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Authors: Kate Perry

Project Daddy (6 page)

BOOK: Project Daddy
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I sighed again. “It’s a long story.”
“The gallery doesn’t close for another three hours. And if that’s not enough time, I know a great place in Chinatown that’s open twenty-four hours.”
I stared up at Joseph’s eyes. They looked so sparkling and clear and interested that I couldn’t help spilling out the whole story.
It took fifteen minutes instead of all night. I didn’t take a breath until I finished.
Silence.
Biting my lip, I studied his face. I thought it was indigestion I saw there, but it might have been incredulity.
Oh well. I looked around for another man I could attack.
“Katherine, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”
I glanced back at Joseph. “I am?”
He nodded. “You doubt it? You just told me you’re looking for a sperm donor for your boss. I’d count that as mildly surprising.”
I winced. “Is that bad?”
“Not bad, just ... surprising.”
What did that mean?
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this.” Staring at me, he swiped back his hair. “I’m game.”
“Excuse me?”
“Count me in. Put me down as a potential sperm donor.”
I wiggled a finger in my ear. Spending all that time in those clubs was obviously affecting my hearing. “What did you say?”
“I said I’d meet your boss.” He shook his head. “I know I must be crazy, but I have this odd impulse to help you.”
Joseph’s words slowly sank in. I gasped and grabbed his arm. “Do you mean it? You aren’t just cruelly stringing me along only to dash my hopes on the rocks, are you?”
“Rocks?” He grinned. “No rocks.”
“Good.” I grinned back. Then I surprised myself by throwing my arms around him, but I let go as soon as I realized what I’d just done.
“Oh shit. Oh God—I’m sorry.” I smoothed the lapel of his coat (very luxurious wool, I noticed).
“It’s okay, Katherine. I don’t mind.”
No, he didn’t. His eyes sparkled with contained mirth.
I shrugged. Oh well—I’d rather he found me amusing than annoying.
“Hey, Kat. Everything okay here?”
I smiled over my shoulder at Luc. “Everything’s absolutely wonderful now that I’ve met Joseph.” My smile faded when I noticed the way Luc was scowling. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.” He might have been talking to me, but his gaze never wavered from Joseph.
Joseph cleared his throat. “Maybe I should give you my phone number and we can discuss the details of our arrangement later.”
“Great.” I pulled out my handheld and carefully tapped in his cell, home, and work numbers (can’t be too careful, you know). I saved the info and smiled at him. “You don’t know it, but you’ve just made my dream a little more possible.”
“Fantastic.” He pushed back one of my dratted escaped curls. “Talk to you soon?”
“Of course.” I only had two more weeks before my deadline.
With barely a glance at Luc, he squeezed my shoulder and walked away. I watched him stop to shake Gary’s hand before he walked out the door.
“You’ve just made my dream more possible?” Luc said with unconcealed sarcasm. “What the hell did that mean?”
“Nothing. Just that he helped me in a big way.” I frowned at him. “What’s the problem? I thought you brought me here to meet men.”
“I did. But for your boss, not for you.”
I recoiled. “I didn’t meet Joseph for me.”
Luc snorted. “That’s not what he thought.”
“Sure it is. I told him everything.”
“What?” He studied me for a few seconds before he groaned. “You told him? And he agreed to help you?”
“Of course.” I pushed my glasses up on my nose and tried to look authoritative. “Why wouldn’t he want to help? It’s a perfectly valid mission.”
Okay, I wasn’t sure I bought that. After all, just minutes ago I was cursing the fact that I’d ever met Lydia, but Luc didn’t have to know that.
“It’s insanity.” He exhaled and scrubbed his face with his hand. “Kat, do you really think he offered to help because of the sheer joy of contributing some spunk for a good cause?”
I nodded. Why else would he volunteer?
“Shit.” He shook his head. “I can’t decide if you’re really that innocent or really that stupid.”
“
Stupid
?” I sounded shrill even to my own ears.
He winced. “I didn’t mean stupid. I meant blind.”
It didn’t matter what he meant—he’d said stupid.
I pouted. I couldn’t believe that’s what my best friend thought of me. “If you don’t want to help, you don’t have to. I can do this on my own.”
