The Right Twin For Him (O'Rourke Family 2) Page 4

  He cleared his throat. It wouldn’t help to start thinking that way.

  “Maddie, I really am sorry.”

  “Let’s not talk about it any longer,” she said quickly. “I don’t think I can take any more apologies. You wouldn’t believe how many times Ted said he was sorry.”

  Patrick studied the stubborn jut to Maddie’s chin; she reminded him of an eight-week-old kitten spitting at a big old tomcat. And as the tomcat in question, he thought it was pretty funny.

  And sweet. But if there hadn’t been such a gulf between them in experience, then he wouldn’t have to be so careful.

  “Ted is the fiancé, I take it?”

  “Ex-fiancé.”

  “I hope you smashed a cake in his face, or something equally appropriate.” Patrick wished he could visit a little frontier justice on “Ted.” He might have been a troublemaker as a kid, but the O’Rourke men had always had a strict code when it came to the female half of the human race, and Ted had broken the code.

  To his surprise, Maddie giggled. “Not quite. I did throw my engagement ring at him, though. I think it cut his lip.”

  “Good for you.”

  “That’s what Dad said. He wanted to shoot Ted, but Mom said it wouldn’t help, and we were lucky I caught him before the wedding instead of after. And there I was in the middle of it, listening to them and feeling so strange—like it wasn’t even me.” Maddie bit her lip and looked up. “You probably noticed I tend to cry easily.”

  Great, another opportunity to say something stupid. That was another thing to be angry with Ted about—if Ted had been a decent guy, then Maddie would have come to Washington as a bride and he wouldn’t be having so much trouble with foot-in-mouth disease. Married women were strictly off-limits.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being emotional,” he murmured.

  “I don’t mean to cry. The waterworks just happen,” she said matter-of-factly. “But it was funny—after I blew up at Ted I felt frozen. Here I’d grown up expecting we’d get married and have a family, then all at once the whole course of my life was unraveling and I didn’t even cry.”

  “You were in shock.”

  “I guess.” Maddie rubbed the back of her neck. “It was like driving along a road with everything okay one minute and in the next minute the road and signs have all vanished and you don’t know what to do. Have you ever felt that way?”

  “When my father died,” Patrick admitted. “It’s a hell of a feeling.”

  Maddie got very still and solemn. “How old were you?”

  “Fourteen—old enough to get in trouble and too young to understand why this terrific guy I worshipped was suddenly gone. I sure got pissed off at the world.”

  “It must have been hard.”

  “Like getting a knife in your gut,” he muttered.

  Patrick thought about the way Keenan O’Rourke had always been there for his wife and children, at the same time working two jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. How had his father done that?

  “So, what do you do in Slapshot?” he asked deliberately.

  Maddie gazed at him a moment longer, then lifted her shoulders, accepting the change in subject. She might be innocent, but she wasn’t dumb.

  “A little of everything. Mom owns the local newspaper and I answer phones, sell advertising, take orders for the classifieds…whatever needs doing. I’m not necessary, but she likes having me around. Now I have to go right back, and everyone will come in to gossip about the wedding being canceled. It’ll be worse than if I’d stayed.”

  “Why do you have to go back so soon?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I cashed in Ted’s airplane ticket to pay for the room at the bed-and-breakfast inn, but the money won’t last forever.”

  “Good for you. I hope he’s the one who paid for the tickets.”

  The corners of her mouth twitched. “He paid for them, but unfortunately we didn’t prepay our room reservations. I thought about getting a job here, only I don’t have any real skills, and saying you’ve worked for five years as your mother’s gofer isn’t impressive on a résumé.”

  Renewed sympathy went through Patrick. He knew what it was like to worry about a résumé that way. If Kane had his way, the entire family would be working for O’Rourke Industries—at an exorbitant salary. As his sister, Shannon, always said, nepotism didn’t bother Kane. He was a great brother, but he had an overprotective streak that wouldn’t quit.

