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If he was suffering a severe case of spring fever, he’d have to do something to take his mind off Lili.
He also had to do something fast to get rid of her before his dad made it all the way across the playing field. But parts of Tom still hurt too much to hurry, and a quick mental calculation told him he would never make it to the ice cream truck and back before his father arrived. Besides, how could he reject the woman’s efforts to help him?
Another problem was the way she’d taken to calling him Tom instead of her usual “Mr. Eldridge” in that intriguing accent. Intriguing enough to send his thoughts down paths he’d deliberately managed to avoid until now.
He turned back to check on his father’s progress, but Homer had stopped to admire a baby. Tom noticed Paulette streaking after another soccer ball and desperately looked around for some shrub where he could hide.
Before he could take refuge, Lili came hurrying up to him. “Now,” she said briskly as she glanced around the grassy area, “all we need to do is find a place for you to lie down.”
Lying down sounded like a good idea, Tom thought wryly as he put his weight on both legs. The problem was that he would be in plain sight for his father to spot him. The bigger problem was the brown paper bag Lili carried.
“Why?” he asked warily, even though he admitted that under difference circumstances, lying down with Lili might have been an idea worth considering.
“So that I can help you!”
To his dismay, she was gazing quizzically at his shorts.
“Help me?” Tom eyed the leaking brown bag. “If that’s what I think it is, I have to tell you I’m not in the mood for ice cream just now. Thanks, anyway.”
“No.” Lili smiled at what she obviously thought was his attempt at a joke.
If she only knew he wasn’t trying to be funny.
“When I told the ice cream vendor what had happened, he was kind enough to give me some ice cubes to ease your pain. I didn’t have any way to carry them, so he gave me this bag. Now, come with me,” she added. “As soon as we can find a place away from the ball field, I will apply the ice to your injury.”
Tom shivered at the thought of having Lili anywhere near his aching groin.
He tried putting his weight on his right foot. A sharp pain shot down his legs. “I’m sure I’ll be fine without the ice. Just give me another minute.”
“You are sure?” Lili eyed him dubiously. “Ice always helps Paulette when she scrapes her knee.”
“If it were my knee, Lili, I’d let you apply the ice cubes,” Tom said fervently. “As it is…” He hesitated at her blush. There was no way he could come up with a creative way to describe his injury without embarrassing them both.
It was time to compromise.
He glanced around the surrounding area. Letting Lili help him hide from his father sounded like a good idea, but that was as far as he was willing to go. Unfortunately, the only place to lie down, short of staggering back to his car, appeared to be on the other side of a grassy knoll a few yards away. He took a deep breath.
“Toss the ice cubes and follow me.”
To his dismay, after Lili tossed the bag of ice cubes behind a tree, she hurried to put her arm around his waist as he slowly made his way up and over the small embankment. He tried leaning away from her, but it wasn’t working. Even the lingering pain that ran through him couldn’t distract him from her sweet scent, earnest blue eyes and the determined set of her lips.
Tom swallowed a groan. The last thing he needed was Lili’s close proximity to remind him that while he might be mentally ready and willing, he wasn’t able.
“There.” Lili stopped and admired a lush patch of grass. “Now, stretch out, please.”
Tom still wasn’t convinced it was the brightest idea he’d ever had, but he let her help him sink to the ground. Once on his back, he closed his eyes and tried to relax, but nothing short of a tornado could have kept him from being aware of Lili.
“Just let me rest for a few minutes.” He threw an arm over his eyes to block out the strong sun shining down on him, and the look of concern in Lili’s eyes. The last time he’d experienced such tender loving care had been as a kid at his late mother’s knee, he thought fleetingly. But he was sure as hell a long way from thinking of Lili as his mother.
“You are certain you are going to be okay without the ice cubes?” Lili asked when she saw him wince. “I can always go back and get more.”
Between Lili’s attempt to help him and his father’s determination to see him married, Tom was beginning to feel like a goose being fattened up for dinner.
