An Eligible Bachelor
Geneva gave him a reluctant nod and taking Jacob’s hand, they followed him in through the garage. As they went, he explained that the two apartments had been added by his parents when he was a teen. “Your place was occupied by my grandmother after she’d broken her hip. That way, she could live independently, but it was close enough to allow my parents and me to check on her every day.”
Just as Geneva was now doing for his younger brother.
“Was Sean’s apartment originally for your other set of grandparents?” she asked.
He grinned as he entered the den and unlatched the connecting door between their residences. “It was for me. When I was seventeen, I had such an active life, with people coming and going all the time that it was distracting to the rest of the family. So when they built the apartment for Nana, they had the contractor do one for me as well.”
Geneva could feel her eyes grow large at his revelation, and she tried to squelch her reaction. It wouldn’t do to have her eyes pop out, right here in her landlord’s house. Even so, it was a shock to discover that his proclivities had started at such a young age…and that his parents had condoned it.
In an article in the local newspaper last year, he’d been named the town’s Most Eligible Bachelor. The author of the article had used words such as playboy and rake to describe him.
And then it had referenced another equally dubious distinction in which the mayor had proclaimed her landlord Bachelor of the Year and presented him with a gold pin. Geneva wondered if that was the same pin he wore on his collar and touched frequently as if it was some sort of lucky charm.
This information she’d regrettably discovered only after she’d signed the lease. If she’d known of his social standing beforehand, she wouldn’t currently be worrying that someone might have seen her enter his house. In fact, she’d be living somewhere else altogether.
One thing was for certain. If she had gone elsewhere, her surroundings wouldn’t be nearly as beautiful, nor would the place be as affordable. And she doubted she’d be able to save for a house of her own…a dream Les had trampled before their divorce.
As it was now, her modest apartment, located smack in the center of Kinnon Falls’s most exclusive residential community, overlooked a postcard-beautiful lake with a lush green golf course beyond it. To the left, about a ten-minute walk away, the country club and gardens created the perfect setting for outdoor parties and receptions. So far, she and Jacob had seen two such parties, their Japanese lanterns twinkling beneath a star-studded sky.
Releasing the latch on the door connecting their living quarters, Wade gave a push, but something on the other side refused to give. Casting a knowing glance at her, he stated rather than asked, “You added another lock, didn’t you?”
Of course she did! As the owner of the Country Club he might be the most successful businessman in Kinnon Falls, and he might have his pick of any of the area’s most influential society women, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Not that he’d be interested. Even so, she had her own reputation to consider.
“Gotta go!” Jacob reminded her with renewed urgency.
“It’ll take me a few minutes to climb through your window and unlock your new security hardware.” He pointed past her. “You can take him down the hall to the first door on the right.”
As she took her son through the house, she noted with relief that the portion of the dwelling she saw seemed very ordinary. Nothing gave testimony to the wild life her landlord was reputed to lead. No beaded curtains, overly large mirrors, mood music or other evidence that this place might serve as a seduction palace. The decor was masculine and free of frills but tastefully elegant with its heavy rosewood furniture and Oriental rugs. And, for a bachelor’s place, the area was surprisingly neat. The only thing that stood out to her was the pinball machine that commanded one corner of the den.
They returned a few minutes later to find Wade standing beside the open door. The amusement in his green eyes told her what he’d found even before he spoke the words.
“You added a slide lock and a chain?”
She squirmed under his perusal, anxious to get back to the sanctuary of her apartment and put the closed door and three locks between them. “One can never be too careful these days.”
“So true,” he said as if confirming that she had reason to be wary of him. Well, at least he didn’t pretend to be something he was not. “Which brings me to the problem of your getting in and out of your place.”
Reaching into a cut-glass dish on the coffee table, he withdrew a couple of chocolate candies, handed one to Jacob, and offered the other to her. When she refused, he gave that one to Jacob as well. Her son smiled and promptly expressed his thanks by sitting on his benefactor’s Italian-leather loafer while he removed the paper. Geneva started to say they hadn’t had dinner yet, then decided to let it slide this time. With any luck, they wouldn’t have much contact with each other after this.