Right. I hoped I sounded like I believed it. Inside, I cringed at the thought of having to face this alone.
Still, I wouldn’t show weakness. I turned on my heels and started to walk away.
Luc’s hand on my shoulder stopped me. “Wait, Kat.”
I glared at him. “Why should I?”
“Because I love you and I’m only interested in what’s best for you.”
“Ha!”
He sighed. “Come on, squirt. You know I didn’t mean it like it sounded.” He pulled me close and gave me a one-armed hug.
I inhaled his scent and felt the tension in my body melt away. Luc smelled the same as he did fifteen years ago, at least underneath the scented soap and shaving cream. It was comforting, like walking into a restaurant and smelling macaroni and cheese like your mom—or your dad in my case—used to make.
“Okay, fine.” His jacket muffled my voice. “I’ll forgive you if you take me to dinner. Italian.”
He chuckled. I felt it vibrate through me more than I heard it.
“Don’t even
think
about giving me a noogie.” I glared and pulled out from under his arm.
He laughed and pulled me back. “Don’t worry. I won’t mess up your hair.”
It wasn’t my hair I was worried about—it was always a mess anyway. “So are you taking me to dinner?”
“Come on.”
We headed out together. It wasn’t until I was halfway into a fettuccine coma that I remembered I hadn’t found Gary again. I mentally shrugged. It couldn’t have been that important anyway.
Chapter Six
When Lydia called me into her office for our status meeting, I was armed and ready.
I sailed past Jessica with a breezy “Good morning.”
She squinted at me. I wanted to tell her she should get glasses before she developed unsightly crow’s feet but Lydia was waiting. Patting the manila folder, I straightened my shoulders and walked in.
Lydia sat on her throne, her back to me. I thought she was contemplating the sunny autumn San Francisco day through the wall-to-wall window until I heard her bark into the phone.
“I don’t give a damn. I will
not
let this happen. Do you understand me?”
I bit my lip. The person on the other end of the line would have to be deaf not to understand her. I hesitated by the door. Maybe I should go back outside to give her privacy.
Before I could escape, she whirled around and waved me into the chair across from her. Then she pounded her fist on her desk. “That’s bullshit, Drake, and you know it.”
Wow. I adjusted my glasses and sat down. I’d never seen Lydia so, um, impassioned. She was usually the epitome of cool. Now she had red splotches on her cheeks. And was that a strand of hair out of place?
She hit the table again. “Damn you.”
I jumped. Yikes. I hoped she never got angry with me.
“The day I see that happen is the day I see you in hell.” She slammed the phone down and glared at me.
Oh shit. I swallowed. Maybe now wasn’t the best time for this meeting. “I can come back later ...”
“Sit,” she barked, getting up from her chair. I wanted to cringe as she came around her desk toward me. Fortunately I resisted the urge to scream
don’t hit me
. Not that it mattered, because she continued on to her private bathroom.
Whew. I relaxed. That was close. At least now I knew that if Lydia ever got angry at me I should invest in a one-way ticket to Siberia and hope she didn’t track me down.
When she reentered the office five minutes later there was no sign that she’d ever been upset. Her complexion was creamy again and her hair the shiny smooth cascade it always was.
“Give me your report,” she said as she sat down and crossed her long, silk-encased legs.
I blinked a couple times.
Can we say schizo?
“I made great progress last week. While I don’t have a long list, I believe the quality of the candidates makes up for the quantity.”
“Let’s see it.” She held out an elegant hand that had a whopping sapphire on it.
Instead of thinking about the hefty down payment I could put on a house with that stone, I opened my folder and pulled out my spreadsheets. “I have a comprehensive report on each potential donor. Granted, they aren’t as detailed as I’d like, but the initial information is accurate and gives a good picture of the positives and negatives for each one.”
Lydia took the papers and flipped through them casually. I tried to read her expression for a sign of approval but I only saw frosty calculation.
I cleared my throat. “And I’m still amassing data, so this isn’t the final gene pool to select from. Since I have another two weeks, I thought—”
“You have only one more week.” Lydia handed the spreadsheets back to me. “I want to make my decision by the third week, which means you have until next Friday to amass your list. The last week I’ll meet with the men you’ve lined up and make my decision.”
