“Sorry you’re related to a maniac, Mr. Graham. Nice to meet you,” she said, walking around the mountain of male perfection.
“Nice to meet you as well. Call me Walter,” Walter urged, calling out behind her as she walked away. His gaze followed her legs making short work of the distance to the central Lodge. She’d be running into his parents just inside the door, but it couldn’t be helped.
“So?” Harrison prompted.
“So what?” Walter responded, dragging his gaze back to Harrison.
“Jane is your birthday present, doofus. Said you were tired of dating women who didn’t know their own minds. You used to be sharper on the uptake, boy. Been inhaling more smoke lately?” Harrison demanded.
“For God’s sakes, don’t mention that to Mom and Dad. If they find out I had smoke inhalation and didn’t tell them, I’d never hear the end of it. They’re already cranking up the pressure for me to go back to school full-time this fall. Dad offered me another car. And what do you mean Jane is my present?” Walter demanded, looking at his grandfather, who had a way too determined look on his face.
“Jane Fox Waterfield. Owner of the legs you just watched walk up the sidewalk. Real woman and current owner of North Winds. She’s the rejuvenator I sent you the email about,” Harrison declared.
“The flipper? That’s the genius who’s saving this place?” Walter asked, rubbing his chin. “Interesting. I had to watch. Her legs are very nice. How old is she?”
“No idea. Somewhere over thirty. You can probably find out online. Or ask Morrie Fox when you meet him. He’s her father,” Harrison said.
“Morrison Fox is her father?” Walter said on a sigh. “Wow—she’s the daughter of my hero.”
“What the hell? I thought I was your hero,” Harrison said with frown.
“No—you’re my terrible role model. You eavesdropped on the last lecture I got on spending too much time with you, so I know you heard,” Walter said with a grin, stepping aside while his grandfather pulled into a parking place.
“Is my sensible grandson going to take real life advice from a man who stays in a lab most of the time? I don’t think so,” Harrison said firmly, handing over his cane and reaching out for Walter’s arm to climb out. “I get stiff riding around, but damn it’s more fun than sitting in the apartment all day.”
“I can only imagine,” Walter said sincerely.
“You never answered my question, boy,” Harrison said, gripping his grandson’s arm as they walked slowly up the sidewalk.
Walter thought carefully. “Harrison, if I was looking for the perfect woman, I believe your Jane would be just exactly what I wanted.”
“Damn right she would be, and will be still if you’re not dead from the waist down. Tell you what—I’ll distract your parents so you can go talk to her. Apologize for me again. Women love that groveling stuff,” Harrison said.
Walter laughed at his outrageous grandfather who provided the only genes in his pool that legitimized him. “Don’t you think I’m a little young to settle down at twenty-six?”
“I waited until I was thirty-five and ended up with your father and your Aunt Rue. Have your children while you’re young enough to have the energy to mold them into real people,” Harrison advised. “Plus that job of yours puts future generations at higher risk. You need to settle down as soon as you can.”
“I know it’s a risk, but I like being a firefighter,” Walter said, just to be saying it to someone in his family who genuinely understood.
Harrison patted the boy’s arm. “Of course you do. You have character and too much backbone to plant your ass in an office chair for the next fifty years. I’m proud of your work at Princeton. You need to finish your MBA so people will take you seriously as a businessman. Education is the way of the world these days. ”
“Yes, but starting this summer, I’m finishing my degree two classes at a time,” Walter whispered as they stepped inside. “In case you get grilled, I have a perfect GPA and have been offered an internship. No, you don’t know where. I plan to work at the firehouse all summer.”
Harrison nodded and pulled his arm away, leaning on the cane instead. He walked off to talk to his son and daughter-in-law, but glanced back once to smile at his grandson heading off to find Jane.
