An Unexpected Match (4 page)

Matthew was proud of Elizabeth's behavior. When Elizabeth and his mother reached him in the receiving line after services, he tried not to notice that she stood there calmly holding Haley's hand when she'd run away from him earlier.

“Well, sweetie, you sure were a well-behaved young lady during church services. Miss Renee will be very happy if you're this good for her tomorrow.”

“Daddy, why can't Miss Haley be my new babysitter?”

Matthew stiffened, trying not to look at Haley. “You know why, honey. We hired Miss Renee, and she starts tomorrow.”

“I don't want Miss Renee. I want Miss Haley.”

“You know Miss Haley will be too busy taking care of the details from the…er…wedding to…” He let the words trail away, not sure what else to say.

“Your daddy's right about that,” Haley said.

This time Matthew couldn't help stealing a look at Haley. She was still smiling as she had been when they'd approached, but the look didn't quite reach her eyes.

She bent to get on Elizabeth's level. “Don't worry. I'm sure she'll be nice.”

When Haley stood again, her gaze connected with Matthew's. Her sad expression made it clear that she understood his real reason for never even approaching her about the job. She seemed to recognize what he really thought about her, and his opinion hurt.

Something tightened inside his chest. He'd always known that parenting was a tough job. He'd found that out the hard way when Stacey had left. But he'd never realized that doing what he'd considered to be the right thing for his child—what he
still
thought was the right thing—would make him feel like such a heel.

M
atthew flipped through the stack of papers on his desk for the third time, hoping he'd simply overlooked something, but the legal brief still wasn't there. Not just any legal brief but the one he was supposed to file in court in about, he paused to look at his watch, forty-five minutes. Shoving back his executive chair from his desk, he crossed to the row of filing cabinets on the south wall and yanked open a drawer.

“It has to be here somewhere,” he hissed. At least it had better be if he didn't plan to get the chewing out of a lifetime from Judge Andrews for wasting the court's time.

A tap at his office door brought his head around. “Sybil, I told you no visitors,” he began. His words fell away, though, when not his office assistant but his daughter and her brand-new child-care provider stepped inside.

“Hi, Daddy.” Elizabeth ran inside, scrambling into his office chair.

He didn't have time for this. He didn't even have time for a restroom break, let alone visitors. “Hey, you two,” he said, trying to sound calm. “I didn't expect you to come
by. Feel free to look around, Renee, but unfortunately, I can't give you the full tour. I'm due in court in a little more than a half hour and I'm missing—”

“That's a bummer,” the nineteen-year-old said to interrupt him. “I know you're busy, so I won't keep you long. I wanted to let you know I've found another job, so I won't be able to keep Elizabeth after all.”

“So you've come to give notice?” So much for the future pediatrician being the perfect sitter.

“I would. Really. Sorry.” She at least had the decency to look guilty. “But they needed someone right away. Today even. I'll be working as a receptionist at a posh health club. I can study any time I'm not answering a call, and it pays better money than—” She stopped herself but not before she'd made her point.

Matthew shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from fisting them. “You can't be serious.”

“I said I'm sorry it didn't work out. Elizabeth's been bawling all morning, anyway, and asking for someone named Haley. I would never get any studying done with all of that racket.”

As if that made what she'd just done to him okay. Before he could argue further, Renee waved and backed out of the door, leaving him alone with his child, who climbed down and crawled under his desk. He'd never been able to tempt Elizabeth with the box of toys he kept in one of his office cabinets when his big office desk served as the best clubhouse for a four-year-old.

Matthew started ticking off a list of possible sitters on his fingers. His mother? No, she and Mrs. Scott were meeting with his mom's accountant this morning. Dylan? Matthew shook his head. His brother had already complained about his heavy patient load today.

Not that he liked to rely on Logan…but Logan? Grabbing his phone, he dialed his brother's number at the park ranger's office, but when the machine answered, he slammed the phone back into its cradle. He ground his teeth, probably ruining years of good dental care. What was he supposed to do now?

