Dating for Two (Matchmaking Mamas) (14 page)

At this point, from the feedback he was getting from A.J., he felt fairly optimistic about the case’s outcome. Apparently Wade Baker, the man suing Erin and her company, was more of a blackmailer than a wronged innovator. A.J. had told him that he was presently running down one very telling piece of information. Once that was verified, he could proceed with bringing about an end to the whole ordeal.

“I’m just calling to make sure that we’re all set for tomorrow.”

“I thought we already verified that.”

“I never take anything for granted until it’s actually happening.”

“Well, you can take this for granted. I, for one, could really use the diversion,” she told him.

He felt for her. She’d put her heart and soul into this company and now she found herself in a position where it could all come to an end through no fault of her own. He knew what it felt like to suddenly have the floor pulled out from under you, except unlike in the cartoons, the free fall came immediately, not when you finally looked down.

“It’s going to be all right, Erin,” he told her quietly, then went on to say in a more audible voice, “I can’t tell you what a transformation there’s been in Jason because of you and that dinosaur.”

And it wasn’t just in Jason’s life but in mine, as well,
he added silently.

Out loud, he said, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at ten if that’s all right with you.”

“That’ll be perfect,” she answered.

* * *

“So no full-time job to speak of?” Steve asked A.J. as he skimmed over the report that the investigator had brought him.

“None that I could find. Not since your client fired him six months ago.” A.J. leaned back in the chair as he faced Steve. “He’s gone from job to job. Three by my count. Currently, Baker’s got this part-time gig as a night watchman at the Newport Beach outdoor mall. Not exactly brain surgery—especially since he’s already been cited for sleeping on the job once.

“During the day, he gets together with a few guys he seems to be friendly with at The Main Space, this bar that’s within walking distance—or stumbling distance—of his apartment,” A.J. told him.

Steve looked at the array of candid shots the firm’s investigator had taken of Baker. He felt as if he was looking at a wasted life.

Frowning, he glanced up at A.J. “He sounds like a real winner.”

“It gets better,” A.J. said. “Baker’s been bragging to some of his so-called friends that he’s going to be coming into big money soon. He’s really counting on this thing and he’s not going to go away easily.”

Steve had to ask, though he really didn’t want to. The more he interacted with Erin, the more he found himself really liking her. He didn’t want to hear anything that would make him change his mind about her.

But as her lawyer, he had to have all the facts first. “Anything to substantiate his claim about her stealing his idea?”

“I did some digging into both their personal lives,” A.J. told him.

Steve suddenly felt as if the floor beneath his feet had turned into a web of pins and needles. “And?”

“Your client’s got a spotless reputation. Couldn’t find
anyone
who had a bad word to say about her. It was like trying to find someone to bad-mouth Mother Teresa. The guy, however, is another story. Seems he tried to blackmail a woman he was actually having an affair with, threatened to tell her husband after things fell apart between them and she gave him his walking papers.”

“What happened?”

“Interesting story. She came clean to her husband. He forgave her, called the police and had Baker arrested. Charges were eventually dropped in exchange for Baker’s promise never to come near either of them again. This is not his first rodeo,” A.J. concluded. “You want me to have a talk with him, tell him what he’s facing if he goes through with this?” the investigator offered.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll handle it from here,” Steve told him, then smiled when he saw the skeptical expression in the other man’s eyes. “Not my first rodeo, either.” He let the report drop back on his desk as he looked at the investigator sitting opposite him. He knew how busy both he and his partner were. “Thanks for getting to this so quick.”

A.J. shrugged away his words. “You don’t usually put a rush on things. I figured that this had to be important.”

Steve glanced down at the report. He thought of the fear he’d seen in Erin’s eyes when she told him about the suit. “It is.”

A.J. ventured a guess. “Personal?”

Rather than deny it, Steve smiled, wondering what had initially given him away. “What makes you ask that?”

The investigator spread his hands as if the answer was self-evident. “Hey, I’m an investigator.”

Steve smiled. “This client is too much of a lady to know how to fight dirty. She’s one of those people who would never dream of hurting anyone or of lying and isn’t able to understand why anyone else would do that. I was pretty certain that the suit was baseless, but I also felt that it would be hard for her to prove. I just wanted to make absolutely sure that there was nothing to the guy’s claim—or anything that he could effectively twist to support his accusation.”

A.J. took his cue and rose from his seat. “Glad I could help. Oh, and if your ‘client’ could see her way clear to it, my five-year-old loves dinosaurs and would be thrilled to have one of the ones she makes. The one in the cowboy hat,” he specified. When Steve looked at him in surprise, A.J.’s grin widened again. “Like I said, I’m an investigator.”