A child’s voice broke into his reverie. “Mama? Is the man going to be okay?”
Tom opened his eyes to see two wide hazel eyes gazing down at him with sympathy. Recognizing the kid’s shorts and shirt, he mustered a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m okay, Paulette.”
The kid frowned. “I’m not Paulette.”
Beside him, Lili giggled, a happy, tinkling laugh that, if he hadn’t felt like a fool, would have brought a smile to Tom’s face. “This isn’t Paulette.”
“No?” He shaded his eyes against the blinding sunlight. A closer look revealed a small boy with short blond hair instead of a golden ponytail.
“Don’t tell me there are two of you!” Tom groaned, then remembered Lili had mentioned twins. The thought that not one but two small children came with Lili was overwhelming. For a man who’d had almost nothing to do with kids for most of his adult life, he wasn’t sure how to apologize to the boy.
“Yes,” Lili replied, smiling fondly at the newcomer. “This is Paul, Paulette’s twin brother.”
“You don’t happen to have a soccer ball on you, do you?” Tom asked eying the boy warily.
Paul shook his head. “My sister plays soccer. I like action figures. I’m going to be an artist like my mother when I grow up.”
Tom smothered a sigh of relief, closed his eyes again and tried to pretend he was somewhere else. Somewhere nice and quiet where there were no soccer balls to dodge and no need for ice cubes to cool his overheated, aching body. And no children.
He must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, because the last thing he remembered was Lili leaning over him. The spaghetti straps holding up her body-hugging sundress drooped over creamy shoulders. In the hollow between her breasts, a single gold chain nestled, and wisps of blond hair fell over her forehead and tickled his nose.
The next time he opened his eyes, Lili was sitting cross-legged at his side and eating an ice cream cone. A few feet away, Paul was on his hands and knees investigating a gopher hole. To Tom’s amusement, the gopher turned out to be as curious about Paul as Paul was about him, and they almost bumped noses. Tom wasn’t sure who was the more surprised, the gopher or Paul.
Tom found himself laughing. By his side, Lili laughed, too. Judging from her loving glance, it was obvious she felt that children were a joy and a blessing, not a nuisance.
Tom realized that to strangers passing by, they must look like a normal family enjoying a picnic in the park.
Lili’s twins were cute, and he had a feeling that all it would take was a few more moments like this to make him forget Sullivan’s Rules calling for caution in male-female relationships.
Maybe the attraction was simply because he was vulnerable.
“Ah, so there you are!” Homer Eldridge beamed as he made his way over the grassy rise. “I lost sight of you for a while, but I knew that if I looked hard enough I’d find you.”
Tom smothered a groan.
Trouble had a way of following him, he mused as he tried to sit up. The picture of Lili, little Paul and him sitting together had apparently been enough to bring a smile to his father’s face. Tom hadn’t seen Homer so happy in years.
Happy was good, Tom thought with compassion as he gazed at his dad. Homer had been in the dumps ever since he’d talked himself into retiring from Today’s World, ostensibly to give Tom the opportunity to make his mark on the magazine. More likely, Tom suspected, his father had wanted to encourage him to settle down—in both his professional and personal life.
“Married with children” had become a broken record.
“Sorry I didn’t get up, Dad.” Tom explained to his father about the errant soccer ball. “I feel a little better now.
“By the way,” he added, remembering he wasn’t alone. “I guess I should introduce you to Lili Soulé. Lili is the magazine’s graphic artist. Lili, this is my dad, Homer Eldridge.”
“I remember seeing you around the magazine once or twice before I retired, Ms. Soulé,” his father said, smiling as he reached to take Lili’s offered hand. “Glad to meet you. You don’t mind my calling you Lili, do you? Especially seeing that you and Tom are friends?”
Lili blushed. “I am pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Eldridge. You may call me Lili if you wish.”
Tom’s father gestured to Paul. “Your son?”
