Third Time's a Charm (18 page)

She really should work tomorrow night, since nights seemed to be the only time she was able to get anything done on her project. But technically, the date would be research for her project. Sort of.

“I’ll be ready to go at seven thirty.” She managed a thin smile. “Why don’t you pick me up at my apartment this time?”

She gave him directions, then slid into the seat. He stood watching as she backed out of the parking place and headed for the exit.

He hadn’t even tried to kiss her goodnight. Her stomach was in such turmoil from the thought of going through those pictures with him tomorrow night, Tori couldn’t tell if she was relieved or disappointed.

10

When Ryan pulled into the parking lot of Long’s Hardware and Building Supply Wednesday morning, he was only mildly surprised to see Allie’s car already waiting. He’d figured she would come by again this morning and try to pry the blow-by-blow details of their date out of him. But then the passenger door opened and Joan climbed out. Uh oh. He was about to be tag-teamed.

Dressed in gym shorts and running shoes, Joan approached his car while Allie got the baby out of the backseat. Ryan turned the engine off and eyed her through the window. Joan was a nice girl, easygoing and easy to talk to. But at the moment she wore the same eager expression as her older sister, and it made him want to lock the doors and run for cover. Instead, he resolutely got out of the car.

“Hey, Joan. You’re out early this morning.”

“Allie and I go to the gym together a couple of days a week before I go to work.” She fell in step beside him as he headed for the store. “We thought we’d drop by and see how it went last night.”

Okay, the gym was right down the road, so that was at least a believable excuse.

“It went fine.” The doors swept open at their approach, and Allie joined them as they entered. “We had a good time.” He spared a fleeting hope that they’d settle for “a good time,” but there was zero possibility of that. They’d want every tiny insignificant detail.

“And?” Allie looked like she’d just been handed a shovel and told to dig diamonds out of a pile of sand. He recognized that relentless determination from the women in his own family and sucked in a resigned breath.

“I took her flowers.”

“Gerbera daisies?”

He nodded, then scowled at Allie. “You could have told me that was a kind of flower and not a color.” The look they both gave him bordered on pity, so he went on. “She seemed to like them.”

“And you picked her up at her office, right?” Allie asked.

Sheesh, if she already knew the answer, why make him repeat it? He stooped to pick up a gum wrapper on the floor, trying to decide if he could throw them out of the store. No, probably not. His mother’s lessons were too deeply ingrained to allow him to be rude, especially to women. Even if they were busybodies.

He straightened and forced a smile. “That’s right. At eight forty-five, like I promised.”

“Good. Tori likes punctuality.” Joan nodded, encouraging him to continue.

An image of Tori coming to meet him as he stepped off the elevator rose in his mind. “She looked amazing.”

“What was she wearing?” Allie shifted the baby to her other hip.

“A dress.” They both waited, their expressions demanding more. “Uh, a red dress. And shoes.”

“Was it sleeveless, scooped neck, hem below the knee, with a belted waist?”

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s the one.”

Allie turned to Joan. “I was with her when she bought that dress. She looks great in it.” She faced Ryan again. “Go on.”

Ryan rubbed his forehead. “Uh, there was a guy there. Someone she works with. Mitch Somebody.”

Joan pursed her lips. “The one I told you about,” she said to Allie.

“He was still there at almost nine o’clock last night?” A line of concern creased the skin between Allie’s eyes. “That’s not good.”

“It’s not?” Ryan half turned away from them to straighten a rack of lug nuts, his thoughts tangling into a knot. He’d known there was something about that guy he didn’t like.

“Don’t worry.” Joan placed a hand on his arm. “We’re on your side.”

Allie’s look became fierce. “Yeah, that guy doesn’t stand a chance.”

My side?
There were sides being taken all of a sudden?

Of course, if sides
were
being drawn, he definitely wanted Allie and Joan in his camp. They may be busybodies, but they were also insiders.

“So, you took her to deSha’s, like we discussed?”

He glanced at Allie. “No, she wanted to go to Maguire’s because of that big project she’s working on.”

Both of them looked impressed at that news, which lightened his mood a shade.

“Maguire’s. Wow.” Joan folded her arms, nodding with satisfaction. “Nice move, Ryan.”

He started to relax when Allie gave him a stern look. “Don’t get cocky. We have to plan your next move.”

“Actually, the next move is already planned.” Both sets of eyebrows arched. Ryan shoved his hands into his pockets. “She asked me to go with her tonight to check out the location for Maguire’s new restaurant.”

“She asked you?” Delight colored Joan’s tone.

When he nodded, Allie raised her hand toward her sister for a high-five. He almost laughed at the glee on their faces.

“I think you two are happier than me.” He didn’t quite manage to filter a hint of distrust out of his tone.

Allie zeroed in on it. “We just want what’s best for our sister.”

His chest swelled out. “And you think I’m what’s best for Tori?”

“You’ll do in a pinch.” Joan punched him lightly on the shoulder, grinning. Then she sobered. “Seriously, she spends too much time at work. We don’t want to see her end up like that boss of hers, with her whole life revolving around her job.”

“And besides, we know you’re a Christian.” Allie settled the baby on her other hip. “We’d rather see her with you than with someone like that Mitch guy that we don’t know anything about.”

The store’s phone rang, and Ryan turned toward the counter, but Gary, the owner and his boss, emerged from the stock room and beat him to it.

“We’d better let you get to work,” Joan said.

Allie nodded, but grabbed his arm for a parting piece of advice. “No flowers this time. You don’t want to look like you’re buttering her up or anything. Just be fun and relaxing.”

