That Marriageable Man!

But so far, friendship rather than romance had resulted in every case because both Holly and the selected matrimonial candidate would recognize that their budding relationship was fated to be platonic, not romantic.

The female members of the clan were in despair that Holly, who had countless male friends, had never come close to nabbing that ultimate prize—an engagement ring. To be followed by the traditional big white wedding. Then the nagging to produce children could rightfully begin. Both Hillary and Heather already had a daughter apiece. Hope and Hayley were each trying zealously to conceive.

“I guess the fact that little Heidi is engaged and planning her wedding hasn’t made things any easier for you.” Brenna was sympathetic.

Little Heidi was Holly’s youngest cousin, who’d turned twenty last month and was currently flashing a minute solitaire on her finger. Though barely a diamond chip bought with the twenty-one-year-old husband-to-be’s student loan money, it was still an engagement ring provided by an authentic fiancé.

“Poor Mom. I felt so sorry for her when Heidi announced her engagement at the family’s monthly brunch.” Holly grimaced at the memory. “Mom claimed she was thrilled about little Heidi’s engagement but she left shortly afterward. She claimed she’d been food poisoned, but we all knew why she really felt sick.”

“Never mind that she has a daughter who graduated with honors from the University of Michigan’s med school and completed a psychiatric residency there.” Brenna’s blue eyes flashed. “That doesn’t count because Honoria is the one meeting with bridal consultants and shopping with Heidi for her wedding gown.”

“True. The fact that I’m twenty-nine without a single prospective son-in-law in sight is what really counts as far as Mom is concerned,” Holly said dryly.

“God, Holly, it makes me furious on your behalf! Furious and...and crazy.”

“Don’t be. And as a newly board-certified shrink. I advise you to redirect your anger into something positive. Like making plans to visit me in Sioux Falls as soon as I get settled in. Promise you’ll come soon, Bren.”

“I promise.” Brenna nodded her head. “And it’ll have to be soon because doesn’t winter come early there? Like around the first of September?”

“South Dakota is not in the Arctic Circle, Brenna. And considering some of the winters we’ve had here in Michigan, we really have no room to mock the weather anywhere else.”

“You’re getting defensive about your new hometown already. I guess you’ll fit in out there in Frontier Land. Well, Sioux Falls is lucky to have you, Holly. I just hope that you’ll...” Brenna paused, an unholy gleam in her eyes. “That you’ll meet the man of your dreams there. Imagine the thrill of being deluged with Planning the Perfect Wedding Guides from all your approving relatives!”

There was a knock on the door and Helene Casale entered Holly’s bedroom.

“How is the packing coming, Holly?” she asked, glancing at the suitcases that lay opened and half full on the bed.

“It’s coming along fairly well, Mom.”

“Don’t forget to pack this, Holly. You never know when you might need it for reference.” Helene Casale put a copy of The Rules into the suitcase, then handed one of the books to Brenna. “And you take one, too, dear. The authors practically guarantee a proposal if you follow their advice. Rumor has it that J.F.K. Jr.’s bride was a Rules girl.”

Holly’s eyes met Brenna’s and she read her friend’s silent message. Accepting the offer to join the Widmark family practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, far from her ever-loving, ever-obsessed-with-her-marital-status relatives, was definitely the right move.

The plane touched down at the Sioux Falls airport nearly two hours after its scheduled arrival time, the delay resulting from a mechanical problem discovered in Minneapolis shortly before takeoff.

Rafe Paradise glanced at his watch again.

“Watching the clock isn’t going to make the time pass any faster.” His seatmate, a petite blonde in a chic gray suit spoke up, her tone amused. “It’s ten minutes past the last time you checked. You really are in a hurry to get home, aren’t you?”

“Actually, no.” Rafe managed to return her smile. There was a difference between wanting to get home and having to get back as soon as possible, though he didn’t feel like discussing the whys and wherefores with the pretty woman sitting next to him.

She’d been flirting with him all during the flight and had already ascertained that he wasn’t married, that he was a lawyer who lived in Sioux Falls and had no significant other in his life. Rafe had answered her very direct questions without posing any of his own, but the blonde kept the conversation going, undeterred by his perfunctory responses.

He now knew that her name was Lorna Larson, that she lived and worked in the Twin Cities and was making one of her frequent business trips to Sioux Falls. (“Thanks to the deregulation of telecommunications, Sioux Falls has become a major center of credit card processing and telemarketing,” Lorna, a self-proclaimed rising star in a telecommunications company, explained to him.)

As if he, a lifelong native of the city, didn’t already know. Still, Rafe made no comment. Why bother to go through the motions—me flirtatious smiles, the eye contact, the exchange of personal info and other requisite preliminaries? As soon as he mentioned his situation, the come-hither glow in Lorna Larson’s eyes would turn to frost.

Worse, he didn’t care. His interest in sex had sunk to ground zero, Rafe acknowledged grimly, because the lack of female companionship in his life no longer even bothered him. Since he’d inherited his two younger half sisters last year—there were other words he could use to describe how they’d happened to land in his life but “inherited” was the most charitable—his social life had become as extinct as the Neanderthals who once inhabited the earth.

