“Girl, I’ve been there, done that, and have the hotel to prove it.” Willodean winked. “Just ’cause you were set to marry a man for his money, that doesn’t make you a bad person. My second husband was the same, and I loved him and his money and thank God every day I met him when I walk these halls. I think as long as you were prepared to give as much as you were going to take, you got nothing to feel bad about.” They both watched Charlie stoop to pet Misty in front of the door to Viva Las Vegas. “Must be noon. That boy’s like clockwork with his lunch. Whatever you do, don’t mess up his schedule, okay? He gets really testy about his schedule.”
Grace nodded. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
Willodean looked up at the ceiling while she considered the question. “I’ve had four husbands, Grace. The first one and the last one, they were love matches, and thanks to both of them for different reasons, I have my son. The second one became love and I have my hotel because of him, but I’ll promise you that he never once regretted picking me.”
Grace waited but she didn’t say anything else. “And the third one?”
Willodean sighed. “Well, if you want to talk about selfish motives, he might be the one we need to talk about. Some people thought he was a gold digger too, a man looking for a rich wife. And I didn’t give one bit of care over that. He was young, and fun, and handsome, and perfect.” She looked older when the smile slid off her face. “But I didn’t consider what he’d do to my son, the one who’d lost his father at such a young age and his stepfather too soon. Making a decision to please myself… well, let’s just say I can see now the dangers of doing that. Sometimes you break things you can’t fix.”
Grace wanted to hug her and promise her there was nothing that couldn’t be fixed. But they would both know that was a lie.
“But your son, you said you got him back.”
Willodean looked toward the lobby again. “Yeah, sort of. My last husband, Howard, was magic like that, a negotiator that could have you signing on the bottom line before you even knew you had the pen in your hand. Things were bad before that, but Howard, he patched ’em up.”
“What happened to Howard, Willodean?”
She blinked. “Oh, well, when I met him, he was going through cancer treatment. We knew going in the clock was ticking. Guess you could say my men don’t stick either, Grace. All but one, though, only death could take away. That’s the kind of sticking a woman can appreciate, you know? Depending on which side of the coin I choose to look at, I either have bad luck with husbands or the very, very best.”
Grace crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the gold carpet until Willodean patted her on the shoulder. “Never mind about all that. What I shoulda said is I’ve got good references on my matchmaking abilities. I’ll take good care of you.”
Grace rubbed her forehead. “Willodean, if you think you can do it, I say go for it.” Then she clamped a hand over the tight knot in her stomach. Just because Willodean set her up, that didn’t mean love and marriage and forever. She could still go whenever she wanted. Grace had to repeat that to herself until she could breathe normally.
Willodean pumped her fist in the air. “Well, now if that ain’t something! I don’t usually have much cooperation. This is going to be fun.” She narrowed her eyes. “Gimme your list. What kind of man am I looking for?”
For some reason, Charlie’s face popped up in her mind. “Tall. Athletic. Likes the outdoors.” Why she said that, she had no idea. Ever since she’d lived in Vegas, she’d done her best to avoid any contact with Mother Nature. Charlie just seemed like a guy who could find his way around in the woods. Maybe something like that could come in handy. She shook her head. “Flexible.”
Willodean frowned. “Flexible… you mean he can go with the flow, right? Not stretchy enough to pat himself on the back.”
“I mean, I mentioned I might not stay here long. It’s not because I don’t like it here. I just… something in me makes it hard to sit still for too long.”
Willodean nodded. “I think I can understand that, but did you ever consider that maybe you just have to land in the right spot to stick?”
Grace shook her head. She didn’t know what to say to that either. She’d started to think maybe there wasn’t a right place. Maybe there was a problem with her, something that made it hard to put down roots. Almost any man would have trouble with that.
“Anything else?” Willodean was watching her closely. “Want another rich man?”