An idea slid, unwelcome, into his thoughts, and he would have dismissed it out of hand, but he had neither the time nor the luxury. He knew one person who'd already proven she was great with kids, and his own child just happened to love her. For right now, that had to be enough. Resigned, he lifted the handset and dialed again.

“Hey, Haley,” he said when she answered on the second ring.

“Matthew, is that you? Is something wrong?”

Guilt twisted inside him. Even Haley recognized that he wouldn't call her unless he needed something. “As a matter of fact, I am in a bind.”

“What is it?”

Matthew took a deep breath and then filled her in on the details. He spoke quickly because it was going to take some convincing to get past the fact that he'd offended her yesterday.

He finished with “I know you're probably busy, but if you could possibly help me out…” Letting his words trail away, he braced himself for a chewing out more acidic than even Judge Andrews would be giving him in—another glance at the watch—twenty-nine minutes.

On the other end of the line, Haley cleared her throat. “I'll be there in ten minutes.”

She didn't say more, only clicked off the phone. Matthew let out the breath he'd been holding. He didn't have to ask himself who'd been the bigger person today.
That answer was clear in the grinning face of the little girl who crawled out from beneath his desk.

“Is Miss Haley going to be my babysitter?”

As frustrated as he was with his daughter's behavior, he could only put out one fire at a time, and his eyebrows were already singed enough from the one he'd just extinguished. Anyway, if he didn't find that brief in the next twenty-four minutes, he would have humiliated himself by asking for Haley's help for nothing.

“Just for today. Play there for a few minutes while we wait for her.”

He didn't have to tell her twice. She disappeared beneath the desk again.

Hurrying back to the filing cabinet, Matthew threw open a drawer. Since he'd already searched the Lively file on his desk, he didn't know where to begin looking for the misfiled document.

“Daddy.”

“Just a minute, honey. I'm busy.”

“But Daddy—”

His jaw flexing, he shot an annoyed glance toward his desk. Elizabeth stood just in front of the chair holding a messy stack of papers. His documents that had somehow fallen under the desk.

“It's dirty under there.”

“It certainly is. Thank you for picking it up.”

Now he had two people to thank for cleaning up his mess and one of them was too young to understand the importance of what she'd found. He'd put the documents in order and was tucking them in his briefcase when Haley rushed through the door, her winter coat flapping open.

She brushed her hand back through her hair that was messier than normal and then glanced down at her sport
pants and sweatshirt and the athletic shoes she wore without socks. “I wasn't expecting to go out today.”

“I'm glad you did. Hey, thanks—”

“No problem,” she said to interrupt him. “Now where's that Elizabeth hiding?” Though she asked the question, she walked right toward the desk where the child was hiding again.

Elizabeth popped out, pushing back the office chair. “I'm here.” She scrambled over to Haley and hugged her around the waist.

“Hey, you. We're going to have tons of fun today, aren't we?” Hefting Elizabeth on her hip, she turned back to Matthew. “Shouldn't you be going?”

He glanced at the door and then at his watch. Fifteen minutes. “Judge Andrews doesn't look favorably on tardiness.”

“Then go ahead.” She snuggled Elizabeth to her shoulder. “We'll be fine.”

Matthew gave Haley his address, handed her the house key and then grabbed his coat and briefcase. They would be fine; he knew that. And he would do what he had to do. He had to push aside any misgivings and get on with it. Still, like so many times in a parent's life, he could only hope he'd made the right decision.

 

“Daddy's home!”

The sound of the garage-door opener confirmed Elizabeth's announcement as she dropped her doll in the middle of her miniature fashion show. She raced from the living room, through the kitchen, to the door that separated the house from the garage.

Haley set her doll aside to place all the dresses and tiny pumps of every color in Elizabeth's toy suitcase.

From the other room, she could hear the sweet exchange that was probably the daily ritual in the Warren house.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hey, munchkin. Did you have a good day?”

At the sound of the door closing and footsteps coming from the kitchen, Haley stiffened. It didn't seem right for her to be so nervous now, not after she and Elizabeth had just spent such a wonderful afternoon together, but she couldn't help hoping Matthew would be impressed by her efforts. The events of the last few days must have really done a number on her if she was this desperate for an
attaboy
.

