The Texas Christmas Gift (4 page)

She got up and poured herself a cup of coffee, too. “My father wanted nothing to do with me, not when I was a kid or after I grew up.”

Derek winced. “Wow. That’s harsh.”

Eve added cream, then sprinkled in a packet of sugar. She stirred the coffee, tasted it, then went back and sat down at the other end of the couch. “You get used to it. For a lot of years, I wished my mother and my biological father had gotten along. Then I began to accept that if they had no use for each other, it was really better that we never saw him. You, on the other hand, have managed to stay friends with your ex and her new husband. The fact you do get along can only benefit all seven of the kids involved.”

Her ready understanding boosted Derek’s morale. “So you don’t think I was a fool?”

Eve shook her head. “I think you were noble.” She flashed him an encouraging smile and continued to hold his gaze as she sipped her coffee. “No, I think you were realistic, that you did the right thing for everyone.”

Not sure when he had enjoyed a woman’s company this much, he smiled back at her. “Thanks.”

“So.” Her expression determined, Eve rose gracefully and headed to the desk where she’d set up her laptop computer. “Back to the house-hunting.”

When Derek joined her, she glanced up at him from the computer. “I don’t want to waste your time, but I really want you to look at more than one home.” Before he could object, she continued firmly, “There are three immediately available properties in your stated price range in Highland Park, within a two-mile radius of Tiffany’s other home. I’ve emailed you the specs on all three, to peruse at your leisure. Two are having unadvertised open houses tomorrow afternoon, for qualified buyers only. The other is available only by appointment. Would you like to hit all three at once tomorrow?”

Derek did—for reasons that didn’t have as much to do with house-hunting as they should. “We’ll have to take Tiffany with us,” he warned.

Eve’s expression softened in a way that let him know what a good mother she would be one day. “Shouldn’t be a problem,” she assured him confidently.

Derek watched her put her laptop back in the case. “Can we do it after her afternoon nap, say, at two-thirty?”

“Absolutely.” Eve gathered up her belongings and headed for the door.

Derek walked with her. She hesitated in the entry, and for a brief moment he was tempted to kiss her. As if sensing it, Eve drew away. “I’ll see you then,” she said briskly, before moving off down the hall.

* * *

“
Y
OU’RE LOOKING A
lot better,” Eve told her mother happily the next morning after arriving at the hospital to visit her.

Marjorie accepted with a smile the stack of magazines Eve had brought her. “How are things going with Derek McCabe?”

A little too well on the personal side, Eve thought uncomfortably. She moved a chair closer to the bed and sank into it. “We’re looking at three properties this afternoon.” Marjorie, who had every luxury listing in the area memorized, considered the plan thoughtfully as her daughter specified which ones they were seeing. “Is he going to be easy or difficult to please?”

In what way?
Eve pushed the unexpectedly amorous thought aside. “It’s too soon to tell.” All she knew for certain was that Derek had an enormous capacity for giving—to the point he probably had Christmas in his heart all year long. And Eve envied him that. She had trouble getting into the holiday spirit at all.

Marjorie paused. “I know I’ve said this before, but...be careful. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

Eve clasped her mom’s hand, happy that she didn’t seem as weak and fragile as she had the day before. “Believe me, I don’t want to be hurt, either.” One devastating love affair had been enough to last her a lifetime.

“You don’t need a man in your life to be happy,” her mother continued.

Oh, how well Eve knew that. She squeezed her mother’s fingers. “You don’t have to worry about it, Mom. Derek is just a client. I’m his real estate agent.” She paused to let her words sink in. “And nothing more.”

It didn’t matter how physically and emotionally attracted she was to him, she thought. At the end of the transaction, she and Derek would go their separate ways. And that would be that.

Chapter Three

“Not exactly what you had in mind, hmm?” Eve asked Derek as they left house number two and headed down the long curving stone walk to his car. It was a beautiful December day with clear blue skies, and warm enough that only light jackets were required.

Derek turned to her. He had showered and shaved before meeting her, and he smelled of sandalwood and pine. “I’ve been in nice homes before, lots of them.”

“But no open houses where free Botox injections were offered?”

