SEATTLE CINDERELLA: FOUR-IN-ONE COLLECTION Read online

  Slowly, he brushed his fingertips over the soft skin of her wrist. “Feel how rough they are?”

  All she could do was stare down at Matt’s hands, touching her. His fingers weren’t soft, but his touch was. From his tender movements she instantly knew he was very good at being a vet. She wasn’t a nervous dog, but she already felt better, even without the hand lotion.

  Rather than stare at their hands, she looked up to see him looking back at her with a goofy expression in his eyes.

  He leaned forward, and as he moved slowly toward her, his eyes drifted shut—like a sappy romance movie, just before the handsome hero kisses the woman of his dreams.

  Before her brain could process that this wasn’t the movies, his lips brushed hers with a gentle kiss and it was over.

  He straightened and smiled at her. “How would you like to have dinner with me tonight? I know you’ve got to keep an eye on Kat this evening, and I heard her and Tyler talking about a few of the new movies that are out. It’s not raining, and I saw a barbecue out back at Luke and Cindy’s house. How about we grill up some steaks and then the four of us catch a show?”

  Farrah resisted the urge to press her fingers to her lips. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been kissed. Especially by…she wasn’t sure how to classify him. She couldn’t call him a boy; he was every inch a man. He’d graduated from college and had been running a successful business that had been established for years, so he wasn’t young, but kissing someone his age certainly made her feel like an old lady. It made her wonder what he’d been thinking, but she really had no idea. “I…”

  Before she could think of something to say, Matt stood. “We’ll have to get back to my parents’ place soon. First we can go to the supermarket and get everything we’re going to need for supper. Then we have to go pick up Tyler and Kat and go back to Luke and Cindy’s.”

  “I…”

  He smiled, again sending her brain into a tailspin and once more leaving her unable to finish her sentence.

  “It will give us a chance to keep tabs on Kat and Tyler, and it’ll be fun.”

  Farrah nibbled her lower lip. She was an elementary school teacher, and accustomed to children coming up with things that stopped her dead in her tracks. Admittedly, she didn’t have a lot of experience with teens, and even less with adult men ten years her junior trying to…She didn’t know

  what he was trying to do. From what she could tell, he was flirting with her. She just couldn’t figure out why.

  For the rest of the weekend, she would probably see him as often as Kat saw Tyler, which she now knew would be a lot. After the weekend, her life would be back into the usual routine. Not that routine was bad, but she already knew she was going to miss him. Even though she couldn’t understand his attention, it was flattering, and she enjoyed being with him.

  “Well?”

  She looked at Matt, who was looking at her like an expectant puppy dog.

  “On one condition.”

  He blinked and his smiled faltered. “Condition?”

  Farrah grinned. “For dessert, we get a nice chocolate cake.”

  He gave her a goofy smile. “I’ll get you the biggest, richest chocolate cake you’ve ever seen, with real whipping cream and shredded chocolate and a cherry on top, but I have my own condition.”

  Her mouth watered and she gained a pound on her hips just thinking about it. “Name it.”

  “You come to church with me tomorrow morning.”

  She couldn’t think of an easier condition. They’d talked enough that he knew she attended services faithfully every Sunday. To agree to such a condition would be almost cheating.

  But there was chocolate involved.

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 7

  Farrah had never felt so disconcerted in church in her life.

  The pastor’s sermon had been both interesting and challenging. The worship and singing had been uplifting and inspirational. It had also given her a revelation into Matt’s faith. She hadn’t known he was so involved with his church that he played guitar for the worship team. Also, seated beside Tyler, not that she had been studying him, she noticed that Tyler paid rapt attention to the sermon. He’d also answered some of Kat’s questions and easily found all the Bible references in his iPod. Tyler even convinced Kat to download the app so she could carry a Bible with her at all times to look things up or just read.

  Everything had gone well until the service ended and she found herself in the foyer with Matt, chatting with his friends and other members of his church.

  That was when things started to become strange.

  It was like she was from another planet. Everyone stared at her. There had been a few double takes. She’d gone into the washroom three times to make sure she didn’t have something stuck in her teeth.

  After being the target of much scrutiny, many people, especially women, kept asking Matt to introduce them to his friend, with a strange emphasis on the word friend.

  By the time they finally made it out the door, Farrah’s head was swimming with the number of people she’d met and the multitude of names she’d never remember. “You have a very friendly church,” she muttered as Matt inched his car out of the parking lot. “Maybe a little too friendly. Does half the population of your church always want to be introduced to every new person who comes in the door?”

  “Nah. They’re not usually so overwhelming. They were all just curious about you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’ve never brought a lady friend to church before.”

  A million different definitions of lady friend rushed through her head. One in particular flashed in red, and that was the kind of lady friend she knew she wasn’t.

  She watched him as he carefully merged into the traffic. “Why not?”

  He shrugged his shoulders as he drove. “Don’t know. I just haven’t.”

  Unless she’d read the signals wrong, the ladies who asked about her didn’t wanted to meet her, per se. They were checking her out.

  From the backseat, Tyler piped up. “Aren’t you glad you finally did?” Tyler leaned closer to Farrah. “And now because you’re here, we get to go someplace good for lunch.”

