One-Night Man

It definitely didn’t include grand passion.

“You’re a McDarby,” Auntie Q said. “Passion is our special gift. It’s what we live for. You’re just a late bloomer.”

“I’m not a late bloomer. I do passion. I’m a romance writer, for goodness sake.”

Auntie Q shook her head, as though shaking loose whatever might be obstructing her hearing, since she clearly didn’t think she’d heard Lennon right. “You do passion on a computer, not in real life. When was the last time you went on a date?”

Lennon dragged her memory for a recent date to prove her point. Wow, had it really been that long? Apparently so, judging by her great-aunt’s smug expression.

“Okay, so it’s been a while,” she admitted. “But I signed a three-book contract and haven’t had time to do anything but write. It was a career opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

“A while, indeed. You haven’t dated since before your book contract, since that handsome young man who handled promotion for the Saints. What was his name, Craig…Cliff—”

“Clint.”

“Clint, that’s right. He had a promising future, dear.”

A very promising future that involved delicious sex and equally delicious memories. Clint had been whirlwind romance material, not marriage material. There was a big difference. By the time she and Clint had parted ways, Lennon had needed a vacation to convalesce.

“Romance heroes are for affairs and books,” she explained. “Nice stable men are for marriage.”

Auntie Q blinked. “Are you saying you don’t marry heroes?”

“I want to marry a man I like, a man I respect and will still respect through all the ups and downs of marriage and rearing children.”

“And you don’t think you can respect a man you can love?”

“No, no,” Lennon said with a huff of exasperation. “It’s not that I can’t respect a man I love, it’s just that I want a solid, stable…comfortable marriage. I want to love my husband. And not that ‘grand passion’ kind of love, but the caring, companionable kind. The minute passion gets involved, love becomes an emotional roller coaster.”

“Emotional roller coaster?” Now it was Auntie Q’s turn to huff. “Of course it’s an emotional roller coaster. That’s the beauty—the excitement, the anticipation, the joie de vivre. It makes life worth living.”

“Passion makes affairs worth living. And affairs are wonderful, but I need a rest afterward.” Lennon spread her hands in entreaty. “You know as well as I do that the minute a man knows a woman is in love with him, he’s got the upper hand. He makes her crazy just because he can.”

“But it’s the best kind of crazy, dear. It’s a feeling of being alive, of being cherished—”

“I don’t want to marry a man who’ll drive me nuts. I want a husband who’ll be my partner and stick by my side no matter what life offers. I don’t want one who’ll consume my thoughts every single minute and distract me from everything else….”

Lennon lost her steam when she saw Auntie Q goggling like a pixie who’d been zapped by a lightning bolt. Apparently the thought of separating love and passion hadn’t occurred to her.

But Auntie Q had a mind as sharp as a Cajun spice. Understanding quickly dawned upon her, revealed in her impish features, and she cut a gaze back to the portrait inside the entrance hall. “Give me strength, Joshua, please.”

After fifty-five years of discussing all aspects of her life with Great-uncle Joshua, Auntie Q hadn’t been able to break the habit after his death. She still talked to him whenever she felt the need, no matter where she was or whom she was with. Lennon wondered if he ever answered her.

She couldn’t hear a thing but the drone of the museum’s climate control system as it cycled on, which was truly a shame. She could have used an advocate about now.

Taking her great-aunt’s thin hands in her own, she gazed down into that dear old face, needing Auntie Q to understand. Her great-aunt had been the mainstay of Lennon’s life, the doting darling who’d pinch-hitted for Lennon’s mother, who’d devoted her own life to chasing her Mr. Rights.

As usual, Mother was nowhere to be found to act as an advocate when Lennon needed one. She was currently residing in Monte Carlo chasing Mr. Right number forty-two.

But Lennon had long ago learned to make her own decisions, because sometimes her mother’s affairs d’amour had easily accommodated a child in tow, at other times not. During those times Auntie Q had always stepped in, bringing Lennon back to the huge family house in the New Orleans Garden District.

By the time Lennon had been ten, jet-setting around the globe for her mother’s wild affairs had lost its appeal. She’d longed for the stability of a home, a school and friends of her own, and the enduring love of her kind and fun Auntie Q.

