Wanted: One Mommy (10 page)

For the rest of the weekend and well into the next week, Caroline was remarkably adept at keeping a safe distance
from the handsome man bent on delaying or halting his mother’s wedding.

By Friday, however, her many excuses had worn thin, and when Patrice called demanding to see Caroline at the home she shared with her son and granddaughter, she had no choice but to honor the request.

Dutch was on his way out when Caroline arrived.

He acknowledged Caroline and hugged Patrice, who wrapped her arms around her fiancé and rested her head on his chest.

And there it was, Caroline thought, the true affection she had been waiting to see. The deep, everlasting kind that pretty much guaranteed a happy marriage.

Slowly, the older couple drew apart. “I’ll be back in five or six hours,” Dutch assured.

Patrice gave him another lingering glance. “I’ll be waiting,” she said with a blissful smile.

Bounder lay alone in the front hall, a bereft expression on her pretty golden face. The E-collar was gone and so was the bandage. Caroline knelt to pet the golden retriever. “Hey, girl,” she said gently. “Your paw is looking lots better.”

“It will be fully healed in another week,” Patrice said. “In the meantime, she’s prohibited from going on walks or indulging in any rough-and-tumble play.”

“No wonder the sad expression on her face,” Caroline sympathized.

“That and the fact that Maddie’s still at school,” Patrice said. “She’s always a little blue when her best pal isn’t around.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Bounder usually waits for Maddie in the front hallway until she comes home again.”

Caroline told herself she was relieved not to see Jack’s
little girl. It was hard enough not getting attached to his family as it was.

“So—” Caroline gave Bounder a final pat and rose gracefully “—you said you wanted to see me to go over a few things?”

“I do,” Patrice said with a regal nod of her head. “But first, I have a favor to repay. I promised you I would create a signature perfume for you. And I think it’s time we got started.”

P
ATRICE LED
C
AROLINE
to her fragrance studio on the third floor of the Gaines home. The sunlit space featured big windows, luxurious champagne-colored carpeting and walls, and lots of glass shelving.

Patrice asked Caroline to take a seat at the counter. “We’ll start by identifying the top notes that you like,” Patrice said as she set out five different racks of bottled fragrances.

First up were the floral scents. Geranium, chamomile, gardenia and marigold. Caroline rated them on a scale of one to ten, liking geranium the most.

Patrice took notes on the selections, then got out another rack of top notes in the fruity class, for Caroline’s perusal. “So what did my son do last weekend to drive you away?”

Caroline paused in mid-sniff.

Patrice cut her off before Caroline could voice a denial. “Obviously something, since neither he nor I have seen you in person since then.”

He made love to me. And then disappointed me.
Which was, Caroline thought, the story of her life. She found the man she thought might be The One and then discovered he was not.

But this was not Patrice’s problem.

She gathered her wits and gave the older woman the professionally voiced apology she deserved. “I’m sorry if you have felt slighted. I had my assistant acting as messenger because it was a more efficient use of my time. I had two weddings to coordinate last weekend, one last night and another coming up this Sunday.”

Patrice absorbed that information. And didn’t buy it. She handed over a sample of black currant bud. “You don’t have to protect my son. I know how single-minded he can be when he is trying to protect someone. In this case, me. What I don’t know is
how
he’s attempting to do so at the moment. Except that, obviously, whatever he is up to somehow involves you.” Patrice handed her a sample of plum. “Obviously, you’re uncomfortable being put in the middle, and rightly so. Hence, I’m giving you a chance to confess to me, and get yourself out of the center of what is a very delicate family situation.”

Here it was, Caroline thought, her chance to come clean and turn Jack in to the bride, simply by confirming what the bride already sensed. Doing so
might
halt Jack’s sleuthing behind the scenes and save the nuptials from potential disruption. Certainly, it would bring immediate relief from the enforced duplicity for her, and end her moral dilemma, more or less by default. So why couldn’t she seem to do it?

Caroline and Patrice had just identified Caroline’s favorite top notes when a blast of music wafted up from the lower floors.

“Sounds like Maddie’s home.” Patrice smiled.

