A Man Worth Marrying

by Phyllis Halldorson

  "I certainly will," she said. "But now to get back to the subject of your daughter. I'm truly sorry, but I'm overextended as it is—"

  "Why don't you meet her before you make up your mind," he cut in. "That seems only fair. Then, if you still feel you can't work her in, I'll accept it and try to find someone else."

  Eve sighed. "Don't think for a minute I don't know what you're doing, Gray Flint. You're playing on my weakness for children. You think that if I see what a sweet, intelligent and deserving child she is, I'll reconsider."

  He looked her straight in the eye. "Damn right. Can you tell me you wouldn't do the same thing if our positions were reversed?"

  She thought for a moment. Gray was a father desperate to find help for his daughter, and she admired him for that—enough that she wasn't going to lie to him. "No, I can't, but our positions aren't reversed, and if I wear myself out, I'm not going to be good for any of my students."

  "Okay, I can appreciate that," he admitted. "I sure don't want you to endanger your health. But there's only a week of school left. If you could work Tinker into your busy schedule now, I'll hire you to work for a couple of hours every weekday all summer."

  Gray looked around the room, and Eve was sure he was seeing it for the first time. Until now, his only concern had been to convince her to tutor his daughter.

  "This is a pretty depressing place to work, isn't it," he observed. "Why don't you transfer to another school?"

  She wondered if he realized how callous that sounded to her, although she was sure he hadn't meant it that way.

  Rising from her chair, she went to stand by him. "And if I did, who would teach the students here?"

  He blinked. "Well I—there must be teachers who are looking for jobs."

  "There are, but none of them want to work here. Would you?" She looked at him. "What school does Tinker go to?"

  He appeared disconcerted. "She goes to a private school, but—"

  "Does her building have a leaky roof?" she interrupted.

  "No—"

  "Is the paint peeling off its walls, both inside and out?"

  "No, but—"

  "Is the heating system in constant need of repair?"

  His tone rose with frustration. "No. Damn it all, Eve—"

  "Of course it doesn't have those problems," she pointed out, "because its affluent parents and alumni can afford to keep it in good condition. Also, they can raise the tuition anytime it's necessary to pay for the best teachers, so they draw from the top applicants."

  Gray finally found an opening into the conversation. "From all I've heard, you're a good teacher. So why aren't you working at a school like Tinker's?"

  She was ready for him. "You're right, I am a good teacher. In fact I'm an excellent teacher. I studied hard in college and learned my lessons well, plus I care about my students. I want to see them learn, but I also want the ones who are capable of it to excel. With all they have working against them, that will never happen if they can't get dedicated instructors to teach them."

  "Now surely you're not the only 'dedicated instructor' in the whole area," Gray taunted lightly.

  "No, I'm not," she admitted, refusing to acknowledge his teasing. "But it's easier for me to be noble. I don't have children of my own to teach and raise, or a husband who needs me to share time with him, too."

  He eyed her left hand. "You're not married, then?"

  She shook her head. "No, but that doesn't mean I don't need time off from my work. Some of these children will break your heart if you let them."

  "And you let them," he said softly as his gentle blue eyes searched hers.

  To her dismay, her heart speeded up at his tone, and she felt all fuzzy and warm. She fought the urge to let herself be drawn closer.

  Watch it, girl. This guy's way out of your league. And more important, he's married!

  She stepped back and turned away from him. "I'm sorry but I have to get home. I have papers to grade and a school board meeting to attend tonight. If we can't get the board to put a new roof on this building this summer, we're going to be sloshing around in water ankle-deep by next fall. At the rate donations are coming in for the roofing fund, it's going to be years instead of a month before we collect enough."

  Gray gazed thoughtfully at Eve. "I have an idea. I'll make a hefty donation to the school's roofing fund, in addition to paying your salary, if you agree to tutor Tinker."

  Eve gasped, unable to believe what she'd heard. "Are you trying to bribe me?" she asked tentatively.