Mother hadn’t argued when Lennon had asked to stay in New Orleans. She hadn’t asked Auntie Q if it was okay, either. She’d just kissed their cheeks on the veranda and departed with a breezy, “Call me when you’re ready to come home.”

Twenty years had passed and Lennon still hadn’t called. Neither had Auntie Q. And never once had her great-aunt ever seemed to mind the lifestyle adjustments that assuming the responsibilities of a child had entailed. She’d been the most loving of surrogate parents, and Lennon wanted her approval.

“It all boils down to Mr. Wrong and Mr. Right,” she explained. “A man who’s right for an affair isn’t what I want for my marriage.”

Auntie Q sighed. “If this is about your mother and the choices she has made, Lennon, don’t let her knack for choosing rogues frighten you off.”

“Mother chooses rogues because she lives for that rush of lust. She’s a junkie. As soon as the thrill wears off and her fantasy man starts to look real, she’s gone.”

Gazing into her great-aunt’s face, Lennon frowned when she saw worry there. “I enjoy the rush of lust, too, Auntie. You know that. I may not have had a romance in a while, but I’ve had some wonderful ones. I’m not frightened of passion, just rational about it. I want a real marriage, not some up-and-down roller-coaster ride. I know what my needs are, and I choose to fulfill them.”

“Love shouldn’t make you rational. It should make you crazy, even a bit foolish. It should make you feel alive.”

“That’s fine for an affair. I want stability in marriage.”

“Why can’t you have both? Look at your great-uncle and me. We endured fifty-five years of the most wonderful relationship.”

“You and Great-uncle Joshua lived a fifty-five-year love affair.” Lennon couldn’t bring herself to point out the obvious: Auntie Q had been Great-uncle Joshua’s mistress. “You once told me that you felt lucky because you shared your life with the man you loved. Living the legend, you said, because your namesake, the real Guinevere, hadn’t been so lucky. I always thought that was so romantic, but—”

“But we didn’t have a real marriage,” Auntie Q said. “No, dear, we didn’t, but we shared our lives and never once regretted the difficult choices we were forced to make.”

“I know.”

What her great-aunt and -uncle had shared had been special, even more so because their love had endured though they hadn’t met until years after he’d committed to an arranged marriage. At the time, a man didn’t divorce simply because he’d found a more suitable partner—even if his wife had decided she wanted a marriage in name only after providing an heir.

Though Auntie Q and Great-uncle Joshua had made the best of the hand life had dealt them, and had fun in the process, Lennon didn’t envision a future for herself even remotely similar.

She wanted home and hearth and babies. Lots of babies. Little girls to share tea parties with and little boys to help catch bugs in glass jars. She would work her writing schedule around her family’s needs and revel in the joys of being a wife and mom.

Auntie Q must have recognized her resolve, because she said, “Your mind’s made up.” It was a statement.

“It is. I’ve given my future a great deal of thought. Mr. Right for a marriage is what’s right for me. I don’t want a husband I’m head-over-heels in lust with. I want a husband I like, love and respect. I want a life companion.”

“A life companion?” Auntie Q rolled her gaze heavenward. “Old people have companions. I’m not even old enough for one and I’m eighty-two.”

Lennon didn’t point out that her assistant, Olaf, who cared for her in myriad capacities, could be considered a companion. She gently squeezed her great-aunt’s hands instead. “Trust me, Auntie. I know what I want. And with the bachelor auction, you’ve provided me the perfect place to find him.”

“You need grand passion.”

Lennon peered back into the entrance hall at her great-uncle’s portrait. Maybe it was the night lighting or staying up long past her bedtime, but Lennon recognized the underlying excitement in his green eyes, the zest for living that had been so much a part of the man she’d known. And admired.

Great-uncle Joshua had been the only steady male presence in her life while Lennon was growing up. A kind, fun and very noble man, he’d had the ability to make her great-aunt feel like the most important person in his world. And Lennon, too.

He’d been a part of every important step in her life, from dance recitals and graduations to helping her cope with her flighty mother. She’d always considered her great-uncle family-by-love. He may not have been officially related, but he’d always encouraged and supported her, and she still thought of him as her ideal, a man she modeled her romance heroes after.