Dating for Two (Matchmaking Mamas) (9 page)

Another careless shrug accompanied his words. “Well, in an emergency, I can make scrambled eggs if we’re snowed in.”

Amusement made it hard not to grin at his statement. “This is Southern California. The only snow you’d find around here is up at Big Bear—in the dead of winter—and you have to go to it, not it to you.”

“My point exactly. I haven’t had to break any eggs in a very long time.”

Erin frowned, taking a second look at the carton that was in the refrigerator. She didn’t detect any telltale smell of rotten eggs, but then, she still hadn’t taken out the carton and opened it.

Glancing at him over her shoulder, she asked, “Exactly how old are these eggs?”

“I know what you’re thinking,” he told her. “Don’t worry. Cecilia had one of her cleaning ladies pick up the carton the last time she was here. She said I should keep them and the rest of the groceries you see in the refrigerator around just in case. Oh, and the milk, by the way, is fresh. It goes with Jason’s cereal. I do know how to open a box of cereal.”

She grinned. “Good for you,” Erin quipped. She eyed the various items her hunt had yielded and made her decision. “Okay, where do you keep your frying pan? Or did the fire department confiscate that from you as a precautionary measure, too?”

He opened up one of the cabinets and took out the pan for her, then placed it on the stove. “No, but I promised not to use it and my word was good enough for them,” he deadpanned.

“Well, you’ll be keeping your word to them—I’ll be the one doing the cooking.”

One of the things he’d picked up on during his brief venture into the dating realm was that most professional women had no time—or desire—to learn how to cook. He’d just naturally assumed that Erin was like the rest in that aspect.

“Didn’t you say that you were too busy trying to catch up on everything you’d missed out on doing because you were in the hospital?”

“Yes, and cooking was one of those things.” She laughed. “A creative person has to have more than one outlet in order to feel fulfilled and on top of their game. Me, I come up with some of my best ideas cooking. Cooking relaxes me,” she explained.

“Funny, it has just the opposite effect on me,” he said.

“Your strengths obviously lie in other directions,” she countered.

Steve had to admit he appreciated the way she tried to spare his ego.

He watched Erin as she practically whirled through his kitchen, getting unlikely ingredients out of his pantry and his cupboard. She assembled everything on the counter within easy reach, then really got busy as she began making dinner.

He had never been one who enjoyed being kept in the dark. “If you don’t mind my asking, exactly what do you plan on making?”

“A frittata,” she said cheerfully. Combining a total of eight eggs in a large bowl, she tossed in a dash of salt and pepper before going on to add two packages of the frozen mixed vegetables. She would have preferred to use fresh vegetables, but beggars couldn’t afford to be choosers.

“A what?”

In another pan, she’d quickly diced up some of the ham she’d found as well as a few slices of cheddar cheese from the same lower bin drawer in the refrigerator.

She was about to repeat the word, then realized that it wasn’t that Steve hadn’t heard her—the problem was that he didn’t know what she was referring to.

Opening the pantry again, she searched for a container of herbs or spices. There were none. She pushed on anyway, adding everything into the bowl with the eggs.

“Just think of it as an upgraded omelet. You have ham and bread,” she said, pleased.

“That’s because I also know how to make a sandwich without setting off the smoke alarm,” he told her.

“There is hope for you yet,” she declared with a laugh.

Watching her move around his kitchen as if she belonged there, he was beginning to think the same thing himself—but for a very different reason.

Chapter Eight

“W
hat is this?” Jason asked between bites.

They—including Tex Jr. because Jason had asked for his new friend to be given a chair, as well—were all seated around the dining room table, eating Erin’s creation.

“Jason, what did I say about talking with your mouth full?” Steve reminded him.

“Not to,” Jason said dutifully, “but the food’s not going to fall out. I got my chin up,” he argued.

Erin didn’t bother trying not to laugh. “I think his lawyer genes are showing up early,” she told Steve. Turning toward the boy, she answered his initial question. “It’s a frittata.”

