Annie groaned inwardly.
Kara clutched at her mom’s black slacks and looked up at Noah. “Uh-huh. But I’m really sorry.”
“Do you know why you’re sorry?” he asked, his voice quiet, deep.
Annie didn’t know what to do. She felt as though she should step in, but at the same time, he was her boss, the owner of the mall, and at the moment he was handling Kara so gently that she found herself simply observing. There was no anger in his tone, no impatience, and Annie was relieved by it.
“’Cause it’s wrong to take stuff that isn’t yours,” the little girl answered.
Annie smoothed her hand over Kara’s soft blond hair and then lifted her gaze to Noah. He looked directly at her and seemed to be waiting for her to say something. “Kara made a mistake and she’s very sorry. She’s going to apologize to Mrs. Higgins, too. Aren’t you, sweetie?”
Kara sighed. “Yes, Mommy.”
Smiling now, Annie put on a brave face and didn’t let any of her thoughts show.
“I’m sorry about this, too, Noah,” Annie said quickly. “It’s never happened before and I promise you it won’t happen again.”
He only nodded, then looked to Kara again. “Do you still want the shoes?”
“Uh-huh, but I don’t have money.”
Tucking his hands into the pockets of his slacks, Noah simply stood there, staring down at the little girl for a long moment. His features were impossible to read, so Annie felt a jolt of surprise when he spoke again.
“Would you like the chance to earn the money?”
Apparently her daughter was as surprised as she was. Kara let go of Annie’s pants and moved out from behind her. Still sniffling, the girl tipped her head back to look up at him. “I’m just a little girl. I don’t have a job.”
His lips curved slightly. “Even children can earn the things they want. I’ll pay you five dollars a day to do chores here around the office. Then you can save your money and buy your friend the new shoes.”
Annie was stunned speechless.
Kara, on the other hand, was not. “You mean it?”
“I do.” Then he looked at Annie. “If it’s all right with your mother.”
Annie met his steady blue eyes and found herself nodding agreement. She hadn’t expected this from her usually taciturn employer. Not only was he being kind, but he had given Kara the opportunity to work for something she wanted.
When he smiled, something inside Annie seemed to wake up and start humming. Who would have guessed that Noah Fielding had a heart?
CHAPTER
TWO
TWO HOURS LATER Noah was still just as surprised at his actions as Annie. It had been years since he’d done anything spur-of-the-moment, and he wasn’t exactly known for being an altruistic kind of guy. Still, the crestfallen expression on the little girl’s face had tugged at his long-neglected heart. But it was more than just the child. More than watching Annie comfort her daughter. He’d unexpectedly found himself remembering his own past—a past that he preferred to keep locked away.
Noah Fielding didn’t look backward. He always had his eye on the future because the years behind him meant nothing. They didn’t define who he was now. And the boy he’d once been had been neatly supplanted by the man he’d become. Drive, determination and ambition had locked the door on a past that he preferred never to think about.
But Kara’s tears had tugged at him so that he hadn’t been able to turn his back. Now he was wondering just what the hell he’d been thinking. Getting involved with Annie and her daughter was a mistake on so many levels he could hardly count them all. In one fell swoop he’d knocked down the wall of deliberate formality he’d created between him and his assistant.
During the time Annie had been working for him, he’d managed to consistently ignore her presence, beyond her talent for efficiency. Now that they’d each breached that businesslike facade, though, there would be no going back. It wasn’t easy to put the proverbial cat back into the bag. By stepping into the situation, Noah had made it far more complex.
The Moore females were clearly a dangerous duo.
“You’ve dug yourself a hole now,” he muttered and took a seat behind his desk. Trying to put Annie and her daughter out of his mind—at least for the moment—he dived back into work.
* * *
“I’M REALLY SORRY,” Kara said, staring up at Mrs. Higgins, the owner of the franchised discount shoe store. “I won’t ever do it again, either. I promise.”