  She turned to look at Tyler. “What about your parents? Where are they? You came with them, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but I don’t go home with them. Every Sunday me and Uncle Matt go get a burger after church. But not today. Today we’re going to Green Lake. Uncle Matt packed a picnic.”

  Matt gritted his teeth. “Thanks for keeping it a surprise.”

  “Oops.”

  Beside Tyler, Kat giggled.

  Matt sighed. “Guess what? I thought we could take advantage of the nice weather and have a picnic then go for a walk at the park at Green Lake.”

  “It’s still a surprise. It just lacked a little on the delivery. Green Lake sounds nice. I haven’t been there for years. Except we’re headed in the wrong direction.”

  “We’re going to Luke and Cindy’s place so you can put on some jeans and comfortable shoes and get Tippy. Then we’ll stop at my place to get Rex and the lunch I made before I left this morning, and we’ll go.”

  “Yeah,” Tyler said, “we’re going to bring chairs to sit on and everything.”

  Matt checked his watch. “By the time we get to my place, a nice big pot of coffee should be ready. All we have to do is pour it into the thermos and go.”

  Farrah couldn’t help but be impressed.

  All the way to the park, she listened to Tyler telling what he thought were funny stories about Matt and his animals, especially the rabbit named Fluffball who was litter-box trained. She didn’t want to tell Tyler that she’d already met all Matt’s pets.

  By the time they arrived at Green Lake, the sky had clouded over, and it felt like it was going to rain. However, in Seattle it often felt like that, so like most Seattleites they ignored it, hooked the leashes on the dogs, and began their walk.

  Although Tippy
was fast considering her handicap, she was much slower than Rex. Even though he was getting up in dog years, he was twice Tippy’s size, and his pace matched his longer legs. To give the teens more freedom, they traded dogs and watched as Tyler and Kat ran ahead of them with Rex.

  Automatically, Farrah reached to take the leash from Matt; after all, Tippy was her responsibility for the weekend. One of Matt’s eyebrows quirked as she touched his hand, expecting the leash. He gave it to her freely but instead of simply handing it to her, he slid the loop around her wrist and then wrapped his fingers in hers and gave her a small tug to get her started walking.

  Holdings hands.

  Like a couple of kids. Or, as he’d called her in church, his lady friend. She really wasn’t that kind of friend.

  She gave her hand a slight pull, but he didn’t let go.

  “What are you doing?” she asked between clenched teeth.

  “If you can’t tell, then I must be doing something wrong.”

  She looked down at their joined hands. “We’re not that kind of friends.”

  He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “But we could be.”

  She stopped walking, forcing him to stop as well, and looked into his eyes. Warm hazel eyes, sparkling with light and…something sappy.

  “No. We can’t be. Do you have any idea how old I am?”

  The sappy look in his eyes was joined by a goofy grin. “My mama told me never to guess a woman’s age, and I always listen to my mama.”

  “You forget, I’ve seen you with your mother, and you don’t.”

  “I do most of the time. I respect my mama.”

  Actually, she had no doubt that he did. All teasing aside, she was certain that he was a good son and loved and respected both his parents.

  But that didn’t change the facts. She knew she looked younger than her actual age, but realistically she didn’t think she looked that young. “You’ve got my permission to guess. How old do you think I am?”

  He tipped his head to one side. “I’ll use my Southern boy manners and say twenty-nine.”

  “Southern boy? I doubt you’ve ever been farther south than Portland or any more east than Montana.”

  “That’s not true. I was at Disneyland once. Does that count?”

  “No, that does not count.”

  “I’m still sticking to twenty-nine.”

  “Look at me, Matt. Look at my eyes. Really look. I haven’t been twenty-nine for over two decades.”

  He laughed. Outright laughed. “I can’t believe this. Most women try to undercut their age by five years, but I’ve never seen anyone do what you’ve just done. I wish I knew why.”

  He wiped his eyes with his left hand, not releasing her right, then laughed some more.

  “What haven’t you seen? A woman telling the truth about her age? Honestly, the birthday that I just had a couple of months ago was my fiftieth. How old are you? Forty?”

  All his laughter dropped and Matt became very serious. “I’m thirty-eight. My birthday is in the spring. So I’m almost thirty-nine.”

  “You’ve got a whole winter to go. That’s not almost. I’m twelve years older than you.”

  She watched the emotions run across his face. First bewilderment then concentration as he did the mental math then the shock that she knew would happen.

  “You’re serious…,” he said, his voice trailing off.

  “I’m as close to your mother’s age as I am to yours.”

  His hand went limp and dropped from hers.

  “Wow,” he stammered. “You look good. Really good.”

  She thought of the pizza and popcorn she’d been living on all weekend and knew her butt was wider than it was a week ago. “Not that good.” The only reason she looked good was because she was more careful with planning her wardrobe than she’d been a decade ago.

  Matt cleared his throat and his voice dropped nearly an octave. “I still have to ask. How do you feel about babies?”

  She opened her mouth but didn’t say the first thought that popped into her head, which was that instead of thinking about babies, she was thinking about menopause.

