Best Laid Plans

“Yet he didn’t call.”

“Nor did I call him. I don’t know why his great-grandmother and Nana think we make any sense as a couple. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I told him that because of his reputation around town as a womanizer, there’s no way I’d want to be linked with him.”

Tessa’s eyes widened. “You actually told him that?”

“Yes. But then he probably thought something similar about me not being his type, but for a different reason. I’m sure he saw me as most men do, as a techie queen.”

“You are not a techie queen.”

“Most men think so and you know it.” And until Damien Fargo, she hadn’t cared what they thought. She’d been fooled enough to think he was different. That he could see beyond her in-depth knowledge of scientific and digital technology and accept her for who she truly was. He’d pretended to and then, like every other guy, he’d proved he hadn’t liked a woman with a brain; one who was smart enough to think for herself and who didn’t hang on to a man’s every word. In the end, he’d tried changing her into the woman he had wanted her to be. When that failed, he had dumped her for someone else.

“You know my opinion on what most men think about your love for science, math and technology. As far as I’m concerned, they only wish they could be as smart.”

Ivy smiled. Tessa had always been her champion, lifting her up when others—especially men—tried putting her down. “Now, back to Ms. Helen. I just can’t imagine her doing such a thing.”

“Well, she did. I saw proof. He had one of those notes I supposedly sent him right on his desk. I read it. It was Nana’s handwriting. He and I were set up.”

Ivy sighed, rubbing one of the gold hoop earrings she wore between her fingers. “I thought about it on the drive here, wondering why Nana would do such a thing, and could only come up with one reason.”

“And what’s the reason?”

“She’s getting older and unfortunately for her, Dad didn’t settle down and marry until his late thirties. Nana was nearing sixty when I came along, her one and only grandchild. I guess she wants to live long enough for me to give her a great-grandchild.”

Tessa nodded as if following her logic and agreeing that had to be the reason as well. “What are you going to do?”

Ivy released a frustrated sigh. “I’m going to pay my grandmother a visit. She should be home soon from her exercise class. I was so mad when I left Nolan Madaris’s office. You don’t know how tempted I was to go straight to that gym and confront her. I came here instead to cool off.”

“And I’m glad you did.” Tessa then leaned toward her. “So tell me, Ivy. Is Nolan Madaris as handsome in person as he looks in the newspapers?”

Ivy shrugged. “I didn’t notice.”

“Liar.”

A smile touched Ivy’s lips because she had noticed, even when she hadn’t wanted to. He’d looked so tall and commanding while standing behind his desk. What she’d almost found too distracting was the dark stubble on his jaw like he hadn’t bothered to shave that morning. “Okay, I’m lying. I couldn’t help but notice. And yes, he looks just as handsome in person. Doubly so. Too much for his own good if you ask me.” No need to mention that he smelled good, too. Her senses had been filled with the subtle, masculine scent of his cologne the moment she’d walked into his office.

“My kind of man.”

Ivy took a sip of her coffee thinking, yes, Nolan Madaris would be Tessa’s kind of man, but he wouldn’t be hers. Although she’d arrived at his office angry and ready to chew him out, her anger hadn’t stopped her from noticing how good-looking he was. After all, techie or not, she was still a woman who could appreciate a handsome man when she saw one.

She figured Nolan Madaris was at least six-two or six-three. And his skin was a stunning coppery brown. Although his eyes had stared her down almost the entire time, she thought the dark coloring of his pupils was his most valued asset. He had that wow factor, which was probably why he was so popular with women. And she knew just the type of women he dated. The sleek, sophisticated type, draped in jewelry with her hair perfectly styled. A woman whose mind was filled with passion and romance instead of scientific knowledge and data.

Ivy noticed Tessa was staring at her. “What?”

“If what you said earlier is true—about the reason Ms. Helen wants you to hook up with Nolan Madaris, and she’s teamed up with his great-grandmother to make it happen—I can’t imagine her stopping now. Look how long she’s been trying to get the two of you together.”

Ivy recalled that it had started right after her breakup with Damien, nearly two years ago. Her grandmother had come by her apartment the following day to find her a total mess. Nana had told her to wipe the tears from her eyes because Damien Fargo wasn’t worth it. Helen Chapman had then told her that she hadn’t met the man she would one day fall in love with and marry but that his name was Nolan Madaris.

Of course Ivy had thought her grandmother was joking, but when Nana kept dropping Nolan Madaris’s name at every turn, Ivy couldn’t help wondering why her grandmother could believe such a thing. The only answer Nana would give her was that it was meant to be. Well, she had news for her grandmother. It wasn’t meant to be.

Like most people living in Houston, Ivy knew of the Madaris family. They were a large family, all highly successful and wealthy. She had graduated from high school with Victoria Madaris, who’d been one of the popular girls. Unlike some of the other mean-spirited girls at school, Victoria had always been nice to her and Tessa and would speak to her when the other girls would not. For that reason, she’d always liked Victoria. And Victoria had even invited them to her huge party when they’d graduated from high school, but Tessa had been out of town visiting her grandmother that weekend and Ivy hadn’t wanted to go alone.

Then there was the fact that the matriarch of the Madaris family, Nolan Madaris’s great-grandmother, Felicia Laverne Madaris, was a good friend of her grandmother’s. According to Nana, their friendship began over sixty years ago when Nana was fresh out of college. Her first teaching job was at one of the local elementary schools, and one of her first students was Ms. Laverne’s oldest son, Milton Madaris Jr.