Thankfully, the shop was empty at the moment, giving Kara the opportunity to apologize in private for what she’d done. Annie was as nervous about this as her daughter, so she was grateful they didn’t have an audience.
People out in the enclosed mall wandered past the store, unaware of the little drama going on inside. The shop itself had long aisles stuffed with opened shoe boxes for customers to browse through, and did a booming business in children’s shoes. Annie had been in many times, both for her daughter and herself. So Mrs. Higgins was not only familiar, she was practically a friend, which only added to the misery of the moment.
Mrs. Higgins’s kind brown eyes were filled with understanding as she looked down at Kara. “I’m glad to hear you’re sorry, Kara. I have to say I was very disappointed in you.”
Annie took a breath and inwardly cringed. “Kara knows she was wrong to do what she did and she’s going to make up for it, aren’t you?”
The little girl dipped her head, swiped the toe of her tennis shoe against the gray carpet and murmured, “Yes, ma’am.”
“I want to thank you for being so understanding about this,” Annie said.
“Nonsense. Every child makes mistakes. It’s how they learn. But Kara, I’d like to know why you wanted those shoes so badly.” Mrs. Higgins looked down at the little girl’s pink sneakers. “You’re wearing a pair just like the ones you took.”
“They’re for my friend Gracie, because she doesn’t have any.”
“I see.”
“But now I have a job and I’m going to buy those shoes for Gracie really soon.”
“Is that so? Well, now, that’s a nice thing to do for your friend. So I’ll tell you what.” Mrs. Higgins walked over to a nearby shelf, took down the box of shoes that Kara had tried to steal and put them behind her counter. “I’ll just hold on to them for you, so they’ll be here waiting for you when you have the money to buy them, all right?”
Kara grinned and practically bounced on her heels, already recovered from the humiliation of an apology. “Thank you! I’ll have the money soon, because I’m a hard worker, Mommy says.”
“Good for you.”
Annie gave Kara’s hand a squeeze and said, “Sweetie, go wait for me by the door, all right?”
The little girl skipped away, and when she was out of earshot, Annie turned back to Mrs. Higgins. “Honestly, I don’t even know what to say to you. Thank you so much for being so kind.”
The older woman shook her head and let her gaze slide to where Kara waited, watching the people in the mall walk by. “She’s a good girl and she’s sorry. So that’s taken care of. What I worry about is the reason Kara was stealing.”
“For her friend, you mean.”
Nodding, Mrs. Higgins met Annie’s eyes. “You know, some families around here aren’t doing well at all. And the children are the ones who end up losing. Owning a shoe store, you see the kids come in, wearing shoes that are worn-out or don’t fit, and you wonder if there isn’t something you could be doing to help.” She frowned and gave a small sigh. “Your Kara—even though she went about it the wrong way—was at least trying to do something about the situation. You’ve got a loving little girl there, Annie. You should treasure her.”
“I do,” she said, turning to look at her daughter, safe and happy and well fed. With Mrs. Higgins’s words ringing in her ears, she couldn’t help thinking about what it would be like not to be able to provide something as simple as shoes for your child.
When someone w
alked through the door, setting off a chime of welcome, Annie excused herself, and the older woman hustled off to serve her customer. She and Kara strolled through the mall, and Annie took her time going back to the office. As well as this had all turned out, she was still concerned not only by what Mrs. Higgins had said, but by her daughter’s brief foray into shoplifting.
After leading Kara to a white bench beside a gurgling fountain, Annie sat down and looked at the little girl.
“Why now?” she asked after a long moment of silence broken by the sound of her daughter’s heels kicking the railing beneath the bench. “I mean, what made you decide to steal these shoes for Gracie today, sweetie? Why not last week? Or the week before?”
Kara sighed, scratched at her knee and shrugged. “Gracie used to have her own shoes, but they got too small and they were making her toes hurt. But her mommy said they couldn’t get new ones right now, so she had to start wearing her sister’s old ones.” Shaking her head, she said, “Gracie’s daddy lost his job in the city and he’s worried a lot now, but it’s not fair, Mommy. Gracie shouldn’t have to get laughed at in school.”
