Adding Up to Family

by Marie Ferrarella

  “She’s a housekeeper,” Steve stressed. “And her job is to run the household. You just happen to be part of it.”

  Stevi’s face hardened. “She can’t tell me what to do,” the young girl insisted.

  “Stephanie,” he began, taking great pains to call her by the name she professed to prefer, “I expect you to be polite to the woman.”

  “You mean you expect me to do what she says,” Stevi corrected.

  “What I expect, Stephanie, is for you not to give me a headache,” he told her, the last of his patience slipping away.

  Reaching the house, he left his car parked in the driveway and went inside with his daughter.

  When had parenting become so difficult? he wondered. He and Stevi had always gotten along, even right after her mother died. Stevi had been only four and they’d helped one another, supporting each other whenever the other was down and really needed it. Where had all that gone?

  He was about to say something else to Stevi when he heard the doorbell ring. It pushed his train of thought into the background. For now, he tabled the rest of what he wanted to say.

  “Remember,” he warned his daughter in a lowered tone, “be polite.”

  “Only if she is,” Stevi said, just as he opened the door.

  He gave his daughter a warning glance before turning to look at Mrs. Parnell and the housekeeper she had brought with her.

  Steve found himself tongue-tied, staring at the woman beside Mrs. Parnell. Although no actual description had been given, for some reason he had expected this latest candidate for housekeeper to be like the others: another middle-aged woman in sensible shoes, with a somewhat expanding waistline and a pasted-on smile that ended before ever reaching her eyes.

  Instead, the woman beside Mrs. Parnell was a blue-eyed blonde who might have been twenty-five or so. She was slender and there was nothing sensible about her shoes—or the rest of her, for that matter. She was wearing high heels and looked as if she was about to go out on a date, not a job interview. And since nothing had actually been settled between himself and Mrs. Parnell, that was what this actually was. A job interview.

  “Mr. Holder,” Celia said, addressing him formally for the sake of the interview, “I’d like you to meet Rebecca Reynolds.” Celia smiled broadly at the young woman. There was a great deal of pride in her manner. “Rebecca is one of my best employees.”

  Steve was still at a loss for words. He knew that Mrs. Parnell had brought the woman here to be a housekeeper, but the more he looked at her, the more she just didn’t seem like the type.

  When his tongue finally came back to life and reengaged with his brain, he heard himself asking, “You’re a cleaning lady?”

  Rather than be insulted by the demotion, Becky smiled. “My mother would prefer the term ‘maintenance engineer,’” she said with a soft laugh. “But yes, in simple terms, I’m a cleaning lady. Mrs. Parnell said the position you’re looking to fill is housekeeper.”

  “You have any experience?” The question didn’t come from Steve, but from his daughter, who was regarding this new woman Mrs. Parnell had brought into her life with a great deal of suspicion.

  To Rebecca’s credit, Steve noticed that she didn’t balk at having his daughter ask her a question.

  “Yes, three years’ worth,” she replied.

  “As a housekeeper?” Stevi asked, eyeing her closely as she grilled her.

  “Stev—Stephanie,” Steve corrected, not wanting his daughter to go off on another tangent, “I’ll handle the questions.”

  “I don’t mind answering,” Becky told him calmly. “This would actually be my first job as a housekeeper. But that would entail cleaning and cooking, and I can do both. I’ve done both before.”

  “You’d also have to watch my daughter...” Steve felt bound to tell her that.

  Stevi instantly took offense. “I don’t need watching,” she declared.

  He was about to ask her to go to her room, but the woman interjected before he could send her off.

  “No, I’m sure you don’t,” Becky told the girl. “You don’t need someone telling you what to do, do you, Stephanie?” Turning away from her very good-looking, would-be new employer, she focused strictly on the little girl. “You look as if you’re perfectly capable of watching out for yourself. I’d just be here in case you needed me,” she explained. “It would be more to set your father’s mind at ease than anything else.”

  Stevi said nothing. She continued to study this housekeeping candidate as if trying to make up her mind whether she was being misled, or if this new woman might wind up being an ally.

  Finally, Stevi nodded and said to Becky, “I guess that’s okay.”

  “Well, Mr. Holder?” Celia asked, speaking up after quietly watching all three parties interacting with one another. It was easy to see that she was pleased with the way this was going. “Are you willing to give Rebecca a trial run? Say, for about two weeks?” she suggested, observing Steve’s face.

  “Two weeks,” Steve repeated, as he rolled the words over in his mind. He was secretly stunned that it was so easy. Considering the way she’d been acting lately, he thought his daughter would fight this new setup tooth and nail. “Yes, I think I can do that. Two weeks should be enough time to find out if we can all work together,” he concluded, giving his daughter a quick side glance.

  “What about you, Stephanie?” Becky asked the little girl. “Do two weeks work for you?”

  “Me?” Stevi asked, clearly surprised that she was actually being consulted in this decision by the grown-ups. “Um, yes—I guess so,” she added, no doubt not wanting to seem too pleased to have her opinion matter.

  But she was.

