The Littlest Matchmaker Read online

  “He’s sleeping fine,” she said.

  “Good,” he murmured. “What is it, like ten now?”

  “No…. Midnight.”

  He sat up straighter. “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope.”

  “We missed your birthday,” he said.

  “It was one I’d be willing to miss again,” she replied.

  “No way.” He moved her off him, then rose. “Why don’t you check on Jamie again, while I get a few things together?”

  “What sort of things?”

  “You’ll see,” he said before disappearing into the kitchen.

  “All-righty, then,” Lisa said to herself.

  She stood and tiptoed to Jamie’s room. Although his skin didn’t hold its usual healthy glow, color was beginning to return already. He slept deeply…peacefully. Lisa wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t wake until dawn. She watched him for a few minutes, then silently left the room. As she exited, she caught Kevin leaving her bedroom with the jar candle that usually sat on her dresser.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Wait and see.”

  He disappeared into the bathroom for a moment, came back out, and quickly closed the door. She watched as he took the two taper candles she had sitting on her antique parlor table in the far corner of the living room. When he headed back toward the bathroom, she fell in step close behind him. He stopped dead in his tracks, and she bumped up against him.

  “Go sit. No peeking. You’ll know soon enough,” he said.

  “But I want to know now.” All the same, she went to the couch and sat.

  He gave her a grin before opening the bathroom door and disappearing. In front of her, the movie on the television rambled on. She tried to pick up on the action just to distract herself, but it was a lost cause. What seemed like forever later, Kevin came back into the room and beckoned her down the hallway to the bathroom. The sound of water running tipped her off to a waiting bath. Sweet, really, and she appreciated it.

  But then she stepped into the bathroom. It was hardly the same functional yet dull place she’d comforted Jamie in. Where before the old black-and-white hexagonal tile had been relieved only by a small white bathmat—actually slightly grayed with age—there now sat a thick rug in exactly the same shade of periwinkle that she’d painted one wall in her living room. Fat new towels of a deeper hue hung over the towel rack. On the hook by the bathtub hung a new ivory-colored terry cloth robe, so luxe-looking that it would have been at home in a five-star spa. Lit candles lined the far edge of the tub, and a champagne flute awaited her.

  “Happy birthday,” he said.

  “Well, thank you.”

  “I was going to do this for you when we got home from Malloy’s. Of course, at that point, the game plan had been two glasses of champagne and me in the tub with you,” he added, then gave her a rueful grin.

  “Kevin, it’s wonderful.”

  “Come here,” he said, taking her by the wrist and gently drawing her closer. “Relax and let me take care of you.”

  She wouldn’t fight this pampering. She was so bone-tired that just this once, she would put herself into his hands…literally. She watched as with great care, he unbuttoned her shirt and slipped it from her. A sigh of utter contentment escaped as he took a moment to kiss the spot where her pulse danced at the base of her throat. When he knelt to slip her feet from her shoes, Lisa wanted to cry, both in thanks for his tenderness and because she wasn’t so certain she deserved it.

  And when he’d removed all of her clothes, he drew her into his arms and held her. The embrace was far from platonic, but she could feel his restraint. After a moment, and one kiss to the top of her head, he let her go, then reached for the box of bath truffles he’d given her weeks ago.

  He held it out. “You’d better pick one, quick, before the tub’s too full.”

  She opened the box and gasped. On top of the truffles sat a delicate gold-and-diamond necklace.

  “Kevin—”

  He shook his head. “Don’t tell me that I shouldn’t have because you don’t get a vote on that one. You do get to decide if you want to be the gracious woman I know you are and accept it, though.”

  She lifted the necklace from the box and held it aloft, so that its adornment sparkled in front of her eyes. It reminded her of a shooting star, with one larger diamond, behind which trailed smaller ones in a graceful arc.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say…”

  He reached into the box of bath truffles and randomly tossed one into the tub.

  “Exactly that,” he replied. “You’re welcome.”

