“Eggs will be ready in five!” I called out, cracking a couple into the sizzling hot pan on the stove in front of me. “And you better have brushed those teeth young lady. I’ll know if you haven’t.”
Annie’s giggles echoed down the hallway as she rushed into the bathroom. “I’m doing it now, Mommy! I’ll be ready before the eggs.”
For a six-year-old, Annie was surprisingly good about being on time. I counted that as one of my many blessings with my little girl. She was an absolute angel who hardly ever gave me a tough time.
True to her word, she came bouncing into the kitchen just as the egg whites started bubbling. She ran right up to my side and gave me a hug around my hips before going to stand in front of the counter next to me.
I lifted her up on the counter and as soon as her bum hit the surface, she reached for the salt shaker next to her and handed it over to me. This was our routine every morning, Annie sitting on the counter and helping me cook breakfast.
“Did you really brush your teeth that fast?” I asked, laughing when Annie pulled back her lips to reveal her teeth and show me they were clean. “And your tongue?”
She stuck her pink tongue out to let me see before flashing me a beautiful smile. ”All clean. I promise.”
Leaning to her side, I gave her a quick peck on the temple just as the eggs were ready to be taken off the stove. I slid some onto the pieces of toast I already had waiting on our plates, making sure to have an extra plate ready for Denise when she got here.
She was my best friend in the city and Annie‘s nanny. Thankfully for me, she had no desire for lots of money. She could get by with the meager salary I could afford to pay her and was happy with things that way.
A good thing, since I would never be able to make enough money to pay her what she was worth to us. There wasn‘t enough money in the world. I struck it luckier than a miner in a gold rush the day I met her.
An old soul, Denise didn’t have much use for technology and was the kind of person who still wrote checks at the supermarket. Between the influence of Denise and I as her primary caregivers, Annie was growing up as a kid who preferred the garden to the television and was bugging me for a new bike instead of a phone.
As for her father, well, she didn’t have one. Okay, she did have one, of course, but he wasn’t in the picture. From the day she was born, Annie and I had been alone. I preferred it that way.
Men complicated things. They hurt you and shirked their responsibilities. At least, in my limited experience. I wasn’t bitter or anything, I had long since moved on from my failed attempt at romance, I was simply careful. My heart was in a closely guarded vault and it would take a force of nature to pry the thing open again.
I dated on and off, from time to time, but never anything serious. No one had ever even come close enough to our front door to be able to see Annie, never mind to meet her. For her sake, I had to watch who I let into my life.
She was my first priority and my one true love. I didn’t need anyone else.
Except for Denise, I needed her, too. More so if I was to carry on working, which I had to do. There was a potential disaster I didn’t even want to think about possibly looming if I lost my job on the back of the untimely demise of my boss. I had hardly any savings. Enough to get us by for maybe a couple of months, but that was it. I also had no one I could turn to for help, but doing that wasn’t in my nature anyway. Somehow, I would make a plan. Annie depended on me to make sure I figured things out and I would.
It wouldn’t help to worry about it, though. Time would tell what would happen with that situation. I had a pretty good idea, but I would cross that bridge when I got to it.
Shoving my worries over the possibility of becoming unemployed out of my mind, right along with my sadness over the death of my boss, I focused on Annie instead.
“Mommy,” she said, her bright blue eyes wide. “Did you know Justin got a dragon for Christmas? He told me when Denise and I saw him at the store yesterday.”
“A dragon, huh?” I raised my eyebrows, wondering where and what kind of stuffed dragon I was going to have to hunt down for her next birthday—assuming that was where she was going with this.
She nodded, her wide eyes shining with excitement. “A kimono dragon. I want a kimono dragon too, Mommy.”
“Komodo,” I corrected her gently, when I realized what she was talking about. “A komodo dragon.”
Her little blonde eyebrows pulled together. “Yeah, that‘s what I said.”
