He smiled when he thought of the Blackwells. The company had been run by Omar when Parnell had first been hired right out of college with a construction management degree. After less than a year he resigned to serve his country in the Marines and had remained there for five years. At twenty eight he had returned home to Detroit and resumed employment with the Blackwells.
At that time, Omar was grooming his only son, Gabriel, as well as another man about Gabriel’s age who had begun working for the company by the name of Christopher Chandler, to take things over when Omar retired. Omar had retired a few years ago leaving Gabe and Christopher in charge. And they had taken the Regency Group into an entirely new direction. The Regency Group was no longer a regional operation. Within the past five years it had become known world wide and had built numerous upscale shopping malls, industrial office parks and department stores all over the United States. Their biggest contract to date was the project they were presently working on here in Anchorage, a multimillion-dollar ski resort called Eden. So far everything was going well for the project and even with the bad weather they would occasionally encounter there was no doubt in Parnell’s mind that they would finish the resort on time.
He had worked for the Regency Group for over ten years and during that time work had always been steady. Now they were always moving around, from location to location, finishing one project and starting on another. Things had been great when Becky had been alive and he had looked forward to always returning home and spending time with his family. But now he wanted his family – namely the girls – to travel with him. Those types of arrangements had been hard because of babysitting issues while he worked. Rose had offered him a solution to that problem if he were to take it.
When his truck came to a stop at a traffic light, Parnell rubbed his jaw with his hand. Rose was right. The girls were getting older and would need to start school pretty soon. Usually a job project took four to six months to complete, sometimes longer. That meant he would always be on the go, constantly moving around from place to place. That sort of living arrangement didn’t offer a lot of stability to a child. It was worse than being a military brat. At least they got to remain in one place a lot longer than six months. He enjoyed having the girls with him and looked forward to coming home each day knowing they were there.
His thoughts then shifted back to Rose. Mrs. Summers had done a great job taking care of the girls before she’d left town, but he would be the first to admit that Rose was doing an even better job. She spent quality time with them. Once a week, weather permitting, they would go on a field trip someplace – usually to the library, the museum, a movie or to the mall. One day she had even brought the girls out to the job site so they could see where their daddy worked and get an idea of what he did for a living. And she included a lot of educational enrichments for the girls. In addition to teaching them how to use the computer, she was teaching them how to speak Spanish, which was a second language she mastered, as well as how to play the violin, something else she did well.
The girls were always kept busy in a good way. Usually after he got in from work and spent quality time with them, by eight o’clock they would be in bed and fast asleep. And according to Joya and LaToya, there was never a dull moment in the Cabot household and they thought Rose was a lot of fun. They were simply crazy about her. Rose indicated she was getting attached to his daughters. Well, he knew they were getting attached to her as well.
Even worse, he had gotten attached to her.
Over the past three weeks he had gotten used to coming home and her being there. Usually, she would have dinner prepared and was ready to leave once he got home. And she returned every morning before he left at six. On a few occasions, due to bad weather, she’d had to stay overnight. During those times she had slept in the guest room, located on the other side of the house. But each time he had been fully aware that she was there, sleeping under his roof.
By the time Parnell had made it to the job site, he couldn’t help but admit to himself that one of the main reasons he was uncomfortable with Rose’s proposal was that not only had he gotten attached to her, but he was attracted to her. She was the first woman to actually grab his attention since Becky. Although he knew that Becky would want him to be happy and to get on with his life, even after three years he just couldn’t let go of the love he had lost and make the move to do so.
He grabbed his hard hat off the seat beside him and put it on thinking that it had taken Rose a lot of guts to come up with that proposal, and a part of him admired her for it. He also felt bad that past relationships that had gone wrong in her life had driven her to the point where she would willingly consider a loveless marriage.
Parnell inwardly flinched when he recalled how he’d asked her if she was crazy for coming up with the proposal when she’d only been thinking about the girls. She had been right to say that he would be getting a lot more from the arrangement than her. She was a single woman, a gorgeous one at that and she had a lot going for her. For her to be willing to be tied down to him and the girls, while moving from place to place, was a lot to take on.
Even though he hadn’t changed his mind about not going along with her idea, he owed her an apology for the way he had reacted to her presentation. He would definitely apologize when he saw her later.
* * *
“And they lived happily ever after.” Rose smiled after reading the last line of the story for the girls. She closed the book and could tell from the smiles on their faces they had enjoyed it.
“Will you read us another story Rose?” LaToya asked eagerly, jumping up and down.
“Okay, one more story and then it time for your Spanish lessons,” she said pulling another book out of the pile beside her. “And then after that, the two of you can help me prepare dinner.”
The girls had awakened a half-hour ago and had asked that she read them a story. She had planned to take them to the library but the forecasters predicted a snow storm might be headed their way. She appreciated Joya and Latoya’s enthusiasm for the written word. As a child she liked listening to stories and reading as well.
An hour later Rose stood at the stove making a pot of chili while the girls sat at the kitchen table working on their various puzzles. The extent of their help with dinner was limited to preparing the yeast rolls. Since it reminded them of playing with their Play-Doh, it was a task they thoroughly enjoyed and Rose was always amazed at how well they worked together.
She was even more amazed that she could immediately tell the identical twins apart when at times Parnell had a hard time doing so. Needless to say the girls occasionally enjoyed pulling a fast one over on their daddy, but when it came to her they knew not to try it.
Putting the chili on simmer, she walked away from the stove and over to the window to look out. She had no reason to doubt the weather report that there would be a lot of snow falling tonight. That’s the one thing she had discovered about Anchorage since arriving a month ago. It always seemed to snow even when you least expected it. She had gotten a call from Sage to let her know she had arrived in Detroit and was determined to talk to Gabe when she saw him tomorrow night at his grandparents’ anniversary party. Rose hoped everything worked out for Sage since she knew just how much she loved Gabe and their breakup was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
Rose then thought about her own personal situation. Although she was a little torn, she couldn’t blame Parnell for his reaction to her proposal. In a way, her offer had been a little outlandish, but still, if he would just think about it and weigh everything she was offering him he would see what all the benefits entailed.
She had known from the first after meeting Parnell at that seminar here in Anchorage almost eight months ago, and learning that he was a widower, that he was still carrying a torch for his dead wife. At the time it didn’t bother her because she had a life of her own and it didn’t include getting interested in a widower, especially one with children.
But that was before she had made changes in her life; especially her lifestyle. Like she had told Parnell, she had given up on men who meant her no good. In fact, she had given up on men period. She wasn’t looking for a marriage filled with love. If she was involved in one where the two people respected each other, then that would be just fine with her. Unlike the story she had read earlier to the girls, she no longer believed in happy endings.
But she did believe in mutual respect and there had been something about Parnell that had stood out from the first moment she had met him. He had been at the opening reception for the seminar, a lavishly decorated affair where the attendees had been expected to be immaculately dressed.
Parnell had been standing across the room alone, looking as handsome as any one man could look, dressed in a nice pair of dress slacks and a dinner jacket. For some reason she could tell he felt uncomfortable being among such elegance. The next night she and Sage joined Gabe and Parnell for dinner. During dinner she and Parnell had discussed a number of things and she had learned a lot about him. He had even admitted, just like she had suspected, that he had felt out of place at the dinner party the night before and that he would have much preferred being surrounded by steel beams, concrete and cement slabs than the expensive looking china, crystal-stemmed wine glasses and stylish looking furniture.