Erin noted, with no small pleasure, that Jason was making short work of her creation. She’d given him what she judged to be a decent-size portion for a seven-year-old. There were about two forkfuls left. He’d been inhaling it.

As had, she realized, his father. While the latter might have felt obligated to make a show of enjoying her spur-of-the-moment impromptu meal, she’d learned that children were far more honest in their dealings. If Jason hadn’t liked it, he would have indicated as much, even if he hadn’t given voice to his disdain.

Instead he was devouring it.

“A fri-what-a?” Jason asked, clearly having trouble wrapping his tongue around the word.

“A frittata,” she repeated, then suggested helpfully, “How about we call it an omelet with everything?”

“Okay.” Jason was quick to agree, bobbing his head up and down for added emphasis. “I like this,” he told his father.

Erin had always had trouble accepting compliments and had always been quick to downplay any credit sent her way. “It’s probably the ham,” she told Steve.

“Funny, I was going to guess that it was probably the cook,” Steve told her. “This really
is
good,” he said, adding his voice to his son’s praise. “I’d ask you to write down what you did, but like I said, there’s a restraining order to keep me from getting within a hundred yards of the stove when it’s turned on, so even if I had your directions, there wouldn’t be anything I could do about it.”

Her eyes met his. “Then how would you be able to make those scrambled eggs in an emergency as you’d mentioned?” she asked innocently.

She had him there, he thought. “Good one. I’ll have to get back to you on that,” he said. “In the meantime, feel free to come by anytime to work that magic on my stove—” he glanced toward Jason, who was busy “feeding” his new friend “—and my son.”

That caught Jason’s attention. His head swung around in her direction and just like that, she had his undivided attention.

“You do magic?” Jason asked, wide-eyed.

“No, I don’t do magic,” she said to the boy. “Your dad’s just kidding.”

He appeared disappointed for exactly five seconds. “Oh. But he’s not kidding about you coming back, right?” Jason asked her, his eyes all but pinning her in place. “You will come back, right?”

“Would you like that, Jason?” Steve asked his son before Erin had a chance to say anything in response to the boy’s question.

“Yes!” Jason declared with more enthusiasm than Steve had seen his son display in two years.

Steve smiled at him even as he slanted a glance toward the woman who in his opinion was solely responsible for the boy’s transformation.

“Me, too,” he told Jason. And then he looked at Erin. “Well, I guess that makes it unanimous. You’re officially invited back to our house anytime—even if you don’t feel like whipping up a frittata,” he added with a smile. He didn’t want her getting the mistaken idea that her main allure was that she seemed to know her way around the kitchen.

“And when you come back, you can bring Tex with you,” Jason told her.

Erin cocked her head, looking at the boy. “So my return is a done deal?”

“Yeah!” And then the wide smile on his face drooped a bit around the corners as Jason struggled to understand the meaning behind her question. “Don’t you wanna come back?”

Instead of immediately answering, she glanced at Steve, arching an eyebrow and waiting to see what he would say about the matter, one way or the other. She didn’t want to presume too much. That was how people fell flat on their faces.

“Hey, I’m with him,” he said, throwing his vote in with his son’s.

Maybe she should be just a little clearer about this, Erin thought. “Well, I’ll come back if I’m invited.”

“You’re invited. Right, Dad? She’s invited,” Jason declared, looking at his father expectantly, waiting for backup.

“That depends on whether or not she’d like to come back,” he told his son. “But as far as I’m concerned, yes, she’s invited. How about you, Tex Jr.? You want to tell us how you feel about having Erin come back for another visit?”

“I want her to come back for another visit right away!” Jason said in his best high-pitched voice as he pretended to be Tex Jr.

Steve let go of the breath he’d been holding. Her experiment in bringing the stuffed dinosaur into the boy’s life to separate Jason from his gaming console had been a huge success in his book. His son was even imitating the way Erin had told him to act as the toy’s voice.

