His Ideal Match

by Arlene James

  She gave him a surprised smile. “All right, but I can’t promise how many hours I’ll be able to dedicate to this project. I’ll have to make a minimum number of sales every day before I can leave my regular job and go to work on the app. Agreed?”

  “Absolutely. Do you think you could give me a few minutes now to estimate the cost of development? And I’ll be wanting that equipment list as soon as possible, too. I’ve promised a business prospectus to a couple of people.”

  She raised her eyebrows at that but got down to business without delay. Phillip’s excitement grew exponentially.

  “Business partners,” she said wryly. “Who’d have thought it?”

  He clasped his hands behind him to keep from reaching out for her. This was business. For now. “Stranger things have happened, I suppose.”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “Well, you know what they say about God working in mysterious ways.”

  “I think this definitely falls into that category,” she agreed. “Now, I think it’s time we rescue your aunt and uncle.”

  He chuckled at that. “You’re probably right.”

  They returned to the master suite to find Nathan reading aloud to everyone. He was very good, his voice full of drama as he finished the tale of the boy archaeologist and a fearsome mummy.

  Everyone applauded, including Phillip. Nathan couldn’t hide a grin, even while he tried to give Phillip a dirty look. Perhaps that was why Phillip invited Carissa and her children out to dinner; he didn’t feel like eating alone—or he didn’t feel like letting Carissa out of his sight just yet. Strangest of all, he found that he wanted to spend some time with the children, too. Now, if he could just get through dinner without doing or saying something that would ruin the progress he’d made...

  But everything seemed designed to try his patience. Grace almost spilled his iced tea. He had to track down Tucker and haul him back to the table three separate times, and Nathan vacillated between moody silence and downright rudeness. Despite all that, they managed to demolish two pizzas and make numerous trips to the salad bar in just over two hours. Through it all Carissa kept her cool, and so did Phillip. What was the point in losing his temper? Kids would be kids.

  “You’ll think twice before inviting us out again, I bet,” Carissa said at the end of the meal, after she’d prevented Grace from attempting to bus their table.

  “Maybe next time it could be just two of us,” Phillip quipped, thinking that he’d like to take her for a nice, quiet, childless dinner.

  Nathan snorted at that, challenging, “Like you’d take me anywhere.”

  Phillip felt as if he’d been smacked in the back of the head with a hammer. Of course. Of all the children, Nathan would long for one-on-one time of any sort with anyone. How he must miss it, and Phillip suddenly wanted to give it to him.

  “Well, now, Nathan. Where would you like to go, just you and me?”

  Nathan looked away, but Grace immediately started jumping up and down.

  “Me first! Me first!”

  “You?” Phillip laughed. “And just where would you like to go, Miss Grace?”

  “Tea party,” she announced, folding her arms.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Tea party,” she insisted, poking him in the thigh. “Just you and me.”

  That was how he came to be sitting at a table in the sunroom the next day wearing a big straw hat and a string of beads when his brother came to deliver the partnership papers. Asher put his hand over his mouth, but the snickers escaped just the same.

  Phillip glowered and sank down a little farther in his chair. “Laugh now. You’ll be doing the same in a few years. Just wait until Marie Ella plans a tea party for you.”

  “You’re right,” Asher admitted, grinning, “but I never expected to see you at it.”

  “That makes two of us,” Phillip grumbled, tossing the hat to the table and yanking the beads off.

  “Lunch is over,” Grace announced with a sigh.

  “It certainly is,” Phillip said, getting to his feet. He said to Grace, “I have work to do now.” Then he kissed her on the forehead. Hilda came into the room, wiping her hands on a towel. “Grace promised to help you clean up after our tea party. Call upstairs when you’re done. I’ll send Nathan down for her.”

  “Chester can walk her back upstairs,” Hilda said.

  “Good idea. Otherwise, I’ll have to dig her out of Odelia’s closet again.”

  With that, Phillip and Asher headed up to the master suite to discuss the partnership terms with Carissa. As they climbed the stairs, Asher asked, “So, are you going to marry her?”

