One Daddy Too Many

by Debra Salonen

She shook her finger at him. “You’re joking now, but when you’re my age. And all alone. You’ll be sorry.”

  Once outside, Rob took his mother by the shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Don’t get all mushy on me, Mom. I was only kidding. I plan on having a wife and kids. Someday,” he added pointedly.

  “Well, someday has a way of disappearing, like potato chips. You reach in for one, then another, always looking for the very best. Then suddenly the bag is empty, and you’re fat and old and out of shape.”

  Rob fought to keep from laughing. He could tell she was serious and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “Well, that’s a theory of life I haven’t heard before.”

  She made a skeptical snort. “You’re smug, Rob. Albeit with good reason. You’re young and handsome. You have a high-paying career and a great deal of ambition. But you’re also short-sighted.”

  He pressed his finger to the bridge of his nose. “I am?”

  “Yes. You are. Because sometimes you’re so concerned about what’s on that silly list of requirements for the perfect mate, you don’t see what’s right in front of your face.”

  He knew she was referring to Kate. And Maya.

  “I see my car,” he said, opening the passenger door. “And if you don’t get in, I might leave you here.” He kept his tone light, so she’d know he was teasing. But her comments got to him.

  He’d always been candid about the qualities he wanted in the person he married. Was that wrong? He’d often heard that the best way to make sure something happened was to visualize it. He had the list memorized. And his mother was right—Kate didn’t fit the list.

  But that was okay. He wasn’t asking her to marry him—he only wanted her help shopping.

  Chapter Four

  “Did not.”

  “Did so.”

  Hands on hips, Rob stared down at his adversary. She was one tough, single-minded opponent. Her oratory skills left a little to be desired, but what did he expect of a four-year-old?

  “Rob. Maya. If you two don’t quit bickering, I’m sending you both to time-out chairs.”

  Rob looked at Kate, who was openly grinning. When she’d called that morning to tell him she had a few hours free if he wanted to go shopping, he’d immediately instructed his secretary to rearrange his schedule. No easy task, but once the juggling was complete he had an open block of time to spend with Kate. And Maya, it turned out.

  “Just try to get along for a few more minutes. Mom promised to call as soon as Alex got back from her doctor’s appointment.” Apparently the eldest Radonovic sister had some kind of ongoing gynecological problems. Kate had explained that since the Dancing Hippo, Alex’s child-care center, was short-handed at the moment, she’d felt she should keep Maya with her until Alex returned.

  No problem, Rob had thought. Until Maya started pushing buttons Rob didn’t even know he had.

  “Sorry, Kate. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m not usually this defensive about my shoes.” He glanced down at the demon cherub with the innocent smile. “But they don’t squeak. They cost an arm and a leg.”

  “Then you’d only need one,” Maya said.

  Her mother made a sound somewhere between a snort and a giggle. Rob reluctantly grinned. The kid was smart. He respected that.

  “Can we get back to the business at hand?” Kate asked.

  She had her hair pulled off her neck with a silver and turquoise clip that matched her slim-fitting capri pants. Her black V-neck top exposed a patch of skin where a matching necklace hung. He’d wanted to compliment her but Maya’s scrutiny had stopped him.

  “Until you narrow down the field, I can’t even tell you which store we should be looking in. Do you want something personal? Something for their home? Practical? Memorable?”

  Rob had no idea.

  He reviewed her choices but nothing jumped out at him. Outside of golfing apparel and equipment, he didn’t know his father’s taste well—and he had yet to meet Haley, the future Mrs. Brighten. “I assume they’re going to live in Palo Alto—Dad has a house there, but I could be wrong. Should I call and ask?”

  Maya grabbed the hem of his suit coat and tugged.

  “What?”

  She motioned for him to bend down.

  He did.

  “Sexy,” she whispered, her voice ringing in his ear.

  He shot upright. “I beg your pardon.”

  She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “My Auntie Grace is getting married and I heard Mommy tell Auntie Liz not to waste her money on pots and pans ’cause the best gifts are sexy.”