“My golf pro knows a lot about birds. I’ll check with him to see if we can safely move the nest to a more convenient location.” He reached into his hip pocket, pulled out a wallet with a familiar designer logo and retrieved a key from it. “In the meantime, you can use my spare key for access to your place.”
Geneva took a step back, holding her hands up, palms facing outward. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary.” At the moment, she didn’t have another solution, but she was hopeful that if she gave it enough thought she could come up with something.
His hand dropped to his side, fingers gripping the key tightly. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
She was certain the offer was made out of generosity and concern for her and Jacob—at least, she hoped so. But she didn’t want to offend him further than she already had by confessing her fear that his reputation might taint her own.
“You lead a busy life,” she said at last. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with your, uh, entertaining.”
“You’re in luck,” he said, pushing the key toward her once again. “I only hold my orgies every other month. This is my month to rest up and study the videos.”
Before she could stop herself from reacting to his outrageous statement, Geneva felt her mouth drop open. Recovering as well as she could, she said, partly to assure herself, “You’re just teasing me.” Even so, she felt it necessary to refuse the proffered key. When he didn’t crack a smile, she added, “Aren’t you?”
Wade frowned. He couldn’t blame her for believing the things she’d heard about him…hell, he’d intentionally started some of those rumors himself.
With other women, he felt relief upon seeing their expressions of wary unease. His dubious reputation helped keep them at a safe emotional distance. When they accompanied him to galas, social functions and charity benefits, they did so with the full knowledge that he was a for-the-moment kind of man. They made no demands on him and held no expectations beyond the evening’s events. If he was lucky—and he often was—he managed to get them to share their carefully guarded assets. And when they did, they gave willingly, expecting nothing in return. And he liked it like that.
But that same wariness clouding Geneva’s normally bright, open features seemed out of place on her. Something told him it was a maternal reaction…a reaction borne of concern for her son more than for herself.
For the first time in many years he found himself wanting to shatter the illusion he’d so carefully crafted. But he couldn’t do that, couldn’t expose his true self, especially not to a home-and-hearth kind of woman like Geneva. The stakes were too high for him to let her see the person he kept hidden away from public scrutiny. If he let down his guard, he might find himself wanting what he’d been denying himself ever since…
Wade gritted his teeth. There was no use mulling over the past or the probability that it might be repeated for him in the future. But despite all this, he couldn’t stop himself from proclaiming, “I’m not as bad as you think. I even go to church on a fairly regular basis.”
The furrow between her eyebrows disappeared, and a broad smile spread across her face, forming dimpled brackets on either side of her mouth. “Really? I’ve been looking for one in this area. Jacob and I would love to go to your church on Sunday.” She removed a rumpled tissue from her skirt pocket, wiped the chocolate from her son’s hands and drew him toward the door Wade had unlocked earlier. “Perhaps you could introduce us to some of your friends.”
Wade felt like a bobcat treed by a Chihuahua. Feeling cornered and scared, and a little foolish that such a tiny woman could elicit these emotions in him, he contemplated all the trouble that had arisen since she’d moved in. First, she’d sent his libido into overdrive despite the fact that she embodied every quality he tried to avoid in a woman. Then, thanks to her door wreath that spelled out an open invitation to a pair of family-minded birds, she had cost him his privacy. And now she was working her way into his personal life. He’d better do something about this latest development, and somehow put her out of his reach, before his heart and hormones overruled his head.
Propelling Jacob into her apartment with a light pat to the boy’s bottom, she flashed Wade a warm, open smile that nearly undid years of carefully constructed armor. “I’ll see you at church.”
And that was when Wade knew what he would have to do.
