you'd seen the way Guy was looking at her...'
    'You said yourself at Christmas that you'd like to see him married with children of his own.'
    'Yes. I would, I do,' Jenny concurred. 'You're right.' She laughed. 'I admit it, I am being overpro-tective and Chrissie seems as head over heels in love with him as he is with her.'
    She put her hand through Jon's and snuggled up to him, returning the loving look he was giving her as he looked down at her.

    'Hello there...'
    Chrissie gave a small start and then smiled as she realised that the woman addressing her in the street was Guy's sister.
    She had another woman with her, some years younger than she was herself and who, Chrissie suspected from her rather strikingly handsome face and thick, dark curly hair, was probably another member of the family.
    'I enjoyed meeting you last night,' Frances commented with another smile before turning to introduce her companion, explaining, 'Guy brought Chrissie over for dinner last night.' She looked at Chrissie.
    'Natalie is another member of the Cooke clan.'
    'Do you know Guy well?' Natalie asked abruptly, ignoring Chrissie's outstretched hand and frowning rather fiercely at her as she waited for a response.
    Her glowering intensity made Chrissie feel uncomfortable and unsure of just how she ought to answer, but before she could say anything, Frances was replying for her, looking at Chrissie with teasing warmth as she informed Natalie, 'Not as well as Guy intends to make sure she does know him, if the way he was looking at her last night is anything to go by.'
    'Oh, it's like that, is it?' Natalie responded dispar-agingly, flicking a disdainful and dismissive glance in Chrissie's direction. 'Well, Guy is always falling in love—and out of it even faster. He's a dreadful flirt.'
    'Natalie,' Frances objected, frowning at her companion and giving Chrissie a rueful look.
    'Well, it's the truth,' Natalie continued, ignoring the warning Frances was trying to give her. 'Guy's always been susceptible to a certain type of woman and, of course, we all know how he was over Jenny Crighton.'
    'Natalie,' Frances protested rather more sharply.
    'I'm not lying,' Natalie insisted with a scornful toss of her head. 'Guy can be a lovesick fool at times.
    Look, I've got to go,' she said, ignoring Chrissie completely as she bent to brush Frances's cheek with her lips and then turned on her heel to walk away.
    'I'm sorry about that,' Frances apologised uncomfortably after she had gone. 'Natalie doesn't always realise...she's...' She glanced unhappily into Chrissie's pale, set face and sighed.
    Natalie could be the limit at times. As a family, they were used to her disruptiveness and her acid remarks. She was and always had been the kind of person who enjoyed hurting and discomforting others.
    Frances tried to tell herself it was because at heart Natalie felt insecure herself rather than because she possessed a mean and spiteful nature, but sometimes Frances did wonder.
    And, of course, it didn't help that the whole family knew that Natalie had had a bit of a thing about Guy for years. Not that he had ever been remotely interested in her in that way. She simply wasn't his type.
    Guy had a distinctly chivalrous, protective side to his nature that instinctively drew him towards the kind of femininely gentle woman whom he could take under his wing and protect. Even if she had been his type physically, which she wasn't, Natalie's personality was far too brash and abrasive ever to appeal to Guy.
    But family loyalty and the sheer complexity of the situation prevented Frances from explaining things to Chrissie. She would, however, have to go and alert Guy as