Steve laughed, nodding at him. “So you are, A.J., so you are. I’ll talk to her,” he promised.

“Good enough for me. And if you change your mind about having that talk with that lowlife, my offer still stands.”

Steve nodded again. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he promised. But this was something he looked forward to doing himself.

* * *

Steve debated getting the confrontation with Baker over with as soon as possible. Erin deserved to know, one way or the other, if she actually had anything to worry about.

But if something unforeseen happened or the confrontation with Baker turned ugly, he would rather not have to tell Erin before they went to the movies tomorrow. He didn’t want to take a chance on ruining the day for his son—or for him, for that matter.

This was the first so-called date he was going on where not only was his son included, which was unusual in itself, but the woman he was going out with had actually
asked
to have his son come along. That, to him, was extraordinary.

Each time he had made the suggestion to include his son to any of the other women he had seen previously, the woman either quickly changed the subject or seemed disappointed and the idea of their going out on a date at all died very quickly on the vine.

No one wanted to acknowledge that obvious truth. That he and Jason were a package deal.

That was, no one wanted to acknowledge it until Erin had come along.

He wanted to give their date a fighting chance to flourish before he was forced to factor in any extraneous occurrences.

Steve supposed that made him sound selfish.

On the other hand, that also made him sound like a father.

Chapter Thirteen

“D
o you think he’ll be there?” Jason asked.

Steve didn’t have to glance up in his rearview mirror to know that the boy was fidgeting behind him in the car seat. He could tell from the sound of his son’s voice. Nonetheless, he raised his gaze to the mirror to make eye contact.

“Do I think who’ll be there?” he asked the boy.

“Tex,” Jason said impatiently, as if his father should have known that. “Do you think he’ll be at Erin’s house? Does he live with her? And the other dinosaurs, the ones she brought with her to my classroom—do you think they live with her, too? Or do they all have their own house?”

“All good questions,” Steve told his son. “None of which I know the answer to.” Those were all questions he felt Erin was best equipped to field.

He made a right turn at the next corner. He’d programmed his GPS before leaving the house, but he’d gone over the route several times the old-fashioned way—on a road map he kept in his car in case of emergencies. Even the most sophisticated of electronics had been known to malfunction on occasion. Paper, however, never did. Whenever possible, he liked having a sure thing in his corner.

“But we’ll be there very soon,” he told Jason, “so you can ask her yourself.”

As far as the boy was concerned, he had already decided the answer to his first question was going to be yes. Now taking it as a given, Jason continued on from there. “Do you think she’ll bring Tex with her when we go to the movies?”

“Another question you can ask her,” Steve told his son.

It wasn’t so much that he was buck passing as he was setting the stage for his son to interact with Erin. He had to admit that he liked seeing the two of them together. It reinforced his feelings that he was on the right track with this woman.

“Tex Jr. wants to talk to his dad,” Jason declared out of the blue.

Steve smiled to himself. He took that to be another sign of the progress he’d made in his son’s life—thanks to Erin and her dinosaur.

“That’s always a good thing,” he said. “Fathers and sons
should
talk. Oh, there’s her house just up ahead,” he pointed out.

Jason cocked his head as he regarded the two-story structure. “It looks like a regular house,” his son observed.

Steve heard the disappointment in the boy’s voice. “Well, that’s because it’s been disguised.”

“Disguised?” Jason echoed, perking up.

“Uh-huh. This way people don’t know that’s where the dinosaurs live and they don’t try to bother those dinosaurs. Otherwise, Tex and his friends would
never
get any rest.”

It took a moment for the boy to digest what he’d been told. And then he looked up as if everything all fell into place for him. He grinned broadly.

“Oh.”

My God,
Steve thought, he was making things up on the spur of the moment. Maybe being around Erin was rubbing off on him. He found he rather liked the idea.

Steve had just barely pulled up to the curb when Jason began begging, “Undo me, Dad. Undo me! Quick!” he pleaded.

“Hold your horses, fella. I’ve got to come to a full stop first,” he told his son.

“The car’s stopped, it’s stopped!” Jason all but shouted excitedly. “Tex Jr. wants to see his dad, like now!”

Steve got out and opened the rear-passenger door and began to undo the restraints on his son’s car seat. Maybe he had somehow oversold this whole thing. He wanted the boy to be prepared—just in case.

“You know, we’re not sure about Tex yet, Jason. He might not be there,” he warned his son.

Jason’s face fell about as far as a small face could. “Where’s he gonna be, Dad?”

