by Annie Seaton
“Sienna, this molding is perfect.” Ana climbed down from the stepladder and tucked her hair behind her ear, reaching over to switch the radio off.
“I knew it would be as soon as I saw it at the store.” Sienna stood back and surveyed Ana’s work. “Just as well the Bennetts were happy to pay the extra. You’re done and it looks great.” She turned and pointed to the balcony that ran off the huge living room they were working in. “Georgie’s got your tea brewed. Time for a break. We’re almost done here anyway.”
Ana knew the girls would be eager to know how the meeting had gone. Reluctantly she pulled off her work gloves and removed her cap, shaking the rest of her hair free. No matter how hard she tried, she always managed to get plaster bits stuck in her hair.
The aroma of the peppermint tea drew her over to the worktable where her two best friends waited on upturned buckets on the balcony. The view over the ocean was spectacular as the late-morning sun dispersed the last fingers of mist lingering over the silvery surface of the water.
Sienna could never sit still, and was trimming a piece of plaster in between sips of her drink. Georgie sat with her chin propped in her hand, her auburn curls tumbling down her shoulders as she stared out through the French doors at the ocean.
“Fog’s almost gone?” Ana closed her eyes and savored the tea. Wherever they worked, Georgie carried the supplies and made sure they took a break. They were a great team, and there was no way she was going to let it end just because a corporation had bought the store out.
“Forget the weather, Ana. Tell us what happened. Are we unemployed?” Sienna tapped her foot impatiently on the tiles that they had installed on the balcony a couple of weeks earlier, and stared at her. “How much longer are you going to keep us hanging here?”
Ana looked away from Sienna and followed Georgie’s gaze out over the ocean.
“Well…I can’t answer that yet,” Ana replied.
Sienna stood and came around to where Ana was perched on the upturned bucket. She placed her hands on Ana’s shoulders and stood there until Ana looked up at her. Sienna’s hair was black and cropped short in a pixie cut. Even though they were in work clothes, her face was beautifully made-up, and a bright scarf fell softly from her shoulders over her work T-shirt. But there was nothing soft about her gaze.
“Come on, spill. What the hell happened?” She stepped back and folded her arms, staring hard at Ana. Georgie turned away from looking at the ocean and sat back with an expectant look.
“What did he say? Is he likely to change his mind?” Sienna was persistent.
“I didn’t exactly get to tell him.”
Sienna tapped her hands on her arms and frowned. “What happened?”
Ana picked up her spoon and drew patterns in the fine plaster dust on the table. “He had a family emergency. His brother-in-law was in a plane crash and it wasn’t the right time to talk business. It seemed a bit selfish to me to bring it up.” She lifted her chin and stared back at Sienna as she frowned at her.
“There’s something not quite right here.” Georgie spoke for the first time and her voice was soft. “Why did you stay the night in town?”
“Jeez, don’t tell me Mr. Big Shot made a move on you?” Sienna’s face lit up in an interested grin.
Georgie knew her all too well. She was intuitive and sensitive to feelings, whereas Sienna would crash over anyone who stood in her way. All Georgie wanted was a house and family of her own, and she’d been looking for Mr. Right for years. Ana smiled as she thought of the number of times they’d heard Georgie say “he’s the one,” only to pick herself up and move on again when she was disappointed.
“No. I helped him out with his sister’s kids.”
Sienna rolled her eyes. “And knowing you, you wouldn’t have wanted to rock the boat. You are too nice.” She stood up and gathered the cups. “I’m coming back with you tonight. Our jobs are at stake here, girlfriend, and you need to toughen up.”
“It wasn’t the right time to talk about the store and our work. I’m going back there to see him again tonight.”
“To talk about our jobs?”
“No, not yet.” Ana knew she needed to explain to the girls that she had realized what they had to do before she talked to Blake about the restoration department. After all, it was their jobs at stake here too.
