“Why don’t you let her stay? She looks like she really wants to finish her picture.”
Meg stared at Drake. Good heavens. Jessie’s trick had worked on him, too. Defeated, she shook her head and walked to the door. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, glancing at her child whose attention was back on her drawing. She looked totally absorbed. Guessing that she wouldn’t be too much of a distraction for Drake, Meg went out the door.
And as she hurried down the hallway she breathed a prayer that while she was gone Jessie would not, under any circumstances, mention a word about her wish for a daddy. As it was, Drake Duncan had already heard too much.
******
As soon as her mother had walked out the door Jessie laid her pencil down and turned guileless blue eyes up at Drake. “Can you help me?”
Drake frowned. Was the child in some kind of trouble? He reached out and pulled up a chair then sat down beside her. “Is something the matter?” he asked gently. “I’ll do my best to help.”
“Can you help me find a daddy by December twenty-four?”
Drake shook his head but, not wanting to scare the child, he tempered it with a smile. “What do you mean, Jessie? Why do you need a daddy by that date?”
“It’s for my mommy,” she said, her little face earnest as she stared up at him. “She never gets flowers for her birthday or for Christmas like my best friend’s mom does and she never, ever, gets roses for Valentine's Day. Sometimes she looks so sad…” Her voice trailed off and her face grew pensive. “I think if we had a daddy at our house like my friends do then she’d be happy.” She turned her eyes back to him. “Can you help me find one?”
“Well, I’m…” He clamped his mouth shut. What the hell could he say to the kid? I’d love to apply for the position but your mom would never have me? He cleared his throat as he tried to buy himself some time. “What’s so special about December twenty-four?”
Jessie gave a tinkling laugh. “It’s Christmas Eve, silly. That’s the last day to tell Santa what presents you want.” She leaned toward Drake then whispered, “I made Mommy think I want a daddy for me but it’s really for her. I want it to be a surprise.”
Drake sat back in his chair and stared at the five year old matchmaker in admiration. Who would have known that such a tiny child would have the gray matter to plan to trick her mother into a relationship?
He shook his head as he contemplated Jessie. She was an observant little tyke, too, to notice her mother's lack of presents on those special days. Poor kid. It must have been hard for her, losing her daddy.
“You miss your dad a lot, I guess,” he said softly, not wanting to upset her with sad memories.
“Unh-unh.” She shook her head vigorously.
Drake cocked his head to one side. “You don’t?”
“I don’t know my daddy,” she said. “I mean, not anymore. I was too little when he died. Mommy said he was hit by a drunk driver.”
Oh, shit. He didn’t say it out loud. What a crappy way to die. The poor guy had probably been on his way home to his family when some idiot put out his lights forever. “I’m sorry to hear-”
“I’m back.” Meg burst into the room, an overly bright smile on her face. “I got your juice.” She walked over and laid a bottle of strawberry kiwi juice blend on the table. “And I got you a big, chewy chocolate chip cookie.” She produced her prize with a flourish and laid it on the table beside the juice.
Jessie seemed unimpressed.
Meg looked at her then at Drake. A frown crinkled her brow. “Is everything okay? She hasn’t been bothering you, has she?”
“Not at all," he said and got up to walk over to the wide windows looking over the city. “We were just getting to know each other, that’s all.”
That brought an even more worried look to Meg’s face. “Know each other?” She looked back at Jessie. “What exactly did she say?” Her face had taken on a pink hue, a definite sign of her uneasiness.
On an impulse Drake decided to seize on an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He and Meg would be seeing each other on a professional basis but this might just be his chance to abandon professionalism for a while. He wanted the opportunity to be with her, speak to her, understand what he’d done that made her resent him so much.
“I can tell you all about it,” he said, “if you’ll agree to have dinner with me.”
“Have din…” She stared at him, wide-eyed, then turned her suspicious gaze on her daughter. “Did you have something to do with this?”
Jessie turned her baby blues up to her mother and shook her head. “Unh-unh.”
“She didn’t,” Drake said with a chuckle. “It was all my idea.”
“See?” Jessie piped up. “I told you.”
Meg looked back at Drake. “I don’t know…” she began.
“Just say yes,” Drake said then he gave her a teasing grin. “Remember, I have information I’m sure you want.”
Meg sucked in her breath then shook her head and exhaled. “You drive a hard bargain, Drake Duncan. All right, I’ll do it, but just this one time.”
One time is all I need. Drake gave a nod of triumph. “That’s settled then. Now leave Jessie to have her snack. We can squeeze in another half hour before I have to head out for my meeting.” Meg nodded and picked up her notepad.
As Drake turned to go back to his desk his eyes caught Jessie’s. She’d just taken a huge bite of her chocolate cookie and she gave him a wide, cookie-crumb smile.
He couldn’t say for sure, but it certainly looked like little Jessie was on his side. Thank God for that. Where Meg Donovan-Gracey was concerned, he needed all the help he could get.
CHAPTER FIVE
The black one, the red one or the gold one? Heavens, the decisions a girl had to make.
It was Saturday night, a whole five days since Drake had asked her out, and she was in a pickle. It wasn’t her dress she was worried about although she still hadn’t made up her mind which one to wear. It was the whole idea of going out with him that was driving her crazy. She’d agreed to go out with a man she’d hated – no, that was too strong a word – held a grudge against for the past ten years and all he’d done was ask her out and she’d given in.