Inherited: Expectant Cinderella. Myrna Mackenzie
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the owner of a wedding chapel. It’s not the kind of business I … invest in.”
“You were going to say ‘want to be associated with,’ weren’t you? Because I’m not criticizing. I know we’re not exactly posh or anything like that. But I want you to know that we have real potential, and we’re not too tacky, either. We’re not one of those we’ll-do-anything-you-want places. We don’t do … I don’t know … half-naked weddings. No one gets married in a bikini, even if it’s a white one,” she said, just as if this was a normal conversation. “At least, not anymore.”
A slight pink flush turned Daisy’s creamy skin rosy, and every male cell in Parker’s body responded in a way that was completely inappropriate and unwelcome.
All right, this whole situation was totally preposterous and impossible. Parker managed to maintain his stern look, despite the fact that part of him wanted to smile. He held up one hand to stop Daisy, just in case she continued talking about women in bikinis. Already his thoughts were wandering into forbidden territory, wondering what Daisy would look like in a tiny white bikini. He needed to head her off. “I’m not worried about the tackiness factor,” he said.
She gave him a you-have-to-be-kidding look. “Your family came over on the Mayflower, and you … you wear those suits that probably cost more than this building does.”
Probably more than ten of these buildings did. “I’m not concerned about it because you won’t be holding weddings here much longer. I thought I made that clear. I’m selling this place, going back to my life and my real business, and when I do …”
“You’ll evict us,” Daisy whispered. “But you said you weren’t totally heartless.”
“I also told you that I’d help you relocate.”
“I know but … to where? Do you really think it’s going to be easy to find affordable housing for all of us together? At least give us some time.” She crossed her arms over the lilac fabric of her sundress, which only drew his attention to the curve of her breasts. Again.
He frowned. What was wrong with him? He’d never been one of those guys.
“I’ll help you find someplace suitable,” he insisted, glancing down and away, but not before he noted that the woman was wearing flip-flops. With lilac plastic flowers between her pretty and very bare pink toes. Did he even know another woman who would be caught out in public in those things?
She shook her head, sending those long red curls flying. “I was hoping you would reconsider once you got past the shock of finding us here, but since you haven’t …”
Daisy looked toward the wall. “All right, you three, come on in.” She turned toward Parker. “We’re like family, and this concerns them every bit as much as it does me.”
Parker turned as the three elderly people shuffled out. The harsh sunlight wasn’t exactly kind to them, but he could see that they had done their best to dress to impress. Nola had taped a red ribbon around her cane. Lydia had a silk flower in her hair, even though it was beginning to slide out of its clip and droop a bit, and John was wearing a different threadbare suit from the threadbare one he’d worn yesterday.
“Mr. Sutcliffe, sir, I heard what you said about us having to leave, but … can you keep us together?” Nola asked. “Because we’re a … a team. We stay together no matter what. Daisy says so.”
“Yes,” Lydia said, her head nodding non-stop. “Daisy leads tour groups and writes articles to help keep us in food, and we’re really good at doing the weddings with her. She organizes things and takes pictures, I make cookies and play piano, Nola helps sew costumes and fixes flowers and sings and John …”
“John performs the services,” Parker said. “Yes. I know.”
“And sometimes Romeo serves as a ring bearer,” John added. “He’s very well behaved.”
“Romeo?”
“My puppy,” Nola said. “Romeo, come here, dear—”
“No!” Daisy called out, but it was apparently too late. A monster “Woof!” echoed through the walls, followed by the sound of something large pounding down the stairs. Within seconds, a huge German shepherd bounded into the room, ran up to Parker and gazed up at him, cocking his head.
“Romeo?” Parker asked.
“He was a groom’s dog, but the bride didn’t want him even though Romeo did his best to woo her,” Daisy said. “He’s one of the reasons we can’t relocate just anywhere.”
“He’s rather large,” John offered. “Too large.”
“Don’t say anything bad about my Romeo!” Nola said, and she looked as if she might cry. Daisy shot John a look, and he quickly apologized to Nola and patted Romeo’s head.
“The thing is, we are a team,” Daisy said, fiercely. “We go together. Everywhere.”
And they had most likely been coached by Daisy to say all those things, to try to make him feel guilty. Daisy had her game on, all right.
“It’s very nice that you’re a team,” Parker said, feeling a reluctant hint of admiration for Daisy’s devotion to her aging friends. “But it’s not really my concern.”
“Mr. Sutcliffe,” Daisy said, moving forward, and now all of that luscious flesh and intensity was much closer to him. His chest felt a bit tight.
Irrelevant, he told himself. He’d made some mistakes with women before, but getting any more involved with Daisy than he already was would be a much bigger mistake than he’d ever made … for so many reasons. Besides, she didn’t exactly like him. And that wasn’t going to change. He was still selling the building. In the end, she would have to leave her home.
Parker looked down into her unhappy brown eyes. He knew that his own were cold. He’d been told that before.
Daisy blew out a frustrated breath. Then she turned and whispered something in John’s ear. Together the three elderly people and the dog wandered back into the other part of the house. “They can’t go just anywhere,” she said, fiercely. “Between them they don’t have enough money to survive.”
“You’re the money-maker?”
“I work two part-time jobs, and between them and the chapel, we make enough to keep us from starving, but that wouldn’t be true if we moved somewhere else. Besides, this place gives their lives meaning.”
Parker looked around at the wedding chapel, a study in cotton-candy pink and white.
“A wedding chapel doesn’t fit your image, does it?” she asked.
He wasn’t going to lie. “It’s definitely outside my realm of experience. My father built Sutcliffe Industries brick by brick, banking on a name, a reputation and a fortune that goes back generations. All my energies go toward making the business a success. And while we started out in the beverage industry and have our fingers in many pies, at the heart of the business is the subsidiary that provides luxury accommodations for people who happen to like their entertainment sanitized and their lives shielded from anything …”
“Common?” Daisy gestured to the slightly gaudy chapel.
“I’m not judging you, Daisy. I’m merely saying that I’m not planning on changing my line of work. Right now I’m on the cusp of an expansion into new territory, and that’s the only business I’m interested in. Still, I’ll do this much. I’ll give you a little time. Two weeks. That should give you enough breathing room to find a new home and make some new plans.”
She looked at him as if she had just found out that he was really a vampire intent on drinking her blood. He’d never had a woman look at him with that much distaste.
It shouldn’t have mattered.
It did, but that still didn’t change