Mommy for Hire

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Again, the explanation was too adult—and circumspect—for Savannah to completely understand. Which was, Alexis figured, the intent.

  Josie propped her hands on her blue-jeans-clad hips. Tall and slender, with glossy brown hair, the youthful-looking woman fixed her azure eyes on her son, as if indicating they would talk—when the time was right.

  Alexis smiled cordially. “Tina, I have something I’d like to discuss with you, so if you’ll—”

  Her client dug in her heels. “Actually, Alexis, it’s not a good time for me. I haven’t given Savannah her new puzzle yet.”

  “It’ll just take a moment,” Alexis insisted.

  Savannah ambled back to Tina’s side. She peered in the cloth carryall. “Can I see?”

  “Certainly.” Tina smiled, digging into it. “If it’s all right with your daddy, of course.”

  Apparently realizing the benefit of having Savannah out of earshot, at least momentarily, Grady nodded and said, “Of course. Honey, why don’t you take Tina outside? You can sit on the patio and look at the puzzle, and I’ll bring out some lemonade for everyone in a minute. I want to talk to Grandma and Grandpa first.”

  “Okay, Daddy. Alexis, do you want to come, too?” Savannah asked.

  “Alexis needs to stay here,” Grady replied. “But we’ll all be out in a moment.”

  Tina and Savannah departed.

  When the back door had opened and shut, Grady gestured toward the formal living room. “Why don’t we sit down?”

  His parents sat on the sofa. Following reluctantly, Alexis perched on the edge of a wing chair. Grady took the other.

  “We know how tough Tabitha’s death was for you, and we’re happy you’re ready to move on, at long last,” his mother began. “But—sorry, Alexis—a dating service?”

  “Since when have McCabe men had any trouble finding a woman to go out with?” his dad asked.

  “Not to mention the improbability of finding someone via third party,” his mother continued.

  “Isn’t that what a blind date is?” Grady continued amiably.

  His father chuckled. “Got a point there, son.” He looked at Alexis. “How do you match people up?”

  “We have detailed questionnaires about hobbies, interests and opinions, and we run a computer program that sorts out likely matches. But that’s just the first step. After that the program sorts information gathered in one-on-one interviews with clients. When all the appropriate data is collected, we present the client with promising candidates. They review files and look at video interviews of likely matches, and if a rapport seems possible, we set up a meeting. If that doesn’t work out, we set up another, and so on until a match is made.”

  “How long does it usually take?” Wade asked.

  She shrugged. “Anywhere from weeks to months or even a year or two. We keep looking as long as the client is interested.”

  “ForeverLove.com is the agency the Basses’ daughter, Carolyn, used,” Grady added.

  It was all Alexis could do not to wince.

  “Russ and Carolyn Bass are getting divorced,” Josie said. “I talked to her mother a couple of weeks ago. She said that, in retrospect, Carolyn is sorry she ever went that route.”

  Alexis imagined she was.

  “Did you know them?” Josie asked.

  Reluctantly, Alexis admitted, “I matched them.”

  FOR THE SECOND TIME that afternoon, silence fell. Alexis stood. “I think I’ll check on Tina, see if she’s ready to go.”

  Grady stood, too. “I’ll walk with you.”

  He fell into step beside her. As they reached the hall, he took her lightly by the arm. “But first, I do want to give you a check for the benefit tomorrow evening, before it slips my mind. If you’ll come in here…” Cupping her elbow, he steered her into his study and shut the door behind them.

  Alexis felt the warmth in her cheeks. She told herself it was because she was embarrassed she’d put him on the spot that way, pretending she was there for charity. “You don’t have to purchase any tickets. Never mind an entire table—”

  Grady took the checkbook and pen out of his shirt pocket. “It’s for a good cause. I want to support it. I’m sure I can round up however many people need to be there, as my guests. Perhaps they’ll write checks, too.”

  Alexis couldn’t say no to the help it would provide in finding a cure. “Thank you,” she said, gratefully.