Chapter Two
Geneva hoped to take Jacob to the toddler-age Sunday-school class without either of them crying. He’d had a lot of changes in his young life, first losing a father—bum that he was—and then moving to a whole new community. There were some positive changes, too, such as the wide-open yard for him to play in and a new friendship with Sean, who doted on the boy and took him for rides on his golf cart. But the changes, both good and bad, were creating stress, and her son had become slightly clingy in the past few weeks.
His reaction had made her more resolved than ever to find just the right house for Jacob to grow up in. The only child of a military man, Geneva had gone through more than her share of uprootings, and she wanted to give her son the kind of stable home environment she had longed for as a child…and still wanted.
And while she was dreaming, her idea of the perfect upbringing for her son included a strong and loving father and a handful of siblings. She’d gone into her relationship with Les harboring this same dream for their future. Although she’d seen evidence of his party-boy ways, she had believed him when he’d told her that her happiness was his foremost concern. She’d thought he would settle into family life after Jacob was born, but he soon found more excuses to be away from the house. Away from her and his child.
“You really didn’t need to drive us to church,” she said as Wade pulled his car into the parking lot. “We could have met you here.” All weekend long, she’d had to impose on him to answer the door each time they’d needed to enter or exit the apartment through his house. And on the one occasion they both had to go out, he’d hidden a key in the hanging basket of begonias that adorned the broad front porch. It was a hassle doing it this way, no doubt about it, but she had no desire to encourage any more togetherness than was absolutely necessary.
“It’s no bother. Because of the rain, I doubt we’ll have any but the most diehard golfers at the course this morning.” He looked at her strangely, as if something was on his mind, but he only sighed and added, “Sometimes I have to miss church, especially when it’s sunny and mild, but now that you know the way…”
Then she understood. He was saying, in essence, after this you’re on your own. He was doing the hospitable thing today, bringing her here and introducing her around, but he was making it clear this was not to become a habit. Well, that was perfectly okay with her.
Once inside, Sean and Jacob walked ahead as Wade led Geneva past the adult classes, the high-school class, and eventually stopped at the fifth-grade room.
“I want to get Jacob to the nursery.” Her gaze remained fixed on Sean, who was making faces at her laughing son as they waited for her and Wade to catch up.
Wade straightened his tie before answering. “There’s someone I want you to meet first. Sean, why don’t you take Jacob to the nursery for Geneva?”
Her protective instincts kicked in as she imagined her son feeling helpless and abandoned in a new place. “But I was going to take him.”
Oblivious to her concern, Jacob grasped the older fellow’s coattail and left without a backward glance. She supposed she should have been glad he went along so easily, carefully dodging Sean’s crutches, but instead she felt as though she’d been forgotten in the excitement of the moment.
“He’ll probably cry,” she protested. And if he did, who would hold him and comfort him until his tears dried?
“It’s better this way,” Wade assured her. “Kids are less likely to cry when they leave Mom than when Mom leaves them. You can check on him through the two-way mirror when we’re done here.”
“Since when did you get to be an authority on children?” she muttered. She hadn’t intended for him to hear her grousing, but the upward quirk of his mouth told her he’d caught it all.
“Since I helped raise my younger brother,” he replied.
Before she could respond, a dark-haired man in his early thirties appeared at the classroom door. “May I help you?”
A roomful of eleven-year-olds studied them with keen interest.
“I’d like you to meet Geneva Jensen,” Wade said without preamble. “She and her son are visiting our church for the first time today.” Then, finishing the introduction, he pulled her by the elbow so that she was positioned squarely in front of the man. “Geneva, this is Deacon Tackett.”
Geneva smiled shyly. If ever she’d felt put on the spot—on display, even—it was now. But she appreciated her landlord’s friendly gesture, so she would just tough it out.
The gentleman before her seemed to sense her discomfort. After switching a bit of chalk to his left hand, he shook her hand and smiled warmly. It was a pleasant expression set against an attractive backdrop of dark eyebrows, aquiline nose and slim cheeks that carried what she suspected was an ever-present shadow of beard, and it went a long way toward making her feel welcome.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” he said. “I hope you’ll like your visit enough to return and perhaps become a member of our congregation.”
