Stumble into Love

by Megan Hart

  "What's my name?"

  She shot another quick glance at him. "David Mulder."

  Hal wrote down the name. "Interesting."

  Laila's full mouth turned down in a frown. "My mother asked me when I was watching a rerun of The X-Files. I was caught off guard."

  "Do I look like a David?"

  Traffic had slowed to a stop at a bottleneck, and Laila took the moment to look at him fully. Her gaze was frank and assessing, her expression serious. Now he could see that the eyes he'd so admired were not brown as he'd first thought, but a deep, rich caramel. Why was everything about her reminding him of food?

  "No," she said finally. "You look like a Hal. But for this week you'll be a David anyway."

  "And how did we meet?"

  "Six months ago, you came to a meeting at my office and asked me out to dinner. We've been together ever since."

  He knew, from the information sheet she'd filled out for LoveMatch, that she worked for Concentric Health Care. "So I'm an insurance agent?"

  "Oh, no." Laila shook her head, making her sleek hair bounce around her shoulders. "You're a doctor."

  How was he going to pull that off? "As in MD?"

  "Of course. You think I'd marry anything less?" Her tone was light and self-mocking, but he detected an undertone of sadness to it.

  "Okay. What kind of doctor am I?" Hal's hand was getting a cramp from writing all this down.

  "Proctologist."

  "What?" He paused in his writing. "Never mind."

  "I've given them the idea you're a nice, upstanding citizen, but not much more information than that." Laila sighed.

  I can show them my bar mitzvah picture if they want."

  "Your--" She stopped and gave him a glance. "You're Jewish?"

  "Is that a problem?"

  "No. It's perfect. When you see my family, you'll understand. So what's a nice Jewish boy like you doing as a male escort anyway?" Laila asked as they took the highway out of the city.

  "I wanted the chance to bring some joy into the hearts of lovely ladies like yourself," he said, giving the patent LoveMatch answer.

  Laila snorted. "And your real reason is?"

  "I need the money," Hal admitted. "But don't tell Muriel I told you."

  "Your secret is safe with me."

  He liked her sense of humor. "And I do like meeting women like you."

  He could tell by the way her hands tightened on the steering wheel that he'd touched a nerve. "You mean desperate ones?"

  "You don't look desperate to me."

  Laila sighed. "Well, I am. I love my family, God knows, but I'm just tired of The Question."

  He could hear the words capitalized in her tone. "The Question?"

  "'When are you going to settle down, give us some more grandchildren?'" Laila sighed again, irritably, tapping her fingers on the wheel. "Don't they know it's not that easy?"

  "But you want to get married," Hal offered.

  "Sure," Laila said. "Who doesn't?"

  "Lots of people don't."

  "Don't you?"

  He shrugged. "I'd have to give up LoveMatch."

  Now she laughed out loud again. "Heaven forbid."

  "I was married once," Hal said. The admission surprised him. His marriage to Cassie wasn't something he usually talked about.

  Laila wasn't laughing any more. She cleared her throat. "Oh?"

  "It--it didn't work out," Hal said stiffly.

  Laila knew when to back off. They drove in silence for a few minutes. Hal wrapped up his sandwich. Suddenly he didn't feel like eating any more.

  By the time they'd pulled into the long driveway of the lodge where the family celebration was taking place, Laila's shoulders and neck ached from the long drive. They were two hours late. She never should have let Hal play navigator. Men were notoriously bad at admitting they were lost. Hal, apparently, was all male.

  She parked at the main building, a lovely Victorian mansion hung with twinkling icicle lights. Now her entire body was tense with the thought of actually trying to make this work. She might be able to fool her brothers, and maybe her sister. Possibly even her mother, who was just so glad to hear she had found someone. But fool Bubbe Esther? The woman was eighty years old and still as sharp as a tack.

  "Are you going to be all right?"

  Hal squeezed her hand. The unexpected warmth of his fingers against hers sent a tingling shock all the way to her toes. The kindness in his question made her throat feel thick with teary gratitude.

  She shook it off and extricated her hand. "We might as well get it over with. Are you ready?"