“I wasn’t being nice. And I’m tough enough.” She reached out and grasped Sienna’s arm as she pushed past her with the cups. “There’s no need to get angry. I have it all under control and I have a plan. We need to get some facts and figures together, rather than just appealing to his better nature. The man is business through and through.” Ana stood next to Sienna and kept her voice firm. “I’ll handle it. Trust me. I know what’s at stake.” She turned and gestured to the tools and plaster buckets lying around. “Now, if we don’t get this mess cleaned up, we won’t have a job to fight for. Oh, and Sienna.” She grinned as Sienna frowned at her. “Can I borrow your car again? You were right, it’s much faster than mine.”
Sienna and Georgie packed up the worktable and tools and carried them out to Ana’s truck, loading it up while she wiped the floor to remove the last of the plaster dust. Her phone beeped in her pocket and she smiled as she pulled it out and read the short message.
Be quick. Bring food and iPad charger.
Sounded like Mr. Hot Shot CEO needed help…and fast.
…
Blake held Jake tucked under one arm as he tripped over a kitten and then bumped his hip on a table that shouldn’t have been in his path. The twins had spent the afternoon sliding down the hallway in their socks, and it had been easier to move the table out of harm’s way, rather than getting them to stop. Billy had been sitting in the corner of the parlor drumming his heels against the wall and squealing since his iPad had run out of juice hours ago. Blake had turned the damn house upside down looking for the charger—it seemed to be the only thing Jeannie had forgotten to pack. But they’d had a great day and it’d been fun playing with them. If it wasn’t for the charger going missing, Billy would be settled like the rest of the kids.
Blake had even managed to turn a blind eye to the state of his house. Toys, clothes, and half-chewed cookies covered the floor from the front entry to the kitchen. The place was starting to look like it had years ago when it had been full of college students.
And the smell.
He headed for the bathroom to do something about the revolting mess that was in Jake’s diaper, praying that Ana was on her way. He could cope with the mess, the food, and the smelly diapers, but he was unable to console Billy. In between the chaos today, he’d mulled over the fact that Ana had owned up to following his career. So she knew he was wealthy, was that why she’d turned up? She was hiding something, and he needed to find out what it was. He knew he was cynical, but his experiences over the past few years had hardened him.
“Maddy, if Anastasia comes to the door, can you please let her in? But no one else, okay?”
“Okay, Uncle Blake.”
At least the twins were watching cartoons on the television. Dora the Explorer had kept them entertained on and off all day, and he’d barely had time for even a twinge of guilt about the junk food he’d fed them. One day of cookies and chips wouldn’t stunt their growth, surely? He’d discovered that a bit of a firm hand worked wonders in getting them to do what he wanted, and he grinned. He’d finally gotten them all settled and happy, but he needed to make plans for the rest of the week. He had called every nanny service in the area, but it seemed you had to book weeks ahead for five kids.
He had to be at the store on Friday to do the handover. Surely Jeannie would be back by then. His boss was coming down from New York and it was a huge deal.
Oh shit, he was supposed to be having dinner with Mike and his wife tomorrow night. They were meeting in the restaurant around the corner.
He ran a shallow bath and turned his head away as he stripped the baby down.
As he scrubbed Jake, Blake
thought of Anastasia…or Ana if that’s what she wanted to be called now. He owed her so much for helping out.
Even though he was the one who’d put their friendship at risk by taking her virginity that night, he’d been hurt when he thought she ditched him the next morning. Last night the spark had rekindled between them, but he wasn’t going to take it anywhere until they cut to the chase and she stopped being evasive. She had opened up about her mother’s being terminally ill, and he knew how hard that was to deal with from personal experience. But surely she could have called him?
Why did she come and see me?
