Love And The Single Mom (Singles.... With Kids #1)

by C. J. Carmichael

  “Nora and Selena are the new owners?”

  “No.” He put his hands on her shoulders then swiveled her around. “Me.” He rattled off a number, and Margo realized it was the company number from the lease.

  “You’re the new owner?”

  Robert nodded.

  “I need to sit down.”

  “There’s a table at the back that comes highly recommended.”

  She let him take her arm and lead her there. Her friends were so busy they paid no attention to her, at all. “This doesn’t make any sense. Nora and Selena have jobs. Why are they here?”

  “They’ve been helping me out. As has your friend Rosie, and Sandy and Edward. But we are more than ready to hand the reins back to you. I’m afraid the scones were rock-hard today. And the canned tomato soup is definitely not catching on. The muffins were a hit though.”

  “Muffins? What kind of muffins?”

  “Come to the kitchen and I’ll show you.”

  It felt strange having Robert lead her to the kitchen instead of the other way around. He picked up a muffin from the counter and broke off a corner for her.

  Margo chewed. Delicious flavor. Perfect texture. And the little something extra that had been missing last time was now present.

  “You perfected my cherry-pecan-chocolate muffins?” Somehow this one thing, more than anything else, astonished her. “How did you do that?”

  “I followed your notes. Including the addition you made the last time. I never would have thought of adding—”

  “Shh.” She put a finger to his mouth. “All my recipes are secret you know.” She tried another taste. “These really are great.”

  “They sold like crazy. Tomorrow you’d better bake a double batch.”

  She shook her head. When had he done all this? Reopened the place, organized the staff, restocked the kitchen and baked the darn muffins?

  Last night the Bistro had still been closed, so he must have reopened it early this morning. How incredibly sweet, but…

  “Where did you get the money?”

  “I have connections,” Robert reminded her.

  Oh, yeah. Citibank. Good connections.

  “But why, Robert? I appreciate the thought, so much, but I can’t come back to the bistro. It isn’t financially viable. I tried, but I just couldn’t fix things.”

  “Do you really think you belong in a law office? Tell me honestly. Is that what you want?”

  She couldn’t face him. “That isn’t the point. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices—”

  “But why? Margo, I know we can make a go of this business. And I also know your children would rather live here with you than in some postcard-perfect two-story house.”

  “But they need calm and order and routine—”

  “Sometimes, yes. But they also need warmth and excitement and the smell of great food in the air around them. I talked to them about this and so I know.”

  “When did you do that?”

  “I dropped by Tom’s house yesterday before I signed the papers. I needed to know that they approved with my plans.”

  Her head was spinning. “And when were you planning to find out if I approved?”

  “Now.” Robert took her hands. “Please tell me I haven’t made the biggest mistake of my life. We can do this, Margo. If you’ll only give us a chance.”

  “You mean give the bistro a chance?”

  “Not just the bistro. Us.”

  “But…I can’t believe it. This is too much. Why are you doing all this for me?”

  “Because I miss your soup of the day. Because I miss your kids. But mostly…because I love you.”

  She looked into his eyes and thought, It’s too soon. We haven’t known each other long enough to be in love.

  But suddenly she noticed that for the first time in weeks, maybe even months, she didn’t have that aching feeling in her stomach. Her head felt crystal clear, too.

  Robert pulled her close enough so he could whisper in her ear. “Quit your job, Margo. You don’t belong in an office tower. You belong here. And you belong with me.”

  Was he right? Margo looked around the room. She had chosen everything in this place, from the Garland stove to the last coffee cup. She’d selected paint colors and designed the menu and created all the recipes.

  It had been hers, she’d given it up, and now Robert was offering it back to her.

  But none of that mattered as much as the other gift he was offering.

  Did she dare accept it? Was it possible she could juggle a career she loved, motherhood and being in love, too?

  Robert’s eyes told her yes.

  So did her heart.

  The Singles With Kids group is

  meeting again next month!

  Look for Nora’s story, THE SISTER SWITCH

  (SR#1404)

  by Pamela Ford in March 2007,

  wherever Harlequin books are sold.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek….