  Phillip didn’t pretend to misunderstand, but it took him a while to come up with an answer. “I seem to be headed in that direction.”

  Asher laughed, but to Phillip it was not a laughing matter. In fact, it was terrifying, and it got scarier almost by the hour.

  After Carissa had looked over the partnership agreement and signed it, Asher went on his way. Phillip presented her with sales projection numbers.

  “They aren’t very thorough because I don’t know how much to sell advertising for.”

  “Couldn’t that wait until after the initial offering?” Carissa asked. “Once we have a better idea how many people might be interested in downloading the app, we’d have a better idea about advertising rates, wouldn’t we?”

  Phillip rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That’s not a bad business model. We might want to do that with the other apps we develop.”

  “Are we going to develop other apps?” she asked in surprise.

  “If this works out, why not? Asher has some ideas about legal applications, and we did tell Garrett we’d look into his idea about identifying plants.”

  “You mean it? But...I failed at business before.”

  “Doesn’t mean you’ll fail again,” he pointed out.

  She stared at him for a long moment before dropping onto the couch. “You sound like Tom.”

  Phillip felt a chill seeping into his veins. He carefully took a seat on the edge of the cushion next to her.

  “You’re like him in many ways, frankly. It’s that rugged, he-man exterior, that try-anything-once attitude.” She threw out a hand. “Oh, you’re more handsome, more polished, but then, you’re a Chatam. No doubt, you’re a jack-of-all-trades, just as he was.”

  “Jack-of-all-trades, master of none,” Phillip muttered. “I’ve roughed it in the Canadian Northwest for months. I’m a skydiver of expert status, which means I’m suitable for instructing tourists. I’ve surfed every great beach in the world. I’ve worked as a commercial fisherman. And let’s not forget the mountain climbing. Along the way, I’ve earned three degrees, none of which I’ve ever really used. Currently I live with my three elderly aunts. Yeah, I’m a real prize.”

  “Commercial fishing,” she exclaimed, sitting up straight. “Surfing. Skydiving. Zoos. The Canadian Northwest! Phillip, we’re talking about reality apps here. Why wouldn’t it work for those things, as well as mountain climbing?”

  He shot to his feet. “That’s brilliant. And your father said you didn’t have a head for business.”

  “I don’t.” She snatched up the folder and shook it at him. “But you do. All I do is write code and maybe do some computer design.”

  “Then together we ought to be able to make this work,” he told her, pulling her to her feet.

  She grinned. “I think so, too.”

  Could they make more than business work between them? Phillip wondered, looking down into her face. Oh, how he hoped so! His gaze dropped to her lips just as something hit him in the back of the legs, knocking him against her.

  “It’s my turn!”

  He looked down to find Tucker stepping up onto the coffee table. Phillip plucked
him off it. “Your turn?”

  “To go to dinner alone with you. Where are we going?”

  Phillip looked at Carissa, who did her best not to smile, and mentally sighed. He should’ve known. If he did it for one, of course he’d have to do it for all. “What’s your favorite food?”

  “Tacos!”

  “Mexican it is.”

  “When?”

  “It’ll be a surprise.”

  “Soon!” Tucker demanded.

  “We’ll see,” Carissa told him, indicating that Phillip should put him down. Phillip set Tucker on his feet, and Carissa pointed him toward his bedroom. “Out.”

  He ran, because Tucker never walked, shouting, “Oh, boy! Phillip’s taking me to a Mexican restaurant!”

  Carissa folded her arms. “I’m afraid you won’t have a moment’s peace until you do it.”

  Phillip gave her a sheepish look. “Might as well be tomorrow. Wednesday is church, and Thursday is grief support group.”

  She nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  He grinned. “Does that mean you’ll ride to support group with me on Thursday?”

  She chuckled. “Why not?”

  “And church Wednesday night?” She hesitated, so he pressed. “They have lots of activities for the kids on Wednesdays.”

  “That might be good for them. But you’d better ride with us. And it’s only if I make my quota early enough.”

