The Boss Next Door (Harlequin Heartwarming)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  “Upstairs, Dad. Sherry’s almost done reading Hercules. Can she finish?”

  Garrett reached Keith’s room in time to see Sherry uncurl her legs and start to close the book. The scene presented such a cozy picture that first joy, then panic slammed through Garrett’s stomach. His son, hair clean from a recent shower, looked sleepy and content as a cat, his head bobbing on Sherry’s shoulder. And she resembled a vision he’d imagined too many times in years past when Keith was sick in bed and needed tending. That of a fairy godmom. Garrett had imagined having someone—a female someone—to share the parenting. He stopped at the threshold, not wanting to step inside and disrupt the scene.

  Sherry couldn’t decipher the strange look on Garrett’s face. She must have been right about the book, she decided, scrambling up. “Why don’t we ask your dad to read the end? Actually we just got to the action part. The guy stuff.”

  Garrett shrugged out of his suit jacket and stripped off the tie he’d loosened the minute he left the meeting. “Don’t let me interrupt. I’m bushed. Think I’ll go take a shower. Did anyone call about the dog?”

  “Nope.” Keith grinned happily.

  “Oh, well.” Garrett heaved a sigh. “I told them to run the ad a full week.”

  “I did take a message from your ex-wife,” Sherry informed him. “I left it on the kitchen counter.”

  “Why didn’t you let her talk to Keith?”

  “She did. But she left the message with me. She wants you to call.”

  Keith yawned. “Mom wants me to go to some dorky money museum this weekend. I don’t wanna.”

  Garrett slung his coat over his shoulder. “She canceled her last visitation.”

  “So?” Keith flopped back on his pillow. “If I go to St. Louis I won’t see Rags for two whole days.”

  Sherry stood up, closing the book. “I’m sure you two need to talk this through.” She handed Garrett the book and tried to slide past him out the door. “Oh, I have your key in my purse. I didn’t leave it under the mat.”

  “I hate having to ask, but can you bail me out again tomorrow night? They set a meeting for three o’clock. I’m sure it’ll run past five.”

  “Goody, goody.” Keith hopped up and down on the bed. “Sherry’s mom asked us to come over for a barbecue. Oh...you’re ’vited, too, Dad.”

  “I am? What time?” He turned to Sherry with interest.

  She shrugged. “Usually six-thirty. I doubt your meeting’ll end by then.”

  “Don’t sound so sorry.”

  She flushed. “I just know these deans. They talk every issue to death.”

  “You’ve got that right. Will you schedule some time for me in the morning? I need to know the fudge factors in your department supply budget and in the Hub’s, before the others start that double-talk on me.”

  “You mean you’ll go to bat for us? For the Hub?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? I believe in whole-life training.”

  “You do?” Sherry tripped over her tongue. “Then why are we always arguing?”

  He grinned. “You tell me.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Do the regents know how you feel?”

  “I can’t recall that they asked specifically.”

  “Well, whaddaya know.” Sherry couldn’t hide her smile as she stepped back into the room and waved to Keith. There was hope of salvaging the Hub, after all. “G’night, sport. See you tomorrow.” To Garrett she said, “I’ll clear my morning calendar. I don’t have a class till one. Oh, and don’t forget the message from your wife,” she reminded him, all but skipping down the stairs.

  Garrett stood on the top step and watched her descent. Feeling the congenial warmth go with her, he called out impulsively, “Ex-wife. If it turns out I’m taking Keith to St. Louis this weekend, would you like to ride along?”

  “G-go to St. Louis with you? Me? What for?” Turning, she gazed at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  Her outspokenness stopped him momentarily. “This is your territory, doc. I sort of hoped you’d play tour guide. Show me the city.”

  “Oh, well, sure. I can do that, I guess.”

  “Good. I’ll call Carla tonight and pin her down. Let you know tomorrow.”

  Sherry hummed happily on the way home. As she entered the town house, she was surrounded by the aroma of garlic.

  Yvette scowled up from the sofa, where she watched TV. “My, aren’t we cheerful. Did Garrett get home from his meeting?”

