This Matter Of Marriage

Todd threw up his hands in disgust. “Let’s drop it, all right? I butted in where I didn’t belong. You want to moon over Mary Lynn, for the rest of your life, then be my guest.”

Seven

Make Mine A Double

“D onnalee Cooper’s holding for you on line two,” Bonnie said. Hallie stared at the blinking phone. It wouldn’t help to put it off any longer. Her friend had a right to know—even to gloat.

“Hi, Donnalee,” she said with forced cheerfulness.

“You didn’t phone,” Donnalee accused. “What happened?”

“You don’t want to hear.”

“I wouldn’t have called if I didn’t. I haven’t got much time, either. I’ve got clients due in five minutes, so cut to the chase, will you?”

“Okay, then—gloat. This guy was a jerk. Big time. He wanted to investigate my family genes to make sure I was qualified to bear his children. When I told him I didn’t think we clicked, he made me pay for my half of the dinner. Then his car broke down on the freeway and I was stuck finding my own way home. To add insult to injury, I had to get my neighbor out of bed and borrow twenty bucks to pay the cabdriver.”

A lengthy pause followed her condensed version of the previous night. Hallie suspected Donnalee had covered the receiver with one hand to hide her laughter.

“Well?” she challenged. “Say something.”

“Okay,” Donnalee replied slowly. “Are you ready to invest in Dateline yet?”

“No.” Hallie was determined to pay off her credit cards, not add another two thousand dollars to the balance. “Besides, I have another date.”

“Who?” Donnalee—predictably—sounded skeptical.

“Bonnie’s uncle Chad.” Bonnie had mentioned him early in January, but Hallie had wanted to be at her best before agreeing to a date with him. “You know that old saying about getting back on the horse after you fall off? Well, I accepted a dinner invitation this very morning.”

“When are you seeing him?”

Hallie didn’t know what to make of Donnalee’s tone. It was a mixture of wonder and patent disapproval. “Soon,” Hallie said. “Monday night.” Actually she wondered how smart this was herself. Monday was only three days away.

Chad Ellis had sounded nice enough over the phone, and Bonnie had said he was her favorite uncle. Someone related to a member of her trusted staff seemed a safe bet—especially after the disastrous Marv.

“Did you go out with Sanford last night?” The change of subject was deliberate.

“Yes—and it was wonderful. He’s a dream come true,” Donnalee said with the same wistful note she used whenever his name was introduced into the conversation.

“Have you talked to him today?” Hallie didn’t know why she insisted on torturing herself.

“He sent me a dozen red roses this morning.”

“Roses?” Hallie was almost swooning with envy. While Donnalee was being courted and pampered, she’d been grilled for hours and then abandoned on the freeway.

“I’m falling in love with this guy,” Donnalee confessed. “Head over heels.”

“So am I, and I haven’t even met him.”

Her friend chuckled. “I wish you’d reconsider Dateline. Chad might be Bonnie’s uncle, but how much do you really know about him?”

“Just what Bonnie told me. He’s divorced, has been for five years. He sells medical equipment and is on the road quite a bit, but he’ll be back in town after the weekend. For a while, anyway.” She wasn’t sure if that was luck or fate. Their one all-too-brief conversation had taken place that morning. He sounded…interesting. Which, come to think of it, was the same word she’d used following her telephone chat with Marv.

“If you don’t call me Tuesday morning, I’ll track you down and torture the information out of you,” Donnalee warned.

“I’ll phone,” Hallie promised. No date could possibly be as awful as the one with Marv. Sheer chance assured Hallie that the odds of Chad’s being a decent date were good.

At this point she wasn’t even looking for Mr. Right. Mr. Almost Right would satisfy her nicely. If she’d learned anything from the experience with Marv—and she had —it was that she needed to lower her expectations. No Mr. Knight-In-Shining-Armor was going to gallop up to her front door. On her way home that evening, Hallie stopped off at the bank for cash. Her ATM card remained in her bottom dresser drawer, along with her credit cards—safe from temptation.

Wanting to put the task of repaying her neighbor behind her, Hallie headed directly for his condo after she parked her car. His lights were on and she assumed he was home, but it was Meagan who answered the door. “Hi, Hallie!”

“Hi, Meagan. Is your dad there?”