  He looked at Kate whose cheeks were decidedly pink.

  “Really? Well, I’ll take that under advisement.”

  Maya’s eyes narrowed. “You talk funny.”

  The kid in him had a reply: “You smell funny.” But he was mature enough to keep it to himself.

  Maya suddenly pointed to Rob and broke out laughing. Rob looked at Kate, who appeared baffled by her daughter’s display of hilarity. It was almost as if Maya had read his mind. But that wasn’t possible. Was it?

  Good Lord, he hoped not.

  Kate heard a familiar jingle and reached into her purse. The word on the display of her phone read: Mom.

  “I…um…think I have a copy of Haley’s bridal registry around here somewhere,” Rob said looking as if he welcomed the excuse to escape.

  “Good. That might give us a place to start,” she said.

  “It’s in my bedroom-slash-office-slash-storeroom. I’ll be right back,” he said, hurrying across the suite.

  They’d met at his place since it was centrally located. As he walked away, Kate fought back a smile. Listening to him argue with Maya had been a revelation. Apparently she wasn’t the only adult who got sucked into her daughter’s challenges.

  Kate put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mom. How’s Alex?”

  She only half listened as Yetta explained about Alex’s test results. All normal. That was good. With her other ear, Kate took in Maya’s litany of complaints.

  “This place is too brown, Mommy. It smells funny. Do you think he’s going to change shoes. They do, too, squeak. Can we go now?”

  Kate bid her mother goodbye then closed the phone. She tried to stifle her irritation as she squatted down to deal with Maya. Normally, her daughter was up for any kind of adventure, but the little girl had been cross and contrary all morning. Or rather, ever since she found out about this stop at Rob’s.

  “Maya, what’s wrong? I told you why we’re here.”

  “I don’t like him.”

  “You don’t even know Rob. He’s Jo’s son. You like her, don’t you?”

  Her eyes went big. “I love Jo. When she’s working, you can do things with me.”

  Kate’s heart melted. She’d been so busy making a success of Romantique she’d missed out on a lot of time with her daughter. “That’s right. And, thanks to Rob, I’m going to be able to get the restaurant open again. He brought us a big job, so helping him buy a present for his father is my way of thanking him.”

  Maya’s lips puckered in a serious look for a minute. “All right. But I don’t like it here.”

  “Well, I’m sure Rob doesn’t plan to stay here forever. Do you, Rob?”

  She’d heard his return—even without squeaky shoes.

  He glanced around. “No. Of course not. I actually had a place in escrow but it fell through.”

  Kate had heard that. His mother claimed the deal went sour because Rob didn’t truly want to be here. That he was only going through the motions to impress his bosses.

  “You might like The Lakes. It’s in Henderson. Not far from where Liz lives. Jo said you golf, and they have several nice courses.”

  “I’ll remember that. At the moment, I’m so busy, I can’t even get back to my Realtor.” He shrugged.

  “I like Grandma’s house,” Maya said.

  “I know you do, honey, but we’re not going to live there forever. Someday we’ll move into a plac
e of our own.”

  “With Daddy?”

  Oh, Ian, thanks for putting me in this position. “No, sweetie, not with your dad. We talked about this, remember?”

  “But…maybe—”

  “Crystal.”

  Kate and Maya looked at each other then at Rob, who was pointing at the paper he’d brought in with him. “The list says, ‘Anything crystal.’ That covers a lot of areas, doesn’t it? Both housewares and artsy-far…” His mumble sort of faded away.

  Kate felt a serious tenderness touch her heart.

  Maya tightened her grip on Kate’s hand. “Where’s your swimming pool?”

  Rob appeared baffled by the sudden change in topic, but he pointed over his shoulder, kindly choosing to ignore her daughter’s petulant tone. “In the courtyard opposite the lobby. It’s not very big, but they keep it nice and cool. Wanna see?”

  He motioned for her to follow him to the pair of windows on the opposite side of the room. Kate watched them.

  They looked charming together. Almost like a daddy and his little girl.