Ryan shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable. Fun? Relaxing? Maybe his suggestion about those pictures wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“Hey, Ryan.”

He turned toward the sales counter to find Gary holding the phone receiver toward him. “It’s your mother.”

Great.
Gary was probably wondering if he was going to get any work done at all today, or spend the whole time on personal business.

Allie threw him a parting threat as she followed Joan out the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow and find out how it went.”

With an apologetic grimace at his boss, Ryan took the receiver. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hi, honey. Loralee and I were just sitting here having a cup of coffee between chores and she was telling me about your date last night. How did it go?”

A low groan rumbled in his throat. “Mom, I can’t talk right now. I’m at work.”

Her voice became muffled as she spoke to someone in the room with her, probably covering the phone with her hand. “Says he can’t talk right now.” He heard Loralee in the distance, but couldn’t make out her words, then Mom spoke to him again. “At least tell us if you had a good time.”

“Yes, we had a good time.”

“And are you going out with her again?”

He heaved an audible sigh for her benefit. “Yes, I am.” He wasn’t about to go into the details twice within a ten-minute period.

“Good. Well, I want you to ask her over here for lunch on Sunday so your father and I can meet her. Loralee says she’s a real pretty girl.”

Ryan was aware of Gary standing at the end of the counter, not exactly watching him, but obviously listening. He turned his body slightly and lowered his voice. “Mom, I am not going to bring her out there for your inspection. Besides, I happen to know she has dinner every Sunday with her own family.”

“Dessert, then. I’ll fix a nice peach cobbler, and your father can churn some ice cream. And I promise to leave my magnifying glass in the desk drawer.”

In the background he heard Loralee say, “Tell him the boys have something to give her. A present they bought with their own money.”

“Did you hear that?” Mom asked.

“I heard.” The doors slid open and a customer came into the store. Ryan straightened. “I’ve got to go, Mom. I have a customer.”

“Alright, honey. You let me know about that cobbler. Love you.”

When Ryan replaced the receiver, he turned to find Gary staring openly at him, his lips twisted into a grin. “Had a date last night, didja?”

Ryan eyed his boss warily. “You’re not going to cross-examine me about it, are you?”

Gary’s eyes went round, and he held his hands up. “Not me.” His grin deepened. “’Sides, all I have to do is stand around and listen. You got women coming out of the woodwork to do the job for me.”

When Tori stepped off the elevator at seven fifty-eight Wednesday morning, Fran was just getting to her desk.

“Good morning.” Tori started to sweep past.

The receptionist’s keys jingled as she unlocked her desk and placed her purse in the bottom door. “How was the date?”

Tori paused. “How do you know I had a date last night?”

Tapping a sparkly tipped finger on her chin, Fran said, “Let’s see. One, you brought clothes and makeup with you to work yesterday. Two, your sister told you to ‘have fun’ before she left.” She grinned. “And three, Mitch told us yesterday afternoon.”

Tori rolled her eyes. Mitch was a worse gossip than any of his female co-workers. “I should have known. No secrets in this office.”

“None at all.” Fran seated herself and pressed the button to turn on her computer. “So, did you have fun?”

“We had a nice time.” Tori left quickly, before Fran could question her further. She’d just as soon not spread it around that she’d allowed her job to infiltrate her date by going to Maguire’s last night. No sense giving Mitch anything else to needle her about. Or any ideas for market research.

She took the long way around the office so she could swing by the small break room and grab a cup of coffee. Rita always got to work before the sun came up and started a pot brewing. Tori doctored hers with diet sweetener and hazelnut-flavored creamer, and headed for her cubicle, stirring the light brown liquid with a wooden stir-stick.

When she rounded the corner to her cubicle, she jerked to a stop in the doorway. It took a moment for the sight that greeted her to register on her uncaffeinated brain.

While she stood gaping, her cube-neighbor Diana came to stand beside her, grinning widely. “You were either a very good girl,” she said with a nudge, “or a very bad girl, but very good at it.”

Tori felt heat gathering in her face as she looked at her desk. On the corner sat Ryan’s bouquet of Gerbera daisies. But in the center stood a tall crystal vase absolutely overflowing with dozens of the rainbow-colored blooms, interspersed with colorful roses and baby’s breath.

Diana’s voice held a giggle. “I don’t know who your date last night was with, but he sure did want to impress you.”

After she left, Tori stood for a moment, staring at the flowers. They were beautiful, of course. But so many of them! There was only one person she knew who would go for such an ostentatious display. And his motive sure wasn’t to please her, but to make a statement.

She crossed to her desk, tossed her purse on the chair, and searched for a card among the abundance of blossoms. The heady scent of the roses threatened to woo her into complacency, but then she plucked out the card.

“You won’t see many of these on a plumber’s salary.”

The handwriting was unmistakably Mitch’s. Her fingers itching with irritation, Tori ripped the card in two and tossed the pieces into the trash. What arrogance! She didn’t think for a minute he gave her flowers to please her or impress her. No, he just wanted to one-up Ryan. And in doing so, he proved himself to be the jerk she’d known he was all along. She picked up the vase—which was nice, she had to admit—and marched out of her cubicle.

Diana looked up as she passed her doorway. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking them to the break room, where everyone can enjoy them.”

“But why?”

Tori raised her voice to be heard by everyone in the office. She had no idea if Mitch had arrived at work yet, but even if he hadn’t, someone would relay her reason. “I can’t stand to be in the same room with them. Roses make me sneeze.”

Well, at least the first part was true.