Steve said the first thing that came into his head. “Well, he might have gone to the park. Dinosaurs like parks,” Steve added for good measure, as if that would settle the dispute.

Working on the car-seat restraints, he saw his son’s eyes grow huge as he looked at something behind him.

“No, he didn’t, Dad!” Jason cried. “Look! He’s right there!”

Turning around, Steve saw Erin walking out of her house. In her arms she was holding the dinosaur. The woman had a sixth sense, he thought gratefully.

“Right on time,” Tex declared, nodding at his son and him. The dinosaur turned his head to look at the woman carrying him. “Told you they’d be here on time,” the T. rex said to Erin.

Erin inclined her head as she smiled at the duo. “I told Tex I thought you might be late,” she explained.

“Dad was being slow, but I made him hurry up,” Jason told her. Still strapped in, he leaned against the restraints, completely focused on the dinosaur in Erin’s arms. “Is Tex coming with us?” Jason asked hopefully.

“I sure am. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.” Holding the toy, Erin had the dinosaur lean in toward the car. “And I see you brought Tex Jr. with you. Has he been behaving?”

“Uh-huh,” Jason answered, solemnly nodding his head up and down.

Erin’s eyes met Steve’s. The next moment, a warm feeling infused itself within her. “Just let me get my purse and lock the front door,” she told him. “I’ll be right back.”

The second she turned away, Jason bounced up and down in his car seat. “She’s bringing him, Dad. She’s bringing Tex! I told you she would,” Jason cried, pleased beyond words.

“That you did,” Steve agreed, seeing no reason to point out that Jason had voiced uncertainty about that outcome only a few minutes ago.

But Erin had that effect on people, he decided. Bringing out the positive in them.

In an incredibly short amount of time, she had become what amounted to a shining beacon in his son’s life and no matter what else transpired, he was always going to be grateful to her for that.

Even though he had decided to set his sights on more.

“All set,” Erin declared, returning back to his vehicle. Her hand on the shotgun seat’s door handle, she took one glance at the little boy’s hopeful expression and reconsidered her choice of seating arrangements. “You know, I’m going to ride in the back with Jason and Tex Jr. if you don’t mind,” she told Steve.

Getting in, she set Tex over to one side as she proceeded to rebuckle the straps on Jason’s car seat that Steve had previously begun to undo.

Steve had taken in the same hopeful expression on his son’s face, then seen the look of joy that had washed over him when Erin had said she’d decided to sit in the back with him.

She was one in a million, he thought.

“I don’t mind at all,” he said, then mouthed the words
thank you
to her.

The smile he received in return told him she’d heard him loud and clear.

Maybe one in
two
million, he amended silently as he started up his car again.

* * *

The movie lasted an hour and forty-two minutes but still seemed to just fly by. Before they knew it, they were filing out of the theater again.

Not wanting to see the date come to an end so soon, Steve heard himself suggesting getting lunch in one of the small restaurants that were scattered around the theater complex in the outdoor mall.

“Unless you’re pressed for time,” he felt bound to add on, just in case she felt that she had more than done her duty in sitting through over an hour and a half of an animated movie about a wise-cracking hero with a magic carpet that always flew to his rescue. He wanted her to feel she had a way out if she wanted it.

Erin didn’t have to look down to know that Steve’s son was holding his breath, waiting for a positive answer from her. She didn’t want the boy suffocating himself, so she quickly responded, “I’ve decided to declare today a work-free day.”

The next moment, Jason did his best imitation of a jumping jack, all while shouting his mealtime preference. “Pizza!” Jason cried. “Me and Tex Jr. want pizza.” He looked from his father to Erin, searching for backup.

“Tex Jr. and I,” she gently corrected.

“You, too?” the boy exclaimed, delighted. “That makes three of us, Dad.”

Erin opened her mouth to take another stab at correcting the boy’s grammar, then decided just to go along with it for now. With luck, there would be another time when she could play the grammarian.

“Most likely four,” she told Jason, “because Tex likes pizza, too.”

“Hear that, Dad?” Jason asked, his eyes beaming as he turned toward his father.

“I sure do,” Steve answered, but he was looking at Erin as he said it. Looking at her and thinking that getting roped into Career Day had probably been one of the luckiest unplanned incidents of his life. “I guess that’s unanimous, then.”

“What’s u-nan-i, um, u-nan-i—that word, Dad?” Jason asked, giving up trying to pronounce the word.

“It means we all agree,” Erin told the boy. “And that’s a good thing.”

That was all that Jason needed. “Yeah!” he crowed. “Pizza for everybody!”