  She tried to ignore the totally unwelcome thought. Rob wasn’t the daddy type and she needed to remember that.

  “Our swimming pool is round,” Maya stated. “Not square, like that one.”

  That one. There was no missing her daughter’s critical tone. Kate looked at Rob and blushed. “Um, we’d better go. I told Jo I’d meet her at Romantique later to go over the updates your dad’s wedding planner faxed.”

  “You bet. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can breathe easy. I told my secretary if we couldn’t find anything, I was putting her in charge of the task. She said she’d quit first.”

  Kate could tell he was joking. He didn’t seem the type to be a bully in the workplace. If her hunch was right, he was a softhearted boss.

  “Ready, ladies?” He fished a set of keys out of his pocket and said, “Why don’t I follow you in my truck?”

  “You have a truck?” Kate asked. “I’ve never seen you drive anything but the Lexus.”

  He led the way through the pleasantly landscaped grounds to the parking lot. “I usually keep it at Mom’s, but she asked me to pick up a new patio umbrella that she bought, so I drove it home last night. It belonged to my uncle. My dad’s brother. He passed away four years ago. Since he and my dad didn’t get along—the result of something that happened when they were younger, I was Uncle Pete’s only heir.”

  He paused at the curb, looking for Kate’s car. She’d parked a few stalls down from the late-model navy-blue, four-door pickup truck that he pointed his remote key at.

  “Ian had one similar to this,” she said, pausing to get her keys out of her purse. “We used it to pull our boat.”

  “We had a boat?” Maya chirped.

  Kate nodded. The toys. The expense. The arguments. Maybe if I’d paid more attention to the checkbook… She pushed the thought aside. She’d been slightly preoccupied at the time with her infant daughter, her father’s stroke and opening a new business. Plus, Ian had always demanded total control over their mutual finances. “I’ll take care of the money, you run the house,” he’d insisted.

  “You were just a tiny babe, sweetie,” Kate said, grabbing Maya’s hand to lead her toward their car. “We’ll meet you at the Hippo, okay?” she called over her shoulder to Rob. “Then, I’m thinking Caesar’s Palace. They have several shops with amazing crystal pieces.”

  She didn’t wait for an answer. The day was heating up fast. The car was stifling. She’d locked it out of habit and had forgotten to crack open the windows. She heard Rob’s truck engine roar to life as she checked to make sure Maya’s seat belt was fastened, then she hurried around to the driver’s side and got in. She turned the key.

  Nothing happened.

  “Oh, no. Not today,” she groaned. Her starter had been acting temperamental all week. She jiggled the key and tried again. Not even a spark. Another unplanned expense she couldn’t afford.

  “What’s wrong, Mommy?”

  Everything, honey. Pretty much everything.

  KATE LOOKED but didn’t touch.

  She’d never been a huge fan of art glass. She was more of a tactile person. Leather. Wool. Silk. Pottery. Those interested her far more than crystal, which was too cold for her taste. But she could admire any art from afar.

  Especially at these prices.

  “Wow. This place is really something,” Rob said, stepping beside her. He’d been a fabulous sport about her car trouble and her ornery daughter—even though Maya had pestered him the whole time he was attempting to install her booster seat in his vehicle. Kate had been distracted, contacting family members about borrowing alternative transportation—with no luck.

  “Thank God we dropped Maya at the Hippo.”

  Kate probably should have been offended by the relief she read in his tone, but she wasn’t. Maya would have needed to touch everything. Especially the delicate little crystal animals that were set about on shelves right at a child’s eye level. What were these people thinking?

  “Look at this one. Right up Maya’s alley, isn’t it?” he asked, bending down to peer at a smooth green-and-red frog that seemed to have been captured in glass midjump.

  “She loves frogs.”

  “Should I get it for her?”

  The question took Kate by surprise. “Why would you do that? Her birthday isn’t until February.”

  He looked sheepish. “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to apologize for being such a putz earlier. I’m usually not that argumentative.”

  “You’re a lawyer. Isn’t that your job?”

