“Just down to San Diego, to this lovely little bed-and-breakfast.” He could hear the smile in his mother’s voice. “Your father’s taking me there for our anniversary. You know, I think this is the first time we’re actually going somewhere that didn’t involve travel for his work since—well, since our honeymoon,” his mother said. “Needless to say, we are long overdue.”
Jared had turned off Speaker, but whatever was going on, it couldn’t be good, Elizabeth thought. He looked almost stricken. She listened more intently as she did her best to fill in the blanks. Nothing she came up with was very promising.
“But you can’t go, Mom,” Jared protested, searching for a way to get his parents to remain in town without being forced to tell her about the anniversary celebration. Making it a surprise had been Megan’s idea and he hadn’t been happy about that from the start. Now he knew why.
“Oh, but we finally are,” his mother contradicted, brimming with anticipation.
His mind went in four different directions at once, searching for a plausible excuse that would convince his mother and father to stay in town for their anniversary.
Glancing toward Elizabeth, he continued searching for at least a glimmer of an idea.
All he came up with was a shred of a glimmer. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to tell you. Megan and I were planning on taking you out for your anniversary.”
“You can still take us out, dear,” his mother assured him. “Just after the fact—or even before the big day if you’d rather—provided your sister gets back in time, of course. Really, a cruise when she’s six months pregnant?” She clucked in obvious disapproval. “Not a good idea.”
She’d heard enough on Jared’s end to piece together what was happening—and what he was trying to accomplish. An idea came to her, sparked by the soul-searing kiss they’d just shared.
Elizabeth looked around for something to write with as well as something to write on. Spying the back of a discarded envelope containing an application for a gym membership she had no interest in, she grabbed it and quickly wrote on it in block letters.
Convinced this would do the trick and get his mother to stay in Bedford, she held the envelope up in front of Jared.
When he didn’t look at it at first, she tugged on his arm to get his attention, then pointed urgently to the message she’d just written.
Distracted, still looking for a way to temporarily abort his mother’s plans for a getaway, he glanced at the message on the envelope.
Stunned didn’t even begin to describe how he felt. But as he reread the message, he decided that Elizabeth’s idea just might work.
“Um, I’ll have something important to tell you at that dinner.” Clearing his throat, he continued a bit more confidently. “There’s someone I want to introduce you to and I thought it would be fitting to have you two meet on your anniversary.”
There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line. Almost too long. Maybe Elizabeth’s idea was backfiring.
“Mom?” he said, getting a little concerned. “Are you still there? Did you hear what I just said—?”
“Yes,” his mother replied in a hushed voice that began to swell even as she uttered the single word. “Yes, I did,” she repeated, and he could hear the utter joy vibrating in her voice. “Jared, does this mean what I think it does? That you’ve finally decided to settle down and—”
He knew that was what the message he’d just recited had implied, but he couldn’t let her continue on like this, getting excited when there wasn’t anything to really get excited about.
Still, if he admitted to resorting to clever lies, he’d lose his advantage and wind up having to come clean—about everything.
Megan would kill him.
So he resorted to vague nonstatements. “You’ll just have to wait to find out, Mom. Unless, of course, you’re going to San Diego, and then you’ll have to wait longer for that introduction—”
“Oh, forget San Diego.” He could visualize his mother waving away the whole concept of a second-honeymoon getaway. Apparently that wasn’t nearly as important as what she was anticipating hearing from him. “We can always go to San Diego now that your father’s retired.”
He suppressed the sigh of relief that instantly rose in his chest. If his conscience bothered him a little about misleading his mother this way, he just pushed that aside.
“Then you’ll let us take you out on your anniversary?” With his mother, he needed to have every t crossed, every i dotted.
“Absolutely. And Jared—” she just couldn’t resist asking “—by ‘us’ do you mean—”
If his mother was in the same room, he would have embraced her and sent her on her way long before she got to this part.
“No more questions, Mom,” he told her gently. “You’ll just have to wait. All I can tell you is that we have a surprise for you.”
“I can’t wait,” she told him, her voice bubbling with anticipation. After a few more brief words, his mother ended the conversation.
“I take it that your parents aren’t going away?” Elizabeth asked as he put his phone away.
“No, they’re not.” Thanks to her, he thought. Elizabeth was pretty good in a mini crisis. A very handy woman to have around, he couldn’t help thinking. “That was really quick thinking on your part,” he told her. “Thanks.”
She nodded. “No problem.” Then, looking a tad closer at him, she said, “I can’t help but notice that for someone whose plan is back on track, you don’t look very happy.”
He didn’t like lying. Even for a good cause like this one. Lies had a way of coming back and blowing up in your face.
“I’m just hoping that the surprise party—and seeing all their friends and family gathered together—is enough to make her forget that she’s expecting me to produce a significant other for her perusal.”
“You never told her that,” Elizabeth reminded him.
“But nevertheless, that’s what she’s thinking,” he countered.
