“That’s a very tempting offer, but I don’t think now is the right time to pursue it.”
“Unfortunately, you’re right. Instead, I’ll give you a choice of what you’d like to throw on before venturing across the hall.”
She looked at the two proffered garments, then at Jared. She couldn’t stop the grin that tugged at the corners of her mouth.
He sat next to her. “Never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes.”
She grabbed the football jersey and slipped it over her head. When she stood, the hem came halfway to her knees. She leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on his lips. “This will do for the moment.”
She hurried across the hall. Chloe was trying to climb out of the crib. Kim lifted the little girl out of the bed, kissed her on the cheek and gave her a big smile. “Good morning, Chloe. It looks like I got here just in time to keep you from hurting yourself.”
She quickly tended to the toddler’s needs, then they went to the kitchen where Jared had just finished making coffee after pulling on a pair of sweatpants. He took a couple of mugs from the cupboard and set them on the counter. He turned his attention to Chloe, picking up the little girl and giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek.
“Good morning, Chloe. Are you ready for breakfast?”
The toddler squirmed in his arms and she looked around the kitchen. “Doggy? Doggy?”
Jared chuckled as he put her on the floor. He glanced at Kim. “She and Lurch have formed quite an attachment for each other.”
“That’s good. Lurch will be good protection for her if…” How strange fate was. She had forgotten that Chloe was only a temporary resident in Jared’s house, that his attorney was searching for her mother. For a moment it had seemed as if they were a family. She had liked the feeling, liked it very much. But was it more than was possible for her to have?
“I’ll fix breakfast if you want to grab a shower and get dressed. And I’m not suggesting in any way that you should leave. It’s just that we’re obviously not going to be able to finish what we started…” He gave her a brief, loving kiss. “At least not right now.”
He cocked his head and looked at her questioningly. His green eyes sparkled with seduction and passion. “Perhaps we could retire for a little nap at the same time as Chloe and pick up where we left off?”
Ten
The next week was a busy one for Kim. The excitement surrounding the charity project energized her. But even more, she thrived on the time she and Jared had together, such as the stolen hours when Chloe took her naps. What had started as a grudging barter arrangement to exchange work hours for her father’s debt had become the center of her life. Being at Jared’s house every day and sharing the care of the toddler had almost taken on the feel of a family…the warmth, caring, giving and love. It all felt so very right.
But she stopped short of moving into his house. He had suggested she bring some clothes so she could stay overnight on those occasions when they worked late, but she had refused his offer. Without a commitment to a relationship she didn’t want to put herself in a position when it would be even more difficult and heartbreaking if something should happen between them—if Jared should become tired of the arrangement.
Each night she returned to her father’s house. The real estate agent had a couple who were interested in the property and were going to make an offer. Kim wanted to be ready to vacate the house as soon as it sold. She worked on packing the items she would be sending to her place in San Francisco and sorting out what would stay with the house and what remaining items she would need to dispose of. She finally found some time to go through the last of the boxes of her father’s belongings, including the box where she had placed the file folders.
She looked through the first folder. The papers seemed to be endless lists of things such as tours he wanted to take in various places around the United States, foreign countries and cities he wanted to visit, books he wanted to read, movies he wanted to see, remodeling he wanted to do to the house, people from his past he wanted to call and hobbies he wanted to pursue. The one thing the lists seemed to have in common was the fact that they were all things left undone. A wave of sadness washed over her. Had he started making the lists after he found out about his heart condition? Her sigh of resignation escaped into the quiet of the house. She would never know. She set the folder aside.
The next folder contained personal correspondence between her father and his brother, who had died ten years earlier. She glanced at the letters and skimmed through a couple of them. They didn’t seem to contain anything pertinent to her or to his estate. She set that aside, too.
She picked up two more folders, but like the one filled with the personal letters, they didn’t have any relevance to his estate. She picked up the last folder.
The name of Ron Stevens jumped out at her. She carefully examined each piece of paper. The file contained a meticulous listing of each contact between her father and Ron Stevens and between her father and various employees of Stevens Enterprises, notations of both phone conversations and written material. She spread the papers out on the dining room table.
After two hours of carefully going over each piece of paper in the folder she leaned back in her chair, drained and exhausted. She didn’t know what to think. She could feel her father’s anger and bitterness in his handwritten notes, which comprised her father’s case for why he didn’t owe the twenty thousand dollars to Stevens Enterprises in spite of the signed documents Jared had shown her.
Her father had made some valid comments about extenuating circumstances surrounding the business transaction—circumstances that occurred after he had signed the contract and promissory note. It seemed to her as though the incidents he mentioned should have rendered the debt invalid.
She tried to put everything in a logical, unbiased perspective. Why had her father allowed the conflict over the debt to go on for so many years? Nowhere in the file had she found any papers relating to her father’s attorney, only the attorney for Stevens Enterprises. If her father’s position was legitimate, why hadn’t he consulted an attorney about the matter?
