Playboy Bachelors: Remodelling the Bachelor

“Yes, but sometimes the music is the same.” She pressed full lips together, thinking. And then her eyes widened the way they did when she’d been struck by an idea she liked. “Kyle has a sister—”

For a second, the name escaped him. “Kyle?”

“Yes, the reason for the smile on my face. You’re not paying attention, Philippe,” she admonished with a trace of impatience.

His mother’s boyfriend’s sister. Oh God. That was all he needed, to be coupled with a woman old enough to be his mother. That little tidbit would finally send him into therapy.

He put his hands on her shoulders, as if that could somehow push all the wild ideas she had back into her head. “Mother,” his tone was firm, “Don’t worry about it. Now, I do have work to do, so…”

She took her dismissal graciously enough and picked up the purse she’d dropped onto the sofa upon entry. “I’ll let myself out, I know the way.” She hesitated for a second. “You won’t forget about the show?”

“I won’t forget.”

She nodded, taking him at his word. “And see if you can bring someone,” she coaxed, then added with emphasis, “Someone female.”

“I’ll see what I can find on Amazon.com,” he dead-panned.

Lily sighed. “Some things never change.” Raising herself up on her toes, she kissed his cheek again. “But I love you anyway.”

He smiled as she left the room. “Nice to know, Mother.”

Sitting down, within moments Philippe was lost again in the details of the knotty programming problem he’d run up against.

And then he was roused out of its midst again.

“Philippe?”

He closed his eyes, summoning strength. He didn’t often get impatient with his mother, there was no point. But he could get impatient at the loss of an afternoon’s work, especially since he’d sacrificed an afternoon just the other day.

Taking a deep breath, he released it again before saying, “Yes, Mother?”

“You are a sneaky devil.”

The single sentence, hanging in the air without preamble, begged for questions, for an explanation. He pushed away from his desk and rose to his feet, resigned to getting both.

“Why, Mother?”

There was no answer. He was about to follow the sound of his mother’s voice when the need was abruptly vanquished. Lily made a reentrance.

She wasn’t alone.

His mother’s ring-encrusted fingers were delicately wrapped around the small hand of J.D.’s daughter. J.D. was right behind them, bringing up the rear.

Philippe felt like the beach at Normandy on D-day.

“Where have you been hiding these two?” his mother asked with the air of someone who felt she had the right to know everything that transpired in the world of her sons.

“We’re not hiding,” Kelli informed her before he could find his own tongue. “We’re right here.”

J.D. seemed a little overwhelmed by his mother. Welcome to the club, he thought.

“Did we have a date I forgot about?” he asked. The second the word was out of his mouth, he realized his mistake. His colossal mistake.

“Date?” Lily echoed, vibrating with both curiosity and joy.

“I came for the check,” J.D. explained. She was sure she’d mentioned it to him.

Lily’s eyes widened. “He’s paying you? Oh, Philippe—”

Janice had no idea what was going on but she just pushed ahead, hoping that somehow everything would straighten itself out if she just hung on to her part of the truth. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I brought Kelli with me again.” She tried to take Kelli’s hand, but the woman in turquoise was in her way. “She really wanted to see you.”

“He is charming, my son,” Lily agreed and turned to the woman she assumed was the child’s mother. “I’m Lily Moreau. It’s very nice to meet you.”

The next thing Janice knew, she found herself enfolded in an enthusiastic one-armed hug. Although she hugged Kelli at every opportunity, she came from a family that was light-years removed from anything demonstrative. She wasn’t sure how to respond to this strange woman’s embrace.

“Likewise,” she murmured from within the embrace.

Letting go, Lily turned to her son again. “Philippe, out with it. Who is this lovely creature?”

“She’s my contractor, Mother.”

Lily laughed dryly. “You have your father’s sense of humor. I would find him alone with all sorts of beautiful women. He always referred to them as his clients. Even in the dead of night when I came back from a tour and discovered him indisposed, so to speak.” There was no malice, no hurt in her voice. She was simply recounting something from the past that had occurred in her life.

Still, Philippe couldn’t believe she was saying this in front of a stranger. “Mother,” he said sharply, glancing at J.D.

“I really am his contractor,” Janice told her. “I need a check from you to make a down payment on the materials we decided on,” she told him.

Kelli tugged on the woman’s hand. “I’m Kelli,” she informed her. And then proceeded to blow her away by asking, “Are you the lady who painted the pretty picture over there?”

Lily seemed stunned and then immensely pleased. “Why, yes, I am.” She bent down to Kelli’s level. “Do you like it?”

Kelli’s hair bounced about her face as she nodded. “Very much.” And then she added in a very grown-up voice, “I paint, too.”

Lily smiled warmly. “Do you, now?” There was genuine interest in her voice, not just the sound of forced tolerance.

“Yes, she does. Very well.”

The confirmation with its comment came not from Kelli or even J.D., but from Philippe. His mother looked at him with an interested expression that immediately told him he should have kept that comment to himself.

But since he hadn’t, he might as well back up what he’d said. He looked at J.D. “Why don’t you show my mother the drawing you carry around with you?”

Janice paused. It was one thing to show the drawing to a person she was talking to, it was another to show it to a woman who had had her paintings on display in galleries in Paris.

But Kelli gazed up at her so eagerly, there was nothing else she could do. Taking out her wallet, Janice carefully unfolded the drawing she kept tucked away there, then handed it to Lily.

Lily studied the drawing with great interest. “You did this?” There wasn’t a hint of a patronization in her voice.

Kelli nodded. “Uh-huh.”