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Maggie’s dad came out of the den and shook hands warmly with Brock. “Glad you could join us,” he said, then turned to Maggie. “Van told us Brock was giving her a ride over tonight, so we invited him to stay for dinner.”
“Oh.” Maggie looked back at Stevie.
He shrugged. “I didn’t overhear that part,” he mouthed to her. “Yo, Van,” he said out loud. “You planning to change your clothes between every bite of your roast beef?”
“I’m staying for a while.” Van’s voice sounded brittle.
“Oh, wow.” Stevie looked at Maggie again. They both loved their sister, but it was much easier to love her when she lived under a different roof. “What, is Mitch away on business or something?”
“Or something.”
Uh-oh.
The phone rang.
“I’ll get it!” Maggie and Stevie said in unison.
But their mother picked it up in the kitchen. “It’s for you, hon,” she called to their father.
“I’ll take it in the den.” He disappeared down the hall.
“Help me get this stuff upstairs,” Vanessa commanded.
“Yes, sir!” Stevie fired off a salute as Vanessa and Brock led the way. “She’s staying for a while,” he muttered out of the side of his mouth to Maggie.
“Matt’s going to be here any minute,” Maggie muttered back.
“Matt?” Stevie was delighted. “The friend you’re having dinner with is a Matt. Oh, boy.”
“Dinner’s almost ready,” their mother called from the kitchen.
“I’m going out. I’ve got a business dinner,” Maggie called back, loudly enough for Brock to hear. Except he was leaning close to Vanessa, listening intently to whatever she was saying.
“I can’t hear you with the water running!” her mother called back.
“What are you going to do?” Stevie whispered to Maggie. “I know—you could invite him to stay for dinner, too.”
“Bite your tongue!”
Stevie was laughing. “It’s the only solution. You know, this evening is turning out to be much more interesting than I thought.”
Maggie rammed Vanessa’s suitcase into the back of his leg.
“Ouch!” he yelped.
“Margaret!” their father shouted from the bottom of the stairs. “I want to talk to you. Now.”
Maggie froze, looking at Stevie. Uh-oh.
“God, what’dya do?” he asked, sotto voce.
“I’m almost thirty years old,” she whispered back. “Why do I feel as if I’m thirteen and I’ve left the basketball out in the driveway?”
The doorbell rang.
Uh-oh. “I’ll get it,” Maggie called, desperately trying to sound normal as she hurried down the stairs.
“I’ll help!” Stevie dropped Van’s suitcase and scrambled after her.
They both nearly crashed headlong into their father, who seemed to materialize out of thin air. He had on his fighting face.
“Maggie, that was just Bob Andersen on the phone,” he said. “He just happened to mention that you quit your job this morning!”
“Yo, Mags! Finally makin’ that rockin’ career move?” Stevie said approvingly.
“You did what?” Vanessa came down the stairs, followed closely by Brock.
The doorbell rang again.
“She quit her job at Andersen and Brenden.” Her father shook his head in disbelief.
“Will someone please answer the door?” Maggie’s mom came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
“I’ll get it,” Maggie said again, hurrying to reach the door before her mother got there. She took a deep breath and pulled it open.
Matt was standing there, wearing his usual jeans and white T-shirt, his hair loose, looking like a dream date from a music video. “Hey,” he said with that smile that lit his entire face.
She reached for his hand and pulled him into the foyer. His smile turned to surprise as he saw her entire family staring at him.
“Everyone,” Maggie said in her best stage voice. “I’d like you to meet my new boss, Matthew Stone.”
“Oh, my God,” Vanessa said.
“Your new what?” Brock asked as he sized Matt up.
“Intense.” Stevie was impressed.
“Close the door, dear,” Maggie’s mother said, her voice faint with shock, “or bugs will come inside.”
Maggie sat at the dinner table, buzzing with nervous energy. How did this happen? She’d thought she’d been in control. She’d intended to stick to her plans and go out with Matt. After all, it was business, right? Instead, they’d ended up here, in one great big, hostile room.
She looked across the table and met Matt’s tranquil gaze.
Well, the entire room wasn’t hostile.
“You have how long to do what?” her father was saying as her mother passed Matt a plate heaped with mashed potatoes, vegetables… and a large slice of roast beef.
And he was a vegetarian. She opened her mouth to protest, but Matt caught her eye and shook his head very slightly, taking the plate with a graciously murmured thanks.
“We have a fiscal quarter,” he told her father. He seemed entirely at ease with the fact that everyone was staring at him. “And I’m not really sure what I have to do in order to inherit the business.” He smiled at Maggie. “That’s one of the things we’re meeting to discuss later this evening.”