Was Jared aware of the circumstances? None of the notations included his name. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. As much as she didn’t want Jared to have any involvement, she could not dismiss the possibility. She returned the papers to the file folder and set it next to her purse. She would talk to Jared about it in the morning and get his perspective on the information. After all, that’s what he told her he wanted her to do if she had any questions or problems with anything he had said or done. Well, this was definitely a problem.
Kim finally called it a night and went to bed. The information in the file folder continued to swirl inside her head, leaving her uneasy. The path she had traveled over the past few weeks that led to Jared’s bed and her silent acknowledgment of her love had started from a totally improbable place, and she had moved along it at lightning speed, but the trip was not without its share of tension accompanied by several ups and downs.
She had thought all that was behind her, that they had worked their way through the obstacles and put the generations-old family feud to rest. But the conflict that had thrown them together had reared its head again. The twenty-thousand-dollar debt—was it legitimate or one of the many dark moments between the Stevens and Donaldson families? This time, however, she had learned her lesson. She would not make any assumptions, nor would she dwell on what might or might not be. She would go to Jared with her father’s notes and ask him for an explanation. A dark cloud of trepidation began to descend over her. She fought to keep it away. Jared would be able to explain everything. Surely he would be able to explain.
Her eyes grew heavy until she was finally asleep. When she woke the next morning she quickly prepared for another day at work. She arrived at Jared’s house early to help get Chloe up, dressed and fed.
Jared let her in, pausing long enough to place a loving kiss on her lips. “Come on, we’re in the kitch
en having breakfast. I saved some for you.”
To her surprise, Kim found that Jared had already taken care of Chloe’s needs and was just finishing with the toddler’s breakfast. An amused chuckle escaped her throat as she watched him wipe the sticky syrup from the little girl’s hands and face.
“I seem to have arrived a little late, but it appears that you have things well in hand. What time did she wake up?”
“About an hour ago. I wasn’t ready to get up yet, but duty called and put an end to that extra hour of sleep I wanted.”
She extended a knowing smile toward Jared. “That’s the way it is when you have a toddler in the house. Your time and your life are no longer your own.”
He slipped his arms around her, pulling her body against his. He brushed a soft kiss against her lips, nibbled at the corners of her mouth, then brought his mouth down fully on hers. It was the type of kiss that curled her toes and made her body tingle, the type of kiss that would have ended in his bed had it not been for Chloe’s presence.
He broke off the kiss, his voice carrying the same reluctance to let go as she felt. “I definitely have noticed that certain things need to be more carefully coordinated these days.”
Kim stepped away from his very disarming touch. The charity event was coming together nicely, but there was still a lot of work to be done. She thought about the file folder with her father’s notes. She needed to find some time to talk to Jared about that, but not now, not with Chloe being the center of attention for the moment. The discussion could wait until later that day when a more businesslike atmosphere surrounded them, and they wouldn’t be interrupted.
A nervous twinge pushed at her as if something deep inside was trying to tell her to stay away from a discussion of her father’s notes—to let the controversy die its natural death. She shoved the feeling away. She needed the answers so she could tie up the loose ends and answer the questions the notes had presented to her, things she thought she’d already put to rest until she read her father’s notes.
It was a new dimension added to the ongoing conflict still pushing inside her about her relationship with Jared, a conflict she had not been able to forget regardless of how much she wanted to ignore it. Where were they headed? What type of relationship did they have? The questions continued to nag at her, the only negatives in what had turned out to be a surprisingly wonderful summer, made so by the man she had fallen hopelessly in love with and the laughter of an innocent little girl in need of a stable home.
Kim reached out and took Chloe’s hand. “Come on. Let’s see what’s in your playroom, and then I need to get to work.” They walked from the kitchen to the converted conference room. As soon as she got the toddler settled, she turned to the invitation list for the charity event. They had settled on a date, and she had confirmed the hotel ballroom. Next came the printing of the invitations.
After combining the two lists and eliminating the duplicates, four hundred invitations needed to be addressed and mailed. She ordered five hundred invitations from the printer, which would be available in two weeks. Things were starting to come together nicely, although there was still a lot of work to do. She stopped periodically to relive the thrill that rushed through her when Jared had asked her to be his hostess and attend the fund-raiser with him. They had been working on the event as a team and now they would attend it the same way.
The morning passed quickly. To her surprise Jared took charge of Chloe’s midmorning snack and put her down for a short nap. It warmed her heart to see the way he doted on the little girl. A slight frown wrinkled her brow. What would happen when his attorney found Chloe’s mother? The little girl had already been at his house far longer than either of them thought would be the case. It had started to feel normal and natural to have her as part of the household. Chloe seemed happy and content, and she was being well cared for by Jared, Fred, Kim and Lurch. But would the child welfare people consider it a proper home environment?
