The evening began in earnest, a steady din of meaningless chat and drinks and food that could drown out more serious thought.
It was what he had come for, Donovan thought. He would fit in here and pass the time. He smiled at those who smiled at him, ignoring the speculative glances of the women, married and otherwise, who were giving him obvious come-to-my-bedroom-later glances. When the conversation threatened to get personal he sidestepped and steered it back into more mundane topics about local tourism, the stock market and real estate.
He’d been raised to this kind of talk. He could rattle off such conversations in his sleep and it almost seemed as if that was just what he was doing. His mind began to go numb after a few minutes, but then that was a good thing. It was what he wanted. If, when a woman named Olivia Simms engaged him in a conversation about pier parties, he kept noting that her hands looked as if they had never been used for work, that was a glitch. If that thought was followed by a vision of Anna’s pretty but useful hands, sending heat spiraling through him, it was a mistake, and an unkind one at that. Olivia was who and what she was, and he was of the same cloth. He shifted away from such thoughts.
Only once did he falter. To his right, he heard a small male exclamation, a female shriek and the crunching of glass beneath something heavy.
He turned to see Kendra, her dark eyebrows drawn together, her face a mask of fury, reprimanding a male servant who appeared to have dropped a glass, sloshing wine on a female guest. The woman was demanding reparation and the flustered servant was apologizing profusely.
Kendra’s voice was low, but Donovan had excellent hearing, so he didn’t miss her swift dismissal of the man despite his attempts to offer to pay for the guest’s dry cleaning.
Other guests turned to look, then turned back to their conversations as if this wasn’t an unusual occurrence.
The woman Donovan was talking to sighed. “Poor man,” she said. “That dress was a Versace. He could never afford what it would cost to replace it.” She took a sip of her own drink and placed her hand on Donovan’s arm. “Now what were we discussing?”
“Something riveting, I’m sure,” Donovan assured her as he made an effort to bring a smooth, controlled end to the conversation. Less than two minutes later he smiled at her. “Please accept my apologies, but I’m afraid I have to leave. I have an early appointment.”
“So suddenly? It must be important,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“It is,” he admitted, but he didn’t want to think what that appointment was going to be. Recounting the evening to Anna?
No, he wouldn’t do that. But he really did have to go. The memory of Kendra firing her servant nagged at him. Anger was churning in his gut. Smiling was no longer an option.
He excused himself to Kendra, saying all the right and polite things, bid the other guests goodbye, then hurried out the door.
Breathing in the clean fresh air, he tried to clear his mind, hoping for luck. He fought against analyzing what he planned to do next.
Sprinting beyond the area where the guests’ cars were parked, Donovan found a few older and considerably less sleek automobiles. He hoped his guess was right and that he had timed things properly and would find the person he was seeking. If he missed his chance, he would have to do detective work, and his most likely source of information was Anna. He didn’t want to talk to her about this.
Glancing around, Donovan made a quick visual inspection of the area. There were only a few dim lights out here. The sky was clouded and moonless. Visibility was limited.
No luck.
He waited for his vision to adjust to the darkness, listening for the sound of a car door or an engine. Finally, he began to make out shapes more clearly and this time he saw what he had missed. A man sat on a rock next to a rather battered pickup truck. His head was in his hands.
Donovan approached him.
The man looked up, wary.
“I just came from the party,” Donovan said, gesturing toward the house.
The man faltered, looked scared. “I didn’t mean to make such a stupid mistake. I looked away just for a minute and…well, it was clumsiness, pure and simple.”
Donovan ignored him. “I’m looking for help at my house. Can you use some work?”
The man’s eyes lit up, but he didn’t jump. “Doing what?”
Donovan almost smiled. “Nothing illegal,” he promised, although he didn’t have a clue what he was hiring the man for. He already had a gardener. “Do you know anything about plumbing?”
The man looked despondent. “Not really.”
“Electrical work?”
“Only a little bit.”
Donovan frowned. “Can you lift things?”
The man smiled. “Sure. I’m strong.”
“Good. Show up at Morning View Manor the day after tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. sharp.”
“What will I be doing?”
“Grunt work. Greeting guests. Assisting my housekeeper. A little bit of everything.” Donovan made it up as he went along.
“All right, yes. Thank you, Mr….”
“Barrett. And there’s no need to thank me. Just do a good job.”
The man nodded. Donovan wanted to stipulate one more thing. Don’t tell Anna how I hired you. She already thinks I’m better than I really am or ever was. But that would have been too bizarre, even more bizarre than the fact that he had rushed after the man to offer him work.
What was that about?
But Donovan knew. When Kendra had been firing the man, Donovan had only been able to think about how he would have felt if it had been Anna who had been called on the carpet for spilling a drink on a guest’s dress. And there was something about Anna that made him want to be a better man.
“You’re an idiot, Barrett,” he told himself as he headed home.
That was all right. He could deal with being an idiot. He just couldn’t deal with guilt. His life had been filled with guilt these past few years, and Anna made him feel even more guilty.
He had the awful feeling that he was going to somehow hurt her, and that there was nothing he could do to stop that.