  “Then I guess this is settled,” Celia declared happily. She turned toward Steve. “Until you decide this isn’t working out, I now pronounce you housekeeper and boss.”

  “And charge,” Becky added.

  “What’s a ‘charge’?” Stevi asked, apparently wondering if she should be taking offense.

  “You.” The warmth of Becky’s smile defused any indignation that Stevi was debating harboring.

  “I’ll walk you to the door, Mrs. Parnell,” Steve offered, turning toward the woman. “I’ve got to get back to work soon, anyway.” Once in the entry, he lowered his voice. “Isn’t she kind of young to be doing this kind of thing? I thought she’d be...”

  “Older?” Celia asked, trying to supply the word he was looking for.

  But that wasn’t it. “Sturdier,” he finally said, glancing over his shoulder at the woman Celia had brought to him.

  “Rebecca is very capable, Steve. Trust me,” she stated. “She can take care of herself, and you’ll find that she’s more than equal to the job.”

  “Of cleaning the house,” he said. He had no doubts about that. But he did about another matter. “I was thinking more about Stevi.”

  “She’s more than equal to taking care of your daughter, too,” Celia assured him. That was based more on a gut feeling than on anything that could be found in a résumé. But there was something about the way Rebecca conducted herself that told Celia she’d be fully capable of doing so.

  But Steve wanted to be convinced. “How do you know that?”

  Celia merely smiled at him. “Some things, Steve, you just have to take on faith. Faith and instinct,” she added, feeling that he needed something more to hang on to. She wasn’t about to tell him about Becky’s background; that was hers to reveal. Besides, if she told him that the young woman who had just agreed to clean his house and look after his daughter had a degree from MIT, he either wouldn’t believe her or, just possibly, he would be intimidated, thinking that there was something wrong with the woman.

  Celia wanted him to get to know Becky and vice versa before that extra piece of information was placed on the table. Because Becky wasn’t just a walking brain; first an
d foremost, she was a person. The kind of person Celia firmly believed Steve Holder needed in his life. As did his daughter.

  But that was something all three parties needed to discover for themselves in due time. In this particular case, too much knowledge at the outset equaled too much information to deal with. She wanted everyone to proceed unhampered and learn about each other slowly, at their own pace.

  Telling Steve goodbye and that she’d be in touch, Celia smiled to herself as she took her leave.

  She didn’t want to jinx anything, but had to admit she had a good feeling about this.

  Becky’s mother was due to be made happy very soon, Celia thought.

  Chapter Three

  If it wasn’t for the fact that he had known Celia for the last five years and trusted her implicitly, Steve might have had some doubts about leaving his daughter with this brand-new housekeeper. But Celia was obviously completely sold on the young woman’s capabilities, and he knew for a fact that she carefully vetted everyone who worked for her. So if this young woman was good enough for Celia, well then, she was definitely good enough for him.

  Besides, it was either that or send his daughter away to a boarding school. He’d already looked into the matter briefly, reviewing several schools and even selecting the top two that seemed to have a great deal going for them. They were exceptional facilities and each would do well in furthering his daughter’s education, but her attending them would mean he wouldn’t see Stevi for long periods of time.

  So far, the longest he had ever gone without interacting with his daughter was a day and a half, and that was only because she was asleep when he had gotten home that one time and still asleep when he left for work early the next morning.

  Stevi hadn’t been thrilled to be left in the care of a housekeeper, and he knew she wouldn’t be happy about it now. But that was still a lot better than having to send her away altogether.

  “So,” Steve said to his new employee, as he walked back into the room, “did Mrs. Parnell explain to you that this was a live-in position?”

  That surprised Becky, but she managed to recover quickly. “Actually, she didn’t. What she did tell me was that she thought this would be a good position for me, and that she wanted you to be the one to explain everything that you require.”

  Steve took a breath. “So I guess I’d better do so,” he muttered. He glanced at his watch. “You’ll forgive me if I talk fast, but I have to be at a meeting in less than an hour and traffic at this time of day is usually abysmal.”

  Becky nodded. “It is that,” she agreed. “Just give me the highlights and we can discuss the finer points when you come home tonight.”

  “The biggest highlight is that I need you to look after Stevi—”

  “Stephanie, Dad,” his daughter said impatiently. “My name’s Stephanie.”

  “Right.” Steve tried again. “I need you to look after Stephanie—”

  “No, you don’t,” Stevi corrected once again, clearly pained by the declaration.

  For the sake of maintaining the peace, Becky intervened. She smiled, nodding her head. “I understand, Mr. Holder.”

  A sense of relief washed over Steve. There was a lot being left unsaid, but he needed to go, and this woman he was hiring to run his household seemed to understand that. “Bless you,” he murmured to Becky.

  “Get to your meeting, Mr. Holder. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about the rest of this later.”

  That was the moment when he knew.

  She was perfect, he thought. Absolutely perfect.

  But the true test would be if she could last the day with Stevi and not want to run screaming for the hills by nightfall—if not sooner.

  Mentally, he crossed his fingers.

  “Thank you.” Steve fished a business card out of his pocket. “If you need to call me for any reason, any reason at all,” he emphasized, “these are the numbers where I can be reached.”