Grace thought about Charlie and then told herself to stop being stupid. Maybe there was some connection between them, but he was a man who liked schedules. Here in the hotel, people treated him with a lot of respect, like he had some important title. Maybe that explained why he was so bossy. Instead of lamé, today he’d dressed all in black, probably because it was easy, efficient. She’d call it boring. They’d mix like oil and water.
Grace pursed her lips. “Well, I wouldn’t say no to a rich man.”
Willodean’s chuckle was contagious. “Smart girl. I could tell that about you, you know.”
“Have anybody in mind, Willodean?”
She took Grace’s hand and started pulling her toward Viva Las Vegas. “Sure, I have one prospect.” As Willodean led her into the restaurant, Grace looked around. The crowd was very small, and there were only two men in the place. Tony sat at the end of the bar closest to the door and Charlie was as far away as he could get on a stool near the order window. Both men stared straight ahead at the mirror behind the bar. Being this close to the conversation about setting her up made connecting the dots way too easy. Grace tried to dig her heels in, but Willodean was suddenly unstoppable.
“There he is, my favorite person in the whole world.” Willodean hugged Charlie’s broad back and Grace tried to become invisible, certain she knew what was coming.
Charlie glanced over Willodean’s head and managed to catch Grace’s eye before he set down his sandwich and wrapped his arm around Willodean’s shoulder. “What is it now, Mom? You know it’s lunch time, right?”
Mom? Grace jerked and glanced around quickly, hoping she could find someone to confirm what she thought she’d heard. Charlie was Willodean’s son? The one she’d lost and found?
And, if she was reading the conversation correctly and she was frantically replaying it in her head to be sure she had followed all the trails, Charlie was also Willodean’s first matchmaking attempt. For her, a confessed gold digger who couldn’t stick in a place more than twelve months. A mother setting her son up with a fortune hunter. Ex-fortune hunter maybe, but still. Had Willodean lost her mind?
Chapter Four
* * *
AS CHARLIE STEELED himself for whatever the next request from his mother might be, he glanced over her head to watch Grace. She looked like she’d just been goosed with an electric prod for some reason. Maybe she hadn’t guessed Willodean was his mother. He had always been more exasperated than embarrassed by his mother and her ability to collect new friends and family like rusty pennies, but the distance between them made it easier to treat her more like a client sometimes than family. Hotel employees never let him forget he was the boss’s son, but Grace wouldn’t have any clue.
And he didn’t know why it would matter. She’d been perfectly polite to him—with the exception of invading his space now and then and making him think words like “magic” unexpectedly—just like every other hotel employee. Well, every employee except Tony, who didn’t think he did enough for his mother, didn’t like him, and didn’t hide it.
And wasn’t that just one more reason to spend as little time as he could here? If his own guilty conscience didn’t beat him up, Tony would be happy to do it. When he remembered how his mother’s heart had broken over her divorce and his own part in it, he wondered if maybe he shouldn’t just let Tony throw the first punch. He’d tried staying away, but that hadn’t made anything easier. And being back… between his mother’s determined happiness and Tony’s killing stare, he had
too many reminders of his mistakes. All he could do was make amends the best way he knew how: making his mother happy today.
“I’m in a good mood, Mom. I just had the best meat loaf sandwich in the history of sandwiches. Hit me with whatever it is.” Charlie watched Grace gather her composure and straighten her shoulders. She’d learned somewhere never to let others see her sweat.
“Grace is going to need some help with inventorying what furniture we’ve got for the conference area. Since you’ll be punching the numbers and crunching the calculator to come up with a budget, I thought maybe you could help her out in the morning.” His mother’s face was perfectly innocent as she waited for his answer. That alone was enough to raise an alarm. “That way you’ll have a very good picture of exactly what Grace needs.”
A day of moving furniture. The idea filled him with only low-level irritation. And it would please his mother. He didn’t want to take too close a look at why his pulse sped up at the idea of spending the day with Grace. He also didn’t want to point out how many other hotel employees could help her as well as he could. And that reminded him of why he’d wanted to put her in a cab the day before. She was dangerous.
