A Millionaire for Cinderella(8)

“This Gloria woman sounds lovely.”

“Oh, she was a real peach. Did I mention she turned thirty-four on her last birthday?” he added abruptly.

“Thirty-four?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hasn’t your grandfather been dead for...”

“Ten years,” he supplied. My grandfather died ten years ago.”

Making Gloria...ew. Patience wrinkled her nose at the image.

“Exactly. And now I’m stuck dealing with her for the rest of eternity.”

Patience took a long sip of her cola. His comments had opened the door to a lot of questions, about many of which she had no business being curious, and yet seeing his frown, she couldn’t help herself. “Ana doesn’t talk much about her family,” she said. “Other than you, that is.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t much love lost between Ana and Grandpa Theodore. From what I understand, they stopped speaking to each other around forty or fifty years ago. People were shocked when she traveled to his funeral. She told them it was only out of respect for me.”

“Wow.” To not speak to your sibling for decades? She couldn’t imagine going more than two or three days without talking to Piper. “That must have been some fight.”

“True. I asked Ana once, but all she said was Grandpa Theodore stole her happiness.”

“How?” Ana seemed like one of the happiest people she knew.

“Beats me. I remember my father grumbling once that he wished my grandfather would make things right this one time, so whatever happened was his fault. Unfortunately, unless Ana decides to open up, we might never know.”

“Your poor dad. Sounds like he was stuck in the middle.”

“For a little while anyway. He uh...” His eyes dropped to his half-eaten meal. “He and my mom died in a car accident when I was fourteen.”

“Oh.” Patience kicked herself for bringing up the subject. “I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

Time didn’t mean anything. There was nothing worse than having the ground yanked out from under you, leaving you with no idea where you belonged, what would happen next, or who would catch you if you fell. The teenage Stuart would have held in the pain, put on a strong face. She could tell by the way he held himself now, closed and protected.

Just like her. No one should be forced to grow up before they’re ready.

Again, it was as if she’d spoken her thoughts out loud, because Stuart looked up, his blue eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and gratitude. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you grew up earlier than I did.”

His words twisted around her heart. If only he knew... For a crazy second, she longed to tell him everything, thinking that he, having been in her shoes, might understand. Reality quickly squashed her fantasy. He’d never understand. The two of them came from two different worlds. Rich versus poor. Clean versus dirty. Sitting here, sharing childhood losses, it was easy for that fact to slip her mind.

“It’s not really a contest I wanted to win,” she heard herself answer.

“I don’t suppose anyone ever does.” Picking up his soda, he saluted her with the paper cup. “To happier subjects.”

That was it? No questions? No probing? Patience studied his face, looking for evidence that the other shoe was about to drop. She saw nothing but sincerity in his smoky eyes.

“To happier subjects,” she repeated. She’d gotten off easy this time.

Or had she? Stuart smiled over the rim of his glass, causing her insides to flip end over end. All of a sudden, Patience didn’t feel she’d gotten off at all. More like she was falling into something very dangerous.



“Ana seemed a little more with it tonight,” Patience remarked a few hours later. They were walking along Charles Street on their way home from the hospital.

“Yes, she did,” Stuart replied. The change from this afternoon made him hopeful. Interesting, how his aunt’s improvement seemed tied to Patience’s arrival. Much as he hated to admit it, the housekeeper and his aunt had a real rapport. Patience was so, well, patient, with the older woman. Gentle, too. Getting Ana water. Making her comfortable. Everything about Patience’s behavior tonight screamed authenticity. If her kindness was an act, Patience deserved an award.

Then again, he’d seen award-worthy performances before, hadn’t he? He’d purposely brought up Gloria over dinner to gauge Patience’s reaction, thinking the topic of fortune hunters might at least cause her to reveal some kind of body language. Instead, he got sympathy, felt a connection...

“You’re frowning.” Patience remarked.

“Sorry, I was thinking how little Ana ate this evening.”

“She never eats much. You know that.”

Yes, thought Stuart, but he needed something to dodge her question.

They walked a few feet in silence. The night was balmy and clear. Combined with the warm breeze, it created an almost romantic feel to the air around them. Stuart stole a glance in Patience’s direction. She had her arms folded across her chest, and her eyes were focused on the pavement. Even so, he could still sense the undulating of her hips. It was, he realized, unconscious and natural. Otherwise, he suspected she’d attempt to downplay the sensuality the way she did her figure and her looks. Hell, maybe she was trying and failing. She certainly wasn’t having much luck minimizing the other two.

That plastic hair band was failing, too. Strands of hair had broken free, and covered her eyes. One of them needed to brush the bangs away so he could see their sparkle again.

He rubbed the back of his neck instead.

Patience must have mistaken the action for him being warm. “You can definitely tell it’s going to be the first day of summer,” she remarked.

“Longest day of the year. Did you know that after tomorrow, every day gets a few seconds shorter? Before you know it, we’ll be losing two and a half minutes a day. Sorry,” he quickly added. “I did a graph for a high school science fair. The fact kind of stuck with me.”

“In other words, you were blind, asthmatic, unathletic and a science nerd. No wonder you gave up on baseball.”

He felt his cheeks grow warm. “For the record, I’d outgrown the asthma by then.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Hey, we can’t all be homecoming queens.”

If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she hugged her body a little tighter. “I didn’t go to many school dances,” she said.

Another piece to what was becoming a very confusing puzzle. One moment she was sexy and sharp-witted; the next, her eyes reminded him of a kitten—soft and innocent. What the heck was her story? He was no closer to knowing if Patience had an agenda than he was this morning. They might say you get more flies with honey, but all he got was more questions.

Along with a dangerously mounting attraction.



Cool air greeted them upon entering the brownstone. Stuart shut the front door and turned on the hallway light. Nigel, who had been sitting on a table by the front window greeted them with a loud meow before running toward the kitchen.

“For crying out loud,” Patience called after him. “It’s only been a few hours.”

At the other end of the hall, the meows grew louder and more indignant—if such a thing was possible. She rolled her eyes, earning a chuckle from Stuart. He said, “You think he’s bad, you should have met the other Nigels.”

There were more? “You mean he’s not the first.”

“Actually, he’s the third. Nigel the Second lived here while I was in law school.”

“Wow, Ana must really like the name Nigel.” Either that or the woman wasn’t very good at pet names.

“I asked her once why she gave them all the same name,’ Stuart added. “She told me it was because they all have Nigel personalities.”

“If that’s true, remind me to avoid guys named Nigel.”

Their chuckles faded to silence. Patience toed the pattern on the entryway carpet. What now? There was an awkward expectancy in the air, as if both of them knew they should do or say something. The problem was, neither knew what.

At least Nigel had stopped his meowing.

“Thank you for dinner,’ she said finally.

“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “Maybe we’ve got this being civil thing down.”

“Maybe. I have to admit, you’re not bad company when you aren’t accusing me of things.”

“Never fear, tomorrow’s another day,” he replied. Patience would have laughed, but there was too much truth to his comment. This temporary truce of theirs could break at any time.

“By the way,” he added, you’re not such bad company yourself. When you aren’t dodging questions.”

“Like you said, tomorrow’s another day.” She turned to leave only to have her left foot tangle with something warm and furry. Nigel. She maneuvered herself awkwardly, trying to avoid stepping on the darn cat. Her ankle twisted, and she pitched sideways, toward the stairway. That caused her right knee to buckle, and before she knew it, she was falling in a heap.

Stuart caught her before her bottom touched the floor. “Stupid cat,” she muttered.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Nigel on the other hand might have used up another one of his nine lives.” She looked around, but the creature was nowhere to be found.