  Taking the card from him, Becky glanced at it, then raised her eyes to his. “You move around a lot, don’t you?” she asked, amused.

  It took him a minute to realize she was kidding. “Try the top number first,” he said. “It’s my cell phone. Okay,” he added, already walking toward the door. “Any questions?”

  “Just one,” Becky told him. Pausing, whether for effect or to gather her thoughts together, she said, “You are coming back tonight, right?”

  He seemed taken by surprise that she’d even ask something like that. “Of course.”

  She met his response with a broad smile. “Then I’m fine.”

  Before he had time to rethink at least part of this situation, Stevi spoke up. “But I’m not.”

  “We’ll talk about it tonight,” her father promised, and the next minute, he was gone.

  Stevi stood there, her back to Becky, staring at the door even after it had closed and her father had left the house.

  Left her stranded.

  Judging by the way her shoulders slumped, Becky thought, the girl clearly thought she had just been abandoned. She needed to find a way to reassure Stephanie that she was going to be all right. That they were going to be all right.

  “I’m going to need a lot of help, you know,” Becky began, still addressing Stevi’s back.

  “If you feel that way, you shouldn’t have taken the job,” she answered, in a dismissive voice that belonged to someone older than a girl who was almost turning eleven.

  But Becky was determined to make an ally out of her. “No, I meant help from you.”

  This time Stevi did turn to face her, but she didn’t look friendly.

  “Again,” the girl repeated, clearly hostile, “if you feel that way, you shouldn’t have taken the job.”

  Rather than argue the point, Becky said gently, “I’m not your enemy, Stephanie.”

  In response, Stevi just glared at her, the look on her face loudly proclaiming that she thought differently.

  “You know who I feel sorry for?” Becky continued. When Stevi made no response, she went on as if the girl actually had answered, asking who that person was. “Your dad.”

  Stevi’s eyes narrowed, all but shooting daggers at this stranger who had invaded her space. The woman had no business talking about her father, even if he had just deserted her, leaving her at the mercy of this intruder.

  “Why?” she practically growled.

  “Well, for one thing, because your dad feels totally out of his element, trying to raise an almost-teenage girl,” Becky answered.

  Loyalty had Stevi coming to her father’s defense, even though this woman had voiced something that she’d felt herself more than once, if not exactly in those words. “My dad’s not out of his element!”

  Becky looked at the young girl closely, as if she was actually able to see beneath the layers of anger and bravado. The whole thing made Stevi nervous, though she did her best to cover that up.

  “Truth?” Becky asked her kindly.

  Stevi shifted from foot to foot, searching for a comfortable stance. “Well,” she finally said, backtracking slightly, “maybe just a little.”

  And then she straightened her shoulders, as if she suddenly felt that she’d admitted far too much. “How would you know anything about that?” Stevi asked, her very tone challenging this unwanted person traipsing through her home.

  “Because I was just like you once,” Becky replied knowingly.

  Stevi’s eyes darkened as she frowned. “Yeah, sure. Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you were anything like me,” she retorted angrily.

  Becky merely smiled. Stevi’s response just confirmed that she was right. “Don’t be so sure about that,” she murmured.

  Stevi fisted her hands on her hips. “Okay, prove it,” she challenged. “How were you like me?”

  “Well, aside from the fact that I had all sorts of qu
estions about what was happening to my body, questions I couldn’t put into words, and even if I could, I think my mother was too embarrassed to answer—”

  She could see by the light that came into Stevi’s eyes that although she was resisting, Becky had guessed correctly. She continued, confident that there was more to the girl’s dilemma than what she had just stated. “—I was also smarter than all the other kids who were my age.”

  Stevi’s eyes widened. She hadn’t been expecting that.

  Bingo, Becky thought.

  “How much smarter?” Stevi asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

  “Well, for one thing, I skipped a lot of grades,” Becky told her, observing the little girl’s face as she made each response.

  Stevi cocked her head, as if that would help her judge whether or not this woman was telling her the truth. “How many grades?” she challenged.

  This was definitely not a trusting child, Becky thought. But that was all right. Neither had she been at Stevi’s age, she recalled. That was because she had endured being teased and ridiculed by kids who were ultimately older than she was and who, scholastically, she had left behind. She remembered being ashamed of how smart she was, thinking of it as a burden and a curse instead of a blessing. She found herself wanting to save Stevi from that.

  Becky debated saying anything further to Steve’s daughter. When Celia had told her about this job and had mentioned that Stevi was precocious and exceptionally bright, Becky had decided not to mention graduating college at a young age until she’d had a few days to get the girl acclimated to her. But already she was beginning to change her mind.

  She wasn’t ashamed of the fact that she’d been so young when she’d achieved so many milestones, and she didn’t want Stevi to feel ashamed of that, either.

  “Most people graduate college when they’re twenty-two or twenty-three—” Becky began.

  “I know that,” Stevi said, cutting in. And then, pressing her lips together, she eyed her with curiosity more than suspicion. “How old were you when you graduated?”