Trouble in High Heels (5 page)

He hoped Allan would work out. He seemed like a nice enough guy, although a bit on the geeky side. He’d graduated from college several years ago and wanted to start his own business. He had no history of drug abuse, he wasn’t a Romeo, and his record was so clean it squeaked.

Jackson pulled into his new parking space at work and felt a surge of optimism as he opened the glass doors and strode toward his office. Allan met all of Lori’s qualifications. There was no reason prospect number one shouldn’t become Lori’s groom.

“Mr. James, Miss Granger is waiting on line one,” the receptionist told him.

Jackson ’s stomach fell. A call from Lori this soon wasn’t a good sign. “I’ll take it in my office.”

He pulled the door closed behind him and picked up the phone. “Jackson James.”

“Hi, Jackson, this is Lori.”

“I know. Is Allan still there? Did you already reach an agreement?”

She gave a nervous-sounding laugh. “I guess you could say that.”

Jackson felt an itchy irritation climb the back of his neck. “What kind of agreement?”

“Well, Allan had a little problem, and we’re just not going to be able to live together.”

“What could be wrong with him? The guy is perfect. No record, no bad habits.”

“He’s allergic to dogs.”

Jackson groaned.

“It’s a problem. It doesn’t seem like it should be that big a deal, but I keep Kenny with me all the time, and Allan is very allergic. I couldn’t put him through six years of asthmatic reactions. That would be too cruel.”

“Have you considered confining Kenny to part of the house so Allan could have a dog-free zone?”

Silence followed. “Kenny is going to be around a lot longer than any husband.”

B
achelor number two was Ian Thompson. He seemed nice and sufficiently bland. Although a college dropout, Ian was brilliant. He wanted money to fund his inventions. During the dinner she shared with Ian, Lori had difficulty following Ian’s thought patterns, but that wasn’t the major problem, and Lori dreaded telling Jackson why Ian wouldn’t work.

“He smells funny?” Jackson echoed, staring at her in disbelief the morning after the date. He set his cup of coffee and bagel aside. Darn, the food wasn’t going to be a good enough distraction. “You won’t marry him because he smells funny?”

Lori folded her hands in her lap and sat up straighter in the parlor chair. It might sound nuts to Jackson, but it was more important than he thought. “It’s an issue. Think about it. I’ll be smelling this man for six years.”

“He could change his soap,” Jackson said.

“It wasn’t soap or cologne. It was just him.”

“How did you get that close to notice?” he asked, lifting his dark eyebrow. Lori would swear Jackson ’s eyebrows could scold her and he wouldn’t even need to say a word.

“We sat next to each other in the same vehicle,” she explained. “It was easy to smell him.”

Jackson looked at her as if he would rather chew nails than the lovely spread her housekeeper had prepared.

“You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of smell. My sister Delilah chose her husband partly because she loved the way he smelled.”

“But you don’t want to love this man. You just want to marry him.”

“Yes, but I don’t like the way he smells, so I’m not marrying him.” He made it sound ridiculous. Lori frowned. He made nearly everything she said sound ridiculous.

He rubbed his hand over his face in exasperation. “How am I supposed to screen a guy for smell?”

“You can’t,” she said. “You’re probably not very sensitive to smell, anyway. You don’t know what works for me and what doesn’t, so I’ll do the scent test.”

“If you keep finding reasons not to marry the candidates I bring to you, I’m going to start thinking that you really don’t want to get married, after all,” he said, his gaze entirely too sharp.

“It would have been nice if one of your first two candidates had worked out, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to need to see more than two men before I feel comfortable getting married.”

“It’s going to be impossible for me to help you find a husband if you keep adding requirements to your list that can’t be quantified, such as smell,” he said as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world. As if
she
were the most ridiculous person in the world. “You’re creating a moving target and…”

Distracted by noises coming from the foyer, Lori didn’t catch the rest of Jackson ’s lecture. Hearing a voice that sounded familiar, she tilted her head and listened to a woman’s laughter. Shock and pleasure raced through her.

“Delilah,” she whispered, rising to her feet.

“What?” Jackson said, also rising.

Lori heard more voices. “She brought the kids!” Two seconds later, her sister Katie, also known as Priss, and Delilah burst into the room with their children.

“Sorry for the lack of notice,” Priss said, opening one of her arms for an embrace. With her other arm, she held a toddler on her hip. Lori immediately gave her oldest sister a hug and kissed the baby.

“Speak for yourself,” Delilah said. “The surprise was my idea. You’ve been holed up in your fortress too long,” she scolded, pulling Lori into her arms while her small children tugged at her legs.

Lori’s heart swelled and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, you two have no idea how great it is to see you.”