She was about to murmur a polite reply so they could excuse themselves gracefully, but Wade seemed determined to prolong the awkward conversation.
“The deacon teaches Sunday school to fifth-graders,” he said, stating the obvious. “He really likes kids a lot…always organizing youth trips and having pizza parties for them.”
“No need to be formal,” the man said in response to the manner in which Wade addressed him. “Please, call me Ellis.” Ellis tilted his head as if suddenly realizing the implication behind the introduction. “Is your son in fifth grade? He’s welcome to join our study class this morning.”
“Oh, no, he’s in the nursery.” And she was getting antsy about checking to see how Jacob was accepting his new situation.
“Well, I’m glad Mr. Matteo stopped by to introduce us. If there’s anything you need, or if you have any questions…”
That’s when it hit her. These two men barely knew each other! Why else would they call each other Deacon Tackett and Mr. Matteo? Until now she had assumed Wade had merely wanted her to meet a friend of his. But they obviously weren’t close, and she didn’t have an older child for Ellis to teach, so why was Wade putting her through this?
“Geneva does a lot of sewing.” Wade ignored Ellis’s attempt to close the conversation and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps you could charm her into helping with the costumes for this year’s Christmas play.” The smile Wade flashed the other man seemed fraught with meaning. Then, turning to Geneva, he added, “The deacon is a real pillar of the community. His family has lived in the area for more than a century. They even have a road named after them.”
Why was he telling her this? Not knowing how else to respond to this seemingly unnecessary bit of information, she merely said, “That’s quite impressive.”
Wade gave her an amused grin. “Personally, I’d rather have a roller coaster named after me.”
She wasn’t surprised. A date with Wade Matteo was probably just like a roller-coaster ride—full of exciting turns, giddying heights and heart-stopping plummets, that ultimately ended up right where they started. Whoever dared to take such a ride would certainly have a story to tell and a memory to cherish, but nothing more.
Realization dawned with such crackling intensity that it nearly blinded her. Wade was setting her up, and he’d chosen to pair her with Ellis. She felt herself blush, not certain whether to get angry with him for being so presumptuous or go along with the match-making attempt.
Taking another, more assessing look at Ellis, she realized Wade had chosen wisely. Now, there was a man with whom she could go somewhere. From what little she knew about him—that he was a leader in the community, that he seemed kind and polite and, best of all, that he liked children—she decided this was someone she could possibly build a relationship with. There wouldn’t be any hairpin turns or spiraling heights of ecstasy as in a roller-coaster ride perhaps, but he seemed like just the kind of man she and Jacob needed.
Ellis obviously hadn’t caught on to Wade’s machinations yet. He pointed at the two of them. “How long have you two been dating?”
“Oh, no, we’re not dating,” Geneva quickly supplied. “We just live together.”
Wade gave her a look that told her she’d blown it, and then his Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to hold back a laugh.
“I mean we live in the same house.” Suddenly the spring day seemed to have grown unseasonably warm, and Geneva realized she hadn’t actually clarified the deacon’s misconception after all. So she tried again. “I’m at the back, and he’s in front.”
Oh, good grief, that sounded even worse!
Ellis’s blue eyes darkened as his gaze darted between them. Geneva had the sickening feeling that not only had she ruined her chances with him, but also with anyone who might talk to him.
To her relief, Wade fished her out of the hot water she’d gotten herself into.
“What she means is that I’m her landlord. Geneva lives in an apartment attached to the back of my house, which is next door to Sean.”
Ellis’s eyebrows descended to a more normal position, and he gave a soft chuckle. “Of course.”
The conversation fell suddenly quiet, and Ellis glanced over his shoulder at the children who were swatting each other with their lesson books.
“Would you like to see it sometime?” Wade seemed impervious to her growing discomfort. “Tuesday evening, maybe?”