Without thinking, strictly reacting, Erin hugged the boy to her.

Jason glowed.

* * *

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him actually get completely worn out before,” Steve confessed some seven and a half hours later, his voice barely above a whisper. He was talking about Jason. His son had literally fallen asleep on the sofa midsentence, explaining something about a video game he and Erin were playing—a creative video game that tested the player’s memory rather than his reflexes to see how quickly he could eliminate an ongoing alien threat. The game, involving a group of friendly dinosaurs based on her creations, had been at Erin’s suggestion. Her company was thinking of marketing the game in the near future. Jason was thrilled to be her test subject.

“Well, considering that he’s been on the go from early this morning, I figured that eventually he’d have to run out of steam—even overactive kids get tired,” she told Steve. Then, seeing that her last comment didn’t draw any agreement from him, she asked, “Didn’t you ever get tired when you were a kid?”

Steve shook his head. “I really don’t remember much from back then.”

“Really?” She had just assumed that he would have been able to recall events and feelings he’d gone through as a boy.

“Really,” he assured her.

“That’s a shame,” she said. Without that to tap into, empathy for certain things his son was going through would be difficult for Steve. “Some of my fondest memories go back to my childhood.”

“I guess that’s pretty lucky for the rest of the kids,” he commented, thinking of the toys she’d created. “And me,” he added significantly, thinking of what she had managed to achieve with Jason. He looked down at his sleeping son now and smiled. It had been a good day for the Kendall men. “I guess that I’d better get him up to bed.”

“Would you mind if I helped?” she asked.

Steve watched her for a long moment, then smiled. “I think I’d like that.”

Preceding her on the stairs, Steve carried Jason up to the boy’s room and laid him down on the bed. Erin untied the laces on Jason’s sneakers and then slipped them off slowly so as not to wake him. She placed them next to the bed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steve taking a pair of pajamas out of the bureau’s top drawer. On impulse, she offered a suggestion.

“Why don’t you just cover him with a blanket? If you start undressing him, Jason might wake up.” She smiled fondly at the boy. “There’s nothing wrong with sleeping in your clothes. Waking up dressed is kind of fun at Jason’s age.”

“Something else you remember?” he asked her, the pajamas half in his hand, half still in the drawer.

She nodded. “That’s why I’m making the suggestion,” she told him.

“Okay, then leaving Jason in his clothes it is,” Steve declared agreeably, the corners of his mouth curving as he put the pajamas back and slipped a blanket over his son’s small body. The boy was going to get a kick out of this when he woke up tomorrow, Steve thought.

“Almost forgot the most important part,” Erin suddenly said. Before he could ask her what that was, she had slipped Tex Jr., his stuffed dinosaur, in under the covers with the boy.

Backing away from the bed, Erin took in the peaceful picture that they had created.

Her expression was unreadable, Steve thought. Prodded by his curiosity, he couldn’t resist asking, “What are you thinking?”

“Just that I thought I’d have a couple of these myself by now,” she admitted.

“You mean kids?”

She nodded her head. “Yes.” Smiling, she gazed up at him. “Short people.”

“You’re not exactly over-the-hill,” Steve pointed out.

She inclined her head. She’d heard all the excuses before. “I know, I know, but there are these pesky little details in the way.”

Leaving the light on in Jason’s room, Steve eased the door closed behind them. His curiosity further aroused, he continued their conversation in the hallway. “Pesky details?” he repeated.

“Yes, finding someone, falling in love with him—having him fall in love with me,” she enumerated. “Then, of course, there’s that last really big, scary step to take.”

Intrigued, he just kept feeding her questions as they went down the stairs. “Which is?”

She even took a breath before saying the answer. “Getting married.”

“It doesn’t have to be a scary step.” It hadn’t been in his judgment. To him it had just been the most natural progression of things.

“Easy for you to say,” she scoffed. “You’ve already gone through it.”

“I wasn’t exactly born married,” he countered. Then a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Haven’t you ever been in love, Erin?”

Erin pressed her lips together, again debating not saying anything. He’d probably think she was some sort of a freak if she told him the truth.

Stalling for time until an idea came to her, she asked, “Honestly?”

It had never occurred to him that she could be anything but. “Sure.”

With a sigh, she murmured, “Then no,” as she looked away.

Or tried to. With the crook of his finger beneath her chin, Steve turned her head until she was facing him again.

“Never?” he questioned incredulously.

She was right. He did think there was something wrong with her. She tried to turn it into a joke. “Does Batman count?”

“How old were you?” he asked.

“Almost eleven,” she told him.