“Hold that thought,” Delilah said, eyeing the table of food. “Do you mind sharing your picnic with my little monsters?”

Lori smiled. Amazing how Delilah could infuse so much affection into the word
monsters.
Delilah, with the reputation of man-eater and flirt, had become supermom, and from the glow in her eyes, her sister was loving every minute of it.

Delilah tore off pieces of pastry and motioned for her small children to sit on the floor. She gave them plates with bits of pastry and fruit.

“And who is this?” Delilah asked in her best man-eater voice.

Lori whipped around to look at Jackson as he offered a grape to Katie’s daughter. Her gaze locked with his, and she felt a kick of panic and something else she couldn’t name. How could she explain Jackson? She refused to tell her sisters about her marriage plan. They would try to talk her out of it. Delilah and Katie were too sharp not to ask questions if she told them he was her accountant.

“I’m sorry. I should have introduced you, Jackson. These are my sisters and their children. Delilah,” she said, pointing to her middle sister. “And Priss-” She corrected herself. “Katie. This is Jackson James. He’s my, uh, my-new assistant,” she invented.

Glowering at her, Jackson didn’t appear to like her invention. He gave a curt nod of his head. “Hi,” he said simply.

Delilah gave a throaty laugh. “Is he your personal assistant? What kind of duties does he perform?”

Biting her lip at Delilah’s suggestive tone and Jackson ’s growing scowl, Lori stepped toward the door. “He’s the most efficient assistant I’ve had. He keeps me from double booking and double spending all the time,” she said. “Speaking of booking, Jackson, there was something I wanted to tell you before you left. Excuse us just for a moment,” she said to her sisters and urged Jackson out the door with her.

Reaching out, she grabbed his arm and led him down the hallway into the butler’s pantry and closed the door behind them.

“Assistant?” he echoed.

“I didn’t know what else to call you,” she said. “I don’t want my sisters to know about the marriage thing. They won’t understand.”

“Good to know someone in the family is rational,” he said in a dry tone. “Assistant,” he repeated, lifting the dark eyebrow again.

Lori resisted the urge to force the eyebrow back down. “I don’t want them to know about my finances, either,” she whispered. “They’ll feel like they have to rescue me, and I absolutely don’t want that. I want to handle this myself.”

“By pretending you’re not planning to marry for money and telling them your accountant is your assistant.”

Lori frowned at him. “It’s just for a couple of days. We’ll visit a children’s fun palace, eat out, then they’ll go home. You don’t even need to come over very often for the next couple of days. Just maybe once or twice. I’ll tell them you’re taking care of some errands or I let you have some time off.”

“You don’t have time to procrastinate, Lori,” he reminded her, making her stomach knot.

“I know, I know. You can use this time to set up several dates for me with different men. Maybe five,” she said, watching his eyes widen in surprise. Yep, that was the solution-she needed to keep Jackson busy during the next two days. “You’re a goal-oriented type. Five men. There’s got to be someone I can stand for several years out of five men.”

“As long as they smell okay and Kenny likes them,” he muttered.

“Yoo-hoo,” Delilah’s voice called from the hallway. “Lori-girl, my youngest needs a diaper change. Where would you like me to-”

Lori pushed open the door. “Would you like the blue suite on the second floor? There’s a connecting room with another bed, and we could put a crib in it if you like. Mabel keeps a few of the guest rooms ready all the time.”

“Your Mabel is a goddess,” Delilah said, craning to look beyond Lori’s shoulder. “Did I hear you talking? Did I interrupt something?”

“Not a thing.” She felt Jackson step behind her and bit back a groan at Delilah’s curious stare. “I was telling my assistant that I need him to take Kenny for his grooming appointment.” She turned and smiled at Jackson, avoiding the look of murder in his eyes. “I just need to give him the address.”

“Hasn’t he ever taken Kenny before?” Delilah asked.

“Did I mention that I’d just hired Jackson? He’s been busy putting my social and charity information on the computer.”

“Good for you. Jackson, do you have a college degree?”

He gave her nosey but charming sister a quick nod. “Business.”

“Business,” Delilah echoed. “Aren’t you overqualified for this kind of-”

Lori stifled a sigh. “Delilah, quit harassing my employees. This is a temporary job for Jackson. Since the hours are flexible, he can pursue other opportunities at the same time.”

“Such as?” Delilah asked.

“Delilah, stop-”

“Real-estate development,” Jackson said.

“Really?” Delilah said.

“Really?” Lori echoed, then cleared her throat at the skeptical expression on her sister’s face. “Of course. But it’s none of your business. So leave him alone. Jackson, could you wait just a sec while I take Dee upstairs to her suite?”