  He nodded. "When you are."

  "They'll probably all be inside...waiting." She made no move to open the car door and get out. Laila leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, gathering her strength.

  "C'mon," Hal said. "They can't be that bad."

  "You'll see," Laila said.

  Hal's response was gentle. "Not if we don't get in there."

  He was right. She opened one eye to peek at him. "I hope LoveMatch is paying you enough to get through this week."

  "It will be my pleasure, I'm sure."

  His reply could have sounded smarmy or insincere, but Laila found herself believing him. His words sent another warm tingle through her. Despite the way he seemed to attract destruction, she was very glad she'd picked him instead of muscle-bound Rick.

  They got out of the car together and stared up the short but steep flight of stairs to the wraparound front porch. In warmer weather, it would be nice to sit on the rockers up there, but Laila shivered at the thought of sitting outside tonight. It was getting downright cold.

  Laila led the way, readying herself for the onslaught she expected as soon as they stepped through the etched glass doors. I love my family, she reminded herself. And they meant well. And she didn't want to disappoint them, which was why she was why she'd hired Hal in the first place. So why did she feel so guilty?

  Just before they entered the hotel, Hal tucked her hand into his. Before she had time to feel uncomfortable with the sudden, intimate contact, he'd tugged her forward. Inside.

  "Laila, bubbeleh!" Bubbe Esther rose from where she'd been holding court in the luxuriously appointed lobby. "You made it!"

  "Finally," said Laila's brother Eli from his place at the bar. He tipped a mug of what Laila knew had to be cider toward her. "We've been waiting dinner on you for hours!"

  "Hush," Laila's mother Irene scolded her oldest child. "She's here now."

  "Come in, come in," called Zayde Saul from Esther's side. "Warm yourselves up.It's colder than a witch's you-know-what out there."

  Even though her other siblings and their families weren't there, the crowd seemed overwhelming. For a fleeting moment, Laila wanted to turn and run. She'd never make them believe Hal was her fiancé, and she'd disappoint them all. Then Hal slipped his hand from hers and put his arm around her shoulders. Squeezing her. Giving her unspoken support.

  "And so, who's this handsome man with you, huh?" Esther demanded regally. She tipped her head to look over her glasses at him. "Introduce us already."

  "Bubbe, Mom, everyone," Laila said. "This is David Mulder, my--my--" That was it. She was choking on the words.

  "I'm the lucky man Laila has agreed to marry," Hal said smoothly. He stepped forward to shake Saul Alster's hand. Laila's grandfather returned the shake with a hearty clap on Hal's shoulder.

  Her family swarmed around him, descending on him like the biblical plague of locusts. Hal shook hands, endured teasing comments and generally made his way through the massive group by smiling and nodding. Watching him, Laila began to breathe easier. It was going to be all right. Hal was charming them already.

  "I'm glad you finally brought your mystery man to meet us. Mom and I were beginning to think you'd invented him." Laila's sister Ruth smiled to show she was just teasing and gave her a one-armed squeeze. She nodded toward Hal, now being grilled by their brother, Michael, and his wife, Hannah.

  L
aila's laugh was brief. "As if!"

  Ruth shrugged. "Well, I'm just glad you brought him. It's going to be a great week! The kids are all so anxious to meet their new uncle."

  Like the kids have a clue, Laila thought, but fondly. Ruth's two boys Henry and Noah were four and six respectively. Even as she thought their names, they hurtled themselves from across the room toward her.

  "Aunt Laila!"

  She rocked backward from the force of their enthusiastic greeting then knelt to hug and kiss them both. "You smell like chlorine."

  "We were swimming," Henry said solemnly.

  Noah grinned, showing missing spaces where he'd lost teeth. "The pool is just the coolest, Aunt Laila! It's got buckets that fill up and pour out right on your head!"

  "Sounds fun," she said and grabbed each of them for another kiss and hug.

  "We're starving," Henry told her. "You taked forever to get here."

  "Now you sound like Uncle Eli." Laila ruffled each boy's head and stood again. "Go find your cousins."

  Noah wrinkled his nose. "Oh, those girls."