  Kane had even wanted to buy the radio station or at least invest in it, but it wouldn’t have been the same if Patrick hadn’t earned it for himself. You had to earn success or it didn’t mean anything. He had every intention of going it on his own and proving he didn’t need anyone else to get by.

  “Tell you what, I’ll give you a job,” he said, hardly able to believe he was opening his mouth. Having Maddie in such close contact was asking for trouble—it would be bad enough if she ended up spending time with Beth and Kane.

  Maddie blinked. “You’ll what?”

  “Give you a job. I own a radio station. You said you sold advertising for your mom’s newspaper, and I’m temporarily short in my ad department. It works out well for both of us.”

  “You hardly know me.”

  “That isn’t true, you might be Beth’s—”

  “I know, I might be her sister,” Maddie interrupted. “It’s nice and I appreciate the thought, but it’s hardly a reason to hire me.”

  “Well, you could save money by staying with Beth. She did offer,” he suggested, hoping Maddie would reconsider the invitation from his sister-in-law. It would get him off the hook with the job offer and make his brother’s wife very happy.

  Maddie shook her head. “Would you want to stay with newlyweds?” She didn’t have to add after catching your fiancé cheating three hours before your own wedding?

  Patrick scratched his jaw. He was uncomfortable around newlyweds and he hadn’t just gotten his heart stomped on by his fiancée. And he didn’t know why he was offering Maddie a job. He could claim he was just helping his brother and Beth, but deep down he suspected old-fashioned chivalry was responsible. Maddie wasn’t ready to face the scene of her humiliation, and he wanted to help.

  He was in big trouble.

  If he tried to climb on a white horse and play the hero he’d get bucked off faster than he could say, “Wounded pride.” Hadn’t he already screwed up where Maddie was concerned?

  Patrick looked at her hurt eyes and surrendered. Something about Maddie reminded him of the old-fashioned values his father had once taught him. He didn’t have any choice, he had to help.

  “So your option is to go home and face the town gossips, or stay here and sell advertising for a few weeks while we figure out whether you and Beth are related,” he murmured, ignoring the warning his survival instincts kept screaming. “I know which option I’d prefer, but you’ll have to decide for yourself.”

  Maddie touched her left ring finger with her thumb. She’d worn her engagement ring there for so long it felt funny without the diamond solitaire. She hadn’t really liked the single diamond—it stood too high on her finger and constantly caught on things, but it still seemed strange.

  Jeez. Everything was so mixed up.

  Between Ted and his big-chested punch girl, a possible long-lost sister and that sister’s handsome brother-in-law, Maddie didn’t know what to do. She needed time to think, but Patrick was waiting for an answer and she didn’t want to go back to Slapshot. At least not for a while.

  As for the stuff with Patrick and him warning her about getting ideas, she had overreacted. Her pride was battered and highly sensitive. She might have laughed at any other time.

  “It shouldn’t take that long to find out about Beth and me,” she said uncertainly.

  He gave her a charming smile that made her stupid heart skip some more. “It’s hard to say, but you’ll want to get to know each other and it’ll be easier to do that if you’re here in Washington.”

/>   “Okay,” Maddie said before she could change her mind. “I’d love to sell ads for your station.” She crossed her fingers behind her back, figuring it was just a small white lie. Nobody would be hurt by it, and if she turned out to be lousy at selling radio advertising, then he could fire her.

  “Great. You can start tomorrow,” he told her. “Got something to write on? I’ll give you directions to the station.”

  She scribbled the information down on the back of an envelope. It wouldn’t be so bad, she reasoned. He was an attractive man, but she’d sworn off romance. And even if he had talked about nibbling on her, it was obviously something he didn’t intend to follow up on doing. Besides, she probably wouldn’t even see him that much.

  Somehow, that made her feel even more depressed.

  “I’ll…um, see you tomorrow,” she murmured, stuffing the envelope back in her purse.

  Maddie headed for her car, still thinking about Patrick O’Rourke’s charming smile. She didn’t have good sense, that much was obvious. Maybe if she really had a broken heart she’d be immune to the man.

  “Drat,” she muttered, fumbling with her car key.

  “Drat what?”

