But instead of seeming taken aback by his infodump, she nodded. “I know what you mean. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have my mother to cover my back. She lives with us and I work from home, but still, there are times when I have a meeting or can’t get away. Speaking of which…”
She paused again. What was she thinking? The way she bit her bottom lip hinted at some kind of quandary.
“If you’re ever in a bind again, you could always call me. Just put me on Mariana’s authorized pickup list. I’m happy to help. Us single parents have to stick together, don’t you think?”
Well, that answered one question he had. Single? Check. Helpful? Check, check. “I may just take you up on that offer. Especially since our girls are already best friends.” He glanced at his watch. “In the meantime, I should run Mariana over to Mrs. Rodriguez. She’ll be frantic when the bus arrives without Mariana.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Alex. Sorry about before.”
“What happened before?” Lizzie’s eyes brightened as both she and Mariana studied the adults.
He loved the blush that crept up Cameron’s cheeks as she deflected her daughter’s question. “Nothing, I, uh, just nothing.”
“Yeah, nothing.” It really hadn’t been a big deal, but if Cameron wasn’t telling Lizzie that she’d slammed into him in the parking lot and dumped her purse all over the sidewalk, who was he to say? It was their little secret. And he liked having a secret with the blonde-haired single mother with the captivating blue eyes.
He escorted Mariana out the door, whipping out his phone to dash off a quick text to Mrs. Rodriguez. His sitter confirmed that she could watch Mariana late and apologized for not being able to fetch his daughter.
They settled into his SUV. “Now are you going to tell me what really made you miss the bus?”
“Nothing, Daddy. I really did forget my project.”
He wasn’t buying it. She and Lizzie were cooking something up. He just knew it. At the same time, he was comforted by the fact that this was a normal part of being ten.
As he popped his phone into the holder on the dash, he remembered he hadn’t asked for Cameron’s number. He’d need it, what with their kids being best friends. Yeah that was it. He must really be out of practice… or flustered from meeting Cameron. “Shoot.”
“What is it, Daddy?” Mariana threw him a questioning look in the rearview mirror.
“I forgot to get Mrs. Baldwin’s phone number. You know, for play dates and stuff.” And for asking her out on a date. But he wasn’t about to disclose that to his ten-year-old daughter.
He rolled down his window to get Cameron’s attention, but she had already whipped her little red Corolla out of the parking lot with a screech much like the one when she’d careened in. He couldn’t ask her now. “I’m sure we’ll see them again soon.”
* * *
“And then Mariana told me how her dad is so handsome when he wears his other uniform. But what did she call this uniform? Camo?”
“Camouflage,” Cameron muttered. Lizzie had been going on and on about Mariana’s father—Alex—since Cameron had hustled her daughter into the car. About how tall he was and how much Mariana loved him.
Of course, Mariana loved her father and he loved her. And if Cameron doubted that for one minute, she only had to look at the two of them together to be sure.
As for tall, she didn’t need Lizzie to point that out. She’d seen that for herself when she’d crashed into him like a bowling ball and he hadn’t even stumbled. He was a good six inches taller than her own five-foot-seven. Tall enough that she had to look up to see him. Josh had been taller... Stop comparing every man to Josh.
Alex was handsome with dark hair that was cut short on the sides and a little longer on the top, had a square jaw sporting a five-o’clock shadow at three in the afternoon, and umber colored eyes with gold flecks in them. Not that she’d noticed or anything. Who was she kidding? Of course, she had. Just like it was clear that he’d stared at her when they were talking. He probably thought she was a hot mess, pulling up in her ’I definitely work at home and you’re lucky I’m not in my pajamas’ outfit.
While he was perfectly put together… in his Army fatigues. Which meant he was off limits. At least to her. She’d been living in St. Judith long enough to know that men and women in the military were never around for very long. Between deployments and reassignments to other bases, they weren’t the stick-around type.
That just wouldn’t work for Cameron. She needed someone who was here to stay, but she hoped for Lizzie’s sake that Alex and Mariana stuck around for a long time.
