Let's Get Mommy Married Read online

  She placed the letter on the pile on the far side of her desk. These would be rejected gently and mailed back with a Soulmates form in hopes that whoever did write them would avail themselves of her services honestly.

  “It’s kind of hard to choose, but I’m getting there.” She looked at the sack. “Since you picked those up at our regular P.O. box, I’m assuming that they have nothing to do with the contest.”

  Teri shook her head. “Not unless some short person got enterprising on us. These are probably all from people who heard about the dating service on the radio.” Teri grinned, taking her time as she sauntered to the table. “That was a nice touch.” She sighed, a dreamy smile on her lips. “You know, that guy who did the announcement has the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard. Like warm rainwater sliding along your face in the fall.”

  And wouldn’t he like to hear that! Rosemary thought, amused at the description, although, now that she turned it over in her mind, it was rather apt. Chris Maverick did have a sexy voice. It was his trademark.

  “His other parts aren’t too shabby, either,” she added as she began opening another letter.

  Interest immediately registered in Teri’s clear blue eyes. Her soda can abruptly met the countertop as she abandoned it.

  “Oh?” She moved closer to Rosemary, peering at her face. Her cousin was holding out on her. Hallelujah! “And just what parts have you seen?”

  Rosemary could tell by her expression that Teri’s imagination was off at a full gallop. “He’s my neighbor, Teri. I’ve seen him working in the yard.”

  Teri’s mouth dropped open as she simultaneously sank into the chair next to Rosemary’s, her knees collapsing. Rosemary had mentioned her neighbors only a couple of times. Chris was Chris Maverick. She’d never made the connection before.

  “Chris Maverick is your neighbor?”

  Teri said it as if she’d just announced that she was having an affair with Mel Gibson.

  “Yes,” Rosemary said patiently, as if addressing a dim-witted child. “That’s how I got the idea to have the contest on the radio.” It had happened quite by accident, really, but she wasn’t going to go into that now. The upshot of it was that Chris had volunteered to help. He was really very nice, if somewhat too good-looking for her to feel completely comfortable around him. “He managed to get me a lower advertising rate.”

  The look on Teri’s face was nothing short of wolfish. “Is that before or after you saw his other nonshabby parts?”

  Teri clearly wasn’t going to give it up until she explained this and debunked her cousin’s obvious fantasy. “The nonshabby parts I was referring to were completely clothed, Teri. Get your mind above street level. The man just wears his jeans rather well, that’s all.” Rosemary frowned. They had to get to work. She hated falling behind. “I told you all this at least once.”

  If she did, Teri didn’t recall it. She was positive she would have remembered being told that Chris Maverick was living a few feet away from her cousin.

  “Probably when one of the twins was screaming in my ear. You know that mothers of twins need everything repeated at least twice.” She settled back and opened a letter, though her mind and her eyes were not on her work. “So, tell me more about this nonshabby person.”

  Rosemary looked at her cousin. She recognized that glint in Teri’s eye. It had matchmaker written all over it. She might be the one who ultimately made matches for other people, but it was Teri who was always on her case, urging that she take advantage of her own growing stable of male applicants.

  Rosemary looked away as she picked up another piece of mail. She didn’t have time for this. “Get that look out of your eyes, Teri.”

  Teri fiddled with a letter. She loved Rosemary far more than she could have loved a sister. They had shared everything together, from a consuming crush on Shaun Cassidy in “The Hardy Boys,” to agonizing all-nighters in college, to the joys of weddings, childbirth and the tragedy of Patrick’s untimely death.

  “You know, Rosie, I never figured out how you could have a dating service and never go out on a date yourself.” Teri barely glanced at the letter in her hand. “Ever hear of ‘physician, heal thyself’?”

  Rosemary reached over and took the letter out of Teri’s hand. “Yes, but I’ve never heard of a physician taking out his own appendix.” The form was one of their preprinted ones. She glanced at the name and placed it in the male pile.

  Teri shook her head. Rosemary was going to have to have a change of heart, and soon. “You make it sound as if dating’s painful.”

