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“Not much,” Lili confessed, “although I knew he was still upset. For that matter, so was I.” She frowned. “Until today, whenever he visited the studio, I was sure he was trying to satisfy his artistic side.”
“Tom, an artist? No way,” Rita scoffed. “All the man seems interested in is the way the magazine’s circulation is going through the roof after he published those rules of Lucas’s.”
Rita was right, Lili thought. Not that she blamed Tom. Lucas Sullivan was a sociologist and Tom’s long-time friend. After his six recommendations to guarantee a happy marriage—Sullivan’s Rules—were published in Today’s World, the magazine sold more copies than in its entire history. But there had been an even more delightful result as well—Lucas had fallen in love and married Lili’s friend April, his editor.
“I would love to have seen the expression on his face when he caught you working on another one of those fliers,” April said.
“He didn’t look happy. He warned me to stop, but not before he practically took the piece of charcoal out of my hand and filled in the eyebrows on my sketch.”
“Get outta here!” Rita exclaimed. “I didn’t think the man had a sense of humor. But if you really are interested in him, I hope you took the time to talk about something besides work.”
“No.” Lili doubted Tom had been interested in a personal conversation. “I’m afraid it was all business.”
Rita tossed her empty paper cup into a wastebasket. “All this time I thought you wanted him to notice you…to get to know you.”
“Well, he did notice me, but not in the way I would have wished,” Lili admitted.
Rita threw up her hands. “I can’t believe you wasted such a great opportunity to get personal. Now, if it had been me and I hadn’t already met my Colby, I would have…” She stopped and grinned happily. “What happened then?”
“Not much. He told me I should stick to business during working hours.”
“Well, I suppose any conversation is a start. Although I think you could at least have cracked a joke or two about having been caught.”
“A joke?” Lili said doubtfully. “Mr. Eldridge is always so serious, I’m not sure he has a sense of humor.”
“Sure he does.” April broke in with a laugh. “He managed to bring Lucas and me together when I was Lucas’s editor. Considering the way Lucas and I disagreed about those rules of his, only Tom could have thought the two of us belonged together.”
Rita sniffed. “From what I’ve seen, Tom’s a man without a romantic bone in his body. Just what is it that attracts you to him anyway, Lili?”
“Well, to begin with, his eyes.” Lili smiled as she also remembered Tom’s deep, husky voice—even if he had been telling her off. “I know neither of you thinks Mr. Eldridge is sexy, but I do.”
“Ha!” Rita scoffed. “Don’t get me wrong, Lili. I’m the first to respect Tom for the way he’s brought the magazine’s circulation around. But if the man’s sexy, then I’m the tooth fairy.”
April waved her hand in warning as other members of the staff began to drift back from lunch. “Don’t worry, Lili. Knowing how decent a man Tom really is, I’m convinced he won’t stay angry with you for long. If you want us to help, I’m sure we can figure out a way to keep the center open without causing a riot.”
“I agree,” Rita said airily. “I might need to use the center myself someday.”
Lili gaped at her. “You are expecting a baby already?”
Unabashed, Rita grinned. “You might say I’m working on it.” She turned to April. “What about you?”
April laughed and shook her head. “Not for a while. Lucas and I are busy researching a new slant on his old study about the mating game.”
“It’s about time,” Rita said. “Anyone who believes in his rules about the subservient way a woman ought to behave toward a man in the twenty-first century should have their head examined. As for you, Lili, I actually think Tom has more ‘Sullivan’ traits in him than most men do. Maybe what he needs is someone like you to show him what women really want.”
“Just look at Colby and you, Rita,” April teased. “The poor man had to get himself shot before he realized he loves you just the way you are—the way you’ve been ever since you were kids back in Texas. Still—” April winked at Lili “—maybe it’s too much to expect you to take Rita’s advice about Tom.”
“Sheesh,” Rita grumbled. “I didn’t tell her to…well, not exactly. I just told her to do something to try to get Tom’s attention.”
“Yeah, I remember that conversation,” April said dryly. “But it’s what you suggested Lili do that was the problem. No matter how you put it, your advice boiled down to sex, sex and more sex!”
