by Ginny Baird
Grandmother Margaret considered Meredith and then her grandson. “So, when do we get the story?”
“No need to put things off,” Chad added. “We can chat over cocktails.”
Meredith forced herself to smile. Hopefully Derrick would keep up the gentlemanly thing and take the lead in this. “Yes. Let’s.”
Chapter Seven
Derrick watched as Meredith squirmed like a fish on a line. He hated to think that he was getting a kick of out her discomfort, but she’d gotten herself into this mess. He couldn’t wait to see how she got herself out. Great at smoothing things over. Ha.
“Well, it’s all sort of crazy,” she said, “to tell you the truth.”
Grandpa Chad swirled his wine. “We’ve had our fair share of ‘crazy’ this past year.”
“Yes,” his grandma agreed. “Probably not much would surprise us at this point.”
“You don’t have a twin sister?” his grandpa asked suddenly and Meredith shook her head.
“No, no. It’s nothing like that.”
Derrick sipped from his scotch, savoring its peaty goodness and slow-burning warmth. They sat on his grandparents’ large covered back porch overlooking the lawn and the bay beneath it. A stone patio housing a firepit was situated between the main house and the rocky cliffs overhanging the water, where the sun sank low on the horizon.
Grandpa Chad’s gas grill had been positioned on the patio not far from a set of outdoor chairs. Derrick would fire that up later. For the time being he was enjoying the heat getting generated right here. Meredith was in the hotseat and he was curious about how she would handle it.
“Meredith’s an only child,” he told his grandparents.
She stared at him in surprise. “How do you know that?”
Derrick shrugged. “You told me last summer.”
“Oh,” she said, appearing perplexed.
Actually she hadn’t. Brent had. But that was only after Derrick had commented on Meredith acting like a spoiled only child. Brent had retorted that, even if she was an only child, she wasn’t spoiled in his opinion. Then he’d ribbed Derrick, intimating that he was the one who’d been coddled, as the youngest Albright boy.
Derrick knew that was a lie. He hadn’t been cut any extra slack. In some ways, more had been expected of him in keeping up with his older brothers. Growing up, they’d all had their differences along the way. As time moved on, they’d learned to sort those out.
He noted the lull in the conversation and attempted to fill it. “It’s really pretty interesting how everything happened. That onslaught of reporters showing up at my cabin. Meredith can explain.” He took a swig of scotch and saw the sky growing darker, and not just because night was rolling in but heavy rain clouds hovered above, portending a coming storm.
Grandpa Chad spoke in encouraging tones. “Go ahead, Meredith. You were saying?”
“Yeah, um.” She set down her wine. “So, you both know I’m a matchmaker in Boston?”
“Yes,” his grandma said. “It was splashed all over the news.”
“Plus, we remember that from last year,” Grandpa Chad said more politely.
“Okay. So, what I mean is…” She stared helplessly at Derrick, but this wasn’t his wheelhouse. It was hers.
“Not on your life,” he mouthed when his grandparents weren’t looking.
Meredith flipped back her hair, his grandparents’ interested gazes still on her. “My matchmaking show. It’s been going really well! We’ve just taped our one hundredth episode.”
“That’s wonderful,” Grandmother Margaret said. “Such a landmark.”
“Yes,” Grandpa Chad agreed. “Congratulations.” He raised his wineglass in a toast, and Meredith used this as an opening.
“Let’s not celebrate yet.” She smiled mysteriously. “There could be more.”
“What do you mean?” Grandmother Margaret asked her.
“Well…” Meredith drew out the word. “Things are still up in the air, but I’m hopeful.” She gave a small squeal, unable to contain her excitement. “My show might get syndicated.”
“That’s fabulous!” his grandma said.
“Might.” Meredith grimaced. “It all depends.”
Grandmother Margaret’s eyebrows arched. “On what?”
This was taking a tortuous amount of time and Derrick was getting hungry, so he decided to hurry things along. “On Mer proving her matchmaking abilities.” He viewed her playfully. “Personally.”
“Mer?” Grandpa Chad asked him.
“It’s sort of a little nickname your grandson has for me,” she said, her cheeks flushed.
Derrick couldn’t help but like having this effect on her. She was so easy to rile up, particularly when she deserved it.
Grandpa Chad surveyed Derrick with a curious air. “How cute.”
“Anyhow,” Derrick said. “Mer was on this talk show where she was asked about her love life. And since she doesn’t have one—”
“Oh no?” Grandmother Margaret’s face hung in a frown. “Oh dear.”
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Grandpa Chad interceded.
“It is if you hang out your shingle as a love expert.” Derrick chuckled and his grandparents shook their heads.
“Derrick,” Grandmother Margaret said.
He slunk down in his chair. “Sorry,” he said, not meaning it.
“Anyhow,” Meredith continued. “The whole point is that Tanya—”
“Tanya?” Grandmother Margaret asked. “You mean, Talk Time Tanya? Oh! I love that show.” She read Meredith’s expression and changed tack. “I mean—used to.”
“Right,” Meredith said, seeming to steel her nerves. “That Tanya. Anyway,” she continued, “Tanya asked me about the man I was involved with, and since I didn’t have anyone, I sort of accidentally blurted out something about a boatbuilder.” She swallowed hard. “In Maine.”