He mimed a shudder and moved closer, the sunlight picking up the mahogany in his short dark hair. “I know plastic surgery and other enhancements are popular in Dallas,” he said in a low voice. “But to do it as part of an open house...”

“A bit tacky?” she asked wryly.

“You got that right.” He shifted Tiffany to his other arm while he fished for his keys.

Seeing he needed assistance, Eve held out her arms. She expected the tyke to slide into them as easily as she had the day before. Instead, Tiffany turned away and buried her face in her daddy’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” Derek murmured.

“No problem,” Eve returned easily. She was about to offer to help him reach his keys, but slipping her fingers into the jeans pocket adjacent to his fly did not seem like the best idea. She turned away to survey the beautifully landscaped lawn.

With Tiffany cuddled on his shoulder, Derek fished some more. He finally got what he needed and unlocked the doors. While he put Tiffany in her car seat, Eve slid into the passenger side of the Jaguar.

Yet another anomaly in this situation.

Normally, she drove clients around.

But since Tiffany’s car seat was already in his SUV, and they were apparently a hassle to put in correctly, Derek preferred to do the driving.

He settled himself behind the wheel, grabbed his designer shades and adjusted them over his eyes. Which was a shame, Eve thought, because now she wouldn’t be able to use his gaze to intuit what he was thinking; she’d have to rely on his body language and tone of voice to try to figure him out.

Stifling a sigh, she put on her own sunglasses to guard against the glare.

Derek stretched his right arm along the back of the front seats, turned to make sure all was clear and reversed out of the drive. “As if that Botox party wasn’t weird enough...what was with the free massages at that first place?” He put the car in gear, then sat idling while Eve punched the address of their next possibility into the GPS built into the dashboard.

“It was part of the promotion for the property,” Eve explained. “A way to get qualified buyers, ones who can afford a seven-or eight-million-dollar home, out to see it.”

Derek drove off when the suggested route popped up on the screen. Shortly thereafter, he made the first turn. “The thinking being, if you actually tried out the home gym and the pool and the sport court, and then had a free massage...” He waited for a traffic jam on Mockingbird Lane to clear.

“And a catered lunch in the gourmet kitchen.” Noticing her skirt had ridden up slightly on her thigh, Eve discreetly tugged it down. “You’d be hooked.”

He shrugged. “It might work. If that was what you wanted.” The home had a billiard room and a home theater, swimming pool and crowd-sized hot tub.

“I’m guessing it was too much of a bachelor pad for your taste.” Even though it had been just down the street from his ex.

“It didn’t exactly spell
family,
” he agreed drily.

Eve brought out the specs she had previously sent him. She refreshed his memory with a few photos from the sales brochure while they sat at a stoplight. “You may like the next one.”

“Daddy!”

Derek glanced at his daughter via the rearview mirror. She looked ready to start fussing at any moment. “Hi, honey,” he said, turning around to smile at her briefly, before picking up the conversation where they’d left off. “I hope so,” he stated quietly. “Tiffany’s been a trouper, but she’s really tired.”

Unfortunately, the next property elicited as many frowns and scowls from both Derek and his little girl as the first two had. Luckily, there was no open house going on, so they were free to talk frankly. “What is it you don’t like about it?” Eve asked, trying to get a handle on what it was Derek truly wanted in a home.

He walked around the huge rooms.

Part of the estate of a late oil tycoon, it had been built in the early eighties, and recently staged and updated in sophisticated neutral palettes.

“Let me count the ways,” he said, placating the little girl he held in his arms with the baby bottle of apple juice he’d brought in with them. “The marble floors are way too cold and hard. The floor plan is awful, and I think the spiral staircase could be dangerous for a kid.”

Okay, Eve noted, that was a start.

She edged closer. “It’s five streets over from your ex’s home. The staircase could be replaced. And it has a nice big backyard with a fence, and room for a really nice play set.”

Finished with her juice, Tiffany pushed the empty baby bottle at Eve, then reached out and touched Eve’s hair. The little girl smiled as she got a fistful, and held on tight.

Afraid to move, Eve smiled back at her and stayed very still.