What a ridiculous thought. He was Anna’s boss, nothing more. Nor would he ever be more. Thank goodness.
CHAPTER SIX
ANNA woke that morning, groggy. She had done just what she’d planned to do the night before, finished her work and then gone to bed.
Yet she had been perfectly aware that Donovan had returned home at two in the morning. The party must have been a hit.
That was good. It made it that much easier to remind herself that Donovan was her boss, a man born to mingle with the rich and famous. Now she could get back to her life and think only of her child, her dream.
At least, those were her thoughts in the middle of the night. But in the morning her head ached and she was glad that this was her day off. Still, she took the time to tell Linette, the cook, to make something that would keep since Donovan would most likely be late to breakfast.
Anna prepared to plan her day, fighting the headache that had resulted from her lack of sleep. It was obvious that the day wasn’t going to be one of her finest. And that was before the phone rang, its piercing and insistent din sending her flying to answer it.
“Barrett residence.”
“Anna, it’s me,” her friend Bridget said. Bridget worked in one of the gift shops in town. “Did you hear what went on last night? Did your Mr. Barrett tell you?”
The possibilities immediately ran through Anna’s head. Visions of Donovan with a beautiful woman, with several women draped over his arms or pressing up against his chest came to mind. The possibility that he might have slept with one of them presented itself.
Anna closed her eyes and ran a hand over her forehead. “I haven’t seen him yet.”
“Good. I get to do the honors then,” Bridget said as she launched into a tale of how Kendra Williams had fired John Jessup on the spot at the party last night and then Donovan had hired him.
“What do you think that’s about?” Bridget asked.
Anna tried not to feel relief. Her mind was suddenly a tornado of speculation, but as good a friend as Bridget was, Anna wasn’t going to gossip about Donovan with her. “Donovan probably just needed some help, and John was there.”
“But he ruined Meredith Talbott’s dress. She’s probably spitting mad at him.”
“That probably won’t matter. John won’t be interacting with any guests. Donovan doesn’t entertain.”
Bridget snorted. “He will. Wait and see. Now that they’ve seen him, the women will be rushing your house. I’ve already heard one or two in here whispering about his broad shoulders. They’ll want to see what else he has to offer. Like property. Sooner or later, he’ll have to open the doors of Morning View and let them in.”
And she would be the one serving the drinks this time, Anna knew, while the local heiresses and wealthy divorcées did their best to entice her boss to their beds.
“Then I’d better make sure the house is in top shape,” she told her friend just before she hung up the phone. After all, who was she to criticize the women of the town for wanting Donovan? He was an attractive and intelligent man.
“And a kind man,” she reminded herself, thinking of how he had hired John.
What’s more, just because Donovan had said that he didn’t want to marry didn’t mean that he might not change his mind. Lots of the women he was meeting now would be willing to give up motherhood to have him. Maybe he could be happy again.
Despite the fact that something dark and unacceptable ran through her at the thought of him marrying, she stopped herself cold. Because she did hope that he could be happy again. She wondered how he felt about last night.
But of course, she couldn’t ask.
Donovan braced his feet on the floor, lay back and lifted the weighted bar, pressing upward slowly, exhaling, then inhaling as he lowered the bar to his chest. His muscles tightened, his body strained as he tried to push himself harder and concentrate only on what he was doing.
A short time later he sat up, admitting that while the exercise might be good for his body it wasn’t doing anything to quell his restlessness. Furthermore, the incidents of the last evening had left a bad taste in his mouth. He needed fresh air.
After taking a quick shower and dressing, Donovan fully intended to head for the lake. He might even take a walk partway down the shore path. For half a second he thought of the family Anna had driven home, the little boy. Then, shaking his head, he headed toward the door.
A feminine giggle stopped him cold.
An unknown feminine giggle. It wasn’t Anna’s. He knew Anna’s voice. Sometimes he dreamed Anna’s voice.
Donovan turned. A woman several years Anna’s senior was standing on the stairs looking down at him.
Almost immediately Anna appeared, a frown on her face. “I’m sorry, Donovan. Some friends have dropped by. We didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“You didn’t. And…”
She waited.
He shrugged. “It’s your day off. You should feel free to have your friends over.”
“Oh, I like him,” the other woman said. “The John Jessup thing wasn’t just a fluke.”
Donovan frowned, not understanding.
“The man you hired last night,” Anna explained. “Didn’t he tell you his name?”
Donovan smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t ask.”
A look of concern came over Anna’s face. “You didn’t even ask? You hired him without knowing anything about him?”
“I knew he needed a job.”
And he had known something else. He’d known that he wouldn’t have wanted Anna to face the humiliation of being fired because she had made a simple mistake.
Right now she was looking at him with soft eyes. “Did you eat breakfast?”
“Not yet.”
“Oh, good,” the other woman said. “We have food. Anna always feeds us when we come over. Maybe you’d like to join us.”
Anna was looking horrified. “Nan, he’s got better things to do with his time than eat with us.”
“No, I don’t.” The words surprised even him.
“Well, then,” Nan said. “Anna?”