“Mariana and I want to have a sleepover this weekend? Can we, Mom? Please.”
Cameron turned onto their street. “I don’t know. Let me discuss it with your grandmother first.”
“Yay. Thanks, Mom. Did you see Mr. Sanchez’s uniform? I guess he’s not Mr. Sanchez. I’ll have to ask Mariana what I should call him. What if he’s a general and I can call him General Sanchez? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
Cameron was always amazed at the speed at which her daughter could shift gears. From talking about a sleepover one minute, back to Alex in another.
“M-ooo-mmmm, did you hear me? I was talking about Mariana’s dad and how he’s in the Army.”
“Yes, honey, I know he’s in the Army.”
“Wasn’t he so nice?”
And handsome. But Cameron couldn’t, no, she wouldn’t, go there. She would not remember how he’d smiled at her when he realized their daughters were friends. Or how gentle and sweet he was with Mariana. Those butterflies in her stomach needed a stern talking to. She was not attracted to the tall, handsome soldier. She just couldn’t be.
And why was Lizzie was going on about Alex, anyway? She’d met any number of parents of her friends before. Then again, Mariana was her best friend. Lizzie had never declared someone her best friend before. That meant Cameron would be seeing more of Alex, because of course she wanted to know the parents of her daughter’s friends.
Cameron pulled into the driveway and mentally reviewed what she had to do: conference call, debug web site, walk the dog, make dinner, shower.
Perhaps little miss “Forgot My Project” needed to help out a bit tonight since she’d contributed to Cameron’s time crunch. “How about you go let Boomer out? He probably wasn’t happy to be shut up in his crate while I was gone.”
But had she… put him in his crate?
Uh-oh.
Cameron opened the front door of the house slowly, afraid of what she would find on the other side, and Lizzie darted past her.
“Mom, Boomer got out. Again.”
“Argh!” Cameron flung the door open and stepped into the living room. The couch cushion had been dragged onto the floor, stuffing protruding from a hole that hadn’t been there when she left. The living room looked like an early snow, with flecks of white all over her carpet.
And no dog in sight.
She hurried through the house. There was no telling what their beloved pest had gotten into now. “Boomer. Where are you?”
Lizzie’s voice echoed from the back of the house. “Mom. In here.”
Cameron hurried into the kitchen where Lizzie was standing in front of the open door to the back yard. “Did you open that door, honey?”
“No.” Lizzie giggled. “Boomer did it.”
How in the heck had he managed to master the latch? “Well, go get him.” He’d never opened one of the outside doors before. Had the dang mutt grown thumbs?
She didn’t really need to ask. It was no surprise that he’d stepped up his tricks. That dog was constantly jiggling the hook loose on his crate. He loved to escape and curl up in her favorite recliner, which wouldn’t be so bad, but Boomer was not a great smelling dog.
Nothing like a waft of dog stink when she sank into her favorite chair at the end of a long day.
Lizzie dragged Boomer in from the back yard. His fur was covered in splotches of dark brown mud
. White fuzz from her couch cushion hung out of his mouth as did… “What in the heck did you eat, Boomer?”
A rumble started deep in his chest, and Boomer let out a huge belch. And then proceeded to throw up all over the floor.
“Boomer!” Lizzie cried and ran behind Cameron. “You stink.”
While Lizzie hopped up on a kitchen chair and Cameron fumbled for paper towels, Cameron’s mom stepped into the house from the garage, her face glowing from her refreshing spa treatment. At least someone in this family had had a good day. “What is happening here?”
Before Cameron could get a word in, Lizzie launched into an extensive diatribe. “I missed the bus and Mom had to come pick me up and Boomer got out and then he puked on the floor and you should have seen Mariana’s dad. He’s so cool and he’s in the Army and was wearing his uniform.”
Her mom set her purse on the counter and snatched a couple of paper towels off the roll. “In the Army, huh?
Of everything that Lizzie spouted off about, that was what Mom chose to home in on? Nothing about the dog throwing up on the kitchen floor… or the fact Lizzie missed the bus.
