Wife on Approval

by Leigh Michaels

  "Not that many cartoons," Paige said. "And that's no way to impress your father, Jennifer. You might tell him about the books we read."

  "In between cartoons. And we went to see Mr. Orcutt," Jennifer finished triumphantly. "He gave me a peanut butter cup this time but I ate it already because we went right after lunch."

  Eileen's eyes narrowed. "I thought you were just there yesterday, Paige. You're surely not still trying to win him back, are you?"

  Paige shifted uneasily and wished Jennifer hadn't gone into quite such detail. "A little customer relations work-''

  "We took him cookies," Jennifer put in. "I'm done with my dinner. Can I have my hot chocolate now?"

  "It's getting late, Jen," Austin said. "With school tomorrow-"

  Jennifer's accusing eyes focused on Paige. "But you promised!"

  "Yes, I did," Paige admitted. "And I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, Jennifer. I didn't know about school when I said that."

  Eileen glanced at the kitchen clock. "Time does get away. If you leave right now, Austin, Jennifer will be asleep by the time you drive across town. Better give her a bath here first. Then she can ride home in her pajamas and be all ready for bed."

  "That's very thoughtful, Eileen," Austin said.

  Eileen's voice was brisk. "Just so we're clear about this, Austin, it's not you I'm being thoughtful of, it's Jennifer. You make the hot chocolate, Paige, while I run a bath."

  She wheeled out of the room without waiting for an answer, Jennifer dancing along beside her.

  Without looking at Austin, Paige reached into a box on the counter and unwrapped a china cup and saucer.

  "'One of the special cups,"' Austin quoted thoughtfully. "That's the famous wedding china, isn't it? I didn't realize how literal Jen was being."

  "Oh, it's not that special, really." Paige tried to keep her tone casual. "It was packed away, just taking up space in the attic, till a friend borrowed it recently. I haven't had time to put it back yet. But Jennifer likes it." She got the milk out of the refrigerator.

  "I can't begin to repay you," Austin said. "Either of you. Eileen is...surprising."

  "Maybe you should take Mother to dinner," Paige said carelessly.

  "Too? Or instead?"

  Instead. The word almost sprang to her lips before Paige paused with the milk carton suspended. "Actually, I think we should cancel the whole idea. Thanks aren't necessary, you know. Jennifer's a dear and we've enjoyed having her here."

  "But that's not your real reason for backing out. Is it, Paige?" Austin moved across the room to stand beside her. "You're afraid I might try again to kiss you."

  "No," she said. "I think you have a whole lot more sense than to do that."

  He was right about one thing, she realized. She was afraid; part of her was scared of the consequences if she spent an entire evening alone with him.

  The trouble was, the other part of her actually wanted to go. And that, in its own way, was even more frightening.

  It was well past Jennifer's bedtime when they got home, and Eileen's prediction had proved accurate. The child barely stirred when Austin lifted her out of the car in front of Aspen Towers; she turned her head and buried her face in his neck as he waited for the elevator.

  She smelled like vanilla, he thought. Just like Paige.

  He wondered if the scent had come from Paige's shampoo or Paige herself. Jennifer had certainly hugged the woman hard enough, before they left the bungalow, to absorb any perfume or lotion Paige had been wearing; the child wouldn't have had to put it on directly.

  Vanilla. Of course, Paige would wear something that smelled down to earth and domestic. No Midnight Passion kind of scents for her. If they made a perfume called Sugar Cookie, he thought wryly, Paige would probably stand in line to buy it. Not because she was trying to intrigue a man - any man - but for precisely the opposite reasons. And because she'd think it fit with Rent-A-Wife's reputation.

  But what she obviously didn't realize, Austin thought, was that her carefully cultivated image, complete with the scent of vanilla, might not be as soothingly maternal as she intended it to be. Her attitude of aloofness, combined with a body curvaceous enough to make a man's palms itch, a mouth that begged to be kissed, and skin that dared him to test whether it really felt like velvet... Paige presented a challenge that some men simply wouldn't be able to resist.