Caroline listened a minute and identified the crooner. “She likes Tony Bennett?”

Patrice shook her head. “I love Tony Bennett. So let’s just say she’s listened to a lot of his albums.” Downstairs the volume increased even more. “Ten to one, she’s twirling around, practicing her dancing for the wedding right now.”

That sounded like something she had to see, Caroline thought. Patrice obviously agreed. “Let’s go downstairs, shall we?”

“Love Is Here To Stay” filling their ears, the two women descended both flights of stairs. Caroline was not prepared for what she saw. Maddie, in her usual tomboy clothing and sneakers, her baseball cap on backward, dancing with her dad the way all girls her age learned to dance, by standing on her daddy’s feet.

Jack had his back to them. Maddie was holding on to him, one hand clasped in his, the other resting on his forearm. Head tilted back, she looked up at him with sweet
adoration. As they circled around, the tender devotion on Jack’s face was unmistakable, too.

Without warning, a lump the size of a walnut formed in Caroline’s throat. In the time she had worked as a wedding planner, she had seen dozens of daughters dancing with their dads. But it had never affected her like this. For the first time, she realized what she missed—growing up without a dad. Her eyes filled with tears. Embarrassed to be so overcome with emotion in front of a client, she muttered a quick aside to Patrice and rushed out the door, to her car.

Still trying to get a hold of herself, she stopped next to her BMW, her back to the house. If only she had a tissue out here, she thought, irritated, blotting ineffectually at the moisture running down her cheeks with the pads of her fingertips. But her tissues were inside her purse, which was inside Jack’s house. Ditto her car keys. So she couldn’t even open up the car to pretend to get something Patrice should see!

“Now my mom really thinks I’ve done something to drive you away,” Jack drawled.

Cringing at the astute observation and keeping her back to him, Caroline dabbed at a fresh wave of tears. She shot a look over her shoulder and saw they were alone. Which left her free to shoot back, “Besides trying to derail her wedding, you mean?”

Jack tensed. “Did you tell her I hired a P.I.?”

Another wave of emotion flooded Caroline’s heart. “No,” she choked out. And for the life of her, Caroline could not understand why. She and Jack had no commitment to each other, despite the fact they had made love once. Her true duty, in this and every wedding she coordinated, was to the bride and the groom. It didn’t matter who was footing the bill!

Jack stepped closer. His tall body relaxed. “Good.”

Trying not to notice the way his broad shoulders blocked out the sun, Caroline angled her chin at him and studied him beneath the fringe of her still-damp lashes. “That mean you’ve given up?” she asked hopefully.

His expression remained as implacable as the rest of him. “It means I’m waiting for all the facts to come in.”

“But you’ve got nothing else so far?”

“No,” Jack said. “But that doesn’t mean nothing will come up.”

Caroline knew self-confident men like Jack wanted to be proven right. But in this case, being proven correct meant hurting his mom and quashing her dreams.

“Back to why you were upset just now,” Jack said.

“It really isn’t important.”

“It is to me.”

Their gazes locked.

She still couldn’t bring herself to tell him.

Jack folded his arms in front of him. “And to my mother and Maddie, who will both have my hide if they think that I made you cry.”

Caroline sighed, rolled her eyes and gave in. No sense starting a family drama. Even as she started to speak, tears began to well. “Seeing you dancing with Maddie just now brought up some feelings I didn’t expect.”

Jack’s expression gentled as he waited for her to collect herself and go on.

Caroline crossed her arms in front of her, too. “I always told myself it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a dad. My mom might have been my only parent, but she was a terrific one. I figured that having one loving parent was a lot more than some kids had. And so much better than having two disinterested ones. So it’s never really bothered me. Not even during all the weddings I’ve planned.” Aware
Jack was listening intently, Caroline gestured inanely. “Seeing the fathers walk their daughters down the aisle and make their wedding toast and have that first dance was just all part of the pomp and circumstance. I couldn’t miss what I’d never had, right?” Caroline paused and bit into her quivering lower lip.