Chapter 4
“Put her on the decorating committee and I will contribute two thousand to the funds,” Morrie offered, bargaining and hoping like crazy that Lydia proved worth the money. “I want to work with Lydia so I can get to know her. If we don’t get along, what have you lost? She has to have excellent taste. Look at her clothes. It would be a safe way for me to spend time with her. Maybe I won’t like her. Maybe I’d lose interest once I got to know her.”
Morrie crossed his fingers under the leg leaning on Jane’s desk. He already liked Lydia for reasons he couldn’t explain to his daughter—or himself for that matter—but maybe Lydia truly wouldn’t like him back. Those things happened, but Morrie at least wanted a chance.
“Please,” he begged finally. “You know I haven’t asked you for many things since your mother died, Jane.”
“Oh don’t give me the guilt trip, Morrison,” Jane said on a laugh, turning from her computer screen to look at her father. “No. And hell no. I’m hiring a design service. I want max dollar when I sell this place.”
“You’re just playing hardball, and I invented your game. Name your price,” Morrie said sternly, crossing his arms.
“Why are so willing to give your hard earned cash to me just to spend time with that mean old woman?” Jane demanded, crossing her arms in return and glaring.
But they fell off her breasts as she stood when the muscled statue named Harrison Walter Graham II appeared to lean in her doorway and smile at her. She had to stop the sigh of pure feminine pleasure over all that masculine attention focused on her.
“Hello again,” Walter said with a smile, glancing at the man leaning on the desk and swallowing hard as he recognized him. He put his gaze determinedly back on Jane. “My grandfather sent me to apologize again. He’s an old coot, but mostly harmless. I’m really sorry if he scared you with his golf cart antics.”
Jane opened her mouth to answer but never got the chance. Behind Walter’s impressive body, she saw Lydia appear, stepping to the side in order to be seen around the giant man.
Jane wanted to laugh at the older woman’s odd behavior, but it seemed so impolite. And she had seen a different side of Lydia today—sort of. Lydia teasing Harrison had made her think that maybe the woman wasn’t as terrible as she had thought.
Just like maybe the male in her doorway would throw her over his shoulder and run away with her.
Yeah right
, Jane thought with a laugh, chastising her mind for wandering so far. She definitely needed to start dating again.
“If you’re handing out apologies, hand one to Lydia too. Harrison threw her across the back seat and then practically ran over her when he dumped her off at the pool house. Lydia, in case you haven’t formally met the giant blocking the doorway, this is Harrison’s grandson. His name is Walter,” Jane said, wishing she could discreetly reach across her desk and smack her ogling father’s arm to stop him from checking out Lydia every two seconds. “Walter, this is Lydia McCarthy, one of North Winds’ most devoted volunteers.”
Lydia pulled herself up straighter at Jane’s praise, and put out a polite hand. “You must be the firefighter son that Leland and April think is wasting his Princeton education. Good to meet you,” Lydia said formally.
“Are you sure?” Walter asked with snort. “That description of me didn’t sound very good.”
Lydia shrugged. “Your grandfather is a maniac, but he was an exceptionally good businessman in his day—probably still is. You look just like he did at your age, so one could assume you share his passion to succeed as well. I’m sure you must be a good firefighter despite your parents’ misgivings.”
Walter bent and kissed the hand he still held. “Okay, I was wrong. That’s the nicest compliment I have received in ages.”
“Good. That praise was my good deed for the day,” Lydia said, smiling at the young man, who was just as charming as his grandfather. “If you see my daughter, tell her I was nice to you.”
Walter laughed at the strange comment. When would he see her daughter? Was she telling a joke? He looked at Jane for help as he held the older woman’s hand.
“Wait—what are you saying, Walter? Your parents think you should do something else? What could possibly be wrong with being a firefighter?” Jane asked, tilting her head in her confusion, not sure why she was joining in on the craziness.
Or why she was so interested in Walter’s grin when he sent it in her direction. Well, okay. Maybe that one wasn’t a mystery. Walter was easy on the eyes and hard on her libido that had decided to wake up since he appeared.
“Walter is Leland Graham’s son,” Lydia explained, figuring that would tell Jane enough. She tugged her hand gently away from the boy as he laughed.
