The Trouble With Angels Page 0,17

was that the kitchen lights were on. Had be been careless and left them on that morning? He really did need to be more attentive to details.

Letting himself in by the back door, he tossed the grease-smeared white bag on the kitchen table and hung up his sweater.

"Dad?"

Paul's heart raced with excitement. "Joe? Is that you?

"Dad!" His son rushed into the kitchen and hugged him excitedly. "Dad, there's someone I want you to meet."

A lovely blue-eyed young woman stood across the kitchen. Joe crossed to her and placed his arm around her shoulders. "Dad, I'd like you to meet Annie," he said, smiling brightly at his father. "I've asked her to be my wife."

It shouldn't have surprised Joy Palmer that Ted Griffin was romantically involved. He was tall, dark, and good-looking, and her heart raced like a stock car every time she laid eyes on him.

She did admit to a certain curiosity about the type of woman he'd date, so she did what she generally did when he came around. She watched and waited and made sure she had an unobstructed view of him.

His girlfriend was sophisticated and beautiful, Joy noted, but she didn't study the woman long. No need to give herself a bigger complex than the one she already had. Catherine's grandson was a hunk. It made sense that he'd date a woman who qualified as a beauty queen.

Catherine had been so anxious about this meeting and had wanted to make a good impression. Joy hoped everything had gone well.

Just before dinner, when Joy was preparing to leave for the day, she found Catherine sitting in the library. An unopened book was balanced on her lap.

"Well, Catherine," Joy said, standing in the doorway, "You're certainly looking pensive."

"Joy." The older woman's eyes brightened. "I thought you'd left by now."

"I had a few odds and ends to clear up. How'd the meeting go with your grandson and his friend?"

"Just fine."

"I caught a glimpse of her, and she's a beautiful woman."

Catherine nodded. "She seems..."

"Yes?" Joy prompted. It wasn't like Catherine to let something fade. The woman was as spry as someone fifteen years her junior.

"It's nothing," Catherine murmured, and shook her head. "You have a nice evening now."

"I probably won't do anything more exciting than sit home and watch the Lakers take on the Chicago Bulls."

"You like basketball?"

"I love it," Joy confessed.

Catherine brightened considerably. "Ted's always talking about the Lakers. It seems he's a fan himself. You've met my grandson, haven't you?"

Joy could feel the heat rise up her neck. "Not formally."

"But, my dear, you must. I'll make a point of seeing to it the next time he stops by. You two have a lot in common."

"Ah, I guess I'd better go now," Joy said, anxious to make her getaway. She and Ted had a lot in common! It was all she could do not to laugh out loud. Sure, they both might enjoy professional basketball. But she couldn't picture Ted Griffin with his feet propped up on her coffee table, a big bowl of popcorn in his lap. She couldn't see him thrusting his arms in the air over a three-point play and shouting with joy. With Joy.

Not the Ted Griffin who dated the picture-perfect woman she'd seen an hour or so earlier. No, men like Catherine Goodwin's grandson wouldn't be interested in someone like her. Joy was too much her own person to worry about having every hair in place and what her makeup looked like after eight hours on the job. She didn't have the creams and eye shadows necessary to be counted among the truly lovely. Besides, she was much too spontaneous for the sophisticated crowd he probably favored.

The problem was Joy's romantic heart. She did so love to dream. That's what there was between her and Ted. A silly romantic dream.

Joy stopped in her office just long enough to pick up her sweater and her purse. She would have gone directly to the employee parking lot if she hadn't seen Charles sitting, staring longingly out the window.

She crossed the large room and sat next to the old man. "It's time for dinner," she told him softly.

It was as if she hadn't spoken.

"I was just heading home," Joy told him, as if they were carrying on a normal two-sided conversation. "The Lakers are playing tonight, and I've been saving my energy so I could cheer them on."

Then Charles smiled briefly, but his gaze didn't leave the large picture window that gave a panoramic view of Wilshire