Читать книгу: «The Parent Trap», страница 2

Chapter Two

“Your cheeks are all red,” Brandon said, his deep voice laced with obvious concern. “What’s wrong?”

Jill snapped her gaze to him, her face still blazing, her thoughts racing. Well, la-di-da. Looked as if she was going to be able to drop a bomb of her own. Brandon obviously had no clue that she owned the restaurant next door to his. “Has Kristy told you what I do for a living?” she asked.

He drew his eyebrows together. “Uh, well…no, I guess not.”

Jill rolled her eyes and let out an under-the-breath snort. Zoe and Kristy hadn’t let either of them in on the fact that they were business competitors of the first degree. Wait till she got her hands on Zoe!

“I own The Wildflower Grill, the other restaurant on Main Street,” she informed him.

For a moment the truth didn’t faze Brandon. Then understanding dawned in his eyes. “Oh,” he said. “So we’re…competitors.”

Jill nodded, roughly rolling the stem of her wineglass between her fingers. “Yes, competitors,” she snapped, then instantly regretted her rude tone.

“Is that a problem?” he asked, looking genuinely perplexed. “Granted, I didn’t know you owned a restaurant, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, should it?”

Jill looked at him, trying to figure him out. Was it possible he hadn’t known she’d wanted the space between their two businesses? Gene Hobart, the landlord, was a shrewd businessman, and not above being sleazy when it came to snagging the client who would up his profits the most. Had Gene even told Brandon that Jill was interested in the space, or that she’d specifically told Gene she wanted the space when it became available? Or that Gene had unofficially promised to come to her with a deal first?

Maybe Gene was the bad guy here, and not Brandon.

“Maybe,” she said, forcing herself to stay calm and rational.

“Why is that? Do you automatically hate other restaurant owners?” he asked, his mouth quirked into a teasing smile that would be so easy to return.

She resisted the urge, reminding herself that he could be a charmer who might like to charm her right into rolling over and going out of business, clearing the way for his business to flourish.

She let out a short, irritated breath. “For one, Mr. Clark, you chose a spot two doors from my restaurant, which certainly doesn’t bode well for my business. Secondly, I wanted to lease the vacant space between the two restaurants, and even though Gene promised me first crack, you got it instead.” She pressed her lips together and looked right at him, glaring. “Do you know how long I’d saved to be able to afford to lease that space when it became available?”

He didn’t respond right away. After a long moment of silence, he leaned forward. “Look,” he said, his eyes reflecting a serious light, “for the record, I chose the spot I did because it was the best retail location for my restaurant, which I’m sure you can confirm. You chose the same stretch of property, right on Main Street, where you’d be assured the best return on your investment. You can’t fault me for being a good businessman.

“Second, I had no idea you wanted the space next to yours. Gene offered it to me as one space, package deal, end of story.”

Jill remained silent, thinking. He’d made some good points, she’d give him that, but his presence in Elm Corners still threatened everything that was important to her careerwise. “How in the world am I supposed to do well with you right next door, literally stealing customers away?” she asked.

“No offense, Jill, but you’ve had it pretty easy as the only game in town in the way of fine dining.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, her pride forcing her to omit what a rough road she’d had building her business, how difficult it had been to convince the staid population of Elm Corners to try a new restaurant. Business was more stable now, but the first year had been very, very lean, and she’d almost had to close The Grill several times. Only through sheer determination, a very understanding, devoted staff and a lot of creative advertising and promotions had she been able to draw in enough customers to stay afloat. Even now, though she was in the black, she was just barely making ends meet. It wouldn’t take much of a downturn in business to shove her back in the red. “Which is one of the reasons, I’m sure, that you chose to start a restaurant here.”

He tilted his head to the side, then nodded. “Touché. I grew up in the restaurant business, so I knew enough to do some market research before coming here, and, of course, I knew that there was only one other fine-dining establishment in Elm Corners. But that’s irrelevant.”

“Not to me,” she said under her breath, knowing as she said the words that she was being unreasonable. She also knew, however, that anything that threatened her dream of business success would push her buttons and freak her out.

“I’m sorry this is a problem for you,” he said, sounding totally sincere. “For what it’s worth, I had no idea that you were the owner of the restaurant next door.”

She looked at him, wishing he was a jerk so she could really hate him. But he wasn’t a jerk. He was a seemingly good guy who just happened to be her only competition. Deal breaker, that. They could never be friends.