  Grady sat on the edge of his desk and opened the checkbook on his thigh. “How many at each table?”

  Alexis looked down at the rock solid muscles beneath his suit pants, and tried not to think how those same muscles had felt pressed up against hers. “Eight. At a cost of two hundred fifty dollars per person.”

  He wrote a check for two thousand dollars and gave it to her. Their hands touched as they made the exchange. “I’m sorry if my parents embarrassed you.”

  Aware of how her fingers were still tingling, she slid the check into her purse. “It’s no problem,” she managed to reply.

  “It is for me.” He caught her by the shoulders before she could step away. “I believe in what you’re doing for me and for Savannah.”

  Alexis only wished she could say the same.

  She thanked him and they walked together toward the back of the house.

  A few moments later, they stepped out onto the patio.

  Savannah was cuddled up next to Tina, as they put in the last two puzzle pieces. “There you are,” Tina said to Grady with a smile.

  “Daddy, this puzzle is awesome!” Savannah said, showing him the finished picture of brightly colored fish.

  Grady admired her accomplishment with obvious paternal pride. “Did you thank Tina?” he asked.

  “She did,” the nurse told him with a smile.

  “Tina, could I speak to you privately?” Grady glanced at Alexis. “If you could just hang out here for a second…”

  Alexis had the feeling Tina would refuse to go, if she thought she was leaving a rival for Savannah’s affection behind. “Actually, I need to get going.” She bent down to the little girl. “I just wanted to say goodbye before I left.”

  “Will you come and see me again?” Savannah asked.

  Alexis smiled, not sure what to say. Was her presence helping or hurting here? If it interfered with Savannah’s ability to bond with a woman who wanted to become her mommy—and Grady’s wife—her growing relationship with Savannah could hardly be considered a positive thing.

  “Alexis will definitely be back,” Grady reassured her.

  Knowing Grady still wanted to talk to Tina alone, Alexis held out a hand to his daughter. “Want to come with me while I say goodbye to your grandparents?”

  Savannah slipped out of the curve of Tina’s arm. “I had fun doing puzzles with you,” she told the other woman shyly.

  “I had fun spending time with you, too,” Tina answered fondly.

  Hand in hand, Alexis and Savannah set off.

  THREE HOURS LATER, Holly Anne stopped by Alexis’s office. “What has you here so late on a Friday evening?”

  Not much, Alexis thought. Jealousy. Guilt. Worry. She fretted that she wasn’t doing the right thing for Savannah, in fixing her dad up with someone he swore he would never be able to love. She sighed heavily. She’d never admit this to her boss, but she was also starting to wonder if her budding feelings for Grady—complex and mixed up as they were—had begun to cloud her judgment.

  “Grady McCabe?” Holly Anne guessed, coming all the way into the office.

  She nodded. These days it was always Grady McCabe. “I’m just pulling up some more profiles for him to peruse.” Alexis studied the photo on the screen, ignoring her own lingering resistance to this matchmaking assignment, then hit the print command once again.

  Her boss moved to the window and looked out at the dusk falling softly over downtown Fort Worth. “Tina Weinart didn’t work out?”

  All business, Alexis rose, plucked the pages out of the printer and added them to the
folder on her desk. “She did better with Savannah the second time they met, but I just can’t see her with Grady McCabe.”

  Holly Anne studied Alexis with a sharp eye. “Any particular reason why?”

  She shrugged, not sure what was bothering her, just knowing something was. “Instinct,” she said finally.

  “Keep working on it. Make this match. And the Galveston office will be yours to run.”

  And if she didn’t, Alexis thought, she’d probably be fresh out of luck, because there was no way the other three partners would vote to put her in charge of the new branch office.

  Holly Anne drummed her fingers on the windowsill. “By the way, I had a call from Carolyn Bass….”

  Alexis squirmed. “I heard she wants her money back.”

  The executive’s jaw set. “We don’t guarantee happily ever after. We deal in possibilities.”