“No, she shouldn’t,” Annie agreed. Her mind turned immediately to the fact that if she didn’t have this job with Noah, Kara might have been the one to be laughed at by her schoolmates. Even with a good job, money was sometimes too tight for comfort. She couldn’t imagine how bad Gracie’s mother must be feeling not to be able to provide her child with a good pair of shoes. And according to Mrs. Higgins, the O’Malley family wasn’t the only one in town having trouble.
While Kara sat beside her, safe and happy now, Annie looked around the mall. Wide skylights spilled sunshine down on customers carrying bags of merchandise from store to store. The floor gleamed, with brick-colored Spanish tiles beneath walls painted a soft adobe peach. The merchandise for sale was widely divergent, everything from discount shoes to high-end clothing.
In this spot, the world looked prosperous, and yet there were children out there who didn’t even have a pair of shoes to call their own.
Annie had been unemployed only once since Kara was born, and those few months had terrified her. She’d lain awake at night, hoping her savings would hold out until she could find another job. Praying she’d be able to take care of her little girl as she deserved to be taken care of.
She felt a swift, sharp stab of sympathy for Gracie’s mom and for however many other moms were in the same position. How easy life seemed when you were working. Well, not easy, she corrected mentally. But certainly as long as you had a job, you felt somehow safer. Knew that you could find a way to take care of your family.
What must it be like for Gracie’s parents? They had three children to worry over. They would have gone through any savings they might have had much faster than Annie had. Her heart ached again, not just for the little girl in the ill-fitting shoes, but for the mom and dad who were unable to change the situation.
“She’s not the only one, either,” Kara said softly.
“What?” Annie’s gaze shot back to her daughter.
“Gracie.” Kara twisted the ends of her hair around her finger and said, “Some of the other kids have worn-out shoes with big holes in them and their feet get all wet when it rains or something and...”
As Kara talked and Annie listened, she recalled what Mrs. Higgins had said, and she couldn’t bear the thought that children in her community were lacking something so basic. How was it possible she hadn’t even known about it? And what could she do about it? Something to definitely think about.
With her mind still whirling, she took Kara’s hand and headed back to her office.
* * *
BY THE END OF THE afternoon, when Kara was busy dusting the bookshelves and equipment in her mother’s office, Noah wasn’t surprised when Annie knocked on his door and stepped inside.
“Before I leave for the day, I just wanted to thank you again,” she said when he looked up at her.
“Not necessary.” He didn’t want her thanks. What he did want from her he couldn’t—shouldn’t—have.
“I think it is.” She stepped closer to the desk, and with that single step, Noah caught a whiff of her perfume drifting toward him. “What you did for Kara was really very sweet. Very understanding.”
“That’s the first time anyone’s ever accused me of being sweet,” he admitted, leaning back in his desk chair to study her more closely.
She looked uncomfortable, but he supposed he could understand that. In the months they’d worked together, their relationship had been strictly business. Today was the first time they’d ever crossed that polite bridge separating them. And it seemed that Annie was a bit ill at ease about it. Noah knew exactly what she was feeling.
He’d been thinking about her all day. Now that he’d breached the wall between them, it was as if his mind and body had decided that all bets were off. For six months Noah had done everything he could to ignore the hum of attraction he felt for her. Not just because she was his employee, but because she was a single mom and more vulnerable than most. He might think of himself as a cold bastard, but even he had lines he didn’t cross. Still, that hum was there, and now it was more noticeable than ever.
Sweet? He wasn’t feeling sweet.
She laughed a little and folded her hands together, fingers twisting nervously. “Well, whether you think so or not, it was kind of you to not—”
“What?” he interrupted, reading her expression easily. “Fire you?” Noah stood up from behind his desk so that he could meet her gaze squarely. “Did you really expect that I would fire you over your daughter’s mistake?”