Until he knew the answer to that, he would tread lightly. Maybe sleeping with him hadn’t meant that much to her? Had she turned up for old time’s sake? She was ten years too late. Or did it have to do with his money, after she’d read about him in that damned article? She looked as though she’d done okay in whatever her career was. The suit and the BMW pointed to success, and she’d said she was single, so there wasn’t a wealthy husband in the background. She must have been successful in whatever she did when she left college.
And he’d kissed her before his brain had kicked into gear. He wasn’t going to get sucked in by old times.
“Come on, little guy. We’ll get you dried off, dressed, and fed, and then you can fill that diaper again. ”
He lifted the slippery child out of the soapsuds and grinned. He’d really gotten the hang of this kid thing.
…
The whole trip up the coast, Ana had practiced her pitch to Blake, and she was determined to present her case purely from a business point of view and not take advantage of any friendship…or past relationship. Maybe helping with the family stuff might sway him a little, but she doubted it. She had a business plan all set out in her head, and as soon as the time was right, she’d come in for the kill and convince him how much the new store needed her department. In hindsight, it didn’t matter that she hadn’t done it from the first, because she wouldn’t have been able to present it in a businesslike fashion with crying kids and slobbering dogs around.
As she stepped from the car, muted screaming drifted out through the open windows. She grabbed the grocery bags, hitched her small backpack onto her shoulders, and headed quickly through the gate. The closer she got, the louder the cries became, and she realized it wasn’t the baby. Her well-rehearsed speech and business plans fled from her mind as she moved the bags to one hand and pushed the buzzer. She waited for a couple of minutes before she pounded on the door.
Eventually a quiet little voice came from the other side. “Who is it?”
“It’s Ana. Let me in, Maddy.”
“No, Uncle Blake said only Anastasia.” The little girl’s voice was firm. “What’s the password?”
“What password? Where’s Uncle Blake?”
“The password to get into the castle.”
“Is Uncle Blake there? And who’s crying?”
“Uncle Blake is up in the bathroom and Billy is crying.”
“Can you please let me in? I am Anastasia.” Ana put the bags down. She could see Maddy’s silhouette through the opaque glass. “Why is Billy crying?”
“You’re not Anastasia, you said you were Ana. And Billy’s crying ’cause he’s hurting.”
Visions of blood and cut fingers filled her mind. If Blake was upstairs, the children could have gotten into anything. Every childhood accident she’d ever read about, kids putting cutlery into power outlets and getting into kitchen knife blocks, flashed through her mind. God, what about all the poisonous detergents and stuff in the cupboards? They hadn’t had time to childproof his house.
“Maddy, you have to let me in. Where is Billy hurting?”
“What’s the password?” Maddy repeated. The door stayed firmly closed.
Ana pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts before she recalled she had never asked Blake for his number. Then she remembered the text he’d sent earlier today, opened up the message, and pressed call.
The little figure disappeared from the other side of the glass. “Uncle Blake, your phone’s ringing,” Maddy called out.
Ana leaned against the door as Blake answered.
Thank God.
“Hello? Anast—I mean Ana. How long till—”
“I’m at the door and I can’t get in without a password.”
“What…oh…okay, I’m on my way down.”
It was only seconds before Blake appeared through the glass and opened the door. He stood there with a dripping wet and naked baby in his arms. She shoved past him, leaving the bags on the porch. His hair was tousled and his T-shirt was soaking wet, but he was still smiling despite the screams coming from the living room.
“Billy’s hurt?” she asked urgently as she ran through the door.
Maddy was sitting primly on the sofa, reading a book, and didn’t look up as Ana flew past, following the noisy cries to the large white sofa in the corner of the room. She knelt down and glanced back at Blake close behind her.
“It’s all right,” he said, hitching Jake up onto his shoulder. His wet T-shirt was plastered to the well-defined muscles on his chest and her gaze homed straight in on them, despite her concern for Billy. “He’s not hurt,” Blake reassured her.
The little boy was in the corner with a blanket over his head. Ana reached in gingerly and lifted it. The cries subsided for a moment and a tear-streaked little face looked back at her.