Instead of denying April’s accusation, Rita looked pleased with herself. “It was all talk, I swear, but the truth is,” she added with a wicked grin, “making love with Colby instead of talking was what finally worked for me. You have to remember, Lili, you’re never going to really get Tom’s attention if you keep calling him Mr. Eldridge instead of just Tom, the way the rest of us do.”
“I know,” Lili said wistfully. “I find it difficult to be familiar with him without an invitation. After all, he is my boss.”
“And he’s all business when he’s at work,” Rita added. “If you’re ever going to catch his interest, you’ll have to spread a little honey instead of making fliers.”
“Maybe the problem is that you actually believe in Sullivan’s Rules, Lili,” April interjected. “You’ve already told us you were brought up to believe that a woman’s role in a relationship is actually a lot like Lucas’s rules for marriage.”
“It is true,” Lili agreed. “The women in my family were taught from childhood to defer to their father, then their husband. I know it sounds very old-fashioned compared to the way women here in the United States think, but it is different in my country. Especially for a girl like myself, who was raised by her grandmother.”
“Then you and Tom ought to get along just fine,” Rita said soothingly. “I think he actually believes in Sullivan’s Rules. Provided you get over your shyness, and if you can do something to get him to see you’re a mixture of the woman in Lucas’s article and today’s woman, you’ll be okay.”
“Rita’s right,” April agreed. “All Tom needs is to realize you’re almost as old-fashioned about men as he is about women.” She paused to look critically at Lili. “Or are you really an old-fashioned woman? Sometimes when I see the look in your eyes, I think there are hidden depths within you.”
Lili blushed as she recalled her physical reaction to Tom whenever he was near. “Maybe so.”
“Yeah.” Rita grinned. “Personally, I believe that most rules are made to be broken—including Sullivan’s.”
Wide-eyed, Lili shook her head. “I do not want to do anything to make Mr. Eldridge more angry. I need his help to postpone the management meeting.”
“Actually, you don’t have to break Sullivan’s Rules,” Rita said. “All you have to do is bend them a little to make them work for you. Heck, if I hadn’t bent a couple, I wouldn’t be with Colby now.”
“There are so many rules to remember,” Lili said as Arthur, the office gofer, came around the corner pushing his refreshment cart. The last thing she wanted was for her situation to become office gossip. “Which of Sullivan’s Rules are you talking about?” she whispered.
“Rule number five, or for that matter, all of them,” Rita replied, carefully eyeing Arthur’s progress down the hall. “They all seem to advise a woman to try to make a man feel masculine.”
Lili’s eyes widened. “How?”
“By showing him how much you like and appreciate him,” April said.
Rita leaned closer to Lili. “Of course, it’s only part of rule five you need to think about. I’m sure you realize from your own experience that if you sublimate your own desires and allow things to happen naturally, you’re never going to get anywhere with a man like Tom.”
As Lili nodded solemnly, the subject of their conversation approached them. The three women froze.
“Good morning, ladies,” Tom said amiably as he eyed Lili. “I hope this is a business meeting.”
With that not-so-subtle warning, and without waiting for an answer, he raised an eyebrow and walked away.
TOM FELT THREE PAIRS of disapproving eyes boring into his back as he walked down the hall. If not for Lili’s crusade, he wouldn’t have thought about the survival of the day care center. He actually felt sorry about the situation, but it was out of his hands.
Besides, beyond polite conversation, or, he admitted reluctantly, sometimes not so polite conversation, fraternizing with his staff outside office hours had been a no-no ever since he’d taken over as publisher. His father may have considered all his employees as one big happy family, but not him. It only led to trouble. Lili was a case in point.
Besides, managing the magazine took most of his waking hours. The last thing he needed was to have Riverview’s management raise the figures on his lease agreement or, perish the thought, cancel the lease when it came up for renewal next month.
If only the magazine’s annual employee picnic wasn’t coming up next Sunday, he would have felt easier about the future. If he’d read Lili’s determined body language correctly, he was going to have to listen to a hell of a lot of arguments from her about keeping the day care open, and the picnic would provide her with the perfect opportunity to corner him.
TOM PASTED A SMILE on his face as he politely greeted employees arriving for Today’s World’s annual picnic. In no time, the magazine’s staff, their families and friends were scattered over the lush green meadow in Lincoln Park, enjoying games and each other’s company. Overhead, the sky was cloudless, and the temperature had climbed into the seventies.