She swallowed, shrugged, briefly closed her eyes. “But then I walked down and saw you and Maddie and I don’t know…” With effort, Caroline lifted her eyes to Jack’s. “Seeing you with her, seeing you so tender…I realized what I’d be depriving my child of if I go the single mom route, too. And yet that is the only option open to me. So I just lost it.”

Jack studied her with a look that said,
You have other options, Caroline. You just don’t realize it yet
. But when he actually spoke, he said, ever so quietly, “Surely there were male influences in your life.”

“Teachers. Friends of the family. Friends of my mom who occasionally stepped in when a male presence was required.” Caroline compressed her lips in remembered disappointment. “It’s not the same as having a dad.”

Jack unfolded his arms and took her hand, prying it loose from her waist. “I see your point,” he soothed, giving her fingers a squeeze. “I don’t know what I would have done for Maddie if my mom hadn’t been around for the girl stuff all these years.”

Caroline allowed Jack to reel her in to his side. “You’ve been lucky to have her.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “You miss your mom, too.”

More tears welled. The lump was back in her throat. Allowing herself to be comforted, Caroline let her head fall to his chest. “Very much,” she admitted in a low, muffled voice. Being around Patrice made her long to have a mom
in her life again. Being around Maddie made her want to have a daughter.

Jack stroked her hair with all the tenderness he’d shown his daughter, and something else that felt even more potent.

Caroline drew back, sure if this embrace continued Jack would kiss her. And equally sure she couldn’t let him.

Patrice walked out to join them. Jack’s mother looked from one to the other, her shrewd glance missing nothing. “Everything okay out here?” she asked brightly.

That depended, Caroline thought, pushing away the vulnerability she felt whenever she was with him, on whether or not getting closer to Jack was a good or bad thing.

A
N HOUR LATER
, C
AROLINE
, Patrice and Jack were deep into a dilemma of another sort. “I just can’t make a decision on this.” Patrice threw up her hands after an hour spent reviewing video clips on the big-screen television in Jack’s family room.

“Maybe we should start by narrowing the field to DJ or live band,” Jack said, clearly exasperated his mother had not approved his top choices in either category.

“I can’t without seeing these people in person first.”

“Mom, the wedding is a week from tomorrow,” Jack said.

“This really needs to be done ASAP,” Caroline said, feeling a little desperate. “I had a hard time finding groups that didn’t already have a gig that weekend. Some of the ones I just showed you may already be booked.”

“Someone has to see them in person,” Patrice insisted again. She looked into the adjacent family room, where Maddie and Bounder were curled up on the floor, watching an episode of
Charlie and Lola
, a British cartoon about a responsible older brother and his funny little sister. “And
I’d feel better if I had more than one opinion. So perhaps the two of you should go.”

Jack looked at his mother as if she had lost her mind.

“That is completely unreasonable,” he said, keeping his voice low enough so only the three of them could hear. “Since you didn’t like my first choices.”

“Seeing something live and in person always makes the choice easier. And if you and Caroline both agree on either a DJ or a band, then I’ll know it’s the right choice.”

Jack had the stormy look the father of the bride usually got when his daughter was driving him to distraction.

Caroline held up a silencing palm. “Let me step outside a moment and make a few calls, see if any of them have a gig tonight or tomorrow.”

Silent, Jack scrubbed a hand down his face. He looked as though he were about to lose his mind.

Patrice smiled.

Caroline stepped outside on the deck into the spring sunshine. She had just finished talking to the last person when Jack joined her. “Well?” he said, looking no less grumpy.

Given the circumstances, Caroline really couldn’t blame him.

“One of the DJs has a gig tonight at a local bar, the other nothing until next Friday, the day before the wedding.”

“Well then, he’s out,” Patrice said, joining them, too.

“The two bands have weddings tomorrow evening. We can pop into the receptions and observe.”

Jack studied her as if he weren’t sure if she was a saint or a glutton for punishment. “You are serious about doing this?”

“It’s my job to make the bride happy.” Caroline paused, then, unable to prevent herself, added lightly, “What’s yours?”