She stood. “I believe you, Brandon.” Her jaw tight, she began to clear the dinner dishes.

After a long moment, he reached out and grabbed her hand as she reached for a salad bowl. “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

She stilled, liking the feel of his big, warm hand on hers just a little too much. Forcing herself to pull her hand away, she replied, “I’m not mad, really, just…surprised to discover that you’re the person I’ve been cursing up and down for the last week.”

He rose and began gathering dishes. “That doesn’t sound very good.”

“It isn’t,” Jill replied truthfully. She wasn’t going to sugarcoat how worried and frustrated and irritated she was that he’d leased a space for a restaurant in Elm Corners, never mind right next door.

When they reached the kitchen, he set the dishes on the counter. “So, I guess you’re not interested in showing me around The Health Hut.” He drilled her with those beautiful dark eyes, sending a hot, thrilling chill skating up her spine.

She set her jaw, chasing off the way he could just look at her and make her want to grab him and kiss him silly. “You know, I don’t think I’d be much help. Cindy Jones runs the place. She can show you around.” The last thing Jill needed to do was actually spend time with the man who could spell disaster for her business goals.

Brandon nodded, his jaw noticeably tight. “Okay, thanks.”

Jill began to rinse and load the dinner dishes, and Brandon helped out, even going so far as to gather up the tablecloth and shake it out outside. Darn it, anyway, why did he have to be so nice, so attractive, such an all-around considerate guy?

Big deal. So he was nice. The important thing was that he wasn’t her friend or even an acquaintance, just a man her daughter had thrown Jill together with for a ridiculous reason. Now that she’d discovered who he was, she needed him gone, right now. She’d be a masochistic idiot to hang around with the owner of The Steak Place.

“You know,” she said, loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher, “I think I feel a headache coming on.”

Brandon paused, a sponge in his hand. “You want me to get you some pain reliever?” He moved closer, his dark eyes full of concern. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll finish up here.”

Jill bit her lip, wishing he wasn’t so solicitous. It would be much easier to dislike him that way, and she really needed to dislike him. “Uh, no, that’s okay.” She shut the dishwasher. “But I do think we should cut the evening short.”

After a long, almost disbelieving silence, he said, “Of course. I’ll go call Kristy.” He headed out of the kitchen, leaving Jill alone, feeling like a total fool for allowing the girls to set up this dinner in the first place, although in her defense, she’d had no idea that her dinner guest was the owner of The Steak Place.

Kristy and Zoe came downstairs and whined about the evening ending so soon, especially since they hadn’t gone out to Zoe’s grandpa’s lab yet. But Jill stood firm, needing to regain the equilibrium Brandon had pushed off balance. It was enough she had to deal with him in her business life, a constant worry she could never get rid of. She sure didn’t want to have him stirring up her personal life, either, nor did she want to have to deal with her disturbing physical attraction to him.

“Thank you for dinner,” Brandon said at the front door, giving her a small, rueful smile. “I enjoyed meeting you.”

“You’re welcome,” Jill said, deliberately ignoring his smile. “Good luck with your…business.” She forced herself to be polite.

Brandon raised his eyebrows, then his expression turned speculative. “You know, this isn’t all doom and gloom. Maybe there’s room in Elm Corners for two successful restaurants.”

“I hope so,” Jill replied sincerely, even though she doubted it. She’d struggled when she was the only restaurant game in town. Now that Brandon had arrived, who knew how she was going to survive.

They said goodbye, and Jill watched father and daughter climb into their SUV at the curb and drive away. She turned and went back into the house, rubbing her eyes, her mood darkening when Zoe was nowhere to be found on the main floor. Jill rolled her eyes, her patience wearing thin. Zoe was undoubtedly pouting in her room because the evening hadn’t gone as she’d planned.

Jill laughed under her breath without humor. Honestly. What did the girls expect? That she and Brandon would lay eyes on each other one minute and elope the next? Fat chance. Real life just didn’t work that way.

Especially since Zoe was manipulating her, shoving her into unwanted situations, hooking her up with a man on the sly. Worse yet, that man had turned out be Jill’s archrival, a man who could spell disaster for her restaurant.

No doubt about it. Too many things about this evening had gone all wrong.

Unfortunately, the day was going to get worse. It was time to talk to her stubborn, determined daughter and tell her that things had gone too far and to cool her eager little matchmaking jets.