She blew out a breath that ruffled the short fringe of bangs on her forehead. “Yeah, I thought it was a possibility.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Some men might have.”
He couldn’t imagine who, but that wasn’t the point. “Not me.”
“Yes, I can see that now.” She smiled, her blue eyes shining. “Anyway, I do appreciate it. And you were so good to Kara, offering her a job to earn money....”
He brushed that aside, since he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the offer he’d made. Noah lived his life by a simple rule. Don’t get involved.
Yet today he’d not only shattered that rule, he was actually having a hard time regretting the action. How had Annie and her daughter reached inside him and pulled out feelings and emotions he’d thought long buried?
“I know what it’s like to be a kid and to want something so badly you’d do anything to have it—” Noah stopped suddenly, sharply aware that he’d said more than he’d planned to.
But thankfully Annie didn’t ask questions.
His past was just that. The past. He refused to spend time thinking about drifting from foster home to foster home with nothing more than a paper bag containing secondhand clothing to call his own. He remembered clearly the constant worry and the gnawing desperation, the hunger to be...more.
Which was why he’d made a vow to get through school no matter what it took. To work hard. To invest his money. To never again be susceptible to anyone else’s whims. And now that he’d succeeded, he wasn’t interested in remembering what had compelled him to get there.
“You’re different from most people, then,” she said softly. “Most of us can’t remember what it was like to be a child. To know that sometimes impulses lead to bad decisions.”
Truer words were never spoken, he thought. Hadn’t his own impulse to help brought him to this very spot? He walked around the edge of his desk, drawn by the warmth in her eyes as much as by the scent of springtime that clung to her. She didn’t back up, simply stood there as he got nearer.
Now a new and very distracting impulse was taking hold of him, he told himself, dropping his gaze to the lush curve of her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. Taste her. And that would only compound the mistake he’d already made. He wasn’t interested in connections, and Annie Moore had strings wrapped all around her. So, yeah, he had an impulse, but
unlike a kid, he had better control over it.
Although if she kept looking at him as she was now, he wasn’t entirely sure how much control he’d be able to hold on to.
CHAPTER
THREE
“EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES.” Eager to get past the urge to reach for her, he shifted the conversation away from him. “That’s true.”
“Your daughter’s a good kid.”
Instantly her face brightened. “She really is.”
“How long has her father been gone?” Scowling, he cursed himself for the blunt question. He hadn’t actually meant to ask it aloud. It was just that he needed to know if she was still mourning her late husband.
Some of that brightness faded as she glanced back over her shoulder at the little girl rubbing her dust cloth across the desk with more enthusiasm than precision. Turning her gaze back to Noah, she said, “My husband died when Kara was a baby.”
Selfishly, he was glad to hear it. He didn’t want her still yearning for the man she’d lost. Not when she could be thinking about him.
That notion scuttled through his mind so fast, he hardly recognized it as his own. Where the hell was this coming from?
“It must have been tough on you. Both of you.” His voice was low, as was hers. He told himself that he was just being nice. That none of this meant anything. But even he was beginning to doubt it.
“Sometimes,” she admitted, then almost unconsciously squared her shoulders and stiffened her spine. “It’s not easy being a single parent.”
No, it couldn’t be, he thought, though he had no way of knowing. But he did know that as a kid, he’d envied the children with parents.
“And as evidenced today,” she added with a sheepish smile, “I’m not a perfect mother.”
“Nobody’s perfect,” he assured her quickly. “Besides, all a kid really needs is to be loved. Everything else sorts itself out.”
She tipped her head to one side. “Is that experience talking again?”
Okay, they were getting in far deeper than he’d intended. He hadn’t meant to steer the conversation back down this path. He’d simply been anxious to keep that wall between them from rebuilding itself. Which just went to show he wasn’t thinking clearly. Because the best thing for both of them would be if the wall sprang up fast, harder and stronger than it had been before.
More Than Words: Acts of Kindness: Whispers of the HeartIt's Not About the DressThe Princess Shoes Page 14
