Faking It

“I would love to visit with you.” She laughed in spite of herself.

Thomas had always been able to lighten her mood. Too bad Maggie hadn’t ever hooked up with him. He’d have made a better father to Erin and her sisters than any of the men who had drifted in and out of her mother’s life.

His smile warmed her as he led her back to the brightly lit kitchen. He motioned her to the table and headed for the coffeepot. “I was just taking a break.”

“What are you working on?”

“Stopped by to finish some lighting in Maggie’s new studio. It helps her…the light is…getting to be a problem.”

Her throat tightened. She still struggled with accepting the fact that her mother was slowly going blind. “So how is she?”

“She’s a trooper, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come. I don’t want to interrupt your work.”

He placed a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down across from her with his own. “Nonsense. Take a break with me. You didn’t come here to talk about Maggie.”

Guilt swamped her. “I do want to talk about her. I’m concerned about her, Thomas.”

“She knows that, but she doesn’t want you to be. She’s adamant that we all keep the status quo. She’s even continuing to paint. We’ve set up her studio so she can find everything by feel when the time comes. The other day she tried a practice run with a blindfold.”

Erin’s stomach twisted at the thought of Maggie painting blindfolded. “She can’t be serious about continuing with her painting. Not after…”

“She is.” He shrugged. “At least for now. I think it’s important to support her in whatever she’s doing to deal with this.”

“But it seems so…hopeless.”

“Not to your mother, and the last thing she needs from any of us is discouragement.” He poured sugar into his cup. “The best thing you can do for her is to not show her how worried you are.”

She nodded.

“So?” He leaned toward her. “I live close enough that I know you girls show up on your aunt’s doorstep when you have some trouble to chew over with her.”

“Compared to Maggie, how can I complain?”

“I’m all ears.”

“I’m having a little trouble with all this. You know, the healing stuff, the McClellan gift.”

“You mean the sexual healing.”

Heat tinged her cheeks. “Is it wrong for me to want to have a normal life? To not feel that I need to have a man around?”

“I’ve heard some of this—about your plan to move off on your own and give up men. They’re all in an uproar, aren’t they?”

“I knew when I told Nikki and Tess that I was moving word would spread.”

“You didn’t need that big place all to yourself. Makes sense. When’s the big day?”

“Tomorrow. I don’t have much. It shouldn’t be too bad.” She sipped her coffee. “Nikki and Tess dragged me out to pick up men last night. It was a total disaster.”

“You really want to be all on your own?”

“Yes, I don’t want a man in my life. I don’t need one.”

He shrugged and drank from his mug. “I think a girl’s entitled to date or not date. They’ll get over it eventually.”

“Exactly. I choose if and when I date, just like I choose whether or not to work with any client in particular.”

“Do you pick and choose your clients?”

Her stomach tightened. Why had she mentioned that? “Well, I’ve always been grateful for any clients that come my way. I’ve never turned one down…until yesterday.”

“You turned down a client?”

“He wanted a consultation on feng shui. I don’t do that anymore. I have the right to pursue a more conventional career, don’t I?”

“Of course you do, Erin, but since when did you decide that you didn’t like feng shui anymore?”

“Since I decided to get serious about establishing myself in interior design. My business has really picked up.”

“Enough for you to turn away a potential client?”

“I’m making more, but I seem to be spending more, too.” She shifted in her seat. “He can find someone else to help him.”

“Sure he can, but no one does feng shui like you do, hon.”

“Like I did.”

“So you plan to live a conventional, man-free life.”

“Exactly. What’s the problem with that? What can I do to get my family to respect my decision?”

“I don’t know.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Your personal life is one thing, but it seems a little unconventional, not to mention unprofessional, to turn down a paying customer. It’s not the way I’d advise you to run your business.”

He was right. It was bad business to turn away a customer, especially during a lean month. Yet the thought of working with Jack Langston gave her a distinctly disquieted feeling. She was just too attracted to the man.

Thomas leaned back and cocked his head. “It’s a guess, but I’d say this potential customer was just such a young man to test your new no-man vow.”

She stared at him a moment. How could he possibly know? “I never said I wouldn’t have men as clients.”

“But you turned down this man.”

“He wanted feng shui.”

“Is that all he wanted?”

“Yes. He didn’t come on to me, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Her cheeks warmed. Jack may not have come on to her, but her gut told her he had wanted to.

“But you wanted him to, and that was a problem for some reason.”

“I did not.”

“Oh, okay, my mistake.” He carried his cup to the sink. “Would you like more coffee?”

“No, thank you.” Erin stared at her half-finished cup. “I’d better let you get back to work. I need to head to the shop myself.”

“Okay, sweetheart, I’ll let Sophie know you stopped by.”

