Perfect Fit (17 page)

There was no reason for her mind to have placed Gabe Blackwell in her bathroom watching her take a bath.

“M
r. Blackwell?”

Gabe lifted his gaze from the documents he was reading upon hearing the sound of his secretary’s voice over the intercom on his desk. “Yes, Caroline?”

“Mr. Cabot is here to see you.”

Gabe smiled. “Please send him in.” He stood for the man who as usual was doing a fantastic job in getting the construction of Eden under way. He gripped Parnell Cabot’s hand in a firm handshake the moment he walked in. After Caroline left, closing the door behind her, he offered him a chair.

“I would offer you something to drink, but I know you’re still on duty,” Gabe said jokingly.

“Yeah, and after today I’d be tempted to take you up on that drink, even though I would know better.”

Gabe lifted a brow, and a concerned expression immediately appeared on his face. “Any problems that I should know about?”

Parnell shook his head as he eased his frame into the chair across from Gabe’s desk. “Nothing
with Eden, so let me rest your mind about that. My live-in sitter, Mrs. Summers, informed me this morning that she might have to leave Anchorage for at least six weeks to care for her sister who’ll be undergoing hip replacement surgery in Florida. That means that I’ll have to try and find a new live-in sitter for the girls.”

Gabe nodded. He knew that Parnell’s four-year-old twin daughters had made the adjustment to Anchorage rather easily, thanks to Mrs. Summers. According to Parnell, it seemed the elderly woman had been a godsend. “Well, I hope things work out for you on that end, which I’m sure they will,” he said, hoping to ease the man’s worries somewhat. He knew how much it meant to Parnell to have his daughters properly taken care of.

“I’m sure they will, too.”

Gabe smiled as he sat down behind his desk. “No matter who fills in for Mrs. Summers, once they meet your girls, they will be totally captivated. They’re special.”

Parnell beamed proudly. “Thanks, Gabe. I think that they’re special, too, and they’re pretty smart for their age; even Mrs. Summers said so.”

Gabe grinned. Parnell’s words had been spoken like the proud father that he was. Deciding to move on to the reason that he had summoned Parnell to his office, he said, “I hate to take you away from your busy schedule, but there’s a new development that I need to cover with you.”

Parnell nodded. “All right. Shoot.”

For the next fifteen to twenty minutes, Gabe covered Denmark’s marketing proposal regarding the dinner theater. Afterward, Parnell leaned back in his chair and asked, “How soon will the architect have plans for us to look at?”

“In a week. One good thing is that nothing with the foundation will change. Every modification is with the interior.”

Parnell acknowledged what Gabe said. “Yes, but depending on what they want inside, we may have a long wait for building materials, so the sooner we can get those plans in our hands, the better off we’ll be.”

Gabe agreed. “That means that Landmark will need to get his interior designer working on this right away. I have a feeling he wants this as elegant as the dinner theater that’s in the White House.”

Parnell raised a brow. “There’s a dinner theater in the White House?”

Gabe chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders. “Probably, since it has just about everything else. All I’m saying is that after talking with Landmark, no expense will be spared on this. He’s very excited about it.”

Parnell nodded. “I’m curious as to why those Denmark folks just thought of it.”

Gabe replied, “Because at the time the original proposal was submitted they didn’t have Sage Dunbar managing things. She’s one sharp lady.”

“Yeah, and a very good-looking one, too.”

Gabe shot his eyes up from the papers on his desk, suddenly feeling ill at ease. Parnell’s words had struck a chord within him, a very unexpected jealous chord. He met the man’s gaze. “You think so?” he somehow managed to ask.

Parnell chuckled. “You’d have to be blind not to notice.”

Gabe looked at Parnell for a long time. Suddenly, his mouth felt as dry as dust. Could Parnell be interested in Sage? “And you’ve noticed?” he asked quietly, curiously, cautiously.

Parnell’s mouth titled into a full grin. “Yeah, haven’t you?”

Gabe’s mind suddenly focused on all the things about Sage that he had noticed, although he hadn’t wanted to. “Yes, I’ve noticed.”

“That’s good.”