Lizzie and Mom kept up a steady chatter while Cameron wiped up the dog puke. Boomer ambled over to his bed, curled up, and rested his giant head on his paws, as if he hadn’t just emptied the contents of his stomach onto her kitchen floor. At least it wasn’t on the carpet. There wasn’t enough stain remover in the world for this mess.
By the time she finished cleaning up, Lizzie had disappeared, and Mom was pulling a frying pan out of the cabinet. “So, tell me about Mariana’s dad.”
“Alex Sanchez. Mariana missed the bus, too, so he was picking her up. Mariana’s the girl Lizzie has been talking about constantly for the past few weeks, so I guess it was about time to meet him. He had come from work and was wearing his uniform and it seems that’s all Lizzie can talk about.” Cameron downplayed it as much as possible. All of it. She tossed the last antibacterial wipe into the trash rather than meet her mom’s gaze. She couldn’t risk Mom realizing Cameron had been just as impressed with Alex as her daughter.
“Oh, really?” Mom widened her eyes in that way she did when she was trying to get more information from Cameron.
“Lizzie and his daughter Mariana are talking about having a sleepover this weekend, if that’s all right with you?”
“I think it’s great that Lizzie wants to have her friend over. And while they’re here, you and Mariana’s handsome father can go have dinner. I’ll watch the girls.”
“I didn’t say he was handsome.” Shoot, Cameron had fallen into Mom’s trap again.
Mom patted Cameron on the hand before opening the fridge. “Whatever you say, honey.”
Cameron’s phone dinged faintly from another room. She vaguely recalled dropping her purse beside the front door as she tried to find Boomer. Cameron glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Oh, no. My call.”
* * *
Cameron climbed into bed hours later and grabbed her journal off her nightstand. Today had been a disaster—start to finish. She wasn’t even sure how to describe it. As she flipped to a blank page, her gaze landed on the list that she had tucked into the back of her journal more than a year ago, when she’d first considered dating again after all these years. She’d revised it from time to time, considering the qualities in a man she wanted to date. After the debacle that was her whirlwind relationship with Josh, she was determined to make better, more sensible choices about the men in her life. Regardless, she couldn’t help the doubts from creeping in that it was something about her that made him leave.
She scanned the entirely reasonable items on the list such as: responsible, good with kids. She mentally added a few frivolous items, mentally assessing Alex with each addition. Handsome: check. Tall: check. Great smile: check. Down at the bottom of her list, though, as if she’d been afraid to write it, was: permanence.
And that right there was the deal breaker. Alex was in the Army. Members of the military moved around. Anyone living in Northern Virginia knew that.
She didn’t even need to look at the rest of the list. She tucked the paper back into her journal and then stared at a blank page. But Alex’s face popped into her mind. She slammed her journal shut. No way was she writing about today. Putting her feelings on paper would make the fact that she was attracted to him real.
Chapter Two
Alex shifted the bottle of wine into his left hand and rested his right hand on Mariana’s back. He felt a bit creepy, walking up to a strange house to have dinner with a woman he’d barely met. But Mariana said Lizzie’s mom had suggested a dinner to “get to know each other” before the big sleepover. Since they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers, it made sense that she’d had Lizzie ask Mariana.
There were no lights shining in the windows of Cameron’s house. Had something come up? He’d be glad to reschedule for another day, one when he was a little more prepared to see the woman who’d occupied his thoughts since he’d met her at school.
But the same little red Corolla that had dashed into the parking lot two days ago sat in the driveway. That didn’t bode well for his quick escape.
“Mariana, are you sure we’re invited for dinner tonight?”
Mariana hurried across the driveway and onto the sidewalk. “I’m positive, Daddy.”
“Next time, just give Lizzie my number and have her mom call me?” Better yet, he’d take care of that tonight, himself. But it was a bit too late now. “And that phone is for emergencies, not for socializing.”