  Catering to male customers, going in and out of their homes, taking care of their clothes, their dogs, their cars... What else might they expect? Didn't the woman have a clue what kind of explosives she was playing with?

  What was it Eileen had said tonight about one of Paige's clients? Something about trying to win him back. What if she overdid the customer relations bit and left him expecting much, much more?

  If she ever looked at one of her customers as she'd looked at him tonight out in the snow - a shy upward glance through startlingly dark peek-a-boo eyelashes, with a tiny convulsive swallow and the very tip of her tongue touching the injured spot on her lip...

  Across the hall from the elevator lobby, the door of the super's office was open, and Tricia Cade looked up from the papers spread across her desk and got quickly to her feet. "Austin, how nice to have you home!"

  "You're here late tonight."

  "Oh, you know how it is - work never seems to be done. Can I help you with anything? She looks awfully heavy."

  "And it's dead weight, when she's asleep. I had to leave my bag in the car. I was hoping the doorman would still be on duty, but-"

  "I'll bring it up myself," Tricia said promptly, and held out a hand for his keys. "And your mail, too - there was an overflow that wouldn't fit in the box."

  Trust Tricia not to miss an opportunity, he thought.

  He didn't remember till he was on the penthouse floor that his apartment key was on the same ring with those for the car. He sighed and leaned against the wall beside his door, shifting Jennifer's weight to one hip. She muttered something, then settled back against his shoulder.

  His arms were aching and he was cursing Tricia under his breath by the time the elevator door opened once more and she came toward him, a bright smile on her face, his suitcase and a big plastic bag full of envelopes and magazines on an Aspen Towers' luggage cart by her side, and a ribbon-bedecked bottle cradled in one arm.

  "Why are you standing out here?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"

  "Would you mind unlocking the door? My arms are getting numb."

  "You mean you're locked out? And I kept you waiting all this time because I had the key? I'm so sorry." She flicked expertly through his key ring. "I thought perhaps you'd like a drink, to wind down. That's what took me so long." She pushed open the door and held up the bottle as she stepped inside. "This was a gift from a grateful tenant. I thought perhaps you might like to help me drink it. It's a prize-winning wine, you know."

  Austin didn't even glance at the label. "Thanks, Tricia. It's very thoughtful of you. But I really am too tired to be good company."

  Tricia's smile slipped, but only for an instant. "You could never be anything but good company, Austin." Her voice was low and suggestive. She stepped a little closer.

  Jennifer opened her eyes, winced at the light, and gave one pathetically tired little sob.

  He had to give the woman credit; Tricia knew when she was beaten. "Perhaps another time," she said wryly. "Just shove the luggage cart out in the hall when you're done with it, and I'll have the handyman pick it up in the morning." She made a show of pulling the front door tight behind her.

  "You're better than a bodyguard, Jen," Austin told the child. "You can not only spot a feint in your sleep, but you can fight it off."

  He carried Jennifer down the hall to her room and tucked her in. Her hand fell nervelessly against the satin coverlet, her fingernails forming blood-red spots against the pale yellow gingham. That would have to go before school in the morning, he noted. The academy frowned on wild nail polish, especially on five-year-olds.

  Funny, he thought
. He'd have expected Paige to frown on it, too. He certainly wouldn't have expected her to sit still while a five-year-old painted her nails.

  Jennifer sighed and yawned and half opened her eyes, holding her arms up for a final good-night hug.

  "Can I bring my kitty home, Daddy?" she murmured.

  "Not to the apartment, sweetheart. The lease won't allow it."

  She yawned hugely. "We could just go and live with Paige." The last word was half lost as she dozed off.

  Austin practically fell into bed himself, but he lay for a long time staring at the ceiling.

  The irony of the situation would have appealed to his sense of humor, if only he hadn't been the one caught in the middle of it.

