Brenda Harlen - Building The Perfect Daddy

She looked away, embarrassed and ashamed that she’d been so foolish. “I just signed the papers where he told me to. I didn’t even read them.

“And now—” she fought against the tears that burned behind her eyes “—if I let the bank foreclose on the business, they could take the house, too.”

“Then we need to come up with a plan to save the business,” Jordyn said.

“And since my brain functions much better when I’m relaxed, we’ll brainstorm some ideas after the spa.”

“I already told you, I can’t—”

“You can’t say no,” Tristyn interjected. “Mom made all the arrangements—and paid for it.”

Lauryn sighed. “She shouldn’t have done that.”

“She didn’t just do it for you, but for all of us. Because she knows how much we all enjoy the monthly ritual.”

Because it was true—and because she loved being with the women who weren’t just her sisters but her best friends—Lauryn gave up her protest.

* * *

Sweet Serenity Boutique & Spa was located in a renovated three-story Colonial Revival home in Northbrook, offering different services on different levels. The three sisters were on the lower level now, continuing their conversation as they perused the selection of polishes for their pedicures.

“I had no idea things were as bad as they are at the store,” Lauryn confided. “Rob didn’t let me see the books. He said it was because he wanted to take care of the business, to prove that he could take care of us.”

“And a piss-poor job he did of both,” Jordyn said bluntly.

Lauryn could only nod. “But I loved him. Maybe I was naive but, for a long time, I really did love him.”

“I know you did,” Tristyn said sympathetically.

“And you’ll fall in love again,” Jordyn told her.

“Jesus, I hope not,” Lauryn said.

Her recently—and happily—married sister frowned. “Why would you say something like that?”

“Because I have no desire to repeat past mistakes.” She sipped from her glass of cucumber-and-lime-infused spring water.

“You wouldn’t,” Jordyn said confidently. “Your relationship with Rob was a learning experience.”

“Most importantly, I learned that I don’t need a man to complete my life.”

“As if he ever did,” Tristyn remarked dryly.

“I didn’t think I’d fall in love again,” Jordyn confided. “I didn’t think I could. And then I met Marco.”

Lauryn couldn’t help but smile at that. Marco Palermo had fallen head over heels for Jordyn and immediately set his sights on winning her heart—not an easy task. Four years earlier, Jordyn had been only weeks away from her wedding when her fiancé was killed in a car crash. As a result, she’d put up all kinds of barriers around her heart, refusing to let any man get too close. Until Marco.

While he wasn’t at all the type of guy that Lauryn would have expected to steal her sister’s heart, he was absolutely perfect for her. And they were perfect together. Lauryn was thrilled for both of them, and just a little bit envious. Because when she was with Jordyn and Marco, she realized that she’d never shared that kind of soul-deep love and connection with her own husband. But even as she lamented that fact, she wasn’t looking for the same thing now—she had more important concerns.

“I just want my kids to be safe and happy and know that I love them.”

“They are and they do,” Jordyn assured her. “And while that’s a legitimate and even admirable goal, you can’t live your life for your children.”

“Why don’t we table this discussion until you have kids of your own?” Lauryn’s tone was a little harsher than she’d intended, but neither of her sisters really understood what she was going through. They couldn’t know the joy that filled her heart every time she looked at her children—or how much pressure she felt always trying to do what was best for them.

Thankfully, Jordyn wasn’t offended by her sharp retort. And the thought of a baby—Marco’s baby—was enough to make her deep green eyes go all misty and dreamy.

Unfortunately, Tristyn wasn’t so easily distracted. “But what do you want?” she asked Lauryn.

I want to not worry that my bank card is going to be declined at the gas station because I just bought diapers and formula.

Not that she would admit as much to her sisters. Telling them about the business was one thing; whining about her personal finances was something else entirely. Her mistakes were her own and she was determined to fix them on her own. Of course, now that the bank had rejected her proposal, her options had gone from limited to almost nonexistent, but she wasn’t ready to give up yet.

“Well, I have been thinking about making some changes in my life,” she finally confided. “Maybe dyeing my hair to test the old adage about blondes having more fun.”

Her sisters exchanged a look, and she knew they were both thinking of Roxi—the perky blonde yoga instructor that Lauryn’s husband had run off with.

“Or red,” she said, because the color didn’t matter as much as the change it would symbolize.

Tristyn shook her head. “Do you remember when I went red—or tried to? It took my stylist three hours to undo what I’d done, and he made me promise that if I ever wanted a drastic change I would stick to the color on my toes.”

Lauryn looked at the pale pink and white polishes she’d chosen for her standard French pedicure.

Tristyn handed her the bottle of sparkly purple that she’d selected. “Go wild,” she advised. “But in a way that won’t do any long-term damage.”

Lauryn looked at the color—equal parts intrigued and wary—and decided it was time to step out of her comfort zone. At least a little.

Chapter Five

Ryder loved his job. Of course, he’d prefer doing it without cameras recording him every step of the way, but he’d long ago accepted that as a necessary trade-off for being able to do the work he wanted to do. Ryder to the Rescue was currently one of the top-rated programs at WNCC, with a viewership that continued to grow with each successive season, but Virginia Gennings, the producer, wanted to keep the show fresh and the Room Rescue contest was her latest brainstorm.

Ryder’s only real objection had come when Owen had delegated the task of choosing the contest winners to him. Three winners out of more than nine hundred entries from as far away as Texas and Seattle, with requests that ranged from a modest bathroom rehab to the complete reconfiguration of a floor plan. Owen’s criteria for selection: stories that would appeal to viewers. Which meant that Ryder’s original plan—to put all of the entries in a box and draw three at random—fell by the wayside as he spent hours reading application after application, sorting them into three distinct groupings of Maybe, No and No Way in Hell.

The majority of applications that went into the third pile were those that included naked pictures and explicit offers to express appreciation for his work when the cameras were gone or, in one notable case, with the cameras still rolling. The requests for free renovations by home owners who could well afford to pay for the work they wanted done landed in the No file. And then there was the Maybe group, from which he selected the winners.

Lauryn Schulte’s application had appealed to him for several reasons, including her reference to the husband who didn’t have time to do the renovation. Because the existence of a husband meant it was much less likely that he’d have to fend off the attention of an overzealous fan—a sticky situation that was occurring more frequently, seemingly in direct correlation to the show’s increasing popularity.

According to Virginia, Ryder was the whole package—smart, sexy, strong and charismatic—and the female viewership of Ryder to the Rescue was so high because women trusted him and wanted to invite him into their homes. But Ryder liked to keep his private life private. Okay, so maybe he did date a lot of women, but he didn’t dish about any of them and he made it clear that if they dished, they were history. As a result, for the first few seasons that the show was on the air, he’d mostly managed to keep a low profile.