“Yeah. He’s in the shower. You can wait, can’t you?”

“I don’t actually need to talk to him.” She pulled the twenty-dollar bill out of her purse. “Would you give this to him?”

“Sure.”

“Give me what?” Steve strolled barefoot into the hallway, wearing jeans and an unbuttoned plaid shirt. A damp towel was draped around his neck, and his dark hair glistened with water. “Oh, hi, Hallie.”

“Hi.” She smiled weakly, embarrassed about their last meeting.

“Hey, Dad,” Kenny shouted, leaping off the sofa. “Hallie brought you twenty bucks. Let’s go out for pizza, okay?”

“Uh…” Steve hesitated.

Meagan’s eyes were as bright as her brother’s. “Can Hallie come, too?”

“I…can’t. Really.” Hallie looked over her shoulder at her empty condo, tempted to suggest she had places to go, people to meet. It would have been a lie. “I just wanted to repay the loan and thank you for coming to my rescue. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t answered the door.” Well, she would have managed—she would’ve retrieved her bank card from the bottom drawer and…But Steve had saved her time and spared her inconvenience. She’d been in no shape to go driving around with a seriously annoyed cabbie, looking for a bank machine.

“Can we go out for pizza, Dad?” Kenny asked again, his hands folded in prayerlike fashion. “Please, please, please?”

“I don’t see why not,” Steve relented, grinning. He turned to Hallie. “You’re welcome to come along. Actually, I wish you would. The kids will desert me for the video games the minute we arrive and I’ll be stuck sitting there with no one to talk to.”

She wavered. Even if she didn’t have any plans, she didn’t want to intrude.

“Please come!” Meagan urged.

“Sure,” Hallie said before she could change her mind. Although it wasn’t the thought of her empty condo or equally empty refrigerator that persuaded her. It wasn’t even Meagan’s invitation. It was the pizza. Pizza, loaded down with cheese, spicy sausage and olives. After nearly two months of exercise, after week upon week of eating lettuce and vegetables, skinless chicken and Dover sole, she deserved pizza. She’d walk an extra mile on her treadmill, but heaven help her, she wanted that pizza.

“I’m glad you decided to come,” Meagan told her when they arrived at the local pizza parlor, a five-minute drive away. To Hallie’s relief, Steve had taken his car—not his truck, which he’d left at work.

The place was filled with Friday-night family business, the noise roughly equal to that of a rock concert. While Steve stood in line at the counter to order their dinner, Hallie steered the kids toward one of the few empty tables.

Steve returned five minutes later with two soft drinks, a couple of beers and a pile of quarters. Kenny’s eyes lit up like the video games he loved and he reached forward to grab the coins. “Twelve quarters each,” Steve said, gazing sternly at his offspring. “And they have to last you all night. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Got it?”

“Got it.”

The quarters disappeared along with Meagan and Kenny.

Steve sat down across the picnic-style table from Hallie. She spread one of the red-checkered napkins on her lap, aware that it was taking her an inordinately long time to do so.

“It was kind of you to invite me,” she finally said, slightly uneasy at being left alone with Steve. To her surprise she found herself revising her earlier estimation of him. He was really quite good-looking. Funny she hadn’t realized that earlier. The fact that he’d been willing to help her out only added to the attraction.

“Hey, I appreciate the company. Mary Lynn and I used to bring the kids here once a month. Meagan and Kenny would like to come more often, but I feel stupid sitting by myself.”

“What about trying your hand at the videos?”

“Are you kidding? It’s an invasion of territory. None of the kids want me there. The one time I tried it I was banished and sentenced to sit out here with the rest of the parents.”

Hallie smiled. She’d half expected him to ask her more about her awful date and was grateful he didn’t.

They each talked about their jobs, which took all of five minutes. Their discussion of the weather took less than one. A not-uncomfortable silence followed before Steve spoke again.

“Listen, you can tell me to mind my own business, but why was a gal like you going out with a creep like that?”

She sighed. She might as well level with him, seeing that he’d already had her groveling at his front door in the middle of the night, needing a loan. “I guess you’ve gathered I’m trying to meet a man. I, uh, decided this was the year I’d get married.”

His head came up and his eyes narrowed. “Women decide this sort of thing?”

