“Daddy. That isn’t important,” Laurie complained with the confidence of a woman who had no doubt of her own beauty. “It’s her mind that matters, not her appearance.”
“She’s pretty, Dad,” Mike assured him. “And she’s brilliant,” he added for Laurie’s benefit.
Then, because Charlie was a nut for animals, he added, “She has a cat named Norman.”
“I can see why she would like the cat,” Charlie answered dryly, running a hand through the red hair that she kept cut in short curls. “But what does she see in you?”
Laurie laughed. Alice looked up from her crocheting with a frown on the face that was still hardly lined at all beneath her stylishly tousled cap of slightly graying blond hair. “That wasn’t very nice. Why wouldn’t she be interested in your brother?”
Rather than answering, Charlie asked, “How old is she? I mean, she already has her doctorate, so she must be at least your age, right?”
“She got her degrees early, I guess. She just turned thirty.”
Charlie frowned. “Thirty?”
“Right. Your age,” he shot back pointedly. “And only a year, almost to the day, older than Laurie.”
Since he and Laurie were only ten months apart, he didn’t think the age gap was at all significant. What was a couple of years, after all?
“I was sort of hoping you would hit it off with Paula McDermott’s younger sister, Erin, at my party,” Laurie complained. “I met her at Paula’s wedding shower last week, and I invited her to my party because she seemed like someone you’d like. Erin’s twenty-four, and really cute. She’s just back in town after living in St. Louis for a couple of years. She’s a personal trainer at Silver’s Gym, and she likes a lot of the things you do. You know, sports and outdoorsy stuff. As soon as I met her, I thought, ‘Here’s someone who would be a really great match for Mike.’”
This time it was Mike who scowled. “You didn’t tell me you were going to try to fix me up at your party. You said I could bring someone if I wanted.”
“Well, yeah, but you said you weren’t seeing anyone right now and you would probably just come stag,” she shot back. “And it isn’t really a ‘fix up.’ There will be quite a few unattached people there. I just thought you’d like Erin, that’s all.”
Mike was well accustomed to the matchmaking efforts of all his sisters, especially the two married ones, who wouldn’t be satisfied until everyone they knew had a spouse, children and a house in the ’burbs. For a while the older two had concentrated on Charlie and Laurie, but now Charlie was involved with a firefighter and Laurie was seeing a local television meteorologist, so everyone’s attention had turned to Mike.
“I’m sure she’s very nice. And I’m sure there will be several single guys at your party for her to meet. But I’m seeing Catherine right now, so—”
“You’re ‘seeing’ her?” Charlie broke in quizzically. “I thought you said you’d only known her for a few weeks and you’ve only been out with her once.”
“Okay, I’ve just started seeing her,” he admitted a bit defensively. “The point is, I don’t need y’all to find dates for me. I’m perfectly capable of handling that myself.”
“You haven’t done such a great job of that so far,” Laurie muttered.
For some reason, his sisters had never particularly approved of anyone he had dated. Only a couple of times had he been involved in real relationships, and he had never gotten to the point of actually considering marriage with anyone he had dated. Still, his sisters had found fault with each of the women he’d brought into their lives for however long the affairs had lasted. As avid as they all seemed to be to see him seriously committed, not a one of them seemed to trust his judgment when it came to choosing his own mate.
When he had complained about that to his mother, she had merely smiled and explained that it was because he was the youngest and his sisters had gotten into the habit of looking out for him. They all adored him, she reminded him, and it was hard for them to believe anyone was quite good enough for their little brother. And besides, she had added with gentle candor, it wasn’t as if he had the greatest track record with that sort of thing.
So, okay, maybe some of his past relationships had been…spectacularly unsuccessful. And maybe a couple of the breakups had been…well, train wrecks. But past history aside, he wished they would give him a little more credit when it came to his personal life.
“You’ll see,” he told Laurie, making sure that Charlie heard him, as well. “You’ll like Catherine. She’s smart and successful and interesting. The type of competent, independent woman you all admire so much. The kind you all are, for that matter. I bet you’re going to have a hard time finding anything to criticize about this one.”
“We’ll see,” Laurie murmured.
Mike hoped he hadn’t made it sound like a challenge.
Chapter Eight
Catherine came very close to calling Mike and telling him that something had come up, preventing her from attending the Halloween party with him. Only the awareness of how rude that would be kept her from picking up the phone.
She wondered if panic attacks were going to be a regular thing when it came to going out with him. Or if there would be any more reason to worry about that sort of thing after tonight. Funny how they could talk so easily over the phone or during his studying, but their tastes in entertainment were so radically different.
She checked her appearance one more time in her bedroom mirror. It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do, except pace and second-guess her acceptance of this costume-party invitation. Mike was late. Again. At least this time he had called to apologize and let her know he’d been detained.
He wouldn’t tell her what he had selected as a costume. She still wasn’t sure she liked her own choice. She couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t particularly original, the idea having been inspired by their guide at the community theater haunted house.
Her dress was black and formfitting, the hem falling halfway down her calves, the neckline dipping halfway to her navel. Well, maybe not quite that far, she thought, tugging self-consciously at it, but deeper than she usually wore. The oversize, silver bat-shaped pendant she wore on a black leather cord filled in some of the space, but still left more bare skin than she was accustomed to showing.