“Did you bring the iPad plug?” he asked.
She nodded and he smiled before pulling the blanket back over his head. “Go and plug it in now and fix the fire fish,” he said. “Please.”
Ana stood up slowly and turned to Blake. The expression on his face was priceless. Both the suave businessman look and the sexily tousled man of this morning had been replaced with a harried face decorated with a blob of ketchup or something red above his right eye, and if she wasn’t mistaken that was baby poop down the front of his T-shirt.
“Welcome to my day,” he said as she fought the laughter bubbling up from her chest.
…
Blake watched as Ana pulled the iPad charger out of the large bag, led Billy over to the power outlet, and plugged it in. Billy sat down as though to settle in and watch it charge. Blake’s admiration for Ana grew as she took the little boy’s hand and led him over to the twins, and whispered quietly in his ear. He climbed happily onto the sofa.
She was casually dressed in a pair of loose cotton pants and a cropped T-shirt that hugged her small, high breasts, and her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. She looked like a teenager, more like the Anastasia he’d known ten years ago. Her slim body was toned and he wondered if she worked out to keep herself fit. He knew nothing about her life now, and wanted to know all about her. What she did, where she lived, and if they could be…friends again.
At least friends. The last ten years had passed so quickly, but damn it, he was fascinated by her. It was as though his life in that time had disappeared in a puff of smoke.
It was a shame he was tied up with the store for the next few weeks, because he wasn’t going to have a lot of spare time. He couldn’t let Mike down on this takeover. It was the first one where he’d be managing the employees at the actual store, and he was determined to make a success of it. He was going to show Mike he could handle the human resources side of things as well as he handled the corporate takeovers.
Ana cleared her throat and he realized he’d been caught staring. His cheeks heated and he quickly thought of a way to cover up his wandering thoughts.
“How did you persuade him to watch television?” He inclined his head to Billy, now happily snuggled between his two older siblings.
“I said I’d fix the fire fish on the iPad.”
“The what?”
“Do you think he is on the computer a little too much? Or are we just spoiling him because of the situation?” Ana frowned and twirled her fingers through her ponytail. “Anyway, the fire fish is ‘wireless.’ He wants me to tu
rn the wireless on. He showed me where the settings folder was and it needs a password! Can you believe it? How old is he? Four?”
Blake looked over at his nephew, whose eyelids were now getting heavy. He had made a fort out of the sofa cushions and only his little head was visible. A surge of love rushed through his chest and he turned to Ana.
“Billy is special…or to put it in the right terminology—he’s on the autism spectrum. Jeannie told me he has the iPad for speech therapy and learning his letters, but I think we are getting conned a bit because I know there are rules about when he can play games and I’m pretty sure Jeannie leaves the Wi-Fi turned off.”
Ana looked back at him and wrinkled her nose, and he wondered what she was going to say. She had handled Billy so well. Come to think of it, all five children had responded to her gentle, caring ways. Surely she wasn’t intimidated now that she knew Billy had special needs. But a slow smile spread across her face and he waited for her to speak.
“Blake, do you know you have baby poop all over your shirt?”
“Oh, jeez.” He looked down and pulled the shirt over his head, taking care to hold the offending piece of fabric well away from his face. He turned to her and this time it was he who caught her checking him out. Or rather checking his abs out.
“I’m gonna take a shower. Want to come and wash my back?” He kept his voice light as he teased her.
She lifted her head and held his gaze.
“Maddy can cook dinner. You go and start and I’ll be up in a moment,” she deadpanned.
For one brief moment his heart notched up a beat, and then he burst out laughing.
“Still got your sense of humor, I see, Anast…sorry, I mean…Ana.”
“It’s okay, I’ll answer to either.” She smiled at him and headed for the family room. He stood for a moment, watching her as she entered into some serious negotiations with the boys about eating vegetables for dinner. It was going to be a very interesting weekend.