For good.

“So what did you think of Mrs. Lindstrom?” Kristy asked Brandon the second he pulled away from the curb.

“I thought she was very nice,” Brandon replied, leaving out that he also thought she was downright beautiful, smart and attractive in every way and that in another life he’d love to date her. Another life being the key phrase there.

In this life she was his competition, the owner of the business he planned on leaving in the dust. Not exactly dating material.

“Just nice?” Kristy asked, her voice full of eager hope. “I think she’s really cool, and pretty, too. And she’s a really good cook, don’t you think?”

The raw, undisguised hope in his daughter’s voice broke Brandon’s heart. He knew how much Kristy missed having a mother and how appealing it must be to her to fantasize about having Zoe for a sister. But this wasn’t a game, this was real life, and feelings and emotions were at stake. He wasn’t going to let himself get sucked into Jill’s life, and vice versa, just to make his daughter’s far-fetched dreams of a perfect family come true.

Obviously it was time to set the record straight with Kristy. He hated to burst her bubble, but he had to let her know that her matchmaking was futile. “Listen, Kris,” he said, stopping at a red light, “I appreciate what you and Zoe are trying to do, but I have to ask you to stop.”

“What do you mean?” Kristy asked, her voice monotone. “We’re not trying to do anything, Dad.”

He smiled, put the car into motion again, then took a quick right turn. Kristy was a terrible liar, which he considered a good thing. “Oh, come on. I might be a little rusty in the dating department, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you and Zoe set up the whole evening to get me and Jill together.”

Kristy was silent for a long moment. “Would it be so bad if you two liked each other?” she asked, her voice very small.

Oh, man, he hated having to disappoint Kristy. But he had no other choice. She had to understand that a relationship between him and Jill was impossible for way too many reasons. Reasons that now went far beyond his desire to protect his heart.

“Not bad, honey, just not in the cards.”

“Why?”

She’d asked a good question, one he’d asked himself many times before, especially in the deep of the night when he felt so alone, so isolated, so empty that he would die for the feel of a woman in his arms once more. The answer was always the same; he simply couldn’t put himself in a position to care about a woman again. The risk was just too great, for both him and Kristy.

But he couldn’t explain that to her in a way she would understand. She was too young, too stuffed full of girlish romantic dreams to fully grasp what he meant. So he simply said, “Because I don’t want to date Jill. She seems like a wonderful woman, but I’m not interested.” He knew that sounded kind of harsh, but it was necessary here. The matchmaking had to stop.

Kristy didn’t say anything, and Brandon let her keep her silence. She was stewing, which was her way of sorting things out in her own mind. He remained silent, too, hoping she’d eventually understand what he’d said enough to forget about him and Jill getting together. Maybe they’d face each other again in the business arena, but not in any kind of personal way.

As he pulled into his driveway, he had to admit that as they’d been sitting in the dining room sharing a delicious meal, spending some personal time with Jill had appealed to him. Stupid idea, not somewhere he wanted to go, even though she was the sexiest thing he’d seen in a long time.

Thankfully, the discovery of their roles as business competitors had brought him to his senses, and had certainly lit a fire under Jill. Once she’d found out that he was the owner of The Steak Place, she hadn’t been able to get rid of him fast enough. Headache, my foot.

Even though the red-blooded male in him regretted he wouldn’t be getting to know her on some kind of personal level, keeping his distance was best.

Even if that disappointed Kristy.

“Zoe,” Jill yelled over the music coming from Zoe’s room. “We have to talk.”

While Jill waited for Zoe to answer the door, she reiterated in her mind how important this conversation was. She had to make Zoe understand that any kind of relationship between Jill and Brandon was impossible.

Zoe turned down the music and answered the door, her mouth pulled into a pouty frown. She crossed her arms over her chest and remained silent, her eyes boring holes in Jill.

Regret burned through her. It wasn’t easy shooting down her daughter’s dreams of a complete family, no matter how unrealistic they were.

She reached out and smoothed the lines between Zoe’s eyebrows. “Oh, come on, honey. It’s not that bad.”

Zoe stomped away and flung herself on her twin bed. “You practically threw them out.”

Jill cringed inside, regretting the tactless way she’d hustled the Clarks out the door. “Well…yes, I guess I did hurry them out before I really needed to. But I did it because it was pretty obvious why you and Kristy arranged the dinner. It isn’t going to happen.”

