Mollie Molay - An Engagement Of Convenience

“Any idea who is behind it?” Tom demanded between clenched teeth. “If I do find out who did it…” He left the sentence unfinished, but his threat was clear.

Lili’s blood ran cold as the airplane flew out of sight. She was innocent, but she had the feeling that the brains behind this caper belonged to one or both of her friends, Rita and April. And it was only a matter of time before Tom found the culprit.

Her lips were sealed.

She sensed Tom’s frustration in the rigid way he held himself. Whatever he was thinking couldn’t be good.

It wasn’t only her own job on the line, she realized as she gazed up, to discover the plane had reappeared. Her campaign might come back to bite her friends, as well.

“What’s all the shouting about?” Tom’s father asked.

Wordlessly, Tom pointed skyward.

Homer Eldridge shaded his eyes and gazed upward to the accompaniment of hoots, whistles and shouts from everyone on the playing field.

“Who’s trying to close our day care center?” Homer demanded. “Better yet, who’s behind that stunt? I’d like to have a few words with them!”

Lili was afraid from the thunderous look on his face that the senior Eldridge intended to give any perpetrators hell. Well, for that matter, so did Tom if he found them. And from the way he was glaring at the airplane, it was going to be soon.

“In answer to your first question, Dad,” Tom began with a scowl at Lili, “I’m damn sure that the reason for the plane is that Jules Kagan has called a meeting to discuss closing the center. If you ask me, it’s already a done deal—” he shot a telling look at Lili “—even if some people don’t want to believe it.

“As for the person behind that misguided stunt up there,” Tom added, “I’m not sure who it is, but I have a good idea.”

Homer Eldridge’s face grew mottled with anger as he stared at the banner flying overhead. “You have it all wrong, Son. I’m not angry at whoever hired the plane. Considering I was one of the tenants that started the day care, I should have been told Jules wants to close the place down. If I’d known, I would have tried to stop that fool exhibition up there before it got started. No matter how well intentioned the perpetrator might be, I’m afraid there’s going to be hell to pay when Kagan finds out!”

“Don’t worry, Dad.” Tom sent another pointed look at Lili. “I’m pretty sure I know who’s behind the stunt. I plan on taking care of it the first thing in the morning.”

“Hell, you’re not listening!” his father retorted. “That’s not what I meant. If it weren’t for Jules’s reaction, I’d be tempted to give whoever’s behind the stunt a medal. As it is, this will only make matters worse.”

Gazing at Tom, Lili saw the warm, velvety brown eyes that she considered so sensuous grow cool. Another bad sign.

“You know as well as I do, Dad, that our lease renewal is coming up soon,” Tom continued. “If we do anything else to antagonize Kagan, it’s only going to cost us.”

His father snorted and loosened the collar of his shirt from around his burly neck. “It’s getting too damn hot out here and I have a strong feeling it’s going to get a lot hotter before this mess is over. Things have already gone too far.”

He glanced over at Paul, who was busy poking a twig down the gopher hole. “I take it your boy attends the day care center, Lili?”

Lili ignored Tom’s warning look. She could use all the help she could get. “Yes, he does,” she said proudly. “Paul and his sister were in Riverview’s day care until they started public school. They are in afternoon care there now.”

Homer’s frown grew deeper for a moment, then he smiled. “The fact you have children there makes the problem more personal. Don’t you worry, my dear, you can leave everything to me. I’ll take care of this.”

“Come on, Dad.” Tom broke in, concerned about the subtext in his father’s satisfied smile. The man was obviously taken by Lili, but the less he became involved with her and her children, the better. “You’re retired now, Dad. You ought to be enjoying yourself instead of working yourself into a heart attack over this. Like I said, just leave the details to me.”

“Some details,” Homer muttered as the plane circled the park one last time, dipped its wings in a salute to the watchers below, and in a sputter of staccato sound disappeared from view. “I said I’ll take care of this and I will. Where’s your cell phone?”

Tom sighed, dug in his pocket and handed over his phone. “It’s Sunday. I don’t think you’ll be able to reach anyone today.”

“We’ll see about that!” his father retorted. “Hell, Jules Kagan had better talk to me! We go back too far for him to ignore me now. If I have to, I’ll remind him that I was one of the first businesses to sign a lease when he became owner of the Riverview. I even brought a couple of other prospective tenants with me to raise the occupancy rate so he could impress the bankers when he applied for a loan.”

Homer stopped to gaze reassuringly at Lili. “Now, excuse me while I take this conversation somewhere private. I wouldn’t want to offend your ears.” He stomped across the grass and over the slight rise, then disappeared from sight.

Since she was one of the prime movers in the campaign to save the center, Lili felt guiltier than ever. She’d asked her friends for help, but she’d never expected them to hire an airplane to advertise her crusade. Knowing the way Rita’s mind worked, maybe Lili should have taken the time to make them promise to keep her in the loop before they went this far.

The way Tom looked, she knew he didn’t believe she’d had nothing to do with hiring the airplane. But she had to try again.

“I am so sorry, Tom. No matter how I feel, I never intended for something like this to happen. Or,” she added as the annoyed look Homer had shot Tom flashed through her mind, “to cause a problem between you and your father.”

“Yeah, sure,” Tom replied, trying to focus on his anger instead of the way Lili’s sundress hugged her lush curves.

He might be frustrated with the woman, but he was also fully aware of her charms. There was something special about Lili he couldn’t ignore.

“If you weren’t the one who cooked up that stunt,” he said, forcing himself back to the issue at hand, “how about telling me whose bird-brained idea it was?”

Homer Eldridge stormed back into view before Lili could answer. “That damn fool won’t give me the time of day! Says he saw the plane fly over his penthouse on the other side of the park! He sounded mad as hell!”

“Will he close the center over this?” Dismayed, Lili couldn’t hide her anguish. Now that the Riverview’s owner was directly involved, things had gone too far. From what Tom’s father was saying, the chances of reversing the man’s mind didn’t appear any more likely than finding some way to placate Tom himself.

“The damn fool threatened to close it, but don’t worry, Lili,” Eldridge said soothingly. “I’ll get to Jules sooner or later and make him see the light or my name isn’t Homer Eldridge! As a matter of fact,” he added with a glare at the high-rise building that towered above the trees, “I’m going over and make him talk to me right now or I’ll break down his door trying. As for you, Son,” Eldridge said before he stomped away, “don’t forget you’re going to bring Lili and her children to dinner on Friday. I’m expecting you.”

Troubled at the reason for the invitation, Tom waited until his father was out of sight to tackle Lili. “We have to talk.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. The moment she’d feared had obviously arrived. She’d wanted Tom to notice her the way a man notices a woman, not the way he was looking at her now. “Talk about what?”