  Laila laughed and tweaked his nose. When the boys rushed off, Hal suddenly appeared by her side. He was still smiling, so the first introductions couldn't have been too bad.

  "Hi, honey," he said and slipped his hand into hers again. This time the feeling of his fingers against hers didn't seem so strange. In fact, Laila was growing to enjoy this casual contact. It had been a long time since anyone other than a child had held her hand.

  "Dinner!" Bubbe Esther was calling to everyone. "Let's eat!"

  Hal's stomach rumbled and Laila squeezed his hand. "I hope you're hungry. It's apt to be quite a spread."

  "Always." Hal's fingers squeezed hers back.

  For a minute, his eyes locked on hers and all Laila could do was stare back at him. Funny, but she hadn't noticed that behind his glasses was a pair of vivid green eyes sparkling with good humor. Kind eyes. And, she thought with a bit of shock, sexy eyes.

  "Wait, Laila." Esther waved the others into the dining room. "You two can't go to the dining room dressed like that. This place is classy."

  The old lady grinned and indicated her sparkling, sequined dress. "See? They even got me all duded up. You'll have to change. Why don't you two head down to your room and put something else on? We can wait a few more minutes."

  "If that's what you want us to do," Hal said graciously.

  Esther reached up and pinched his cheek. "Such a nice boy. Already you know how to kiss up to Bubbe Esther. Smart!"

  "All right," Laila agreed. "We'll check into our rooms--"

  "Room," Bubbe Esther said.

  "Bubbe?" Laila frowned.

  "We just got you one, bubbeleh. This place is full for the whole week with everyone here, and we had to conserve space. So we figured, you're a grown woman now. With a fiancé." Esther sent another smile to Hal. "Your Zayde and I are modern thinkers. It's all right with us!"

  But it wasn't all right with Laila. Holding hands and calling each other honey was one thing...but sharing a room? She could say nothing about it, though, because any protests would sound strange.

  "Thanks, Bubbe," she said instead, and pressed a kiss to her grandmother's wrinkled cheek. "We'll go change."

  "Those great grandkids of mine are running on candy and caffeine. Oy! Their poor parents. They're driving us all meshuggeneh!" Esther winked. "Don't get sidetracked."

  With that last comment, she swept away toward the dining room.

  Sidetracked? Laila wanted to crawl into the ground and die. Getting sex advice from her grandmother had to be the lowlight of her love life. She dared not look at Hal. With burning cheeks, Laila led the way to the main desk to check in.

  To their room. Room!

  Chapter 3

  Dinner was chaos and cacophony. Laila's family was loud, affectionate and boisterous. The kids--five nephews and seven nieces--flung food when they thought they could get away with it and whapped each other with their napkins when they thought they couldn't. Her brothers and sister argued back and forth over childhood memories. Her mother refused to take sides. And over it all, Bubbe and Zayde reigned like royalty.

  Hal loved every minute of it. As an only child of only children, he hadn't grown up with family all around. Even though he knew this was just a job, a sham, it was nice to pretend for a few hours that he belonged to this family. Besides, with all that was going on, nobody seemed to notice or care he was just as accident prone as the children.

  "Get some sleep," Esther was saying to everyone. "Tomorrow, the real fun starts!"

  Ruth carried her son Henry, whose eyes were bleary with sleep. "I hope you like being run ragged, David. My grandmother is notorious for planning fun-packed vacations."

  "I'm sure it's going to be great." Hal ruffled Henry's hair. "Good night, Henry."

  The little boy smiled sleepily and Ruth laughed. "See you in the morning."

  Though he'd sat next to Laila during dinner, they hadn't had much time to talk. Now the lobby slowly quieted as people returned to their rooms or sought out further entertainment at the lodge's nightly show. Laila sank down into one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace, which now crackled with flames.

  In the orange light, her dark hair gleamed with red and gold highlights. She stared pensively into the flames, her chin in her hand. Hal took a seat across from her.

  "So," he said, then faltered. He knew he should start the conversation using one of the pre-approved LoveMatch topics, but nothing seemed appropriate when Laila looked so thoughtful. "Your family seems nice."