“Yes,” Lili said proudly. “Paul is a twin. His sister is out there somewhere playing soccer. I’m afraid it was Paulette who kicked the ball that hit Tom.”
Homer glanced over his shoulder at the soccer field, which was rimmed by shouting children and cheering parents. “And the children’s father? Is he here today?”
Lili’s smile faded. “I lost my husband, Paul, four years ago in an accident,” she said softly. “Little Paul here is now the man of the family.”
Tom’s father murmured in sympathy. “And a fine young man he is. How old is he?”
“He is six,” Lili replied. Obviously wondering at the senior Eldridge’s sudden interest in her son, she glanced at Tom with a raised eyebrow. Hoping he was wrong about his father’s interest, Tom managed a shrug.
“Ah, yes,” Homer replied with a fond smile. “Still, every boy needs a father to help him along the road to manhood. Don’t you agree?”
Even as Tom shook his head, Lili nodded.
Judging from his father’s benevolent smile, Tom had a sinking feeling his dad had decided Lili and her twins would not only make a perfect family, but provide him with instant grandchildren.
In a way, Homer was right, Tom mused as a becoming flush pinkened Lili’s cheeks. Tom was a red-blooded man and Lili was definitely all woman. If only she hadn’t displayed such a will of steel and relentless determination. He knew from experience that a strong woman spelled trouble.
He was also old-fashioned enough to believe that his frat brother, Lucas Sullivan, had been right in his article on the mating game. A woman had to let a man set the pace in their relationship, or at least allow him to be a partner. Since he’d discovered the real Lili, Tom wasn’t sure she was ready to do either.
He intended to get around to marriage someday, maybe, but not yet. If his father was so set on being a grandfather, maybe there was still a chance that his sister would develop a nesting instinct, marry and provide the grandchildren.
Impatiently, he listened while his father and Lili exchanged pleasantries. The longer the two spoke, the broader the smile on his father’s face became. Not a good sign.
“Tom,” Homer finally suggested, “why don’t you bring Lili and the children over to my place for dinner next Friday?”
Tom was about to say he had another engagement when the activity on the ball fields stopped and picnicgoers broke into whistles and shouts. Slowly, he swiveled to see what had prompted the outburst. It seemed as if everyone was looking skyward, pointing and cheering. To Tom’s dismay, a small plane flew overhead, trailing a large yellow banner: HELP KEEP RIVERVIEW CHILD CARE CENTER OPEN!
A deep foreboding washed over Tom. He knew, as sure as he knew his own name, that his life was about to become even more complicated.
Chapter Three
This had to be Lili’s doing.
Today’s stunt with the plane had to be just another way to rev up her crusade to save the center. But this time she’d gone too far. It was beginning to look as if her wide-ranging imagination greatly exceeded her charm.
Gritting his teeth to hide his frustration, Tom turned to a wide-eyed Lili and gestured to the banner. “You?”
“Mais non!” To Lili’s chagrin, whenever she became agitated, she reverted to her native language. How could Tom think she’d hired the airplane? He had to know she couldn’t have afforded to do that even if she’d wanted to.
“You’re sure about that?”
Lili nodded. To her dismay, what had begun as a campaign intended solely for the Riverview Building’s tenants must surely be known to most of Chicago by now. The realization that the local papers and television stations were bound to pick up on the flyover made her knees grow weak. Judging from the look on Tom’s face, it would be a miracle if she wasn’t fired.
“Any idea who is behind it?” Tom demanded between clenched teeth. “If I do find out who did it…” He left the sentence unfinished, but his threat was clear.
Lili’s blood ran cold as the airplane flew out of sight. She was innocent, but she had the feeling that the brains behind this caper belonged to one or both of her friends, Rita and April. And it was only a matter of time before Tom found the culprit.
Her lips were sealed.
She sensed Tom’s frustration in the rigid way he held himself. Whatever he was thinking couldn’t be good.
