An Engagement Of Convenience. Mollie Molay

to help Tom change the owner’s mind.” April jumped to her feet. “I have to get back to work, but give me a day or two. I’ll talk it over with Lucas. Maybe he can come up with something.”

      “I’m really sorry,” Rita said contritely after April left. “I had no idea the management would become so angry.”

      “Neither did I.” Lili sighed. “I’m not sure Tom will be happy if we try to help him, but April is right. We have to find another way to save the center.”

      Rita’s eyes lit up. “I know! We can sell cookies! You know, like the Girl Scout cookie drive!”

      “That would take too many cookies!” Lili put her fingers to her lips and motioned toward a neighboring table, where a woman had just bet fifty dollars that the person behind the airplane flyover would be found and fired before the week was out.

      “Oh, I don’t know,” Rita answered. “We sold cookies to raise funds in high school, and my folks used to say they practically paid for the lights in the football stadium with all the boxes they helped me sell. If that’s not good enough,” she added when Lili didn’t look amused, “I’ll talk it over with Colby. He knows a lot of well-placed people here in Chicago. Maybe he has an idea where we can find a fairy godfather.”

      “Not before you tell me what you’re planning before you do it,” Lili said, almost afraid to encourage Rita. Heaven only knew what she might come up with. Lili rose to leave.

      “Hey, wait a minute. You haven’t had any lunch!”

      “No, I wasn’t hungry.” Lili rubbed her aching forehead. “I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich upstairs in the studio waiting for me.” She wasn’t going to tell her friend she was on a strict budget so she could keep the twins in the center.

      She blew Rita an air kiss and hurried to the elevators. She’d planned on telling her friends about pretending to be Tom’s date at dinner on Friday, but had changed her mind. Recalling the way Rita’s eyes lit up whenever Lili mentioned Tom, she was afraid that any date with him, real or not, might wind up another fiasco.

      Besides, she thought as she made her way to Tom’s office, a woman like herself didn’t need any advice about men. Knowing how to handle a man was every Frenchwoman’s birthright.

      Lili knocked on his open office door. “Is this a good time to talk to you?”

      When Tom frowned, she turned to leave. “Perhaps later?”

      “No, wait.” Tom eyed Lili. Gone was the minuscule yellow sundress that had caught his interest at yesterday’s picnic. Today, she was dressed in beige linen slacks and a soft sapphire blouse that matched her almond shaped eyes. A narrow brown leather belt encircled her tiny waist. Around her neck, she wore a simple gold chain, and at her ears, gold studs. If he’d had any doubt that he’d been head over heels in lust with Lili yesterday, even in the midst of a highly sensitive personal problem, those doubts were gone today.

      Until he’d caught her drawing up those damn fliers, he’d thought of Lili as a “Sullivan woman,” demure and retiring. He knew better now. “What is it?”

      “I came to see if you feel a little better after what happened yesterday,” she replied with a charming blush that sent Tom’s libido stirring. Not for the first time, he wondered how he could be so attracted to a woman who had created so much turmoil in his life.

      Tom waved Lili into the office. “If you mean the soccer ball, yeah. If you’re talking about the airplane stunt with the banner, the answer is no. In fact, I’ve just been on the phone with the company that owns the plane. No matter what I say, they claim customer privacy.”