  He snickered softly. “Okay. You got me there. But I can usually pick my fights, and I rarely test wits—and lose—with an opponent who is under the age of five.”

  Kate leaned down and picked up the handblown frog. “Well, Maya has been honing her verbal skills since the day she came out of the womb, but I don’t think a…” She flipped it over to read the price tag on its belly. “Sixty-five-dollar amphibian is going to change her mind. As far as she’s concerned, you wear squeaky shoes.”

  The overhead lights were doing something odd to his complexion, she decided. His skin tone seemed warmer, almost inviting her touch. And the twinkle in his compelling green eyes did strange things to her equilibrium.

  She quickly, carefully, set the frog down and started away. “So, what do you think the newlyweds would like? Do you have a price range in mind?”

  Rob resisted the urge to look at his watch, even though Kate’s back was to him. Waiting for a tow truck had eaten into their time. But, strangely, he’d enjoyed the challenge—from both the car seat and Maya. She was a fascinating little creature. Almost as beautiful—and prickly—as her mother.

  “Something classy,” he said watching her move with grace through the shop.

  He remembered someone—his mother probably—telling him that Kate and her sisters used to dance together and perform at family functions. The Sisters of the Silver Dollar, he thought they were called. He wished she’d dance for him.

  No. Bad idea.

  “Do you like this vase?” she asked, pointing to a brightly lit cubicle with a very large, reddish-orange vessel that seemed too curvaceous to hold water.

  “Nice,” he said, joining her to study the piece. “But a little bright. I don’t think Dad would like it.”

  “What colors does he favor?”

  “Blond,” he mumbled under his breath.

  “Pardon?”

  “Oh, nothing. I’m trying to picture his house, but all I can see is a big-screen TV. I think it’s black.”

  She snickered softly. “Well, what about this one?” she asked, crossing her arms to study the cobalt-blue blown sculpture that truly defied description—and dusting, Rob guessed. He wouldn’t want it in his house.

  “Too blue.”

  “This one?”

  “Too weird.”

  Back and forth, they hopped from one piece of art to the next like children playi
ng leapfrog.

  I’m having fun, he suddenly realized.

  They paused in the doorway to another cubicle. “Maybe crystal isn’t the way to go,” she said. “There are other galleries, of course. But I was hoping you’d find something here. I hate to have wasted a whole morning on nothing.”

  Rob didn’t consider the morning a waste. He’d enjoyed every minute—even arguing with Maya. He was about to say so when her phone rang.

  She grabbed it from her purse. She apparently recognized the number because she said, “Excuse me a sec. It’s about my car.”

  The news wasn’t good. Rob could tell by her frown.

  “I need a new starter…to start with,” she said after closing the phone. “Unfortunately, given the age of my car, they have to order the part. A day or two, the mechanic said.”

  Kate’s brain frantically darted from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C. Normally, she could get by without a car because her mother’s was available. But Yetta was leaving at dawn for L.A. and would be gone four or five days.

  “So, is the shop giving you a loaner?” Rob asked.

  He was standing beside a six-foot sculpture that fell just this side of obscene, although Kate honestly couldn’t say what it represented. “Not exactly. If I’d had the car towed to my cousin Enzo’s place, I might have been able to bum a car off him, but this is a guajo…um, non-Romani repair shop.”

  He nodded. The overhead lights gave silvery highlights to his tousled waves. His casual polo shirt was a cool sage, almost the same color as his eyes. Sexy. Gorgeous. But it was the concern she read in his expression that really moved her. He cared. She sensed it, and that made him dangerous. She was a sucker for kindness.

  She started to walk toward the far corner of the showroom. A warm, solid hand on her arm stopped her. “Kate, wait. I have an idea. Take my truck until yours is fixed.”

  She shook off his hand. “Don’t be silly. I couldn’t.”

  “Why not? It just sits there baking in the hot sun every day. You’re going to be driving around picking up stuff for my dad’s party, right? That can’t wait until your car is back on the road.”

  He had a point, but…“It wouldn’t look right.”

  He closed the distance between them. “Why not? Kate, we’re practically family.”