Читать книгу An Engagement Of Convenience - Mollie Molay - Страница 12

The Riverview’s cafeteria was humming at noon on Monday. Not with the usual office gossip, but with a spirited debate on who could have initiated yesterday’s sensational plane flyover at Lincoln Park. Some people thought it was intended to be a joke, others a conspiracy. But apparently everyone agreed the stunt had been the highlight of the employees’ annual picnic.

Lili was pleased to hear that the debate wasn’t limited to Today’s World staff. There was some conjecture about possible consequences if the culprit was found, but the general feeling seemed to be that more people would be joining in the effort to keep the center open. There was even talk that if the management didn’t see the light, some kind of strike should be organized!

She made her way to a table in the far corner where she, April and Rita usually met for lunch. Lili was pretty sure Rita was the person who had hired the plane, and she was planning to confront her in their secluded niche.

As she took her seat, Lili studied the initials on a heart someone had carved into the wooden tabletop—the same table where she and her friends had at one time plotted April’s successful conquest of Lucas Sullivan. Ditto for Rita’s unexpected marriage to former Texas Ranger Colby Callahan, which had been followed by a honeymoon in Bermuda.

If only the corner didn’t carry so many romantic memories, Lili thought wistfully. For her, it was a constant reminder of her unrealistic attraction to Tom Eldridge.

Asking her friends’ advice about Tom’s proposal would have to wait. Today, she had a more important mission.

The excited buzz of conversation around her was growing, and Lili wondered if the situation was getting out of hand. The last thing she wanted was for the building’s management to close the door to any type of negotiation.

“Hi, Lili!” Rita walked up with her lunch tray. “Your message sounded important. What’s up?”

“Several things,” Lili said, trying to ignore the raised voices around her. To add to her unease, someone at a nearby table was taking bets as to what would happen when the culprit was found. Another voice proposed taking up a collection in support of that person. If she hadn’t already known she had to do something to calm the situation, Lili knew it now.

She also had to do something about Rita.

“First of all,” Lili stated in an undertone, “I know I asked you and April to help me try to keep the center open. It’s just that one or both of you went too far.”

Rita, by now having caught the drift of the conversations around them, nodded cautiously as she picked up her sandwich. “Yeah, I heard something about the plane. So?”

“Well,” Lili continued, glancing around to make sure they weren’t being overheard, “I think the person who hired the plane had to be you.”

Rita paused in midbite. “Say again?”

Lili wasn’t going to take that as a denial, no matter how innocent her friend tried to look. “If you’d been at the picnic yesterday, you’d know what I’m talking about.”

“Sounds cool. Sorry I missed it. Actually, I was home enjoying being a new bride. Colby and I are still honeymooning.” Rita grinned and went back to her lunch.

Lili wasn’t fooled. Rita might have been at home yesterday, but it didn’t require a genius to know that all it would have taken to finance the stunt was a telephone call and a credit card number. Furthermore, knowing Rita’s carefree approach to life—“why not?” instead of “why?”—she was the perfect candidate to have come up with the attention-getting idea.

The unlikely marriage between Rita, a breezy research librarian, and Colby, a serious former Texas Ranger, proved that opposites attract, Lili thought wistfully. It should have been a source of comfort to herself. As it was, Tom had hardly noticed her until the other day at the picnic. If Paulette hadn’t wildly kicked that soccer ball, with unfortunate results, he might not have noticed her at all.

Tom was likely upstairs in his office right now, trying to find out who had paid for yesterday’s protest. He was probably planning on giving two weeks’ notice and a severance check as soon as he found the person.

April was waltzing across the crowded lunchroom. “Sorry I’m late, Lili,” she said breathlessly as she approached their table and sat down. “I only have a few minutes—I can’t stay for lunch. But you sounded so serious when you called that I had to come down and find out what’s up. Something happen?”

“Plenty,” Lili answered. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the airplane flyover yesterday?”

April nodded.

“Tom is not only angry over what happened yesterday at the picnic, I think he’s ready to fire whoever planned it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lili saw Rita blanch at the word fire and put down her sandwich. If Lili hadn’t been sure Rita was behind the stunt, she was now. Rita might be a wild card, but at least she was an honest one.

April shook her head. “Sorry, Lili. I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, but it wasn’t me. How about telling me what happened yesterday in one simple sentence before I have to get back upstairs? Did someone get hurt at the picnic?”

“Yes and no,” Lili answered. She decided to keep Tom’s injury to herself, in case Rita came up with one of her X-rated remarks. She rubbed her aching forehead and told April about the airplane towing a banner protesting the closure of the day care center.

“I know I asked you two for help,” she added with a pointed look at Rita, “but the results were amazing.”

“Cool!” April grinned wickedly. “Knowing how Tom reacts when he thinks he’s lost control, I wish I’d been there to see him in action. But it wasn’t me, Lili, I swear. Lucas and I were at the university lab going over the results of his new questionnaires on the mating game. By the way,” she chirped happily, “now that I’ve shown Lucas that all women aren’t alike, you’ll be glad to know he’s going to revise those six rules of his.”

Even as Lili nodded, her gaze swung back to Rita.