  "That, I am," he admitted with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Eve laughed. She couldn't resist Gray's winning ways—or his offer. In addition, it was an honor to be recommended to him as highly as she had been by the district superintendent. "All right," she reluctantly agreed. "I'll consider tutoring Tinker. But I think I should meet her first to establish trust before the tutoring begins. When do you want this meeting to take place?"

  He glanced at his watch. "How about this time tomorrow? I can bring her here, but I'd really prefer that you come to my house. Since that's where you would be tutoring her, I'd like you to get acquainted with it, too."

  "Tomorrow at this time and at your house will be fine," she said, striving for a tone of brisk efficiency, "if you'll just give me your address and phone number. Oh, and I assume your wife will be there, too?"

  He looked momentarily uncomprehending, but recovered quickly. "I don't have a wife," he said. "Tinker's mother and I are divorced."

  Chapter Two

  Gray saw the surprise in Eve's expression, and only then realized that he hadn't told her he was a single father. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't intend to mislead you. Tinker's mother and I have been divorced for three years. We share custody, but she works part-time as hostess at a restaurant, and because of our rather unconventional working hours—I go to work very early in the morning and she works four hours, midafternoon and early evening—I have Tinker from the time she gets home from school until bedtime. Bambi has her throughout the night and until she goes off to school in the morning. We alternate weekends."

  Now Eve looked confused, and he braced himself for further questions. He didn't like discussing his private business with others, but he would make an exception in her case if she pressed the issue.

  She didn't. "I see," she said instead. "Then I'll meet with you and Tinker tomorrow."

  They started walking toward the door, then Eve suddenly stopped and turned to face him. "One more thing," she said seriously. "Does Tinker know you're arranging to have her tutored during school vacation?"

  He shook his head. "Not yet. She's not going to be pleased, and I wanted to be sure I could find an available teacher before I told her. I didn't want to upset her unnecessarily."

  Eve looked perplexed. "But isn't that what you'll be doing by introducing her to me? It's not at all likely that I'll accept the position—"

  He didn't like the sound of that, but decided to play it lightly. Touching the tip of her slender nose, he smiled. "Ah-ah, there you go again—making up your mind before you've explored all the facts."

  She frowned, and he decided he'd better not press his luck. Reluctantly he withdrew his hand before he could give in to the overpowering urge to run his fingers through her glistening black curls.

  "I'll talk to her tonight, explain to her why it's necessary, and tell her I've arranged for a teacher to come by tomorrow afternoon to meet her. Everything will be all right. You'll see," he assured her.

  He gave her his address and phone number, then thanked her for taking the time to talk to him and left the school building.

  As he drove, his mind shifted back to Eve Costopoulos. She wasn't at all what he'd expected. She was much younger, for one thing. Erik, the district superintendent, hadn't mentioned her age, and for some reason he'd pictured someone closer to his own. This one seemed hardly out of her teens—although she had to be in her early twenties, at least, in order to have graduated from college and taught for clos
e to a year.

  He also hadn't expected her to be such a knockout! Taller than average, possibly five foot eight, with ample curves that couldn't be downplayed even by the simple gray skirt and matching cardigan sweater she wore with a tailored white blouse.

  She had ebony hair that was a twirling mass of curls swirling around her shoulders making her look like a gypsy, and he'd been disconcerted at his strong urge to tangle his fingers in it.

  He stopped for a stop sign, but his contemplation didn't even slow down as he started up again and made a left turn.

  As for Eve's eyes, it was best not to think of them at all. They were black as her hair, and every bit as unsettling, with their deep-set beauty and their way of looking straight into him. They stirred up feelings that he didn't welcome, called up emotions he'd sworn never to let get the better of him again.

  So why was he so eager to have her tutor his daughter? If his initial attraction to her was this keen, then having her in his house, working with his child several days a week, could be disastrous!