  “I’m fifty years old, Matt.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds. “Many of my friends are grandmothers.”

  “Then—”

  Farrah held up her hands to stop him from saying any more. “You need to find someone your own age.”

  “But—”

  She shook her head. “It’s not open for discussion.”

  His eyes widened. “I’m—”

  She backed up. “I said this discussion is closed.”

  His eyes widened even more. His mouth hung open, but fortunately he didn’t speak.

  Farrah stared into his eyes. She’d heard the expression that a person’s eyes were the window to his soul, and in Matt’s case that was certainly true. Depths of conflicting emotions warred in his eyes. He looked absolutely stricken.

  Thinking about what could have been but now would never be, her heart probably ached as much as his.

  The years most people spent searching for their life’s mate, she’d spent in mourning. Like most of her friends, she had met the man who was her other half. They fell in love and got engaged, just like a storybook romance. But they never got married. Just after they’d set a date, Ed was diagnosed with hepatitis B. After a transfusion, he’d been infected with tainted blood and became terminal. So she wouldn’t be held liable for his escalating medical expenses, especially when his workplace benefits were reduced, he’d stopped the wedding, but they never stopped loving each other. She’d been with him when he died and thought his funeral would be the hardest day of her life. But it wasn’t. The day after the funeral, her best friend, Cindy’s mother, had been diagnosed with cancer and then lost the battle after three painful years. After that, the only way Farrah could deal with losing the two biggest loves of her life was by pouring her soul into helping Dave raise Cindy and teaching the children who came and went in her classroom the best she knew how.

  Now at fifty, she couldn’t be what Matt needed in his life—which was a wife who would be his soul mate. With the way the economy had gone in the last decade, she was thinking of ways to secure her retirement—not raise children. Since Matt was nearly forty, if men did indeed have a biological clock, his time was running short. He had a tender heart, and he needed to share that with a wife and children he didn’t have yet, not his herd of pets. In order to bond with the woman who would be his other half, he needed to meet and date women slightly younger than he was, not waste his time with her.

  Farrah looked around the park. They were surrounded by families and couples who looked like one day they would be families.

  That was the way Matt should be. Matt wasn’t even forty and had so much of his life ahead of him, while she was now officially middle aged, when most people started to wind down. She couldn’t be, as he’d called her earlier, his lady friend. Still, she didn’t want to stop seeing him. The more time she spent with him, the more she was growing increasingly fond of him.

  If only she were two decades younger.

  Farrah shook her head. She wouldn’t dream of things that would never happen, nor would she dwell on things she couldn’t change. But she could dwell on what she could have. Now that Matt knew and understood the parameters, things would be fine.

  Matt cleared his throat. “At church, I introduced you as my lady friend. You—”

  Farrah held her palm up to stop him from putting his foot in his mouth. She hadn’t wanted to embarrass him then, and she didn’t want to embarrass him now.

  For just a moment, she thought of what it would be like to really be his lady friend and to have more than the quick brush of a kiss he’d given her on Saturday. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  “You don’t have to explain. I know you didn’t know that I was so much older than you. It’s okay. I understand. I can’t be your lady, but I can still be your friend. After all, with something blossoming between Kat and Tyler
, I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.” Perhaps by saying they could be friends, the awkwardness would be gone, and they could make the best of things.

  To save both of them from an embarrassing conversation she was sure neither of them wanted to have, she secured Tippy’s leash around her wrist and motioned her head to the right. “Let’s go find Tyler and Kat and dig into that picnic you packed before it starts to rain.”

  At her words, the first drop landed on her nose and the skies opened up.

  As people around them scattered, Tyler, Kat, and Rex appeared in the distance, running toward them at full tilt as the rain began to beat down.

  Matt hunkered down to unclip the leash from Tippy’s collar then picked the dog up. Cradling her, he tensed, ready to run.

  “I think we’re going to be eating in the car. Let’s go.”

  Chapter 8

  Matt stared up at the ceiling in the darkened bedroom.

  The glowing numbers on his clock radio told him he had to be up in four hours to get to the clinic, and he hadn’t yet fallen asleep.

  His body was exhausted but his brain was racing.

  She wasn’t that close to his mother’s age. He didn’t know exactly how old his mother was without checking his contact list on his iPad, but he knew she was two or three years from retirement.

  Farrah wasn’t close to that point. She was only closer than he was.

  He flipped over and buried his face in his pillow. Beside him, Rex made a disgruntled snuffle, kicked him, and started to snore.

  Matt wished he were snoring, but instead when he closed his eyes, visions of Farrah danced through his head.

  Farrah petting the puppies. Farrah reminding Tyler about his manners. Farrah driving her car just a little above the speed limit then pretending to act guilty when he pointed it out. Farrah promising to practice her guitar lessons even when her fingers hurt.

  He’d liked her before he found out her age, and now that he had time to think about it, her age didn’t really matter. He still liked everything about her. Her smile. Her sense of humor. The way she protected Kat and cared for Tippy. She loved her job and was good to others. From her comments following a short discussion on an article they’d read in the paper, he knew she didn’t cheat on her taxes.