  That was the word for it, Rosemary thought. Painful. Just the very thought of going out on a date, of making coherent conversation, made shivers run down her spine, and they were not of the pleasant variety. She shrugged carelessly. “It is, for some of us.”

  It seemed to Teri that Rosemary was refuting everything that the dating service was supposed to stand for. “But Rosie, you were married—”

  It was a familiar road and she had driven down it with Teri before. “And I loved it. I think everyone should be as happy as I was with Patrick—”

  Teri felt exasperation bubbling just beneath the surface. Damn, but Rosemary didn’t make sense sometimes. If she found herself single again and sitting in the middle of this dating service, she’d feel as if she had struck gold.

  “So…?”

  Rosemary wasn’t going to allow herself to be sucked into another pointless discussion. “So I have this service, matching the right people together and sending them off to a hopefully happy ending.” It was one thing to think of others dating. It was entirely another to imagine herself in that situation.

  Maybe she was just being dense, Teri thought, but she didn’t understand. “And none of these male applicants—” she waved her hand at the file cabinet that contained copies of forms sent in by eligible bachelors “—have ever struck you as interesting, as worth the trouble of putting on panty hose and high heels?”

  Rosemary purposely wiggled her bare toes within the sandals she wore. Sandals that the dog found particularly tempting.

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I want to go through the dating ritual.” She saw the frown on Teri’s face. “I think hang gliding is interesting, but I’m not about to strap on wings and jump off a cliff.” Maybe she was just a coward. Maybe Patrick’s memory got in the way. She leaned forward, wishing Teri could understand and stop playing that one, tedious note. “Something happens when I go out on a date. I feel this pressure to be witty, funny, entertaining—”

  Teri didn’t see the problem. “You are all those things.”

  “Maybe, but not on call.” She’d gone out exactly twice since Patrick died. And both dates had ended up as miserable failures. “The woman they ask out is not the woman they get on a date. Something falls apart inside.” Rosemary shivered just at the memory. “I freeze up, like an actor with stage fright.” That was it, she realized. That was the best way to explain what she felt to Teri. “I get stage fright on dates.” She waved a dismissive hand. “And it’s not worth it to me. I’m perfectly happy with my life just the way it is—”

  Rosemary heard a howl and automatically winced. “Except for the dog, of course, but hopefully, that’ll change.”

  Teri sighed, momentarily surrendering. “Have it your way.” She sifted through the pile of letters closest to her. She stopped when she saw the letter that Rosemary had been reading just before she’d arrived. “Hey, I like this one.”

  Rosemary glanced up and saw which one Teri was referring to. She nodded. “Cute, isn’t it? It’s in the finals.”

  Teri replaced it on top of the pile. “Well, it gets my vote.”

  She loved her cousin dearly, but Teri had a slap-dash method that sometimes got under her skin. Rosemary straightened the pile. “You haven’t read the others yet.”

  Teri reached behind her and wrapped her fingers around the can of soda, bringing it to her mouth. “I will, but this one does sound sweet.”

  “I know.” The
re was no arguing with that. “It makes me think of something that Danny would write.” She glanced at the letter again. “Except that the spelling is a lot better.”

  “Mom, she got through the fence!” Danny’s cry was like a call to arms.

  Rosemary exchanged looks with Teri. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Maybe she’s trying to run away.”

  Danny rushed into the kitchen. “Rocky went through the neighbor’s fence. You know that hole?”

  Rosemary closed her eyes. There were two holes in the fence that framed the backyard, one on either side. “Oh, great. That means she’s either in the O’Donnells’ snapping turtle pond, or I’m repaying Chris Maverick’s generosity by having my son’s dog baptize his begonias.”

  Opening her eyes, she fixed her son with a weary look. “Which neighbor, Danny?”

  Danny shifted from foot to foot, eager to be off in pursuit. “That guy’s. Mr. Maverick.”

  “Terrific.” Pushing back her chair, she rose. “This may take a while, Teri.”

  Teri cocked her head, amused. Her eyes were dancing. “Do I get to meet Mr. Nonshabby Parts?”