“No sweetie, a kimono is like that little robe thing you and I wore the morning before Aunt Mary’s wedding. Do you remember that?”
I doubted she would. My cousin Mary got married a couple of months before Annie and I left Texas. We’d been in Boston for almost a year now, which meant she had to have been just over four and a half at the wedding.
She had made the most beautiful flower girl with her blonde curls pulled back from her face in a ponytail that hung off to one side. I remembered my heart bursting with pride when she came walking down the aisle, the very picture of joy.
Annie’s face scrunched up as she thought, then she surprised me by nodding. “We ate a big chocolate cake and there was a lady who played with my hair for hours.”
“She was the hairdresser, honey. But yeah, that’s the day I’m talking about. Those little robes Aunt Mary got for us were kimonos. I’m willing to bet the dragon Justin got is a komodo dragon. It sounds similar, but it’s actually different.”
“Okay,” she nodded without any further question. Annie seldom questioned things I explained to her. She mostly trusted I was right and was telling her the truth. I tried every day to earn her trust by never lying to her. It was just the kind of relationship we had.
Annie opened her mouth, presumably to tell me more about the dragon, when she was interrupted by the front door slamming. There was only one person it could be.
MARISSA“Hello my blonde beauties!” Denise’s voice rang out from the hall before she turned the corner into the kitchen.The fuzzy purple hat sitting on top of her fiery red hair was dotted with white snowflakes. She’d pulled off her coat already and was working on her gloves as she flicked on the kettle and plopped down in her seat for breakfast. “Man, is it coming down out there. I’m frozen.”“And apparently you’ve taken a dislike to knocking and doorbells,” I told her, unable to help the smile pulling at my lips. I loved that she felt so at home here she no longer knocked, but I had to give her at least a little grief about it.Rolling her olive green eyes, she piled some egg onto her fork and bypassed my comment. “Why are all men the same?”“They can’t help it. It’s because of their—” I trailed off, suddenly remembering Annie was in the room with us. “Anatomy. It’s because they’re so much bigger.”Denise winked at me, but then she sighed. “Bigger, yeah. Got you. Still, guys suck.”
LAYTONLike most people, I wasn’t particularly fond of lawyers. My father’s lawyer, specifically, was a piece of work. There was a reason the two of them got along so well. They were both stubborn and stoic men who believed the world belonged at their feet.Going to the office of Clayton Reeve was not an errand I was looking forward to, but it had to be done. Dad’s estate had to be wound up and Clayton was the one entrusted with making it happen.But apparently he needed my signature on a couple of things before he could do his job. When his assistant called me to set up the appointment, she told me to get there at ten sharp.Glancing down at my watch, a bulky silver thing that was a gift to myself when I finished my first project, I saw I still had some time before I was expected at Clayton’s office. The financial district was the nerve center of business in downtown Boston, and naturally, it was where the lawyer’s office was located.Given that half the people who worked in the area
LAYTONThe lawyer was waiting for me when I strode into his office at ten o’clock on the dot. He stood, a somber expression on his face as he shook my hand. “Layton, I’m so sorry for your loss.”“Thank you,” I replied automatically, the same reply I’d been giving for days now.Motioning me into one of the high back black leather chairs around the conference table in his office, he took his own seat at the head. There was a thick brown file lying on the table, with a smaller manila envelope on top. “Your father left you this letter,” Clayton started, sliding the envelope off the file and handing it to me. I took it, but didn’t open it. “Would you like a moment of privacy to read it?”I shook my head. I didn’t need to read it, especially not while sitting in this lawyer’s stuffy office. It was lined with books I would bet he hardly ever opened, and filled with oversize furniture. There were oil paintings on the walls. Not of dogs playing poker, but of birds in flight.If I was ever go
