Chapter 2

Maybe I should put the tape back in, just to watch her a little longer.

“Good luck, Romeo,” Jason said cheerfully. “If you ask me, I think if you could find a girlfriend who lasted you more than three months, you could find one that showed signs of being something more permanent.”

“I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about me. Hey, Jason, man to man, a universal question: Can one woman be enough for me… for the rest of my life?”

“Well, yes.” Jason shrugged. “You never know until the right one comes along. When she’s the right girl for you, everything clicks.”

“Look how Adele has changed my way of thinking about marriage,” he said, smiling like a kid—a smile Alex envied.

What he wouldn’t give to feel that happy in the middle of what the last few weeks had been.

“What brings you here so late?” Jason asked, changing the subject.

His brother was vice president of marketing and had relatively little to do with the construction side of the business.

“There’s something you should know before the press finds out,” he said, turning serious and closing the office door.

“Mike Templeton thinks he’s found proof that Nick Dodd was… well, that the elevator he was in wouldn’t have crashed fifteen floors without help.”

A few weeks ago, a fatal accident at the Bennett Memorial Children’s Hospital construction site took the life of their foreman.

The police did not immediately declare it an accident, so the Bennetts immediately hired a private investigator to get to the bottom of the matter quickly, to reassure investors.

“Are you sure? Very sure?” Alex asked, setting his shoes on the floor with a thud and standing up.

“Mike is a very careful man. He wouldn’t spread a theory of this caliber if he didn’t have evidence. He believes the elevator was sabotaged, which means Nick died on purpose.”

“He was murdered, you mean,” Alex stated.

Dodd had been a crucial part of the hospital project, which was a labor of love for the Bennetts. The whole family pitched in: they raised funds, contributed unpaid work hours, donated materials, sought regional and state support and goodwill for a medical center to serve the young and ethnically diverse population around the Pueblo.

Once the hospital was finished, injured and sick children wouldn’t have to travel up to twenty-five miles north for medical care.

Families from the Pueblo would receive care for their children without having to prove they had medical insurance or pay astronomical amounts of money they couldn’t afford.

This had been his family’s dream since they’d been in business. If someone wanted to hurt the Bennetts, sabotaging the hospital was a perfect way to do it.

“This is terrible. Have you told Dad?”

“I’m on my way to the Mansion now,” Jason said, lifting a hand helplessly.

Alex nodded with a grave face. A family didn’t reach the Bennetts’ wealth without making enemies along the way. But he didn’t like to think that envy and greed could drive someone to murder.

“Do you want to be with me when I give Dad the news?” Jason asked.

“No,” Alex said, finding himself staring at the dark TV screen. “Go ahead. I’ll find out the details later. I’ve got a lot to do here.”

“You don’t order a woman the way you order a pizza,” Jason told him, shaking his head as if he understood what he meant.

“Weddings have been arranged with much less than a videotape,” Alex said, flicking a bit of lint from his shirt.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Jason hugged him and patted his back affectionately.

A few minutes later, Alex was standing in the middle of his office, looking at the dark TV screen. Was he crazy for trying to run his own life? Women make demands on men.

Children demand unlimited love and constant attention to their physical needs.

All the time a man spends caring for his family costs him precious work hours and changes him, whether he likes it or not.

The dark, cold screen defied him. Alternatives. He desperately needed alternatives. Alex picked up the remote again. The pale, delicate face of Bella Parker materialized before him.

He preferred redheads. Miss Parker’s hair was brown.

He liked the amber eyes, although tall, long-legged women immediately attracted him.

He looked at the letter that came with the tape. She was barely five foot three.

She would come up to his shoulder.

Physically, she wasn’t for him. But her shyness, the frequency with which she blushed, and the way her eyes drifted away from the camera told him she wasn’t an assertive woman. Maybe that favored him.

And the only thing she wanted was a baby.

She needed a husband; he needed a wife. A simple exchange.

She had almost lost hope; she had ten days left of the six months Bella had paid the matchmaking agency.

She couldn’t afford another when she could barely pay the monthly rent.

That night the phone rang.

“We’ve received a request for a personal contact,” the woman on the other end of the line informed her. “I can send you a recording of this gentleman.

Let us know if you’d like to meet him in person. He seems an excellent match for you, Miss Parker.”

Bella skeptically thought it was bait to sign her up for six more months of service, but when the tape arrived with a brief biography, she wondered if the moment she’d hoped for had come. Someone wanted to meet her! And he knew what she was like, how shy she was with strangers, and what she wanted.

Last fall, it had taken all her courage to contact Cupid’s Arrows, the dating agency she trusted most.

They guaranteed confidentiality and an excellent selection of candidates. They received names and filmed interviews of men from all over the country who were serious and potentially interested in a marital relationship. Their clients were men and women with steady incomes who didn’t mind flying to meet a potential partner. There were no drifters, convicts, or unemployed men, the agency said.