Donovan waited. He should let her off the hook, claim to have other plans. Yet he didn’t. He tried not to wonder why.
Anna stared at Donovan and bit her lip. Already the day was getting away from her. Nan and Paula had both shown up unannounced, probably driven here by Bridget’s tales. She adored both of them. Together with Bridget, they had saved her sanity when her sanity had needed saving, and they never questioned her baby plans even though she knew they wanted to. But there was no question in her mind that they were here to check out Donovan.
She didn’t want anyone trying to decide if he was good or bad. Hadn’t he gone through enough?
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said.
“Of course,” he said, studying her intently. “It’s your day off. These are your friends.”
And he was her boss, she reminded herself.
“I’m not worried that you’re going to fire me because of anything that goes on today. It’s not that you’re intruding. It’s just…”
She paused, flustered, her hands gesturing as she tried to find the right words.
He grinned. “It’s okay, Anna. I’m gone.” He turned to head back into the other part of the house.
“Don’t pay any attention to Anna, Mr. Barrett. I know what the problem is. Anna’s just afraid we’ll interrogate you,” Nan said with a laugh.
Donovan turned and raised a brow, studying Anna.
She squirmed and gave Nan a dirty look. “Nan’s a sweetheart but she’s right. She and Paula will ask you all kinds of questions. You’re a bit of a celebrity, especially after the John Jessup thing.”
He swore. “I didn’t want you to know about that.”
Anna stopped fidgeting. “Why not?”
“Because it makes me look like I was doing something noble. I wasn’t. It was an impulse, a knee-jerk reaction.”
“Which won’t win you any points with Kendra Williams, either,” Nan offered.
Anna gave her a warning look.
But Donovan laughed. “You might be right, but that’s okay. I didn’t come to Lake Geneva to earn points with anyone. Opinions don’t matter to me. And I’m not looking for a woman or a relationship, so that’s not a problem.”
Nan looked a bit surprised. “You’re not even interested in the women who’d like to get you in bed?”
“Nan!” Anna’s voice actually squeaked.
“Well they are,” her friend said. “People are talking.”
Anna scowled at Nan. “We’re not talking.”
She felt Donovan’s light touch on the small of her back. “It’s all right, Anna. Newcomers are fair game for gossip. It’s to be expected. And no, Nan, I’m not in the market for a woman of any variety right now.”
Nan shook her head and shrugged. “You are definitely not a typical man, Mr. Barrett.”
Anna smiled at her friend’s look of disbelief. Nan was a large, curvy and very earthy woman. She liked her pleasures and thought everyone else should feel the same. Anna was a constant trial to her.
“Come have lunch,” Anna told Donovan. Now that he had made his complete indifference to her as a woman clear and she had shown no concern about his indifference, Nan and Paula wouldn’t worry and they would most likely behave themselves. Besides, she knew that if Donovan left he would end up kicking around the house avoiding his demons. Nan and Paula weren’t exactly angels, but they weren’t demons most of the time, either. They just watched their friends’ backs, as she did.
Anna wondered who watched Donovan’s back, but then she already knew the answer to that, didn’t she? No one did.
Glancing at him, she realized that she must have been silent too long. Donovan was giving her that speculative, I-can-see-through-you look that always made her too self-co
nscious. She would just bet that his former patients couldn’t hide anything from him. Remembering his reaction to the little boy on the shore path and his reaction to John Jessup, she had no doubt that he had been a wonderful, caring doctor.
But he didn’t want that anymore. And he was waiting for her to take the lead now. He wouldn’t appreciate her delving into his business.
“This way,” she said softly and nodded toward the stairs just as if this wasn’t his house and he didn’t know where she stayed.
They all turned toward Anna’s room. Nan led the way and Donovan brought up the rear.
Anna tried not to feel self-conscious; it was all but impossible. She was wearing her usual faded jeans, and they fit a bit snugly over her butt. The realization that Donovan couldn’t help but end up staring at that part of her anatomy whether he wanted to or not made her heart start to do terribly acrobatic things she wasn’t used to. She wanted to rush up the stairs and end the sensation, but she resisted the urge, trying not to let her hips sway. He already had Dana Wellinton swinging her belly in his face. She didn’t want him to think she was trying to get his attention, too.
When she got to the top of the stairs, she turned to the left where her room was located. Like all the rooms at Morning View, it was large and airy. She had, of course, left the basics of the room alone, but she had tried to make it her own.
The room was done in jade and white, and she had set out touches of sunflower gold here and there. There was a vase she’d gotten at a garage sale, a thrift shop scarf she’d draped halfway across the mirror. The room had always looked cozy to her in the past, but today, despite the table she and Paula and Nan had dragged in for their lunch, the bed seemed enormous.
Anna did her best to ignore it.
“You need a bigger room,” Donovan said.
She turned and saw that he was staring at the bed, too.
Nan laughed, and Paula, who was crossing the room to meet them, joined in.
“I love this room,” Anna insisted as she hurriedly introduced Paula to Donovan.
“I have others,” he argued.
The Maid and the Millionaire Page 5