  “You’ll make your quota,” he told her, pleased. “I just know it. How can you not, with me hanging out with the rug rats?”

  Smiling, she nodded. He stood there searching for something else to say for several seconds before dropping the folder onto the table and turning for the door. She followed him and then, at the last moment, laid a hand on his shoulder. He spun to face her.

  “Phillip, are we crazy to think this might actually work?”

  “I don’t know,” he told her honestly. “All I know is that when I pray about it, I feel...elated, almost. I think it’s something we have to do, have to try.”

  “You pray about it,” she said softly, a note of awe in her voice and a faraway look in her eye. “I don’t know if Tom ever did that. He was a believer, but I don’t know if he ever did that.” She looked up suddenly, smiling, and her face seemed to glow. “I’m glad you pray about it. I will, too, from now on.”

  Phillip suddenly wanted to hold her close, to never let her go again. He wanted so much: to offer financial security to Carissa and the kids, for Carissa to love and want him, marriage, family, the whole ball of wax. It was too much to even hope for, let alone ask for. Instead, he mutely nodded, ran his hands down her arms, squeezed her hands in his and left before he made an utter fool of himself.

  * * *

  Tuesday was a difficult day. The kids seemed to bounce off the walls, so Tucker surprised Phillip when they went to dinner together that evening. He kept himself at the table at the Mexican restaurant, talking and eating a mile a minute, his legs swinging. He talked about everything from Nathan being too bossy and Grace being too giggly to his mom being pretty.

  “Anyway, I think she’s pretty.”

  “She is,” Phillip agreed. “Very pretty.”

  “So why don’t you marry her?”

  “I just might,” Phillip heard himself say, his heartbeat suddenly echoing in his ears.

  “When?” Tucker demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Phillip answered with a nonchalance he didn’t feel, “and I said might. She’d have to agree, and we’re a long way from that. Eat your dinner.”

  Tucker forked up a huge bite of beans and rice, then said with a full mouth, “Me and Grace want you to.”

  Phillip’s chest seemed to expand. He fought the feeling, scooting his chair a little closer to the table. “But Nathan doesn’t, does he?”

  “I think he might.”

  Phillip was surprised by that. Not much he’d done or said had ever met with Nathan’s approval, but Phillip couldn’t help hoping. “What makes you think so?”

  Tucker shrugged. “Things have been better since you been around.”

  “Ah,” Phillip said, disappointed. He wanted to ask how things had been better, but he didn’t dare. It was likely that all the better things that Tucker and Grace ascribed to him were nothing more than a result of them living at Chatam House. No doubt, Nathan knew it, too. Still, at least Carissa’s children had thought of him as a potential mate for her.

  Maybe, though, he was too much like her late husband. The idea haunted Phillip, so much so that he had almost convinced himself to ask her when he took Tucker home after their dinner. Carissa was so concerned about how Tucker had behaved during dinner, however, that Phillip found himself reassuring her instead.

  “I threatened to tie him to the bed for a week if he so much as left the table tonight,” she said, looking down into Tucker’s upturned face.

  Phillip chuckled. “He must have taken you at your word, then, because he didn’t budge.”

  “You’re not just saying that?”

  “He stayed put,” Phillip told her, ruffling Tucker’s hair.

  “I’m so glad.” She bent down and touched her nose to Tucker’s, saying, “There’s hope for you yet, my boy.”

  “Mo-om.”

  A huff from the direction of the hallway brought Phillip’s attention to Nathan, who stood with arms folded, regarding them all, frowning. Phillip put on a smile.

  “So where would you like to go for dinner, Nathan?”

  “Nowhere.”

  “Nathan,” Carissa said warningly.

  He rolled his eyes. Phillip tamped down a spurt of irritation mixed with alarm.

  “Aw, come on,” he said, “what’s your favorite food?”

  “Nothing you’d like.”

  “Nathan, that’s uncalled for,” Carissa warned softly.

  The boy sighed then muttered the name of an expensive seafood restaurant that advertised on TV frequently.