  She set the truffle box on the sink’s edge, and he went and turned off the tub’s taps.

  Lisa opened the clasp to the necklace and tried to put it on. Whether it was her weariness or the mix of emotions that coursed through her, she couldn’t work the tiny fitting.

  Frustrated, she said, “Would you help me?”

  Kevin smiled. “All you ever have to do is ask.”

  He took her by the waist and gently urged her to turn so that her back was to him. She thought that he’d immediately take the necklace from her, but he lingered, exploring the curve from her waist to hip. Lisa sighed again. It felt heavenly to be touched.

  His large hands closed over her smaller ones. He took over the necklace, getting it secured after only a moment. But then his hands drifted downward, over her ribs. She jumped a little.

  “Ticklish?” he asked.

  “Not usually, but tonight, I guess I am,” she said.

  “Relax,” he commanded and then began kneading her shoulders.

  How could a woman not relax, when receiving this kind of attention? Slowly, the night’s tension receded until all that remained was sheer pleasure. Lisa closed her eyes as he trailed a line of kisses across her shoulders. When he drew her back until her nude body rested against his clothed one, she didn’t object.

  He touched the necklace, where it lay at the tops of her breasts. “I wanted you to have something to remind you of me.”

  “As though I’d forget.” He was a part of her days, her thoughts…and although she’d been trying to fight it, her heart, too.

  Kevin kissed her neck and brought his hands around to caress her breasts. Her breathing picked up as a delicious sort of excitement curled through her. He knew just how to send her over the edge into passion. But she had her son in the other room, and while he was resting now, she needed to be there for him.

  She leaned her head against the strong expanse of Kevin’s chest and worked up the willpower to say what had to be said. “We can’t…”

  “You’re right,” he replied in a husky voice that sent another thrill through her. “We can’t, but you can. Consider it part of my gift to you, then you take your bath, and I’ll keep watch around here.”

  She hesitated.

  One hand moved lower on her body. “Let me give this to you, Lisa.”

  “But…”

  “It won’t take long,” he said.

  She smiled at the pretty darned accurate assumption. “Braggart.”

  Once, then again, he brushed his fingers intimately…teasingly…against her. She leaned into him, in capitulation to the pleasure he would bring.

  “It’s noble of you to sacrifice yourself this way,” she said.

  His chuckle vibrated through her. “Only for you, sweetheart. Only for you….”

  Chapter Twelve

  A sunny and cool November lunchtime merely three days later, Kevin watched as Jamie bounded to the swing set at Lindsay Park. The little guy was the portrait of health and excess energy. If Kevin hadn’t seen him so sick on Halloween, he wouldn’t have believed it.

  “If Jamie were a dog, he’d be a golden retriever puppy,” he said to Lisa, who laughed.

  “How about you? What would you be?” she asked.

  He watched Jamie detour for the sheer joy of running in a zigzag pattern. As the years had p
assed, Kevin had found less and less desire to take the circuitous route.

  “An old hound,” he said.

  “Yearning for the resilience of youth?” she teased.

  He swung her in his arms for a quick kiss. “I can think of a few things I’m yearning for more than that.”

  “Me, too,” she murmured.

  They hadn’t had any alone time, excepting those few minutes on her birthday. While he wouldn’t trade his Thanksgiving project time with Jamie, or a picnic lunch like this one, he wanted more. A lot more.

  Last night, he’d called Pop and shot the breeze for a while, then gradually brought the conversation around to Jamie and his horrible Halloween. Kevin had asked his dad how he’d known what to do when Kevin had been little, and his dad had laughed as though he’d told the best joke ever.

  “Know? You were our first…our test case. When you were little, your mom and I didn’t have idea number one of what we were doing. If it wasn’t in Dr. Spock or if we couldn’t reach your grandparents, we just did our best. Seems to have worked, too, for the most part,” his dad had said.