Just his luck, Tom thought as he shook another hand and acknowledged another greeting. He might have wished for a late spring rain to break up the picnic early, but the sun was shining brightly, the flowers were blooming and the trees were sprouting buds.
Since Lili and her friends were undoubtedly out there formenting trouble, he intended to keep a close eye on the day’s activities. At the moment, things were going so well, he found himself waiting uneasily for the first sign of a problem.
Sure enough, it came with a bang, but not in the way he’d expected.
“Look out!”
At the frantic shout, Tom ducked instinctively. Considering there were at least three different ball games going on in front of him, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to watch out for. A baseball? A soccer ball? A volley ball?
He found out the hard way when he was hit squarely in the groin by a black-and-white soccer ball apparently hurled into space by an energetic player.
With a muffled curse, he caught the ball before it had a chance to roll away. To his mortification, the private part of him he preferred to keep private hurt like hell.
Tom glanced down at the wet ball he held and noticed the large glob of brown mud smeared across the fly of his shorts. If he’d hoped to keep the point of contact a secret, he was out of luck.
A little girl, cheeks flushed with sun and excitement, her blond ponytail flying out behind her, skidded to a stop in front of him.
“Sorry mister. The ball was going too fast. I couldn’t kick it the other way!”
Tom took a series of deep breaths until the red haze in front of his eyes cleared. The blow might have been an accident, but the region south of his belt hurt like hell. The rest of him, including his head, was pounding in sympathy. Still, he tried to keep his cool.
He surveyed the apologetic half-pint in front of him. There was no use being angry. He could recognize innocence when he saw it.
Besides, with so many games going on, he should have been more alert. If he’d been hit in the head with the same force, he would have been knocked out like a light.
Fortunately, the pain in his groin was dulling to a steady throb. He moved gingerly to test the results of his injury and sighed with relief. He might not be home free, but everything seemed to be in working order.
Before he had a chance to tell the kid not to worry, that he was sure he’d live, a young woman came charging across the field toward him.
Lili Soulé.
How much worse could the day get? Tom wondered bleakly.
Chapter Two
“I am so sorry, Mr. Eldridge—er, Tom,” Lili said distractedly, remembering Rita’s instructions to call him by his first name. “I am sure my daughter didn’t mean for the ball to hit you. Paulette, apologize to Mr. Eldridge this minute!”
Tom took another deep breath to control what was left of the pain. “No problem, she’s already apologized.”
For a moment, the thought crossed his mind that Lili might have deliberately set him up to teach him a lesson in humility. He eyed her cautiously. “I’m sure it was an accident. I suppose I could say it was my fault—I should have kept well away from the playing field.”
“Oh no,” Lili said worriedly. “Paulette has to learn to be more careful when she’s playing ball. Unfortunately, this has happened before,” she added with a stern look at her daughter.
“I’ll live.” Tom cautiously shifted from one foot to another, trying to find the most comfortable position. To his chagrin, the muddy spot on his shorts shifted with him.
How in the hell would he be able to look her in the eyes at the office tomorrow?
“If I continue to hang around here, I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the only time I’ll get in the way of a bouncing ball,” Tom added, hoping to displace Lili’s horrified gaze. The pain was bad enough that he could have cursed a blue streak, but he realized a child was present. “Nice day for a picnic, isn’t it?” he said inanely. Lili blinked and the kid grinned, but her humor was short-lived as her mother turned to lecture her about paying attention to what she was doing.
Tom listened to Lili read her daughter the riot act, wondering as he did how he could ever have thought of this lovely woman as serene.
He watched the way the afternoon breeze was sending wisps of her silky blond hair across her sapphire eyes. And wondered at her tender smile, even as she continued to warn her daughter about the safety aspects of playing soccer.
The more he studied Lili, the more fascinating he found her to be. How could he ever have thought her fragile and uninteresting?
He glanced at her left hand—no wedding ring. Just as he’d thought. It would be dangerous for a man like him to become involved with a single mother with small children.
Uneasy at the direction of his thoughts, he began to wonder if fate in the shape of a bouncing soccer ball had deliberately set him up.
