LITMIR.BIZ

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for a few more hours, and if this woman actually liked him and wanted to see him again, he might manage to have a life outside the church.

      People said he needed one. They warned about getting completely caught up in his work and forgetting to have a personal life.

      Ben held the toddler, who was studying him with distrusting eyes. Grace had the baby. The blonde had the diaper bag. Allie was close by. They were ready.

      “Thank you both so much,” Grace said.

      “We’re having one of those days.” Allie sounded six going on twenty-six.

      After a few more moments of confusion over misplaced car keys, a lost sock and a small battle of wills with the toddler over his car seat, the little blue station wagon was loaded up and on its way, leaving Ben alone with the blonde and trying to remember how to flirt. He’d never been that good at it, and for the past few years, he hadn’t had time, even if he did remember how.

      She saved him by sticking out her hand and saying, “Sorry. It was so hectic back there, I didn’t have time to introduce myself. I’m Kate Cassidy.”

      He took her hand in his. “Hi. Ben Taylor.”

      “Nice to meet you. Are you going back to the office, too?”

      “Yes.”

      They turned and walked together.

      Kate said, “So, are you a big brother?”

      “No, I’m in the highly precarious position of owing the director a favor, and I’m not sure yet how she’s going to collect. I hear she can be brutal. I could have six little brothers by lunchtime.”

      “Charlotte does seem to know how to take advantage of every opportunity.”

      “She twisted your arm, too?”

      “No. I can’t say that. It was more like…” They’d gotten back to the office door, and Ben held the door open for her. Kate nodded in the direction of his hand. “…like opening a door in front of me and knowing I’d walk right through it. You know what I mean?”

      “Oh, yeah. Those get me every time,” he said, thinking the door metaphor could really be a sign. He believed in signs. And phone numbers. He had to get her phone number before she disappeared. He was trying to picture his calendar through the end of the week, to see if he had a day open for lunch, when they walked into the Big Brothers/Big Sisters office one more time.

      “Kate,” the receptionist said. “It’s so good to see you. I’ve been waiting to see an announcement in the paper, but I must have missed it. You and Joe have picked a wedding date, haven’t you?”

      Ben barely managed not to growl.

      Chapter Two

      “Not yet,” Kate told the woman, whose nameplate read Melanie Mann.

      Was it Ben’s imagination or did she seem upset by the question? Ben stood behind her, eavesdropping shamelessly.

      “Oh. Well, I understand,” her friend said. “No time to plan, right?”

      “Right,” Kate agreed. “Not yet.”

      Ben thought if she really wanted to marry this man, surely she could find time to plan a wedding.

      “Sorry about your mom,” Melanie said. “I know you must miss her terribly.”

      “Yes, I do,” Kate said.

      Okay, so he was a cad. A truly terrible person. It sounded as if she’d lost her mother recently, and here he was, hoping there was something wrong between her and her fiancé, just so Ben could maybe have lunch with her.

      He sighed, then frowned, then found both women looking at him.

      “Sorry we were so rude,” Kate said.

      “No. It’s not that. I was just thinking of…a problem I need to address.” His own shortcomings.

      “Melanie and I went to high school together,” Kate said. “This is Melanie Mann. Melanie, this is Ben Taylor.”

      Melanie picked up a tiny, yellow Post-it note. “Ahhh. That explains it. Charlotte just handed me a scribbled note that I think says, ‘Ben, ten-thirty, today.’” She turned to Ben, “That would be you?”

      “That’s me.” He held out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

      “You, too. But I’m afraid we have a problem. Charlotte didn’t check with me before scheduling a time for you to come in, and she already has a ten-thirty appointment. With Kate.”

      “It’s all right. I can wait,” Ben offered. He was already in hot water with Mrs. Ryan. Another few minutes away from the office wouldn’t matter. “Besides, I just called this morning. I’m betting Kate’s had an appointment longer than that. She looks like the organized type.”

      “Oh, definitely,” Melanie said.

      Kate hesitated, then said, “You don’t have to be somewhere?”

      “My morning’s clear.” So was lunch. Too bad he couldn’t ask her. Not if she had a fiancé.

      “Well, if you’re sure, I do need to go ahead. I have paperwork to look over and a lunch meeting and three clients coming in this afternoon.”

      “Go ahead,” Ben said, noting she’d said lunch meeting, not lunch date.

      No lunch date. No wedding date. Still, none of his business.

      Then he remembered she’d said she had two sisters. Maybe one of them would have lunch with him. If that didn’t work out, maybe he could start a singles group at church….

      Just so you can get a date, Ben?

      Okay, he was sleep deprived from sitting up late into the night with a distraught couple while their baby had emergency surgery, and he was getting a little silly now, thinking to solve his non-social-life problem in one single morning out on the town. It wasn’t as if the issue was urgent. He’d been here this long and not done a thing about it. The issue would still be there next week, next month, probably next year.

      He really hoped he didn’t wait until next year to do something about this.

      Kate was giving him a funny look. So was Melanie.

      “Sorry.” He yawned deeply, unable to hold back the motion at all, and then said, “I can be easily distracted, and I was out way too late last night.”

      Which made it sound as though he was partaking in some blatantly unministerly things. “Working,” he added. “I was working.”

      “Me, too,” Kate said, giving him a puzzled look. “But I wouldn’t have pictured you as the workaholic type.”

      “Which means what? That you are?”

      “Well…” Kate hesitated.

      “She most definitely is,” Melanie said.

      “What do you do?” Ben asked.

      “Kate has her own mortgage brokerage company. She’s the youngest person in our class to own her own business,” Melanie said, sounding proud.

      “It’s not much,” Kate claimed. “Me, a desk, a phone, a fax, a computer and an assistant. That’s it.”

      “Still, it’s all yours. I wish I had the guts to start something like that and make it work,” Melanie said.

      “It wasn’t guts,” Kate said. “You know how I like to do things my own way. Starting the business was the only way I could earn a living and not have someone else telling me what to do all the time.”

      She laughed when she said it, but Ben thought he must be right. A well-organized, ambitious workaholic who couldn’t find time to plan her own wedding?

      Not for him at

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