  One woman so eager for his attention that she threw herself at him, bottle in hand... It had actually been a very clever move on Tricia's part, he thought. For one thing, the wine would have had to be chilled, and he had no doubt that Tricia had plans for the time that would have taken. It was lucky, after all, that he'd gotten to his door without a key; if he hadn't had Jennifer in his arms, providing a sort of body armor, Tricia would probably have been much more difficult to dislodge.

  And another woman, so indifferent to him that the idea of him initiating a kiss had horrified her....

  No, he thought. It hadn't been indifference which had made Paige shy away from his touch. And he didn't think it was distaste, either, which had made her shiver as he'd leaned down to kiss her. It was the same fear he'd seen in her eyes in his office the day he'd left town. But he still didn't know why she was afraid of him.

  Was it because he was the only man on earth who knew-absolutely knew-that underneath the aloof and serene image she cultivated with such care, Paige McDermott was anything but chilly?

  Or...way he the only one who knew that? What about that client she was so eager to keep?

  The very thought annoyed him. Not because there might have been another man somewhere in her life, he assured himself. But because he was wasting perfectly good sleeping time thinking about it.

  When Paige came downstairs a few minutes before eight o'clock, Eileen was sitting in her favorite chair, her quilting lying motionless in her lap. The television set was turned on but the sound was muted, and a glance showed Paige that despite Eileen's apparent absorption she probably wasn't watching, either.

  At least, she thought dryly, her mother had never before shown fascination in the weather report for southwestern Asia - so no doubt what she was really doing was rehearsing a lecture on all the reasons Paige should cancel her plans for the evening. What she would never believe was that Paige not only agreed but could add a few arguments of her own.

  "Did I hear the phone a few minutes ago?" Paige asked. Eileen blinked and sat up straighten "Sabrina called, but she said she just wanted to gossip so she'd catch you later."

  Her eyes were brighter than usual, Paige saw, and her cheeks were a little more flushed. "Did she call twice? I thought I heard it ring again." Paige frowned. "Mother, are you running a bit of a fever?" She put out a hand to touch Eileen's forehead just as the doorbell rang.

  Eileen leaned away. "What would be unusual about that? Answer the bell, Paige."

  "But if you're not feeling well-"

  "I'm as well as can be expected. And if you think I'm going to invite Austin Weaver to look down his nose at me by complaining about how I feel, you're wrong."

  Paige sighed and opened the door. It had been such a great idea, getting Austin and Eileen to declare a truce - if it had only worked.

  On the way across town, Austin said, "I hope the Pinnacle is all right with you. I asked Caleb for a recommendation, and he told me it's the best restaurant in Denver."

  "Caleb thinks it's the only restaurant in Denver. He has breakfast there at least five days a week-and I hope he plans to keep it up after the wedding because Sabrina can't make toast without burning it."

  "I didn't know they opened before lunch."

  "They don't," Paige said. "They let Caleb in the back door, he sits in the kitchen, and the chef waits on him personally."

  Austin grinned. "No wonder he said it would be better if he called to reserve a table for us."

  Us. The nonchalant use of the word left an odd hollow in Paige's stomach. She scolded herself for even noticing, because it was so apparent that the word was meaningless to Austin. Not only weren't they still a combination, but they never had been, really. Even in the old days, when they had lived together, slept together, made love together-

  How was it possible that she could have believed she knew his every thought as well as she knew every inch of his body-and been so wrong?

  "You're very quiet," Austin said.

  She caught her breath. "Oh, it's just that I hope you don't have vertigo. Caleb likes the tables right on the edge, where you can look straight down at the city as the restaurant revolves." She knew she sounded a little breathless-but if she was lucky, he'd think she merely had a tendency to vertigo herself. Hastily, she added, "What's Jennifer doing tonight?''

  "A teenager who lives downstairs is looking after her. It turns out the super has a list."

  "I bet it tightened Tricia's jaw to have to find a sitter for you," Paige mused. "I'm surprised she didn't offer to do it herself. Unless perhaps she didn't want to find out what time you got home." She intercepted his look and added with a brittle undertone, "Don't take that as any sort of invitation."

  "I'm amazed," Austin murmured, "that you think I might."

