Head down and grinning even wider, John shook his head as he walked to the door. He raised his gaze to meet hers as he prepared to leave.
“I bet you could find her easier than you know. Good day, Dr. Bates. Maybe we’ll run into each other again. Maybe I’ll find my balls and come back. Anything is possible.”
Mariah chuckled and felt her face heat. Lord, what had she done now? “I’ll be more gentle with you next time,” she promised, shocked to hear the flirty statement escape her mouth.
Laughing for real, John exited. Mariah turned to go to her office and saw Della still staring at the door. “What are you pondering, Dr. Livingston? The fact that I screwed up with a potential client, or the fact that I just went nova on a man in front of you?”
Della shook her head. “Actually, I was wondering how in the space of five minutes you went from yelling at Detective Monroe to flirting with him. Also, I’m 99.9% confident he started the flirting exchange with his balls comment. I feel like I should be taking notes, but I wouldn’t know where catalog what just happened.”
Mariah waved a hand. “What you witnessed was two mistakes clearing up awkwardly. Detective Monroe was never going to let me help him find a woman. Which is just as well because I’m not sure I could have matched up a still working detective without advising the woman to run away as fast as her legs could move. It’s oddly fortunate that I ran him off because now I don’t have to worry about my conflict of interest. It was a fairly charming end to a less than charming problem.”
Della chuckled. “I’m pretty sure that was a beginning, not any kind of end.”
Rolling her eyes at her young assistant’s dreamy gaze, Mariah headed back to her office.
Should she tell her last client of the day that his alleged uncle had come by to see her? No, of course not. What if the man hadn’t revealed his intentions to his nephew? There was no reason to compound her professional sins.
Pushing away thoughts of the grinning John Monroe, whoever he really was, Mariah studied the man leaning forward in his seat. He sighed at nearly every picture he saw.
“Problem with my choices for you, Mr. McElroy?”
Elliston McElroy, a successful entrepreneur who made software apps for a living, didn’t answer her question immediately. He lifted and held up his swiping finger briefly before returning to his task of looking through the women on the tablet she’d handed him.
According to his worksheet, Elliston was five-foot ten, but he carried himself like he was six-foot eight, a family trait probably since the uncle was over six-foot tall. His close-cropped, light brown hair was gelled to stand straight up on top. The spiked hair, along with the tribal tattoos running down both forearms to his hands, created a European Soccer team look. Despite the faddishness, he pulled off the dress clothes he wore well. The sleeves of his well-made pressed cotton shirt were rolled casually to his elbows, no doubt to show off the tats. Mariah thought his thirty-two year old character was mostly revealed in the clear, blue-eyed gaze he turned her direction just before he spoke.
“Please call me Elliston. I can’t handle the mister stuff. The women you picked for me are all very beautiful,” he said at last.
Mariah shrugged. “We do mini-makeovers to help each client present their best for our catalogue. It helps that most work out and keep themselves maintained. I often tell male clients that we enhance female clients for presentation purposes only. Most do look a lot like their photos. I find people don’t like physical surprises in dates.”
Elliston sighed again.
“You’re sighing very heavily, Elliston. What’s wrong with them?” Mariah prompted.
His grin over her understanding was very arresting because his real masculine beauty showed up in it. Any woman would be thrilled to see that smile on his face every time she came into view. Elliston wasn’t classically handsome with all those lean angles to his face, but he had that something special that made a woman want to stare at him until he snatched her up and kissed her senseless.
Now it was her turn to sigh. Mariah took her mild awareness of his maleness as a healthy sign in herself and a great sign for being able to find him someone.
Elliston slid the tablet back across the desk. “They’re all my age or younger. They’re like the women on all the dating sites. And I’m sure they’re all very nice.”
“They are,” Mariah agreed. “I make sure of that.”
Elliston nodded. “I guess I was hoping to find a little more maturity in my potential matches.”
Mariah laughed before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth with her hand, but his narrowing gaze said she’d been caught indulging. The last thing she needed was to alienate a client with her oddball sense of humor. She was messing up as badly with Elliston as she had with his alleged uncle, John Monroe. She tamed her smile and cleared her throat.
“Am I to understand that you want me to find you someone who is older than you are?” Mariah asked to confirm.
Elliston nodded. “Yes. I think I do want that.” He waved a hand at the tablet. “I’ve dated them already. They want a house, babies, and they get aggressive when they find out I have enough money to give that to them immediately. My perfect date is not that kind of woman. Mine is someone who just wants dinner and the pleasure of my company. That’s harder to find than you might think. That’s why I came to you.”
Mariah nodded. “No, no. I quite believe you. However…” she paused for effect, “you need to know that mature women want things just as passionately as younger women. They just want different things than a house and babies. They want things like serious attention and utmost respect. How long is your attention span, Elliston? An older woman will demand you give her a lot of it. At the risk of being too blunt, that includes any time spent in bed.”
Elliston favored her with his grin again. It really was one of his most appealing qualities. Mariah couldn’t help but return it.