“Well, when you put it like that, perfectly tailored to get my cooperation, how can I say no?” Obviously his mother was up to something. Instead of the small crease of worry on her forehead and a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, she wore a guileless look complete with fluttering eyelashes. Somehow she’d forgotten he wasn’t one of her usual marks. That didn’t mean he didn’t find it cute. And he felt a little of his stuck-in-Memphis blues ease. His mother had always been good at that, lightening things up. It was no wonder everyone loved her.
Willodean waggled her eyebrows. “Years of experience, my boy. Someday, you too will be able to work magic like mine.”
“Only if I’m lucky, Mom.” For the first time in a long time, Charlie felt easy around his mother, like they used to be before… well, before he’d had to be proven right above all else. Then instead of apologizing for a too-blunt assessment of his second stepfather, Travis Luttrell, he’d stormed off, headed as far away as he could get from Memphis, the hotel, and his mother. That had led him home, even if it was six hours away.
Staying at the hotel instead of going home would probably never be his first choice, but if he could repair things with his mother and get rid of some of his guilt, it would be worth a little inconvenience and the low-level stress city life caused him now. He’d gotten used to his renovated farmhouse on his grandfather’s land. He’d rebuilt it. And it was as different from the Rock’n’Rolla Hotel as night was from day. He didn’t even allow an Elvis song on the radio. The clutter and noise and chatter that followed Willodean Jackson made him a little homesick for peace and quiet.
“Hon, did you need to grab some lunch before you head out?” Charlie glanced from his mother to her newest project. Somehow, the idea that Grace had been adopted into the family as easily as she had been wasn’t causing him the heartburn it had with others, especially Tony.
Grace shook her head. “Nope. I like to keep to a tight schedule.” Crickets would never be heard inside Viva Las Vegas. The music was too loud, but the three of them were quiet for a long minute. Willodean tried to look innocent again and failed. Charlie shot them both suspicious looks but didn’t say anything. Nothing about Grace had struck him as rigidly punctual. In fact, that sounded more like something his mother would say about him. Had they discussed him and his schedule? “Where are you headed to? Got a hot date?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted it. His mother’s eyes lit up like the she’d just hit the jackpot.
And the light bulb went off. He was being set up with the newest hotel employee. Maybe she wasn’t his type, but it looked like he was going to have a chance to verify his opinion one on one. Why didn’t he hate the idea? He had a plan already, and he’d never plan for someone like Grace. His mother was wasting her time. And Grace’s. He was willing to give up a little of his own time, though. He tilted his head back to study the dark ceiling of the restaurant while “Hound Dog” played in the background.
“I’m headed out to pick up a few groceries. Save money, you know?” Grace cleared her throat and added, “Are you sure you don’t mind me borrowing your car?”
Reminded again in a flash of how his mother trusted too easily, Charlie’s head snapped up. His immediate response was an angry “no” headshake but he stopped when his mother stepped on his foot. “Borrow the car? What a stupid idea. Round-trip cab fare would cost less than a new car, Mom. What if she decides this is a shot to get back to Vegas now instead of in a month?” He glanced down at his mother’s green sequined tennis shoe, planted firmly on top of his boot. He bit back the offer to take Grace to the airport and buy her a ticket himself.
His mother patted his arm. “Grace didn’t come prepared to stay, so she needs things.” She raised an eyebrow. “If you’re so worried, I guess you could take her if you’d rather. That would be very neighborly.”
Charlie felt the offer to take her wherever she needed to go poised on the tip of his tongue. One look at his mother’s face said she expected him to react as he always did, with suspicion and a hard no. And Grace seemed to be waiting for his answer too, her arms crossed over her chest and a brow raised in curiosity. Charlie decided he wanted to surprise them both but not enough to go to Wal-Mart on a Saturday three weeks before Christmas when the weatherman was making a very unlikely snow forecast. That had hell written all over it. So he shrugged his shoulders.