“Not all women,” she told him. “It’s just that I’m turning thirty in April, and—”

“Hey, thirty isn’t old.”

“I know, but I’m not really sure where my twenties went, if you know what I mean. I was busy, happy, working hard, and then one day I woke up and realized most of my friends were married, some for the second time. My dad recently died, and my younger sister just became a mother.” She struggled to explain. “Somehow, things changed for me. My goals. My feelings about what’s important in life. For years, I threw all my energy into my work—and now I want…more. I want someone to share it with.”

“So you figure marriage is the answer.”

“Something like that.” Hallie shrugged comically. “I’ve been dating since I was sixteen, and not once in all that time did I ever meet anyone like Marv. It’s appalling how slim the pickings are. You see, Donnalee made it look easy.” Maybe Donnalee was right; maybe she should reconsider Dateline.

“Is she the friend who stopped by your place a couple of Saturdays ago? The one with the long…the tall one?”

Men rarely had a problem remembering Donnalee. “That’s her. She found Prince Charming after one date.”

“You mean to say she isn’t married?”

“Not yet. She’s the person who suggested I sign up with Dateline. She plunked down her money, and first time out she met this fabulous guy. From everything she said, he’s wonderful.” Hallie couldn’t hide the wistful longing in her voice. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was married by summer.”

“Slim pickings,” Steve repeated, and Hallie wondered if he’d heard anything else she’d said. He became aware of the lull in conversation and cast her an apologetic look. “I was just thinking over what you said about available men. My ex-wife is starting to date and frankly—” he paused, grinning broadly “—it wouldn’t hurt my feelings any if she was to meet up with the joker you went out with last night. Maybe she’d be more willing to talk about the two of us getting back together.”

“You want to patch things up with your ex?”

Steve nodded, and his eyes held hers sternly, as if he anticipated an argument.

“I’m impressed.” In Hallie’s opinion, too many families were thrown into chaos by divorce. It did her heart good to know there were men like Steve who considered it important to keep the family intact.

Predictably, Meagan and Kenny arrived within seconds of the pizza. The biggest pizza Hallie had ever seen. Pepperoni, sausage, mushroom and black olive. Her favorite. For a while, there was silence as they all helped themselves to huge slices.

When they’d eaten their fill, Steve and Kenny went to find a cardboard container for leftovers. Meagan smiled at Hallie. “I’m glad you came with us,” she said again.

“I’m glad you asked.”

“Kenny and I like this place, but we don’t come often because Dad gets lonely without Mom here.”

It wasn’t the first time Hallie had noticed Meagan worrying about her father. Her tenderness toward him was touching, and Hallie squeezed the girl’s shoulders. “I hope your parents get back together,” she said.

“Kenny and I used to talk about it a lot.”

“Your father certainly loves your mother.”

“I know.”

But Hallie noticed that the girl’s eyes dimmed as she spoke, and she wondered what that meant.

“Mom’s dating Kip,” Meagan said. “Dad knows. Kenny and I weren’t going to tell him, but he knows. Mom is…I don’t know, but I don’t think she wants Dad back. She likes Kip and gets upset if we try to talk to her about Dad. She said that sometimes people fall out of love, and that’s what happened with her and Dad.”

Hallie was a little uncomfortable with these confidences. “Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to,” she said, wanting to reassure the girl and afraid she was doing a poor job of it. It was clear that Meagan loved both her parents, and like every child, wanted them together.

“I like that,” she said, biting her lower lip. “Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.” A smile brightened her pretty face. “I’ll remember that, Hallie. Thanks.”

Eight

Bachelor #2

I t was déjà vu all over again, as a baseball great—often quoted by her father—used to say.

Hallie sat across the linen-covered table from a man she normally would’ve crossed the street to avoid. “Sleazy” was the word that came to mind. Chad Ellis had hair combed from a low side part to disguise his baldness; it contained enough grease to avert an oil shortage that winter. He wore a suit coat with a bright floral-print shirt unbuttoned practically to his navel and no fewer than fifteen gold chains in various lengths. He looked up from the menu and flashed her a smile that said she was lucky to be with him. Hallie had trouble believing that her own assistant, someone who knew her and presumably liked her, could possibly believe she’d be compatible with this clown.

Hallie reviewed the menu selections, keeping an eye on price. If she was going to end up paying for her half of dinner, she wanted to be sure she ordered a meal she could afford.