W
HAT WAS HIS JOB
? J
ACK
wondered. To be a good son and go along with whatever his mother wanted, no matter how ill-advised? Or to protect her from a potentially disastrous decision?

“What time is the DJ on tonight?”

“He starts at eight and goes to closing,” Caroline said, copying the info for him on a piece of paper. She ripped it out of her notebook and handed it to him. “How about I meet you there at nine?”

Her handwriting was as beautiful as the rest of her. “I could pick you up,” Jack offered.

Caroline declined the offer with a small shake of her head. “I’ll meet you in Deep Ellum,” she said and then took off.

Dutch had not returned by six, so Jack had dinner with his mother and Maddie, then showered and changed. He headed for the trendy section of Dallas, where all the young single professionals gathered, many of them looking to hook up, some for the night, some for a lifetime. Jack was no stranger to the Dallas-Fort Worth night scene. A lot of business was conducted over dinner and/or drinks. He still felt oddly out of place as he parked and headed for the bar. More like a single guy on the prowl or better yet, the Tin Man in the
Wizard of Oz
…his dancing and dating moves all creaky from disuse, the place where his heart should be, empty…and suddenly in need of filling.

Not that this was a date, or anything close, he reassured himself as he walked through the renovated warehouse district, located just three blocks east of downtown Dallas. Past the throngs of fashion-forward, trendsetting partygoers, and the clubs featuring many of the newest bands, to the eclectic bar where a thank-God-it’s-Friday party was in progress.

The music of The Fray ringing in his ears, Jack made
his way through the crowd to the bar. Noting Caroline wasn’t there, he ordered a beer and sat down to wait.

He’d been there less than two minutes when she walked in. She’d put her hair up in a loose, sexy updo and she looked spectacular. The clinging knee-length, cap-sleeved black cocktail dress showed off her slender curves, her black strappy heels made the most of her curvaceous legs. The pink of exertion was in her cheeks, and silky copper-colored strands fell across her forehead, her cheek, the nape of her neck. She had a single black onyx pendant nestled in the
V
of her dress, between her breasts. Matching earrings adorned her ears. Most arresting of all was the happy, purposeful way she moved.

Spotting him, she glided closer and wedged her way in next to him. “So what do you think?”

That I might very well be falling in…something, Jack thought. He wasn’t sure it was love. Wasn’t sure he was capable of that anymore. But there was definitely something going on here, and it was a lot stronger and more complex than compatible pheromones and simple man-woman attraction.

It was his inability to take his eyes off her whenever she was close.

His incapacity to stop thinking about her when they were apart.

The fact he wanted to kiss her all the time. And if he were honest, do more than that to make her his woman, at least from a physical standpoint.

Bottom line, he wanted her in his life. Past the wedding…

And before…

“Earth to Jack!” Caroline persisted, coming even closer. “About the DJ? What do you think?”

Jack looked up, realized another song was now playing.
“I just got here,” he said. “I’m going to need to have to listen for at least half an hour, if not more, to decide whether it’s thumbs-up or thumbs-down. So, as long as we’re here…can I buy you a drink?”

She looked at the cold longneck in his hand. “Only if there’s food to go with it.”

“No problem,” Jack said. He leaned forward to tell the bartender, “We’ll have the mixed appetizer platter and…?” He turned to Caroline.

“A Shiner Bock, too.”

Seconds later, the bartender handed Caroline a brown bottle and a frosty mug. “It’ll be about fifteen minutes on the appetizers,” he said.

Jack pointed to a raised table in the corner. “We’ll be over there.”

He escorted Caroline to the table and held out the stool, which proved to be a tad difficult for her to step up into, even after she’d set the glass and bottle down. Hand beneath her elbow, he gave her a boost. “Thanks,” she said, blushing slightly.

“No problem.” He removed his hand from her soft skin.

“Too bad we can’t fast-forward to all the breaks in the music,” Caroline joked.

Who wanted to fast-forward? Sitting across from her in a lively bar on a Friday night was exactly where he wanted to be. But not sure she wanted to hear that just yet, Jack touched his fist to his chest. “Gotta take one for the team,” he joked.