The Manning Grooms Read Free Page A

though she’d withstood more than her share of problems over the years. But then, who hadn’t?
    Her legs were attractive, too. Long and slender. She was tall—easily five-eight, maybe five-nine.
    “She’s not bad-looking, is she?” Carrie asked in a whisper.
    “Shh.” Jason slid back a warning.
    “Mom, this is Dr. Jason Manning, remember? Our apartment manager,” Carrie said, her arm making a sweeping gesture toward her mother.
    “Hello.” She stayed where she was, her fingers still clutching the apron.
    “Hi. You called about the broken faucet?” He took a couple of steps into the room, carrying his tool kit. He’d have a talk with Carrie later. If this took more than a few minutes, he might be late for the Lakers play-off game. It was the fifth game in the series, and Jason had no intention of missing it.
    “The broken faucet’s in the kitchen,” Charlotte said, leading the way.
    “This shouldn’t take long.” Jason set his tools on the counter and reached for the disconnected faucet. “Looks like it might be missing a screw.” He turned pointedly to Carrie, then made a show of sorting through his tool kit. “My guess is that I have an identical one in here.” He pretended to find the screw Carrie had handed him, then held it up so they could all examine it. “Ah, here’s one now.”
    “Don’t be so obvious about it,” Carrie warned in a heated whisper. “I don’t want Mom to know.”
    Charlotte seemed oblivious to the undercurrents passing between him and Carrie, which was probably just as well. He’d let the kid get away with it this time, but he wasn’t coming back for any repeat performances of this handyman routine.
    “I should have this fixed in a couple of minutes,” he said.
    “Take your time,” Carrie told him. “No need to rush.” She walked up behind Jason and whispered, “Give her a chance, will you?”
    True to his word, it took Jason all of thirty seconds to make the necessary repair.
    “The bathroom faucet’s been leaking, hasn’t it, Mom? Don’t you think we should have him look at that, too, while he’s here?”
    Jason glanced at his watch and frowned. If the kid kept this up, he’d miss the start of the basketball game. But he decided he had little choice: pay now or pay later. He gave Carrie the lead she was hoping for. “Or it’ll need fixing tomorrow, right?”
    “Probably.” There was a clear glint of warning in the fifteen-year-old’s eyes.
    Charlotte turned around and glanced from one to the other. Crossing her arms, she studied her daughter, then looked at Jason as if seeing him for the first time. Really seeing him. Apparently she didn’t like what she saw.
    “Is something going on here I don’t know about?” she asked.
    “What makes you say that?” Carrie said with wide-eyed innocence.
    Jason had to hand it to the girl; she had the look down to an art form.
    “Just answer the question, Caroline Marie.”
    The mother wasn’t a slacker in “the look” department, either. She had eyes that would flash freeze a pot of boiling water.
    The girl held her own for an admirable length of timebefore caving in to the icy glare. She lifted her shoulders with an expressive sigh and said, “If you must know, I took the screw out of the faucet so we’d have to call Jason over here.”
    Once again Jason glanced at his watch, hoping to extract himself from their discussion. This was between mother and daughter—not mother, daughter and innocent bystander. He hadn’t meant to let Charlotte in on her daughter’s scheme, but neither was he willing to become a full-time pawn in Carrie’s little games. No telling how many other repair projects the girl might turn up for him.
    “Why would you want Dr. Manning here?” Charlotte asked with a frown.
    “Because he’s a good-looking man and he seems nice and I thought it would be great if you got to know each other.”
    It was time to make his move, Jason decided. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be