  “Right.”

  “It will blow over,” Holly Anne promised.

  Alexis nodded. She certainly hoped so.

  Otherwise, there would be yet another reason she could kiss that promotion and pay raise goodbye….

  A rap sounded on her open office door, and both women turned. Grady McCabe stood in the doorway. His dark hair was rumpled, as always, as if he had been running his hands through it. A hint of evening beard rimmed his jaw, giving him a sexy, ruggedly attractive, all-man look. Since she had seen him last, he had changed into a V-necked T-shirt, knee-length shorts and deck shoes appropriate for the hot June evening.

  Holly Anne smiled and slid off the corner of Alexis’s desk. “I’ll let you two converse. See you in the morning.”

  Alexis nodded as her boss headed for the exit. “Good night.”

  Grady came closer. The scent of soap and cologne clinging to his skin told her he had recently showered. After a day spent working and running around in the fierce June heat, Alexis yearned to do the same.

  “I figured you would be here,” he said.

  The office was so quiet at this time of night. In the distance, a door shut. Alexis realized she and Grady were completely alone. Playing it cool, she rocked back in her swivel chair. “I thought you’d be with your family.”

  “Savannah’s asleep. Mom and Dad wanted to hit the sack early, too—they were up at dawn checking out drilling sites of my mom’s. Not sure if I told you—she’s a wildcatter. Runs the oil exploration company she inherited from my grandfather, Big Jim Wyatt. My dad specializes in making money on business investments of all kinds, including but not limited to oil exploration.”

  Alexis was touched by the affection in his voice. “From what I’ve heard, they make a good team,” she said softly.

  One corner of Grady’s mouth crooked up. “They met when my mom was drilling for oil on property my dad owned. To hear them tell it, there were a lot of fireworks at first, but then they fell madly in love, married and had five sons.”

  Alexis watched Grady stroll back and forth, checking out the photos and award plaques on her office walls. She shook her head. “To be the only woman in a family of six men…wow.”

  Grady grinned. “The testosterone in my family has never overwhelmed my mom. She was a tomboy herself. But the lack of steady women in all her offspring’s lives does rankle. She wants all her sons married. And me being the oldest, I’m supposed to do that again ASAP.”

  Alexis recalled the affectionate way Josie and Wade had interacted. “She wants you to be in love, though.”

  “You bet.” Grady seemed to steel himself. “Which is why I didn’t tell my folks about my plan to marry without it.”

  “So they…”

  “Still don’t know, and I would prefer to keep it that way,” he stated flatly.

  A less comfortable silence fell between them. Alexis knew Grady thought he wasn’t ashamed by his attitude. However, his actions, when it came to his parents, said otherwise. “It is a hard thing to explain,” she said eventually.

  “It’s also the way I feel.”

  Alexis wished lightning would strike twice. Grady and Savannah deserved to be happy. They deserved to have a complete family, and all the love life had to offer.

  “But maybe it can still be good,” Grady said, sounding more upbeat than before.

  Although her spirits plummeted, she forced herself to smile. “Things went well with Tina?”

  Grady’s gaze roved over Alexis’s pale-blue sheath, his glance lingering on the bare skin of her shoulders, before drifting thoughtfully back to her face. “She left right after you did,” he murmured, sounding as if he was suddenly having as much trouble staying on track as she was.

  Alexis reminded herself that it was nearly nine o’clock, and had been an exceedingly long day at the end of an exceedingly long week.

  “I explained I needed time alone with my family,” Grady continued, in a low, matter-of-fact tone.

  Without warning, Alexis’s heart kicked into a faster beat.

  She told herself to calm down. To slip back into matchmaker mode. She looked Grady in the eye, all business once more. “Are you going to see her again?”

  His gaze still locked with hers, he shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Inexplicably, her heart slowed down once again. Alexis tapped a pen on the surface of her desk. Swallowed. “Any particular reason why?” she asked, surprised how normal her voice could sound, when her emotions were all awhirl.