Gabe leaned back in his chair and lifted a brow. Parnell was smiling, and Gabe had a funny feeling that he was somehow the joke. “Is there something going on that I should know about?”

An innocent expression covered Parnell’s face. “Something like what?”

Gabe frowned as he continued to stare at Parnell. Then a thought suddenly came to his mind. “My mother. Have you spoken to her lately?”

He watched as Parnell shifted uneasily in his chair. “What gives you that idea?”

“Just a hunch.” When Parnell said nothing else, Gabe said, “Well, have you?”

Gabe lifted a brow when Parnell shrugged his shoulders. “Uh, I do seem to recall her calling a few nights ago to check on the girls. She does that sometimes, you know.”

“Yes, I know.”
And I’ll bet every penny I own that the girls aren’t the only person she’s calling to check on.
He leaned forward in his chair and shook his head.
This is so typical of Joella Blackwell. First she enlists the help of Christopher and now Parnell.

“The next time you talk to my mother, Parnell, assure her that I’m dating.”

Parnell glanced at him dubiously. “Are you?”

“As much as I want.”

Parnell shook his head. “But I’m not sure that will be enough to suit Ms. Joella. She’s concerned with there not being enough women out here for you to properly choose from.”

“And if there aren’t? What does she plan to do? Ship a bunch over here for me?”

Parnell’s smile spread slowly across his face. “Well, yeah, she had mentioned the possibility of doing that.”

Gabe suddenly sat up straight in his chair. “She wouldn’t.”

Parnell shook his head as he grinned at Gabe’s incredulous expression. “You ought to know your mother well enough to know that she would.”

Gabe closed his eyes briefly.
Yes, she would.
He reopened them, knowing he had to have a very serious conversation with her. She was getting too out of hand. The next thing he knew he would be instructed to pick up a plane load of Bible-toting single women from the airport who’d been sent by his mother to provide him good food, the good gospel and a good reason why one of them should become Mrs. Gabriel Blackwell.

“I feel a headache coming on,” he said miserably, placing a hand to his forehead.

“I’m glad it’s you and not me, Gabe.”

“Don’t consider yourself immune to Joella Black-well’s shenanigans. Once she thinks I’m taken care of, she’ll quickly switch her attention to you.”

Parnell appeared taken aback. “To me?”

“Yes, to you. She won’t rest until she’s found a mother for your girls.”

Parnell dropped his head into his hands. “Heaven help me.”

Gabe started laughing. “Forget it. Heaven won’t help you. If I didn’t know better, I’d think my mother has special connections up there. You’ll be on your own, buddy.”

Later that night after talking to his mother on the phone, Gabe sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and tried to relax. His conversation with Joella Blackwell had been taxing at best. He knew that everything he’d said to her had gone into one ear and out the other. According to her, there was no good reason a thirty-two year-old man should still be single when there were so many good Christian women out there.

When he had pointed out that it seemed to him that it was the Christian women with all of the issues, she had calmly replied that there had to be a little rain in your life to appreciate the sunshine.

He rolled his eyes, looking at the ceiling. A little rain he could handle, but a full-blown storm he could not, nor did he want to. And when he had told her that he didn’t appreciate her getting Christopher and Parnell involved in his love life, she had been quick to point out to him that as far as she was concerned, he didn’t have one.

Gabe shook his head after taking a sip of the drink he held in his hand. Before hanging up, she had reminded him of his grandparents’ sixtieth anniversary party that was only two months away, and nothing would make her happier than for him to show up with a woman by his side. And, if he couldn’t find one on his own, she would be glad to help him out. He’d said, “Thanks, but no, thanks,” and had quickly ended their conversation.

A few minutes later as Gabe continued to sit in the quiet room with the shifting of the fiery logs in the fireplace making the only sound, his thoughts went somewhere he’d tried avoiding all day.

Sage Dunbar.

His conversation with Parnell had brought her
to the forefront of his mind, and there she had stayed for the rest of the day. More than once he’d been tempted to pick up the phone and invite her to dinner. But the more he’d thought about it, the more he’d decided that to do so wouldn’t be such a good idea.

