choice of a profession wasn’t a surprise to anyone, especially not to his family. As a kid, he’d have rather spend time indoors messing around with computers than outdoors playing with other kids. He’d been the proverbial geek, with glasses and all. He hadn’t minded since he’d been happy and everyone had pretty much left him alone, except when he and his cousins had gone to Mama Laverne’s house, where she taught them to cook, or to Granduncle Jake’s Whispering Pines, where he’d bonded with Corbin, Reese and Lee and, more important, discovered how important it was to have a social life.
He wondered if Ivy Chapman had a social life. Drawing in a deep breath, he figured that her social life or lack of one wasn’t his concern. But the issue of his great-grandmother meddling in his affairs was. He glanced across the room to the wall where a huge portrait of said meddler hung.
Felicia Laverne Madaris was the matriarch of the family. Having borne seven sons, his grandfather Nolan being one of them, Mama Laverne had taken over the running of their ranch with her sons after her husband, Milton, died. All her sons were still alive except for Robert, who had been killed in the Vietnam War.
Mama Laverne had insisted that each of her grands and great-grands hang this particular portrait of her in their places of business and in plain view. She sat looking regal, dressed in her Sunday best with a huge dressy hat on her head, and she appeared to be looking directly at the viewer with those shrewd eyes and all-knowing smile. It was known by every member in the family that she liked giving orders, and she expected them to be carried out. Regardless. Well, he had news for her. He had no intention of allowing her to butt into his affairs. Namely, his romantic life or lack of one.
Nolan reached for his phone and then decided telecommunications with Mama Laverne wouldn’t do. He needed to see his great-grandmother in person and look her in the eyes to make sure she had a clear understanding of where he stood and what he would not tolerate.
He stood and headed for the door. He would have it out with Mama Laverne once and for all.
* * *
“WHAT DO YOU mean Nolan Madaris isn’t the person who was sending you those flowers?”
Ivy glanced across the desk at her best friend, Tessa Hargrove. She had left Nolan Madaris’s office and come straight here, to Tessa’s property management office. She and Tessa had been best friends since high school, and although they’d gone to different colleges, their close friendship had remained intact.
Their friendship surprised some people. While in school, Ivy had few friends and was considered a geek because of her deep love of science, math and computer technology. Unless they needed her tutoring services, she was ignored by her classmates...until Tessa transferred to the school in their junior year.
Tessa had been ignored as well but for a different reason. Because of Tessa’s beauty, the other girls saw her as a threat and treated her as such. So, Tessa and Ivy, as different as night and day, had become the best of friends.
“It was so embarrassing,” Ivy said, covering her face with her hands. “I practically stormed into his office, carrying that huge vase of flowers and told him not to send me any more. Only to discover he wasn’t the one sending them. His great-grandmother was.”
A confused expression appeared on Tessa’s face. “His great-grandmother? I don’t understand. Why?”
“As part of a matchmaking scheme. But what has me so angry is that my own grandmother was in on it.”
“Ms. Helen?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“By practically doing the same. While Nolan’s great-grandmother was sending me flowers, my own grandmother was sending Nolan notes from me.”
“Ms. Helen actually did that?” Tessa asked in a voice that clearly said she was having a hard time believing such a thing.
“Yes, Nana actually did that.”
“What did the notes say?”
Ivy took a sip of coffee. “The same thing the card on the flowers said. That I would love for us to meet and the note was signed with my phone number.”
“Yet he didn’t call.”
“Nor did I call him. I don’t know why his great-grandmother and Nana think we make any sense as a couple. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I told him that because of his reputation around town as a womanizer, there’s no way I’d want to be linked with him.”
Tessa’s eyes widened. “You actually told him that?”
“Yes. But then he probably thought something similar about me not being his type, but for a different reason. I’m sure he saw me as most men do, as a techie queen.”
“You are not a techie queen.”
“Most men think so and you know it.” And until Damien Fargo, she hadn’t cared what they thought. She’d been fooled enough to think he was different. That he could see beyond her in-depth knowledge of scientific and digital technology and accept her for who she truly was. He’d pretended to and then, like every other guy, he’d proved he hadn’t liked a woman with a brain; one who was smart enough to think for herself and who didn’t hang on to a man’s every word. In the end, he’d tried changing her into the woman he had wanted her to be. When that failed, he had dumped her for someone else.
“You know my opinion on what most men think about your love for science, math and technology. As far as I’m concerned, they only wish they could be as smart.”
Ivy smiled. Tessa had always been her champion, lifting her up when others—especially men—tried putting her down. “Now, back to Ms. Helen. I just can’t imagine her doing such a thing.”
“Well, she did. I saw proof. He had one of those notes I supposedly sent him right on his desk. I read it. It was Nana’s handwriting. He and I were set up.”
Ivy sighed, rubbing one of the gold hoop earrings she wore between her fingers. “I thought about it on the drive here, wondering why Nana would do such a thing, and could only come up with one reason.”
“And what’s the reason?”
“She’s getting older and unfortunately for her, Dad didn’t settle down and marry until his late thirties. Nana was nearing sixty when I came along, her one and only grandchild. I guess she wants to live long enough for me to give her a great-grandchild.”
Tessa nodded as if following her logic and agreeing that had to be the reason as well. “What are you going to do?”
Ivy released a frustrated sigh. “I’m going to pay my grandmother a visit. She should be home soon from her exercise class. I was so mad when I left Nolan Madaris’s office. You don’t know how tempted I was to go straight to that gym and confront her. I came here instead to cool off.”
“And I’m glad you did.” Tessa then leaned toward her. “So tell me, Ivy. Is Nolan Madaris as handsome in person as he looks in the newspapers?”
Ivy shrugged. “I didn’t notice.”
“Liar.”
A smile touched Ivy’s lips because she had noticed, even when she hadn’t wanted to. He’d looked so tall and commanding while standing behind his desk. What she’d almost found too distracting was the dark stubble on his jaw like he hadn’t bothered to shave that morning. “Okay, I’m lying. I couldn’t help but notice. And yes, he looks just as handsome in person. Doubly so. Too much for his own good if you ask me.” No need to mention that he smelled good, too. Her senses had been filled with the subtle, masculine scent of his cologne the moment she’d walked into his office.
“My kind of man.”
Ivy took a sip of her coffee thinking, yes, Nolan Madaris would be Tessa’s kind of man, but he wouldn’t be hers. Although she’d arrived at his office angry and ready to chew him out, her anger hadn’t stopped her from noticing how good-looking he was.