As if her concerns had been a portent of things to come, Jared’s attorney called after lunch. She could tell from the hushed tones coming from Jared’s office that it was not a good conversation. A few minutes later he appeared next to her desk. His somber expression said it all.
“That—” he gestured toward his office “—was about Chloe. The detective found her mother. Grant is driving to Oakland to see her.”
“What happens next?”
“We’ll know more this evening when he gets back. He said he’d come right here after his meeting with her.”
“I suppose the next step is to finally call the authorities….” Her voice trailed off when she saw the defiance flash across his face. She reached out and lightly touched his arm. “Jared, you’ve known all along that eventually the police would have to be notified about her being abandoned by both her mother and father.”
He took her hand in his. His voice was soft, his words filled with sorrow. “I know.”
Jared pulled Kim out of the chair and into his arms. He held her in his embrace, reveling in the closeness and warmth she brought to him. The last few weeks had been the best of his entire life. He was the happiest he had ever been, with Kim as an all important part of his life and Chloe to fill out the family. It had been the sense of family he had been searching for all his adult life, which had managed to elude him until now.
Kim felt the tension in Jared’s body, and it added to the stress that had been building inside her over the past couple of hours. She had to confront him about her father’s notes, about the extenuating circumstances surrounding the twenty-thousand-dollar debt. But was now the appropriate time?
Was there any such thing as an appropriate time?
Once again she entertained the thought of forgetting about it, but finally dismissed that possibility from her mind. Jared had made her promise she would tell him when something was wrong, when he had said or done anything that upset her. She had to know the truth in order to find closure with the entire business of the debt and the larger scope of the generations-old feud between Jared’s family and her own.
She didn’t know what the future held for the two of them. Regardless of what she wanted, the fact remained that he had never said he loved her, nor had he offered her any commitment. She couldn’t be sure they had a permanent future together, but until she resolved yesterday’s issues she couldn’t successfully plan for tomorrow. The question would always be in the back of her mind trying to force its way between them.
Perhaps now would be the best time, while Chloe was taking her nap. They could put this matter behind them before Grant Collins returned from seeing Chloe’s mother. Then they could tackle the next issue without any encumbrances.
“Jared?” Kim nervously cleared her throat. “Uh…”
He looked at her quizzically, his brow wrinkled in a slight frown. “What’s wrong?”
She took a steadying breath, then plunged into what was on her mind. “I came across something last night that bothers me. I was going through some of my father’s files, things I had put aside after he died and am just now getting to. There was one file—” she glanced away, not sure she wanted to face the possibilities she was opening “—uh, it contained detailed notes about his ongoing confrontation with your father and with other members of your company over the twenty-thousand-dollar debt. He’s listed several…irregularities that he uncovered.”
“Irregularities?”
“Yes, information about wrongdoing on your father’s part, promises made but never delivered, a whole list of underhanded and possibly even illegal events that surrounded the contract…things that should have rendered the debt null and void.”
She handed him a neatly typed list she had put together showing a chronological chain of events and her father’s allegations. Many of the points of contention happened after the signing of the contract and promissory note.
He took the piece of paper from her without comment. She watched his expression as he studied the list. He didn’t say anything as he gla
nced at the floor, then out the window. He didn’t need to say anything. The expression on his face was not one of confusion, surprise or shock. It said she had not provided him with anything he hadn’t already known. The moment she had feared, the moment that had gnawed at her insides was now reality.
“Jared?” She tried to keep the hurt and growing anger out of her voice. She didn’t want to make the mistake of jumping to conclusions, as she had in the past. “Please talk to me. Tell me this isn’t what I think. Explain what it means.” The desperation to have it not be what she feared filled her with dread and anxiety. “Say something, please…anything.”
“I don’t have a ready explanation. I suspected that there was something amiss about the deal, but I didn’t have any proof.”
Her eyes grew wide at the realization of his words. “You suspected? You thought there had been underhanded dealings by your father, yet you never mentioned it to me?” She couldn’t hide her hurt other than to mask it with her anger. “You allowed me to continue working off my father’s alleged debt as if I were some kind of an indentured servant?”
“Indentured servant? That’s not a very fair statement.”
Her voice rose as her anger came pouring out. “Not a very fair statement? Do you think it was fair of you to manipulate me into working for you to satisfy a debt that you freely admit you had some reservations about?”
His voice rose to match hers. “I didn’t think it was unfair in light of what your father had done to mine.”
“What my father did? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about all the shoddy merchandise your father sold mine, merchandise my father paid for in good faith before he had inspected it. Your father certainly never refunded my father’s money for that sneaky little deal.”
“If that’s so, then why didn’t your attorney make an issue of that rather than the promissory note?”
Jared didn’t answer her. He didn’t have an answer. He hadn’t wanted to deal with the whole can of worms that had been the many small business dealings between Ron Stevens and Paul Donaldson. It was almost as if it were a game being played by two bitter men to see which one could cause the most trouble for the other. You cheated me in the last deal, now it’s my turn to cheat you.
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