Dating for Two (Matchmaking Mamas) (6 page)

“And Jason’s been playing that video game since he got it?”

Steve nodded. “Practically right from the beginning. Like I said, when he first started, I thought, ‘Great, he’s finally coming around, showing an interest in something. He’s starting to play again.’

“The problem is he just plays the single-player version, so he’s not playing against anyone. He still won’t see any of his friends, no matter how many times I offer to invite them over. I’ve even passed by the school a few times when he was at recess. I’d see him sitting by himself in the schoolyard.” He looked at Erin, shaking his head. Feeling completely helpless. “It breaks my heart but I don’t know what to do.”

Erin had a very basic question to put to him. “Have you tried talking to him?”

“Sure,” he was quick to answer. “I talk to him all the time and once in a while, he nods in response or mumbles something, but for the most part, Jason lives in this world that I just can’t reach.”

Erin had a feeling that Steve misunderstood her question. She approached it from another angle. “Even when you talk to him about his mother?”

Steve didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he took a moment to frame his reply. It didn’t help. “Well, I don’t— We don’t— The subject isn’t broached,” he finally admitted.

“But the subject should be.” Didn’t he see that? The boy had lost his mother and he was obviously adrift because his father didn’t seem to be missing her as much as he did. She could see that wasn’t true, but she was a great deal older than just seven. “If you don’t mind my butting in—”

“Please, butt in,” Steve encouraged. At this point, he was willing to admit that he could use as much help as he could get.

“Okay, I think you need to help each other cope with this loss. The way I see it, Jason’s playing that video game over and over again because in that universe, there’s a chance he can control what’s happening. In that universe, he wouldn’t allow his mother to die—that’s why he’s slaying aliens constantly, to keep that world safe, and so, in a roundabout fashion, he’s also keeping his mother safe.”

Steve attempted to extrapolate from what she’d just said. “Then I shouldn’t try to make him stop?” he asked uncertainly.

She had to be clearer, Erin scolded herself. “Oh, no, you definitely should. Jason needs to come back to the real world. He needs to be able to create safe places for himself. The way he can best do this is by using his imagination.”

“In other words, he needs a Tex of his own.”

Erin smiled and nodded. They were on the same page—finally. “Exactly.”

Toy shopping was another thing that had been Julia’s domain. In the past two years, he had been constantly realizing just how much he had abdicated to her, how much she’d actually been in charge of, relieving him of the burden. Now he had to take it all on as the different responsibilities and duties kept coming at him.

“You know, I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to toys. Where could I buy Tex?” Steve asked, adding, “I’m assuming that they’re sold in stores, right?”

She smiled. “Actually, right now my stuffed animals are still mail order only, but the company is on the verge of being picked up by a couple of the larger toy-store chains.” She didn’t have to add that she was very excited about the pending prospect. It was evident in her voice.

At that moment, her cell phone began chiming in her purse. Digging it out, Erin shut off the alarm. She saw the curiosity in Steve’s eyes.

“That’s to remind me that I have a meeting in half an hour,” she explained. Erin rose to her feet and he quickly did the same. “Tell you what—why don’t you give me your card and I’ll mail your son one of my toys.”

“That would be great.” Steve took out his wallet, extracted a business card and handed it to her. Then he opened his wallet to the section where he kept his bills. “How much do I owe you for the toy and for the shipping, of course?” he added as an afterthought.

“I’m not sure which toy I’m sending yet,” she told him.

“Okay, then you’ll include a bill inside the package.” It was more of a confirmation than a question.

Erin vaguely nodded just as a second chime went off, reminding her to remember the reason for the first chime that had rung a few moments ago.

She flashed Steve an apologetic look. “It’s a really important meeting,” she told him. She glanced at his card as if to orient herself as to what was imprinted on it, then tucked it away. “Thank you for the coffee.”

“Hey, thank
you
for the company—and the advice,” he added.

“Then you’ll talk to your son?” she asked. Her interest wasn’t about to vanish the moment she left the café. When she got involved in something, she stayed involved until the matter was resolved. “About his mother?” she coaxed.

