Back when his parents were courting, women were willing to wait for a relationship to develop slowly. Marriage was serious business. But these days, if a man wasn’t sure after a few months of dating, the relationship would end and the woman would move on, not willing to waste another day in the quest for the perfect husband.

If his father was in love with Roxanne Perry and she wasn’t in love with him, then Kit would be the one to pick up the pieces. He pressed his intercom button, buzzing the secretary that he and his father shared. “Linda, will you call the receptionist and ask her to send Roxanne Perry up to my office as soon as she arrives? And then I’d like to send her some flowers. A big bouquet. Really big.”

“Roses?” Linda asked.

“No. Spring flowers. Tulips, daffodils, those really nice-smelling ones.”

“Hyacinths?”

“Yeah. Real colorful. Cheerful flowers. Not…serious flowers.” He could imagine the smile on his secretary’s face. “You know what I mean.”

“No frowning or depressive flowers. Got it,” she said.

Kit stood up and paced the width of his office, trying to decide how to approach Roxanne. After last night, he had a serious conflict of interest. He’d kissed his father’s girlfriend. Now was the time to remain objective, to separate his feelings from his father’s feelings. Sure, he liked Roxanne, but he wasn’t in love with her. If he had to give her up to protect his father, then that was a sacrifice he was prepared to make.

The phone rang and Kit leaned over the desk to snatch it up. “Kit Lawrence.”

“Mr. Lawrence, Mrs. Perry arrived a few moments ago. I’ve sent her to your office.”

“Thanks, Melanie.”

Kit stood, nervously fiddling with his tie. A minute later, Roxanne appeared at his door, her coat thrown over her arm.

“Hi,” she murmured.

Kit’s breath caught and he wondered why she looked more beautiful every time he saw her. Was she doing something different with her hair or her makeup? Or was the anticipation of seeing her again simply causing him to imagine it? “Come in,” he said.

She glanced around, as if stepping into his office was dangerous. She was right. If he closed the door behind her, there wouldn’t be much to keep him from sweeping her into his arms and kissing her again. But before he did that, he had to get a few things clear between them. “I wanted to talk to you about my father.”

Roxanne smiled. “Oh, don’t worry. He apologized for last night. He also sent roses.” She sent him a shy smile. “And I wanted to thank you for the swimming and the pizza. We had a lot of fun.”

Her gaze met his and Kit knew she was thinking about the kiss they’d shared. He wondered how she’d react if he stepped out from behind his desk and repeated the experience. Would she melt into his arms or would she push him away? But kissing Roxanne would not solve the problems standing between them. “Please, sit down.”

She did as she was told, folding her hands on her lap and watching him expectantly.

“What are your intentions regarding my father?” he blurted out.

“My intentions?”

Kit paused, trying to frame his words as delicately as he could. “Though he won’t admit his feelings to me, I think it’s time you made your feelings clear to him. I don’t want to see him hurt. I want to know what it would take for you to walk away.”

She frowned. “I don’t understand. Walk away from what? I’m not in love with your father! He’s a nice man and he’s been very kind to me. How many times do I have to say that?”

“Don’t say it to me. Say it to my father.”

“He’s never given any indication that he has serious feelings for me. As far as I can tell, he’s still in love with your mother.”

Kit drew a deep breath, knowing that he should end the conversation. But he couldn’t help but push it. He needed to know how she really felt, and not just for his father’s sake but for his own. “I know how difficult things are for you now, financially. And this job that he’s offered you does have a small salary. I’d like to help you out if you’d agree to walk away before you hurt him.”

“Wait.” Roxanne stood up. “I don’t need to listen to any more of this. Your father offered me a chance. And I’m going to take it.”

“My father owns thirty-three percent of my company. If you think I’m going to let you-”

“Don’t even say it,” she warned, holding out her finger to silence him. “If you really cared about your father, then you’d want him to be happy. And if he had the good fortune to find happiness with me or any other woman, then you should be jumping for joy. Because real happiness…real love…is very hard to find.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of his office, slamming the door behind her. He stared after her, suddenly wondering what had possessed him to take such a tack with her. Maybe his first instinct had been right-to let his father’s infatuation run its course. But he didn’t want to watch his father fall more deeply under her spell. And he didn’t want to learn that Roxanne Perry was the kind of woman to take advantage of a vulnerable man. But even worse, he didn’t want to believe that she’d choose his father over him.

He punched at his intercom button and when Linda answered, he schooled his voice into relative calm. “Cancel those flowers,” he said. Hell, he didn’t care whether Roxanne Perry kidnapped his father and turned him into a sixty-year-old sex slave. From now on, he was staying out of it!


“AND THAT’S OUR SHOW FOR TODAY. Join us next Tuesday when we’ll be talking about the perils of dating for a single mom. This is Carl Lawrence, for Roxanne Perry. Thanks for listening to Baltimore At Home.”

Carl flipped a switch and turned to face Roxanne. “Great show. I enjoyed our conversation about discipline. I didn’t realize how different things were in a single parent household. No good cop, bad cop.”

“Carl, I need to talk to you about something,” Roxanne murmured.

“And I need to talk to you. Let’s go to my office.”

Roxanne followed him out of the studio and when they reached his office right next door to Kit’s, he closed the door behind her. She nervously took a seat across the desk from him and tried to put order to her thoughts. She needed to tell him how she felt. Though she respected him and cared about him, there was no romantic spark. He was old enough to be her father.