“Don’t listen, Jane. It’s not as seriously warped as Mrs. McCarthy is making it sound. My father is a physicist. My mother is doctor. I’m their only child, and sadly not the Mensa genius they wanted. It was the luck of the gene pool and couldn’t be helped,” Walter explained, shrugging as his gaze met Jane’s confused one.
“Your parents may be brilliant, but your grandfather owns a good deal of Falls Church,” Jane said with her own shrug. “Despite his poor driving habits, maniacs are a bit like geniuses, aren’t they? With that gene pool, why wouldn’t you be a firefighter—or the next Stephen Hawking—or whatever else sparks the need to achieve? That’s quite a family tree you have there, Mr. Graham.”
Walter laughed and ran a hand through his short hair. “I don’t believe this. Harrison is never going to let me live this down, but he was right again.”
He straightened to his full height and looked at Jane with all the sincerity he could muster.
“Jane Fox, will you marry me and have my children?” he asked formally, using all the persuasion in the full wattage smile his mother had insisting on paying to make perfect.
Jane laughed deeply and smiled so hard it made her face hurt. Walter Harrison Graham II was certainly making her day.
“Marry you? Oh, sure, Walter, if you don’t mind a retread. Come back and look me up when you’re out of college and we’ll set a date,” she said, winking at him.
“Already finished the first degree. I’m eighteen hours into my MBA. How’s next Fall look for you?” Walter asked on a laugh as Jane gave him another genuine smile at his quick reply. The woman was turning out to be very easy to like.
“Next Fall for the wedding? Just peachy. I’ll be thirty-nine then. Let’s have the wedding before my fortieth, okay? You know what they say about younger men and women over forty. I’d hate to see you accused of dating a cougar,” Jane told him, adding a smirk to punctuate her teasing statement.
When Harrison Walter Graham II laughed back and widened his dazzling smile at her flirting, Jane felt tingly in places she hadn’t even acknowledged in ages.
Damn it. The guy was hot but still a freaking kid in college.
She really needed to start dating again if the boy in front of her was turning her on so much. And it wasn’t just the way he looked, she decided. She liked Walter’s teasing and the way his gaze kept sweeping her. It made her glad she’d worn a skirt to work today. And if Walter had been even a decade older, she would have taken him home with her instantly, which really was yet another reason she needed to start dating again.
Celibacy was the pits. She didn’t know how Elijah did it.
“Excuse me. I hate to interrupt your wedding plans, Jane, but I came by to ask who is heading up the decorating committee for the open house. I thought I might just tell them personally that I was available to help and see if they needed anything,” Lydia offered.
Jane smiled as she looked at Lydia in surprise again. Was the remark about her wedding plans yet
another
joke? She still had trouble believing Lydia even had a sense of humor.
What the heck was happening today? Maybe she needed to call her brother and ask what he’d been praying for lately. Elijah prayed for her all the time.
Jane opened her mouth to give Lydia the same answer she’d given before, but never got the chance.
“Well, that would be me. I’m heading up the committee,” Morrie interjected firmly, giving Jane one last pleading look when she opened her mouth to deny it. “I would love some help with decorating the sitting area in the Common House, Lydia. It’s a little crowded in Jane’s office. Why don’t we step out and discuss it?”
Morrie walked to the doorway, stopping to smile when the man filling it stepped aside to let him pass. “Are you really a good firefighter, Walter?” he asked.
“I’ve managed to help stop a few fires in my three years on the roster,” Walter said, grinning.
“Good. I like a man who’s successful in his own eyes. You have permission to marry my daughter,” Morrie said with a laugh, enjoying Jane’s loud
Dad
protest behind him.
Walter laughed and put out a hand to shake. “Thanks for your blessing, Mr. Fox. You don’t know this, but you’re my favorite business role model. I’ve studied you and read all your books. Maybe we can get together to talk, so you can get to know me before Jane and I get married.”