“I’ll try,” was all he could promise. Talking about Julia’s death at any length was still incredibly hard for him. Most of the time, he dealt with the subject by
not
dealing with it. Pushing thoughts of his late wife aside until he could handle them.

That hadn’t really happened yet, despite the fact that he had forced himself—temporarily—to venture into the dating circus.

About to take flight—she
hated
being late—Erin paused just before the café’s front door and said, “Do more than try.
Do.
”

And with that, she quickly made her exit.

Chapter Five

T
here were times when Erin could swear that she hit the ground running the second she got out of bed in the morning. The only thing that actually changed from time to time was the speed with which she ran, and that was either top speed or
close
to top speed.

Today was one of those top-speed days even though she had allowed herself to take that break right after she gave her talk to the second graders. Or maybe
because
she had taken that break, since it had eaten into her so-called available time.

As she sat at her desk working, Erin smiled to herself. She had to admit that sitting in the café talking with Steve had been a very pleasant experience. Especially since she hadn’t been trying to impress the man or make up her mind whether or not she wanted to commit to a second date—because having coffee with him didn’t constitute a date at all—she’d felt relaxed and more like her true self.

For his part, Steve had certainly gotten her to open up more about herself than she usually did. But in hindsight, she supposed that was probably his expertise as a lawyer at work.

Lawyer.

As her fingers flew across her keyboard, she laughed softly under her breath. The man certainly didn’t seem like any lawyer she’d ever heard about. He wasn’t pushy, invasive or annoying.

Erin caught her bottom lip between her teeth. She supposed that wasn’t fair, casting lawyers in that sort of light, but that was the only image of lawyers she’d been privy to.

Less daydreaming, more thinking
.

At the moment, she was working on a new idea in the back of her mind while trying to get organized for a presentation to one of the two toy-store chains that had come up as possible distributors of her toy line. Engrossed in juggling several thoughts at the same time, Erin heard the door to her cubbyhole of an office open. Normally she’d hear an obligatory rap on the door before it was opened. Not that anyone stood on formality at Imagine That, but a token nod toward it was more or less the going behavior.

Hearing someone come in and assuming that it was probably either Rhonda or Mike, the two team members she interacted with most, she asked, “What do you think of a cuddly lawyer dinosaur?”

“I don’t think you can create a cuddly lawyer, but then, I wouldn’t have thought a T. rex could be cuddly, either, and look how wrong I was about that.”

The voice didn’t belong to either Rhonda
or
Mike.

Startled, Erin’s head jerked up in time for her to see her mother walking in, closing the door behind her. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

Eleanor O’Brien lifted her shoulders in a vague shrug and let them fall, just the same way her daughter might do in response to a question.

“If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, apparently Mohammed has to come to the mountain. So here I am.”

“So now I’m a mountain?” Erin suddenly had a quick flashback to another conversation not that long ago. Remembering, she flushed. “I missed dinner last night, didn’t I? I’m sorry.”

Eleanor let the incident slide. “It wasn’t very exciting. Besides, you had that speech to get ready for today,” her mother said, handing her an excuse to use. However, Erin had a feeling she was far from home free. “So how did it go? Career Day,” her mother prompted. “How did it go?”

Dumbfounded, Erin stared at her mother. She hadn’t mentioned anything specific about her presentation, because she knew it would send her mother off on another tangent about children and the fact that Erin didn’t have any.

“How did you know about Career Day?” she asked.

“I’m a mother. I know everything,” Eleanor said, as if being all-knowing about her daughter’s life was a given. “If you ever become one, you’ll see that it just naturally comes with the territory.”

A baby dig—and it hadn’t even taken her mother five minutes. Unbelievable, Erin thought. The woman was a pro.

Erin’s eyes narrowed as she regarded the person she loved more than anyone else on the face of the world—but who was also able to drive her crazy faster than anyone else on the planet.

“You interrogated Gypsy, didn’t you?” she guessed, referring to her assistant.

“Not necessary,” her mother informed her loftily. “I told you, I know everything.”

Okay, she could play along. “Have it your way, Mom. If you know everything, then you should also know how it went.”

