Sophie's Playboy (7 page)

58

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

One look at his father gave him the answer. Biff Senior was holding court at the head of the private room, thanking everyone for helping him celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of his main company. Parker had no respect for the man and spent his life trying not to be like him.

But he still sought his approval. Coming alone to a pseudo-family, mainly business function would bring disappointment.

Bringing a woman like Vanessa brought approval.

"How much longer do we have to stay?" Vanessa's hot breath burned his ear. He cringed. It was time to pass her off.

"Chipper!" Parker motioned to one of his cousins, a young realtor working for Biff Senior. The boy was hungry, and his success showed how much. He knew the value of an ambitious woman.

"Chipper, I'd like you to meet my friend, Vanessa. Vanessa Whitehead, Chipper Cornwall. Chip, Vanessa has some property in Falmouth she wants to sell. I have something to discuss with my father. I'll just be a minute."

Another successful save, he thought as he strolled away while the two fell into an intense conversation about square footage and location. He didn't go to his father but instead sat next to his stepmother at her table.

"Not having too good a time tonight, huh?" He slid his hand over hers and felt the iciness of her skin ebb. The younger woman's wounded gaze didn't leave her husband where he flirted with the wife of one of his executives. Parker blocked the anger that threatened to well.

59

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

"Oh, I'm having a lovely time," Fawn protested mildly.

Despite her age, she'd been well trained in society manners.

Parker only saw the hurt because he recognized it.

"Do you and Dad have plans for the holiday?"

"We're going to the Cape house, of course. You're expected for the picnic."

"Fawn, a picnic has hot dogs with potato chips and shorts with sandals. You guys have a social. Or a lawn party. Fancy dresses and fancy food. Not my idea of fun."

Her gaze turned beseeching when she finally focused on him. "Oh, Parker, please come. Your father is such a bear when one of you doesn't do as he hopes. I just want us to be happy."

Parker looked at his father, who had the audacity to wink at his wife while his hand rested on the other woman's bare shoulder. Parker would bet a million the man would be in bed with her before a week passed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Fawn's hand press against her stomach. He hoped to God she had indigestion.

The world did not need another person for Biff Cornwall to hurt.

* * * *

"So, Sophie, tell us about the show."

Elyse Macgregor ended a half-hour monologue about her kickboxing class, her continuing e-mail relationship with travel companions from her trip the spring before, her upcoming travel plans—this time, praise God, with her husband—and the new dog she wanted to get now that Cody, 60

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

Kira's eleven-year-old golden retriever, was living with Kira where she belonged. The Supermother had shed her cape and was delighted with herself.

Dessert, however, was apparently Family Time. Sophie was gratified that her mother reverted to her usual self and actually focused on her daughter when she made the inquiry.

"It's going great." She described Stevie and Melina and told a few stories about calls she'd gotten. Within a few minutes her family was roaring with laughter. Contentedness settled over her. This was what home had been, before it all got tossed upside down and her priorities changed.

Joey started to fuss in his infant seat.

"Let me take him." Sophie jumped up when Kira sighed and reached for her son. "You finish eating."

Kira smiled her thanks. "I don't think I've eaten a full meal since he was born. At least not without getting food all over him and myself."

Sophie lifted the sturdy but still tiny baby and rested him in the crook of her arm. He grinned up at her, then promptly lunged for her plate.

"He can have some of the squash, if you feel like sharing."

Sophie could tell by the look on Jake's face that he was setting her up. She'd show him. She dipped the tip of her spoon into the whipped butternut squash, deftly avoided Joey's flailing fists as he grabbed at the spoon, and slipped it into his mouth without marring a centimeter of his chubby face. She laughed as his eyes widened and he kicked his feet.

"More?" He kicked harder.

"You're good at that, Sophie," her mother commented.

61

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

"It's a gift."

"So when are you going to give little Joey a cousin? He needs someone close to his age."