Maybe he was on to unlocking the mystery of their disappearance from the planet, Rafe mused darkly. Their caves had been besieged with kids—other people’s, not their own—who’d worked them over so thoroughly that their sexual drive had been effectively obliterated. The species had faded from sheer lack of time, interest and energy in sex.

Rafe could definitely relate. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d had sex. Certainly before Camryn and Kaylin had moved in with him. Before his Little Brother Trent and Trent’s kid brother Tony had gradually become residents instead of visitors to his house. His last few dates, months and months ago, had ended in disaster because crises with the kids had disrupted them in grand style.

Lorna Larson pressed her business card into Rafe’s hand as they reached for their carry-on luggage stored in the overhead compartments. “I wrote the name of the hotel where I’m staying while I’m here in town. Give me a call and we can get together for drinks.” Her smile promised much more. She was clearly in the mood for some action during her stay in Sioux Falls.

Rafe murmured a polite response and tucked the card into the pocket of his suit jacket, knowing he wouldn’t call. He wouldn’t be up to drinks or anything else after dealing with those kids. Especially after his overnight absence. God only knew what they’d gotten into while on their own. At least he’d had the foresight to have his pal on the police force, Joe Stone, regularly check the house during his absence, thereby guaranteeing that the entire adolescent population of Sioux Falls would not have been partying there.

He remembered that first fateful time he’d gone away on an overnight business trip, not long after the kids’ arrival. He had naively expected them to carry on as if he were home. Oh, they’d carried on, all right. His house had been the sight of a teen saturnalia that would have done the ancient Romans proud. The two little guys, Trent and Tony, had their own fun, as well, inventing in-the-house versions of baseball, football, hockey and golf. Never mind pesky obstacles such as lamps and windows that happened to get in the way of a flying ball or puck and break into pieces.

Once again, thinking about the kids had supplanted thoughts of anything or anyone else, he realized. Already, the willing and ready Lorna Larson had been relegated to the realm of forgotten in his mind.

Rafe picked up his car in the parking lot. While driving on Interstate 90 toward home, the urge to keep going—all the way to the west coast without turning around—struck him hard. It was a tempting notion indeed.

But his sense of duty and responsibility was stronger than his longing for freedom. Rafe Paradise headed home.

“We’re gettin’ new neighbors and it’s gonna be cool. Maybe there’s a kid and he’ll go to our school. We can play golf an—” Ten-year-old Trent paused in the middle of the rap song he was composing. “What rhymes with golf?” He kept up his beat, hitting the edge of the coffee table with two wooden rulers.

“Nothing rhymes with golf,” said Kaylin, sixteen. “Why don’t you try another word? Like ball. Lots of things rhyme with ball. Call, fall, mall, tall.”

“Stop! I feel like I’m trapped in a Dr. Seuss book.” Seventeen-year-old Camryn, lying prone on the sofa, adjusted the ice bag on her forehead. “Trent, will you puh-leese quit that pounding! Every beat feels like a nail being driven into my head.”

“Call me Lion,” demanded Trent. “Did you get drunk again last night, Camryn?”

“Like I’d ever tell you! You’d run straight to Rafe and squeal on me, you weaselly little tattletale.” Camryn heaved a groan. “Kaylin, get me a couple Excedrin. And a cola. And some ice cream.”

“Sure.” Kaylin scurried into the kitchen to do her sister’s bidding.

“She’s not your slave, y’know,” Trent declared. “Slavery is against the law.”

“So is murder, but if you don’t stop making so much noise, I’m going to kill you,” Camryn warned.

Trent resumed his ruler beat, this time with a new rap. “I’m not scared of Camryn, even though she’s mean. She’s ugly, too, so bad she’ll make you scream.”

Camryn threw the ice bag at him and he deftly dodged it, laughing. Unfortunately, the ice bag hit the overweight mixed-breed dog dozing in the patch of sunlight in the middle of the room. The dog awoke and began to bark.

“Aw, poor Hot Dog.” Trent tried to comfort the animal by patting its head. Hot Dog snapped at him.

Trent quickly pulled his hand back. “How come Hot Dog hates me?”

“He doesn’t hate you, he’s just grouchy when he wakes up,” said Camryn. “C’mon, Hot Dog. Come here, sweetie. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you.”

“Yeah, she wanted to smack me, not you, boy.” Trent attempted to pat Hot Dog again. The dog bared his teeth and growled at him. “Y’know, he’s grouchy all the time, not just when he wakes up.”

“That’s ’cause he hates it here,” explained Camryn. “He liked living in Las Vegas. Me, too. Of course, who wouldn’t like Las Vegas better than Sioux Falls?”

“Me!” crowed Trent. “I love Sioux Falls.”

“That’s because you and your little brother have been stuck here all your lives. You can’t compare it to anything else.” Camryn heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Hey, where is that kid, anyway? Why isn’t he here making my headache even worse?”