Turning toward Erin, he said, “Looks like it’s three against one.”

“Three against one?” she repeated, looking from Steve to his son to the dinosaur. “Who said I didn’t want to come back?” Erin asked. “Especially when you clean your plates like that.”

“I can clean it even better with my tongue,” Jason volunteered excitedly. Taking his plate in both hands, he was about to raise it to his mouth to give her a demonstration when Steve intervened, confiscating the plate.

“I think we’ll just let the dishwasher take care of that,” he said.

“Sounds like a very good idea,” Erin said, backing him up.

“Oh. Okay,” Jason agreed, then gave Erin a great big smile.

“The next time I come, I’ll bring my own groceries,” she promised Jason. “We’ll make frittata with chicken.” Leaning into the boy, she lowered her voice and pretended to confide, “Tex’ll probably like it better.”

He slanted a glance toward the dinosaur seated beside him. “Tex likes chicken?” he asked her.

She nodded. “T. rexes were carnivores,” she told him. “That means that they liked to eat meat.”

“They did?” Jason asked, fascinated as he absorbed every word she was saying to him.

Erin nodded her head, looking at him very solemnly. “Absolutely.”

“Did you see them doing it?” he asked in a hushed voice. “Was it gross?”

“It was probably very gross,” Erin said. To her credit, she kept a straight face. “But I didn’t see them do it. However, lots of paleontologists did a great deal of research about our dinosaur friends and they’ve put together a lot of books describing what the dinosaurs were like.”

Jason looked as if he was struggling not to be completely confused by the information.

“What’s a pale—a pale—one of those people you just said?” he finally asked.

“Paleontologists are people who study things that happened a very long time ago,” she explained.

Pausing for a moment, she crossed to where she’d dropped off her purse and fished out the book she’d brought with her. When Steve had discovered her on the doorstep before she could successfully make her getaway, struggling to retrieve her shoe, she’d forgotten all about the book she had brought with her. The book, which she’d originally written, was packaged with every junior T. rex that was sent out of the factory.

“Here, you can read all about what the T. rex was like when he roamed the Earth and was the undisputed king of all that he saw.”

Jason, in Steve’s opinion, looked as if he were back in wonderland again, hanging on every word that came out of this woman’s mouth. If he were being completely honest, Steve thought, he was beginning to find her pretty fascinating himself.

“That’s for me?” Jason asked, surprised even as he held the colorful book in both hands.

“I brought it just for you,” Erin said, fully enjoying his reaction. She’d channeled the little girl she had been when she was writing this book and she knew for a fact that children enjoyed reading it, but once in a while, it was nice to be able to witness that joy firsthand. “Reading about things is still the best way to learn and remember,” she told the little boy.

Shifting the book to just one hand, he picked up the T. rex with his other hand and tucked the stuffed dinosaur against him. “C’mon, Tex Jr., let’s find out all about you.”

“Okay,” the stuffed animal answered in Jason’s high-pitched voice.

If he weren’t afraid that it might freak Erin out, he would have hugged her, Steve thought. His exuberance had risen to that level.

“You really
are
a magician,” Steve said. “No ifs, ands or buts about it. Jason and that infernal video game have now been separated for—” he glanced at his watch to verify his findings “—close to an hour. That’s a new world record for him.”

Erin didn’t think she deserved all that much credit. “Very few boys his age can resist dinosaurs. All I did was bring the two together.”

Steve shook his head. “There’s that undue modesty again.”

Seeing that the man seemed really determined to give her credit for his son’s about-face, she decided she was fighting a losing battle.

“I didn’t do anything that special, but have it your way,” she said, surrendering.

Steve grinned at her. “Like I said, you are a
rare
woman.”

If she wasn’t careful, all this flattery was going to go to her head. Thank God she had a crew to keep her grounded, although it was kind of nice to bask in adulation for a couple of minutes.