  “THE SOLUTION IS OBVIOUS,” Suzanne said. “You just have to be me.”

  Nora knew she was in trouble the moment she heard her twin sister utter those words. She tightened her grip on the phone and paced across her small kitchen. “Tell me I just misheard you. Tell me this cell phone connection is so bad you didn’t really say what I think I heard.”

  “You have to do this, Nora. You’ve gotta take my place.”

  Irritation rolled through Nora. She’d been supporting her sister for two years as Suzanne tried to build a personal shopping business. Now Suzanne wanted her to be the personal shopper? Enough was enough. “Your biggest client wants you to do a rush job for her son. The correct answer is—you get off that cruise and come home.”

  “I’m on the Inside Passage, remember? Alaska? Open water. Icebergs. You don’t just jump off

  cruise ships up here.” Her voice grew pleading. “Please, Nora. I can’t afford to lose this account.”

  Nora gritted her teeth. “I know you need this job. I know Camille Lamont is a famous author, and is connected enough to launch your business—”

  “So then do the job for me. Think about it. If I keep Camille as a client, it could get me out of your hair—not to mention your house.” Suzanne paused. “Maybe then you’d have time to date.”

  “Suzanne!”

  “Nora!” Her sister mimicked her annoyed tone.

  “How about if I go to the appointment as myself…and explain that you’re on a seventeen-day cruise—”

  “No! What will his mother think when she learns I sent someone who knows next to nothing about personal shopping to meet with her son?” Suzanne groaned. “I can see this account waving goodbye already.”

  “Then come back to San Francisco and meet with her yourself,” Nora said as evenly as possible.”

  “We’re practically in grizzly territory up here. Probably polar bear, too.”

  Nora snorted. “I doubt the bear populations will be attacking you at the next port of call—or the airport, for that matter.”

  “Nora.” Suzanne’s voice dropped low. “When Keegan called off our wedding, I thought I would die. I need this cruise. Even you said it was a good idea. The Lamont account is important to me, but I’m just not up to it yet. I’ve only been on the ship for one day. What kind of a respite is that?”

  Nora dropped into the kitchen chair as she tried to reason everything out. Suzanne had really hit bottom when Keegan dumped her. And though Nora had never been able to understand her sister’s devastation over losing that idiot, she had agreed time away might help Suzanne heal.

  Still, that didn’t mean Nora taking her place was a good idea. “Suzanne, we may look the same but that’s where the similarity ends. I’m a physical therapist. You’re a personal shopper. You’re loose and carefree. I’m…not.”

  “I’ll say.”

  “What?”

  “Sorry. Sorry.”

  “Anyway, pretending to be you, even for one meeting, is like…expecting apples to be oranges
.”

  “You didn’t used to be an apple. You just became one over the years.”

  “I did not.” Indignation rose up inside her.

  “Then how come you keep staying in that hospital P.T. job when you hate it? Come on, I know your complaints by heart.” Her voice took on a sing-song quality. “Once people have surgery, all you do is make sure they can use a walker, get out of a chair, and then—boom, they’re gone. Discharged. You never see the rehab through to the end.”

  “It’s important work,” Nora said.

  Suzanne just kept talking. “And what about that new sports medicine rehab center the hospital’s opening? They have to hire someone—and you haven’t even applied yet, have you?”

  The truth in her words irritated Nora more than the know-it-all tone in her voice. “Suzanne, when you grow up you discover you can’t have everything. You become—”

  “Dull. But you don’t have to.”

  Nora slowly counted to ten in her head. “Whatever. You know what I mean. It’s a dumb idea. Switching places is something you do when you’re seventeen.”

  “Or something you do when your sister really needs your help. This isn’t about Erik Lamont and you know it. It’s about keeping his mother happy. If she wants me to do a quick job for her son, I can’t not do it.” She sighed. “Nora—she’ll hire someone else.”

  “Couldn’t you just call her and explain that—”

  “Nora? You there? You’re breaking up.”

  “Suzanne? Hello? Can you hear me?” She looked up at the ceiling in frustration. The connection had gone dead.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1707-2

  LOVE AND THE SINGLE MOM

  Copyright © 2007 by Carla Daum.

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