Geneva caught his elbow and gave it a squeeze. “I don’t think—”
“Sure,” said Ellis. By now the kids had stopped their horseplay and were chanting a jump-rope song about sitting in a tree and k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Ellis seemed not to hear as he smiled benevolently at Geneva. “Is seven o’clock okay?”
“That’s perfect,” Wade said, cutting off her protest. “Bring an appetite. I hear Geneva is quite the cook.”
This was getting out of control. What would people think when they found out the town’s resident playboy was procuring dates for her? What must Ellis think about this peculiar setup? A knot clutched at her stomach as she considered the expectations such an arrangement might arouse.
Wade stabbed at the buttons on the phone and stopped before he reached the last one. It should be such a simple thing to ask a wealthy heiress to accompany him to a charity ball, but he couldn’t bring himself to punch that last number.
He felt like a phony…he didn’t even like the woman. That had never stopped him before, so he couldn’t understand why he was having so much trouble going through with it this time. Hell, he didn’t even have this much trouble asking the deacon for a date with Geneva.
Maybe Geneva had something to do with his hesitation. He hadn’t been the same since she moved in. At first he’d told himself it was because a single woman on the premises, especially one as wholesome and motherish as Geneva, tended to cramp his style. Instead, he found himself daydreaming about unfastening her hair clip and letting her rich brown locks tumble over his fingers. And if he wasn’t careful, his thoughts led to imagining the softness of those curls tickling his bare chest as they lay together in each other’s arms.
Then, to shake himself out of the foolhardy reverie, he reminded himself of his resolve to date only career women or those over forty who had no desire to add to their families. Geneva embodied every quality that he sought to avoid in women: she was in the prime of her childbearing years, making clear in actions and words her wish for a large family. She was the kind of woman who wanted permanence…and promises of things he could not fulfill.
Wade paced the kitchen floor, reminding himself that the end justified the means, and forced himself to redial the woman’s number.
Cherise Watson was the daughter of a wealthy businessman-turned-senator, and though her father had died a few years ago, she and her mother still had strong ties to others in the political arena. Wade had long been a dedicated fundraiser for the children’s hospital. Not only would a generous donation from Cherise provide the hospital with a new magnetic resonance imaging machine, but a well-placed word in the right politician’s ear might garner the research funds the facility so desperately needed.
Geneva hoisted Jacob to her hip and allowed him to peek carefully into the nest at the two most recent additions. One of the parent birds sat in an oak tree, chirping its indignation at their intrusion. Setting her son down, she contemplated the best way to approach the problem. Although she thought her landlord could have been more subtle, and definitely more tactful, in his matchmaking effort, she was grateful that he had introduced her to such a nice man.
Fortunately, after church she was able to talk a bit more with Ellis without interruption from her busybody neighbor. Their conversation helped convince her that the deacon’s desires mirrored her own. He loved children and wanted a traditional family life but, as was her own experience, his exacting standards narrowed the dating pool so that his options were severely limited.
She stood back from the house and examined the bare area beside the light fixture. If she moved the wreath those few feet, perhaps the parent birds would adapt without complaint to the minor adjustment. And she would regain the use of her door.
For the past couple of days, she’d been using Wade’s house as a cut-through to her apartment. Despite his insistence that her entering and leaving through his living quarters was not an inconvenience, Geneva was equally insistent that she had to find another solution. Today. Before her upcoming dinner date with Ellis tomorrow night.
It was inconvenient to have Wade let her and Jacob through his house every time they needed to enter or exit. The situation could prove awkward if he had to serve as the gatekeeper for her date as well.
Considering the way in which Wade had meddled to bring her and Ellis together, she didn’t want to give him an opportunity to meddle any more than he already had.
Mustering up his gumption, Wade took a deep breath and finished dialing the number. It was only for one evening, for crying out loud. And it was a public event, so it wasn’t like he’d have to wine and dine Cherise privately…and risk giving her the impression that he harbored a romantic interest in her. The line on the other end rang once.
“Excuse me.”
Startled, Wade wheeled around to find Geneva poised hesitantly on the threshold between his den and kitchen.