Naked Attraction. Jule McBride
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“her mother and I would visit. You know, how parents do?”
Not really, Robby thought, but he nodded dutifully.
“I couldn’t believe the boys she introduced to me! Miserable excuses for men! Pure pansies. All of them into art and music and such. Probably even ballet. Tap dancing. Sewing and home economics. You know what I’m saying, Robby?”
“Well,” Robby ventured diplomatically. “It’s not worth working yourself into a lather about it, Daddy Eddie. You know, you’re supposed to watch your blood pressure.”
“But you know what I’m saying?” Daddy Eddie demanded.
Unfortunately, Robby did. “Uh…yeah.”
“A man can’t get a grandbaby this way!”
About that, Robby wasn’t so sure. He and Ellie had a few scares, mostly because she was so hot and Robby couldn’t wait to find a condom. “Give her time,” Robby soothed.
Daddy Eddie didn’t even hear. “And her brothers are worse! Scoundrels, that’s all they are! They always go for the career women, the feminists. Why, absolutely none of my kids will reproduce, and I’m beginning to think it’s just to spite me. What did I ever do to them?
“Nothing!” he nearly shouted, answering himself. “Only worked my fingers to the bone, feeding and clothing them. I even got Ellie that convertible car on her sixteenth birthday!”
“You did.” She’d looked good in it, too, her hair flying behind her in the wind.
“And for what? To leave my legacy to whom?” Catching Robby’s gaze, he quickly amended. “I’m not talking about you running my company. If it weren’t for you, Robby, I don’t know what I’d do!”
“You know I hang around your sons. It’s no secret that if they were more interested in the family business…”
“Dammit,” Daddy Eddie muttered under his breath in frustration. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
Robby let it pass. “Just don’t be hard on Ellie,” he coached, unable to believe he’d gotten boxed into taking up for her. Somehow, he’d wound up playing the role of go-between in the Lees. However, a million years could pass, and he’d still be stinging from Ellie’s parting speech, especially the part when she’d compared him to his father. It was the lowest possible blow and she knew better.
“Why on earth are you defending her?” Daddy Eddie gaped at Robby as if to say he had some nerve. “She’s decimated our business, boy. She’s used everything I taught her against me, every trick in my bag. Only a man like you could have kept her in line. Yes, maybe a man who acts like a man could have saved her. Made her want to do her duties as a woman. Of course, I can’t blame you for never being attracted to my little girl.” He blew out a sigh. “Any man in his right mind would steer clear. She’s a handful, all right. I wouldn’t wish her on any male, no, sir. Certainly not one I respect, such as yourself.”
“C’mon,” Robby put in quickly, hoping to change the direction of the conversation, “I’m about done with lunch. Why don’t you down the rest of that brewski, so we can get out of here? Work calls.”
“Can I please have just one more minute in which to finish my lager?” Daddy Eddie snapped, his eyes pinning Robby again. “And by the way, I’m still the only board member at Lee Polls, so I’ve got a right to speak my mind. I was saying, I suppose there’s no possibility of my little girl landing a real man, and this worries me, Robby. First, this country isn’t making men like it used to. And second, the girl’s too headstrong and selfish, not to mention too damn smart for her own good. And finally, I believe she lacks passion.”
Robby’s lips parted. “Lacks…passion?”
“Yes. Boys would come along, but she always seemed to chew them up and spit them out. Yes, sir, she used men like bubble gum.”
“Who?” Robby was starting to feel testy.
“Well, I don’t know all their names.”
“I didn’t think she was all that serious about guys in college.”
“So maybe she didn’t sleep with them. Even Ellie’s bright enough to know the only point to men is marriage, and the only point to marriage is having babies and carrying on the line.”
“That’s very old-fashioned.”
“Hmm. Believe what you will. And I don’t blame you in the least for not wanting to take a more critical look at Ellie. After all, you’ve had to work with her, and besides—unlike her—you’re nice, so you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, as her coworker. My point is she’s just not soft and womanly like her mama. I think those feminists turned her off men in college.”
Robby winced. “Times have changed, Daddy Eddie.”
“That’s what I keep saying!” Daddy Eddie exploded.
“Ellie’s more modern,” Robby admitted. “I’ll give you that. Still, it doesn’t mean she’s never going to meet somebody special.”
“When?”
“She’s not even thirty.”
“By the time her mama was thirty, she’d had four kids!”
The defense was starting to sound lame. “True, but nowadays, a lot of women wait longer.”
Daddy Eddie squinted, looking wounded and betrayed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d taken a fancy to her, yourself, given the way you come to her defense like some knight in shining armor.”
“I’m not defending her,” Robby vowed. “I admit she’s a little tough.” When he thought about some of Ellie’s more aggressive moments, he wasn’t sure that was necessarily a bad thing, either. “Look, can we talk about something other than Ellie? Let’s not ruin our meal, okay?”
“You’re finished eating, anyway,” countered Daddy Eddie. “And Ellie’s the main problem we have today, so she must be dealt with.” Glancing down, he shook his head, now reading from the paper once more. “‘Showing she can put her money where her mouth is, Ms. Lee is now running the most interesting promotional campaign in the history of the polling business, a move that may well have those at Lee Polls eating their hearts out.’”
Since she’d broken his heart, Robby figured she might as well eat it, too. Again, he said nothing as Daddy Eddie read Ellie’s game plan, saying she meant to use her polling skills to find a man.
“Can you imagine?” Daddy Eddie implored, gasping in astonishment.
“No,” Robby admitted grimly.
“This proves my point. Love is nothing to her. Nothing! Why, she’d actually run a poll to find a mate, when we both know that the decision about a life partner is the most important in the world. Classic Ellie,” Daddy Eddie declared.
More than he knew. Ellie wasn’t just striking at the heart of Lee Polls, but at her ex-lover, too. And ending the affair sure hadn’t crimped her style. Every morning, when he looked in the mirror, Robby knew he was worse for wear. His hair was getting streaked with gray and the fine lines around his eyes had deepened, turning into crevices and lending him a weatherworn appearance.
Without Ellie reminding him to eat, he’d lost a few pounds, too, and he was starting to look gaunt. Since he wasn’t going to see Ellie at the office, he was letting his stubble grow, only shaving every other day. He’d always hated shaving, anyway.
Ellie, by contrast, looked better than ever. In the picture in the paper, she was wearing a beautiful rust-colored suit he didn’t recognize, probably bought for the occasion. Although, no matter what she put on, she looked stunning. Her gray-blue eyes bespoke a strange timelessness, and she had a habit of staring, as if she wasn’t at all inclined to blink. Often, when he looked at her, Robby had to force himself to finally look away.