Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The taped part of the date was awkward for Fiona, who couldn’t tune out all the cameramen and production staff standing around just watching them.
Plus she hadn't been able to get that almost kiss from him out of her mind. But she did like Alex. He wasn’t what she’d been expecting; he was a little tamer than she’d thought her match would be.
But he was handsome with his square jaw and brilliant blue eyes.
He looked Italian, even though he was clearly American.
He had thick, curly, black hair that he’d left charmingly ruffled, the inky curls framing his face.
As they finished up their lunch, Fiona got up and ’put Bella Ann into her stroller, tucking a blanket around her. When the baby was first brought onto the set, Alex had immediately warmed to her, which wasn’t what Fiona had expected.
“She really is adorable,” Alex said, walking over to her.
“Thank you. I’m glad she seemed to take to you. She cries every time my assistant, Jet, comes near her,” Fiona said.
“What a nightmare that must be,” Alex said. “My mom says that kids have a sixth sense about people.”
“My mom does, too,” Fiona said. “Do you have time to walk with me in the park?”
He glanced at his watch and then nodded. “I’ve got a meeting in an hour.”
“On a Saturday?”
“Well, it’s with my parents, but they’re shareholders in my company and my mom, who’s an accountant, always insists on calling them meetings so I can write them off at the end of the year.”
She laughed at that. “Your mom sounds . . .”
“Crazy,” he said, with a smile. And it was genuine, something she hadn’t realized until this moment. He’d been sort of smiling at her during lunch, but this time the expression went all the way to his eyes. “She’s always thinking of ways to save me money, even though I don’t need to any more.”
“So you’re a self-made millionaire?” she asked.
“Definitely,” he said. “My dad’s a gym teacher and my mom, as I mentioned, is an accountant. I grew up solidly middle class. What about you?”
“Well, my mom is a model and my dad, as you know, has his own fashion house, but he started out with nothing. So did my mom. She said if she’d been born with average looks she’d still be poor, but my father swears he’d love her anyway.
Everyone adores her because she's...I don't know how to describe her but she is just guileless, she is interested in everyone and everything. She makes everyone feel like what they do is the most important job in the world.”
“I wonder,” Alex said. “Did they meet through his job?”
“Yes, they did. She showed up for a runway show and my father knew immediately that she was going to be the face of his newest line. It’s all very . . . romantic. Dad says he loved her at first sight,” Fiona said.
“Is that important to you?” he asked as they walked down the street toward a park that Fiona had been to before.
“Romance?” she asked, not sure what he meant.
“Yes,” he said, crowding closer to her as a group of teens walked past them on the sidewalk. He put his arm around her waist, sending a little tingle through her body from where he touched her.
“It is important to me. Otherwise couples end up just sort of existing together like roommates, and I want something more. My parents kind of spoiled me for relationships. They’re devoted to each other and have worked to keep the romance alive between them.”
He ran a hand through his thick hair, disrupting one of his curls, but it fell back over his forehead. “That’s not always possible in real life.”
“My parents make it work,” she said. “Don’t worry, Alex, I’ll help you out with the romance part.”
“Geez, thanks,” he said sardonically.
They got to the park and ambled along the main tree-lined path, dappled sunlight falling over them. She couldn’t help but notice that he stared at her when he thought she wasn’t looking.
“Was I what you were expecting?” she teased.
“No. Though I did specify I wanted someone who was attractive,” he said.
“You did?”
“Of course. I might be a geek, but I’m not interested in someone who’s as brainy as me.”
“Um, what are you trying to say here, buddy?” she asked, stopping the stroller and turning to face him.
“Just that I wanted someone who was my opposite,” he said. “I’ve tried dating women who are in my field. We just bore each other with our work details or argue about software fixes. I don’t want to date someone who's just like me.
“Arrogant,” she said. “And I thought you were just a nice guy.”
“I am a nice guy,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I’m a pushover. I know where my strengths are.”
“I do, too. Being pretty isn’t one of them,” she said. “My mother is the great beauty in our family.”
He just arched one eyebrow at her. “You think you’re not attractive.”
She shook her head and laughed. “I didn’t say that. I’m just not breathtaking, like my mom is.”
“I’d argue that,” he said.
“Did I steal your breath when you first saw me?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he said.
“Maybe?”
“I think you’re fishing for a compliment,” he said.
“I am. A girl likes to know she’s noticed by her man,” she said.
“I noticed,” he said, leaning closer to her for a kiss. And though Fiona didn’t want to rush the physical side of things, she completely forgot about her agenda for this matchmaking thing as his arms came around her and his mouth moved over hers.
His kiss was warm and quiet, but also very intense. He knew how to kiss, which surprised her, and she realized that there was much more to Alex Cannon than she’d expected.
Bella Ann made a mewling sound and Fiona stepped back from him, reaching down to touch her baby’s face. Then she turned back to Alex. He was watching her and the baby with an inscrutable expression.
“What?”
“I am just realizing how different dating you will be.”
“How do you mean?”
