by Lola Kidd
The only problem with the wonderful turn of events was that since his mother’s attention was no longer on winning Beckett back over, she had so much time left over for Connor. She had now set her sights on getting her second son hitched. At least if Beckett and Lenni had a baby, it would take some of the spotlight off of him.
“We’re all here,” his father said into the phone.
“Hey, brother,” Beckett’s voice came from the box.
“Hey, Lenni and Beckett,” Connor said. He always felt a little silly on these group calls. He wished they could video chat like a normal family. It would be so much easier, and they wouldn’t all have to gather in one spot to talk.
“Now that you’re all there,” Lenni said, “Beckett and I would like to tell you that we’re soon going to be adding one more to the Hansen clan.”
Stephanie squealed and threw her chair back. “I knew it! I’m going take the first flight out tomorrow morning. You just tell me, and I’ll be there. We need to have a party.”
“Calm down, dear,” Connor’s father said good-naturedly. “Congratulations! I’m going to set you kids up with my accounting team. You need to get familiar with the trust fund process and have your wills updated as soon as the baby is born.”
“I don’t have any financial advice, but congratulations, you two,” Connor said.
He was going to be an uncle. He wondered if it would be a little bear, like Beckett. But with the way that shifters’ genes worked, there was as good a chance that it could be a leopard like their great-grandmother. It was all so exciting. He didn’t care what kind of animal his niece or nephew was, or if it was a shifter at all. He hoped for a happy baby.
“Okay, I won’t come now, but I’m doing the baby shower,” Stephanie said. “I don’t care if you don’t want to have one. You don’t even have to stay for long. We’re having a shower. I can’t wait to tell the whole world about this.”
Beckett groaned, but he was obviously happy. He always pretended to hate family parties, but he had the most fun and was always the life of the party. “If you insist on it. But you can’t have it until she’s seven months. That’s the proper time, right?”
Lenni made an affirmative sound. “I’m already three months along, so that’s not too much time to wait.”
“Three months?” Connor’s mother said, aghast. “All right. I’ll start planning immediately. I can’t believe you guys were able to wait three months.”
“Lenni is a human,” Beckett reminded them.
That sobered the room up quite fast. Humans sometimes had a difficult time carrying shifter babies to term. It was less of a problem these days, but miscarriages during the first trimester were still common. Of course they had to wait three months to be sure it was going to stick.
Connor was glad they’d waited. He would have been worried for Lenni and the baby the whole time, and there would have been no stopping his mom from going out to wait on Lenni hand and foot, though he imagined that Beckett’s housekeeper Ms. Potter treated her the same way. She adored Beckett almost as much as his own mother had.
“This is so exciting,” Stephanie said to the box. “I can’t wait to hug you guys in person.”
“We can’t wait to see you too,” Lenni said.
They all said “I love you,” and the call ended. Connor was about to get up and head to his private wing in the mansion, but his mom stopped him.
“What about the ball?” she said. “They have to be there. You think she’ll feel well enough?”
“There’s no way they’ll miss the ball.” Connor’s father pulled out his phone. “I’ll text him to be sure, but they would have mentioned it if they were going to skip it.”
His father was having a grand ball to celebrate the release of his new matchmaking app. They were finally going public. There was something about that that was unsettling for Connor, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
He’d been excited about the app initially, but as time went on, he was seeing more issues that were popping up. Once the app was open to the public, there would be no way of ensuring that only shifter men would join. There was no way to make sure that people would be using the app as it was intended, either. Even with the beta, there were people signing up who just wanted to hook up and not get married.
It would also be discriminatory to say the app was for shifters only, but Connor wasn’t sure it would be good to have humans and shifters together on an app meant for shifters to find their mates. What if two humans were matched up? How would that work?
But there were great amounts of money to be made. Many of the current apps separated humans and shifters. You could say whether you wanted to date a shifter or not. But on this app, there was no segregation. Humans and shifters were going to be thrown together. You wouldn’t know whether you were going to be matched with a shifter or not. That didn’t make much sense to Connor, but people were really excited about it.
He was keeping an eye on the security side of things.
He had worked in private investigation with his father’s security company for many years, until his father made him give it up. It was too dangerous for the son of the CEO to be out doing the dirty work. Now, like his brother, he was relegated to office work only. It drove him nuts.
He was even thinking about finding a job of his own, maybe starting his own security company. That didn’t make much sense, since Hansen Security was the biggest shifter security outlet and it would all be his one day, but he liked getting to do the dirty work himself. Now, he was mostly sending emails.
“Connor, honey, I’m going to be dropping in to see you later this week,” his mother told him before he could leave. “Maybe clean up this time before I come?”
“Why?”
“Your place was so dusty the last time I came by,” she said. “I think you may need to hire a new cleaning crew. It seems that the girls don’t do a good job in your house. Should I send some new girls over?”