Chad made his selection and set aside the menu. “How about a little something to loosen our inhibitions?” he suggested. The thought of loosening anything with this character terrified her. “Such as a double martini.”

Hallie had ordered a martini once, and the only thing worth remembering was the olive. “Uh, I’d like mineral water.”

He jiggled his eyebrows a couple of times. “Liquor is quicker.”

A blind person could read the writing on the wall with this one. She chanced a look in Chad’s direction and her stomach tightened. This creep was Bonnie’s uncle? Did her assistant honestly think she was that desperate?

The waiter arrived and Chad ordered a double martini, while Hallie chose a Perrier. They both ordered their meals—seafood pasta for her, steak for him. “You aren’t nervous, are you, cupcake?”

She gritted her teeth. “The name’s Hallie.”

“Women like pet names.”

“Not this woman.” Hallie was determined not to get into an argument with him until he’d paid the bill, but she wasn’t sure she’d last that long.

“Chad said you’re—”

“Chad said?” Then understanding dawned. “If you aren’t Chad Ellis, who the hell are you?” She was almost shouting.

“All right, all right. Damn, I should’ve known I couldn’t pull this off. Chad had to leave town unexpectedly and he asked me to fill in for him. My name’s Tom Chedders.”

“I was supposed to have dinner with Chad Ellis!” Her blood heated to the boiling point. That Chad had lacked the decency to tell her he couldn’t meet her and sent a stranger in his stead was all she needed to know about him.

“Don’t worry, you’ll have a good time with me,” Tom told her, glancing around to make sure they weren’t attracting attention. “Chad will vouch for me. We’ve been good buddies for a lot of years. We work for the same company.”

“Why didn’t you tell me right away who you were?”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t have dinner with me if I did,” he said. “Like I told you before, I’m an all-right kind of guy. No need to get bent out of shape, now, is there?” He flashed her a toothy grin.

Hallie wasn’t sure. “I would’ve preferred it if you’d been honest with me from the beginning.”

He did at least look mildly guilty. “You’re right, I should’ve, only…I didn’t want to give you an excuse to cancel. All I’m asking is that you give me a chance.”

Hallie sighed deeply. “Let’s be honest with each other from now on, okay?”

“Scout’s honor.”

“You were a scout?”

He shook his head. “Nah, they were a bunch of sissies, far as I was concerned.”

“I see,” she muttered, and gazed yearningly toward the front door. The evening could prove to be a very long one indeed.

“So you’re divorced,” Tom said, then thanked the cocktail waitress with a wink and a quarter tip. It took him a moment to turn his attention back to Hallie.

“No, Chad must have misunderstood. I’ve never been married.”

She’d say one thing for Tom. He had the most expressive eyebrows she’d ever seen. Right now, they rose all the way to his hairline. “Never married. What’s the matter with you?”

“The matter?”

“There’s gotta be a reason a pretty gal like you never married. Well, never mind, I’m going to take good care of you, sweetie pie. You and me are gonna have fun.”

Hallie sincerely doubted that. “The name is Hallie,” she reminded him, feeling the beginnings of a headache. “Not cupcake or sweetie pie or anything else.”

He gulped down his double martini and raised his glass in the direction of the bar to signal for another. “Whatever you say, darlin’.”

Hallie ground her teeth in an effort to maintain her composure. “How long have you been selling medical equipment?” she asked, striving to sound interested.

“I don’t. Now before you get all upset again, I didn’t lie. I work for the same company as Chad, only on the pharmaceutical side. I sell condoms.”

A lump of ice went down her throat whole. “Condoms?” she choked.

“Yep. We’ve got ’em in all kinds of flavors. Our flavor for February is cotton candy. We’ve got ’em in all colors, too.” He stared at her intently, and Hallie shuddered. “White’s the top seller, though. Can you believe it? Why would anyone choose white over candy-apple red?”

“I couldn’t tell you.” Hallie slid a guarded look in both directions, praying no one could hear their conversation. “Do you mind if we discuss something else?”

“Sure,” he responded amiably. “I do a brisk business in laxatives, as well. Won the top salesman award two years running.” He laughed as if what he’d said was uproariously funny. “Laxatives…running. Get it?”