True to form, her mother didn’t back away from her claim. She went around it instead. “True, but I like hearing it firsthand from you—it makes it so much more personal that way,” Eleanor told her with a broad smile. “Besides, you and I hardly ever get to talk,” she added with just the right forlorn note.

Erin looked at her mother patiently. They had been through a lot together and her mother had been her rock during the whole drawn-out experience of her chemo treatments. There was no way she would ever lose her temper with her mother, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t onto the woman’s tricks.

“Then who’s that on the phone with me five nights out of seven if not you?” Erin asked innocently.

“Don’t get wise, Erin. I raised you better than that—and it’s only four nights out of seven,” Eleanor corrected her. “
If
I’m lucky.”

Left unchecked, her mother could go on like this for hours. “Mom, I’m really very busy—”

“Yes, I know that, dear,” Eleanor cut in. “And very successful, too. But someday, when I’m gone, you’re going to regret not pausing once in a while to talk to me in person—but then it’ll be too late.”

All her mother was missing was a wrist dramatically laid across her forehead. Erin sighed, pushing herself back from her desk.

“Okay, okay, I give up. Talk,” she declared, then added, “You know, Mom, you really should be giving guilt-wielding classes.”

“I’m thinking about it, dear,” Eleanor acknowledged with a weary smile. “It would be a way to fill up my empty hours—until I get a grandchild to play with, of course.”

The woman never missed a chance, Erin thought. “Mom—”

Eleanor raised her hands at the warning note in her daughter’s voice. “I’m backing off. Besides, you said you surrendered,” she reminded Erin. “So we’ll make it quick. Tell me about Career Day. Was Tex a hit?”

“He always is,” Erin said proudly.

“You probably made it very difficult for someone to follow you,” her mother theorized.

Erin looked at her sharply. “What are you talking about?”

Eleanor spread her hands wide. “Well, I’m assuming that you weren’t the only one in the classroom talking about your career. They usually have at least two people, don’t they?” she asked innocently.

Maybe she was just being unduly suspicious, Erin thought. For now, she’d give her mother the benefit of the doubt—although her gut told her that there was more to all this than met the eye.

“You seem to have more experience with that than I do,” Erin said, “but yes, as a matter of fact, there was someone else there, too.”

“What did he do for a living?” Eleanor asked. Deliberately avoiding Erin’s eyes, she picked up a small statue from her desk. It was of one of Erin’s other creations.

Erin’s radar had already gone off. “How did you know it was a he?” she asked.

“Fifty-fifty chance of being right,” Eleanor replied sedately, still toying with the statue. “Mrs. Reyes probably wanted to give the boys an equal chance to relate to someone—not that
everyone
doesn’t relate to you,” she quickly added. “But at that age, guys like having a male authority figure to look up to.”

“How did you know the name of the teacher?” Erin asked, then sighed, knowing her mother would continue to play it close to the vest. After all those years of being closer than most mothers and daughters, she knew it had to be twice as hard for her mother to let go and let her live her own life. While she sympathized with that, she was also determined to be her own person. “You either have a crystal ball—” Erin leveled a penetrating gaze at her mother “—or a spy.”

Eleanor carefully put the little statue back, patting it on the head as she did so. “I told you, darling, I’m a mother. I know these things.”

“Uh-huh.”
No
one was that good at pulling facts out of the air. Besides, her mother looked much too innocent—which just meant that she had become far more devious than she usually was.

Eleanor got back to her previous question. “So what did this man you shared Career Day with do?”

Erin pulled her chair back up to her desk and began to type again. “About ten minutes.”

“For a living, not how long he spoke,” Eleanor emphasized.

Erin shrugged dismissively. “He’s a lawyer.”

Eleanor’s whole countenance lit up. “And you wanted to immortalize him with a dinosaur? He must have created some impression on you for that,” she cried enthusiastically. “What did he look like?”

Erin closed her eyes and sighed. She had really walked into that one. “I wasn’t immortalizing him. It was just an idea for another toy, that’s all.”

It was Eleanor’s turn to murmur “uh-huh” as if she didn’t believe what she was hearing. “What did he look like?” she asked her daughter again.

Erin began to shrug again, then realized her mother would take that as a sign of nervousness or something equally as damning. She dropped the shoulder that had begun to rise.

