Phyllis Halldorson - A Man Worth Marrying

She frowned, and he decided he’d better not press his luck. Reluctantly he withdrew his hand before he could give in to the overpowering urge to run his fingers through her glistening black curls.

“I’ll talk to her tonight, explain to her why it’s necessary, and tell her I’ve arranged for a teacher to come by tomorrow afternoon to meet her. Everything will be all right. You’ll see,” he assured her.

He gave her his address and phone number, then thanked her for taking the time to talk to him and left the school building.

As he drove, his mind shifted back to Eve Costopoulos. She wasn’t at all what he’d expected. She was much younger, for one thing. Erik, the district superintendent. hadn’t mentioned her age, and for some reason he’d pictured someone closer to his own. This one seemed hardly out of her teens—although she had to be in her early twenties, at least, in order to have graduated from college and taught for close to a year.

He also hadn’t expected her to be such a knockout! Taller than average, possibly five foot eight, with ample curves that couldn’t be downplayed even by the simple gray skirt and matching cardigan sweater she wore with a tailored white blouse.

She had ebony hair that was a twirling mass of curls swirling around her shoulders making her look like a gypsy, and he’d been disconcerted at his strong urge to tangle his fingers in it.

He stopped for a stop sign, but his contemplation didn’t even slow down as he started up again and made a left turn.

As for Eve’s eyes, it was best not to think of them at all. They were black as her hair, and every bit as unsettling, with their deep-set beauty and their way of looking straight into him. They stirred up feelings that he didn’t welcome, called up emotions he’d sworn never to let get the better of him again.

So why was he so eager to have her tutor his daughter? If his initial attraction to her was this keen, then having her in his house, working with his child several days a week, could be disastrous!

He swore softly. What had gotten into him? Once he’d finally taken all he could of Bambi’s capriciousness and asked for a divorce, he’d vowed never to get seriously involved with a woman again. He sure had no intention of falling in love!

He knew there were adequate teachers who would be happy to have part-time employment for the summer. They might not come as highly recommended as Eve, but they could have done the job. Why hadn’t he just accepted her refusal and let it go at that—?

Because he was spoiled, that’s why. As a minor celebrity in this small city, he was used to getting his own way. And he wasn’t prepared to have a slip of a girl tell him he couldn’t beg, borrow or buy her expert services—

The car in front of him stopped suddenly, and he slammed on his brake and almost rear-ended it. He’d been so lost in his musing that he hadn’t seen the red light ahead.

Enough of this old nonsense! He wasn’t going to take a chance on getting involved with any woman, and certainly not one who was his daughter’s teacher. He didn’t have Eve’s home phone number, but he could call her at school in the morning and tell her that he was regretfully willing to accept her initial refusal, after all. He knew she’d be relieved.

Now that that was settled, maybe he could concentrate on his driving, on picking up Tinker from Judy, the baby-sitter who was a stay-at-home mom and who was on call when his work hours collided with his custody responsibility—without wrecking his sports car.

Gray rolled out of bed at three o’clock the next morning when the alarm went off. He had to get up early every morning in order to be ready to do the weather at five, on the first newscast of the day. It wasn’t much of a hardship. He usually retired at nine on weeknights, and got by nicely on six hours of sleep.

His first thought was of Eve and his need to call her, but obviously it was much too early. She wouldn’t be at school for at least four more hours.

Unfortunately things hadn’t gone last night as he’d planned. In fact, everything that could go wrong had. The outcome was that he hadn’t even seen his daughter, let alone been able to talk to her about being tutored.

He sighed. Not that it really mattered, since he wasn’t going to hire Eve anyway.

But by then it was too late to phone her. After all the fuss he’d made yesterday about wanting her, and only her, to tutor his child, it would be impolite to wait until the last minute to contact her and tell her he’d changed his mind. No, now he’d just wait until she arrived and then graciously accept her initial refusal to take the job.

A suspicion niggled at him, but he shook it off. He wasn’t having second thoughts about not hiring her. Certainly not! He hadn’t deliberately frittered away the time—it had just gotten away from him, was all.

He had no intention of pursuing any kind of relationship with her. Not even a business one.

Eve drove through the neighborhood of well-kept upscale homes. The houses were large, but not ostentatious. Although the lawns were still brown and the big old trees just beginning to leaf, she could see that they received good care during the warmer seasons.

She spotted the address she was looking for, and pulled over to the curb in front of the house. It was one of the smaller homes on the block: a one-story Tudor-style built of red brick with a red tile roof. Handsome as well as sturdy.

Getting out of her silver-gray compact, she approached the house and climbed the steps to the covered porch. She rang the bell, but as she waited she was sorely tempted to turn and run. Although she’d promised to consider tutoring Gray’s daughter, she didn’t like being outwitted, especially by a man who attracted her so strongly. She neither needed nor wanted a man in her life at this time. Certainly not one who had already been married and had an eight-year-old child!

Before she could act on her urge to flee, the inside door opened. Gray stood on the other side of the storm door; he must have been watching for her, to have gotten there so quickly.

“Hi,” he said, and unlocked the outside door to open it. “I...I hope you haven’t been too badly inconvenienced by my insistence that you come here instead of meeting at school.”

Eve was struck by the fact that he seemed ill at ease today. He hadn’t been at all unsure of himself yesterday.

“It’s out of my way, but not much,” she said as she walked into the foyer and looked around. The living room was on the right, the dining room on the left and separated from the kitchen behind it by a chest-high breakfast bar. Straight ahead was a long hall with rooms on either side and at the end. The floors were covered in thick brown-and-beige carpeting, and the furniture was heavy and masculine. Expensive but serviceable.

“You have a very attractive home,” she said. “Did you decorate it yourself?”

He smiled. “Not exactly. When I moved in, I hired a decorator to work with me. And then Bambi got into the act—”

“Is Bambi your ex-wife’s name?” she interrupted. “Or am I misunderstanding again?”

He sighed. “No, you’re not misunderstanding. I told you she was flighty, but you really have to know her to know what I mean. She was christened Bernice after her grandmother, but she didn’t like that name, so she started calling herself Bambi after she saw the Disney movie when she was a child. Now she even uses it as her legal name.”

“My word.” Eve murmured. “She certainly is creative.” It was the only way she could think of to describe the muddled impression she was getting of his ex-wife.

“Oh yes, she is that,” he agreed as he helped her off with her coat. His strong hand touched her shoulder, totally by accident she was sure, but it sent a tingle down her spine.