She moved beside him. “Thanks, Thomas, I enjoyed the coffee.”

“Don’t be afraid to embrace who you are, Erin. You come from an extraordinary family. Each of you is very different and you should accept and celebrate those differences, just like you should celebrate the similarities.”

A short laugh burst from her. “Right, like I have so much in common with the rest of them.”

“I’m betting you have more in common than you realize. Maybe it’s just tucked away a little bit, but it’s there.”

“You think so?”

He walked her to the door. “Yes, I do. No reason not to.”

“Thanks, Thomas.” She kissed his cheek as he held the door. “Tell Maggie I’ll give her a call.”

She headed to her car, his words rolling through her mind.

I’d say this potential customer was just such a young man to test your new no-man vow.

He’d hit the mark. Maybe if she had a little more in common with her family then she wouldn’t have to close herself off from romantic relationships.

She slipped behind her wheel and sighed. Her lack of the gift was one thing she couldn’t bring herself to celebrate. It wasn’t fair. Nikki had Dylan and Tess had Mason. Even Maggie had Thomas in a way.

Erin glanced at the house. Why was it that Thomas and her mother had never hooked up romantically? The two were like intricate pieces to a puzzle. One would never be whole without the other.

Thomas loved her mother. Everyone knew that, probably even Maggie. Was that why she’d never encouraged a sexual relationship with him? Did she fear that once they became lovers she would be destined to move on and leave him behind, the way she had with all her past lovers?

The thought comforted Erin in an odd way. Was it possible she could have a Thomas in her life? She pulled out Jack’s card from her wallet.

Could Jack be her Thomas?

She pressed her hand to her face. One thing was for certain—her bottom line was suffering too much to make this decision. She’d been foolish to turn down a paying job.

Simple, clear fonts accentuated Jack’s card. Information-Security Investigator. Some kind of techie, no doubt. She stared at the number until it blurred. Would he be willing to settle for a standard interior-design job? She’d never know if she didn’t call him.

With her heart thudding, she carefully pressed his number on her cell phone. His phone rang once, twice, then a third time. His soft baritone vibrated along the line, caressing her ear. “Jack Langston here.”

“Jack, good afternoon, this is Erin McClellan. You stopped by my design studio yesterday.”

“Erin,” he said, his voice lightening. “What a happy surprise. How are you?”

Her pulse pounded in her ears and she was sixteen again, asking Dale Stone to the Sadie Hawkins dance. “I’m doing well. Did I get you at a good time?”

“Perfect, I’m on my way to a meeting.”

“Oh, what kind of meeting?” She rolled her eyes at her own evident stalling.

“The usual. Helping some corporate information-security team figure out how their system was breached. They usually have their own protocol in these cases, but they tend to miss things. That’s when they call me.”

She bit her lip. “Oh, that must be really interesting.”

“I enjoy it. Keeps me busy.”

She nodded, at a loss as to how to continue. She was an idiot for calling.

“So not that I’m complaining, but I’m sure you have a reason for this call.”

“Yes, of course.” Her face warmed. “I just…I was thinking I may have been…” She inhaled a deep breath, then took the plunge. “My schedule has cleared some and I was wondering if you still needed a designer?”

A long silence hummed across the phone. She frowned. “Jack?”

“Hello, Erin? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I hear you.”

“Sorry, I lost you for a minute.”

“Oh, I was saying that my schedule has cleared—”

“Yes, I heard that. That’s great news. I would love it if you could work me in.”

“Great.” She let out a shaky breath.

“I respect your feelings in that you favor interior design over feng shui and I think we can work something out.”

“I’m sure we can.”

“How about this? We’ll start with a more traditional theme, one in keeping with your interior-design methods, but you’ll work in the feng shui as you see fit. Surely that can be done, can’t it?”

Her stomach tightened. “I suppose it could.”

“My guess is that the two would complement each other.”

She pursed her lips. “They’re really two different philosophies.”

“Which is what makes you such a unique choice. I can’t imagine where else I could find a designer who is also first in the fine art of feng shui.”

“Not everyone has the same appreciation for it. I always felt it was important to strengthen my training with the more well-known aspects of interior design.”

“And it looks like I’m to benefit. I’ll have the best of both worlds.”

“I wouldn’t claim to be the best, Jack, but I will give you my best effort.”

“Which is all it takes to be the best.”

She sat a moment in silence. Had she let him talk her into giving him a feng shui consultation? “I’ll e-mail you the standard contract.”

“That would be really great, Erin. I can’t tell you how excited I am that you’ve agreed to take me on as a client.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Great,” he said. “Why don’t you come by my condo, say around seven?”

“Tonight?”

“Yes, is that okay? I’m anxious to get started.”

She paused for a few seconds, assessing. “I’ll be there.”

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