She thought of her father. He was low-key about it, but she knew he wanted to see her with someone—a soulmate who would be there for her through everything. He didn’t know that the epic romance that he was hoping would bring her true happiness was the very thing that filled her with fear. She didn’t believe that it was better to have loved and lost the way he did. Not when losing was so horribly painful.
“All parents think like that,” she told Jared. “They want to see their kids settled into a relationship—especially if they have a good one of their own,” she added. “From what I gather, your parents are incredibly compatible and happy together.”
He and Megan were lucky that way, he thought. They had two parents who never even raised their voices in anger to each other. While he was growing up, a lot of his friends had parents who had split up for one reason or another and sometimes homes were turned into verbal battlefields. His friends all liked to come to his house because the love there just seem to radiate outward, touching each and every person who walked in through the door.
“They are,” he said proudly. And then he recalled that she’d mentioned losing her mother at an early age. He wondered if she thought he was bragging. “Sorry,” he murmured, “I didn’t mean to sound insensitive.”
Where had that come from? she wondered. “You weren’t. And as for worrying about your mom being disappointed, just tell her that you were desperate not to spoil the surprise and that the idea about introducing her to someone special on the big day was mine.” She flashed a grin at him. “I’ll take the fall, no extra charge.”
He laughed then, all the tension that had been there just a moment ago completely dissipating. He looked at her appreciatively. “You really are something else, you know?”
“So my brothers keep telling me, except that their tone when they say it is usually somewhat accusatory.” For just a second, she didn’t try to pretend that her pulse wasn’t racing madly because he was looking at her in a way that threatened to mel
t her right where she stood. She savored it instead. “I like the way you say it much better.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he promised. “So,” he continued, getting down to business, “I think everything is set for the big day. The reception hall is reserved for the night, the menu’s been arranged, the RSVPs have all come in and the music has been selected.” Smiling in satisfaction, he rested his eyes on Elizabeth and was pleased to see the look of approval on her face.
“And, the most important part, your parents’ attendance has just been confirmed,” she added whimsically.
He inclined his head. “My parents have been confirmed,” he echoed, “thanks again to you.” He took a deep breath. “Looks like everything’s all in place.”
He was stalling and he knew it. There was an elephant in the room and he needed to address it rather than just circle it. Otherwise, who knew what was actually going on in Elizabeth’s head as a result of what had happened before his mother’s untimely call? The lovely violinist struck him as being too polite to read him the riot act, even if his attention had been unwanted.
And yet, he had this feeling deep down in his gut that the woman who had been on the other end of that passionate kiss wasn’t exactly a pushover.
Still, he needed to apologize—just in case. “Um, Elizabeth?”
She didn’t like the sound of that, she thought, but she managed to keep her thoughts from registering on her face. “Yes?”
Why was it that he could talk reluctant clients into launching extensive ad campaigns yet have his brain turn into a single-cell amoeba when it came to talking to Elizabeth?
“About before...”
“When before?” she asked innocently.
“Before my mother’s call.”
She turned her face up to his, the picture of dewy innocence. A dewy innocent who was capable of returning his fiery kisses.
“Yes?”
He felt as if he were physically pushing each word out of his mouth. “If I was out of line—”
She raised her eyes to his. He wasn’t trying to back away, he was apologizing, she realized. Time to put him out of his obvious misery.
“Did I give you that impression? That I thought you were being out of line?”
“No,” he admitted. That wasn’t the impression he’d gotten at all; however, there might have been a reason for that. “But you could have just been polite—”
His answer caught her off guard. And suggested something she hadn’t thought of before. “Was I that boring?” she wanted to know.
“What?” How had he given her that impression? She was anything but. “No,” he told her with a great deal of feeling. “I just didn’t want you to think that was part of our...”
What word did he use here? Arrangement? Deal? Nothing seemed to aptly fit. And why the hell did this feel so awkward?
Maybe it’s because she matters, a voice somewhere deep in his mind whispered in his head.
“Arrangement,” he finally settled on for lack of a proper way to express his thoughts. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to let me kiss you.”
She had thought that men like this had faded away in the last century, pressed between the pages of a classic romance. Obviously, there was one modern-day counterpart left.
“Let’s get something straight here,” she told him in a no-nonsense voice. “I did not ‘let’ you kiss me. The way I saw it, we kissed each other. And,” she added, emotionally taking a step back, “at least one of us liked it.”
“One of us?” he asked a little uncertainly.
Was he being coy, or telling her something? This male-female thing was a lot harder than it looked, she decided.
“Well,” she began slowly, feeling her way around the conversation, “since I’m not a mind reader, I can only speak for myself. Whether or not you liked it is something that you’re going to have to decide for yourself.”
He nodded. “You’re right. You know what I’m going to need in order to do that?”
Humor danced along the curve of her mouth as she thought she knew what was coming. “No, what?”
“Another test run,” he told her, as solemnly as a preacher speaking at a Sunday sermon.
