* * *
While Milán drove home, she attempted to cool off. When she was distraught about something, two things gave her tranquility: driving her car with the music blaring and cleaning the heck out of something. She wasn’t home yet, so driving would have to do.
What a jerk! She replayed her encounter again in her head. Her fingers flew up to her lips. How dare he kiss me! Just thinking about the encounter made her heart race, but she was confused. Norma Jean had spoken so glowingly of him. She couldn’t help getting caught up in the excitement, too. Jeanie believed that the two of them would make a great team. His mother couldn’t have been more wrong.
After she had left Adrian’s office, the reality of her situation was driven home. She needed a job, and she needed one soon. She refused to dip into her savings account more than necessary. Her parents had gifted their children with a small monetary umbrella to use for a rainy day. Granted, this was more like a torrential downpour, but there was no way she was touching that money unless it was a dire emergency. She would simply double her efforts to find employment. Now thanks to that narcissistic playboy her morning was wasted.
Just thinking about their run-in got her blood boiling all over again. Her cell phone rang. She checked the number and saw it was her mother. There was no way she could talk to her right now. She was too upset and her mother would pick up on it. Neither Milán nor her sisters could keep anything hidden from Pia Dixon. Besides, Milán wasn’t ready to recount her horrid morning with Adrian Anderson and his massive ego. Not without bursting into tears of anger and frustration. He ruined everything!
Chapter 3
“For the last time, I didn’t have an ulterior motive,” Norma Jean said with exasperation. “I suggested Milán contact you because she’s looking for a job, and you’re looking for an interior designer.” She regarded her son from over her glasses. “Seemed a perfect fit to me.”
“Yeah, like her being crazy beautiful had no bearing in sending her my way?”
Adrian’s mother sat back in her chair. She stopped her scrapbooking and observed her son carefully. A knowing smile crept onto her face. “You think she’s beautiful.”
Adrian looked indignant. “And you didn’t? Come on, Mom, you’re killing me. You knew darn well I’d think she was gorgeous, but I recall having told you somewhere between one and a million times to stay out of my love life. Why won’t you do this?” He slammed down into the nearest chair. Adrian released a loud, harsh sigh, and then gazed up at the ceiling before shaking his head.
Norma Jean resumed placing small patterned shapes across her page. “Honey, you really should calm yourself. Maybe you should take up yoga? It would teach you how to release that pent-up stress you’re carrying around.”
“Calm myself? How can I? I honestly never know who’s lurking around the corner waiting to pounce on me compliments of Norma Jean Anderson.”
“I resent that.”
With a raised eyebrow he shot back, “Tell me I’m exaggerating.” Adrian rubbed his hand over his face. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze traveled around his parents’ family room. It looked like Cupid had set up shop and never left. Every surface had something pertaining to romance: his mother’s stack of inspirational love stories, the two red his-and-her teddy bears joined at the lips on a bookcase, the rose-scented tea lights with the red heart-shaped candleholder and family photos stored in floral decorative boxes. It was a good thing she kept her walls and carpet neutral. Any other color would have clashed with her “love couture.” His mother wasn’t dressed in a frilly pink number right now, but she might as well have been. Norma Jean was a die-hard romantic in every bone of her five-foot-nine-inch frame.
Married to her childhood sweetheart, his mother thought everyone on the planet should be as lucky in love as her and his dad. To prove the point, she’d been fixing him up since middle school. How he’d escaped matrimony this long was anyone’s guess. Frankly, Adrian thought it was nothing short of a miracle.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped back into the fray. “Mom, when are you going to understand that love isn’t something you can orchestrate like one of your bingo nights at the community center? That’s not how it works. That’s not how I work.”
His mother rolled her eyes. “Okay, now you’re being dramatic. Need I remind you that since your breakup, your track record with superficial playthings—that don’t have the wits or the foresight to be wife potential—is staggering?”
“I’m glad my heartbreak amuses you,” Adrian snapped.
Norma Jean slid her glasses into her short, spiked gray hair and stood up. She pointed a well-manicured finger in her son’s direction. “Don’t you use that tone with me, or so help me I’ll put my women’s safety classes to good use and drop you on this floor.”
Adrian was instantly contrite. “My apologies.”
His mother smoothed her hands over her knit jogging suit and returned to her plush chenille chair to resume her scrapbooking. A minute or two later, she glanced up to find Adrian still brooding.
“Honey, believe me I was only thinking of your company when I sent Milán to you. I know how hard it’s been for anyone trying to make a living in the housing market these days. Besides, you’re always so stressed out about that Ludlow man getting one up on you.”
“I’m not stressed,” he refuted.
“Call it what you will,” she continued. “The point is I saw a perfect opportunity to help you so I took it. And if you’ll recall, since Justin got married last year—to the blind date that I had arranged for you by the way—”
“I was there, Mom, remember?”
“Like I was saying,” she elevated her voice and pressed on. “I may have set you up on a date or two since then, but I’ve respected your right to find your own wife. No matter how long and drawn out that process seems to be,” she added. “What I don’t understand is why you’re so against my choices—or yours for that matter. You date someone once or a few times and then poof. They vanish into thin air. Everyone’s been kicked in the teeth by love, son. The trick is to get back on that horse and gallop.”
Adrian stared at his mother. “It’s not that I’m against marriage or a serious commitment. I envision myself with a wife one day, but I refuse to enter into another long-term relationship without knowing exactly what I’m dealing with. I won’t make that mistake again. Ever.”
She shook her head. “I might as well resign myself to the fact that sooner or later I’ll have to rent some grandbabies.”
He snorted. “Now who’s being dramatic?”
As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. That matchmaking scheme his mother had set in motion had forced him to stand up his blind date, Sabrina Ridgemont, in an effort to teach his mother a lesson. Unbeknownst to Adrian at the time, his best friend, Justin Langley, had gone to break the date, in person. Through a series of events, Justin had led Sabrina to believe he was Adrian. The fiasco that ensued gave Adrian a headache just thinking about it. Fortunately, the outcome was what mattered. The truth had come out eventually, and despite a rocky start, Justin and Sabrina were now happily married. Thanks to Norma Jean and her machinations.
“Okay,” he conceded. “I apologize for jumping to conclusions about your friend. Now can we change the subject? It’s true, I would like a designer on staff to give my clients’ homes an edge, but I doubt Milán Dixon will be the one.”
“Oh?” his mother queried. “I don’t see why not. She’s perfect.”
She is most definitely perfect. Suddenly, Adrian looked uncomfortable. “Because I screwed up big time. I thought... Suffice it to say, when I saw her, I assumed you were up to business as usual and that it wasn’t a real interview. I let her know point-blank