  “How did you know he had a meeting?” Sherry turned her back on her housemate to close and lock the door.

  “I have sources. Why didn’t you say you were going to babysit the kid? It would have saved us fighting. Don’t lock the dead bolt. Poor Garrett’s probably starved. I’m taking him our second pan of lasagna.” Her announcement was muffled as she disappeared into the kitchen and came out with the steaming casserole. She left with the dish before Sherry had recovered from her initial shock.

  Sherry more or less expected Garrett to ship Yvette right back. As the night lengthened without any sign of her return, Sherry felt her earlier joy at being asked to go to St. Louis with him vanish. She drifted off to sleep so many times during her vigil that when Yvette finally did come in and Sherry heard the door close and the lock engage, she was too groggy from sleep to note the time. But it was late. Very late.

  * * *

  GARRETT DIDN’T MENTION his late-night visitor the next morning at their meeting. Neither did Sherry. Professionally, doggedly, she laid out the facts he’d requested.

  “Thanks,” he said, preparing to dash out of her office. “Now I’ll be better able to defend our position on the Hub’s value at the roundtable discussions.”

  When he left, to keep from feeling the loss of his presence, Sherry busied herself refiling student folders.

  Garrett promptly stuck his head back in the room. “I couldn’t reach Carla last night. She’d already gone to work this morning. I’ll call her tonight.”

  Sherry yanked out another file drawer. “I may have other plans.” The lie tasted like ashes in her mouth.

  Forced to deal with the disappointment he felt, Garrett said nothing for a moment. “I see.” His tone said he didn’t.

  She lifted a shoulder negligently, still facing away from him.

  He stared at the rigid set of her spine as empty seconds ticked by. Already late for a meeting in President Westerbrook’s office, Garrett reined in his frustration. “I don’t have time to discuss your sudden change of plans. It’ll have to be later.”

  “Fine,” Sherry snapped. But he didn’t hear, as he’d already retreated.

  Luckily she managed to avoid him for the rest of the day. He’d gone to his meeting when she closed the office. Actually she was late picking up Keith. As a result, they drove straight to her folks, where they were drawn into the barbecue preparations.

  Immersed in her family’s normal highspirited activities, Sherry finally succeeded in putting Garrett Lock out of her mind. Until she saw Emily stiffen and a funny expression cross her face. Sherry turned toward the house in time to see Garrett stroll into the backyard with Yvette clutching his arm.

  Aware that Emily was watching her every reaction, Sherry injected pleasure she didn’t feel into a passable greeting. And if she thought she could’ve got away with it, she’d have begged off staying to eat—say she was sick or something. Indeed, both Sherry’s head and stomach hurt. Maybe she was coming down with the flu.

  CHAPTER TEN

  YVETTE MOLDED HERSELF to Garrett, at the same time ignoring Keith. Sherry wasn’t the only one who noticed. Mark mentioned it, as did Emily. How Garrett could be so obtuse was beyond Sherry. While he didn’t overtly flirt back, neither did he appear annoyed that Yvette monopolized him.

  Visibly unhappy with his dad, Keith slipped of
f to play with Rags before he’d taken more than a few bites of dinner. Mark started to follow, but Sherry stalled him and requested a word alone with Keith. Mark slumped back in his seat.

  When Sherry ran Keith to ground, he was sitting on the floor in the family room, arms wrapped around the stray pup he hoped to keep. “You okay, tiger? You barely tasted your food.”

  “Why did she have to come with Dad? I don’t like her. She called Rags flea-bitten.”

  “Maybe Yvette was just joking around.”

  “She wasn’t.”

  Sherry hunkered down and scratched the wiggly pup’s ears. All three sat in silence. At last Keith spoke.

  “Dad and me did okay in Texas. It’s different since we moved. He’s different.”

  “Different how?”

  “I never had to visit mom. Just talk to her on the phone.”