“No problem,” he said, but his eyes said there would be hell to pay.

Lori led Delilah to the guest room, thankful her sister’s little daughter was demanding her mom’s attention. At least she had a temporary reprieve from the inquisition. She walked back down the stairs and found Jackson waiting for her in the foyer with Kenny in one of his large hands. Her pet appeared totally content and safe. He flashed a business card at her. “I got this from Mabel. I’ll do the spa run this time, but don’t ask again.”

“I won’t,” she said. Besides, she rarely sent Kenny for grooming more frequently than every two weeks. Her sisters would be here only two days. “Thanks.”

He shook his head. “You’re digging one hell of a hole for yourself, Lori.”

She bit her lip. No, she wasn’t. She would make it all work out. She was determined. “Just set up those dates. I’ll surprise you.”

“You’ve already done that,” he said, but it didn’t sound like a compliment.

She smiled. “Save your flattery for a more susceptible woman.”

His lips twitched and his gaze skimmed over her, making her skin feel sunburned. “As if you need any flattery,” he said.

“You’re right. I don’t. But I don’t know anyone who doesn’t appreciate a sincere compliment or even just a positive comment every now and then instead of unrelenting criticism.”

He held her gaze for a long moment. “Okay, you are the most generous woman I’ve ever met. In fact, you’re too-”

“Nuh-uh,” she said, covering his mouth with her hand. “Stop there. That sincere compliment was about to become a criticism. Let me savor the moment,” she said in a half-mocking voice, but underneath it all, his words were a soothing balm over the cactus prickles he usually presented her.

Catching her hand with his, he flicked his thumb over the inside of her wrist where her pulse picked up. “You’re a tough one to figure, Lori. One minute, you’re asking your accountant to find a husband for you. The next, you’re sending cashier’s checks to three women in Tennessee, Virginia, and Oregon.”

Shock raced through her. She thought she’d been so careful to keep those payments concealed. “How did you know about those? I used cashier’s checks.”

“It’s my job to know.”

Her throat closed in panic. “I’m serious, Jackson,” she whispered. “Those women aren’t just counting on my support. They’re counting on me to keep their whereabouts a secret. How did you know?”

“Your trash,” he said.

Lori opened her mouth to scream, but her vocal cords were frozen. She’d thought she’d been shocked before, but she’d never expected this. “My trash,” she finally managed in a voice that sounded weak to her own ears. “My trash,” she repeated. “What were you doing in my trash?”

“Hey, you were going to be the biggest assignment I’ve ever been given. After a few of our discussions in the beginning, I needed to know what I was dealing with. Everyone’s trash tells a story.”

Lori felt violated. She felt so furious, so powerless that she wanted to slap him. “You’re a disgusting person. You call me manipulative and helpless, but you enjoy intimidating me, violating my privacy, and making me feel like crap. You’re disgusting.”

He shrugged. “Fine, call me disgusting. I call it survival. You forced Tilly into an early retirement. You’re not taking me down, too.”

Lori balled her fists. Oh, how she wanted to slap him.
Just once
, she thought. Her fingers itched. She lifted her hand slightly and eyed his jaw.

He must have read her intent when his gaze caught sight of her hand and the blood that was in her eyes, because his eyes widened like golf balls. “You really think you’re going to slap me?”

“I want to,” she said. “I want to, but that’s one of the differences between one who’s been raised to behave in a civilized, gentle manner and one who has not.”

“Is there a problem with the dog?” Delilah called from the top of the stairs. “You two look a little intense.”

Lori took a deep breath. “No problem. I was just repeating the instructions to Jackson. I’ll be right with you.” She glanced at Kenny, then at Jackson. “Hurt my dog and you’ll pay in ways you’ve never imagined.”

Jackson ignored her, dipping his head toward Delilah. “Nice meeting you,” he said.

“The pleasure’s mine,” Delilah returned in the same flirty voice she’d used to lay men at her feet for years.

Lori opened the front door and resisted the urge to slam the hard frame into Jackson ’s own buns of steel. Closing it carefully, she counted to ten and prayed that her color would return to normal. She could still feel her pulse pounding in her head.

“I like your taste in employees,” Delilah said, descending the stairs with her toddler on her hip. “He’s got a great body.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Lori muttered.

“Is that so?” Delilah asked, stepping in front of Lori. “Then why do you look like a ripe tomato? I saw him take your hand earlier.”

“It’s not what you think it is, Delilah,” Lori said. “Jackson and I don’t have a romantic relationship. He’s temporary.”

Delilah moved closer and touched Lori’s cheek with sisterly concern. “You could use a temporary diversion.”