Best Laid Plans

“No, and of all people my grandmother should know that. Good day, Mr. Madaris. I apologize for bothering you.”

She turned to leave with as much dignity as she could muster after such an embarrassing encounter. The reality of the situation was that they’d been played by two crafty old women. “Hey, wait a minute. And just what am I supposed to do with these flowers?”

Ivy turned back around, met his gaze and lifted her chin. She tried ignoring that dark penetrating gaze that seemed to see to the heart of her. “The same thing you can do with those cards that I didn’t send. Trash them.”

She paused and looked at the flowers. “On second thought, they are way too pretty to be trashed.”

And they were. A huge assortment of white lilies, blue delphiniums, alstroemerias and yellow roses in a beautiful ceramic vase. “I suggest you drop them off at a hospital or nursing home. That’s what I did with all the others. Or you can give them to your great-grandmother.”

And with that, Ivy turned and walked out of his office.

CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_0258b2ee-6a15-5722-88b7-eaaf3fa133a7)

IVY CHAPMAN HAD insulted him, and very few women did that. In fact, Nolan couldn’t name one who ever had. He should feel delighted, downright overjoyed that his strategy had worked and she’d thought he was a two-bit womanizer. However, something was keeping him from being filled with over-the-top excitement. Probably the realization that he’d been conned by his great-grandmother.

He’d told Corbin over a year ago that he refused to come up with some elaborate plan to counteract his great-grandmother’s shenanigans. There was no plan that could outsmart Felicia Laverne Madaris. Rather, he was simply going to enjoy life—and women—to the fullest. A strategy aimed at deterring the woman his great-grandmother had selected as his bride.

He figured sooner or later Miss Chapman would get wind of his womanizing ways and come to the conclusion that he was a man incapable of ever committing to any one woman. The most logical thing for her to do would be to put up as much resistance to a Madaris-Chapman match as he would be doing. That’s why those notes had annoyed the hell out of him. It seemed no matter how many women he became involved with, she was determined not to go anywhere. Now he knew that hadn’t been the case at all and his strategized efforts had worked.

So why was it bothering him that she was thinking the very thing he’d wanted her to think about him? Maybe his agitation was due to the mere fact that he found Miss Chapman attractive. She had nice features, including a gorgeous pair of eyes and nice-shaped lips. Both her eyes and lips could definitely captivate a man. His only question was why was she dressed so conservatively? And why would his great-grandmother assume, given his taste in women, that he would be interested in her?

He was used to beautiful women who considered themselves fashion divas. They not only dressed to impress but dressed to possess...namely a man’s heart if given the chance. And he knew for a fact none would be caught wearing the buttoned-up-to-the-neck blouse and the long skirt Miss Chapman had worn. Nor would they have put a pair of low-heel pumps on their feet. Most women, for business or otherwise, wore stilettos to showcase their legs.

She hadn’t been wearing any makeup. However, he thought she had beautiful skin without the use of any. He’d also noticed there hadn’t been any polish on her fingernails, no rings on her fingers, no bracelets on her wrists and no necklace around her neck. But she had worn a pair of gold hoop earrings in her ears.

He couldn’t help but be curious about Ivy Chapman. Was she a woman who didn’t have a problem not being cut from the same cloth, and wasn’t trying to impress anyone but herself? If that was the case, he found her rather unique.

But if that wasn’t the case and she was nothing more than an uptight, straitlaced businesswoman who was a man hater as well, then she was the type of woman he stayed away from. But regardless of what type of woman she was, he would stay as far away from her as he could, mainly because his great-grandmother assumed she was the perfect woman for him.

But still, his curiosity about her wouldn’t go away and he decided he would Google her and find out more about her. He suddenly realized he looked like a damn fool sitting there with a huge vase of flowers staring him in the face while he gave Ivy Chapman far too much thought. It would be just his luck for one of his many relatives who worked in the building to show up and see the huge bouquet. He would never hear the last of it. Especially, if they got wind of the story behind them. He pushed the intercom button.

“Yes, Mr. Madaris?”

“Marlene, please step into my office and bring the rolling cart with you.”

“Yes, sir.”

Moments later his administrative assistant opened his office door and rolled the metal cart in as he’d instructed. “Take these flowers and have them delivered to one of the hospitals in the area.” He refused to give them to Mama Laverne like Miss Chapman had suggested. His great-grandmother deserved a harsh scolding and not any flowers.

“All right.”

After Marlene left his office, Nolan Googled Ivy Chapman. The photo on her website looked just as conservative as the real thing. Her hair was in that bun thing again and those same earrings were in her ears.

