No Wife Required! Read online

  To make doubly sure of keeping George’s presence a secret, she would park out front for the night Brad’s boss wouldn’t have a clue. As it turned out, he was a quiet, self-effacing person in his sixties who just happened to be the vice president of the electronics firm Brad worked for.

  He’d put up Brad many times when her brother-in-law had meetings in Denver. Under the circumstances, taking him to the Utah Jazz basketball game turned out to be a stroke of genius. John Stockton and Karl Malone, two Olympic basketball players from Utah, had been at their best. If taking Brad’s boss to the game helped her brother-in-law up the corporate ladder, so much the better.

  She had been wise to keep George out of sight, but the poor thing must’ve thought she had gone for good. As soon as her guest left the next morning in a taxi, Lacey jumped out of bed, threw on a robe over her nightgown and hurried out to the carport. No telling how long the monkey had been awake. She could hear the TV. It sounded like the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir.

  George grabbed her around the legs when she opened the door. “I’ve missed you, too.” She patted his head before poking hers outside the door to see if the coast was clear.

  Her neighbor’s blue Saab was now parked in the other carport, but she’d seen no sign of life. “Come on, George. We need to make another run for it.”

  He required no urging and reached the kitchen before she did. Once his breakfast was prepared, she returned to the storeroom and cleaned up. With the TV in one arm, his sack of toys and dishes in the other, she somehow managed to lock the door and make it back inside the condo without being observed.

  While George watched TV, she left for church, slipping out the front door carrying a sack of smiley faces for the children in her Sunday school class. They loved wearing them on their foreheads if they’d been good.

  No sooner had she returned from church than the man from the car rental appeared at her front door. Because of the situation with George, her client had rented her a motor home so that she and George could use it in place of a hotel room while she was in Idaho.

  She parked her own car in the carport, then wrapped George in a blanket and carried him out to the motor home as if he were her baby. She couldn’t take chances on anyone from the condo seeing him. Once their bags were on board, she drove the man back to the rental agency, then she and George were on their own.

  Lacey loved driving the motor home. Because she was on the shorter side, she’d always wondered what it would feel like to sit in a semitrailer and figured it would be like this. King of the road.

  One thing about her client. He never did anything by half measures. He had leased her the best Winnebago on the lot. It had everything. Sleeping for six, a shower, galley, TV, VCR, radio, and a dinner table with blue and white curtains at the windows.

  Though strapped in the car seat, George was in heaven. She was pretty happy herself and flicked on the radio, excited at the prospect of listening to Max Jarvis display his ignorance in matters of love once more.

  A guest was speaking. “...So it makes sense that living together is the only way to find out certain things which would never be learned in a dating relationship.”

  “You mean like discovering that your girlfriend had a snoring problem,” Max Jarvis interjected.

  “Snoring, talking in your sleep, walking in your sleep. The list is endless, and so are the surprises which often cause newlyweds to end up in divorce.”

  “You make a good practical point, Dr. Ryder. You constantly hear married people say that the honeymoon was ruined by something unexpected, which in turn set a negative tone for the marriage. It looks like the board is lit up with callers wanting to talk to you.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Max Jarvis and we have Dr. Victor Ryder in studio for the next half hour, anxious to discuss his new book entitled, Living Together. A solution for the technological age. Hello, Phil.”

  Lacey brought the motor home to a shrieking halt. George hooted.

  “Sorry, but that man makes me so angry I missed the turnoff for Malad. We’ll have to backtrack to Garland.”

  For ‘The Voice’ to agree with some one-book-wonder marriage therapist on the subject of living together made Lacey’s blood boil. Especially someone like Victor Ryder. The name was all too familiar to Lacey and if he was a legitimate therapist she was Madonna! How could Max Jarvis be such a fool? Why didn’t he go back to California where he belonged?

  She had half a mind to call him and tell him just that. When she spied a free telephone booth outside a convenience store in Garland, she maneuvered the motor home into the parking lot and turned off the ignition.

  “I’ve got to make a phone call, George. You can watch me. I won’t be long. We’ll reach Idaho Falls by seven and then some. Since the reservations are all made, we won’t have to worry where to park when we get there.”

  As she left the motor home, a couple of kids were coming out of the store. When they saw George perched near the front dashboard they asked Lacey if she minded if they watched him while she made her call.

  She knew how they felt. Apes had always been her favorite animal at the zoo. Maybe that was why she had been so willing to help out Lorraine. Lacey told the boys to enjoy themselves and returned to the business of getting a free long-distance line. After ten tries, she connected.

  “This is Radio Talk. Do you have a question for Dr. Ryder?”

  “Actually, I’d like to speak to Mr. Jarvis.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Gloria.”

  “Hold on, Gloria. You’ll be up next.”

  “I’m holding.”

  Lacey waited another minute, then Max Jarvis’s voice was speaking. “Hello, Gloria. I hear you want to speak to me.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Where are you calling from?”

  “Garland.”

  “As in?”

  “Utah! And if you knew anything about this state, you wouldn’t have had to ask that question.”

