Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel (6 page)

And it was all Belinda’s fault.

He thought about her constantly. About their short marriage, their breakup, how his life had changed so much in the past five years. Seeing her again reminded him how angry he was with her.

But anger wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He had to make a fresh start for Ruby. He couldn’t do that if he was still legally, emotionally, or mentally attached to Belinda.

“I didn’t step on anything. My shoes squish my feet.”

“Oh.” He stopped in his tracks and for the first time that day focused fully on his daughter. She wore cute little red shoes, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember the last time he’d bought her a new pair.

Guilt eased into his chest.

“Are all your shoes bothering you?” he asked, hoping she would say no.

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I think maybe you should buy me some new ones.”

Ass. Can’t even remember to get your kid new shoes.

“I’ll do that today,” he promised. “Right after we get this file. Okay?”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry, Ruby, but you need to tell Daddy these things sooner. Sometimes I forget that you’re growing.”

She nodded again and looked up at him with understanding. She was so serious, his little girl. Such a little adult. For once he just wanted her to act like a kid. To whine and complain. To be a brat. But she never was. She never giggled or was silly. She wasn’t loud. She never bothered him, and it caused him to think he was screwing up this parenthood thing.

“Let’s hurry up and grab the file so we can get you some shoes.”

They entered the building. His new firm was tiny compared with where he had come from, just him and Steven. Before he moved here he hadn’t seen his old friend in years, since after his first wedding to Bethany where Steven served as his best man. They had been so close in college, at times he felt much more at home with his friend’s family than his own. But something changed between them when he moved back west. They lost touch, only exchanging a few brief emails a year. His old friend barely knew his daughter, or half the stuff that had gone in his life for the past few years. Carter felt guilty about losing touch with the man who had once felt like his brother.

He was grateful Steven asked him to join his firm. It was the change he needed. They weren’t designing multimillion-dollar opera houses, but they did good solid work. Carter was currently making plans for a new restaurant while Steven was designing a motel that was going to be built on the outskirts of town. The work would always be steady here. People in Durant wanted to use local businesses, which initially surprised Carter. New York City was less than two hours away and world-class architects could be found by the dozens, but these people were loyal and a hell of a lot less fussy than his San Francisco clients. They also didn’t require three-hour dinners and weeks of wooing before they made a decision or mind that he had to conduct all his meetings before Ruby got out of school.

He thought he would miss the huge jobs he was so used to working on for the past ten years, but he was surprisingly content with his new work. It allowed him to spend more time with Ruby. He refused to get a babysitter, determined to do it right this time. But it was hard to juggle things. She spent a lot of time in his office with him. Sometimes when he couldn’t help it he had to put her in the afternoon program at her school, even though he knew she didn’t like it. But he was raising her completely alone. He didn’t have any other choice.

“Are we staying long?” she asked him. “I didn’t bring anything to do. I could play on your computer but you got mad the last time.”

“I didn’t get mad,” he sighed. “I was just wondering how you got to CNN when I left you playing Sesame Street.”

“I just wanted to know what it was. The guy on the TV keeps saying this is CNN.” She pitched her voice lower. “This is CNN. I didn’t know what it was so I looked it up. I don’t know why you got so mad. There was nothing on there but a lot of words.”

Those words happened to be about sex slave trafficking, which she had asked him about for half an hour. He didn’t ever think he would be prepared to have “the talk” with his daughter, but he sure as hell didn’t expect her throwing out sex trafficking questions at five years old.

“Well, I’d prefer it if you asked me questions instead of looking them up on the Internet.”

“Okay,” she said. “But you get mad when I ask you questions, too.”

“I do not.” He took her hand and led her to back of the small building where his office was located.

“You do. You got really mad when I asked you what a drunk hussy was. Your face got red and you left the room and never told me what it was.”

He did get angry that time. Mrs. Marsh liked to talk to her sister on the phone in front of Ruby about the antics of their niece. It wasn’t the first time, either. When he asked Ruby what she wanted to drink once and she said a tequila sunrise he had to ban all phone calls at his house.