  He swore softly. What had gotten into him? Once he'd finally taken all he could of Bambi's capriciousness and asked for a divorce, he'd vowed never to get seriously involved with a woman again. He sure had no intention of falling in love!

  He knew there were adequate teachers who would be happy to have part-time employment for the summer. They might not come as highly recommended as Eve, but they could have done the job. Why hadn't he just accepted her refusal and let it go at that—?

  Because he was spoiled, that's why. As a minor celebrity in this small city, he was used to getting his own way. And he wasn't prepared to have a slip of a girl tell him he couldn't beg, borrow or buy her expert services—

  The car in front of him stopped suddenly, and he slammed on his brake and almost rear-ended it. He'd been so lost in his musing that he hadn't seen the red light ahead.

  Enough of this old nonsense! He wasn't going to take a chance on getting involved with any woman, and certainly not one who was his daughter's teacher. He didn't have Eve's home phone number, but he could call her at school in the morning and tell her that he was regretfully willing to accept her initial refusal, after all. He knew she'd be relieved.

  Now that that was settled, maybe he could concentrate on his driving, on picking up Tinker from Judy, the babysitter who was a stay-at-home mom and who was on call when his work hours collided with his custody responsibility—without wrecking his sports car.

  Gray rolled out of bed at three o'clock the next morning when the alarm went off. He had to get up early every morning in order to be ready to do the weather at five, on the first newscast of the day. It wasn't much of a hardship. He usually retired at nine on weeknights, and got by nicely on six hours of sleep.

  His first thought was of Eve and his need to call her, but obviously it was much too early. She wouldn't be at school for at least four more hours.

  Unfortunately things hadn't gone last night as he'd planned. In fact, everything that could go wrong had. The outcome was that he hadn't even seen his daughter, let alone been able to talk to her about being tutored.

  He sighed. Not that it really mattered, since he wasn't going to hire Eve anyway.

  But by then it was too late to phone her. After all the fuss he'd made yesterday about wanting her, and only her, to tutor his child, it would be impolite to wait until the last minute to contact her and tell her he'd changed his mind. No, now he'd just wait until she arrived and then graciously accept her initial refusal to take the job.

  A suspicion niggled at him, but he shook it off. He wasn't having second thoughts about not hiring her. Certainly not! He hadn't deliberately frittered away the time—it had just gotten away from him, was all.

  He had no intention of pursuing any kind of relationship with her. Not even a business one.

  Eve drove through the neighborhood of well-kept upscale homes. The houses were large, but not ostentatious. Although the lawns were still brown and the big old trees just beginning to leaf, she could see that they received good care during the warmer seasons.

  She spotted the address she was looking for, and pulled over to the curb in front of the house. It was one of the smaller homes on the block: a one-story Tudor-style built of red brick with a red tile roof. Handsome as well as sturdy.

  Getting out of her silver-gray compact, she approached the house and climbed the steps to the covered porch. She rang the bell, but as she waited she was sorely tempted to turn and run. Although she'd promised to consider tutoring Gray's daughter, she didn't like being outwitted, especially by a man who attracted her so strongly. She neither needed nor wanted a man in her life at this time. Certainly not one who had already been married and had an eight-year-old child!

  Before she could act on her urge to flee, the inside door opened. Gray stood on the other side of the storm door; he must have been watching for her, to have gotten there so quickly.

  "Hi," he said, and unlocked the outside door to open it. "I…I hope you haven't been too badly inconvenienced by my insistence that you come here instead of meeting at school."

  Eve was struck by the fact that he seemed ill at ease today. He hadn't been at all unsure of himself yesterday.

  "It's out of my way, but not much," she said as she walked into the foyer and looked around. The living room was on the right, the dining room on the left and separated from the kitchen behind it by a chest-high breakfast bar. Straight ahead was a long hall with rooms on either side and at the end. The floors were covered in thick brown-and-beige carpeting, and the furniture was heavy and masculine. Expensive but serviceable.