I almost fell out of my chair. “Next Friday?” That was seven days away.
She arched a perfect blond eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
Hell yeah, it was a problem. “No, not at all.” I hoped I sounded confident instead of like I was going to throw up. “Next Friday is doable.”
“Good.” She opened her laptop and began clacking at an insane speed. I type fast but not that fast. Oh, the work I could get done if my fingers moved at the speed of light.
But even the lightning-quick tapping of Lydia’s digits didn’t distract me from the burst of panic that shot through me.
Okay, I didn’t have room for doubts. I needed to make more money, especially after the tidy sum I’d given my dad earlier this week. Earth was created in six days, right? Two weeks had to be long enough to find a sperm donor.
Besides, look at what I’d accomplished in one week. I didn’t have a ton of names, but the ones I’d collected had potential. Especially Joseph—my gut told me he was the one.
Lydia glanced up. “Was there anything else, Katherine?”
“No.” Silly me for not realizing I was dismissed. I gathered up my papers and arranged them in their proper order again. “I’ll have the final list for you next week.”
She gave me another cold look before returning to her work. I tiptoed out of her office so I wouldn’t disturb her, easing the door closed behind me.
Jessica looked up and her eyes narrowed again.
I shook my head. “I can give you the number for my optometrist if you’d like. He’s really excellent but inexpensive. Did you know about one and a half million Americans have glaucoma but don’t know it? Tell you what—I’ll e-mail it to you.” I smiled at her and headed for my closet—um, I mean, office.
On my way down I made a mental list. First, I needed to call Luc and ask him to take me out again. Two more outings and I should be set.
Then I needed to start my expense report—going out was costly. Good thing I wasn’t a social creature—I couldn’t imagine where my savings would be if I went out all the time.
Being the queen of multitasking, I opened an expense sheet in Excel as I reached for the phone to call Luc. The phone rang four times before his answering machine clicked on.
“You’ve reached Healing Touch Massage Therapy. I’m sorry I missed your call, but if you leave ...”
I was looking for a receipt in my handbag when the digital beep on Luc’s machine sounded. “Luc, it’s me. I was wondering if you’d like to go out. Maybe this weekend?” I smiled appealingly before I realized he wouldn’t be able to see it. “Um, call me, okay?”
The second I hung up, my extension rang. “Research. This is Katherine Murphy speaking.”
“Katherine, this is Gary. Luc introduced us at my gallery opening last night.”
“Hello, Gary.” I wrinkled my nose, momentarily giving up on the receipt. Why was he calling me?
“You’re probably wondering why I’m calling you—”
Ha.
“—I saw you and knew you were just the person I was looking for, and I was wondering if you’d sit for me.”
“Sit for you?” The first image that came to mind was of me in a leash, obediently heeling. “I don’t know what Luc told you, but I’m not into kinky sex.”
Gary roared so loudly I had to hold the receiver away from my ear to avoid going deaf from his laughter.
“God, you’re hilarious. No kinky sex,” he said, gasping for breath. “I just want to paint your portrait.”
“Why would you ever want to do that?” I mean, I wasn’t chopped liver, but I wasn’t the kind of woman poets wrote odes about. I did look really good in my DKNY suits, though.
“You have an amazingly interesting face. Your eyes—I can’t wait to tackle the challenge of capturing the mix of innocence and imp reflected there.”
“I don’t know what Luc told you, but I don’t have much time. Especially over the next few weeks.” When Lydia gave me the VP spot I was going to be extremely busy.
“I don’t need much of a time commitment from you. I just need to draw some initial sketches that I’ll use as guides for the painting.”
Remembering some of his artwork, I frowned. “I’m not going to be a big, frizzy blob on a white canvas, am I?”
He was still roaring with laughter when he hung up a couple of minutes later. I’d read that laughter could cure all manner of illness. Gary must be one of the healthiest people on earth.
I opened my calendar and typed in the time and place of our meeting. He was eager to get started, so I’d agreed to meet him Sunday morning at eleven.
As soon as I hit Save my phone rang again. I sighed mentally. “Research. Katherine Murphy speaking.”