  He chuckled. “I may not know a great deal about Utah, but I do know voices, and you’re not Gloria. You’re Lorraine! I’ve been hoping you’d call back, but it’s been a while and I’d almost lost hope. Go ahead and take all the time you need to vent your feelings about your unsatisfactory personal life.”

  Lacey blinked in stunned surprise. He was a lot more intelligent than she’d given him credit for.

  “My personal life is my own concern. But I do want to vent my feelings about the kinds of outrageous opinions you express, which not only show that you’re from out of state, but that you know nothing about men and women.”

  “So what you’re saying is that if a man isn’t from Utah, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?” he asked in a mild tone, raising her blood pressure.

  “Let’s just say we were all just fine until you came along with your unique brand of ‘practicality’! What really alarms me is your willingness to let anyone who has written a book be a guest on your show. You allow them to pass off their work as the latest authority for the masses to heedlessly imbibe, then side with them when you know there are two sides to every issue! What about romance? What about love?”

  His chuckle got under her skin. “Me thinks the lady protesteth too much. Something tells me you’ve never lived with a man. Is that right?”

  “That’s right, because I believe in romantic solutions not practical ones!”

  “Be more specific.”

  “If a woman’s lucky, she’s only going to give herself to one man forever. If a man’s lucky, he’s only going to give himself to one woman forever. That’s the highest form of love, consecrated in marriage.

  “Yet your pseudo-doctor guest is advocating that we should be ruled by our heads not our hearts and you are condoning it. You’re both out of your minds.”

  “How would you like to put that remark to the test, Lorraine?”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you written a book lately on the relationship bet
ween men and women?”

  “I wouldn’t presume to take on a subject that should be left alone.”

  “Good. Then you’re the perfect person to appear as a guest on my show next week and prove to my face that I’m out of my mind, as you said.”

  “That won’t be hard. I’ll look forward to it,” she averred before it dawned on her what she’d just said.

  “All you callers out there heard her. It ought to be an interesting show. Rob—take the information on Lorraine while we go to our next caller.”

  Lacey knew Max Jarvis’s tactics. He hadn’t expected her to take up his challenge. She kind of surprised herself by agreeing to appear as a guest on the show. What an irony that after phoning into Radio Talk all these years, she would be facing the one host who had the capacity to rile her.

  If she were being honest with herself, she would admit that she really wanted to find out if the man measured up to his voice.

  By now, a crowd had gathered around the motor home to watch George. She had to work her way through to climb on board. He hooted a welcome.

  “Good news, George. I’m going to be on Radio Talk next week. I’ve a few thousand things to say to that infuriating man. It’s time for his education to begin.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “HI! You made it. I’m Rob Clark. Max Jarvis will be with you in a minute. I take it you’re Lorraine.”

  Lacey nodded and shook his hand. For the time being, she was stuck with Lorraine’s name. “Pleased to meet you, Rob.”

  She put her briefcase next to a Naugahyde couch. The radio station was a small bungalow situated on a lonely road in the southwest part of the city not far from the condo. There wasn’t anything about the place that resembled what she had pictured in her mind throughout her trip to Idaho and back.

  “Can I get you coffee, or a cold drink?” He stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking expectant.

  “Nothing for me, thank you.”

  “Is this your first time as a guest?” He watched with avid interest as she sat down on the couch and crossed her legs.

  “That’s right.” Because he was trying so hard, she gave him the benefit of a full-bodied smile. “Do you have any advice for me?”

  Her question caused him to blush, which made him appear even younger than she’d surmised. “Just remember this isn’t television. There’s no camera trained on you, so you shouldn’t be nervous. But even if there was a camera, you would have no worries, believe me.”

  “I agree,” The Voice concurred.

  Startled, Lacey looked around and found herself the focus of Max Jarvis’s unnerving scrutiny.

  She blinked. He reminded her of somebody’s brother. How many times in her life had she been told that one of her friends had this gorgeous brother Lacey just had to meet? The perfect male. Six feet two inches, dark blond hair, rugged features, blue eyes, lean, a white smile, intelligent, successful.

  She’d heard it all, but for once in her life there he was, standing three feet away. And like all things too good to be true, he was probably married with one or two little offshoots showing just as much promise.

  A glance at his tanned hands revealed a huge white opal set in antique gold. Not your typical wedding ring, but she knew from listening to his show that Max Jarvis was a man with discriminating tastes. He’d traveled and lived in many parts of the world.

  He’d probably picked up that stone in the Australian outback. His tan certainly didn’t come from lying around a swimming pool all day.

  She happened to know he had recently been on a trip to Alaska. But whether or not he’d gone with his family was anyone’s guess. Of all the radio hosts, he was the only one who didn’t discuss his personal life, which was an irony considering he loved to discuss everyone else’s.

  To Lacey’s way of thinking, it was a deliberate ploy to keep him mysterious and intrigue his listeners. The ploy worked. He had the biggest following of anyone on Radio Talk. At this point, not even Lacey was immune.

  A phone was ringing somewhere, but no one seemed particularly worried about it.