She owned a cybersecurity business, Cyber-Tech Securities. And it was described as “a unique technology company, specializing in moving the twenty-first century into the twenty-second.” She stated her occupation as a cybersecurity analyst. In other words, she was a legal hacker.

He had to admit she and her business were impressive. Cyber-Tech Securities was linked with some of the best in the business, including Intel and Texas Instruments. But what he’d found most impressive was that she’d begun her career with the government, working for the Department of Homeland Security.

He noted a wealth of community work and charity affiliations. She’d even established a college scholarship foundation named after her grandfather who, like her grandmother, had been a well-known educator in the city. Her foundation awarded numerous scholarships each year.

She was twenty-six, with a degree in technology engineering from MIT. Very remarkable, indeed. They had attended the same university. However, their paths would not have crossed due to the eight-year difference in their ages.

She’d only been in business for two years, but she’d been able to snag several lucrative contracts.

Nolan pushed back from the computer, impressed. More than impressed. She wasn’t a plain Jane as he’d originally thought, but a techie. There was a difference, and someone like him who owned an electronics company and had been enamored with technology all his life understood the difference. To reach the level of success that Miss Chapman had and in such a short period of time meant she’d worked hard and pushed to the side anything she’d considered nonessential or frivolous.

Growing up, his life had been centered around computers, so his choice of a profession wasn’t a surprise to anyone, especially not to his family. As a kid, he’d have rather spend time indoors messing around with computers than outdoors playing with other kids. He’d been the proverbial geek, with glasses and all. He hadn’t minded since he’d been happy and everyone had pretty much left him alone, except when he and his cousins had gone to Mama Laverne’s house, where she taught them to cook, or to Granduncle Jake’s Whispering Pines, where he’d bonded with Corbin, Reese and Lee and, more important, discovered how important it was to have a social life.

He wondered if Ivy Chapman had a social life. Drawing in a deep breath, he figured that her social life or lack of one wasn’t his concern. But the issue of his great-grandmother meddling in his affairs was. He glanced across the room to the wall where a huge portrait of said meddler hung.

Felicia Laverne Madaris was the matriarch of the family. Having borne seven sons, his grandfather Nolan being one of them, Mama Laverne had taken over the running of their ranch with her sons after her husband, Milton, died. All her sons were still alive except for Robert, who had been killed in the Vietnam War.

Mama Laverne had insisted that each of her grands and great-grands hang this particular portrait of her in their places of business and in plain view. She sat looking regal, dressed in her Sunday best with a huge dressy hat on her head, and she appeared to be looking directly at the viewer with those shrewd eyes and all-knowing smile. It was known by every member in the family that she liked giving orders, and she expected them to be carried out. Regardless. Well, he had news for her. He had no intention of allowing her to butt into his affairs. Namely, his romantic life or lack of one.

Nolan reached for his phone and then decided telecommunications with Mama Laverne wouldn’t do. He needed to see his great-grandmother in person and look her in the eyes to make sure she had a clear understanding of where he stood and what he would not tolerate.

He stood and headed for the door. He would have it out with Mama Laverne once and for all.

* * *

“WHAT DO YOU mean Nolan Madaris isn’t the person who was sending you those flowers?”

Ivy glanced across the desk at her best friend, Tessa Hargrove. She had left Nolan Madaris’s office and come straight here, to Tessa’s property management office. She and Tessa had been best friends since high school, and although they’d gone to different colleges, their close friendship had remained intact.

Their friendship surprised some people. While in school, Ivy had few friends and was considered a geek because of her deep love of science, math and computer technology. Unless they needed her tutoring services, she was ignored by her classmates...until Tessa transferred to the school in their junior year.

Tessa had been ignored as well but for a different reason. Because of Tessa’s beauty, the other girls saw her as a threat and treated her as such. So, Tessa and Ivy, as different as night and day, had become the best of friends.

“It was so embarrassing,” Ivy said, covering her face with her hands. “I practically stormed into his office, carrying that huge vase of flowers and told him not to send me any more. Only to discover he wasn’t the one sending them. His great-grandmother was.”

A confused expression appeared on Tessa’s face. “His great-grandmother? I don’t understand. Why?”

“As part of a matchmaking scheme. But what has me so angry is that my own grandmother was in on it.”

“Ms. Helen?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“By practically doing the same. While Nolan’s great-grandmother was sending me flowers, my own grandmother was sending Nolan notes from me.”

“Ms. Helen actually did that?” Tessa asked in a voice that clearly said she was having a hard time believing such a thing.

“Yes, Nana actually did that.”

“What did the notes say?”

Ivy took a sip of coffee. “The same thing the card on the flowers said. That I would love for us to meet and the note was signed with my phone number.”