  Paige bit her lip hard all the rest of the way downtown.

  The maitre d' showed them to the closest thing to an isolated corner that the Pinnacle possessed, a table on the lowest and outermost ring of the restaurant floor. It was tucked against a wall on one side, screened by palms on the other, but it still boasted the same gorgeous view of the city. The winter darkness had closed in long since, and below them, beyond the towers of the central city, lay a golden web of lights stretching as far as they could see.

  The restaurant was busy, but from their table only the murmur of distant voices, the clink of silver and china, and the occasional pop of a cork reminded them they were not alone. Austin dealt with the wine steward, and when they each had been served and the bottle was propped at an artistic angle in the silver cooler at his elbow, he raised his glass in a silent salute.

  Paige turned the stemmed glass between her fingers, trying not to remember other evenings and other places- times when what they ate and drank wasn't important, simply because they were together.

  At least, she thought sadly, that had been true for her.

  As if he had read her mind, Austin murmured, "This isn't much like the nights we walked to the ice cream stand."

  Pain shot through her, and it took all Paige's self-control to joke, “Not at all. Back then, we were looking up instead of down, and the golden flecks we saw in the sky were insects flying into the streetlights."

  He smiled, but his eyes didn't join in the humor. "You don't want to remember, do you?"

  "I don't see any point in it."

  "I wanted to do this for you then, Paige." He leaned forward, and his sun-browned hand came to rest very gently on hers as it lay on the table. "I would like to do it for you now. I don't mean dinner. I mean...life."

  A muffled gasp above her head drew Paige's attention to the upper level of the restaurant, to the one place where an onlooker could see them. She caught only a glimpse of long black hair and exotically slanted green eyes before the woman drew back out of sight, but it was enough.

  Paige pulled her hand out from under Austin's. "That was Sabrina," she said coolly. "You told Caleb who you were taking to dinner, didn't you?"

  Austin shook his head. "He didn't ask, and I didn't volunteer."

  She eyed him warily, but on second thought she realized that he had to be telling the truth. If Caleb had known, Sabrina would have gotten the information out of him, no question about it-and in that case she wouldn't have been stunned at the sight of her partner. />
  Now that the initial shock was passing, Paige had no trouble guessing what had happened. Caleb had casually mentioned doing Austin a favor by making a dinner reservation for two. Sabrina, itching with curiosity about who Austin might be dating, had suggested they, too, go out for the evening, and then she'd made it a point to casually pass by the one spot in the entire restaurant where it was possible to see down on that particular table-Caleb's favorite table...

  Sabrina called, Eileen had told her as Austin arrived. She said she just wanted to gossip.

  About Austin's date, no doubt. It was a good thing, Paige thought, that she hadn't answered the phone herself-though it would certainly have been an interesting conversation.

  "This was a mistake." She pushed back her chair. "I'm leaving."

  Austin's eyebrows rose. "Right now? Just as the waiter is bringing our appetizer? All you'll manage to accomplish is to confirm Sabrina's suspicions that there's something really odd going on."

  Paige sank back into her chair. He was right, of course; she had to finish out the evening or raise far more questions than she was prepared to answer.

  Besides, she thought rebelliously, why shouldn't she have dinner with Austin, anyway? She'd done him a big favor; he was giving her a treat in return. Surely anybody could understand that. And she didn't have to account to her partners for anything she did.

  The waiter placed a chilled plate before her. Paige looked at the dainty, perfectly molded salmon mousse with sudden loathing.

  "Why is it so important to you what Sabrina thinks, anyway?" Austin asked lazily.

  Paige looked straight at him. "Because I don't want her to worry about me. She's afraid, you see, that I'll take you seriously."

  "But I am serious, Paige." Austin reached for the wine bottle and topped off her glass. "I meant what I said, before Sabrina popped her head into the conversation."

  Paige shook her head. “Sorry. Whatever you were saying, it's gone completely out of my mind."

  Austin's jaw tightened for an instant, but his voice was perfectly even, almost casual. "I would like to make your life easier, Paige."