It wasn’t only her own job on the line, she realized as she gazed up, to discover the plane had reappeared. Her campaign might come back to bite her friends, as well.
“What’s all the shouting about?” Tom’s father asked.
Wordlessly, Tom pointed skyward.
Homer Eldridge shaded his eyes and gazed upward to the accompaniment of hoots, whistles and shouts from everyone on the playing field.
“Who’s trying to close our day care center?” Homer demanded. “Better yet, who’s behind that stunt? I’d like to have a few words with them!”
Lili was afraid from the thunderous look on his face that the senior Eldridge intended to give any perpetrators hell. Well, for that matter, so did Tom if he found them. And from the way he was glaring at the airplane, it was going to be soon.
“In answer to your first question, Dad,” Tom began with a scowl at Lili, “I’m damn sure that the reason for the plane is that Jules Kagan has called a meeting to discuss closing the center. If you ask me, it’s already a done deal—” he shot a telling look at Lili “—even if some people don’t want to believe it.
“As for the person behind that misguided stunt up there,” Tom added, “I’m not sure who it is, but I have a good idea.”
Homer Eldridge’s face grew mottled with anger as he stared at the banner flying overhead. “You have it all wrong, Son. I’m not angry at whoever hired the plane. Considering I was one of the tenants that started the day care, I should have been told Jules wants to close the place down. If I’d known, I would have tried to stop that fool exhibition up there before it got started. No matter how well intentioned the perpetrator might be, I’m afraid there’s going to be hell to pay when Kagan finds out!”
“Don’t worry, Dad.” Tom sent another pointed look at Lili. “I’m pretty sure I know who’s behind the stunt. I plan on taking care of it the first thing in the morning.”
“Hell, you’re not listening!” his father retorted. “That’s not what I meant. If it weren’t for Jules’s reaction, I’d be tempted to give whoever’s behind the stunt a medal. As it is, this will only make matters worse.”
Gazing at Tom, Lili saw the warm, velvety brown eyes that she considered so sensuous grow cool. Another bad sign.
“You know as well as I do, Dad, that our lease renewal is coming up soon,” Tom continued. “If we do anything else to antagonize Kagan, it’s only going to cost us.”
His father snorted and loosened the collar of his shirt from around his burly neck. “It’s getting too damn hot out here and I have a strong feeling it’s going to get a lot hotter before this mess is over. Things have already gone too far.”
He glanced over at Paul, who was busy poking a twig down the gopher hole. “I take it your boy attends the day care center, Lili?”
Lili ignored Tom’s warning look. She could use all the help she could get. “Yes, he does,” she said proudly. “Paul and his sister were in Riverview’s day care until they started public school. They are in afternoon care there now.”
Homer’s frown grew deeper for a moment, then he smiled. “The fact you have children there makes the problem more personal. Don’t you worry, my dear, you can leave everything to me. I’ll take care of this.”
“Come on, Dad.” Tom broke in, concerned about the subtext in his father’s satisfied smile. The man was obviously taken by Lili, but the less he became involved with her and her children, the better. “You’re retired now, Dad. You ought to be enjoying yourself instead of working yourself into a heart attack over this. Like I said, just leave the details to me.”
“Some details,” Homer muttered as the plane circled the park one last time, dipped its wings in a salute to the watchers below, and in a sputter of staccato sound disappeared from view. “I said I’ll take care of this and I will. Where’s your cell phone?”
Tom sighed, dug in his pocket and handed over his phone. “It’s Sunday. I don’t think you’ll be able to reach anyone today.”
“We’ll see about that!” his father retorted. “Hell, Jules Kagan had better talk to me! We go back too far for him to ignore me now. If I have to, I’ll remind him that I was one of the first businesses to sign a lease when he became owner of the Riverview. I even brought a couple of other prospective tenants with me to raise the occupancy rate so he could impress the bankers when he applied for a loan.”