“Now I can use it for emergencies and to, you know, talk about homework and stuff. Besides, you’re going to love Mrs. Baldwin. She is so cool. She made the best cupcakes for our September birthday party. And she always writes cute notes and puts them in Lizzie’s lunchbox. I wish I had a mom like that.”
Alex came to a dead stop and turned to Mariana. He crouched down so he could look her in the eye. “Honey, have you been thinking about your mom recently?”
Mariana’s gaze dropped to her feet. “A little. I was just thinking that it would be nice to have a mom again. Someone to braid my hair, to go shopping with. I mean, I know you do those things with me, but it’s not the same as having a mom.”
He pulled his daughter to him. She’d been five when Valentina died. They talked about Valentina a lot in the days and weeks after her death, but when Mariana stopped asking, Alex stopped bringing her up. Since her mom had clearly been on Lizzie’s mind recently, it must be time for more discussion. “I know you miss her, honey. So do I.”
Mariana was a tweener now, and in a few years, she’d be a full-fledged teenager, with teenage girl problems. He was so not ready for this. Soon she’d want to date boys. Oh, geez. This single parenting thing was not for the weak.
Mariana broke away from him and hurried up the walk with a spring in her step. As if they hadn’t just shared a serious moment. He could not figure this girl out sometimes. “Just think, if you and Mrs. Baldwin got married, she could be my mom.”
Wait, what? Here he was worried about Mariana and she was trying to marry him off to Cameron. And it was too late to ask Mariana what was up, because she was already stabbing her finger on the doorbell. Several times.
He stepped onto the porch beside her. “Mariana, that’s enough. I think the entire neighborhood heard the bell.”
The door swung open. Cameron stood on the other side, wearing a multi-colored blouse tucked into a straight skirt that hit just above her knees. Her heels highlighted long legs that had been hidden beneath yoga pants the other day.
She tilted her head and her brows darted together, like she wasn’t expecting them. “Alex?”
Alex’s gaze shot to Mariana, who was scanning behind Cameron. Likely looking for her partner in crime. “We’re here for dinner?”
"Lizzie. Lizzie!”
“Yeah, Mom?” Lizzie yelled from somewhere inside the house.
“Mr. Sanchez is here. With Mariana. For dinner.” Cameron turned back to them
. “I’m sorry, Alex. Come on in.”
Now that he was ninety-nine percent sure Cameron had no idea they were coming over, he leaned down so his mouth was right next to Mariana’s ear. “Just wait until we get home, young lady.”
He stepped into Cameron’s house and shut the door behind him. The entryway led to a living room with comfortable furniture that faced a fireplace. Clothes littered the room like a laundry parade.
Yep. Cameron definitely hadn’t been expecting company. How in the heck was he going to escape this situation without embarrassing anybody?
“Mariana!” Lizzie appeared beside her mother, and his daughter threw her arms around her friend. The girls hurried out of the room before he could stop them.
He shoved his hands in his pockets. Right now, he wanted to be anywhere but here.
A huge, white dog ambled into the room, sniffed at his shoes, and then meandered over to the kitchen doorway and laid down.
“That’s Boomer. I hope you’re not allergic to dogs. Um, give me a minute.” Cameron rushed around the room, grabbed clothes off the floor, and flung them into a basket that she furiously shoved into a closet on the back wall. The door started to fall open and she leaned her back against it and rammed it closed. She sighed when the latch finally clicked.
“No allergies here.” The best thing to do would be to ignore everything that had happened since he’d walked in the door. That was what he would want if someone had showed up unannounced at his house. And his house definitely resembled Cameron’s on any given day. “I think I owe you an apology. Mariana told me that we were invited for dinner. It appears that we’ve been hoodwinked by a couple of ten-year-olds.”
Cameron shook her head and fought a smile. “Lizzie texted me when she got home from school and told me Grandma would take care of dinner. I was in a meeting and was happy I didn’t have to cook. But then I got home and dinner hadn’t been started and my mom ran out the door so fast, I didn’t have a chance to get an update. And then you were ringing the bell.”
Mommy Loves The Military Man (Mommy's Little Matchmakers Book 2) Page 2