Wife for Hire - By Janet Evanovich Page 0,9
fabric of married life and gave comfort…like a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning or the fifteen-minute break to read the newspaper and sort through the day’s mail.
Maggie watched the man sitting across from her, and a pleasurable emotion curled in her stomach. It would be easy to believe the marriage was real, easy to become used to this simple intimacy.
“I like your house,” she said. “Has it always been in your family?”
“My Great-grandfather Mallone built it. He ran this place as a dairy farm. When my grandfather took over, he bought all the surrounding land he could and dedicated some of it to a pumpkin patch. He died ten years ago. My dad didn’t want any part of farming, and Grandma couldn’t manage the business by herself, so she stopped tending the pumpkins and kept only one cow. When I came back after college, I started planting trees where the pumpkins had once been.”
“Do your parents live in Skogen?”
“My parents are the reason you’re here. My father’s president of Skogen National Bank and Trust.”
“Your own father won’t give you a loan?”
He slouched in his chair. “I was a problem child.”
Maggie didn’t know if she was amused or horrified. “Haven’t your parents noticed you’re all grown-up?”
“My mother thinks if I were all grown-up I’d be married. My father thinks if I were all grown-up I wouldn’t have delusions of grandeur about growing organic apples.”
His family and hers shared some disturbingly similar traits.
“This isn’t fair,” Maggie said. “It’s one thing for you to be facing possible bankruptcy and ruin, it’s quite another for you to be having the exact same problems that made me leave Riverside. I just spent half a day on the road to get away from my mother and Aunt Marvina, and now I find out your mother is blackmailing you to get married, and your father thinks your choice of lifework is ridiculous. I’m not going to have to get involved in any of this, am I?”
“Maybe a little. Mom and Dad are coming over for dinner tomorrow night.”
Maggie stood so quickly, her chair tipped over and crashed to the floor. “What? No way. Uh-uh. Forget it. I barely know you. How am I going to convince them we’re married?”
“No problem. I’m known for being impulsive and obstinate, and indulging in harebrained schemes. My parents will believe any thing about me.”
“What will I wear?” Even as she said it, she cringed at her classic female reply.
“Surely there must be something in all those boxes we packed in the back of the truck.”
“Boring teacher’s clothes.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s great. Be a typical teacher. My mother will love it.”
Maggie grimaced and wondered how to break the news to him. She’d been a good teacher, but she’d never been typical. She’d had a hard time sticking to the syllabus, sometimes her classes got a tad chaotic, and she didn’t always have the patience to be diplomatic with parents. In the past two years she’d spent more time in the principal’s office than Leo Kulesza, the only kid in the history of Riverside High School to repeat tenth grade four times. “What about food? I’m not the world’s greatest cook.”
“Elsie will take care of the food.”
“Does Elsie know your father is the president of the bank?”
“Elsie arrived the day I left on my wife hunt. There wasn’t much time for nonessential conversation.” He lowered his voice. “Maybe we should wait until after the dinner party to tell her. Tact doesn’t seem to be her strong suit.”
“This isn’t going to work.”
“It has to work. I need that loan. I need it fast.”
“Why don’t you go to another bank to get a loan?”
“The banking community up here is very small. I doubt if anyone would want to step on my dad’s toes. And the truth is, I’m not all that solvent. I’ve already taken a mortgage on the farm to expand the orchards. Giving me another loan is going to be an act of faith. In all honesty, I can see my father’s point of view. If I were in his position, I’m not sure I would loan me the money either. He has no way of knowing I’m capable of making a long-term commitment to a project. He told me to prove I could commit to something long-term; he told me to settle down and get married.”
“What happens when I leave?”
He shrugged. “They’ll have to deal with that.” Just as he would, he thought grimly. “They’re going to have