Snoops in the City (A Romantic Comedy)

by Darlene Gardner

  "They've been like this all night," Lorelei said. "They sure are spunky."

  "What they are is overtired." Wade checked his watch. "It's more than an hour past their bedtime."

  "Wow, they sure go to sleep early," Lorelei exclaimed. "It's barely past nine-thirty."

  He rubbed his brow. "You don't spend much time around kids, do you?"

  He saw her defenses rise. Her back seemed to arch.

  "I may not spend much time with children, but that doesn't mean I don't like them. Or that I'm not good with them. Or that I wouldn't date a man who has them. I'm willing to consider new things, different things. Unlike some people in this room."

  Mary Kate got up, scrambled onto the overstuffed sofa and jumped up and down on it. Ashley gave a nearby chair the same treatment.

  "Roo roo," Mary Kate yelled.

  "Roo," echoed her sister.

  Wade caught a jumping Mary Kate on the way up and held on tight as she squirmed in his arms. "Look, I need to get the girls to bed."

  "I'll help," Lorelei declared. "After they're asleep, we can finish our conversation about how you should try new things."

  "We had that conversation at the pizza parlor."

  "That was a lecture.” She tossed her long, blond hair. "You talked, I listened. I have some things to say, too."

  "I’m busy," he said firmly.

  He moved toward the chair but Ashley saw him coming and ran around the coffee table.

  "Can't catch me, Daddy," she cried gleefully.

  "As I've already said, I'll help.” Lorelei lunged for Ashley. She caught her under the arms, lifted her into the air and gave her belly a noisy kiss. The little girl giggled hysterically.

  "Quieting them down would be helping," Wade said wryly.

  Lorelei's giggle erupted from her like music. "Sorry. I’ll do better.”

  "Again," Ashley demanded. "Again."

  Lorelei gave his daughter's belly another raspberry kiss, resulting in another bout of laughter.

  "Correction.” Lorelei smiled at him. "I'll do better starting now."

  He tried not to smile back, the better not to encourage her, but he couldn't help himself.

  She set a still-laughing Ashley down on the floor.

  "Last one upstairs is a rotten egg," Lorelei shouted, kicking off her high heels and racing Ashley for the stairs.

  "Let down, Daddy.” Mary Kate pounded her small fists against his chest. Resigned to trying to put excitable kids to bed, he set his daughter down so she could chase after Lorelei and her sister.

  "Run, Daddy!" Mary Kate called over her shoulder.

  What the heck, he thought, before pantomiming a chase. He followed Mary Kate up the stairs, careful to stay a step behind her, accepting that he’d be the rotten egg.

  ***

  A SOLID HOUR LATER, Wade bent down to pick up the dainty high-heeled shoes that Lorelei had shed before racing the girls upstairs. He didn't usually find shoes sexy, but these were red as well as backless.

  "I don't get it," Lorelei said after she'd taken the shoes from him. "Why do you want me to put on my shoes?"

  "Because you're leaving." He leveled her with the stare he used at work when he wanted an order followed.

  "Am not." She threw the shoes back down so they fell in a haphazard heap. "We agreed to finish that talk about how you're going to stop being such a stick in the mud. Besides, I have a present for you."

  "I didn't agree. . ." he began. "I am not a stick in the. . . You got me a present?"

  "A couple of them." She crossed the room, retrieved a Macy's bag from the sofa and dug inside it. "I can return them if they don't fit. I'm pretty sure they will, though. The salesman was about your size, though not as broad, so I made an educated guess." She pulled out two shirts and handed them to him. "How'd I do?"

  She'd nailed the size but no way would he keep the shirts. "I can't accept these," he said, trying to hand them back.

  She laced her fingers together and rested her joined hands under her chin. "No offense, babe, because you know I think you are one. You wear ugly shirts. These babies are DKNY. The paisley poplin would look great with gray slacks. The squiggle print's pink so it'll go with anything. Trust me. You need these."

  "I can pay for my own shirts—," he began.

  "Don't worry about it. I put them on credit."

  "And I can buy clothes for Mary Kate and Ashley when they need them."