  Rosemary shook her head as she walked out of the kitchen. Teri was hopeless. “You’re married,” she tossed over her shoulder.

  “But I’m not dead,” Teri called after her, then laughed as she sat back at the desk.

  Danny looked over his shoulder at Teri and grinned broadly. She winked back, then got down to work.

  This was not turning out to be one of Rosemary’s better days. She marched up to Chris Maverick’s front door and rang the doorbell. She absolutely hated bothering people. But she supposed that it was already past that point now. Her son’s dog was making herself at home in the man’s yard and causing who knew what kind of damage.

  The door opened on the second ring. Christopher Maverick was standing in the doorway, all six foot two of him, barefoot, dripping, with a towel slung around his bare shoulders and a black towel wrapped around his taut, flat stomach.

  Dear God, she could iron shirts on that stomach, Rosemary thought before she realized that she was staring. Chagrined, she raised her eyes to his face.

  It was difficult forming words when she felt as if she’d swallowed her tongue. Rosemary tried anyway. Her words came out in a rush that she thought was positively adolescent.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you out of the shower, but my son’s dog is in your yard.”

  If he was annoyed, Chris didn’t show it. Instead his expression was completely affable. “I thought I heard yelping.”

  He brushed one end of the towel he had around his neck over his hair, drying it. Several droplets of water rained down. Chris stepped back and gestured for her and Danny to enter the house. “Let’s go get her.”

  He led the way to the rear of the house. Rosemary felt something akin to Jell-O forming in her stomach and oozing down through her knees. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen an almost-naked man before—just not in the past nine years.

  Somehow she managed to find her tongue again. “We don’t mean to be any trouble. Why don’t you just go back upstairs and get dressed? Danny and I can take it from here.”

  Chris looked at her over a very broad, bare shoulder. “No trouble,” he assured her as he strode ahead of her.

  Oh, yes, she thought. Trouble. Very definite trouble. The man had no hips. How the hell did that towel stay on?

  Chris pulled up on the lock and opened the sliding back door. The next moment Rocky came bolting into the house, her paws freshly encrusted in mud. Within a heartbeat, there were muddy tracks everywhere.

  This was getting to be a nightmare. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry.” Rosemary made a lunge for the dog but the animal was faster than she was. “I can come back and clean all this up.”

  Chris shook his head. “Don’t worry about it—I have a maid service that comes in twice a month. And there’s nothing to be sorry about. He’s just a puppy.” Miraculously, as if attracted to the low, sensual tones, Rocky ceased fleeing and presented herself at Chris’s feet as if she were his dog. Laughing, he bent and scratched the dog behind the ears.

  “She,” Danny corrected. Seeing his chance, he scooped up the dog.

  “She?” Chris raised a brow. “I thought I heard you calling out ‘Rocky’ yesterday.”

  “I did.” Danny grinned broadly. “Her name’s Rocky. After the Colorado Rockies.” To his delight, Danny saw that the choice seemed to make perfect sense to Chris.

  Bored with tranquillity, Rocky was already wiggling out of Danny’s grasp. Jumping, she sank her teeth into Chris’s towel and then landed on the floor with a thud.

  Rosemary gasped and swung around just as Rocky went galloping across the room, the towel firmly gripped in her young jaws, waving behind her like a trophy of her latest adventure.

  “Oh, God, I’m sorry.” She kept saying that, Rosemary thought impotently. She stood with her back to Chris, facing the front door. “Danny, get Rocky,” she ordered.

  Rosemary felt herself turning crimson. She’d swung around, but not before she had seen far more of Chris Maverick’s nonshabby parts than she figured he wanted her to see.

  Chris took the towel he had slung over his shoulders and did some quick rearranging. “No problem,” he said in that same calm, steady voice. “I used to have a dog myself. Every boy needs a dog, right, Danny?”

  “Right.”

  His eyes were full of amusement as he moved into Rosemary’s line of vision. “But I think I will go upstairs and get dressed now. You can see yourselves out?”

  The towel he had on now was little more than a long hand towel. Rosemary felt her mouth growing dry as cotton. “Absolutely,” she murmured.