  The voice, so similar to her own, made Maddie’s head pop up. “Drat men,” she said honestly. “They’re nothing but dirty, rotten, cheating trouble.”

  Beth stepped down from the doorway of her store. Maddie knew her smile was meant to be sympathetic, but the other woman was obviously too happy with her husband to think men were anything but wonderful.

  “Want to talk about it?” she asked.

  “Not again. I…I already spilled the beans with Patrick,” Maddie admitted, chagrinned. She didn’t know quite how it had happened, but she’d basically told him everything. Except the part about not being completely in love with Ted.

  Criminy, she must have sounded pathetic.

  She hadn’t planned to say those things, but she’d opened up like a chili pepper roasting over a fire. And it was inevitable that Patrick would tell Beth and Kane, so why go over it again? Her and her big mouth.

  “Was it so bad talking about it?” Beth murmured. “Sometimes talking helps.”

  Maddie shrugged. Talking wasn’t the problem, embarrassment was the hard part. “Romance is the pits,” she muttered.

  Beth gathered the lapels of her coat around her throat. “I know it can hurt like nothing else. Several years ago I was engaged to my high school sweetheart. He died in an accident, and I thought I’d never get over it. But I did, then Kane came along and everything changed. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but things get better.”

  Swell. Not only did Beth have an adoring husband, but another man had been in love with her. Whereas Maddie wasn’t sure she’d ever had one man love her.

  It was worse to lose a fiancé because he died than because he cheated, but if Beth didn’t stop trying to comfort her, she might have to scream.

  Patrick’s Blazer was parked near Maddie’s rental, but when he saw Maddie and Beth talking nearby, he veered into a small café.

  He barely noticed the steaming cup of coffee set in front of him. What was he doing, trying to rescue Maddie? It wasn’t that he minded helping her, but he was lousy at the white knight business. Sooner or later he’d mess things up, and that wouldn’t help Maddie in the slightest. If she just hadn’t looked at him with those big golden-brown eyes, all sweet and hurt, he would have been all right.

  When it got right down to it, a man couldn’t be responsible for good sense when a woman had eyes like that.

  Chapter Four

  Based on her mother’s advice, Maddie showed up at the KLMS radio station wearing simple gold earrings rather than the more colorful Southwest jewelry she preferred. She’d mostly brought casual clothing to Washington, but she had gotten a black blazer to wear over her dress printed with bright red, green and yellow chili peppers.

  “Ms. Jackson?” asked the receptionist. She was a cool brunette with the square jaw of a police sergeant. Still, there was something Maddie liked about her. It was hard not to like someone wearing a whimsical, cat-shaped lapel pin with bright green eyes.

  “Yes, I’m supposed to start working here today.”

  The woman nodded, her eyes narrow with disapproval. “You’re late. Mr. O’Rourke expected you five minutes ago.”

  “That’s not true,” Maddie replied with cheerful honesty. “I’m at least fifteen minutes late. What’s your name?”

  “Er…Candace Finney.”

  “Happy to meet you, Candace. I’m Maddie.” Maddie stuck out her hand and received a tentative shake. “Has anyone ever called you Candy? You look like a Candy to me.”

  The beginnings of a shy smile brightened the receptionist’s stern face. “My mother used to call me Candy, but no one else.”

  “Mind if I do?”

  “Please. That is, I’d like it. I’ll let Mr. O’Rourke know you’ve arrived,” Candy said. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Mr. O’Rourke? Yes, Ms. Jackson is here.”

  A few minutes later Patrick strode out to find Maddie and his receptionist deep in conversation.

  Patrick stopped and stared.

  Miss Finney—the Formidable Finn as she was called by one and all—was giggling. In all the years Patrick had worked at the station he’d never once seen the Formidable Finn even crack a smile. But Maddie had gotten giggles in under an hour.

  Hell, Maddie might actually be able to sell advertising, if she could succeed where so many others had failed.

  “Mr. O’Rourke, I’m sorry about the time,” Miss Finney said when she spotted him. “But Maddie and I have been talking.”