  “Things happen in divorce that kids can’t control, Keith. Fact is, you still have two parents. The separation is between them and had nothing to do with you. Before your mom remarried, maybe she wasn’t in a position to have you visit. It doesn’t mean your dad loves you less, Keith, because he’s willing to share you with her now. Really, you’re lucky to have such an understanding father.”

  Outside in the hall, Garrett, who’d managed to lose Yvette for the time being, heard Sherilyn and his son talking, and hesitated. Keith had been so withdrawn of late he was reluctant to interrupt their heart-to-heart. To hear Sherry Campbell sticking up for him stirred feelings that hadn’t surfaced in a while. From the rumblings on campus, he wouldn’t have thought she’d do that for him or any man.

  Inside the room, Keith sighed and flung his arms around Sherry’s neck. “I feel better. Do you think maybe your mom cooked extra chicken? I am sorta hungry.”

  Sherry tickled him until he giggled. “Cut through the guest bedroom and slip out the sliding glass door. It’ll get you to the grill faster.” She got to her feet with him and pointed the way.

  “Are you coming, too?”

  She shook her head. “Think I’ll toodle on home. I have a test to write up. You’ll be going back with your dad.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Looking more resigned than pleased, he shuffled out.

  Impulsively Garrett stepped into the room. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard what you told Keith. Thanks for backing me when you don’t know my situation with Carla.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s Keith who needs to hear any truths you’re passing out.”

  Garrett flopped on the couch near where Sherry took a seat on the floor again. “The truth? I don’t know what went wrong with my marriage.” Moodily he described Carla’s return to college at his request and her subsequent obsession with her career. “One day I came home to a note informing me she’d moved to St. Louis. She said she couldn’t explain, but banking excited her—and our marriage was strangling her.”

  What Garrett didn’t impart was that he’d gone through a long phase of self-blame, of thinking Carla had found him lacking as a man and that it therefore stood to reason other women would, too. It seemed easier to use Keith as an excuse for not getting involved. At some point, denying himself female companionship became habit.

  Leaning forward, he clasped his hands between his knees. “Some of my colleagues claimed I let Keith fill an emotional void in my life. Maybe I did. I know I’m guilty of raking myself over the coals with what-ifs and should-haves. But the truth is...Carla left me to raise our son alone. Now I’m afraid, after all this time, her weaselly lawyer will make her out the heroine and me the bum. It happens to single dads all the time.”

  Sherry thought about the times her affidavits had helped make that very thing happen. “You’re probably the exception,” she murmured. “The divorced dads I meet are neglectful, abusive or deadbeats. Some are all three. A judge will look at your record. Maybe Carla won’t want Keith full-time. From what he and you have said, she has a hard time following through on simple visitations.”

  “I have a letter from Carla’s attorney that says I’ve had him to myself for six years and now it’s her turn. As if our son’s life is some sort of shuffleboard.”

  “Courts today are more apt to shuffle parents than the kids. They often ask the child what he or she wants. Keith isn’t quite old enough to have his choice given full consideration. Twelve is the magic age. Still, his preference will carry weight.”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that. Would you like to be fought over like a bone?”

  Sherry glanced away, then back at Garrett. She felt a tug-of-war inside her chest concerning her feelings for him. In advising him, she went against her number-one cardinal rule—kids belong with biological moms unless a woman’s totally unfit. “Have you and Carla sat down and discussed what each of you believe is best for Keith? Without lawyers to muddy the waters?”

  “When I got her first request six months ago, I tried to set up a meeting. Carla said no. Of course, she was deep in wedding plans. I called my lawyer. He said to send Keith to her wedding and that’d probably be the end of it.”

  “Do you like her husband?”

  “No.” An abashed grin lifted one corner of Garrett’s mouth. “I hate the jerk’s cologne.”

  “Now, that’s petty.”

  “Yeah. But it beats calling him an out-and-out moron.”

  “Neither description earns you points in court. Strike that from the record,” she said in a deep voice. “Witness conjecture.”

  They were both laughing at Sherry’s rendition of a judge when Yvette burst into the room. “There you are.” She threw herself down so close to Garrett she was practically sitting in his lap and sent a challenge to Sherry. “What’s so funny?”