After a pregnant moment, her friend shoved her sandwich away and nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess it’s time for the truth. I was only trying to help.”

April shook her head. “Some help you were. From what I’ve heard, it sounds as if you’ve managed to turn the Riverview into a war zone. If you don’t get us all fired, it’s going to be a miracle.”

Rita looked alarmed. “Heck, I was only trying to help. I thought a banner flying over the park would reach a lot more people than any fliers would. I didn’t have a clue anyone would get their shorts tied in a knot over it.”

“Unfortunately, someone has,” Lili informed her. “How could you afford to pay for the airplane, anyway? And what did Colby say when he heard what you planned?”

Rita grinned smuggly. “He thought it was a great idea. As for how much it cost, the pilot is a friend of Colby’s. All I had to pay for was the banner—fifty bucks. I figured it was a lot cheaper than having fliers made up, and a lot more fun.” Rita paused. “Are you going to tell Tom? Do you really think he’ll fire me if he finds out I was the one who arranged for the plane?”

Lili reached into her purse and took out a bottle of pain relievers to soften the throbbing headache she’d had all day. Popping two tablets into her mouth, she reached for Rita’s lemonade and took a sip. “No, I’m not going to tell him it was you. And yes, he’ll probably fire you if he finds out for sure you did it. But only because the building’s owner happened to see the banner.”

“No way,” April interjected. “I’ve known Tom for years. He’s too loyal to his employees to want to fire anyone. I’m sure he’ll think of some way to get around it.”

Rita muttered into her sandwich.

“Well, as my grandmother used to say, ‘what is done is done,’” Lili said at last. “Now we must try to find a way to take care of the other problems before it is too late.”

Rita blinked. “Other problems? What other problems? Besides my getting fired for trying to do something constructive, what other problems can there be?”

“Tom told me the building’s owner will have to eventually raise the tenants’ rents when the leases come due if he has to keep the center open. From what Tom said, some tenants might have to relocate in that case.”

“Then it’s up to us to come up with an idea to help Tom change the owner’s mind.” April jumped to her feet. “I have to get back to work, but give me a day or two. I’ll talk it over with Lucas. Maybe he can come up with something.”

“I’m really sorry,” Rita said contritely after April left. “I had no idea the management would become so angry.”

“Neither did I.” Lili sighed. “I’m not sure Tom will be happy if we try to help him, but April is right. We have to find another way to save the center.”

Rita’s eyes lit up. “I know! We can sell cookies! You know, like the Girl Scout cookie drive!”

“That would take too many cookies!” Lili put her fingers to her lips and motioned toward a neighboring table, where a woman had just bet fifty dollars that the person behind the airplane flyover would be found and fired before the week was out.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Rita answered. “We sold cookies to raise funds in high school, and my folks used to say they practically paid for the lights in the football stadium with all the boxes they helped me sell. If that’s not good enough,” she added when Lili didn’t look amused, “I’ll talk it over with Colby. He knows a lot of well-placed people here in Chicago. Maybe he has an idea where we can find a fairy godfather.”

“Not before you tell me what you’re planning before you do it,” Lili said, almost afraid to encourage Rita. Heaven only knew what she might come up with. Lili rose to leave.

“Hey, wait a minute. You haven’t had any lunch!”

“No, I wasn’t hungry.” Lili rubbed her aching forehead. “I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich upstairs in the studio waiting for me.” She wasn’t going to tell her friend she was on a strict budget so she could keep the twins in the center.

She blew Rita an air kiss and hurried to the elevators. She’d planned on telling her friends about pretending to be Tom’s date at dinner on Friday, but had changed her mind. Recalling the way Rita’s eyes lit up whenever Lili mentioned Tom, she was afraid that any date with him, real or not, might wind up another fiasco.

Besides, she thought as she made her way to Tom’s office, a woman like herself didn’t need any advice about men. Knowing how to handle a man was every Frenchwoman’s birthright.

Lili knocked on his open office door. “Is this a good time to talk to you?”

When Tom frowned, she turned to leave. “Perhaps later?”

“No, wait.” Tom eyed Lili. Gone was the minuscule yellow sundress that had caught his interest at yesterday’s picnic. Today, she was dressed in beige linen slacks and a soft sapphire blouse that matched her almond shaped eyes. A narrow brown leather belt encircled her tiny waist. Around her neck, she wore a simple gold chain, and at her ears, gold studs. If he’d had any doubt that he’d been head over heels in lust with Lili yesterday, even in the midst of a highly sensitive personal problem, those doubts were gone today.

Until he’d caught her drawing up those damn fliers, he’d thought of Lili as a “Sullivan woman,” demure and retiring. He knew better now. “What is it?”

“I came to see if you feel a little better after what happened yesterday,” she replied with a charming blush that sent Tom’s libido stirring. Not for the first time, he wondered how he could be so attracted to a woman who had created so much turmoil in his life.

Tom waved Lili into the office. “If you mean the soccer ball, yeah. If you’re talking about the airplane stunt with the banner, the answer is no. In fact, I’ve just been on the phone with the company that owns the plane. No matter what I say, they claim customer privacy.”