Mollie Molay - An Engagement Of Convenience

The kid frowned. “I’m not Paulette.”

Beside him, Lili giggled, a happy, tinkling laugh that, if he hadn’t felt like a fool, would have brought a smile to Tom’s face. “This isn’t Paulette.”

“No?” He shaded his eyes against the blinding sunlight. A closer look revealed a small boy with short blond hair instead of a golden ponytail.

“Don’t tell me there are two of you!” Tom groaned, then remembered Lili had mentioned twins. The thought that not one but two small children came with Lili was overwhelming. For a man who’d had almost nothing to do with kids for most of his adult life, he wasn’t sure how to apologize to the boy.

“Yes,” Lili replied, smiling fondly at the newcomer. “This is Paul, Paulette’s twin brother.”

“You don’t happen to have a soccer ball on you, do you?” Tom asked eying the boy warily.

Paul shook his head. “My sister plays soccer. I like action figures. I’m going to be an artist like my mother when I grow up.”

Tom smothered a sigh of relief, closed his eyes again and tried to pretend he was somewhere else. Somewhere nice and quiet where there were no soccer balls to dodge and no need for ice cubes to cool his overheated, aching body. And no children.

He must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, because the last thing he remembered was Lili leaning over him. The spaghetti straps holding up her body-hugging sundress drooped over creamy shoulders. In the hollow between her breasts, a single gold chain nestled, and wisps of blond hair fell over her forehead and tickled his nose.

The next time he opened his eyes, Lili was sitting cross-legged at his side and eating an ice cream cone. A few feet away, Paul was on his hands and knees investigating a gopher hole. To Tom’s amusement, the gopher turned out to be as curious about Paul as Paul was about him, and they almost bumped noses. Tom wasn’t sure who was the more surprised, the gopher or Paul.

Tom found himself laughing. By his side, Lili laughed, too. Judging from her loving glance, it was obvious she felt that children were a joy and a blessing, not a nuisance.

Tom realized that to strangers passing by, they must look like a normal family enjoying a picnic in the park.

Lili’s twins were cute, and he had a feeling that all it would take was a few more moments like this to make him forget Sullivan’s Rules calling for caution in male-female relationships.

Maybe the attraction was simply because he was vulnerable.

“Ah, so there you are!” Homer Eldridge beamed as he made his way over the grassy rise. “I lost sight of you for a while, but I knew that if I looked hard enough I’d find you.”

Tom smothered a groan.

Trouble had a way of following him, he mused as he tried to sit up. The picture of Lili, little Paul and him sitting together had apparently been enough to bring a smile to his father’s face. Tom hadn’t seen Homer so happy in years.

Happy was good, Tom thought with compassion as he gazed at his dad. Homer had been in the dumps ever since he’d talked himself into retiring from Today’s World, ostensibly to give Tom the opportunity to make his mark on the magazine. More likely, Tom suspected, his father had wanted to encourage him to settle down—in both his professional and personal life.

“Married with children” had become a broken record.

“Sorry I didn’t get up, Dad.” Tom explained to his father about the errant soccer ball. “I feel a little better now.

“By the way,” he added, remembering he wasn’t alone. “I guess I should introduce you to Lili Soulé. Lili is the magazine’s graphic artist. Lili, this is my dad, Homer Eldridge.”

“I remember seeing you around the magazine once or twice before I retired, Ms. Soulé,” his father said, smiling as he reached to take Lili’s offered hand. “Glad to meet you. You don’t mind my calling you Lili, do you? Especially seeing that you and Tom are friends?”

Lili blushed. “I am pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Eldridge. You may call me Lili if you wish.”

Tom’s father gestured to Paul. “Your son?”

“Yes,” Lili said proudly. “Paul is a twin. His sister is out there somewhere playing soccer. I’m afraid it was Paulette who kicked the ball that hit Tom.”

Homer glanced over his shoulder at the soccer field, which was rimmed by shouting children and cheering parents. “And the children’s father? Is he here today?”

Lili’s smile faded. “I lost my husband, Paul, four years ago in an accident,” she said softly. “Little Paul here is now the man of the family.”

Tom’s father murmured in sympathy. “And a fine young man he is. How old is he?”

“He is six,” Lili replied. Obviously wondering at the senior Eldridge’s sudden interest in her son, she glanced at Tom with a raised eyebrow. Hoping he was wrong about his father’s interest, Tom managed a shrug.

“Ah, yes,” Homer replied with a fond smile. “Still, every boy needs a father to help him along the road to manhood. Don’t you agree?”

Even as Tom shook his head, Lili nodded.

Judging from his father’s benevolent smile, Tom had a sinking feeling his dad had decided Lili and her twins would not only make a perfect family, but provide him with instant grandchildren.

In a way, Homer was right, Tom mused as a becoming flush pinkened Lili’s cheeks. Tom was a red-blooded man and Lili was definitely all woman. If only she hadn’t displayed such a will of steel and relentless determination. He knew from experience that a strong woman spelled trouble.

He was also old-fashioned enough to believe that his frat brother, Lucas Sullivan, had been right in his article on the mating game. A woman had to let a man set the pace in their relationship, or at least allow him to be a partner. Since he’d discovered the real Lili, Tom wasn’t sure she was ready to do either.

He intended to get around to marriage someday, maybe, but not yet. If his father was so set on being a grandfather, maybe there was still a chance that his sister would develop a nesting instinct, marry and provide the grandchildren.

Impatiently, he listened while his father and Lili exchanged pleasantries. The longer the two spoke, the broader the smile on his father’s face became. Not a good sign.

“Tom,” Homer finally suggested, “why don’t you bring Lili and the children over to my place for dinner next Friday?”

Tom was about to say he had another engagement when the activity on the ball fields stopped and picnicgoers broke into whistles and shouts. Slowly, he swiveled to see what had prompted the outburst. It seemed as if everyone was looking skyward, pointing and cheering. To Tom’s dismay, a small plane flew overhead, trailing a large yellow banner: HELP KEEP RIVERVIEW CHILD CARE CENTER OPEN!

A deep foreboding washed over Tom. He knew, as sure as he knew his own name, that his life was about to become even more complicated.

This had to be Lili’s doing.

Today’s stunt with the plane had to be just another way to rev up her crusade to save the center. But this time she’d gone too far. It was beginning to look as if her wide-ranging imagination greatly exceeded her charm.

Gritting his teeth to hide his frustration, Tom turned to a wide-eyed Lili and gestured to the banner. “You?”

“Mais non!” To Lili’s chagrin, whenever she became agitated, she reverted to her native language. How could Tom think she’d hired the airplane? He had to know she couldn’t have afforded to do that even if she’d wanted to.

“You’re sure about that?”

Lili nodded. To her dismay, what had begun as a campaign intended solely for the Riverview Building’s tenants must surely be known to most of Chicago by now. The realization that the local papers and television stations were bound to pick up on the flyover made her knees grow weak. Judging from the look on Tom’s face, it would be a miracle if she wasn’t fired.