“It’s something you never want to be,” he said hoping she would drop it.

But she was Ruby, after all, and she didn’t. “Like an entomologist. We learned about that in school yesterday. They study bugs. Did you know that, Daddy? That’s something I never want to be. I hate bugs. Is a drunk hussy a gross job?”

“Please stop saying that, Ruby. And yes. They study throw-up and get really bad headaches and that’s the last thing you want.”

“Oh.” She blinked up at him.

“And we aren’t staying very long. I just need to get a file. Remember?”

He saw the light on under Steven’s door and was surprised to see him there. But they both had big client meetings on Monday, and he knew his new partner liked to be as prepared as possible.

“Hey, Steven. You studying for the big test?”

A head popped up but it wasn’t Steven’s; it belonged to his intern instead. Molly Flanders wasn’t a typical intern. She was in her early thirties, a former teacher who wanted to change careers. He hadn’t paid much attention to her, other than to note that she was attractive. Short blond hair. Big friendly eyes. In good shape and very eager to learn.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Lancaster! I didn’t hear you come in.” She stood up, dropping the plans she had been studying as if they were on fire.

“Does Steven have you working on something for him this weekend? That seems a little harsh.”

“No. But I did ask for permission to be here.” She picked up the phone. “You can check.”

“Calm down.” He raised his hands in defense. She always seemed a little nervous around him. “You aren’t in trouble. I was just wondering why anybody would want to be hunched over plans on a Saturday afternoon.”

“These are your plans,” she said, blushing. “Of that department store you designed in Toronto. We talked about your former firm in class last week and I wanted to see what you did up close. You have done some amazing work.”

“Oh.” He had to admit he was a little flattered. “Well, you don’t have to come in on a Saturday to do that. You can ask me about my work anytime during business hours.”

She smiled prettily at him. “That’s very nice of you to offer, Mr. Lancaster.”

“Please call me Carter. You’re making me feel like an old man.”

Molly’s gaze passed over his body. “There is nothing old about you, Carter.”

She was looking at him with interest, and that took him by surprise. He had dated sporadically since Belinda left, but nothing that ever turned serious. He couldn’t give a woman the attention she needed. It had always been work and Ruby. There was nothing else for him.

“Maybe I could pick your brain over dinner sometime. It would really help me to learn from a master.”

She locked eyes with him, giving him a small smile that he could only classify as seductive. It was an odd feeling. When was the last time he had had sex? Too long ago. Maybe it was time he started dating again.

A small pair of arms wrapped around his legs, reminding him that his daughter was still with him. “You said you wasn’t gonna take a long time,” she whispered.

“I’m not, baby. You remember Molly, don’t you?”

“Hi, Ruby!” Molly left her spot behind her desk and knelt before Ruby. “How are you?”

Ruby hid her face behind his legs.

A little pang of sadness touched him. Ruby was so shy. Too shy, uncomfortable, almost scared of new people and places. It was one of the things he’d worried about when he decided to move her here. He would like nothing more than to keep her content in a little bubble where he could control who came into her life and block out anything that made her unhappy, but the real world wasn’t like that. She needed to come out of her shell. He just wished he knew how to make it happen.

Just as he was about to prompt her to answer, to remind her that it was rude not to return someone’s greeting, she said, “I’m fine. Thank you.”

He didn’t realize how tight he was holding himself until he finally heard her speak. He rested his hand on her hair, silently telling her he was proud of her for answering. Ruby got her shyness from him. Growing up with the social queen of San Francisco, he wasn’t allowed to be shy, but he had always been a quiet person, someone who was uneasy with a lot of words. Ruby was so smart. He didn’t want her to be like him.

“That’s great.” Molly looked up at him, seeming unsure for a moment, but then turned her attention back to Ruby. “I always want to come play with you when I see you, but you always look so busy.”

“I am,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I’m working. Just like Daddy.”

“Oh.” Molly didn’t seem to know what to say to that.