He leaned back to rest his head against the sofa as he pondered just what there was about Sage that caused him to continue breaking the rules. Rules he’d established after Lindsey, rules that had been fairly easy to follow until now.

What was there about her smile, and her laughter, that made him want to make sure one or the other became a permanent fixture on her face? What was there about her that had him not thinking straight?

After the ordeal he’d suffered through with Lindsey, the last thing he needed was to become involved with a woman on the rebound. Yet Sage was so deeply embedded in his thoughts that it wasn’t funny. He was the last one who wanted to be amused, but he couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face anyway. Ahh … Sage was temptation at its finest. Just looking into her whiskey-colored eyes could make even the strongest man fall to his knees. Her fiancé had been a fool for whatever he did to make her call off their engagement. Had Gabe been blessed to find a woman like her, he would have done anything and everything in his power to make her happy.

He stood after making a quick decision. He walked over to the phone and began dialing the numbers he had memorized. He inhaled deeply when after a few rings a feminine voice came on the line.

“Hello.”

After a brief pause, he cleared his throat. “Hello, Sage, this is Gabe.”

A short silence stretched across the line as Sage’s heart skipped a beat, caught off guard by the sexy sound of Gabe’s voice.

She had just finished pampering herself and had slipped into her nightgown. “Yes, Gabe. How are you?” she asked as her heart continued to hammer in her chest. She closed her eyes, wondering what in the heck was wrong with her. She reopened them when she silently admitted that she knew. After spending nearly an entire hour leisurely soaking in a hot tub of bubble bath while fantasizing about him, she could no longer deny that she was attracted to Gabe.

“I’m fine. What about you?”

She pushed a lock of hair out of her flushed face. “Great. Did you meet with Parnell Cabot today?” She inhaled quickly. There. She had immediately put his phone call on a business level.

“Yes, but that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Oh.”

“I was calling to see if you would have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

Sage swallowed the lump that formed deep inside her throat. “Dinner?”

“Yes, you know, that thing we agreed to do together on occasion as friends.”

When she heard the teasing sound in his voice, she relaxed somewhat as a smile lit her face. “I do remember agreeing to something like that.”

“Well, then, will you be available to have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

Sage nervously bit her lips as she tried thinking of a single reason she could not. “What time?”

“Umm, what about eight. Is that all right with you?”

“Yes, eight will be fine. Tell me the name of the place and I’ll meet you there.”

There was a slight pause. “I’d rather come by your place and pick you up. Would that be okay?”

Another moment of silence fell. The husky sound of Gabe’s voice had actually sent shivers up her spine. “Yes, sure. That would be okay. At eight o’clock, right?”

“Right.”

Sage swallowed hard again. “And the place where we’re going, will the proper attire be dressy, business, casual …?” she asked softly.

“Umm, let’s try dressy but not overly so.”

“All right.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, I better let you get back to what you were doing before I called.”

Sage blinked. She wondered what he would think if he knew that she’d just finished taking a leisurely soak in the tub while fantasizing about him. “Okay.”

“Oops, I almost forgot. I’m going to need your address.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” She then gave it to him, and he repeated it for accuracy.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night, Sage.”

“Good night, Gabe.”

S
age stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and surveyed how she looked in the clingy black dress. Gabe had said “dressy but not overly so,” and she hoped what she had on was appropriate. This was the second time she had worn it. The first time had been on her last night in Charlotte before moving to Anchorage. She and Rose had gone out on the town to celebrate.

She drew in a long breath as her gaze drifted over her curves. Because of the style of the dress, she wasn’t wearing a bra and had decided on wearing a silky pair of thigh-high stockings. To solve the problem of her panties showing through the clingy material, she was wearing a black thong, and the thought of that piece of underwear underneath her dress made her feel sexy.

She turned around in the mirror as a heated sensation flowed through her. It had been almost six months since she had gotten all dolled up for a man, and it was the first time since her senior high school prom that the man had been anyone but Erol. Earlier that day when she’d thought about
her date with Gabe, she’d felt strange. For so long Erol had been the only man in her life, the only man she cared about, the only one who mattered. Now all that had changed.