“I had to fire my team, actually.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” his father asked. “There’s no way you’ll be able to clean the whole place yourself.”
“I’m not sure I want another crew coming into my home,” Connor replied. “Being sure that my private things stay private is nice. It’s awesome not seeing my stuff for sale on eBay anymore or stories about me in the tabloids.”
“We’ll sue,” his mother said. “How dare they. They had a nondisclosure agreement. They can’t sell stories about you.”
“That’s never stopped anyone. And they leave the country and sell where it doesn’t matter,” Connor reminded them. “Our contracts don’t protect us everywhere.”
“We’ll send someone to clean for you,” his dad said. “I can send over some of our people.”
Connor shook his head. “I can find someone myself. I have to do all the interviews and take care of it on my own. That’s the only way I’ll be comfortable.”
“If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask me,” his mom told him. “You want me to come over and do a little cleaning for you?”
Connor stood up and kissed his mom on the cheek. “Thanks for offering, but I can do it. I’ll find a new cleaning crew soon, I promise. I gotta go now, or I won’t be able to get this paperwork I’m working on filed in time.”
He walked out of the room before his parents could throw any more questions at him. His mother was worried, and she was going to try to talk him into letting her clean for him. She was a great mom, but he was too old for that. He could do the cleaning until he had time to hire people. It wasn’t like his place was that dirty.
He could start looking for the cleaning crew right away. He was going to need to collect recommendations from his friends. He didn’t doubt that he’d be able to find someone for the job, but it was going to take time. He wasn’t going to let just anyone into his home.
Chapter Three
Mary checked and rechecked her numbers. There was no way this was possible.
&
nbsp; “We’re broke,” she said incredulously.
Her stepmother wailed and put her hands over her face. “I knew it. I told you! I’m so useless.”
Mary couldn’t say anything to assuage her fears. Her stepmother had to be useless, judging by this display of incompetence. They had more than enough work for at least six months. But somehow, they’d run out of money already.
“Where do you find your supplies?” Mary asked. “The only place I can see where there’s anything getting out of hand is supplies.”
Her stepmother shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s already done.”
“It very much matters,” Mary said sternly.
They were bringing in more than enough money to cover the business. It had been open for years, and Mary had no idea how this could have happened. Gina had gotten rid of half of her workers two months ago, but now they were going to have to fire the rest of the employees. Mary knew those women, and it broke her heart that she’d have to let them go.
She’d spent the last seven hours checking and rechecking the numbers to see if there was any way to prevent what was about to happen.
“I bought most of the supplies wholesale from some site on the Internet,” Gina said. “I always bought them from the same site.”
“And you always overpaid,” Mary said. She showed Gina the spreadsheet and pointed to one cell. “This is where all our money is going. You overspent on supplies month after month after month. I only went back fourteen months, but I’m sure it goes all the way back to the beginning of the business. How has this ever been sustainable?”
Gina shrugged. “It worked before. I’ve never run out of money like this.”
“That doesn’t matter. You were overpaying. Do you not keep track of your own finances?”
“I do. They just weren’t a problem before now. Now, I don’t know how we’re going to pay any of the girls.”
“You aren’t. We can’t pay any of them. I don’t know how to tell you this, but we’re completely out of money. We can keep you on and pay your salary, and that’s it.”
Gina paled. “But I can’t do this alone.”
“You did in the beginning. You can do it again. We’ll have to work our way up and eventually hire new workers, but this is the only way.”
That also screwed over Mary—not that she’d tell her stepmother that at this point. She didn’t know how she was going to put food on the table anymore. Without her job and with very little money coming in from the business, she didn’t know how they were going to support themselves.
They could afford to keep paying her stepmother a small salary, but that would barely keep the lights on at the house. Mary giving up her apartment and moving in wasn’t going to help if she wasn’t bringing in an income too.
“Could you work for me?” Gina asked. “We can pay me half and pay you the other half. Would that work?”
Mary was glad she didn’t have to explain why she had to move back in. “We might be able to try it. I have a lot of things going on at the factory, but I think I can be of more use at home right now.”
“That’s settled,” Gina said, sighing happily. “You can move back in with us and start working for me again.”
“It’s not settled,” Mary snapped. “How are we going to afford anything? We’re going to have to find a new supplier.”
“I can do that,” Gina said, nodding. “I know how to find a new supplier. It just has to be cheaper than the one I’m paying now, right?”
“Well, yes, I assume that would do it, but I’m not sure how much cheaper it needs to be.”
“Fine. I’ll find a new supplier, and we’ll work on different homes. Between the two of us, I know we can turn this around.”
“If I can get out of my job,” Mary lied. “I guess that’s settled, then.”
“Good. Now, let’s get ready to go. Could you check the email and see what time we need to be there?”
“What email?” Mary had no idea what she was talking about.