Sophie concentrated as she fed Joey another spoonful. "I need a guy to have a baby, Mom."

Brianna snorted. "Mom doesn't care about the son-in-law part. She just wants more grandchildren."

Elyse shrugged. "I've already got the best son-in-law I could ever have." She patted Jake's cheek. "Well, Sophie, any prospects?"

Sophie was wiping a drop of squash off the baby's nose and didn't think. "One."

Silence thundered into the room. Sophie looked up. Both parents, both sisters, and her brother-in-law stared at her.

"What, you think it's impossible for me to have a prospect?"

They burst into chatter. "It's your first one!" her mother announced, as if she had gotten an "A" on a math test.

"You don't date prospects," Brianna said. "Only toys."

"Way to go!" was offered by Jake, accompanied by a victory fist and a wink.

"He's a playboy, isn't he? I knew it. I told you so!"

"Kira, stop crowing." Sophie set down the spoon and stood Joey on her lap. "They think your auntie is some kind of spinster," she cooed. "Or a heartbreaker. They can't decide.

They don't understand that I've been looking for a long time.

They don't know how hard it is to find The Man."

"I do," Brie chimed in.

62

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

"And why did I open my big mouth, anyway? Huh, Joey?

Can you tell me that?"

Joey bubbled spit through his little smile, but his gaze was still adoring, so Sophie forgave him when it dripped on her silk pants.

"Tell me
all
about him," Elyse urged as she began to stack plates in front of her. "I want to know everything."

"I'm not telling you anything, Mom." Sophie transferred Joey back to the crook of her elbow and let him watch Grandma go into her usual cleanup frenzy. "Not that there's anything to tell, anyway."

"Did you meet him at the club?" Kira asked.

"No. I don't think so. I'm not sure."

Jake laughed and stood to carry the tower of scraped plates to the counter. "Were you drugged?"

"I just don't know if he's the same guy."

"The same guy as who?" Brianna asked, propping her chin in her hand as if the story she was trying not to tell was fascinating.

She sighed. There was no way to avoid it. They'd get it out of her eventually. "There's been a guy calling my radio show.

He has a voice that gives me shivers and a unique method of courting."

"Unique how?" Kira asked.

"Unique as in over the radio. Anyway, he sent me a puppy.

And I never met him, but he might be a guy I know from The Club. Except his name is different."

"Why do you think he's the same guy?" Duncan Macgregor asked.

63

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

Sophie addressed her normally silent father and tried to articulate her suspicions. "Every time Biff—"

"Biff?"
Five people roared the name. Five shouts of laughter followed.

"Cut it out," Sophie growled. Joey began to wiggle and fuss, so she handed him to his mother. "You startled the baby. And I didn't name him."

"But you picked him," Brianna pointed out.

"I didn't pick him. Do you want to hear this or not?"

Sorries were murmured all around. Sophie took a deep breath and tried to get it all out at once.

"Every time I hear Biff's voice and can't see him I think it's Parker. Parker is the guy who calls the show. Biff asked me out twice and I turned him down. Parker keeps flirting with me on the air. And he sent me a dachshund after we had a show with a pet theme. His sister has a dachshund named Moose, so I named mine Hippo. My producer has him for the weekend because I didn't want him around the baby; he gets nervous and would probably pee on Mom's floor. I decided it's worth a try to find out if Parker and Biff are the same guy and even if they're not, Biff's starting to interest me, so it can't hurt. One date. If I can arrange it. After I rejected him the second time he said he wouldn't ask again. That's all I'm going to say, so leave me alone."

Everyone waited a beat, then jumped up at virtually the same time.

"Who wants coffee?" her mom called.

64

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

"Jake, I've got something in the shop to show you."

Duncan clapped a hand on his son-in-law's shoulder and they headed for the basement stairs.

"I'm going to nurse the baby." Kira went into the living room, already unbuttoning the flap of her nursing blouse.

Only Brianna and their mother were brave enough to stay.