  "You have a very attractive home," she said. "Did you decorate it yourself?"

  He smiled. "Not exactly. When I moved in, I hired a decorator to work with me. And then Bambi got into the act—"

  "Is Bambi your ex-wife's name?" she interrupted. "Or am I misunderstanding again?"

  He sighed. "No, you're not misunderstanding. I told you she was flighty, but you really have to know her to know what I mean. She was christened Bernice after her grandmother, but she didn't like that name, so she started calling herself Bambi after she saw the Disney movie when she was a child. Now she even uses it as her legal name."

  "My word." Eve murmured. "She certainly is creative." It was the only way she could think of to describe the muddled impression she was getting of his ex-wife.

  "Oh yes, she is that," he agreed as he helped her off with her coat. His strong hand touched her shoulder, totally by accident she was sure, but it sent a tingle down her spine.

  "I have fresh coffee made," he said as he hung the coat in the closet of the small entryway. "If you'd like to go sit down in the living room, I'll bring the cups and things out."

  She'd smelled the coffee perking the minute she stepped inside the house, and she wasn't going to be coy about accepting a cup. She needed something to keep her wide awake and shrewd enough to deal with this man.

  "Let me help," she said, and followed him into the kitchen. There she saw a carafe, china cups, saucers, sugar, creamer and silver spoons arranged on a tray. She was sure this wasn't the way he had his coffee when he was alone. He'd gone to some trouble to make things nice for her.

  He accepted her offer without hesitation. "If you really want to, you can bring the can of soda and the glass of ice over there on the counter. That's for Tinker."

  She picked up the items and walked into the living room, where Gray set the tray down on the coffee table in front of the sofa that faced the brick fireplace.

  "I'd intended to light a fire," he said, motioning for her to sit down, "but I had some errands to run after I picked Tinker up at school, and by the time we got home, it was too late."

  She had the distinct impression that he was grasping for small talk rather than coming to grips with the issue that had brought her here—but why?

  "Everything is just right," she assured him as she settled herself on the couch. "But you shouldn't have gone to so much trouble. Whe
re is Tinker, by the way?"

  Gray sat down beside Eve. "She's watching television in my office down the hall. She doesn't have many friends. Once in a while she'll bring a classmate home with her, or she'll be invited to go to someone else's house, but mostly she keeps to herself. I think it's her poor grades. She doesn't want to talk about them with the other students, so she remains aloof."

  Eve felt a stab of compassion. "Oh, the poor child," she murmured. "She really does need help. That type of thing can damage her self-image for a lifetime."

  "I'm well aware of that," Gray said. "But there's something I have to tell you before we go any further with this."

  He shifted nervously on the cushion. "I didn't get a chance to talk to Tinker last evening about having her tutored."

  Eve's eyes widened with dismay. "But you promised—"

  "I know," he said mournfully, "and I had every intention of doing it, but when I left the school after talking with you I got a call on my cell phone from the TV station, telling me some new weather-tracking equipment we'd ordered had been delivered. I needed to be there to learn how it's set up, and how to use it."

  He shrugged. "All I could do was phone Bambi and tell her to pick Tinker up at the baby-sitter's instead of at my house. I hadn't seen her since I left you yesterday afternoon until she came home from school today. By then it was so late that I decided I'd better wait and talk it over with you. You know better how to handle children than I do."

  "She doesn't know why I'm here." Eve's voice was filled with chagrin. She felt trapped. This was supposed to be a getting-to-know-each-other meeting to see if she and Tinker could connect as student and teacher. It was important that the child accept being tutored before her father sprang his choice of tutor on her. This wasn't fair to either student or teacher.

  Gray ran his fingers through his hair. "No, she doesn't," he admitted. "I'm sorry, Eve, but it's just one of those things that snowballed out of my control. I didn't even have a chance to call you and postpone the meeting. As long as you're here now, though, I would like you to meet her. She knows you're coming."