“A test run,” she echoed, laughter threatening to burst free. “Is that what you call it?”
“Actually,” he said, slowly closing the distance between them, “if you must know, I call it very, very exciting.”
There went her pulse again, she thought, trying to outrace the speed of sound. “Well, if you put it that way, I guess you can have another crack at it.”
Jared framed her face with his hands, his eyes already caressing her. “Don’t mind if I do,” he whispered, his voice low and husky, as he brought his mouth down to hers.
This time, it felt as if heaven and earth exploded at the very same time, creating a brave new world just large enough to accommodate the two of them.
And this time, the kiss lasted a little longer, lit a fire that burned a little brighter as well as a good deal hotter.
And just when it seemed as if they were the only two people left in the world, the sound of a ringing phone once again harshly intruded into paradise, shattering their perfect moment.
Elizabeth pulled back first, startled this time. Jared leaned his forehead against hers. He sighed and she almost laughed at the definite feeling of déjà vu.
Her sigh echoed his. That kiss had taken her to the brink of forever, and now it was gone.
So near and yet, so far.
“I’m beginning to think that the forces of nature are against us,” she confessed.
His sentiments exactly, now that she had put them into words. “Yeah. Me too,” Jared agreed.
Chapter Twelve
This time, however, the phone that was ringing so very intrusively belonged to Elizabeth. There was no mistaking the sound. The call was coming in on her landline.
By the time Elizabeth crossed the room and managed to reach her telephone, the answering machine had picked up. She was about to shrug and let the caller leave a message if they were so inclined.
However, when she heard the deep baritone voice and the measured cadence asking, “Are you there, Elizabeth?” she made a grab for the receiver, aborting any further message from being recorded.
She’d know that voice anywhere.
“Dad?”
“Elizabeth, then you are home.” The relief in his voice was audible.
“Yes, I— Oh God, are you at the restaurant?” she asked, suddenly remembering that today was Thursday and unless she was working, she and her father had a standing date for dinner on Thursdays at her favorite restaurant, The Manor on the Hill.
“As a matter of fact, I am. The waiters are beginning to drift by my table, looking at me with pitying glances,” her father told her, only partially kidding.
“Oh, Dad, I’m so sorry. Something came up at the last minute,” she told him evasively, avoiding looking in Jared’s direction. “And I didn’t realize what time it was....”
“Or what day, apparently,” her father surmised. “So, this ‘something,’ does he have a name?” he asked her good-naturedly.
The question caught her completely off guard. “How did you know? I mean—”
Stumped, Elizabeth had no idea where to go from here. She wasn’t the kind who played word games with people, especially not with her father. She never had been. She had always been completely honest with the people in her life. It was one of the reasons that her father not only trusted her implicitly but also treated her as if she were an adult long before she had chronologically reached that plateau.
Trapped, Elizabeth sighed. She had no choice but to come clean. If nothing else, lies required far too complicated measures to keep them up.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Elementary, my dear Elizabeth.” He chuckled knowingly. “If it was a job that was keeping you away from our standing Thursday night date, you would have already called me earlier in the we
ek, all excited about it.”
He had been extremely supportive of her chosen vocation, despite the fact that he felt that being a musician all but guaranteed lifelong poverty for all but the fortunate few. He was supportive because he knew that playing the violin made her incredibly happy and, above all, he wanted her to be happy. Luckily, he knew he was in a position to help her out financially if it ever came to that. So far, it hadn’t. She was managing rather well and he was very proud of her. Just as he knew that Annie would have been, were she still alive.
Her curiosity aroused, she deliberately turned her back to Jared and lowered her voice before asking her father, “And I wouldn’t have been excited if I’d met someone?”
“You, my darling daughter, are very, very cautious when it comes to letting people in.” In that, he had to admit, she took after him. It had taken him six months to admit to himself that he was head over heels in love with Annie. And after she’d died, he’d shut himself off from that avenue completely.
“Really?” she countered defensively. “Someone told me just the other week that I was the friendliest person they knew.”
“And I’m sure he or she thought they were right. Because they were dealing with your public persona. But the Elizabeth who exists within is exceptionally careful when it comes to her personal life. And that is probably my fault,” he admitted with a heavy heart.
He’d kept her much too close much too long, enjoying her company. His daughter had been far more mature than her age warranted and there were times when he actually forgot that she was still a child. He always talked to her as if she was already an adult and she’d responded to that, but maybe he shouldn’t have gone that route with her. Maybe he should have forced her to interact more with people her own age. Maybe she would have been more open that way, more receptive to forging a relationship.
“Your fault?” she repeated, then teased, “Not possible, Dad. You don’t have a fault in your entire body.”
He smiled to himself, signaling for a waiter to come over and give him a check for the chardonnay he’d been sipping as he’d waited for Elizabeth to arrive.
A Perfectly Imperfect Match (Matchmaking Mamas) Page 12