  It was then that Kevin realized he was trying to treat life as though it came with blueprints, like one of his construction projects. Even when building, he knew better than to believe that everything was as drawn. Sometimes you just had to wing it.

  “Come push me, Kevin,” Jamie called excitedly from his seat on a swing.

  Kevin looked to Lisa for an okay.

  She smiled. “You might as well go on ahead. I’m yesterday’s news since you came along.”

  “I could leave,” he teasingly offered.

  She planted her hands on his back and marched him over to her son. “Not a chance. You’re far too useful.”

  He’d take useful until a better adjective came along. He’d dated enough women in his life to know that Lisa was perfect for him. Jamie, too. Sure, the instant dad thing rattled him some, but life was about challenge and change, and he was ready for both.

  “Okay, ready?” he asked Jamie, who gripped the swing’s chains tightly and affirmed that he was.

  Kevin made a great show of pretending that he was going to send him rocketing to the sky, but then gave him a nice, safe release for a kid his size. Jamie crowed his approval. Kevin stood back and watched as Lisa coached him how to pump his legs and go higher.

  “Did I tell you that I got a big, new project not too long ago?” Kevin asked Lisa, while keeping one eye on Jamie.

  “No, really? Where?” she asked, her gaze also pinned on her son.

  “Do you know where Fairview is?”

  She nodded. “That huge place that looks like an English countryside mansion overlooking the river? Sure.”

  “The owners want to bring it back to its glory.”

  “All of it? Doesn’t it have a ballroom wing and a pub room and bowling alley in the basement?”

  “I haven’t seen the basement yet, but that’s what I’ve been told.”

  “Very cool.”

  “Yeah. It’s great news. This is the sort of project that will land us in the glossy magazines. Our reputation is finally getting out there.”

  “Wonderful,” she said. “When do you start?”

  “We’ll start some of the smaller rooms in the next few weeks, but probably not in earnest until spring.”

  “That sounds like it works with your usual winter in Arizona plans.”

  “Actually, I’m thinking of not going this year,” he said, almost surprised to hear the words come out. Until that moment, it had been more of an under-the-radar sort of thought than an actual plan. But now that he’d said it, the idea made sense. He’d rather be here.

  She turned to look at him. “Why? I thought you loved going there.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, but maybe I love it even more when I’m useful to you.”

  DOOMED. LISA WAS flat-out doomed. Kevin loved going to Arizona in the winter. He’d told her that countless times since they’d been together, and she’d heard it from Courtney even before that. And now he was making noises about staying here.

  Under no circumstances was she taking that relationship route again. First came “anything for you,” then came “look what you made me do,” and finally, stone-cold silence. Thank you, but no. If she’d learned anything from her marriage, it was that she’d never watch another man change for her…ever again.

  “This isn’t making any sense,” she said to Kevin. “First you loved Arizona and now you don’t want to go?”

  “I just told you that we’ve got a busy winter lined up.”

  “Not exactly. You said you were starting the bigger part of the project in the spring.”

  “The Aldens aren’t our only clients,” he said. “We have a lot of smaller projects, too. It makes better sense for me to be here than in Arizona. I’m the owner of Decker Construction. I’m responsible for scheduling and for keeping things flowing. I can’t leave Scott to twist in the wind.”

  “That wasn’t an issue last winter. You were gone for months.” And while she had missed seeing him come in for his morning coffee, she suspected that this year the lonely ache would be as brutal as the winter wind. But she’d rather bear that than feel as though she’d trapped another man.

  He frowned. “Hey, what’s going on here? Yes, it’s a Wednesday, but Inquisition Night doesn’t officially start for another six hours. And at this point, I’d much rather be questioned by your mother.”

  She drew a deep breath and tried to quell the panic.

  “Mommy, push me!” Jamie cried from his perch on the swing.

  Automatically, Lisa stepped forward and gave her son a little nudge.

  “Harder!”

  She put a little more force into it this time.

  “I wanna fly!”