“Why not?” Zoe asked, her voice full of hope. “Don’t you like him?”

The hope in Zoe’s voice reminded Jill how much Zoe wanted a whole family. A familiar arrow of guilt tinged with more regret shot through Jill, poking a wounded spot on her heart that had never really healed. Zoe had been deeply affected emotionally by her parents’ divorce, something Jill agonized about on a daily basis. Oh, how she wished she could somehow magically obliterate Zoe’s pain.

But after a lot of soul-searching over the years, Jill had come to terms with the fact that as long as she was the best mom she could be, Zoe would be just fine, even without a live-in dad. She would provide unlimited, unconditional love and support to her daughter, no matter what.

But she wasn’t a magician, and one thing she couldn’t do was wave a wand and provide an instant family for Zoe. That was an impossible dream that was not going to come true, and it would save Zoe a lot of heartache and fallen hopes if she understood that now.

“He’s very…charming,” Jill said, telling the truth even as she needed to make sure Zoe understood that her thinking a man was charming didn’t mean love and happily ever after were just around the corner. “But…well, Zoe, I’m not interested in a romantic relationship.”

She hoped Zoe would accept that fact and move on. At nine, Zoe certainly wouldn’t understand Jill’s deep-seated need to protect herself from being dumped again. Especially since Jill really didn’t want to trash Doug to Zoe. While Zoe didn’t see her dad very often, they spent enough time together that Jill would never risk ruining their fragile bond by criticizing Doug.

“Don’t you want to fall in love again?” Zoe asked with all the innocence and hope of a naive, stars-in-her-eyes young girl who, of course, had never had her heart ripped out by someone who was supposed to love and cherish her for all time.

Jill hesitated, formulating an answer that would appease Zoe’s curiosity without Jill having to try to explain how down on love she was—and why. She’d never shared those feelings with anyone. “Love isn’t something I crave like I used to,” she said, basically speaking the truth, although there were times when she missed the companionship and closeness inherent in a romantic relationship. “I’d rather focus on my business than on trying to find a boyfriend.” At least her business would stick by her instead of deserting her, leaving her heartbroken and aching.

Zoe looked at her, her blue eyes full of doubt. “Oh, come on, Mom. You can’t tell me that the restaurant is going to take the place of love.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s just dumb.”

Dumb, maybe, but safe. “The point, honey, is that I’m just not interested in Brandon, especially since he owns The Steak Place, and I need you to stop trying to get us together. I’ll have a talk with your grandpa and tell him, too.”

“Does it really matter that much that Mr. Clark has a restaurant, too?”

“Yes, it does,” Jill replied, fully believing her own words. “You know how hard I’ve worked to make The Grill successful.” She’d leave it at that, deliberately vague. The last thing she wanted to do was share the gory details of her financial worries with her daughter. No child should have to worry about something like that.

Zoe looked at her for a long moment, chewing on her lip, a sure sign the wheels were spinning in her brain. Then she let out a long sigh and picked up a Harry Potter book. “Whatever you say,” she said in a manufactured tone that told Jill that Zoe was going to ignore every single thing Jill had told her. “I’ve got reading to do.”

“So you understand that the matchmaking has to stop, right?” Jill asked, needing Zoe to speak the words to convince Jill she’d back off.

“Sure, Mom,” Zoe said, smiling brightly. Too brightly. “I get it, okay?”

Jill stared at her daughter, her eyes narrowed. Zoe seemed to be taking all of this really well, and that raised a huge red flag. She knew her daughter well enough to know when Zoe was placating her so she could ambush her down the line. Zoe was nothing if not stubborn.

Weary of the whole thing, Jill decided not to push the issue anymore tonight. She would have plenty of time to get her point across to Zoe tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.

“Okay.” She stepped back and gently pulled the door closed behind her, feeling a real headache coming on.

Great. A headache to match the tight, burning knot of frustration and anxiety that was taking up what she suspected would be permanent residence in her chest.

Because no matter what Zoe had said, no matter how accepting of the situation she seemed to be, Jill was pretty sure that her stubborn, determined daughter wasn’t going to back off at all. Oh, no. She definitely had more up her sleeve.

Unfortunately, Jill’s troubles with Brandon Clark weren’t going to go away any time soon. Because this matchmaking invention of Zoe and Kristy’s wasn’t over.

Not by a long shot.