“Hey, squirt. What’s up?”
I frowned. “Why can’t I have a better nickname than squirt? Why can’t you call me Kat-woman or something? It sounds so much more heroic.”
“Squirt seems appropriate. Especially given this assignment your boss gave you.”
“Humph.”
“This is a switch. Usually when you want something from me you don’t complain.”
Oh yeah. I forgot about that. “Have I told you lately how much I value your friendship?”
“You need more suckers for your list, don’t you?”
“What if I just wanted the pleasure of your company?”
He snorted. “Kat, you haven’t called me just to hang out in months.”
Oh, the guilt. He was right. I was a shitty friend. I vowed right then that once this assignment was over and I had my raise, I’d do something really nice for Luc to show him how much he meant to me.
Now, I cleared my throat. “Does this mean you won’t go out with me tonight?”
There was a pregnant pause before I heard him sigh. “No, I’ll go. God knows you need someone to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh, thank you, Luc.” What a relief. “According to most religions, including Christianity, Islam, and paganism, your good deeds will be rewarded in the afterlife.”
Luc grunted. “I should be so lucky. Meet me at Market and Octavia at eight. Bring your laundry.”
“My laundry?” I wrinkled my nose.
“Do you trust me?”
Damn it, I hated it when he asked that. “Yes.”
“Then just be there. Don’t be late.” He hung up before I could ask any additional questions.
Laundry? What was he planning on doing? Beating men into submission with my underthings?
Gross. I shook the image out of my mind and got back to the grind.
This side assignment of Lydia’s was seriously infringing on my regular work, and I had a ton of research to catch up on. We’d just landed an account for a major chocolate manufacturer, and the marketing geniuses upstairs wanted the history of the Easter Bunny for some brilliant idea they had.
I was neck deep in pagan lore (I never knew Easter wasn’t celebrated in the United States until after the Civil War) when a knock on my door disrupted me.
In this day of cellular technology and e-mail, no one knocks on my door. So when it happened, I didn’t know what to do except to stare at it like the plywood had suddenly sprouted arms.
A head poked in. “Hi, Katherine. Are you busy?”
I frowned at Rebecca. I was at work—of course I was busy. “Did you need something?”
Rebecca slipped in and, since there was no place for her to sit, she closed the door and leaned against it. “How’s it going?”
“Okay.”
Rebecca was the slave—I mean assistant—for the VP of operations. She hardly ever talked to me, much less visited me in my closet/office. She’s one of those women whose mouth wouldn’t melt butter in the presence of men or other women more powerful than her—like Lydia—but who didn’t give the time of day to those deemed lower than herself. Ergo, me. The mere fact that she was here made me suspicious.
She smiled. “I heard you had a meeting with Lydia today.”
I smiled back. “That’s right.”
“So.” She adjusted her skirt, which was too short for the workplace, though I bet it got her a decent salary. “What did you guys talk about?”
“Some research she wants me to do for her,” I answered cautiously. I was no dummy—Rebecca was on a fishing expedition. I just didn’t know why. Why would anyone care if Lydia was jonesing for sperm?
“What kind of research?”
Did her skirt just ride up to show more of her legs?
I blinked my eyes a few times. And then I gasped mentally. She was flirting with me. First that bartender, and now Rebecca. What was it about me that suddenly had women coming on to me?
Maybe I was exuding some kind of pheromone. “Did you know the chemicals that attract us to other people are predominantly found in sweat?”
Her eyes widened. Uh-oh—I hoped she wasn’t getting turned on even more by my intellect. It
was
one of my most alluring features.
I needed to nip this in the bud before she got the wrong idea about me. “Rebecca, I went to this club the other night. The bartender there was really nice. You should go meet her.” I wrote down the name and address of the bar on a sticky note and handed it to her. “She’s a doll—you’ll love her.”
She looked down at the note with a puzzled expression. I smiled encouragingly at her. It couldn’t be easy being open about your sexuality, even in this day and age. People could be judgmental. I added what I hoped was an extra bit of compassion to my gaze.
She walked out of my office like she was astounded. Probably overwhelmed by my understanding.
BOOK: Project Daddy
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