  Sherry climbed nimbly to her feet, smoothing the pleats of the India-print skirt she’d worn to work. “An inside joke,” she said, refusing to be cowed by Yvette’s possessiveness. “I was on my way out when Garrett came in.” She filtered out Yvette’s image and focused on him. “I forgot to ask if you need me to pick Keith up from day care tomorrow.”

  “I can’t impose. I’ll call a sitting service. The joint deans have a six-thirty breakfast meeting in the morning.”

  “I don’t mind taking him to school and picking him up,” Sherry said. “I have no conflict tomorrow.”

  “I’ll take the kid to school,” Yvette butted in. “What time?”

  “Eight.” Garrett jerked toward her and frowned. “I’d rather Sherry took him, if anyone does. Involving too many people might confuse Keith.”

  “Okay.” Yvette agreed with a smile. “I’ll sleep in. You haven’t forgotten the Conways’ harvest party tomorrow night, have you, Garrett? I RSVP’d for us.” She curled ring-clad fingers around his biceps.

  Sherry failed an attempt to mask her surprise. And hurt. She’d been going to the Conways’ harvest parties longer than Yvette. “Did Janice call with an invitation?”

  “Yes, but this year’s party is couples only. She knew you wouldn’t have a date.”

  “I...” Sherry swallowed the remark she’d been about to make. Garrett would feel bad and definitely get Keith a sitter if she said she could get a date. For a minute she envisioned what they’d all do if she showed up at the Conways’ with Keith in tow. Smiling at her private joke, she assured Garrett she’d drop Keith off in the morning and pick him up after school. “If he doesn’t have homework and you don’t mind, maybe we’ll go play miniature golf. After that, we’ll hit the virtual-reality arcade. It’s really cool.”

  Yvette sniffed. “Sherry’s such a kid. It’s not my idea of fun. Is it yours, Garrett?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. But, Sherry, don’t feel you have to entertain Keith.”

  “I’m not. I’ll enjoy it as much or more than he will.”

  Yvette got pouty then, so Sherry decided to leave. “I’ve gotta go. Touch base later.”


  “Wait, I’ll walk you to your car.” Garrett tried to peel Yvette off his arm, but she yanked him back down.

  “For pity’s sake, Garrett. Sherry’s a modern woman. Don’t insult her.”

  Garrett hovered in the half-upright position a moment. The blue eyes that sought Sherry’s appeared unsure.

  Those ingrained manners he’d mentioned, she thought. Why else would he offer to walk her to her car when he’d come with another woman? Assuring him she needed no escort, Sherry left. She stopped to tell her family and Keith goodbye, aching for the boy. If Garrett was in the market for a stepmom for his son, he could certainly make a better choice. But apparently men didn’t select mates with any sort of logic. And Yvette had been searching for love all her life. In a stable relationship, maybe she’d settle down and be faithful to one man. It could happen.

  Sherry could also meet space aliens on the drive home.

  Somewhat melancholy and at loose ends when she got there, Sherry began cleaning the kitchen. She also rinsed out a blouse and finished the test for her advanced-psych class. Having exhausted herself mentally and physically, she fell asleep seconds after crawling into bed.

  As a result, she missed hearing Yvette come in—wouldn’t have known except that in the morning her bedroom door was shut. Last night it stood open.

  Not wanting to risk another confrontation, Sherry decided to forgo coffee. Since Garrett said he had to leave early, maybe Keith would like to go out for breakfast. She packed her book bag and slipped out, relocking the door.

  Garrett answered on the third ring of his doorbell. His shirt collar was flipped up and his tie was draped around his neck. Seeing Sherry, he snapped up a sleeve to check his watch.

  “I’m early,” she said. “I didn’t think you’d want to leave Keith alone between the time you leave and when he’s due at school.”

  “Not as a rule. Although I trust him not to get into trouble.”

  “I didn’t mean he would on purpose. But accidents can happen. I don’t mind if you give him my work and home numbers in case he needs help and can’t reach you.”