  She glanced around the room, checking to see if they were alone before replying. "They're great. They're just a little too involved with my life."

  Hal thought about his own parents, divorced now for ten years, and the way his phone never rang from either one of them. "You make that sound like a bad thing."

  Laila sighed. "I just wish they'd understand that my life is mine, that’s all. I'm not any more thrilled that I'm not married with kids than they are--but I am more resigned to it."

  "You sound like you don't think you'll ever get married."

  She picked at some threads on her sweater. "It's hard meeting the right person."

  She must really have loved her boyfriend, Hal thought, and decided to lighten the mood.

  "That's why there's LoveMatch," he said with a grin. "We make it easy for you."

  She cast him a dubious look. "Sure, if you're willing to pay for him. Don't tell me any of the clients actually end up marrying the escorts."

  "Not usually, no," he admitted. "But then, most of the women who come to LoveMatch aren't looking for a husband."

  "No, I guess not." She sat back in the chair, and now the firelight made flickering shadows of her eyes. "It's late. We should go to bed."

  He knew she meant her words in the most innocent of ways, but they still made his stomach twist. She'd hired him only to pretend he loved her, but he wondered what it would really be like in Laila's arms. She was by far the prettiest client he'd ever had with her sleek dark hair and clear brown eyes. Her mouth, generous in proportion to her other small features, was now pursed in a tiny grimace he thought might be trepidation. She was thinking about sharing the room.

  They'd only been in the room for the ten minutes before dinner that it took to change their clothes. Laila had changed in the bathroom, Hal in the main room. He hadn't had time to really check it out thoroughly, but one thing he knew for sure. One room, one bed.

  "It is late," Hal said. "And your sister mentioned something at dinner about horseback riding tomorrow morning? Early?"

  "Oh, yeah," Laila said distractedly. She stood. "We'd better go."

  From the main lodge, they followed the brick path through well-tended grounds and passed the other lodge buildings until they reached theirs. Each room opened to the outside. When Laila slipped the old fashioned key into the door and swung it open, she paused at the threshold. From behind her, Hal couldn't see her expression, bu
t the way she squared her shoulders before entering told him she was still feeling nervous. Laila carefully put the key on the table just inside the door and paused awkwardly before crossing to the Victorian love seat and sitting.

  "Well," she said. "Um."

  He sat down beside her so she'd have to look at him. Was it his imagination, or did she shrink slightly away? Hal's courses at LoveMatch had played just this scenario, but it had been a seduction scene. Somehow, he doubted that's what Laila had in mind.

  "I'll sleep here on the couch," he offered.

  Her look of relief was almost tangible. "Yes, that would be best."

  Disappointment panged him. If Laila had hired Rick, nobody would be sleeping on the couch. Or sleeping much at all, Hal was pretty sure.

  "Do you want to use the bathroom first?"

  "Thanks." She smiled. "For everything. But it's only going to get harder as the week goes on."

  Seeing the curve of her lips, Hal knew she was right about that. But not for the reasons she thought. Dealing with Laila's family was going to be easy. Being this close to her without wanting her was going to be torture.

  The bathroom had no shower, only a charming claw foot tub painted with vivid pink roses. The entire room echoed the pink rose theme with Victorian cherub prints on the wall and pale pink rosebud wallpaper. The toilet was the old-fashioned kind with a pull-chain, and the pedestal sink had lovely, old porcelain fixtures.

  It was the sort of bathroom Laila would thoroughly enjoy...if she hadn't been so caught up thinking about the man waiting for her just outside the door. Quickly, she washed her face and brushed her teeth, then slipped on the flannel boxers and oversized t-shirt she wore for pajamas. She scolded herself when she caught herself thinking she wished she had something a little more feminine.

  "I didn't hire him to be my lover," she muttered as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail. "Just to pretend to be."

  She was ready. Her hand hesitated on the doorknob. Hal is a nice man, she told herself. A professional. Ms. Whitehead had assured her that hiring a LoveMatch escort meant complete peace of mind. He would behave appropriately at all times. What seemed appropriate was entirely up to her.