“Right now I’m just scouting. I’m always looking for my two daughters, and I have one other match I’m working on.”
“If your daughters look anything like y
ou, that should be easy.”
“You’re taken now.” Anne shook a scolding finger at him, smiling so he would know she was teasing. “You shouldn’t be flirting.”
He grimaced. “That may be a tough habit to break.”
Anne zipped out the door onto the streets of New York City and headed for her first day on the job.
“Hi Anne.” Katie greeted her as she entered the office door, hair and bags askew. “How was your first day negotiating the subway?”
“It was a bit crazy.” She huffed a stray piece of hair out of her face. “I did meet someone—a sweet girl named Ellen who works at a bookstore but wants to be an actress. Of course, I had to walk here from the station, and I was so late by then I started running. While I was running I tripped on the curb and would have fallen down if Spencer hadn’t caught me.”
“Spencer?”
“Spencer—the nice young man who broke my fall. He works next door at the lunch bistro, Papa’s Place. I promised him I’d eat there today out of appreciation for him saving me from being a bloody mess on my first day at work. It would’ve been nice if the apartment had been closer to work. Not that I’m complaining—it’s a nice place to live. Maybe you can show me a better way to get here from our building.”
Katie frowned. “I had you all set up to move into a company apartment in my building, but Mr. Gherring vetoed the idea. He said something about planning to remodel that apartment.”
“I thought I was in your building. I figured he wanted his secretary close so he could give you assignments any time, you know, from his apartment.”
“No, I’m in a building about a block away from here. It’s handy for work.”
“Too bad there wasn’t an apartment ready in your building. But I guess it was fortunate I was at the place where Mr. Gherring lives, since he was able to explain the changes he needed in his travel arrangements after we ran into each other in the elevator.”
“Really? When he left here early on Friday, he told me he would email me about a possible schedule change. Then later he sent an email that everything was fine. I wonder why he had you do it instead of me. Thanks for taking care of the arrangements.”
“You’re welcome. He said something about not wanting to bother you, and I was glad to start off with something I already knew how to do. And it was convenient since the information was on his home computer. It only took a second to run up there.”
“You went to Mr. Gherring’s apartment?” Katie’s mouth fell open.
“It wasn’t like that. Nothing improper happened. I just… Wait, haven’t you been to his apartment? I mean, for work stuff?”
“No.” Katie’s eyes were still wide. “I’ve never been there. Mr. Gherring has a strict policy about separating his work and his personal life. No one from work has ever been to his apartment. Not even the board members or the vice presidents, as far as I know.”
“Oh. I’m sure it was a fluke, and I’m sure it’ll never happen again. I don’t think he likes dealing with my emotional outbreaks.” Anne forced a laugh. Why would Gherring change his policy about keeping his apartment private? Maybe he was starting to realize he needed company after all. “But he does seem very lonely.”
“I don’t know. He has an active social calendar. I don’t see how he has time to be lonely.”
“Now you know being busy has nothing to do with finding meaningful relationships. You have Gary. Think how it’d be if you had to make appearances in public all the time, but you didn’t have Gary in your life. You’d be very lonely.”
“I guess you could be right.”
As she had since Friday night, Anne racked her brain, wondering where she would find a suitable match for Steven Gherring. She had a feeling it would take a lot of effort over a long period of time… time she might not have.
“Let’s get to work on my training. I have a lot to learn if I want to keep this job longer than three months.”
Emily appeared skeptical, even on computer screen. “Wow Mom, you seem to have been pretty busy for only five days in New York. That’s one couple you’ve already gotten together and several more in the making. In fact, you seem to be doing a lot of meddling. Have you done any actual work?”
“How can you ask such a thing? You know I don’t meddle. I just intervene a bit.”
“Yeah, right.”
Anne felt a pang of homesickness. “It’s so good to hear your voice. I really miss you. And I miss hearing a Texas accent. Everyone around here teases me about my accent and acts like they’ve never heard a y’all or fixin’ to in their whole lives.”
“Whatever you do, don’t let them hear you talking to Grandpa.” Emily giggled. “When you two are on the phone, you sound so countrified. You say things like get foundered and cattywhomperjawed and bust my buttons.”