An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [110]
“He didn’t say,” she answered as noncommittally as she could. She didn’t want to disappoint them, or encourage them, either.
“Can you call him and ask?”
Lesley shoved a clothespin onto a sheet, anchoring it. “I don’t have his phone number,” she said, realizing it for the first time.
“He’ll be calling you, won’t he?”
“I…don’t know.” She’d asked him to and he’d said he would, but that wasn’t any guarantee. He’d been annoyed with her when they parted, convinced she’d contact Tony despite her shaky reassurance otherwise.
Chase was an intelligent and sensitive man; he knew better than to involve himself in a dead-end relationship. It wouldn’t surprise her if he never contacted her again.
The thought struck her hard and fast. The pain it produced shocked her. She hadn’t realized how much she’d come to treasure their brief time together.
“What do you mean you don’t know if he’ll call you again?” Eric demanded. “You have to see him again because Kevin and me wrote him a letter to thank him for taking us fishing.”
“Mom made us,” Kevin volunteered. His front tooth was missing and Lesley noticed its absence for the first time.
She caught the younger boy by the chin and angled his head toward the light, although he squirmed. “Kevin, you lost your tooth. When did this happen?”
“Last night.”
“Congratulations,” she said, releasing him. “Did you leave it out for the Tooth Fairy?”
The boy rolled his eyes. “I don’t believe in that silly stuff anymore and neither does Eric.”
“What do you expect when they’ve got me for a mother?” Daisy said, stepping out the back porch, her hands on her hips. “I never did believe in feeding kids all that garbage about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Life’s hard enough without their own mother filling their heads with that kind of nonsense.”
“We get gifts and candy and other stuff,” Kevin felt obliged to inform Lesley, “but we know who gave them to us. Mom gave me a dollar for the tooth.”
“He already spent it, too, on gum and candy.”
“I shared, didn’t I?”
“Boys, why don’t you run along,” Daisy said.
“What about the letter?”
“Give it to Lesley and let her worry about it.” With that, her neighbor returned to the house.
What Lesley had told the boys about not knowing Chase’s phone number was a half-truth. There was always the number on the billboard. If she hadn’t heard from him by that evening, she’d leave a message for him through the answering service, although she doubted it would ever reach him.
After a polite knock, Sandra let herself into Chase’s makeshift office in the suite he’d rented. He’d interviewed ten more women that morning and was scheduled to meet another fifteen that afternoon and evening.
He hadn’t talked to or seen Lesley in two days and the temptation to call her or even drive over to see her was gaining momentum. He was trying, really trying, to meet a woman he liked as much as Lesley. Thus far he hadn’t succeeded. Hadn’t come anywhere close to succeeding.
“Does the name Lesley Campbell mean anything to you?” Sandra asked unexpectedly.
Chase straightened as a chill shot through him. “Yes, why?”
“She left a message with the answering service. Apparently she explained that she wasn’t responding to your billboard ad. She wanted it understood that the two of you know each other.”
“She left a message?”
“Yes.” Sandra handed him the pink slip. “I thought it might be a trick. Some of the applicants have tried various methods to get your attention.”
Chase didn’t need to be reminded of that. Flowers arrived almost daily, along with elaborately wrapped presents. A few of the gifts had shocked him. He hadn’t accepted any of them. The floral bouquets he had delivered to a nearby nursing home and the gifts were dispensed with quickly. He left their disposal in Sandra’s capable hands.
One woman, a day earlier, had shown up in full winter garb, carrying a long-barreled shotgun as though that would prove she was ready, willing and able to withstand the harsh winters of the Arctic. He wasn’t sure what the gun was meant to signify.
Chase supposed she’d rented the outfit from