Nana remembered ten-year-old Milton as a holy terror of Long Pine Elementary School, and Ms. Laverne had to come to school quite often because of her son’s misbehavior. Over the following years, Nana had also taught Milton’s younger brothers Lee, Nolan and Luke, and they’d been just as much of a handful as Milton. Working together, Nana and Ms. Laverne had been able to turn those behaviors around somewhat.

A half hour later Ivy was pulling into her grandmother’s driveway. Before getting out of the car, she sat there for a moment while memories flooded her mind. The huge two-story Victorian-style home had always been her refuge; a place she’d loved to visit and found comfort in doing so. Thanks to her grandmother and grandfather, there had been so much love radiating inside those walls. Love that she’d desperately needed.

Her parents had divorced when she was twelve and as far as she was concerned, it had been twelve years overdue. No child should have been exposed to such constant fussing and back-and-forth bickering as she had. There had been a fifteen-year difference in her parents’ ages. It was a known fact that her father, Dr. Ivory Chapman, had enjoyed his life as a bachelor and highly respected physician, and hadn’t been in a hurry to settle down and marry. When he’d decided to do so, he’d been in his late thirties and wanted a young wife—one who would easily bend to his will. He’d thought thirty-year-old Reba Andrews, a nurse at the hospital, would be the perfect woman. He’d discovered too late that Reba had no intentions of bending to anyone’s will but her own.

Ivy had drowned out her parents’ constant bickering with her books and her love for computers. She had also escaped the dysfunctional madness by coming to this house to visit her grandparents every chance she got. Both had been educators and had encouraged her to read. They had even converted her father’s old bedroom into a library just for her. They’d also encouraged her love for technology and would take her to tech conventions every year. Her grandparents had shown her how a loving couple could live in harmony with each other and had tried shielding her from the ugliness they’d known she experienced at home.

After her parents’ divorce, the real battle between her parents began with her caught in the middle of a custody battle. In the end, the judge awarded them joint custody. Six months of the year with each parent. She was certain that neither truly wanted her, but had used her to get back at the other. Graduating from high school and leaving for college had been liberating and seeing her parents only during the holidays had suited her just fine.

As if Dr. Ivory Chapman hadn’t learned his lesson the first time around, her sixty-five-year-old father was dating a younger woman. This time it was someone he’d met at a club. When she had talked to him last weekend, it was obvious he was quite smitten. He’d even told her he was thinking of marrying the thirty-two-year-old and retiring so they could become world travelers. He’d sounded happy and she’d told him she loved him and had wished him the best.

Her mother had remarried two years ago and moved to Florida. Ivy liked her stepfather, Harnett Clemmons, and whenever she visited them she saw how happy her mother was. She loved her parents and was glad they’d each found happiness, although with someone other than each other.

Her grandfather had died five years ago, and Ivy still missed his presence whenever she came here. Nana, who’d retired years ago after over forty-plus years as an educator in Houston’s public school system, had been the one constant in Ivy’s life, which made this conversation hard. Why would her grandmother do such an outrageous thing as send Nolan Madaris those notes? Only Nana could answer that question and explain her actions.

She got out of the car, walked to the door and, using her own key, let herself inside. Placing her purse on a table in the living room, she called out to her grandmother. She didn’t get a response; however, she knew for certain she was home since her car was parked out front. Moving toward the kitchen, Ivy figured Nana was in the backyard tending to her garden.

Moments later she came upon her grandmother busily snipping away at her prized rosebushes. Without saying anything, Ivy just stared at her and all the love she could feel for any one person came flowing through.

They’d always had a close relationship, which made it difficult to get mad at her about anything. But this wasn’t about just anything. This crossed the line. Nana usually gave Ivy advice only when asked. Ms. Laverne must have somehow convinced her sensible grandmother to take part in her schemes.

“Nana?”

Helen glanced up at her granddaughter and smiled. “Ivy? I wasn’t expecting you until later.”

She and her grandmother had made plans earlier in the week to have dinner later today and take in a movie. “Yes, but we need to talk.”

“Oh? What about?”

“I think you know. I paid a visit to Nolan Madaris this morning to return his flowers, only to discover they hadn’t come from him at all. And then imagine how I felt when he showed me a note I had supposedly written him.”

Her grandmother smiled. “So, the two of you have finally met?”

“Yes, but that’s not the issue here. Why did you let Ms. Laverne talk you into doing something so outlandish?”

Her grandmother shook her head. “Laverne didn’t talk me into anything. It was both our idea and one we decided to execute. You and young Nolan were taking entirely too long to suit us.”

Ivy tilted her head to stare at her grandmother, certain the woman was an impostor who’d taken over her nana’s body. She recalled when Tessa and her family had discovered one of her elderly aunts had the first stage of dementia. One of the signs was changes in mood, personality or judgment. She could certainly attest to the fact that her eighty-year-old grandmother’s actions were out of character.

“I am in my right mind, Ivy,” her nana said, as if reading her mind.

Ivy drew in a slow, deep breath. “If that’s true, then we definitely need to talk.”

“I agree,” Nana said, placing the snippers on a nearby table and tugging off her work gloves. “It’s almost lunchtime. I made some chicken salad this morning. Go ahead and start on the sandwiches. I’ll be there in a minute to make the tea.”