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Uncle Carson made was allowing the woman to give us gumdrops
when we were kids.
 That could be true. Something about the giving of gumdrops
circumvents respect. Alex settled in at the small, round conference
table in the corner of his brother s office.
Alex s office was in the opposite corner of the top floor and
identically appointed. Truthfully, Josh didn t pay much attention to
the furnishings or the decor. When he was working, he generally just
focused on the matter at hand.
 We have a meeting with Doug Evercroft tomorrow. I ve asked
Colt and Ryder to sit in on it with us. That s scheduled for nine a.m.,
isn t it? Josh took a seat across from his brother.
 It is, which means our next initial interview for the Legacy
Project my turn should be the day after tomorrow, Alex said.
 I want to review the entire project to date, if it s all the same to
you. I m afraid a few of the details have slipped my mind in the last
couple of days.
 That s fine. I could use a refresher myself. Alex opened the
folder he d brought with him.  Do we need to review the mission
statement? Alex asked.
 No, Josh said.  I think we re clear on that one. We re looking
for a wife, a woman who will be the mother of our children, helping
to form the next generation of our branch on the Benedict family
tree.
 Right. Speaking of family trees, did you know that Penelope
seems to know just about all our family history? In Alex s
experience, not many people outside the family had much interest in
the beginnings of the intertwining of the Benedict, Kendall, and
Jessop clans.
 Susan mentioned something to me about that when I called her
this morning to explain that we used a few of their& um& provisions.
I was surprised, actually. Penelope said Grandma Kate had told her
78 Cara Covington
some stories. I just hadn t realized that Grandmother had shared so
many details with her. I guess we need to remember that although
we ve only just met pretty Penelope, Grandma s known her a really
long time.
 Did you notice, that first night, at the restaurant? She calls her
Grandma Kate, too.
 I did notice that. Josh wondered why that felt strange to him.
All of his friends, all the years while he d been growing up, attending
school, had called his grandmother Grandma Kate. Josh shook his
head, trying to dislodge Penelope from his thoughts.
 Okay, item one. Alex turned his attention to the papers in the
folder.  Desirable qualities in a wife. One, must be in possession of a
keen intellect. Two, must be open-minded when it comes to matters
political and religious.
 That was a good idea you had, insisting the successful candidate
not be hot on any particular party or church, Josh complimented.
 I just don t believe in political or religious discrimination, Alex
said.  What a person believes should be sacrosanct.
 I agree completely. All right, let s carry on. Josh got more
comfortable in his chair.
 Three, must be well established in a career. I was wondering,
does that sound, oh, I don t know, snobbish? I mean, really, career
sounds like we insist the lady have a bunch of initials after her name,
and be a top-ranking executive. That s rather& egalitarian of us, isn t
it?
Josh frowned.  Good point. And I don t think that s what we
really meant, anyway, was it? Our own mother worked as a sales
clerk at Macy s when our dads met her.
 My point, exactly!
 Why not change number three, then, to read  Must be
meaningfully employed ?
Love Under Two Honchos 79
 Excellent. Alex took a moment to make the correction.
 Number four, must have outside interests and accept the same in
return.
 We came up with that one during the Thanksgiving Day
Cowboys game, didn t we? Josh said.
 Right after Kelsey dragged Matt and Steven away during
halftime at the parents place and never let them come back for the
rest of the game, Alex confirmed.
 I wonder if Penelope likes football? Josh said. So much for
getting her out of my thoughts.
 I don t know. We should ask her when we go over there tonight,
Alex suggested.
 Yeah, we should. We don t really know all that much about her.
Josh felt his mind begin to wander over the lovely, tasty territory that
was Penelope Primrose. He hauled his thoughts back to the topic at
hand.  Is that all the qualities we came up with?
 Well, there were others we tossed around, but we decided these
four were the most vital. Why? Is something missing?
Josh said,  Well, a good sense of humor would be nice. And a
willingness to, you know, try different things. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]