Billion Dollar Bride

“You’ll have a wonderful wedding,” she assured him, stepping back through the doorway as Caroline led him toward the elevator. “And Caroline will be a beautiful bride.” She waved at Caroline, then closed the door to her office.

He wanted Caroline to be the bride all women dreamed of being so she would never feel that she’d sacrificed anything to give him his baby.

They stopped to wait for the elevator.

“My word!” Caroline exclaimed with a shake of her head. “Are you two going to argue until the moment I walk up the aisle? Why is her opinion so important to you?”

“It isn’t. I just didn’t want her upsetting you.”

“Oh, we were just talking, one woman to another. Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”

“But are you happy about what you’re doing?”

She shrugged noncommittally. “I’m never happy, you know that. But I agreed, didn’t I? I have nothing going on for a year or so. We may as well make a baby.”

He felt that pinch again and gave the down button an impatient jab. Why did he want her to be happy, he wondered, when they didn’t love each other? It didn’t make sense.

“And I’m not upset,” Caroline went on. The light over the elevator blinked its arrival and a buzzer sounded. The doors parted on an empty car and they stepped inside. “In fact,” she said as the doors closed, “I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a medieval wedding.”

She smiled at him coaxingly. “You can ride a horse, can’t you?”

Austin forced himself not to shudder.

CHAPTER TWO

“MOM! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Will always came through the office door shouting for her, just as he did at home. The school bus dropped him off outside the building, and he did homework in a corner of her office until they went home together.

She sat behind her desk, in plain sight, not ten feet from the doorway in which he stood. She’d often wondered if his father’s absence made him want to keep close tabs on her.

“Right here in front of your face, Will,” she said, gesturing him to come to her. “Where else would I be?”

He dropped his backpack on her desk and wrapped her in a sturdy hug. She relished it, knowing that the next ten years would pass with the speed of the last ten and he’d soon be in college somewhere thinking about business and women and forgetting to give his mother the time of day.

She studied him as he drew away and leaned against her desk, his white sweater smudged and his jeans muddy at the knees. He had her dark hair and eyes, though he’d inherited his father’s aristocratic nose and chin. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and a usually serious air, though he did have a wry sense of humor and a sunny smile. He smiled at her now.

“You’re always saying that one day Michael Keaton’s going to come and take you away to the Batcave. I thought he might have come while I was gone.”

“As if I’d leave for the Batcave without you. Did you eat all your lunch?”

“Except for the carrot sticks I traded to Ashley Bates.”

“Traded for what?”

“A cupcake.”

Anna groaned. “Will, I try to balance your lunch so that you get all the nutrition you—”

“Mom,” he interrupted reasonably, “if someone wanted to give you a cupcake for your carrot sticks, you’d have to be brain-dead not to make the deal. It was like getting Microsoft stock for railroad shares.”

Anna laughed and hugged him again. He was the best thing in a life filled with pretty good stuff, and she never took that for granted for a moment.

“What did you have for lunch?” he asked, falling into her client’s chair.

“Caesar salad with shrimp.”

“Ah. Austin Eats again, huh? I know it’s only across the street, Mom, but you’re in a rut.”

She nodded and pushed to her feet. “And if you don’t mind digging yourself in there with me, I noticed they had chicken and dumplings on the dinner menu.” It was one of his favorite meals—and the cook-housekeeper’s day off. “Want to eat there tonight?”

“Please. Anything’s better than those frozen chicken and spinach calzone things we had last week.” He crossed his eyes and made a terrible face. “Even your cooking would be better than those.”

She chased him to the elevator.

AUSTIN EATS was a small diner with a circular counter in the middle of the room and square tables and chairs all around. It served fifty or so customers and was busy for every meal and most times in between.

Framed photographs of local events lined the pale yellow walls, and a large bulletin board behind the cashier was a rotating gallery of new babies, birthday-party photos and postcards from vacationing patrons.

It was like eating at home surrounded by friends and not having to cook.

Two glasses of ice water were placed on the table the moment Anna and Will settled in one of the window booths.

“And how are my two favorite customers?” Mary Jane Potter asked with a bright smile. She was in her early twenties and small but buff, her curly brown hair caught up in a casual topknot. She wore her Austin Eats uniform with great style and a very serious-looking pair of athletic shoes. She took a pad and pen from her apron pocket and winked at Will.

“How’s my Scully Sports Equipment stock, Will?”

“Up two-thirds of a point,” Will replied with a proud smile. “Slow growth is good.”

Mary Jane grinned at him. “Then how come you’re getting so tall?”

“He’s a blue-chip stock,” Anna said. “We’re here for the chicken and dumplings, Mary Jane. Is Shelby cooking tonight?” Shelby Lord owned Austin Eats.

“No, Sara’s cooking.”

“Does she make it as well as Shelby does?” Will wanted to know.

Mary Jane scribbled on her pad. “Maybe even better. She must have worked for Wolfgang Puck in her other life. Salads or soup? The soup’s tomato rice today.”

“Soup!” Will said with enthusiasm.

Anna shook her head. “Neither, thanks. Just some coffee.”

“Right. And milk for Will.”

“Pepsi,” Will corrected.

“Milk.” Anna overruled him. “Thanks, Mary Jane.”