Kara Lennox - The Good Father

She frowned. “Lawsuit?”

“When you sue me for sexual harassment.”

“Oh, Max.” She pulled her hair out of his hand. “You know I would never do that, right?”

“Sure, you say that now, when everything’s all rosy.”

She sat up and thumped him with a pillow. “Stop it. I’m not the suing type. I’m going into this knowing there might be consequences. What happens, happens.”

“So what is ‘this’?”

“What? What’s what?”

“You said ‘I’m going into this…’ and I want to know what you think we’re getting into.”

“Jeez, Max. If you don’t know, I certainly don’t. It’s a thing.”

“A thing?”

“A hot, sexy, what-the-hell-are-we-doing thing.”

“Is it a continuous thing?”

She grinned mischievously. “I don’t know. Is it?”

He grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on the mattress. “I hope you didn’t do this just to satisfy an itch. I sure didn’t.” Then he kissed her, just to make sure she knew he meant what he said. “I’m not ready for marriage. The agency has to be my priority for a few years. But that doesn’t mean I want this to be a one-night stand.”

“One-lunch-hour stand.”

“Jane…”

“Sorry.” She maneuvered herself away from him, and suddenly she did look serious. Almost too serious. “I don’t want this to be an isolated incident, either. But I understand about priorities. I’m not one of those single moms shopping for a daddy for her kid.”

Max hated hearing his words thrown back at him. “I never imagined you were.”

She sat up, wrapping the sheet around herself. “Just one other small matter, Max.”

“What?”

“I think…while we’re figuring this thing out…you shouldn’t spend a lot of time around Kaylee.”

The thud of disappointment in his chest seemed all out of proportion. He rolled back onto his own pillow. “Oh.”

“It’s all that stuff we talked about at the fish fry. She’ll get too attached, and-”

“You don’t have to go over it again, Jane. I really do understand.”

“Really?”

“Really. I had another little girl get attached to me once. Her name was Hannah.”

Jane said nothing.

“As uncool as it is to bring up old girlfriends when you’re in bed with the new one, I’ll tell you anyway. Her name was Alicia, and we were together a couple of years.”

“You stayed with a woman for two years? ”

“I know everyone thinks I’m some kind of womanizer, and maybe that’s what I became. But I was happy with Alicia. Satisfied. She offered me something that was sadly lacking in my life, and that was a family. You know, that warm, family thing?”

“But you have a family.”

“My parents got divorced when I was five. My mother had a string of boyfriends, even married a couple, but they never lasted. My dad had a couple more marriages, too. Eddie and I got bounced back and forth between them like ping-pong balls.”

“Oh, Max, I’m sorry.”

“Alicia was nurturing and warm, and she was a great mother to Hannah. And Hannah-what a great kid. The two of them made me feel I belonged in a way I never had before.”

“And yet something went wrong.”

“Alicia wanted more from me than I could give. She wanted marriage, and I wasn’t ready. I was only twenty-eight, still focused on my career and hanging out with friends. And I didn’t love Alicia. I wasn’t in love with her, I mean. Looking back, I think I stayed with her as long as I did because I cared about Hannah, not because of Alicia. All in all, I was pretty selfish. I wanted what they could give me, but I didn’t want to provide what Alicia needed.”

“We all make relationship mistakes.”

“And sometimes we hurt people in the process. I devastated Hannah when I broke up with her mother. She’d never even known her real father. I was the closest she’d ever had.”

Max turned over to face Jane. He pulled her down and into his arms, because he couldn’t stand not touching her. “I don’t want to hurt Kaylee that way. She’s a great kid, and I like being around her. She’s like…sunshine.

“But I think you’re right. I think I should keep my distance.”

“And what about at work? Do we just act like before? Keep it secret?” She pulled the sheet up over her face. “Oh, God, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

“At work, of course we behave like professional colleagues.” He hooked his finger on the edge of the sheet and pulled it down. “What’s wrong with this conversation?”

“We’re setting up the rules for a…a thing. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

“Better than misunderstandings and fights and tears down the road,” he said reasonably, which didn’t seem to comfort Jane a great deal.

J ANE WAS STILLa seething mass of conflicting emotions as she arrived for work the next morning. She was excited and terrified, happy and terrified, aroused at the mere thought of seeing Max…and terrified.

Mostly terrified that she’d done something incredibly stupid. And yet…she was glad she’d done it. No regrets. Just terror.

Carol greeted her with a smile. “Morning, Jane. Where were you all afternoon?”

“Oh, I had some personal business to take care of. Stuff left over from the divorce.” Like not having a place to live.

After hours of slogging around in the muggy heat looking for a suitable apartment, Jane had finally found one she could stand. It was almost within her budget and not too vile. It was tiny, but then again, she and Kaylee were used to close quarters.

One small hitch, though. She couldn’t move in until mid-October. And she had to turn over her boat to the new owners next week. That left her with almost two weeks with no roof over her head.

“So you heard the big news, yes?” Carol said.

“Yeah, I was there when Max talked to Ellen. It’s great.”

“It’s fantastic. We don’t have to go job hunting! I’m planning a party. It’s tonight after work, can you come?”

“Oh, I’d like to, but I’d have to find a sitter for Kaylee.” Hard to do on such short notice.

“You could bring her along.”

“We’ll see.” But no, because Max would be there. She felt terrible, deliberately keeping Max and her daughter apart when they were so clearly crazy about each other. But after her conversation with Max yesterday, it only made sense.

She’d seen the pain on his face when he talked about Hannah. She didn’t want to be the cause of something like that. And clearly their “thing” did not have a high chance of survival, not when she and Max were so not ready to make any commitments.

Jane was sifting through some mail that had arrived for her-amazing how quickly art-supply companies had pegged her as a potential customer-when Max walked in.

“Carol, have you talked to-oh, good morning, Jane.” He had a big silly grin on his face, and Jane was afraid she had one to match.

“Hi.”

“Uh, Carol, do you have the, uh…what did I come in here for?”

“Have I talked to…” Carol parroted his words back to him.

He snapped his fingers. “Right. Finley, the new account exec. He was going to call in with some information for payroll.”

“Got it right here.”

Jane slipped past Max and practically sprinted for her office. Being around Max and acting strictly professional was going to be harder than she’d thought. But she had to. It would look really, really bad for everybody to know he was sleeping with his art director.

She had a pile of work waiting for her, mostly small ads that needed minor updating. She put her purse away and fired up her computer, intending to make up for the time she took off yesterday.