An Engagement For Two

Theresa made her way behind him to the door of her office and closed it. She had a feeling her former protégé would prefer privacy.

Turning around to face him, she said, “I’m listening.”

Now that he was here, Jeff wasn’t sure how to start. He wasn’t in the habit of asking for favors, especially not from the woman he credited with giving him not only his start, but also the push to open his own restaurant—not to mention that she had also lent him the money to get started.

He’d paid off the latter, but in his heart, he would forever be in Theresa Manetti’s debt. Which made coming here, hat in hand, rather awkward for him.

But this wasn’t for him, Jeff reminded himself. It was for his mother. Thinking of that now, he pushed on. “I remember that you once said one of your close friends has a daughter who’s a doctor.”

“I might have mentioned it,” Theresa recalled. “And if I did, I was talking about Maizie. Her daughter, Nikki, is a doctor.” A slight note of confusion entered her voice. “But Nikki’s a pediatrician and I don’t imagine that you’re looking for a baby doctor—are you?” she asked suddenly, looking at him in surprise.

It had been a while since she’d been in contact with Jeff, and although she would have liked to think he would have gotten in touch to tell her if he was getting married, she really had no guarantee of that. After all, he was a very busy young man these days.

“No,” Jeff quickly answered. “But your friend’s daughter does interact with other doctors, doesn’t she?” he asked. “At the hospital, I mean.”

She wasn’t accustomed to seeing Jeff this unsure of himself, not since he’d first come to work for her. She tried to set him at ease.

“Nikki’s a very friendly young woman, so yes, I’m sure she does. What’s this all about, Jeff? Are you ill?” she asked, displaying a deeply ingrained mother’s sense of concern.

He suddenly realized how he had to be coming across. “Oh, no, not me—”

“Your wife, then?” she asked, watching his face to see if she’d guessed correctly.

“No, no wife. No time,” Jeff added, then told her, “You know I’d never get married without inviting you, Mrs. Man—Theresa,” he corrected before she could. “You’re like a second mother to me.” He sighed. “Which brings me to my first mother.”

“Your mother’s ill?” Theresa asked, recalling how supportive the woman had been of her son when he’d first opened his restaurant, Dinner for Two. “What’s wrong, Jeff?”

“That’s why I need the name of a good doctor—preferably one with a really good bedside manner about him—or her,” he added quickly. “Actually, I think my mother would prefer a her,” he told Theresa. “As for me, I’d just prefer a good doctor.”

“When was the last time your mother saw a doctor?” Theresa asked, curious.

He really didn’t have to stop to think. He knew. His mother avoided doctors as if they carried the plague in their pocket. “When she gave birth to my sister. Tina’s twenty-nine now,” he added.

That was really hard to believe. “You’re kidding,” Theresa said.

“No, I’m not,” he said honestly. “My mother doesn’t trust doctors. A doctor misdiagnosed my father’s condition until it was too late to save him.” It had happened twenty-five years ago. At the age of ten, he’d suddenly been the man of the family. “He died.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Theresa said with genuine sympathy. “But that doesn’t mean all doctors are like that.”

He blew out a breath, feeling very weary all of a sudden. “I know that, but my mother, well, it’s hard to win an argument with her. However, she’s getting weaker and I just might be able to bully her into it—if I can find a competent, sympathetic doctor to take my mother to.”

“Which is where I come in,” Theresa concluded.

Jeff nodded. “Could you put me in contact with your friend’s daughter? Or have your friend’s daughter recommend someone to you? I don’t care how it’s done,” he told her, feeling just a little desperate, as if he was fighting the clock.

He had no idea just how serious his mother’s condition was, but she’d been in pain recently. A lot of pain. “I just need it done. I’ll take my mother to see this doctor on your say-so. My mom’s only sixty-five, Theresa, and she has a lot of life left—as long as I can get her to see reason and get treatment for whatever it is that’s making her feel so weak and ill.”

Theresa smiled at him. She found his concern for his mother touching.

“You’re a good son, Jeff,” she told him affectionately.

Jeff shrugged away the compliment. He appreciated what Theresa was saying, but he really needed the name of that doctor. “She’s a good mother. I’d like her to live long enough to see her grandkids.”

Theresa’s ears perked up. “So there is something I should know about?”

Jeff laughed softly. “My sister, Tina, has got two kids and my brother’s wife is two months away from giving birth to their first baby.”

Since he’d opened the door, Theresa saw no reason not to slip in and satisfy her curiosity. “What about you, Jeff? Would you like to have children?”

It wasn’t something he thought about often. “First I’d have to find a wife who would be willing to put up with my crazy hours—”

Theresa’s antennae went up a little higher. “But if you did?” she pressed.

“Then yes, I guess I’d like to have kids,” he allowed. “But right now, I just want to find someone who can get my mom well.”

Theresa nodded. “I’m on it,” she told the young man she thought of as a son. “Consider it already taken care of, Jeff,” she added with a smile.

He paused to kiss her cheek before leaving. “You’re the best,” he told her.

“At what I do, yes,” Theresa replied softly. She doubted that her former protégé heard as he hurried from her office.

* * *

“You’ll never guess who came to see me today,” Maizie Sommers told her two best friends as they all gathered around the card table in her family room for their weekly game of poker.

“Considering all the traffic that your office sees, my guess would be just about anybody,” Cilia Parnell quipped.

“Try harder,” Maizie coaxed, displaying her customary patience. “Who’s the one person you’d never think would come to see me? I’ll give you a hint—it’s about our matchmaking hobby,” she told her friends, her eyes shifting from Theresa to Cilia and then back again as she waited for one of them to make a guess.

“Well, that narrows it down to half the immediate world,” Cilia quipped. And then she took a closer look at her friend. “You look like the cat that ate the proverbial canary. I suggest you tell us or we’ll be sitting here guessing all evening—and getting it wrong.”

“Besides, I have to ask you something—and I have news,” Theresa announced excitedly, “so get on with it, Maizie. You know I hate it when you just leave off the ending like that.”

Maizie shook her head, surrendering. “Oh, all right. You two do take the fun out of this, you know that, don’t you?” she said, feigning disappointment.

“The person’s name?” Cilia prodded her friend, waiting.

She thought she’d at least get them to play along once or twice. However, since they didn’t, Maizie told them, “Nikki.”

Theresa looked slightly confused. “Your daughter, Nikki?”

“I’ve only got one daughter,” Maizie pointed out, thinking it was needless to add her name in like that. “Yes. Nikki.”

“She came to you about matchmaking?” Cilia asked, astonished.

“Yes,” Maizie replied patiently.

It didn’t make any sense to Theresa. “Well, your granddaughters are too young, so Nikki didn’t come about them—” And then something else occurred to her. “How does she know that you’re into matchmaking?”