rolled her eyes. “More homework.”
Will pushed his chair back from the table and stood. “You’ll have to excuse me, ladies. I have a conference call in ten minutes. I’ll leave you two to get to know each other.” A second later, he was gone.
Evie merely nodded and went back to her dinner. Gwen, however, felt her jaw hit the table before she could stop it. Jeez-Louise. A certain amount of laxity was allowed at family meals, but this was ridiculous. She chose her words carefully. “Is this a normal occurrence?”
Evie poked at her peas. “Not really.”
Gwen felt her shoulders sag. “Oh, good.”
Continuing to push her peas around aimlessly, Evie didn’t seem to notice Gwen’s relief. “Will normally eats in his office if he’s home. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie or something while we eat.” She looked around the dining room with interest. “You know, I think this is the first time I’ve eaten in here.”
Gwen choked, then swallowed her lecture on the importance of family meals taken at the table. Her own parents had been such sticklers for family meals, partly due to Mother’s abhorrence of the mere idea of a TV tray. One of the first things she did when she moved out on her own was to eat dinner in the living room. She’d felt so rebellious, she nearly had to call home to brag about her indiscretion.
Evie sat up straight in her chair, drawing Gwen’s attention back to the situation at hand. “How am I doing? Am I hopeless?”
The earnest, expectant look on her face was so different from the usual teenagers that suffered through her classes, and Gwen’s heart clenched at Evie’s need to please. “You’re not hopeless at all, just a little rough around the edges. Would you like to start your lessons tonight?”
Evie’s eager nod would have been almost comical if Gwen hadn’t seen that need exposed earlier. “Then sit up straight, feet on the floor…”
“It’s taken care of, Marcus. Evie’s lessons start today.” The old man could be such a nag.
“Who did you hire? Did you check her references?”
Will hadn’t; that’s what he paid his secretary for. But Marcus didn’t need to know that. “Gwen Sawyer came highly recommended. She does debutante training.”
Nancy came in with his third cup of coffee and an armload of reports, giving him an excuse to cut the conversation short without too much guilt. “Unless you have some company business to discuss…”
“No, no. Get back to work. I’ll be by Thursday evening to meet this Miss Sawyer.”
That was the problem with working with people who’d known you all your life, Will thought as he hung up the phone and turned to the stack of reports Nancy left on his desk. They never believe you’re actually an adult. He was perfectly capable of hiring a tutor for his sister without Marcus’s oversight.
Evie was certainly thrilled with Gwen. He’d seen her briefly this morning, and she’d chattered on in her usual nonstop fashion about all Gwen had taught her after he’d left the table. And she’d thanked him again for hiring the one and only Miss Behavior.
Evie’s excitement was the reason he was currently surfing TeenSpace instead of concentrating on the reports from Tokyo littering his desk. Well, it was part of the reason. He had to admit he was a bit interested in Gwen Sawyer as well. Too bad he had to leave the table last night for that conference call—he’d been enjoying himself.
Telling himself it was his responsibility as Evie’s guardian to check up on Gwen, he’d headed to the Web site Gwen mentioned the night before. TeenSpace was a headache- inducing riot of color and graphics about TV stars and bands he’d never heard of. In the top right-hand corner of the home page he found the link he was looking for. The “Miss Behavior” page loaded and Gwen’s picture smiled at him over the phrase “More Than Forks and Tea Cups…Etiquette for the Twenty-First Century.”
“Etiquette” seemed a pretty broad term for what Gwen was dispensing in her column. Drama and angst outnumbered true etiquette five to one. Gwen was certainly trying, though. In addition to letters from her readers, she had column after column of basic behavior skills. He had to give Gwen credit; she seemed to give sound advice that her readers accepted at face value, and she was extremely, well, polite about everything. Any reservations he might have been entertaining evaporated. Gwen was definitely the right choice for Evie. Out of curiosity, he typed “Miss Behavior” into Google. An article from the Tribune popped up first.
“She’s Not Your Mother’s Miss Manners” Miss Behavior, the new etiquette expert on the Dallas- based TeenSpace Web site, has taken more than Dallas by storm. Hits to the teen-centered site have tripled since she came on board nine months ago, and she gets more e-mail from the site than any other columnist. Part Miss Manners, part Dear Abby, her answers to teens’ modern-day etiquette dilemmas are succinct, sassy and spot-on. In real life, Miss Behavior is Gwen Sawyer, a Dallas etiquette consultant favored by debutantes…
Nancy buzzed the intercom, interrupting his reading.
“Mr. Harrison, Miss Sawyer is on line one.”
Already? Had Evie pushed her over the edge in less than twenty-four hours? “Gwen?”
“I’m sorry to bother you—so I won’t keep you but a minute—but I need to tell Mrs. Gray what time to serve dinner this evening. Is seven all right?”
“I’ll just grab something on the way home, so…”
“I’m afraid that’s not going to work.” Gwen sighed. “I’d hoped to talk to you about this last night at dinner but you were, um, called away before I could.”
Gwen sounded irritated. Evie must be giving her problems. “And?”
“If you want Evie to make progress, she’s going to need to practice. But she needs to practice with someone other than just me, and dinner is a perfect time. Every night would be best, but you’ll need to be home every other night at least.”
“I’m very busy—”
“I know, but we only have three weeks until the Med Ball. Do you or do you not want Evie to be ready?”
“Of course I want her to be ready—”
“Then we’ll see you at dinner. Seven o’clock. Goodbye, Will.”
His hackles went up. Who did she think she was? She worked for him. He buzzed Nancy with the intention of having her get Miss Behavior back on the line so he could get a few things straight about this arrangement…
An unfamiliar feeling stopped him. This was important for Evie; therefore, it was important to him. And what would it hurt after all? It would only be for a couple of weeks, and Mrs. Gray’s meals were a lot better than the take-away bistro on the corner.
“Yes, Mr. Harrison?”
“Find Mitchell and move our meeting back to five o’clock. I have to be out of here no later than six-thirty today.”
“Of course.”
“And, Nancy?”
“Yes,