“I didn’t really notice. He was tall, dark haired with really green eyes and he was around thirty-three, maybe thirty-four.”

Eleanor inclined her head, not bothering to hide her wide smile. “Not bad for not noticing.”

She was not about to go down without a fight. “I have an eye for detail. Sue me.”

“More lawyer talk,” Eleanor enthused, her eyes sparkling like her daughter’s were capable of doing when she was caught up with something.

“Mother, you’re hopeless!” Erin cried, bordering on exasperation.

Blessing Maizie silently in her head, Eleanor did her best not to come across as
too
eager as she asked, “So when are you seeing him again?”

“What do you mean, ‘again’?” Erin stopped pretending to type—because at this point, her mind was
not
on her toys. Her mother’s question indicated that she knew about the casual café stop. “How did you know?” she asked suspiciously.

Eleanor was instantly intrigued. “How did I know what?” Her enthusiasm was building by the moment. She was going to take Maizie out for the best meal of her life if this ended up with her daughter
finally
giving up her single status. “You’ve already seen him?”

Belatedly, she realized that her mother wasn’t talking about the café—how could she be? Her mother was a great many things, but clairvoyant was not one of them.

“Well, yes, in the classroom,” Erin said, doing her best to backtrack.

But it was too late to attempt to cover anything up. She could tell by looking at her mother’s expression. Eleanor had always been extremely good at reading between the lines.

“That’s not what you meant and you know it. Erin Sinead O’Brien, give me a little credit. I’m your mother. I know when you’re not telling the truth.”

There was no point in trying to deny it. Besides, it was harmless, right? She was never going to see the man again.

Even so, Erin closed her eyes and sighed. “We just went out for coffee after we gave our talks. Please don’t make a big deal out of it, Mom, because it wasn’t.”

“Erin, you haven’t been out with a man in three years, not since you started up this company. Let me cherish this crumb for a brief moment.”

She really didn’t want her mother to get her hopes up—nothing was going to come of it.

“There’s nothing to cherish, Mother. He’s a very nice man who said he had a little extra time and wanted to know if I’d join him for a cup of coffee. When he mentioned French pastries, I decided why not? That’s all there was to it. You’re making too much of it.”

Eleanor appeared not to hear her protest. Instead, she asked, “What’s his name?”

“Why, so you can start sending out wedding invitations?” Erin challenged.

“So I’d know how to refer to him,” Eleanor corrected, then grinned as she said, “but that sounds pretty good, too.”

Erin felt as if she had one foot caught in the stirrup of a galloping horse. She had to find a way to stop her mother before someone got hurt—or trampled, she thought sarcastically.

“You don’t need to know how to refer to him, Mom, because there’s not going to be anything to refer to him about.” Gritting her teeth, she went through it one more time. “He was just a nice man who got roped into giving a talk to his son’s class, same as me.”

Eleanor picked up on an important point. “So he has a son.”

Too late Erin realized her slip. “Brilliant deduction, Mom. Will you
please
stop playing detective and trying to make this into something it’s not?” she pleaded. “I’ve got a presentation to get ready.”

“You’re giving a speech in another classroom?” her mother asked hopefully.

Erin didn’t even attempt a denial. Instead she just stated the fact as it was.

“A presentation to a representative of a toy-store chain.” Maybe if she told her mother how important this was, she would cease and desist trying to pair her off with Jason’s father. “I just need to impress
one
of these people and then Tex goes national.” She looked at her mother earnestly. “Mom, this is really, really important to me. It’s what we’ve been working toward for the last three years. If the toy chain likes us, this could be the difference in ultimately making it—or failing.”

Eleanor rose from her seat and she smiled warmly at her daughter. She would have been proud of her no matter what she did and whether or not it was a success. The very fact that she was here at all was a miracle to her that she never took for granted. She wanted Erin to one day feel what she was feeling right now—overwhelming love for her child.

“Success is wonderful, Erin, but it doesn’t keep you warm at night.”

Erin gave her a wide, patient smile. “Oh, but it does if you’re successful enough to afford an electric blanket.”

Eleanor laughed softly. “Okay, I give up—for now,” she added, then asked, “Dinner next week?”