“Sorry, mister,” the kid finally said. “I gotta go now. My friends want the ball!” She grabbed the soccer ball out of his hands and, before her mother could stop her, took off at a run.
Lili blew her daughter a kiss, then turned back to Tom. “I’m afraid there is no way for me to contain my daughter’s enthusiasm for sports. She has been a tomboy from the time she learned to walk.”
“Like I said before, I’m okay,” Tom answered her, even though shafts of pain coursed through him every time he took a deep breath. If he hadn’t already known from the days he’d played football that getting hit in the groin was as bad as it could get, he sure knew it now.
Lili frowned as she glanced at the beads of moisture that had gathered on Tom’s forehead. “I knew you were hurt. I have an idea. Wait here and don’t move,” she ordered when he tried to interrupt. “I’ll be back in a minute with something to help you.”
Her eye-catching yellow sundress flashed brightly as she made for an ice cream truck parked on the asphalt a few yards away.
Ice cream? Tom frowned. What made her think an ice cream treat would do anything for the pain running through him?
As if nearly being gelded in the prime of life wasn’t enough, he still had the problem of what to do about this woman and her crusade.
Tom turned as he heard a familiar voice shout at him from across the playing field, and saw his father heading in his direction. Apparently fate was further intent on complicating his life. Judging by his dad’s determined body language as he made his way through the crowd, Tom was afraid he was going to have to listen to another of his lectures.
Seeing Tom in the company of a woman like Lili and her small daughter was bound to have drawn his dad’s attention. Tom prepared himself for a speech on the joys of marriage and fatherhood. Not that it would be the first time his father had sounded off about Tom’s single state. Homer Eldridge made no secret that he wanted grandchildren before it was too late for him to enjoy them. Even if they came readymade.
Tom’s younger sister, Megan, bless her cowardly heart, was still single, too, but as a travel writer, she made a point of touching home base as seldom as possible. At the moment, she was busy flying around the world researching articles for a local newspaper. A side benefit was that her work kept her as far away from their father’s matchmaking activities as possible. The last time Tom had heard from Megan, she’d been somewhere in Bali, sunning herself and admiring the local males from a safe distance. To further rile him, she’d congratulated herself on having no dependents the last time she’d called.
He should have insisted Megan return home and at least help run the letters-to-the-editor pages of the magazine. So much mail had come in since they’d published Lucas Sullivan’s controversial article. And maybe if Megan were around, their father’s attention would turn from Tom to his sister.
Still, Tom counted himself lucky. If Megan, a well-intentioned do-gooder, had been living in Chicago, even without children of her own, she would have been all over him, insisting he help Lili keep the day care open. It was bad enough the management was up in arms because of Lili’s escapades; the last thing Tom needed was having Megan on his back.
Maybe he hadn’t made himself clear the last time he’d told his father he wasn’t cut out for the marriage game, and even less for fatherhood. If he hadn’t already been convinced that he was a contented bachelor, Tom had become a true believer when he’d commissioned Lucas, his fraternity brother, to write “Sullivan’s Rules.” The article had convinced Tom he was right: a strong woman was to be avoided at all costs.
He thought of Sullivan’s Rule number five, which called for a woman to “show her man how much she likes and appreciates him.” It was right on the mark.
He gazed after Lili. Number six, on second thought, wasn’t bad, either. He would have been happy with a woman who was “supportive, fun-loving, easygoing, and generous in her praise of a man’s achievements.” Just not today.
He wasn’t the only one uninterested in fatherhood, he told himself righteously. Not one of Sullivan’s Rules mentioned children.
Tom cautiously eyed the way Lili and the ice cream vendor were deep in conversation. Injured or not, his body still stirred at the sight of Lili’s shapely bare legs. The hem of her short dress rose even higher as she gestured to the vendor, leaning over the counter in the side of his truck.
It would have taken a man of iron not to admire Lili’s exquisite knees and the glimpse of golden thighs.
Thank God, Tom thought as he felt his body stir. His vital parts were still working.
On the other hand, something had to be wrong for him to be reacting this way. Now that he knew Lili was leading the crusade to keep the center open, how could he possibly be lusting after her? And then there was his policy of no fraternizing with members of his staff.