His grandparents blinked and exchanged glances.
Then Meredith sheepishly added, “Accidents…happen?”
“Why Derrick?” Chad wanted to know.
“Yes,” Margaret added. “Why him?”
Her doe-like eyes grew wide. “I panicked. Sheer panicked! It was like my head was all mixed up and I couldn’t think straight. I knew, just knew, that if I said I wasn’t involved with anybody that would look bad to the network. Not to mention to my clients and my viewers.”
“And to her gossip column fans,” Derrick said. “She got a mention on Gloria.”
“Not Gloria Rafael?” Grandmother Margaret appeared pleased. “Oh my.”
Meredith’s jaw dropped and she turned to Derrick. “Were you eavesdropping on my conversation with my mom?”
“Your mother’s here?” Grandpa Chad inquired, looking confused.
“No,” Meredith said, a bit dazed. “In Miami.”
Grandmother Margaret remained focused on an earlier piece of information. The one where Meredith had intimated that she and he were involved.
“And so you…lied?” she asked casually. “About Derrick?”
“It was a white lie,” Meredith whimpered. “And honestly the first answer I came up with when put on the spot. Besides that, I never mentioned him by name. The press must have done some digging and put a few things together.”
His grandparents gaped at him, no doubt astounded that he’d landed in the middle of this.
He shrugged. “What can I say? I have a way with women. I’m apparently impossible to forget.”
“Well yes,” Grandpa Chad said. “Except for by Olivia. She got over you pretty quick.” He lifted a finger. “Did I hear someone mention her earlier?”
“Yes!” Meredith said. “That was me!”
“What does Olivia have to do with any of this?” Grandmother Margaret asked.
Derrick tried to
sound blustery, because he knew he’d have to come out with it sooner or later. “Mer, here, thinks I’m not over her.”
His grandpa studied him, then asked solemnly, “Aren’t you?”
“Well, I…” Now, it was his turn to squirm, and it wasn’t nearly as much fun as seeing Meredith do it. “Thought I was.”
“Now, he’s not so sure,” Meredith supplied, stepping in. “That’s how I plan to help out.”
His grandparents seemed stymied, and Derrick couldn’t blame them.
This was a lot to follow.
So Meredith took the lead. “I’ve offered Derrick my professional matchmaking services to help win back Olivia.”
“Win back?” Margaret gasped at Derrick. “Is that what you want, grandson?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe?”
Chad rubbed his cheek. “I always did like Olivia.” He angled his wineglass toward Margaret. “You said you liked her, too.”
“I did like her, Chad, but that was before she behaved so badly.”
“We were both young,” Derrick said. “And bullish. Too prideful to admit we were making mistakes.”
Margaret laid a hand across her heart. “Oh dear. You do still care for her, don’t you?”
“After all these years,” Grandpa Chad mused. “Still carrying a torch.”
He wasn’t sure about that, more like a very dim candle of curiosity and an openness to seeing where things would go—if they went anywhere at all—but his grandparents plowed forward before he could correct them.
“Well then, that’s very good of you,” Grandmother Margaret told Meredith. “To want to help our Derrick.”
“Oh, she’s not doing it out of the goodness of her heart,” he told them.
Meredith shot daggers at him with her eyes before smiling politely at his grandparents. “The whole mix-up thing with the press? We’ve decided to let it ride.”
“Let it ride?” Margaret looked incredulous.
She hesitated and glanced at Derrick. “Not for very long. Just long enough for me not to be made a fool of in public. Once Olivia’s here and she and Derrick are back together, I intend to excise myself from the situation and leave Blue Hill.”
“And you’ll still get your television contract?” Grandmother Margaret asked her.
“I’m hoping so,” Meredith said. “Anyway, that’s more or less how it happened. I’m so, so sorry for dragging Derrick and your family into it, but hopefully it will all be over soon, and everyone will be happy with the outcome.”
Margaret mulled over everything she’d heard. “How long do you and Derrick plan to keep up this charade?”
“Just for two weeks,” Meredith ventured.
Derrick shot her a stony look. “Ten days. That’s what we agreed.”
“And Olivia?” Margaret asked. “How will she get included?”
“I was hoping we could invite her to the christening?”
“That will have to be cleared with William and Sofia first,” Grandmother Margaret said.
“Yes, definitely,” Meredith said.
Grandpa Chad rubbed his chin. “This is going to be the most interesting baptism I’ve ever attended.”
There was a long pause when nobody spoke and there was complicity in their silence. Derrick knew his grandparents weren’t opposed to speaking their minds, especially his grandmother. If she was against Meredith’s plan for bringing him and Olivia back together, she didn’t say so, and she would have.
Maybe he should take the possibility of exploring things with her more seriously.
“Well, all right,” his grandmother finally said with a vacant stare. “Who’s hungry?”
“Me!” Derrick held up his hand. “Should I go start the fire?”
“Yes, please,” Grandpa Chad said.
Meredith got to her feet along with the others. “I’ll come help with that salad,” she told Grandmother Margaret.