Ha. Ha. Ha. “No,” she said flatly. Hallie’s head was starting to pound in earnest now, and she knew she couldn’t go through with this. Even if she ended up paying for a meal she didn’t eat, she couldn’t stand another minute in this man’s company. “Tom, listen, I’m really sorry, but this isn’t going to work.” She set her napkin on the table and reached for her purse.

He assumed a hurt little-boy look. “Not going to work? What do you mean?”

“I was expecting to meet Chad Ellis, not you.”

“Gee, I thought we were getting along just great. What’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.”

“In this instance I think it might be best to leave well enough alone.”

“But I thought, you know, that you and I would get together later.” He did that jiggling thing with his eyebrows again.

“Get together?”

“You know. In bed.”

“Bed?” She said it loudly enough to attract the attention of the maître d’. “Let me assure you right now,” she hissed, “that I’m not interested in going to bed with you.”

“That’s not what Chad said.”

“What did Chad say?” Bonnie was going to hear about this.

“That you were hot for a real man—and, baby, I’m the one for you. I can teach you things you ain’t never gonna see in a textbook. I haven’t been in the condom business all these years without learning a few tricks of the trade, if you catch my drift.”

His drift came straight off a garbage heap, in Hallie’s view. “I don’t know what to say, Tom. You’ve been misinformed. I’m not even mildly lukewarm as far as you’re concerned, and I’m not interested in any of your…lessons.”

“You mean you were willing to let me wine and dine you—but you weren’t gonna give me anything? I thought this was a bread-and-bed date.”

“What I’ll give you is money for my meal.” She pulled out her wallet and threw a fifty-dollar bill on the table. Her fingers tightened around her purse strap. “Good night, Tom. I wish you well.” She couldn’t in good faith tell him it had been a pleasure to meet him. It had been an experience she didn’t want to repeat. An experience she wasn’t likely to forget. No more blind dates, she swore to herself. It wasn’t only discouraging, it was getting too expensive.

“Good riddance. I’ll find a real woman, one who knows how to satisfy a man.” She noticed that he snatched up the money and shoved it in his pocket.

As Hallie walked out of the restaurant, she felt every eye in the place on her.

“Would you like me to call you a taxi?” the receptionist asked.

Hallie nodded, then with a sinking sensation, she checked to be sure she had enough cash to cover the fare. No, that fifty was all she’d had—and her pride wouldn’t allow her to run back to Tom Chedders and demand change. It looked like she was going to need another loan from Steve.

“Your cab will be here in a few minutes,” the receptionist told her with a sympathetic smile.

“Thanks.” She glanced toward the door, groaning at the thought that Steve might not be home. She’d better phone him first.

Not knowing his phone number, she called directory assistance. The way her luck was going, she was afraid he’d have an unlisted number. But the operator found it and Hallie released a sigh of relief.

Steve answered on the first ring in a lazy I’ve-been-sitting-here-waiting-for-your-call voice.

“Hi,” she said, deciding to ease into the subject of another loan, rather than blurting out the sorry details and throwing herself on his mercy.

“Hi,” he responded.

Hallie suspected he didn’t recognize her voice. “It’s Hallie, from next door.”

“Yeah, I know.” He chuckled. “Wouldn’t it be easier to stick your head out the kitchen window and yell?”

“I’m not at home. I went out on another blind date.”

“Not with that same jerk?”

“No—I found an entirely new jerk. I just walked out on him and I don’t have enough cash for the cab fare home. Could I take out another loan?” It humiliated her to ask, but she had no option. “This’ll be the last time it ever happens, I promise you.”

“Where are you?”

“Some restaurant—I don’t know where.” Dumb. Next time she’d pay attention. Next time she’d bring her own car.

“I’ll come and get you.”

“No.” That was the last thing she wanted. “I appreciate the offer, but I refuse to let you go to that trouble.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

The taxi arrived and Hallie rattled off her address, climbed into the back seat and closed her eyes. The urge to give in to tears was almost overwhelming.

Naive and stupid. That was the way men viewed her. Well, no wonder. You’d think she’d have learned something the first time around—but no, all her credit cards and her bank card were still at home. Though who would’ve guessed this would happen twice?

Steve’s front door opened the minute the taxi pulled up in front of her place. He loped across the lawn and took out his wallet.