  Carissa smiled apologetically. “Nathan thinks he likes fish.”

  “I do!”

  “But the other two aren’t too keen on it,” Carissa went on. “In truth, they haven’t had much opportunity to eat fish, but Nathan used to eat it occasionally with his dad.”

  “He was a great fisherman, and we used to eat what he caught,” Nathan insisted.

  “He did like a mess of fried catfish,” Carissa said quietly.

  “Well, if it’s catfish you like, Nathan, there’s a great catfish restaurant here in town,” Phillip ventured. “How does that sound?”

  “Humph,” Nathan said, and turning his back, he disappeared down the hallway.

  He had to do this. He had to try. “How is Friday?”

  “I can’t imagine why you’d want to do this. You see how he behaves.”

  “Has any man spent time with Nathan alone since his dad died?” Phillip asked. She shook her head, shamefaced. “Seems to me that it can’t hurt, then.”

  She smiled, and they agreed on Friday. Wisely, they agreed not to mention it again to Nathan until Phillip showed up to take him to dinner. Meanwhile, he had the midweek service and the grief support meeting to look forward to.

  Who would ever have dreamed that he’d actually look forward to grief support meetings?

  Chapter Fourteen

  They went to midweek service the next evening at Downtown Bible Church in Carissa’s old van. She had made her sales quota early, but the day had not been without calamity. Tucker and Nathan got into a fistfight while Phillip was chatting on the phone with an old surfing buddy. Grace wandered off to play in Odelia’s closet again, but at least Phillip knew to look for her there first. All in all, however, Carissa was pleased. Phillip had proved surprisingly laid-back with the children, and despite her personal disap
pointment where Phillip was concerned, Carissa somehow felt that she could stop holding her breath.

  The prayer meeting calmed her nerves even more. What was happening between her and Phillip Chatam might be nothing more than business and casual friendship, but she felt sure that it would ultimately play out to her benefit. She constantly prayed for God to temper her expectations so that she would be open to His will rather than caught up in her own wishes. That way, she feared, lay disappointment and bitterness when she wanted to be open only to obedience and gratitude.

  Thursday went so smoothly that she felt a little weird. Phillip showed up during breakfast, which had become the normal routine of the day, and suggested that he and the children would swim in the afternoon if they allowed him to make a few phone calls uninterrupted during the morning. They promised to cooperate and then made good on their promises. Even more surprising, Carissa made more than her quota of sales by midafternoon and was able to get up to the computer lab, now fully stocked with equipment, before evening.

  While the children played quietly, subdued by their romp in the pool earlier, Carissa and Phillip worked on the initial design of the app. She’d been toying with it, and Phillip’s experiences with mountain climbing helped her refine the look and feel of it.

  Dallas arrived that evening, joining Phillip and the aunties for dinner, then went up to the master suite to stay with the children while Phillip and Carissa attended the grief support meeting. When they arrived, they found that a new couple had joined the group.

  Middle-aged and fit, the Tillotsons were both doctors whose handicapped son had died of natural causes. They had thought themselves well prepared, but his death had taken them by surprise, nonetheless. As everyone shared their stories and encouraged them, Carissa realized that her own grief and fear had truly lessened, thanks to the warmth and support she had experienced from the group.

  As the meeting broke, Mrs. Tillotson shocked Carissa when she commented, “I’ve heard that many couples find each other in grief counseling.” Her gaze swung back and forth between Carissa and Phillip. “I suppose it’s as good a way to meet as any.”

  Carissa blinked. Phillip, meanwhile, reached across and shook hands with the lady’s husband before turning to his uncle, acting as if he hadn’t heard the comment. Suddenly, Carissa felt as if she skated on the edge of disappointment, heartbreak a yawning chasm beneath her. She’d told herself over and over that she wouldn’t expect more than a business partnership from Phillip, but she’d been fooling herself all along. She wanted more from him. Hoping for anything else was just asking for trouble. So why, oh, why couldn’t she stop?