“Guess that’s what we have insurance for.” He slid back on the stool and watched the two women glance at each other like they couldn’t believe he’d given in that easily. He picked up his tea glass and took a satisfying drink. It was nice to do something different than what was expected of him.
His mother waved her hand. “Are you sure you don’t need to go? Maybe you forgot something?” She looked meaningfully into his eyes and pointed her chin toward Grace.
Now was the time to be strong. “Not my kind of fun, Mom. Why aren’t you going?”
His mother huffed a sigh. “Arlene and I already made plans with Holly for this afternoon. We’re going over to the movie theater to see something Laura won’t take her to see. I think there are vampires.” She shrugged her shoulders. “At least there’ll be popcorn.”
Charlie chanced a direct glance at Grace to see that she’d crossed her arms tightly over her chest. And her chin was raised in challenge. He didn’t apologize, but he thought about it. Seemed like a good idea to wait and see if she actually brought the car back first.
“All right, kid, I guess you’re on your own. Meet me at the front desk to pick up the keys. Got a nice long Caddy, perfect for hauling groceries. Plus, without someone along, you can take your time.” Willodean shook her head at Charlie like he was a real disappointment, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
For a long time, all he’d seen when she looked at him was worry. So what if it took a very obvious attempt at matchmaking to make her light up again? He smiled over his mother’s head at Grace. “Good luck.”
Grace said, “Give me fifteen minutes.” She held up her bare wrist. “Shall we synchronize our watches?” She winked at him as his mother chortled. Then Grace left the restaurant at a near run, her hair swishing back and forth and the squeak of her sneakers keeping time.
“I guess tomorrow I’ll be moving furniture, although I would think you’d have plenty of staff on hand who could help. Or we could hire temps. Or if there’s so little of it, maybe Grace could actually do it on her own.” He watched his mother’s face closely. “Loaning her your car, Mom? You’ll be lucky if she isn’t back in Las Vegas by this time tomorrow and we’re headed to the dealership to buy another fully loaded top-of-the-line luxury sedan in your signature color.” He slid off the stool. “And we don’t even know her, but you’re trying to set me up with a girl who’s just been left at the altar. I guess I understand helping her, even if I wish you’d be
more careful. But throwing us together? Want to tell me why?”
“Well, I think…” Willodean fluffed her hair. “Just trust me. I have a nose for these things. Last time we talked about how you need to get married, you told me you were thinking along those lines so—”
“You mean the last time you told me I should be and I didn’t disagree, right? That time?”
One corner of his mother’s mouth tilted up. “Maybe it was that time, yes. But I think . . . no, I know you were impressed with her. Against your judgment and normal safety rules, you introduced us. And I like her, Charlie. She reminds me a little of myself.”
The crashing realization that she was absolutely right, that Grace did seem a little like his mother, hit him. He ought to pack up his stuff and leave, no matter what his mother thought of it. The very last thing he needed was to fall for a girl that he was bound to upset and disappoint like his mother.
“That might be the best warning you could give me, Mom.” As he watched her face fall, he knew she’d misunderstood him again. She thought he meant there was something wrong with her or Grace, but what he really thought was that he couldn’t spend his life with not one but two women who he’d never fully understand and fail over and over again to please. But before he could figure out what to say, she hugged his neck and stepped back before stretching up to kiss his cheek.
“I’m glad you’ll be here this week. This place feels absolutely perfect when you’re here.” She patted his arm and left the restaurant. Charlie propped his hands on his hips for a minute to think. Then he waved through the order window at the chef and followed his mother out.
At the door, Tony stopped him with a hand planted in his chest. Charlie glanced down at the hand and then at Tony’s grim face while he calculated the odds of making it out of there with all his teeth if he shoved the hand away. Before he could decide whether the price was too high or just right, Tony stepped back. “McMinn, I just wanted to say… I’m glad you’re here this week. Willodean misses you. I know she’s thrilled.”
Santa, Bring My Baby Back Page 6