Matthew and his daughter came through the doorway hand in hand. Haley waved at them from the floor.

“Hello.” He glanced her way but then started scanning the room.

Haley followed the path of his gaze, at first wondering what he was looking for and then annoyed by her guess. Did he expect to find structural damage in his home or something? Wasn't it enough that he'd asked her to care for Elizabeth only after he'd probably exhausted other possibilities? He seemed determined to offend her today.

“It was so fun.” Elizabeth moved to stay in front of her father's sliding gaze. “We played toys and read books and ate peanut butter and watched cartoons and—”

“That's nice, honey,” he said to interrupt her since she wasn't likely to stop listing every detail.

He must have found no bullet holes or burn marks on the wall because Matthew finally turned back to Haley. “Thank you for doing this.”

“A whole day and not a single emergency room visit. A real feat,” she couldn't resist commenting.

When he looked back at her, he wore a guilty expres
sion. Well, he deserved to feel guilty. If he thought she would be such a bad influence on his child, then he shouldn't have asked her at all.

“Elizabeth seemed to have a good day.”

“Does that surprise you?”

Matthew blinked, her question startling him more than any observation. With her innocent question, Haley asked about far more than his thoughts on how his daughter spent her day. She had every right to ask him what his problem was, too, but he didn't have an answer for her. At least not a good one.

Unlike Renee, who'd dumped his child with him as soon as a better offer came along, Haley had dropped everything to help him. She'd given up her whole day to care for Elizabeth and even left the house passably neat. She'd done all that, and all he could manage was a banal thank-you. The least he could do was to be more grateful. A little humility couldn't hurt, either.

He cleared his throat. “No, that doesn't surprise me. Elizabeth thinks you're great.”

Haley was putting away the last of the dolls, but she stopped and looked at him, lifting a brow. Her assumption that Elizabeth's father didn't think she was all that great couldn't have been clearer.

“I want you to know how much I appreciate you stepping in for us today. We were really in a pinch.”

“I did it for Elizabeth.”

Until then, Elizabeth hadn't appeared to be paying attention to the conversation, but she looked up and announced, “Miss Haley did it for me.”

The words Haley had spoken and Elizabeth reinforced rang as true in his ears as any statement a credible witness made during cross-examination. Haley had stepped
forward for the child's sake even though she understood she wasn't the candidate he would have chosen. Wasn't that similar to what he tried to do with Elizabeth, always putting her needs ahead of anything else?

“Well, thanks.” His throat felt tight as he looked from Haley to Elizabeth. He reached down and tugged one of his daughter's braids. “How about we put in a video for you while Miss Haley and I talk?”

“Okay.”

He led Elizabeth into the family room and inserted an old video that he'd only recently come to hate because she watched it so often. When he returned to the living room, he gestured for Haley to follow him into the kitchen. He took a seat at the table.

“Here, come sit with me.”

Haley chewed her bottom lip, but she took the seat opposite his. She fidgeted with a ring on her left pinkie, slipping it on and off several times. Finally, she looked up at him.

“What did you want to talk about?” She brushed at a piece of fuzz on her sweatshirt.

“A job,” he blurted before he could think better of it. “I know you gave up yours when you left Michigan.”

“I know.” She stared at her hands twisting her ring around. “There's nothing left for me in Muskegon. Even Jenna lives on the other side of Michigan. I need to start looking for a new job, but I haven't even decided where I'm going to live. Mom said I could stay with her until I figure things out, but I don't know if that's a good idea.”

“You don't have to decide right away.”

Her head came up then. “This coming from Matthew Warren, the king of advanced-planning-for-the-future? The expert of dotted
I
s and crossed
T
s.”

He shook his index finger at her. “Could we wait until later to denigrate my character? I'm trying to make you an offer here.”

“I probably could wait until seven thirty,” she began, but stopped in the middle of her joke. She tilted her head and studied him. “Offer? You mean a job offer?”

His hands went up in a reflexive move. “Just a temporary one. I would like you to watch Elizabeth until I find a suitable child-care provider.”