The older woman stared into her eyes. “This can’t be a secret among the others. Everyone in the family has to know the truth.”
“Absolutely,” Meredith said. “I agree.”
“Well, that’s something,” Grandmother Margaret said.
As they headed for the kitchen, Derrick tried not to notice the enticing sway of her hips or the whiff he caught of her floral shampoo and that honeysuckle perfume. Much better to focus on their mission. If all went well with Meredith’s plans, they’d both have something to celebrate soon. She’d secure that syndication deal and he might get to see Olivia again, maybe even get that second chance.
But when he stepped through the cloud of lingering scents Meredith left trailing behind her, all he could think of was the matchmaker from Boston who’d landed on his doorstep this afternoon.
Chapter Eight
Derrick tossed Meredith a pillow and she caught it. As much as he loved his grandparents, he was glad to be back in his own space and past that uncomfortable conversation on the porch. He’d really expected Meredith to crash and burn, but he had to hand it to her. She’d done amazingly. “One pillow enough, or do you need two?” He’d already pulled out the sleeper sofa and set a stack of sheets and blankets on a chair.
“I’ll take another if you’ve got one.”
Thunder rumbled outside. The storm he’d predicted earlier was on its way.
“Sure. Just let me go and grab it.”
When he was halfway to the linen closet she said, “I think things went pretty well at your grandparents’. All things considered.”
He waited to answer after nabbing the spare pillow off a high shelf and shutting the door. “All things considered,” he agreed. “Yeah.”
“I guess they really like Olivia.”
“Always did.”
They’d spent most of dinner reminiscing about Olivia’s good points. Her upbeat spirit and the way she’d gotten along with mostly everyone in the family. Notably, nobody mentioned Sally, and Derrick had never understood his sister’s problem with his ex. Maybe he’d ask her about it. For their part, Grandmother Margaret and Grandpa Chad told him if trying again with Olivia was what he wanted, they would fully support him. They knew his parents, Parker and Elsa, would, too. Well, his dad for sure at least. When he reflected on it, his mom had always been a little more standoffish with Olivia. Maybe she and Sally shared some secret he didn’t know about and he’d finally learn what that was.
Meredith began making the bed, so he set the second pillow aside to help her, stretching the fitted sheet over a corner at the head of the mattress.
“Your grandparents are very sweet,” she said, across the way from him. Although she’d met them before, she’d apparently seen a new side to them in light of this Olivia proposition. “It’s obvious that they care the world for you. I expected them to act more surprised, or you know”—she shrugged—“protest.”
“They’re good people who basically want what’s right for me. They’ve always had our backs, mine and my brothers’ and sister’s, ever since we were little kids. How about your grandparents?” he asked. “Do you see them much?”
“Not as much as I’d like to. My dad’s folks passed away a few years ago, and my mom’s parents live in Puerto Rico. Mom and Titi Clarita keep threatening to move them to Miami, but they won’t have it. They still have a lot of family and friends in San Juan.”
“Titi Clarita?”
“Oh, sorry. My mom’s sister. In Spanish we sometime say ‘titi’ instead of ‘tía.’ It’s an endearing way of saying aunt. Kind of like ‘auntie’ in English, I guess.”
“Do you speak to them in Spanish?”
“My parents and aunt? Not usually. To my grandparents, yes.”
“I find foreign languages fascinating,” he said.
She chuckled. “Like Latin or Greek, you mean?”
He enjoyed the sparkle in her dark brow
n eyes. “I also speak French.”
“I noticed,” she said with a grin. Some of the earlier animosity they’d shared had eased. Maybe it was the relief of having a plan and getting over the hurdle of talking to his grandparents.
They finished with the fitted sheet and she shook out the flat one with a snap. It fluttered above the sofa bed before settling down as thunder boomed above them.
“That’s a pretty big storm brewing,” she told him. “Looks like we got back just in time.”
“Yeah.”
Outside the darkened windows, lightning crackled across the sky.
He unfolded a blanket and handed the other end to her and they placed it on top of the flat sheet, tucking both under.
“You don’t have to help me, you know. I know how to make a bed.” Then she added lightly, “Unlike others around here.”
He didn’t mind the ribbing and was happy to tease her back. “Ah well, I do make my bed,” he argued. “Sometimes.”
“Oh really? Like when? Once in a blue moon?”
He laughed. “I do it whenever I change the linens.”
“Which is when?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Whenever I have a guest over.” That ought to get under her skin. She seemed to get prickly at the thought of him being with other women, which made zero sense since she was plotting to get him back together with Olivia.
Her forehead rose. “A female guest, you mean?” She blew out a breath, looking exasperated. “Seriously, Derrick.”
Yep. That hit a nerve. But why? “What?” He placed a hand on his chest. “You asked.”
“You’re right,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have.” She busied herself with the blanket, tugging and smoothing wrinkles and creases that didn’t exist.
He sighed. “Look, Mer. I wasn’t expecting this.”
“No, but you’re going to make the most of it, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you mean?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Leaving me out there on my own tonight—with your grandparents.”
What? “I was with you.”
“Uh, yeah. Physically maybe, but not in spirit.”
