Kara Lennox - Tame An Older Man

"Phyllis, you're brilliant." And it was a great idea, as long as Phyllis didn't get wind that their makeup artist was one of Jane's devotees. Phyllis would probably suggest they put her on as one of Jane's experiments, and men all over the country would know she was available and looking. Wyatt didn't care for that idea at all.

On Thursday, Phoebe got a break. Her late-afternoon economics class got canceled, so she came home, more exhausted than she could ever remember being. She was actually working fewer hours than she did at the spa. But the tension of working so close to Wyatt and pretending she felt nothing for him was wearing her out.

She'd been skipping her swimming workouts, too, which contributed to her crankiness. When she'd been working at Sunrise, she could usually slip in a few laps between clients. Now she had to either swim at night or not at all, and the evenings had been too cool for swimming.

This afternoon, however, it was downright hot, and she was wilted as a week-old rose. A swim in Mesa Blue's meticulously maintained pool sounded like just the thing to revive her body and her spirits. She was doubly glad of her decision when she found Elise and Frannie in the pool, paddling around on rafts.

"Your class got canceled, too?" Elise asked when she spied Phoebe walling across the courtyard in her hot-pink one-piece.

"Yeah, some staff development thing." Phoebe made a clean racer's dive into the pool and swam one lap, but her energy abandoned her at that point, so she sat on the steps at the shallow end and put on her straw hat to protect her face from the sun.

"How's the new job?" Frannie asked anxiously, paddling close to Phoebe.

"It's fine." Phoebe really didn't want to talk about it, but Frannie, meaning well, persisted.

"So what's Wyatt really like?"

The sexiest man alive . "He's okay. A good boss, considerate and respectful. Works hard. His staff really seems to like him, so they work hard for him. He's not an egomaniac like most of the producers I've worked with. He takes a lot of pride in his work, and he's not too proud to-" She stopped herself before she nominated Wyatt for sainthood.

Elise and Frannie listened with rapt expressions, smiling slightly. "He sounds like he really is the paragon his grandparents make him out to be," Elise said.

"He's okay," Phoebe finished lamely.

Elise gave her a knowing look. "You're not telling us something."

"What wouldn't I be telling you?" Phoebe asked, but her studied nonchalance obviously didn't fool Elise.

"Like maybe you have a thing for him? Daisy said he has one for you."

"Daisy's been inhaling too much pottery glaze."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too-"

"I do not!"

Frannie ended the semi-heated discussion by grabbing an arm from both Elise and Phoebe. "Oh, my gosh, Bill's coming. Hide me."

"Hide you?" Elise and Phoebe said together.

"I look too fat in this bathing suit!"

Phoebe gave Frannie a once-over. She wore a one-piece suit with a skirt, and it had pictures of-what else?-cats all over it. "Frannie, you have a very cute figure and you look great in that suit."

"Remember what Jane Jasmine says," Elise reminded Frannie, as Bill came closer, strolling along with his toolbox and whistling tunelessly. "'No matter what size or shape you are, be proud of it.'"

"She's probably a size two!" Frannie groused. But when Bill waved jauntily to the women, Frannie smiled and waved back. "Hi, Bill. Did you get a chance to look at my car?"

"Oh, yeah, Frannie. It was just a loose wire. All fixed."

Frannie batted her eyelashes and pushed her chest out a bit. "I just don't know what I'd do without your help. I'm so hopeless when it comes to anything mechanical."

"My pleasure." Bill tipped his baseball cap, then continued on his way.

"Frannie!" Elise scolded. "Stop playing dumb with him. Men don't fall for that helpless act anymore."

"Oh, rats, I keep forgetting. That's what I did when I was a girl, and old habits are hard to break."

Elise gave Frannie's shoulders a squeeze. "It's okay. I think Bill's pretty smitten no matter what you do."

"But he does like it when I'm more self-sufficient. I changed my own air-conditioning filters the other day, and he was so proud of me I thought his shirt buttons would pop off."

"See?" Phoebe said. "It's the ones who want you to be helpless and dumb you have to watch out for." And she'd encountered plenty of that type. In fact, she seemed to attract that type.

Even Wyatt sometimes talked down to her. He treated her like she had a mind of her own. Oh, he respected her skill, even if she was just a lowly makeup artist. But he over-explained things.

How would he feel, she wondered, if he knew her true career aspirations? What would he think about kissing a future biochemist who planned to manufacture cosmetics instead of put them on other people's faces?

Her fellow students and her professors treated her differently than most people. Though she'd gotten her share of stares her first semester, her study buddies now treated her like an intellectual equal-something new and refreshing for Phoebe. But Wyatt already knew her on a safe, nonthreatening level. Would he go weird on her if he found out she was brainy? Elise had warned her that some men were intimidated by an intelligent woman, and that she ought to be prepared for it.

"Yo, Zombie Woman," Elise said.

Phoebe snapped back to attention. She'd been zoning out.

"You'd better put some sunscreen on."

She swam laps, instead, hoping that if she worked her body hard enough, she would banish her hopeless thoughts regarding Wyatt Madison.

At 11:10 on Friday, Wyatt found Phoebe predictably packing up her cosmetics, preparing for her flight.

He leaned in through the doorway. "The whole crew is heading to Vito's for lunch in a few minutes," he said. "It's kind of a tradition, our version of a staff meeting. I hope you can join us."

She looked up, her regret obvious. "I really wish I could, but I've got plans."

"You can't rearrange them, just this once?" he prodded.

She shook her head. "Maybe next Friday I can. Now that I know it's important. My schedule isn't very flexible, but with some advance notice I can usually manage."

"Oh, that reminds me," Wyatt said. "Kelly has to take next Friday off, so we're taping Friday's show on Wednesday afternoon. Is that a problem?"

Phoebe looked almost stricken. "All afternoon?"

"We'll probably be done by three. But then you can take Friday off."

"You might want to look around for a substitute makeup artist," she said. "I'll see what I can arrange and let you know Monday, but afternoons are a problem."

"What keeps you so busy in the afternoon?" he asked, keeping his tone light and playful. "Hot date?"

She smiled. "Nothing like that." She glanced at her watch. "I really have to go. Sorry I can't join the group for lunch."

"That's okay. I'll brief you later. I did promise when I hired you that the hours were regular, so I guess I can't renege on that now."

"I appreciate that." She closed and locked her case, picked it up as if it were nothing-and he knew it weighed a ton-and brushed past him out of the dressing room. His body immediately reacted to her nearness, her fresh floral scent, but she seemed oblivious. "'Bye, have a nice weekend."

That sounded as if she didn't plan on seeing or talking to him until Monday, which irritated him no end. Where did she run off to every day? The mystery was driving him crazy.

Impulsively, he raced to Phyllis's office and stuck his head in the door. "I can't come to Vito's today."

She looked surprised. He ducked out before she could voice an objection, then headed for the parking lot. He reached the exit just in time to see Phoebe climbing into a cute compact car.