“With the baby. ’She’s going to take most of our time, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Fiona said, the joy of his kiss evaporating at his words. “But that's part of being a parent. Has meeting Bella Ann changed your mind about wanting a family?”
"No, not really," he said.
What was he trying to say? He was starting to remind her more and more of Giovanni--Bella's father. Though to be fair Gio hadn't ever pretended to want children. "We could just end this now."
He looked at her that grey-blue gaze of his cutting past the pretense and going to her heart, she thought.
"I'm not being catty about your response, having a baby in my life has taught me that not everyone is ready for that. I'd rather end things now before I start to care for you and you realize that Bella Ann is too much for you."
He reached over and touched the baby's head and then looked back at her. "I have to add that to my planning for our time together. Its never going to be just you and me, is it?”
“No, it's not. I don't understand why you are just now realizing that I'm a single-mom,” she said.
“No. That’s not what I meant,” he said.
“What did you mean?”
Alex realized that he’d stepped into the fire with his ill-thought-out words. This was why he’d kept his interpersonal relationships so shallow. He didn’t have the filter that most people had when it came to speaking. He just said whatever entered his mind, regardless of the consequences.
“I meant that . . .” He had no idea how to articulate what he had meant without saying something harsh again. “Just . . . I know nothing about kids and even less about babies. For some reason I had this image of her sleeping all the time.”
Fiona tipped her head to the side to study him and he wondered if he’d screwed up again. Then her little half smile appeared. She licked her lower lip and reached down to touch the baby on the head.
“I’m learning that she never sleeps when I want her to and that my plans must always be altered.” She tucked a strand of her thick hair behind one ear and pushed her sunglasses up on the top of her head.
“Does it bother you?” he asked, because he suspected that kind of thing would mess up his work. He needed hours alone in his office with quiet to get code written and come up with new apps and games.
“No,” Fiona said. “I adore every minute with her. It does help that I’m used to working in complete chaos.”
“Chaos?” he asked. He had envisioned her with an entourage who took care of things for the child—at least he had before he’d met her. He’d expected anyone who had the net worth to go to Matchmakers, Inc. wouldn’t be too hands-on with kids, but now he wasn’t sure what to expect next.
“Well, I design in my loft and have at least six people in there at all times. People talk about fabrics and colors and all that noise somehow becomes white noise. I like it in the back of my mind as I create new pieces,” Fiona said, as they walked to the end of the park and then started back toward the entrance.
There were other families in the park, mostly moms playing with toddlers, and Alex wondered when Bella Ann would start walking and playing like that.
“Are you ever alone?” he asked her, thinking he might have figured out a part of Fiona’s extroverted personality.
“No. I hate being alone. My mother says it’s because she spoiled me and my dad said it’s because if I’m alone no one can tell me I’m fabulous,” she said with a self-deprecating grin.
“Is that the case?”
“Not at all. I know I’m fab all the time,” she said, winking at him, but there was something in her tone that ’belied the obnoxiousness of her words.
“Seriously?” he asked. She hadn’t been like this during their lunch. Now he couldn’t wait to get home and google her and find out all of the details of Fiona and her past. To get a sense of who the real Fiona was because right now he couldn't figure her out.
She shrugged. “Isn’t that what you’d expect me to be? Shallow and vain?”
“No. The woman I met at lunch today isn’t consumed with herself. You’re a kind and caring person. I know I’m not what you expected in a match—”
“How do you know?”
“Because you aren’t what I expected. I just imagined you’d have someone more . . . well less like me in mind.”
“Less like you?”
“You know, someone who spent their time in front of the cameras, as you do.”
“I didn’t want that. I was actually hoping for someone who would be the yin to my yang . . . or is it the yang to my yin? I can never keep those straight.”
“Yin to yang,” he said absently. “Yin is the masculine, yang the feminine.”
“What type of woman were you expecting?” she asked, turning the questions on him.
He didn’t like being put on the spot. He wasn’t used to talking so intimately with women, but he knew that he should say something that would make her feel good about herself.
He thought about it for a good long minute before he said, “Well.
..to be honest someone who was more the girl next door. Someone who wasn't...plastic.”
“Plastic? Do you mean as in surgery?” she asked.
“No . . . I think I mean the type of woman who’d say what you just said about being ‘fab.’ A diva who is putting on a show all the time. And I think that you can be that woman, but there is something more to you. You were real at lunch, and that’s the woman I want to see more of,” he said.
“I’ll try, but it’s hard to just be myself. You need to cut me some slack.”
“You can trust me, Fiona,” he said.
“I’m not sure yet,” she said. Bella Ann made a cooing sound and Fiona reached down to lift the baby out of the stroller. As she stood up and turned around, Bella Ann reached one little hand out toward Alex.
He took her hand in his and he realized that this was for real.
He’d always thought he wanted a family, but now that he saw the seeds of one right here before him, he was gripped with fear.
Dating supermodels was one thing, marrying one .
. . he didn’t want to end up being her experiment in the real world and getting his heart broken by both her and her daughter.
“Where is Bella Ann’s father?” Alex suddenly asked.