“I’m a great team player. I’m sure she and I can design a relationship that suits us both. The bed stuff is down the line anyway. Bed partners, like beautiful women, are easy to come by. Finding someone worth talking to is the bigger challenge.”
Mariah chuckled softly. “Okay then. You’ve convinced me your request is sincere. Give me a couple of days to comb my database again. What’s your maturity ceiling on age?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. I’m pretty open-minded. What’s the oldest woman in your database?”
Laughter again slipped right out of her mouth. If she wasn’t so jaded, she might consider putting herself on Elliston’s list. He was so… what was the word she searched for… refreshing? Yes, his attitude was refreshing.
“My oldest client is sixty-five and would not be a good match for you. She’s a racing engineer who likes to go bungee jumping and zip lining through forests. She hates to read and watch TV. You two would never work. There would be no quiet dinners and pleasant conversations.”
Elliston’s answering laughter had that masculine grin permanently attaching itself to his face. “I don’t know…” he teased.
Mariah shook her head. “I’ll keep my recommendations for you to women under forty-five. That two decade mark is a hard dividing line. Even one decade can be a serious challenge.”
“Challenge I can handle,” Elliston said. “Being bored to death is my problem.”
“No one I match you with will be boring,” Mariah promised.
Elliston nodded. “How fast…” he paused and looked guilty. “I know this isn’t like just drawing a random numbered person out of your data. But the fundraising gala is two weeks from now and…” he waved to the tablet. “I really don’t want to have to take one of them. The place will be swarming with eligible bachelors from the tri-state. I’d like the woman I’m with to at least look like she’s paying attention to me.”
Insecurity, Mariah thought, as she nodded. It was something everyone struggled with until they met that one person who saw only them. Now it was her turn to si
gh. Maybe she wasn’t as jaded as she thought.
“I’m going to work on this today and tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have some more choices for you by Friday.”
“I don’t mind any extra costs you have for the re-do. I just didn’t know how to say what I wanted before. I should have been more open from the start,” Elliston said.
“Yes. Open is good. I highly appreciate a man with an open mind and an open wallet,” Mariah joked. “So let me get back to this and I’ll get back to you as soon as I have some options.”
Chapter Three
“Here. I made you some hot tea with chamomile. It won’t iron out those worry lines crossing your barely forty year old face, but it might settle down those jingling nerves of yours. You’re muttering to yourself again, Mariah. I heard you all the way in the kitchen.”
She lifted the mug from the serving tray and sipped. No dainty cups in her mother’s household. “Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome. Now when are you moving out? Someone as successful as you are shouldn’t be consigned to living in this tiny patio home with me. I know Dan left you enough cash to buy another place. I mean… you’re welcome to stay, but staying with me just makes it look like that selfish prick financially took you off at the knees.”
Mariah snorted at the blunt comments and at her mother’s swearing. People often thought she’d gotten her bluntness from her Air Force Colonel father. That could have been the case, but it wasn’t. She’d gotten it from Georgia Bates, silver-haired smart-ass extraordinaire, and possibly the best mother on the planet.
“Andrew’s getting ready to take the bar next year. Did you ever tell him what his bastard of a father did—or at least tried to do—to you?” Georgia asked.
“No,” Mariah said, shaking her head. “And I don’t intend to. I didn’t tell Amanda either. With the baby coming, she doesn’t need the stress. Randy’s promotion came through. They’re already having to move from Long Beach to Norfolk. Amanda is full up on things to worry about. The divorce was hard enough on her. She cries every time it comes up.”
Georgia sniffed. “That’s baby hormones. I know you raised her to be smarter about men. In my opinion, Dan’s completely redefining what being an asshole means. Criminal charges. I can’t believe he did that to the mother of his children. What’s really criminal is that twenty-something blonde he’s boffing these days.”
“Mom, please… just let it go. God knows I have. The kids don’t need to be part of Dan’s divorce vendetta against me. For better or worse, he’s still their father.”
“It’s been for worse since you left your marriage and that’s all on him. I swear that’s all I’m going to say about the matter. I’m just mad. Your heart wasn’t the only one he broke, Mariah. You married him so young that Dan felt like my own son. But if he’d really been my child, I would have done a lot better job raising him. I’m almost glad Ted died before this happened. He’d have gone for Dan’s balls.”
Her mother’s words instantly made her think of John’s description of what her rant did to him. Maybe she’d been channeling her father that day. Mariah relaxed only when her mother patted her shoulder. Her father had died of a heart attack when she was a freshman in college. Her mother had grieved terribly for all the years it took her to get her PhD. Then one day her mother started living again. She’d been a terrific grandmother. She’d soon be a great-grandmother in every sense of that term. Not bad for a sharp, healthy woman in her early sixties who could out swear most men when she got angry.
“Bill was great. He practically handled it all for me. Everything got dismissed and no records will be kept of the charges. But I promise you Dan is the least of my problems at the moment. I have a couple of serious decisions to make, one of which has me stumped.”
Georgia grunted. “Why? What’s up? Is it anything you can discuss?”