  His laserlike glance took in her conservative navy skirt and blazer with a snowy-white silk blouse that tied in a large bow at the neck. There was something intimate about that male assessment which made her heart give a little thump.

  His gaze flicked to her face, studying her classic features, the cut of her cap of glossy black curls.

  “I guess I’d better answer it,” his producer finally murmured, and disappeared.

  “Lorraine?” Her host extended his hand as she rose to her feet. “I’m Max Jarvis. We’ll be going on the air after world news. If you’ll step into the booth, I’ll acquaint you with the setup. As Rob said, you don’t need to be uncomfortable. If you come across the way you did when you called in last week, we ought to have a lively half hour.”

  She bit on the velvety underside of her lip with her small, even white teeth.

  “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Jarvis, but I have a problem. I came in early, hoping I could talk to you before the broadcast.”

  Max’s lips twitched. “I hope it’s not serious,” he called over his shoulder as she followed him down the hall and into the booth with her briefcase in hand.

  “I’m afraid it is.” She sat down in the chair he indicated and opened her briefcase, pulling out a legal-size folder. “This file contains information on Dr. Ryder I think you should see, but Nester warned me I couldn’t talk about it over the air.”

  “Nester?”

  “Nester Morgan, of Morgan and Morgan law firm. I’m a close friend of his as well as being his CPA. He said you’re free to look at the information. In fact, I hoped you would have time before we went on the air. It’s a printout about Dr. Ryder’s credentials.

  “Among other things you’ll discover that his real name is Horace Farr. He’s a doctor of divinity, not psychology. There’s a copy of his transcript and it only lists a few psychology classes. You’ll also find out that ten years ago he was excommunicated from his church for preaching false doctrine from the pulpit.

  “If you read further, you’ll see that he changed his name and started his own church before this book came out. One of his followers lived with him until she’d given him all her money, then he left her and moved in with someone else. She came to Nester to try to get her money back.”

  Max took the file from her well-manicured hands and quickly perused some of the findings. After a moment, he sent her a long, penetrating glance.

  “I’m amazed you would allow anyone to see this,” he muttered in a serious tone. “You must be on amazing terms with...Nester,” he mocked dryly. “In fact, you could be arrested if this information were leaked to the public. Why risk it?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

  She bristled. “Because your show is listened to by thousands of people who hang on your every word, and I hate it when you go on about a guest when you don’t know the real truth. The fact is, you’re from—”

  “California,” he supplied in a testy tone.

  “Yes,” she affirmed haughtily because he’d made her so mad.

  He sucked in his breath. “I bow to your superior knowledge on this one, Lorraine. It appears I’m going to have to be much more thorough in my background checks from now on.” He flashed her a quick smile. This time it made her heart turn over. “What else do you have in that proverbial bag of tricks?”

  She chuckled softly. “Nothing which could get me into a legal entanglement.”

  “But I might have to eat crow.”

  “Maybe a little. I’ve lived here all my life.”

  His eyes blazed a hot blue. “And I haven’t.”

  “Correct. And it shows. Dr. Ryder comes off sounding smooth, but his central Utah accent gives him away.”

  He held her glance until she felt the heat rise to her face. “An honest woman who speaks her mind...”

  Beneath his words were serious undertones. A strange shiver chased across her skin.

  “
All right, we’re on in thirty seconds. Pick a subject and we’ll talk about it. We won’t discuss your views on Dr. Ryder unless a listener brings it up. Fair enough?”

  He moved too fast for her. “More than fair.”

  “We’ve got ten seconds. What shall we talk about first?”

  She seized on the first thought to enter her head. “Football and romance.”

  One brow quirked. “Something tells me I might be sorry.” While Lacey reacted to his quiet irony, he spoke into the mike. “Welcome to Radio Talk. Tonight we have a guest who is going to give me a little lesson about the differences between men and women.

  “Lorraine is in the booth now, and I think what we’ll do is conduct a poll. For each issue we touch on, we’ll have our listening audience call in their vote. Make it a ‘yes’ if you agree with Lorraine.

  “If you don’t go along with her opinion, make it a ‘no.’ I’ll have my producer tally the votes at the end of the program. Is that all right with you, Lorraine?”

  “That’s fine, Mr. Jarvis. But if I get more yeses than noes, will you give me a free sample of that lotion Lon Freeman pushes on the morning show? I want to see if it’s really as miraculous as he says it is.”

  A nerve twitched in his jaw, letting her know she’d said something to amuse him. Unable to resist, she added, “The other day he interrupted a dialogue with an important spokesman from the United Nations, just to advertise it. He has interrupted a lot of famous guests for the same reason, and I can’t figure out why.

  “He didn’t use to do things like that, and I’m afraid he’s losing his listeners, which would be a shame since he’s always been a local favorite.”

  “Rob—” The exciting man seated next to her called to his producer. “Why don’t we take a poll on that issue first?”

  She decided Max was trying to smother a laugh, which relieved her nervousness a little.

  “Let’s find out if our listeners agree with her. If they do, we’ll pass the information along to Lon. To think I believed myself to be the only one in the doghouse with Lorraine.