  "Don't tell me you're trying to get me to take the dresses back, too.” Her face developed a pinched, hurt look. Darn it.

  "Okay. The girls can keep the dresses but you're not paying for my shirts." The corners of her lips turned downward. "Not that I don't appreciate you buying them for me," he added. He glanced down at the two shirts and lied. "You have very good taste."

  She sniffed. "I know."

  "How about I keep the shirts and write you a check." He located his checkbook and picked up a pen. "How much?"

  She hesitated, then sighed. "A hundred fifty dollars."

  "You paid seventy-five dollars a piece for these?"

  "You've got to pay for quality.” She sounded more hurt by the second. "Look, if you don't want the shirts, I'll take them back."

  "I want them.” He hoped God wouldn’t strike him down for lying. He wrote the check and handed it to her. She took it, folded it and slipped it into the back pocket of her very tight skirt, which outlined her very nicely shaped behind.

  "I'm ready to have that talk now," she said.

  "What talk?"

  "The one about you being a stick in the mud."

  "I am not a—," he began.

  She was no longer listening. She breezed into the family room, giving him no choice but to follow, and plopped down on his leather recliner. It figured she'd take over his favorite seat.

  "Gosh, those girls of yours have such energy," she said. "The way they leapt from bed to bed even made me tired."

  She yawned and stretched her arms above her head, the motion outlining her breasts in vivid detail. Wade stopped in the center of the room, well short of where temptation sat. When he crossed his arms over his chest, he noticed his shirt was soggy.

  "That's not a usual part of their bedtime routine." he said. Neither was exuberantly splashing their father and each other as they took a bath.

  "Routines are boring," Lorelei declared.

  He thought of the toys strewn around the house, the grape-juice stain on the carpet and the soiled clothing Lorelei had left in a pile in the sink.

  "Young children need a routine," he stated.

  She jumped to her feet and sharply saluted him. "Sir, yes sir."

  His mouth twisted. "Are you mocking me?"

  "Mocking you?" Her eyebrows rose. "I'm trying to get you to lighten up. Like you did upstairs for a half-second or so at a time. It was fun, wasn't it?"

  "I'm the one who'll pay for all that fun tomorrow morning when the girls are too tired to get out of bed for preschool."

  "You're exaggerating," Lorelei said.

  "Then you try getting them up tomorrow morning."

  She gave him a suggestive grin. "Are you inviting me to stay overnight?"

  "No." He thrust aside an image of her lying naked in his bed, beckoning him with an index finger that had its nail painted decadently red.

  "Why not? We decided you needed to try new things."

  "That's what you decided. I decided you're way too young for me."

  "You can be such a fuddy-duddy.” Lorelei closed the gap between them. Without her high heels, the top of her head didn't reach his chin. A blast of perfume hit him when she got close, making him want to sneeze. He wanted to reach for her more.

  "Look at how your arms are crossed over your chest. Which is a crying shame because it's such a very fine chest. I'm pretty good at body language and that tells me you're not open-minded.” She threw up her hands. "You've totally closed yourself off to new possibilities."

  He uncrossed his arms. Because he didn't trust his hands not
to take what they wanted, he kept them at his side.

  "There," he said, "are you satisfied?"

  Her eyes sparkled. "Not even close."

  His body hardened. "Look, Lorelei. You're a very attractive girl, but I'm not interested in a relationship with you."

  "I'm a woman, not a girl," she corrected, then arched an eyebrow before deliberately staring at his crotch. The bulge in his pants was unmistakable. "And if you're not interested, then what's that all about?"

  He briefly closed his eyes, trying to fight the overpowering attraction. "Do you have to say such outrageous things?"

  "They're not outrageous. They're spontaneous. Everybody knows spontaneity is the spice of life."

  She took a step closer to him and walked her long-nailed fingers up his chest until they reached his lips. Almost reverently, she traced the shape of them.

  His body throbbed, his heart hammered and he felt a bead of sweat form on his upper lip. Her mischievous eyes, with their heavily mascaraed lashes, lifted to his.

  "Go ahead, Wade," she whispered in a voice that sounded like sin and sex. "Be spontaneous and kiss me."