MARISSA“Look Mommy, I can make snow angels!” Annie called out excitedly. She flung her little body onto the ground and started demonstrating before I could say a word about it.Luckily, she had the hood up on her coat and unless she went completely crazy, she wouldn’t get her clothes beneath it wet. “I see, baby. Well done! That’s a perfect snow angel.”She beamed up at me, rolling over to repeat her movements on an untouched patch of grass next to the first angel. I laughed, happy that I was getting to see how much she enjoyed the snow.Denise, Annie and I had decided to take a walk in one of Boston’s massive parks after a light snow had fallen. Snow was still a novelty to Annie and if I were being completely honest with myself, it made me feel slightly excited too.“You guys have been here nearly a year, you’d think she’d be used to the snow by now,” Denise commented, smiling as she watched Annie’s antics on the ground.“Nah, we arrived toward the end of winter last year. She didn’
Marissa Unlike most, Denise didn’t nod in understanding and move on to the next topic. Her head tilted slightly to the side, her eyes locked on mine. “That’s it?”I nodded. “That’s it.”She didn’t look away. “Then why do I sense that there’s more to the story than that lame answer?”Making sure Annie was out of earshot, I spotted her carefully maneuvering her way along the low crossbars. If she slipped, the ground was no more than an inch below her feet. Satisfied that she was both safe and couldn’t overhear us, I replied to Denise.“Probably because there is more,” I told her honestly.As much as I had always dodged the question before, I knew it was time I told Denise everything. She asked, and I wouldn’t lie to her outright. Telling her anything other than the truth now would be lying, and I didn’t want to do that to Denise. She didn’t deserve to be lied to, least of all by me.I was about to tell her the rest of the story that she had correctly sensed there was, but before I coul
LAYTONMonday came too soon, just like it always did. It didn’t matter too much to me, since I spent the weekend catching up on work anyway. It would have been nice if the weekend had been a day or two longer, though. I could have used more quiet time to catch up.The office was best for me when there weren’t a lot of people around. Fewer interruptions, and fewer other things requiring my immediate attention. When I hired all those people on, I thought getting them to do some of the jobs I had been doing when I was still alone in the firm would lessen my workload, and it had, but only by so much. I still had to sign off and give the final say about most things.I wouldn’t complain about it, though. It meant business was good, and since I’d spent my life focused on building up the business, it meant life was good.The morning passed by quickly, in a haze of pencil lines and paperwork. I was relieved and satisfied to see the number of new projects we were being requested to take on for
LaytonShrugging, I shook my head. “I don’t know. All Clayton Reeve told me was that the only condition placed on my receiving the inheritance was hiring her.”A deep line appeared between his slightly bushy eyebrows. “That’s pretty weird, but it’s a good deal, I think. Hire some woman and get the inheritance?”“Yeah, it’s a good deal,” I agreed. I didn’t have exact figures yet, since I hadn’t gone through the paperwork Reeve sent over, but it was a safe bet that her lifetime salary would be a drop in the bucket of what I stood to inherit. “I’m interviewing her soon. I didn’t want to make the offer flat out without even having met her.”“Good thinking,” he said. “I get it, but just think carefully, okay?”“Will do.” At that moment, there was another knock at the door. Before I could invite her in, a woman swept into my office. I wasn’t used to people coming in before I told them to, but I bit back any comment because this had to be her.A quick glance at the antique clock above my doo
MARISSAThe last thing I expected walking into the interview this morning was to find a guy who looked like this one sitting across from me. I mean, wow. How any of the women in this office got anything done with a boss who looked like him was beyond me.Granted, my last boss was older, so I didn’t have much experience working with men around my age, but this one was bound to make it harder to concentrate for anyone with a pulse and even the vaguest interest in men.He was nothing short of gorgeous, and having seen how hot his eyes grew when he was looking me over when I walked in, I was feeling way more aroused than an interview had the right to make me feel.As inconvenient as my arousal was, I could hardly blame myself. It had been a long time since I’d noticed a man the way I noticed him, the way that made me feel less like a mom and more like a woman. A woman with needs my trusty vibrator didn’t always fulfill as well as it could have.This man looked like he could fulfill those