  She looked over at Kevin, who was scowling across the river to the opposite shore, as if the entire state of Illinois had done something to offend him.

  Frustrating man! When, exactly, had he forgotten that he wanted to fly, too?

  THOUGH LESS THAN A WEEK had passed since Kevin, Lisa and Jamie had last visited the park, November cool had turned to November downright frosty, and Kevin wasn’t referring to the weather.

  He sat with Scott and Courtney at their usual table at Malloy’s, waiting for Lisa to join them. He’d already ordered a drink, shot the breeze with Conal, talked business with his brother, and still Lisa hadn’t arrived. He checked his watch.

  “It’s a quarter after,” he announced to no one in particular. “Lisa’s never late.”

  “Think she dumped you?” Scott asked.

  “Think you can back off?” Kevin fired back.

  “Hey, sorry. I was just kidding. Not to fear. I’ve had dates show up two hours late.”

  “And you waited?” Courtney snorted. “Sucker.”

  “Watch it. It’s not as though you’re tearing up the dating scene,” Scott pointed out to his sister. “At least I get out and try.”

  Kevin zoned out as his siblings bickered. Normally, Scott’s teasing would have rolled right off, but something had changed in the past week. For a day or so, Kevin had just figured that Lisa was extra-busy. She’d started to work on planning her annual Thanksgiving meal for those among her customers who didn’t have traditional family nearby to dine with. Her mom was pitching in, too, which was a definite step forward in mother-daughter relations.

  But in exchange for that step forward with her mother, Lisa had taken a step back with him. Nothing he said or did brought a sparkle to her eyes or affected her too deeply. To Kevin it seemed that she’d somehow encased her emotions in a hard crystal shell, and he didn’t know how to get through to her.

  He had done the emotional math and realized that only one thing had changed since she’d shut herself away; he had mentioned that he was thinking about an Iowa winter. Maybe blurting that out had been a tactical error on his part, but he preferred to think of them as lovers, not military leaders on opposite sides of a battle.

  He look
ed at his watch again.

  “Three minutes later than the last time you looked,” Courtney said. Which meant, of course, she had looked at her watch, too. His tension must have been pretty obvious because she added, “Relax before you sprain something, okay?”

  Scott laughed, and even Kevin had to smile at his sister’s mouthiness. So much for having his siblings in awe of him.

  “She had to drop Jamie at her mom and dad’s, right?” Courtney asked.

  “Yes.”

  “She’s a grand total of eighteen minutes late, which is not unthinkable when you have a four-year-old to wrangle.”

  It wasn’t the number of minutes so much as the overall sense that she was about to disappear on him. Maybe it was time to confide in his siblings. Beneath all that mock sparring, he knew they cared. And maybe he was being paranoid, anyway. Maybe Lisa was fine, and he just didn’t know her as arrogantly well as he thought he did.

  “Court,” he said, “have you noticed anything different about Lisa?”

  She shook her head. “Not really. She hasn’t had the time to stay and talk when she picks up Jamie, and she’s—”

  “—coming to the table right now,” Scott interjected.

  “Let’s talk later, okay?” Court suggested, her concern for Kevin softening her eyes.

  Being able to pick up on that made him feel even grimmer. He knew emotion when he saw it, and could identify the lack of it, too. Kevin said okay to Courtney, then rose to greet Lisa.

  “Sorry I’m late. I got a little wrapped up with Mom,” she said.

  “No problem,” he replied as he leaned in to catch a quick kiss.

  But as he did, she withdrew. It wasn’t as though she turned her face, but she pulled back just enough that the kiss became a marginal brush of one mouth against the other. He gave her a “what’s up?” look and got a wide-eyed, innocent “who, me?” expression in return.

  She was drifting off. He could feel it in every molecule of his body, and it was really grinding at him that she wouldn’t just admit it. Instinct urged him to confront her, but common sense told him to wait.

  Not here and not now. But soon. Damn soon.