Page 27 of Santa Baby Maybe
I laughed at that. “I can only imagine what she would say. Trust me, she has no interest in my type either. I’m far too rigid for her. No, we’re utterly incompatible.”
“So the search for Mrs. Darling continues,” Wes concluded.
“It does.” I sighed heavily. “I’ve got another date tonight.”
“Why do you sound like you’re going off to battle instead of going on a date?”
“Sometimes it feels like a battle,” I admitted. “We can’t all be as lucky as you. To fall in love so quickly.”
Wes smiled. “Yep, it was pretty simple. Done deal.”
“It’s not my place to intrude, Wes. But this is marriage. It should be forever. It all seems to have happened so fast. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Hell no.” Wes laughed. “But I’m sure it will work itself out. Right now we need to keep our eye focused on the real issues. I want you to make it so my father can’t take any more of my money, and I want to pursue every legal avenue we have to hold him accountable for it.”
“Got it.”
Wes stood then and took one last look at my tree.
“A shame,” he said under his breath, but didn’t offer any explanation for that.
Instead, he just let the office and I was left to think about that for the rest of the day.
* * *
LoDo’s Bar and Grill
Joy
“To our success,”I said, raising my margarita glass high. Sophie lifted her beer bottle and tapped the tip to my glass, which of course made it an official toast.
“What do you mean our success? They’re your goofy ornaments.”
I scowled at her. “Do not call my ornaments goofy. They’re brilliant, and if the orders stay on track they are going to save the company. That said, it’s been a team effort. I can make the design, but the artists need to execute. And we can build a product, but if we can’t figure out a way to ship them without breaking them, then that’s no good either.”
Sophie grinned. “I am a first-rate packer and shipper.”
“You are. Together we’re a team.”
“And if we didn’t have the finance guys to count up all the money…” Sophie said, trailing off.
“Also true. Without W.B. how would we know how successful we are?”
“Speak of the devil,” Sophie said. “I seem to say that a lot around this guy. It’s like wherever you are, he is.”
It took a second for those words to penetrate. Why would she say that unless he was…
Here. Now. This very second.
Walking through the bar doors. He wore a wool overcoat that I watched him shuck out of as soon as he was inside. He still wore his tie, but his white shirtsleeves were rolled up to his elbows. It was only then I noticed the woman who must have stepped inside just before him. He was now helping her remove her coat and she turned to thank him with a smile.
Oh shit. He was here on another date. Another blind date, most likely, as I knew his last date hadn’t ended well enough for there to be a second date.
She was pretty. A little buttoned up in her formfitting pantsuit with her dark hair severely pulled back into a tight ponytail. Not a thread or a hair out of order. Exactly his type.
This was awkward. There was no way I could sit and watch W.B. date someone. It was crossing too many boundaries. He wouldn’t want that either. Not having someone he worked with be at the same place where he was doing something as personal as getting to know a woman.
A woman he was auditioning to be the next Mrs. Darling.