Elyse settled back at the table with a thermal carafe of decaf coffee and a sympathetic expression.

"Do you want advice, honey? Or are you not as adrift as you seem?"

Sophie sighed and rested her arms on the table. "I don't need advice. Not yet. I'm plenty adrift, but I'm finding my anchor, bit by bit." She sipped her coffee. "I'd rather talk about you and Daddy."

Elyse's glance toward the basement door was affectionate and happy. The knot of worry in Sophie's gut that was dedicated to her parents relaxed a bit.

"Daddy and I are fine, dear. We have been for a long time."

"I know, but when you came out of your cocoon, it wasn't a slow fluttering. I keep needing to make sure no one was hurt in the explosion."

Elyse eyed her two younger daughters speculatively. "Did I hurt you two?"

Brianna spoke first. "We were concerned, but I wouldn't say hurt. I felt guilty for being a burden to you for so long."

"No, never that!" Elyse leapt up and rushed to hug Brie. "It had nothing to do with you! It was all me. I tried to tell you 65

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

that." She sat in the chair next to Brianna and sighed. "You're all so like your father."

It had been commented on as long as Sophie could remember. All three sisters matched their father in appearance, tall and fair where their mother was short and dark. But Sophie knew that wasn't what she was trying to say.

"Gruff and self-centered and blusteringly loving when the occasion calls?" she asked.

Her mother smiled gently. "You're all worrywarts."

Sophie and Brianna burst out laughing. "If we are, Mom, then we're like
you
, not Daddy!" Brianna choked out. "He doesn't worry about anything."

"He does. He worries quietly. You're all the same way. Kira deals with it by trying to parent." She turned to Sophie. "You deal with it by joking and demanding. Brianna hovers."

"I do not hover," she protested.

"You do, sweetie. You were over here every day when I was gone. You didn't think your poor father could handle being alone."

But he had, Sophie knew. Kira had been home, but consumed by morning sickness and her own dilemmas.

Brianna
had
hovered, quite ineffectively, and Sophie had come home every weekend. Just about the only thing any of them had to do, though, was be company for the man who hadn't been alone for longer than a day in nearly thirty years.

Which meant her mother hadn't been alone, either. Sophie prized her own space, and didn't have to struggle to get it.

66

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

She finally understood why her mother had needed the escape.

The knot in her stomach loosened entirely and slipped away.

"Okay, Mom. We'll stop hovering."

Brianna looked back and forth between them. She didn't look convinced, but her mother's obvious happiness and Sophie's reassurance seemed enough. She shrugged. "I'll try."

"Now, dear, tell me all about Parker/Biff."

Sophie stared at her. "Mom, you just said—"

"But I'm your mother. It doesn't apply to me. I have to worry. Tell."

The only way to escape would be heading back to Boston.

Sophie sighed and told.

* * * *

Two weeks went by, and Parker didn't call the show.

Sophie spent four hours each day on tenterhooks, wondering if the next caller would be him, or the next, or the next. It made her more suspicious than ever that Biff and Parker were the same guy. She told Biff to get lost, and Parker did.

She tried to come up with a plan. She couldn't find him at The Club, because she didn't belong anymore. She'd always attended events as representative or guest of her bosses or other members. As familiar as the staff was with her, they wouldn't let her just wander in, knowing her new status.

Calling wasn't an option, either. She'd looked up Cornwall in the phone book and come up empty. Of course, rich people 67

Sophie's Playboy

by Natalie Damschroder

rarely had listed numbers. She found the Cornwall Foundation, but got lost in a voice mail maze. And Chuck wouldn't let her borrow his Club Directory.

"You betrayed me," he complained, "and now you want me to help you? You've got to tell me what you're looking for, at least."

That, she couldn't do.

She didn't have much better luck with the name Parker. An Internet search yielded only four people with that first name, and none were
her
Parker. Again, of course, he was probably unlisted.