“Let me get this straight,” Vanessa said. “You’ve actually hired Maggie to do… what?”
“She’s going to be both my lawyer and my business partner,” he said.
Maggie glanced down the table at Stevie, who was looking at Matt in something akin to shock. Her brother looked at her, realization in his eyes and a rapidly growing grin on his lips.
Oh damn. Stevie had figured out that Matt was the man who had come up in their earlier conversation. What was that phrase Stevie had used? Boy toy.
She looked down the table at her brother, promising him with her eyes that the wrath of Satan and the winds of hell would be nothing compared to her if he let this one slip. He smiled at her and made a zipping motion across his mouth.
Yeah, you better keep it zipped, junior….
“Maggie, aren’t you hungry? You haven’t touched your plate,” her mother said.
She stared down at her dinner, her appetite gone. Her stomach churned nervously at the sight of roast beef congealing in a puddle of gravy. “Um,” she said.
Brock slipped his arm around her shoulders and he gave her a squeeze. “You know how girls are,” he said. “Always dieting.”
Matt send Maggie a disbelieving, amused look. She knew what he was thinking. Girls. Brock’s feminist awareness quotient was a shade lower than a Neanderthal’s.
And she really wished he wouldn’t touch her.
“I’m curious as to why you didn’t discuss Matt’s job offer with Brock before you took it,” Vanessa asked. “I mean, you are planning to get married, aren’t you?”
And now everyone was looking at Maggie.
But oh, my God, she was not going to turn Brock down in front of her entire family.
“Um,” she said.
Steve had his glass of milk in his hand, and Matt, who was sitting right next to him, elbowed him.
No one else saw it. Just Maggie.
But the milk went everywhere. “Whoops,” Stevie said as Vanessa jumped up to avoid getting drenched.
“Clumsy me,” Stevie said as Maggie’s mom ran for the kitchen towel.
Matt threw his napkin down to start soaking up the spill. He looked up at Maggie and smiled as Stevie kept on making noise. “Wow, how did that happen?”
No one was looking at her anymore. “Thank you,” she said silently to Matt.
He blew her a kiss.
Which Vanessa, unfortunately, saw.
“Didn’t you date Maggie back in high school?” she asked Matt after the worst of the spill was cleaned up and they were all sitting back down.
He shook his head. “No. I went out with Angie. You know, Caratelli, off and on for a couple of years.”
“But you wanted to date Maggie,” Vanessa persisted. She laughed. “Date being the euphemism that it is in high school.” She looked at her brother. “Right, Steven?”
“Has anyone seen the new James Bond movie?” Stevie asked brightly.
“Am I right or am I right?” Van asked Matt.
“Van,” Maggie said. What was her sister doing? As if Brock weren’t already prickly enough just at the sight of Matt. “Don’t.”
“Matthew’s not denying it,” she pointed out. She’d had far too much to drink tonight and Maggie’s heart broke for her. Her mother had pulled her aside to report that Van was home because Mitch had made it official. He was filing for divorce.
Maggie met Matt’s eyes again, across the table, and the look on his face was…
God, was it actually true? Matt had wanted to go out with…
But…
“I was seventeen,” Matt said to Vanessa. “I wanted to date everyone.”
Maggie stood up. Enough already. “We have to get to work.”
“For the record,” her father said. “I’m not happy about this job change.”
“For the record,” Maggie said, “I am.”
Matt leaned against the Maserati, watching Maggie say good-night to Brock, who was going to stay and keep Vanessa company for a little while longer.
He clenched his teeth as he watched the other man kiss Maggie. True, she turned her face away so that first kiss landed on her cheek. But Brock was a persistent bastard, and… Matt had to look away.
He jumped slightly, surprised to see Stevie leaning next to him. He hadn’t heard the kid approach.
“So. You’re a millionaire.”
“Not quite.” Matt glanced at Maggie. She’d pulled away from Brock, but he still held her hand.
“Answer me honestly,” Stevie said. “Are your intentions toward my sister honorable?”
Matt looked at Stevie in surprise. The kid was already as tall as he was, but he was lanky with that big-boned pony look that teenage boys so often had. He wore his dark hair buzzed at the back and sides, with a long lock of curls in the front that flopped down over his eyes. His face was just starting to lose its boyish prettiness as he began to fill out.
“I guess that’s not really my business, is it?” Stevie continued with a shrug. “You know, she’s as much as told me that she’s not going to marry the Blockhead.”
“She did?”
Stevie smiled. “Yeah, well,” he imitated Brock’s deep voice. “You never know with girls. They’re always changing their minds.”
Matt laughed. “God, he’s a jerk.”
“Who’s a jerk?” Maggie said, joining them.