However, she wasn’t sure just what Steve was referring to by declaring her to be unique amid her gender.

“How’s that again?” she asked him.

“I haven’t encountered a woman recently who willingly told me to have it my way—about anything,” Steve was quick to add, in case she thought he might be referring to something strictly sexual.

“I find that really hard to believe.”

Her response caught him up short. “Oh? Why?”

“Well, for one thing, you’re a lawyer. Aren’t all lawyers supposed to wear the opposition down until they agree with you?” And then she thought of the one possible exception to that. “Unless, of course, you’ve been socializing with other lawyers. Then, of course, the back-and-forth arguing could literally go on for hours, I imagine.” And that made her think of something else. “By the way, did I tell you I’m considering a new character in my dinosaur lineup? I’m thinking of calling him Clarence Darrow-Dinosaur,” she told him.

Trying to keep up with her was definitely a challenge. The woman had a mind that insisted on jumping from topic to topic. “Clarence Darrow-Dinosaur?” he repeated.

She’d just thought of the name as she told Steve about this new character. “I thought I’d give the kids a double blast of history this time around, have a small biography of Clarence Darrow in the accompanying book as well as some background on whatever dinosaur I decide to make Clarence.” Chewing on her bottom lip, she looked up at him. “Any suggestions?”

It wasn’t as if he had a favorite dinosaur he wanted to lobby for, although watching Jason play with his new best friend had suddenly made him rather partial to a T. rex. “I’m fine with any kind you want—except for a raptor,” he qualified. When he’d been a kid, he’d seen them vividly portrayed in a movie and the vicious image had stayed with him for years. “They really do give me the creeps.”

“Got it. No raptor. What about a brachiosaur?” she suggested. “They’re
not
flesh eaters,” she added when his expression remained blank.

The one piece of information did the trick. “They get my vote,” he said.

“Brachiosaur it is, then,” she said, finalizing the decision.

Erin glanced over into the family room and saw that Jason was apparently giving his new friend a tour of the room and explaining things. She’d united the boy with his dinosaur and fed both him and his father. Her work here was more than done. Time to retreat into the sunset.

“Well, I really better be going or I am going to be horribly behind by tomorrow morning,” she told Steve.

“You do sleep, right?” Steve asked. He was disappointed to see her leave so soon, but he knew he had no right to monopolize this woman, especially after everything she’d done.

“Sometimes, if I’m not too far behind.”

Although, more accurately, there were times when she got only a couple of hours at best. She felt as if there was so much she still needed to make up for and catch up on. The two years she’d spent in the hospital felt like two decades at times.

“Just remember, it’s good to slow down once in a while,” he told her. “Burning the candle at both ends does catch up to you eventually.”

My God,
had he been talking to her mother? Erin wondered. The next moment, she dismissed the idea since even she hadn’t known she was going to be spending time here at his house. There was no way her mother could have known that and given him a pep talk.

“I’ve got a ways to go before that happens,” she assured him.

“You’d be the best judge of that,” he agreed. Well, since she was determined to leave, the least he could do was escort her out. “Here, let me walk you to your car,” he offered.

“That’s not necessary,” she demurred. “Besides, you don’t want to leave Jason alone.”

He glanced over his shoulder toward where his son was. Not in his customary pose—lying flat on his stomach and looking straight ahead at the TV screen, glassy-eyed, mowing down aliens—the boy was sitting upright on the family room floor talking to the toy Erin had brought to him.

“Jason’s not alone, thanks to you,” Steve pointed out. “And I’m assuming that you didn’t park in the next development, so it’s not like I’m going off on this tremendous hike.”

“No,” she agreed. “I parked my car right at your front curb.”

That was what he’d thought. Steve nodded at her response. “I think that Jason and Tex Jr. can spare me for twenty feet.”

He walked her to his front door, opened it for her, then waited as she crossed the threshold. Once she had, he followed closely behind. He left the door opened behind him in case Jason came looking for them—or him.