Mariah laughed wryly. “It’s no big secret, I guess. More and more young men are starting to ask for an older woman to date. This is not because they think older women are sexy or fun though. It’s because they don’t want to date a younger woman who wants the whole relationship package. They act like it’s wrong for a woman of childbearing age to want marriage and babies. What is wrong with men these days?’
“Not a damn thing,” Georgia said. “Women are the ones who’ve changed. A woman doesn’t want to do the real work of shopping for the right guy any more. She picks one from one of those dating sites and then expects him to instantly step up to meet her relationship goals. What about genuine chemistry? What about taking the time to smile across the dinner table? It takes time and persistence, and maybe ten pounds of luck to find the right person. Men need time to figure things out way more than women do. Love, marriage, and family should not be a goal anyway. It’s a special gift, not something to barter.”
“Yes, Mom.” Mariah answered simply because any complex answer would have extended the rant. “Got any friends near my age looking for the perfect man to date? Looks like I suddenly have openings for older women. Maybe I can offer them a discount to be listed.”
Georgia thought for a moment. “I might. Let me think about it. How about you list them for free and let the guy pick up the tab for it. In my day, men paid their way into a woman’s heart.”
“I’ll see if my budget can afford it,” Mariah promised.
When her mother left the room, she quietly sighed in relief and went back to looking for Elliston’s perfect woman.
Chapter Four
The only half-suitable woman in her database turned out to be forty-three, which was just over the decade mark she’d set for herself in her search. It didn’t surprise her that Elliston approved Lynn’s appearance and bio, even though the woman visibly looked older than him. They’d even met for coffee once. From that, they’d cemented tonight’s date—a date where Mariah hovered in the background like a spying mother.
Good thing she had a legitimate reason to be there, at least as legitimate as every other person attending, because she too was a contributor. But this was not how the perfect dates she arranged were supposed to work. For one thing, she was not supposed to get directly involved. Or spy on them just because she was a tad concerned.
Either the chemistry was there for the couple or it wasn’t. Her clients paid a considerable amount for her to do their searching. She charged a price to be listed and a price to be matched. Someone could pay the matching price or just hope Mariah eventually picked them. Males—true to their biological urges and their earning potential—seemed to order the matching more often since it was double the price of just being listed in the database.
However, there was one universal she’d seen in the year she’d been in business. Most clients wanted dates who were younger than them, or at least they wanted someone no more than their age, which was the root of her problem now. It wasn’t what Elliston McElroy had asked for and she’d had a tough time sincerely believing someone his age wanted to spend time with someone so much older. Did those May men and December women sometimes work out? Sure, they did—out in the predatory wild of bars, singles groups, and online hookup apps. Sometimes those relationships did beat the odds against them and lasted. They just weren’t something she wanted to base her business model on.
“Now I understand why my instincts told me to run like hell the other day. Do you always spy on your clients?”
Mariah closed her eyes briefly. What did it say about her that she still recognized his voice after two weeks had gone by. It said she’d been celibate too long. That’s what it said.
Her divorce had been final for nearly a year, but Dan hadn’t touched her for almost a year before that. He’d moved into another bedroom the moment she’d turned in her radio show resignation. She still made money off the syndication of the show, but what she was doing was helping her find her soul again.
“Detective Monroe.”
“John,” he corrected.
Mariah’s mouth twisted into a reluctant smile. “Okay. How are you doing, John
?”
He looked off at his nephew. “Did you really fix him up with someone old enough to be his mother?”
Something that had been blooming inside her suddenly wilted to dust. Had she really been nursing some fantasy about this man? Mariah looked across the room to Elliston and nodded her chin. “Elliston is such a nice man. Are you really his uncle?”
John turned to face her. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Mariah shrugged. “You didn’t answer mine.”
“Uncle John… you came.”
John bent to offer his shorter nephew a man hug. He smirked as he met her gaze.
“Satisfied now?” he asked.
Mariah laughed. “Not really.”
Elliston looked between them, a grin lighting his face. “You two know each other?”
“Not really,” Mariah said again, enjoying the irritation lighting John’s gaze. “We met as part of an ongoing investigation. Your uncle was so charming, I’ve decided not to hold the investigation against him. We were just making nice with each other when you walked over.”
She raised a brow when John opened his mouth to deny her story, but it only took him two seconds to realize he’d have to confess the truth… or come up with a better lie.
“Touché,” he said.
It was the oddest thing, but she just couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Elliston and his uncle apparently brought out the wicked in her. She turned a bright smile towards her two clients. “I think everyone in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky turned out for this. Let’s hope they all made a large contribution.”
Elliston nodded. “I knew the app I created for the fundraiser was going to get some traction, but I underestimated their interest in seeing my other work. I almost can’t believe this. I should have at least put more business cards in my pockets.”
Mariah dug in her purse and pulled out the three she’d taken from him the first time he’d come to see her. She carried them around because she’d liked him so much. “Here. You can replace them later. Don’t miss any opportunities.”
Never Is A Very Long Time Page 2