Derek came to the rescue, his touch tender as he extricated her from his daughter. Which in turn made Eve wonder what kind of lover he would be. Probably excellent, if her feminine intuition was any indication. Not that she should be thinking this way...

“It also has a pool,” he continued, while Eve put the empty bottle back in the diaper bag slung over his broad shoulder. “I don’t think I want a swimming pool with a toddler around, fenced or not. Maybe when she’s older. Not now.”

Aware that Tiffany was looking restless again, Eve rummaged in the diaper bag and found a set of plastic baby keys she could play with. “Pools can be taken out. The entire decor can be changed.”

Tiffany grinned and shook the keys in both her tiny fists until they rattled.

Derek continued glancing around. “It would still be way too big.”

As would all the properties in the seven-to eight-million-dollar range, Eve thought, since the asking price was directly related to the amount of square footage.

Trying to be helpful, she asked, “Do you want to look at something smaller?”

His jaw set in that stubborn way she was beginning to know so well. Tiffany grabbed the sunglasses tucked into the neckline of his cashmere sweater, shook them once and threw them to the floor. They landed with a clatter but, to Eve’s relief, didn’t break.

“I wanted there to be parity in our homes.” Derek set Tiffany down on the floor. Happy to be able to flex her legs, she grabbed the keys and sunglasses and toddled happily around the foyer, babbling all the while.

“Okay,” Eve said.

Derek blocked the way to the staircase, keeping an eye on his daughter while studying Eve shrewdly. “You don’t agree with that objective, though.”

There he went, putting her on the spot again. Although it wasn’t always what a client wanted, Eve decided yet again to be honest. She shrugged and knelt down to engage Tiffany with another toy the little girl had previously discarded. “Your homes are going to be different, no matter the square footage and price tag.”

Tiffany took the stuffed bunny and sat down on the floor to examine it.

Confident that the toddler was entertained, at least for the moment, Eve rose. She looked her handsome client in the eye and continued, “Carleen has a husband and seven kids, if you count Craig’s. At your place, it’s just going to be the two of you.” Eve paused to let that fact sink in, and then forged on. “Tiffany is going to feel the difference. It doesn’t mean she’ll like one place any more or any less, especially at this age. Your home should reflect who you are, what
you
want, Derek. Not what Carleen and Craig need and want for their brood.”

Tiffany stood and grabbed her daddy’s jean-clad legs. “So something cozier.” Derek smiled and picked her up.

His daughter nestled against his chest, as if in heaven, a reaction Eve could understand, given who Tiffany was nestling against. It had to feel great, being that close to Derek. She knew she would be happy with his big, strong arms wrapped around her.

“There are smaller homes in this area,” she told him. “Some have been redone, some not. In any case, the price tag will be quite different.” Which, Eve knew, could be a deal-breaker for a venture capitalist who also wanted a house as a monetary investment.

Derek squinted. “How different?”

“It depends on how small you want to go. Not to mention the overall condition of the property.”

Derek sighed as Tiffany grabbed his sweater with both hands and let out an impatient shout. “Bye-bye!”

He headed out the door. “Meaning we have to keep looking.”

Eve paused to lock up. “If you want to be happy with your choice, you do.”

He glanced at his watch. “I have to take Tiffany back to Carleen.”

It was almost five-thirty. “You want to call it a day, then?” Eve asked, unable to help but feel a little disappointed that their time together would soon be ending.

“Actually,” he said, as if reading her mind and feeling the same way, “I’d like to keep looking tonight.”

“Okay, then,” Eve smiled. “Let’s do it.”

* * *

“
I
THINK WE
should stop. At least for today,” Eve said, an exhausting three hours later.

Darkness had fallen a long time ago. They had physically gone through two more homes, and driven by eight more, only to have Derek dismiss them out of hand for one reason or another.

“After a while, everything begins to blur together. We can start again tomorrow if you like.” Plus, without Tiffany as a tiny chaperone and constant distraction, Eve found herself way too physically aware of her hunky client.

The only good thing was that once they had dropped his daughter off, they’d been able to swing by the office so she could pick up
her
car and do the driving. While Derek concentrated on perusing the neighborhoods from the passenger seat, she tried hard not to think about how intimate it felt to have him sitting so close beside her.