  Lust hit him like an ocean wave during a storm. He tried to hold it back but another wave of need followed. Ah, heck. How was he supposed to fight a tsunami?

  He fastened a hand at the back of her blond head, lowered his mouth. . . and felt something tug at his pant leg. His head's forward motion stopped a few inches from Lorelei’s lips.

  "Daddy," a small voice said. "Wanna drink of water."

  He abruptly let go of Lorelei and stepped back, as though guilty of a heinous crime. Ashley's sleepy green eyes held no accusation. Say something, he told himself, but stood there like a big, dumb mute.

  Lorelei crouched down to Ashley's level and smoothed his daughter's hair. "You've got rotten timing, Ash. I'll get you a drink of water. Then you can go back upstairs."

  "Want Daddy come with me," Ashley said on a plaintive note.

  Lorelei appeared about to protest. Then she smiled and kissed the top of the little girl's head.

  "A lot of us girls want your daddy, honey," she said. "Tell you what, you can have him tonight. I'll take a raincheck."

  Lorelei’s hot gaze met his over the top of his daughter's head, making promises he'd have no business taking her up on.

  He broke eye contact and wiped at his brow. He needed to put some distance between them and to get a good night's sleep.

  Maybe then he'd be strong enough to resist what he was still quite sure he shouldn't want.

  CHAPTE R TWENTY

  "Hey, Lorelei. You sure do look pretty this morning." Grady smothered his shock that his sister was at Palmer Construction headquarters before most of his office staff. And, miracle of miracles, she was working. Again.

  Lorelei stood with her back to him at a tall, thin cabinet, a stack of manila folders balanced between her body and the crook of her elbow as though she were actually filing.

  "Whatever you want, the answer's no," she said without turning around while she shoved a file folder into place.

  "How do you know I want something?"

  "Besides the fact that you complimented me while looking at the back of my head? Oh, let's see. How 'bout that sugary tone of voice?"

  "I was shooting for buttery," he admitted.

  She closed one file drawer and opened another, still not looking at him. "I don't know what makes you think you can refuse to tell me what's going on between you and Mom and Dad one day, let alone call me self-absorbed—"

  "I said you were a little self-absorbed and only because you forced my hand," he interrupted.

  "—and think you can waltz in here the next day and sweet-talk me so I'll do whatever you ask."

  She crammed a couple more file folders in place before slamming the door with a bang and turning to face him.

  "Because I'm not. . ." She stopped in mid-sentence, tilted her too-blond head and pointed to the cardboard carrier in his right hand. "What do you have there?"

  "I'll show you.” Grady lifted the nearly weightless carrier onto a nearby desk. He talked in soothing tones as he bent down and reached inside for his new pet. "It's okay, girl. There's nothing to be afraid of."

  When Gordo was free of the carrier, she blinked a few times and looked nervously around at her new surroundings. Grady picked up the little cat with one hand and held her out to his sister.

  "Lorelei, meet Gordo," he said.

  Lorelei made a soft noise, her expression turned tender and the confrontation went out of her stance.

  "You are so cute, I could just die," Lorelei told the cat, taking her from Grady and gathering her close. "Except what kind of name is Gordo for a cutie like you?"

  "You really think she's cute?" Grady asked.

  "Of course." Lorelei stared into the cat's aggressively homely face as she petted her. "Don't you dare let any man tell you differently. Do you hear me, Gordo?"

  Grady figured he better ask his favor while the asking was good. "Then you'll take care of her for me today?"

  Lorelei's head snapped up. "For you? You mean this is your cat? Since when do you have a cat?"

  "Since this morning."

  "I thought you weren't home enough to justify getting a pet. And why a cat? With all those Westerns you watch, why not a little dogie?"

  "Ha, ha," Grady said.

  "I thought it was funny," Lorelei said. "So what gives?"

  "Tori can't keep Gordo because her lease has a no-pets clause."

  "Ahhh.” Lorelei drew out the syllable. "Tori. The plot thickens. Tell me more."

  He shrugged. "Not much more to tell. I've got to keep Gordo because taking her back to the pound would be a death sentence. Nobody else would adopt a cat that looks like her."