  Grady’s lips thinned. “Tina’s a very nice person. I think she’d be great with Savannah.”

  “But?”

  “I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be with her.”

  A feeling akin to relief slid through Alexis. She did not want to match up any other couples who were wrong for each other. She didn’t want that on her conscience. Bad enough that Russ and Carolyn Bass were divorcing after just one year…

  “I’ll let Tina know,” Alexis promised.

  And when she did so, she’d have another match ready for Tina to consider. A doctor, maybe.

  “Thanks.”

  Alexis reached for the folder on her desk. “Would you like to look at other profiles?”

  He paused, and she wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Only that he looked conflicted. “How about I take the info with me?” he suggested finally. “And look at it later.”

  “That would be fine.” She gathered up the relevant video interviews and slid them inside the folder, alongside the printed pages, and handed them over.

  “Are you done for the day?” Grady asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Walk you out?”

  Alexis tried not to think how good that sounded. “Sure.”

  He waited while she logged off her computer and shut it down. “Want me to carry that?” He indicated the briefcase she had slung over her shoulder.

  They were already feeling too much like a couple. And honestly, how ridiculous was that? “That’s okay. Thanks.”

  He strolled beside her, respecting the parameters she’d set. When they reached the elevator, he pushed the down button, then turned to her with a sexy smile. “Have you had dinner?”

  “I stopped for a salad on the way back to the office.”

  His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Bet you didn’t have dessert.”

  “You’re right. I did not.”

  “I know a great French bakery not too far from here that stays open late.”

  She knew the place he was talking about. The desserts were to die for. But if she went there with him, they would end up talking, and feeling even closer to each other. Which might have been fine, had they been able to keep their relationship strictly platonic. But they had already proved the hard way that they couldn’t do that. They had kissed one another, avidly. And she had the feeling if she went anywhere with him tonight they might end up doing so again.

  Which again would have been fine, if they wanted the same things. But they didn’t. Which meant she had to stay focused. Find Grady a woman who wouldn’t mind being in a loveless marriage—and then move on herself. �
��Thanks, but…” she had to pause to clear her throat “…I’ve got other plans.”

  Big ones. A cold shower. A good book. Another long, lonely night.

  His expression inscrutable, he studied her, seeming to know instinctively how much she wished they were on the same page. “Another time then,” he said eventually.

  She nodded, pretending for cordiality sake that that was so.

  They got into the elevator without speaking and he walked her to her car, waited until she was safely inside. “I’ll see you at the fund-raiser tomorrow evening,” he said in lieu of goodbye.

  And that, Alexis noted—trembling slightly as she drove away—was that.

  Chapter Six

  “Are you going to talk about why you aren’t going out this evening?” Josie asked Grady on Saturday as soon as his dad had gone off with Savannah to read bedtime stories.

  Grady carried the dirty dishes to the sink. “You and Dad are here.”

  His mother spritzed spray cleaner across the tabletop. “And you bought a tableful of tickets for the cancer research fund-raising dinner this evening.”

  From a woman who will be there but does not want to spend time with me, Grady thought.

  He opened the dishwasher. “I gave them all to friends.”

  Josie tore off a paper towel. “I bet you could still get another ticket if you wanted. They’d find a way to fit you in.”

  Grady imagined that was so. When it came to raising funds for cancer research, every dollar was appreciated.

  He watched his mom wipe down the table. “Why would I want to do that?”

  She shot him a knowing glance. “Probably the same reason you got cleaned up before heading out last night on ‘errands’ and came back early.”

  Grady couldn’t deny he had been disappointed at the way things had turned out. He’d hoped to get to know Alexis better last night, spend a little time together. To what end he wasn’t sure—given the fact she’d made it pretty clear she wasn’t interested in being “matched” with him. All he knew for certain was that he longed to be with her, surprising as that was…He sent his mother a censuring glance. “I stopped reporting in when I was eighteen.”