  Maddie wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Candy is being nice, but I was late. Are you going to fire me, Patrick?”

  He was insane to hire her in the first place, but firing was out of the question. It wasn’t just a matter of helping Maddie, it was being there for his brother and Beth, the way Kane had always been there for the rest of the family. Kane deserved to have someone else step up to the plate and take responsibility. There hadn’t been many opportunities, and Patrick couldn’t miss this one.

  “No.” Patrick forced a smile. “You’re not fired. Come along, and I’ll show you the station. Then you can talk to Stephen Traver. He’s the head of the advertising and promotions department. He’ll be your supervisor.”

  Actually, department was a grand name for two employees who sold radio ads and managed the radio prize giveaways. The business was doing much better since a successful promotion that summer. Patrick had thought of offering a “date with a billionaire” as a prize, with his brother as the billionaire in question. The whole thing ended with Kane marrying the prize-winner—Beth—and the radio station benefiting from the excitement and publicity generated by their romance.

  Now Patrick had to keep things moving. People were listening to the station, but it was mostly a fad, and they could stop as quickly as they’d started. It wasn’t that he was in competition with Kane, he just wanted to make it on his own. There were too many people who assumed he was sliding through life on his wealthy brother’s coattails, and the messes he’d gotten into as a teenager didn’t help that image.

  “What kind of music do you play here?” Maddie asked as they walked down the hall.

  “What kind of…” Patrick stared. “Are you serious?”

  She gave him an innocent look. “You never mentioned it when we talked about a job. But I don’t suppose it matters. Selling advertising is mostly talking so fast they don’t have time to say no.”

  Well, if anyone could talk fast and bewilder a reluctant businessman, it would be Maddie. “We’re a country music station,” he said as severely as possible. “Do you know anything about country?”

  “I’m from Slapshot, New Mexico, what do you think?”

  Patrick didn’t have a clue about Slapshot. He had never even heard of the place before meeting Maddie. “Do you know anything about country music?” he repeated with a patien
ce he didn’t feel.

  Her eyes rolled. “Slapshot is in the Magdalena Mountains, over two hours from Albuquerque, and generally considered to be in the middle of nowhere. The only radio station we get is so ‘country’ they won’t even play songs with steel guitars in them.”

  Somehow, that didn’t reassure Patrick. “Sounds great,” he lied. “You know all about it, then.”

  “Enough. Besides, how much do you have to know to sell air on the radio? I mean, it’s air.”

  He opened his mouth an instant before he saw the laughter lurking in Maddie’s golden-brown eyes. Apparently, she wasn’t quite as dizzy as her runaway mouth made her sound.

  “Has anyone told you what a pill you are?” Patrick asked, both amused and irritated. He had as good a sense of humor as anyone, but the station was important to him. Every penny he owned was invested in the place.

  “Everyone from my parents to my fourth-grade teacher.”

  “That I can believe.”

  She wrinkled her nose and grinned up at him. Most people were intimidated by “the boss,” but he supposed she didn’t have experience with intimidation since she’d worked for her mother back in Slapshot. Actually, Maddie probably wasn’t intimidated by anything except a slimeball fiancé who thought her breasts weren’t big enough for him. It must have been an awful blow to her self-confidence, especially for such an innocent baby.

  Patrick grimaced.

  He needed to remember he wasn’t guilty of hurting Maddie, it was her scuzzy-almost-a-husband fiancé.

  “That’s the broadcast booth,” he murmured as they walked into the heart of the station. “We transmit a full twenty-four hours a day, and someone is always supposed to be in the booth. When you work for a radio station the most important thing to remember is that there’s nothing worse than dead air.”

  The producer of the morning show was inside with the DJ, so Patrick waved and continued walking.

  “How did you end up with a radio station?” Maddie asked. “Did you start out as a disc jockey?”

  “No.” Patrick shuddered at the thought. “I was working here, plus two other jobs and saving every nickel, figuring I’d invest it at the right time. Then I realized I already knew a lot about radio and liked the business, so I made a deal with old C. D. Dugan to buy the station when he retired.”