  An indentation appeared between Lorelei's eyebrows as she attempted to cover Gordo's ears.

  "Don't say things like that in front of her, especially because they're not true. I'd adopt her in a second if Mandy wasn't allergic to cats," she said, referring to one of her three roommates. "But I wasn't asking about Gordo. I want to know more about you and Tori."

  "Like what?"

  "Men." Lorelei made a tsking sound. "You don't date anybody for like a year and then you ask a question like that. Does she ring your bell? How serious is it? Will I see her across the dinner table at Thanksgiving? Details, big brother, I want details."

  No way would he tell Lorelei exactly how loudly Tori rang his bell or how much he looked forward to having her ring it again. She’d never shut up if he didn't say something, though.

  "We're seeing each other," he said flatly. Hoping to stop his sister from asking more questions, he zigzagged over the linoleum floor and around cubicles to his office.

  "Well, duh." Lorelei's voice came loud and clear from behind him. "I figured that out myself. Is she your girlfriend or what?"

  Grady would have dismissed the notion as ludicrous as recently as a few days ago. That had been before Tuesday night.

  "I hope so," Grady said.

  Lorelei beamed. "Oh, goody. I like her. I mean, the woman works in a department store. How cool is that? Will you ask her if she can get me a discount?"

  Grady laid down his briefcase and came across his desk to open it. The papers jammed inside reminded him that the more successful his company became, the busier he got.

  "No," he said.

  "If you're going to be that way about it, I'll ask her myself," Lorelei said. "She has to be softie if she came home from the pound with this cute, little kitty."

  "Which you'll keep an eye out for so I can get some work done." He nodded encouragingly toward the door as he took a seat behind his desk.

  "Let's go and get you set up, sweetie," she said to Gordo, bringing the cat's scrunched-up face close to hers. To Grady, she said, "I'll need the keys to your SUV."

  "For what?"

  "To get her litter box, water bowl and cat food. You’ve got those things in the SUV, right?”

  He grimaced, thinking
he'd probably left those supplies behind when he slipped out of Tori's apartment at dawn. “I’m not used to cats.”

  "Obviously.” She marched over to his desk and held out her right hand palm up. He dug out his wallet and counted out a couple bills.

  "What? You don't want me to buy her nice things?" Lorelei asked, her hand still extended. He added more money.

  He thought he'd finally gotten rid of Lorelei but then she paused at the mouth to his office. "By the way, you already had a call this morning. A Larry Schlichter."

  His body went still. This was most likely the call he'd been waiting for since Pete Aiken had claimed somebody else at City Hall wanted in on the action.

  It made sense that somebody would be Schlichter, who was Seahaven's Director of Planning.

  Aiken, the City Clerk, could only peripherally affect which construction company got the community-center contract. Aiken had taken money to open the sealed bids that came to his office, thus making sure Grady submitted the low one.

  However, a low bid didn't guarantee a winner. Schlichter headed a committee that would review the bids and make a recommendation to City Council at next week's regularly scheduled meeting.

  Grady kept his voice casual. "Did Schlichter say what he wanted?"

  "Nope. He didn't leave a number where he could be reached, either. He said you shouldn't call him, that he'd call you."

  It seemed a lot to ask, especially because Grady's patience with Operation Citygate had worn thin. At the meeting with the FBI agent that morning, he'd argued he should approach city officials rather than vice versa.

  The agent hadn't gone for it, asking Grady to wait for city employees to solicit the bribes themselves so the FBI could build a stronger case.

  If Grady amassed evidence against Schlichter, he'd be one step further up a ladder that would hopefully lead to the mayor. Then he could get his life back.

  A life he hoped would contain Tori.

  CHAPTE R TWENTY-ONE

  "I don't understand." Tori failed to keep the thick film of disappointment from coating her voice. "What am I doing here if the job has already been filled?"

  Mayor Honoria Black leaned back in her sumptuous leather chair, which was inside a lavishly decorated office that must have dearly cost the Seahaven taxpayers. The carpeting was plush, the furniture mahogany and the artwork on the walls originals.