  Coming to, she scooted Danny toward the door. She didn’t quite remember the walk home.

  2

  Teri took off her glasses as Rosemary entered the kitchen. Danny was directly behind her, doing a balancing act with the dog in his arms. The dog made it clear that she would have rather had the use of her feet, but Danny looked determined to carry her. Grinning broadly, he presented his pride and joy to Teri.

  Teri leaned forward to scratch the dog behind her ears. “Ah, here’s the missing member of the family now.”

  Rosemary groaned audibly as she sank down in her chair. “Please, don’t remind me.” She glanced accusingly at Rocky. Just how long did it take to housebreak a puppy, anyway?

  Danny looked at his mother, crestfallen. “Don’t you like Rocky, Mom?”

  She remembered how important it had seemed to her at Danny’s age to have her parents’ approval. Rosemary mustered a smile. “Sure I do. I’d just like her a whole lot better if she were trained.”

  Teri made no effort to hide her smirk. “Oh, I don’t know. I think she’s pretty well-trained right now. She got you into Mr. Terrific’s lair, didn’t she?”

  Danny looked from Teri to his mother. “Who’s Mr. Terrific, Mom, and what’s a lair?”

  “Teri’s talking about Mr. Maverick, honey. And she means his home. Teri’s just having a little bit of difficulty expressing herself this afternoon.” The warning look Rosemary aimed at Teri missed its mark entirely. Teri merely fluttered her lashes as she reached for her glasses.

  “Oh, him. We got Chris, um, Mr. Maverick, out of the shower. He was wearing a towel and he was all wet,” Danny said in a rush as he hurried to the back door.

  He was beginning to distinguish between Rocky’s different movements and this one had “elimination” written all over it. He didn’t notice that Teri had dropped her glasses as well as her jaw.

  “And he didn’t even mind when Rocky ran off with his towel.” Hurrying, Danny slid the screen door closed behind him.

  If she wasn’t already sitting, Teri knew that she would have collapsed into her chair. Her eyes were huge as she looked at Rosemary. “You saw him naked?”

  It was something that she’d rather not talk about. Rosemary waved a dismissive hand at her cousin. If she let her, Teri would go
on about this indefinitely and the whole afternoon would be shot.

  “I turned my head.”

  This went beyond anything Teri could assimilate. She half rose in her seat. “You did what?”

  Rosemary shrugged. “I saw Rocky make a lunge for the towel and I turned my head. End of story.”

  Teri shook her head in stunned disbelief. “You have got to be one of a kind, Rosie.” She picked up her glasses, then looked at Rosemary. “The man was actually naked?”

  A grin crept up to Rosemary’s lips. “No, he still had a towel around his shoulders.”

  “Oh, God.” Teri clamped a hand over her heart. “And you’re standing here, talking to me? Rosie, are you getting slow-witted in your old age?”

  Rosemary looked down her nose at Teri. “Might I remind you that my old age is your old age, dear cousin?”

  “Only numerically.” There were times Teri despaired over her cousin. This was a golden opportunity Rosemary had allowed to slide through her fingers. “Some people apparently are born old.”

  Sometimes the way Teri thought was a complete mystery to her. “What was I supposed to do, jump him?”

  “No, get acquainted.” Teri stretched out the word. Rosemary raised a brow in her direction. Teri looked at her innocently. “Hey, I’ve seen pictures of that guy on the sides of buses. He’s absolutely gorgeous.”

  The photos were all part of an ad campaign to get people to tune in to Chris’s program, “Roamin’ With The Maverick.” It was obviously working on the female population, Rosemary thought, if Teri was any barometer.

  “Yes,” she agreed patiently, “he is gorgeous—”

  “So?” If eagerness had a name, Rosemary thought, it was Teri.

  Just what was it Teri had expected her to do? “So, I have work to do.” Sighing inwardly, she reached for another stack of envelopes.

  Teri felt like shaking Rosemary. “Danny’s in the backyard with White Fang, and the man may still not have dried off yet. What are you doing here?”