Kara Lennox - The Good Father

“I’m counting on someday getting a bonus. And a raise.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Aw, come on, boss. We’ll get through this. Every new company takes a few missteps.”

“Not like this. I screwed up. I spent too much of my money on the office remodeling. I was sure business would come rolling in a lot faster than it has, and I didn’t keep near enough money in savings as a contingency fund.”

“We’ll get through this,” Carol said again. “Don’t you have a bunch of rich relatives who would lend you money?”

“No way,” he said automatically, because he had promised himself he would do this without any help from his family. He could just imagine how his brother would spin it. He would call it a bailout. He would turn it into a joke.

But so what if he suffered some humiliation? The alternative was to close his doors and put people out of work, people like Jane and Carol who really needed their jobs, and Finley, the account executive he’d just hired, the one who’d turned down another, less risky position because he’d been swayed by Max’s enthusiastic forecasts for the future.

He reached for the phone just as Jane burst through the front door. “I got it. I got it!” She stormed through the reception area and nearly ran Carol over as she plowed her way into Max’s office. “Max, if you’ll come to Coastal Bank with me right now, we can set up a line of credit for ten thousand dollars with a whole lot more to come in five days.”

Max was too stunned to speak.

Carol wasn’t. “Get out of here. You are da bomb, girl!”

“Come on, Max.” Jane came over and grabbed his arm, attempting to drag him out of his chair. “Did you find a printer?”

“We did,” Carol answered. “Should I call them back, Max, and commit?”

“Jane, where did you get ten thousand dollars?”

“That’s not your worry.”

He was tempted, but only for a moment. “I can’t borrow money from you.” If he wouldn’t borrow from his own family, how could he justify accepting money from his employee, a struggling single mom?

Jane looked crestfallen, but only for a moment. “Let’s not call it a loan, then. I’m investing in the Remington Agency.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that. Much as I want to believe this is only a temporary cash-flow problem, I can’t guarantee a return on your investment.”

“I don’t need a guarantee. I believe in you.”

He started to turn her down again. But then he saw something in her eyes, and he knew he couldn’t. Jane wasn’t just bailing him out. Keeping the agency afloat was important to her, personally.

Then there was Carol, staring at him with hope glowing from her face. How could he disappoint her, too?

“You understand that getting these magazines reprinted is only a temporary solution. I have a balloon payment on my business loan coming up next week.”

Jane didn’t seem fazed. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Just take the money, okay?”

Max was out of his chair and across the office in two seconds flat. He scooped Jane into a bear hug. “I don’t know what you did, or what I did to deserve having you come to the rescue, but thank you.”

She returned the hug, and they probably held each other for too long, given that Carol was standing right there looking on with a knowing half smile.

With determined effort, Max withdrew from the hug. Jane was beaming up at him. “What next?”

“Carol, tell the printer they’ll have files by the end of the day. Jane, you and I will go over the page files one more time and make sure everything’s perfect, then we’ll send them to the printers. On Wednesday I’ll go to San Antonio to personally oversee the printing.” He crossed his fingers. “Then this nightmare will be over.”

M AX DIDN’T ASKJane again where she’d gotten the money, for which she was grateful. He would have a fit if he knew she’d sold her boat. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew she’d made the right decision.

A boat was no place to raise a child. Kaylee was old enough now that locked doors wouldn’t contain her for long. What if she wandered outside when Jane wasn’t paying attention?

Kaylee needed a backyard to play in, or at least a neighborhood playground, and a neighborhood where there’d be playmates rather than rough dockworkers and fishermen.

With the proceeds from the sale of the Princess II, Jane could comfortably buy a two-bedroom condo or maybe even a little house. She’d seen several cute cottages in the real-estate magazine as she and Max went over the proofs.

“Let me fix the color balance on that picture,” Jane said. She and Max were nearly finished going over the real estate magazine, sitting almost side-by-side at her computer. After an hour and a half of this, his nearness was getting to her. Every time he reached for the keyboard to move to the next page, his sleeve brushed her bare arm.

But nothing had been said about yesterday’s incendiary kiss. She still didn’t know how she felt about it, only that she’d been reliving it on a regular basis since it had happened.

She wasn’t going to bring it up if he didn’t. He’d probably put it behind him. He’d probably kissed three or four women since her.

Once they were done fine-tuning the magazine, Jane retreated to her office and worked on some sketches for another potential client, this one a chain of veterinary clinics. Sketching puppies and kittens relaxed her as nothing else could, and the day flew by. Again she was struck by how lucky she was someone would pay her to do this kind of work.

At five o’clock Max was engrossed in a phone call. Tomorrow he would be in San Antonio for most of the day. Some separation would do them good, Jane thought. She waved to Carol and slipped out the door.

When she arrived home a few minutes later, the Dragonfly was just pulling into its slip. “Hey, Janie!” Cooper called as he hopped onto the dock. “Hey, Flipper!”

Kaylee giggled as she always did when anyone called her that. Allie had christened her with that name because she swam like a dolphin, and it was catching on.

“Hey, Cooper,” Jane called back. “Good day?”

“Better than good. Never saw so many fish. In fact, we were planning to ask you and Kaylee to dinner at the house on Friday for a fish fry. Sound good?”

Jane’s mouth watered. Since she started working, she’d been subsisting on anything quick and frozen. “What time? I’ll bring a salad and some bread.”

When Friday rolled around, Jane was more than ready to forget about work and Max, and enjoy a relaxing evening with her friends. After work she quickly changed into shorts and a halter top, as the summer heat still gripped Port Clara despite the fact the calendar said it was late September. She grabbed some bagged baby spinach and a few other things from her fridge, as well as a bottle of wine she and Scott had bought months ago and never opened.

Kaylee was happy to be spending time with her mom and didn’t much care where they did it, so they were both in high spirits as they drove up to Cooper and Allie’s cute white brick house. Cooper had rented it a few months ago, but when the couple had gotten married, Allie had so fallen in love with the house that they’d arranged to buy it.

Jane loved it, too. It was nothing like the cold, contemporary house she and Scott had shared, nor the stiffly traditional home in which she’d grown up. Though it had half the square footage, it felt warm and welcoming.

Jane and Allie hugged just inside the door. “I’m so glad you came,” Allie said. “What’s the use of living by the sea if you don’t have fish fries and invite all your friends?”