Kara Lennox - The Good Father

Midway through the first ad, though, Max came into her office to discuss one of the projects.

Her mouth watered just looking at him. He was casual today, and he looked better in a pair of faded jeans than any man she’d ever seen.

Their conversation was strictly business. Anyone seeing them or overhearing them would think nothing of it. But as they both bent over the ad on her drawing board, she could smell his soap-the same soap she’d used in his shower yesterday when he’d sudsed her up and done unspeakably wicked things to her body, causing him to be late returning to work.

Her whole body tensed with longing.

No. She was not going to give in to it. She had to focus on her work, because now she really needed this job. She’d forked over almost all her ready cash for the deposit and first month’s rent on her new apartment.

Once the newness of sex with Max wore off, she wouldn’t feel like this all the time, she reasoned. She would be able to partition off that part of her life.

“So, we’re squared away on the surf shop ad?”

“Yes, mm-hmm.”

“Something wrong?”

“No. No, everything’s great.” Sort of.

“Are you coming to the party tonight?”

“If I can get a sitter.”

“You can bring-” He stopped himself. “Right. I hope you can make it, since you were instrumental in landing the account.”

“I hope I can, too.” Mrs. Billingsly sometimes did evening babysitting. Jane made a mental note to call her. “Where is this party, anyway?”

“On the Dragonfly. What’s the use of owning one-sixth of a fishing business if I can’t get a free charter now and then? Sara is doing the catering for the cost of food. We’ll fish for a couple of hours in the bay, then anchor and eat and drink until the refreshments run out. If it’s dark by then, we’ll look at the stars through Cooper’s telescope.”

“It sounds like fun. I’ll try to make it.”

Carol leaned her head in the door. “Hey, girlfriend, I’m headed to Fresco Deli for lunch. You in?”

Jane took stock of her work and decided she had everything under control. “Sure.”

“How about you, boss man?” Carol asked.

“I have some work to do. But if you could bring me back a ham and swiss on rye with mustard, I’d be grateful.” He handed Carol a ten.

“Um, this is a health-food place. I could probably manage tofu and avocado on seven grain.”

He grimaced. “Whatever. God, I miss New York sometimes.”

It was a gorgeous day. The lingering summer heat and humidity had finally broken, and Jane inhaled deeply as she and Carol exited the building.

“Why don’t we walk?” she suggested as Carol pulled her car keys out of her purse. “It’s only a few blocks.”

Carol shrugged. “Okay. I guess it is the perfect day for it.”

They walked in companionable silence for about half a block, until finally a question burst out of Carol. “So? Are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?” Jane asked warily.

“About you and the boss man.”

“What are you talking about?” Jane asked to buy herself time. Oh, dear, this was bad. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since Jane and Max had succumbed to temptation, and already Carol knew about it.

“Come on, girlfriend. It’s all over your faces-both of you. When he walked into the room you stared at each other like a couple of lovesick calves.”

“Um…I plead the Fifth.” What else could she say? Denials seemed ridiculous, and anyway she didn’t like lying.

“Hah! I knew it! From the moment you first walked into the office I sensed a vibe between you two. C’mon, give. What’s going on? Is he as hot as he looks?”

Jane shot Carol a sharp look.

Carol rolled her eyes. “He’s not my type-too young, too scrawny and too pale. But I recognize prime beef on the hoof when I see it.”

Jane gave an embarrassed laugh. “Carol, please.”

“You did it at lunch yesterday, didn’t you? Max came back to the office looking like he was going to burst, he was so happy.”

“Of course he was happy. He’d just gotten the Kidz’n’Stuff account.”

“You’re evading the question.”

They’d arrived at the deli, and Jane busied herself studying the menu as they stood in line at the counter. “They have a ham and swiss,” she said.

“I know, I just said that to jerk Max’s chain. He’s always talking about how great the delis are in New York. Interesting that the first thing you looked for when you picked up the menu was something for your man.”

“Carol, stop it. ”

“If you want me to stop it, you gotta come clean. If you and the boss man are steam-pressing the sheets, it could cause problems. I need to know the truth, so I can commence damage and rumor control.”

Jane thought that was a pretty thin excuse for simply wanting to hear gossip.

“I’ll tell you,” Jane finally said.

She waited until they’d both picked up their sandwich orders and taken them to a small table on the sidewalk outside. Carol watched her with curious eyes, but she didn’t push further.

“We slept together one time. It was at his place, yesterday, and I have no idea where it’s going or even if it’s going. It might be that we got it out of our systems.”

In a way Jane wished that were the case. But Max certainly wasn’t out of her system.

“Hmph, I doubt that.” Carol took a bite of her turkey sandwich. “So what’s his place like?”

Jane hadn’t been paying much attention to Max’s condo at the time, because she’d been way too focused on other things. But now that she thought about it, she had some recollections. It was big. Two stories, probably three bedrooms. And it was fancy. Modern furniture, but good quality. Nice rugs. Nothing cluttered or fussy.

Still, she thought sharing details about Max’s home bordered on gossip. “Do you want your pickle?” She nodded toward Carol’s plate.

“Okay, I get it. You aren’t into sharing details. I can accept that. But just answer me one thing. Do you want it to get serious? ’Cause you could do a whole lot worse than Max Remington. His family is worth millions. Some day he’ll inherit. You could send Kaylee to Harvard.”

“Carol. I’m not attracted to Max because of his money.”

Or was she? One of the reasons she’d married Scott was because he was wealthy. She wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but in the back of her mind she’d known that as his wife she wouldn’t have to worry about money.

Was she doing the same thing now? She was scarcely away from one rich husband. On some level, was she counting on Max to someday be Rich Husband #2?

Max reached into Sara’s Tupperware, grabbed a stuffed mushroom, and popped it into his mouth.

“Hey, let me at least get them onto a platter.” They were setting up refreshments on the Dragonfly in preparation for the first Remington Agency party. Carol was already there, and the others-his two account executives, Jane and Reece-would arrive soon. Cooper and Allie were readying the boat for a leisurely cruise around the bay.

“These are good.” Max reached for another mushroom, but Sara batted his hand away.

“No more. Give the guests a chance at the food, please. You know, Reece claims that when you were kids and you stayed at his house, if there was something on his dinner plate he didn’t like, he would slip it to you or the dog.”

He laughed, feeling happy and relaxed for the first time in a good while. “True. I’ll eat anything.”

A movement on the Princess II next door caught his eye, and his heart did a flip-flop as it always did whenever he saw Jane. She opened the hatch and stood in the doorway, barefoot but otherwise still in her work clothes.