“We can go now, Ruby.” He trailed the back of his fingers down her cheek, wanting to end her discomfort. “I just need to grab a file off my desk. Say good-bye to Molly.”

“Bye.”

“Bye-bye, cutie pie.”

Ruby left the room to wait for him in front of his office door. “I guess I’ll see you on Monday.”

Molly nodded. “And if you want to have dinner, let me know. I can cook. All you need to do is show up with a bottle of wine.”

He thought about it for a moment. A date. The last time he had been out socially was eight months ago. All his other time was spent working or with Ruby. It might be nice to have dinner at a restaurant that didn’t serve chicken nuggets or come with paper place mats. He studied Molly for a moment. She was attractive. She loved architecture. They would have a lot in common. But for some reason he couldn’t agree to the date. Maybe it was that she was an intern, and he couldn’t see dating her while she worked there. Or maybe there was another reason he couldn’t date her. The same reason he hadn’t dated anyone for the past five years. “I’m pretty busy with Ruby, but thanks for the offer.”

A few minutes later they left, his file retrieved. He buckled Ruby into the backseat of the car. “Ruby? Can I ask you a question?”

She studied him with eyes that were so eerily like his own. “You can ask me anything, Daddy.”

He smiled at her adult answer. “You’ve known Molly for a little while now. Why are so still so quiet around her? Don’t you like her?”

“No.” She frowned. “She looks at your butt when you turn around.”

“Really?” He grinned at her bluntness.

“Yeah.”

He studied her for a moment. She wasn’t a fan of Molly’s and he had no intentions of dating her but he thought it might be the moment to get back out there. Single parenting could be a little lonely and it was past time he moved on.

“How would you feel if I started to spend time with ladies my own age?”

“You want to date?”

He blinked at her for a moment, not really sure where his five-year-old had learned about dating, but he was too afraid to ask so he pushed on. “Yes. I might want to start dating. Would you be okay with that?”

She stared at him for a moment, her little forehead scrunched. “I don’t think married people is supposed to be dating.”

“You’re right,” he said suppressing a sigh. He wished he hadn’t come clean about Belinda. “But Belinda isn’t going to be my wife anymore. So I can date other ladies after that. Would you be okay with that?”

Ruby shook her head. “I have to think about it.”

He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the moment. He never imagined he would be asking a five-year-old for permission to date. But he was. She had to be okay with it. He wanted to get married again one day. He wanted her to have a woman in her life that she could trust.

“Can we have hot dogs for lunch?”

“Sure,” he said, climbing into his seat. He guessed the conversation was over.

*   *   *

“Belinda?” She turned around at the sound of her name to spot one of her favorite customers peeking into her office. “I know I’m not supposed to be back here, but I need your help.”

“Of course.” She smiled at Katherine. “I would love to help you.”

Ever since Belinda had bought into Size Me Up, she hadn’t spent as much time with the customers as she would like. She did the books. She managed the salesgirls. She ordered merchandise. That meant she didn’t spend much time dressing women anymore. She missed it. She loved fashion and people and all things beautiful.

It was something she got from her mother, but while Carmina was slender and tall and could wear anything, Belinda and most of the other women in the world were not. It was hard to find clothes that didn’t make her curvy body look like a stuffed sausage. It took years of trial and error to learn what looked good on her. That’s why Size Me Up was so important to Belinda. It was a place where women who couldn’t just walk into any store could come and find something that fit them well. It was also the first place Belinda felt like she belonged.

“What do you need, Katherine?” she asked as she led her back to the front.

“I have a date.”

“Oh, really.” Belinda grinned. “Tell me he’s successful and charming and that you could bounce a quarter off his abs.”

“He’s a seventh-grade math teacher with a bit of a belly and a love of comic books, but he’s adorable and he treats me like a princess.”

“Which you deserve. I met your last boyfriend. Asshole. Capital A.”

“I know,” she sighed. “It took me a long time to see that, but Rich is a good guy and he’s taking me to Tortola’s for our fourth date.”