“Carl, before we talk about next week’s show, I need to clear the air.”

“You can clear the air after you look at this,” Carl said. He slid a sheaf of papers across the desk and she picked them up.

“What is this?”

“It’s a contract. I’m offering you a permanent job here at the station. Twenty-five thousand a year with benefits. I know it’s not a lot, but there’s a clause in there that allows you to renegotiate after six months if the ratings increase the way I think they will.”

She stared at the paper, the words a blur. “A job? You’re offering me a real job?”

“Radio is a strange gig,” he said. “Either you’re good at it or you’re not. You’re a natural, Roxy. People listen to you. You’re compassionate and outspoken and funny and that’s a rare combination.”

“But I don’t have any professional training.”

“I didn’t either. Before I got into radio, I was selling used cars. I came into the studio to do some commercial work for my boss and they liked my voice. I did more voice-overs and they offered me a job reading the news. That’s how I got my start.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, clutching the contract in her hands as if it might suddenly disappear. She thought finding a job would be difficult, that she’d have to suffer months of rejection before someone would hire her. And now, he was handing her a career on a silver platter.

“Say yes,” Carl urged. “It would be a great job for you. You’d need to be here from about nine until three on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that’s it. You can do research for the show from home. We’ll get you a computer with Internet access. You know how to use a computer, don’t you?”

“Sure. I used to help my ex-husband with his research when he was just starting up his law practice.”

“We’ll go over the show in the morning before we go on the air. And then we’ll spend an hour afterwards brainstorming for the next week. We should-”

“Why are you doing this?” Roxanne interrupted.

“I told you,” Carl said. “Because you’re good.”

“There isn’t another reason?”

He shrugged. “Well, maybe I’d like to help you out.”

She drew a slow, even breath. “Your son says that you’re falling in love with me. Is that true?”

Carl chuckled. “That’s what he thinks?”

“He offered me money to stay out of your life.”

He didn’t seem to be surprised. “How much?” Carl asked.

Roxanne gasped. “He didn’t offer me a specific amount.” She paused. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I’d hold out for a hundred thousand,” Carl advised in a serious voice.

“Dollars?”

“Ever since I turned the business over to Kit, we’ve switched roles. He’s been treating me like the kid and I’m supposed to treat him like the parent. He’s the one who suggested I move into the condo so I wouldn’t have to make the drive home when I worked late at the station. He’s the one who insisted on the car service after I had a few little accidents on the freeway. And now he’s trying to control who I spend my time with. Yes, Kit has this notion that I’m in love with you. And maybe I haven’t disabused him of it quite yet. I’m trying to teach him a lesson.”

“And what’s that?” Roxanne asked.

“That it’s time for him to stop running my life and start living his.” He paused. “Now do you want the job?”

“Can I have a few days to think about it?” Roxanne asked.

“Sure,” he replied. “As long as you promise to say yes, you can take as long as you want.”

Roxanne stood, pressing the contract to her chest, then started toward the door. When she got into the hallway, she searched for a quiet spot, a place to absorb everything that had happened. She opened the door to the janitor’s closet and stepped into the dark interior, needing just a moment to reflect.

She had a job, a way to provide at least some measure of security for her family. Though it wasn’t much, if she worked hard, she could make the show a success. After all, she’d wanted to go into television work after she’d gotten her degree. But then she’d married John and they’d started their family and she’d put all thoughts of a career behind her.

Now she had a second chance and a job offer that would leave her plenty of time to be a mother. It was like a dream come true. And on top of it, she’d get to see Kit Lawrence every now and then. Though until Carl set things straight with Kit, Roxanne wasn’t sure she wanted to come within a hundred feet of him. If Carl was determined to prove some point, why did he have to use Roxanne to do it? And why did Kit find it so easy to believe that she had ulterior motives?

In reality, there were probably a lot of divorced mothers who might jump at the chance to find a man like Carl. He was emotionally stable and financially secure. And he wasn’t exactly the type to go running off with a woman wrestler. The prospect of weeding through a world full of frogs in order to find a prince was daunting for any single mom.

And if she were looking for security maybe she might consider the possibility. She had her children to think about and if the radio show didn’t pan out, she’d be back in the same position she was in a few days ago.

But Roxanne wanted more from marriage the second time around. She wanted security, but she also wanted passion and excitement and overwhelming, everlasting desire.

Those fantasies had gotten her through some tough times. After John had walked out, she’d tried to convince herself that divorce was a good thing, that there was another, more perfect husband waiting for her. She had dreamed about meeting a man who would drive her wild with his touch and calm her fears with his smile. A man like-Roxanne cursed softly. A man like Kit Lawrence. One little kiss was all it had taken to wonder about transforming her fantasy into reality.

She turned and pressed her forehead against the door, squeezing her eyes shut. She knew she could make a success of this job, with or without Kit Lawrence’s approval or support. She could take advantage of this opportunity. But what she didn’t know was how she’d continue seeing Kit without falling into vivid speculation about what they might have shared.

She stepped back from the door, confident that she would handle whatever Carl or Kit threw her way. But at that very moment, the door swung open and hit her in the face, the impact with her nose causing stars to dance in front of her eyes. Roxanne cried out and stumbled around in the dark, nearly falling over a mop bucket.