“I’m trying to get a new job. I’m going to bid on this fancy-schmancy house that needs to be cleaned. We wouldn’t be doing the whole house, only one suite of rooms. It’s like an apartment inside the mansion,” Gina explained. “It’s the Hansen family. Have you heard of them?”
Mary’s mouth dropped open. Cleaning even a wing of the Hansen home would bring in more money than they needed. They wouldn’t have to fire all the employees, either.
She quickly checked her stepmother’s email to find out what time the meeting was. She didn’t need to look for the address; everyone knew where the Hansen home was. But she’d check to see how big a space they would be cleaning.
“This would bring in more than four thousand dollars a month,” she muttered.
That wouldn’t be enough to save them on its own, but it was more than a good start, especially if Gina was able to get more contracts and a cheaper supplier. With all the money from this job, they’d be able to get out of debt in six months and they wouldn’t have to fire anyone.
“We have to get this job!” she told her stepmother.
Mary put on makeup on the way there. Gina was already talking about other suppliers she could call, and Mary had a sinking suspicion that her stepmother had known about this problem before, that she’d been played by Gina. Gina had probably used this whole thing to talk Mary into working with her again and moving back home. This time it worked out in Mary’s favor, but it didn’t feel good to be tricked into being nice.
After they got this job and were out of debt, Mary would ask to be fairly compensated for her work. She deserved to be making enough money to live on her own, with all the work she was doing for Gina. And once the girls were away at college, she wouldn’t be needed at home anymore either.
“We’re here for Mr. Hansen,” she told the woman who opened the door when they arrived. It was a good thing they’d left right away; getting through security at the house took longer than Mary had expected.
“Yes, you’re the last of the day,” the woman said. “If you’ll follow me, please.”
Mary hadn’t gone on a call in ages, but it was hard to forget how to make a sale. She’d worked on her pitch in her head while they were driving over. It was the same one she and Gina had used back when they were still working together all the time.
“Hi, I’m Connor. Nice to meet you,” a man said as they entered the room.
Mary’s mouth worked itself into a smile while her knees shook. Connor Hansen. She’d been expecting to meet the elder Hansen. After his brother got married, Connor had become the most eligible Hansen bachelor. He was a lion shifter, and while he wasn’t next in line to run the company, there was talk that he and his brother were going to share it.
He was tall and handsome. His blond hair was tousled, and he was wearing a suit that fit him perfectly. He used to be a little overweight, but he’d gotten into great shape over the last few years. You could see his well-shaped body clearly in the expensive suit. This was a man who took care with his appearance and probably took great pride in his work too.
“How nice to meet you,” Mary told him she as shook his hand firmly. “I’m Mary Sanders, and this is my stepmother Gina.”
Gina giggled and put out her hand. She was nervous. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Hansen. I look forward to working with you.”
He frowned. “You won’t be having much contact with me if you get the job. Don’t let that sway you.”
“I’m sure you don’t have much time, so we won’t waste yours,” Mary told him. “Can we see the area we would have to clean?”
“If you’ll follow me.” He led them out of the office and down the hall to a large double door. “This is my wing of the house. You’ll be responsible for keeping this area clean.” He opened the door and stopped in the threshold. “I trust you enough not to ask you to sign an NDA before you see my living space. I hope not to see anything on the Internet about this.”
“We would never,” Mary told him. “Our clien
ts’ privacy is of the utmost importance to the Sanders Cleaning Company.”
Gina nodded. “We’ll sign any paperwork you want, but we don’t need to. I can give you the names of a few of my old clients if you’d like to have some recommendations for us. We have a packet with all the relevant information.”
He led them through a large living room and kitchen and then to his bedroom.
“This is a bachelor pad,” Mary said, surprised. “One of the nicest I’ve seen. You did a great job decorating it.”
“It’s always nice to hear a woman say that,” Connor quipped. “It may not be a big space, but it’ll take time to keep it as clean as I’d like.”
“I understand,” Gina said. “I believe you said you wanted us to email a quote?”
“Yes, if you would.” Connor shook both of their hands. “I’ll see you ladies out now myself.”
“Don’t you want to know what we offer?” Mary asked.
“I don’t have time for that.” Connor looked at his watch. “But if you can include that in your email, along with a plan of how you clean, I’d appreciate it.”
Mary laughed, but she was dejected. She’d had never had a showing go so quickly. So much for getting this job—he was rushing them out because he didn’t like them. She had a good idea of who else he was seeing today. There were only so many high-end cleaners in town.
Her only hope now was to underbid them. It was a tricky business. She was going to have to bid enough to keep Sanders Cleaning in business but not so much that they’d lose the account. She was going to have to do very careful math.
Too bad she hadn’t gotten more time to talk with Connor. He was very good-looking. She certainly wasn’t going to mind cleaning for him every week, and she could fantasize about him all she wanted. It wasn’t like she had a boyfriend who’d be jealous. That was something else to look forward to, at least.
