The Parent Trap. Lissa Manley

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СКАЧАТЬ so nice, so attractive, such an all-around considerate guy?

      Big deal. So he was nice. The important thing was that he wasn’t her friend or even an acquaintance, just a man her daughter had thrown Jill together with for a ridiculous reason. Now that she’d discovered who he was, she needed him gone, right now. She’d be a masochistic idiot to hang around with the owner of The Steak Place.

      “You know,” she said, loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher, “I think I feel a headache coming on.”

      Brandon paused, a sponge in his hand. “You want me to get you some pain reliever?” He moved closer, his dark eyes full of concern. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll finish up here.”

      Jill bit her lip, wishing he wasn’t so solicitous. It would be much easier to dislike him that way, and she really needed to dislike him. “Uh, no, that’s okay.” She shut the dishwasher. “But I do think we should cut the evening short.”

      After a long, almost disbelieving silence, he said, “Of course. I’ll go call Kristy.” He headed out of the kitchen, leaving Jill alone, feeling like a total fool for allowing the girls to set up this dinner in the first place, although in her defense, she’d had no idea that her dinner guest was the owner of The Steak Place.

      Kristy and Zoe came downstairs and whined about the evening ending so soon, especially since they hadn’t gone out to Zoe’s grandpa’s lab yet. But Jill stood firm, needing to regain the equilibrium Brandon had pushed off balance. It was enough she had to deal with him in her business life, a constant worry she could never get rid of. She sure didn’t want to have him stirring up her personal life, either, nor did she want to have to deal with her disturbing physical attraction to him.

      “Thank you for dinner,” Brandon said at the front door, giving her a small, rueful smile. “I enjoyed meeting you.”

      “You’re welcome,” Jill said, deliberately ignoring his smile. “Good luck with your…business.” She forced herself to be polite.

      Brandon raised his eyebrows, then his expression turned speculative. “You know, this isn’t all doom and gloom. Maybe there’s room in Elm Corners for two successful restaurants.”

      “I hope so,” Jill replied sincerely, even though she doubted it. She’d struggled when she was the only restaurant game in town. Now that Brandon had arrived, who knew how she was going to survive.

      They said goodbye, and Jill watched father and daughter climb into their SUV at the curb and drive away. She turned and went back into the house, rubbing her eyes, her mood darkening when Zoe was nowhere to be found on the main floor. Jill rolled her eyes, her patience wearing thin. Zoe was undoubtedly pouting in her room because the evening hadn’t gone as she’d planned.

      Jill laughed under her breath without humor. Honestly. What did the girls expect? That she and Brandon would lay eyes on each other one minute and elope the next? Fat chance. Real life just didn’t work that way.

      Especially since Zoe was manipulating her, shoving her into unwanted situations, hooking her up with a man on the sly. Worse yet, that man had turned out be Jill’s archrival, a man who could spell disaster for her restaurant.

      No doubt about it. Too many things about this evening had gone all wrong.

      Unfortunately, the day was going to get worse. It was time to talk to her stubborn, determined daughter and tell her that things had gone too far and to cool her eager little matchmaking jets.

      For good.

      “So what did you think of Mrs. Lindstrom?” Kristy asked Brandon the second he pulled away from the curb.

      “I thought she was very nice,” Brandon replied, leaving out that he also thought she was downright beautiful, smart and attractive in every way and that in another life he’d love to date her. Another life being the key phrase there.

      In this life she was his competition, the owner of the business he planned on leaving in the dust. Not exactly dating material.

      “Just nice?” Kristy asked, her voice full of eager hope. “I think she’s really cool, and pretty, too. And she’s a really good cook, don’t you think?”

      The raw, undisguised hope in his daughter’s voice broke Brandon’s heart. He knew how much Kristy missed having a mother and how appealing it must be to her to fantasize about having Zoe for a sister. But this wasn’t a game, this was real life, and feelings and emotions were at stake. He wasn’t going to let himself get sucked into Jill’s life, and vice versa, just to make his daughter’s far-fetched dreams of a perfect family come true.

      Obviously it was time to set the record straight with Kristy. He hated to burst her bubble, but he had to let her know that her matchmaking was futile. “Listen, Kris,” he said, stopping at a red light, “I appreciate what you and Zoe are trying to do, but I have to ask you to stop.”

      “What do you mean?” Kristy asked, her voice monotone. “We’re not trying to do anything, Dad.”

      He smiled, put the car into motion again, then took a quick right turn. Kristy was a terrible liar, which he considered a good thing. “Oh, come on. I might be a little rusty in the dating department, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you and Zoe set up the whole evening to get me and Jill together.”

      Kristy was silent for a long moment. “Would it be so bad if you two liked each other?” she asked, her voice very small.

      Oh, man, he hated having to disappoint Kristy. But he had no other choice. She had to understand that a relationship between him and Jill was impossible for way too many reasons. Reasons that now went far beyond his desire to protect his heart.

      “Not bad, honey, just not in the cards.”

      “Why?”

      She’d asked a good question, one he’d asked himself many times before, especially in the deep of the night when he felt so alone, so isolated, so empty that he would die for the feel of a woman in his arms once more. The answer was always the same; he simply couldn’t put himself in a position to care about a woman again. The risk was just too great, for both him and Kristy.

      But he couldn’t explain that to her in a way she would understand. She was too young, too stuffed full of girlish romantic dreams to fully grasp what he meant. So he simply said, “Because I don’t want to date Jill. She seems like a wonderful woman, but I’m not interested.” He knew that sounded kind of harsh, but it was necessary here. The matchmaking had to stop.

      Kristy didn’t say anything, and Brandon let her keep her silence. She was stewing, which was her way of sorting things out in her own mind. He remained silent, too, hoping she’d eventually understand what he’d said enough to forget about him and Jill getting together. Maybe they’d face each other again in the business arena, but not in any kind of personal way.

      As he pulled into his driveway, he had to admit that as they’d been sitting in the dining room sharing a delicious meal, spending some personal time with Jill had appealed to him. Stupid idea, not somewhere he wanted to go, even though she was the sexiest thing he’d seen in a long time.

      Thankfully, the discovery of their roles as business competitors had brought him to his senses, and had certainly lit a fire under Jill. Once she’d found out that he was the owner of The Steak Place, she hadn’t been able to get rid of him fast enough. Headache, СКАЧАТЬ