Virginia Smith - A Daughter's Legacy

He refolded the letter and slid it back into the envelope. In the days before she died, Lil had made no secret of the fact that she expected him to be ruthless in his execution of her trust. Even though he’d been reeling from the discovery that she had a daughter, he’d tried to talk her out of the crazy scheme.

“Lil, why don’t you just leave the poor kid her half and be done with it?”

The wasted woman in the hospital bed had been a mere shadow of the boss he’d known for years. But she’d leveled a stubborn look on him and rasped with some of her precious remaining breath, “For her own good. Everybody has to face their fears.”

“But why me? Surely there’s someone else who could do a better job, as trustee and as director.”

The soft pat on his hand held so little strength it felt like a breeze. “You’ll take care of Samson. Nobody else will.”

Jason thrust away the memory and abruptly rose from the bench. He crossed to the chain-link barrier and stared into the lion enclosure. But instead of Samson, he saw a beautiful dark-haired young woman with pain lurking in the gray depths of her eyes. A young woman who would probably end up hating him, according to Lil, although she wouldn’t explain why.

Well, seemed he had a knack for rubbing beautiful women the wrong way. Aimee couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him.

“This is your fault,” he told the lion. “I don’t know what fear Kelli has to face, but Lil was right about one thing. She already blames me.”

Samson snoozed on, oblivious. Jason put the letter back in his pocket. He was used to taking the blame where women were concerned. If he had to be the bad guy with Lil’s daughter, he’d do it. Especially if it meant Samson would get a new home, as Lil and he both wanted.

Despite Kelli’s fears, the office wasn’t in complete disorder. The top drawer of the filing cabinet held a series of neatly labeled folders containing various zoo records. Those, she would box up and turn over to Jason. But the rest were her responsibility to sort through.

The bottom of the file cabinet and all the desk drawers had served as a catchall into which Lillian had apparently tossed her personal documents: bills, bank statements, even junk mail. Kelli frowned at the piles, her accountant mind trying to perceive her mother’s system. After a few minutes, she gave up.

“I must have inherited my organization skills from Daddy,” she muttered.

A movement in the doorway drew her attention, and she looked up into Leo’s golden gaze. The sound of her voice must have attracted his curiosity. After barely a second of eye contact, the animal dashed away, in the direction of his closet. Kelli chuckled and returned to her task.

“What a mess.” Tsking in disapproval, she cleared the surface of the desk, then began the tedious process of sorting the clutter into a semblance of order. Time to find out if Lillian’s finances were as big a mess as her office.

A couple of hours later, Kelli started to breathe a little easier. Her mother had left surprisingly few outstanding bills. Her medical coverage—the policy was in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet—was comprehensive. There would probably be a few medical bills, but the bulk of the treatment would be covered. And she’d carried mortgage insurance on the house.

“A free and clear title. How nice for the zoo.” She didn’t bother to filter the sarcasm out of her voice. The cat didn’t care, and there was no one else to hear.

Her mother had carried several credit cards, and Kelli felt a grudging respect as she inspected the statements. Lillian paid the balances off every month.

The ringing of a telephone in the other room pierced through the empty house. Kelli jumped, startled, then hurried to answer it. She hadn’t even noticed the instrument hanging on the wall near the back door. No answering machine, just an old-fashioned telephone, the kind with a spiral cord.

“Hello?”

“Kelli, this is Jason Andover.” The low voice drawled in her ear. “We just got a call from the hospital where your mother…uh, died.” He sounded apologetic, like he hated to mention the fact. “They still have Lil’s stuff. Her wallet and so on.”

Kelli glanced toward the office. She’d seen the credit card statements, but now that she thought of it, no cards. Lillian must have taken the things to the hospital with her. Kelli had already made a list of companies to call with the numbers of the accounts to be closed out, but the credit cards should be cut up, the blank checks destroyed.

She leaned against the countertop. “Of course. I’ll go pick them up. Can you give me directions to the hospital?”

“Well…” He turned the word into two syllables. “Driving there can be a little tricky. How about if I run you over?”

Kelli straightened to attention. Why would he want to do that? Was he simply making a nice gesture, or did he have another reason?

A thought occurred to her, and she allowed herself a grim smile. He probably wanted to find out if she’d made a decision about staying on for the required six months. He wanted to know whether his precious zoo would inherit the full $1.4 million, or only half that amount.

She allowed a chill to creep into her tone. “I can handle it, if you’ll just tell me where it is.”

A pause. “All right, if that’s what you want. Got a pencil?”

She retrieved her purse and wrote his directions on the back of an ATM receipt. It actually did sound like a complicated drive, especially in an unfamiliar city and in a car she’d never driven. Maybe she’d been a little hasty in turning down his offer.

“When you get off at the exit, turn right and stay on that road for about, oh, five or six miles. You’ll see St. Mark’s on your left.” A moment of silence. “I really don’t mind driving you over.”

Kelli hesitated. “I’d hate to take you away from your work.”

His low laugh sent a delightful and completely unwelcome ripple through her. “Trust me, I’ll be here for a long time tonight. An hour or so away won’t hurt a thing.”

“Well, if you’re sure.” She sank against the counter, relieved. “When do you want to go?”

“It’s almost four. If we leave now, we’ll miss the worst of the rush-hour traffic.”

“Do you want me to come to the office?”

“It’ll be faster if I drive around and pick you up. Give me five minutes.”

Kelli’s hand lingered on the phone after she hung up. No doubt he had an ulterior motive for his good deed, but even so, it was a nice offer.

As she turned away, she spied two bowls tucked in a corner of the kitchen, one empty, one with a quarter inch of water in the bottom. Ah, no wonder Leo had ventured out of his closet earlier. He was probably hungry. What did the creature eat? Knowing Lillian’s affection for all things feline, he probably got fresh salmon or something.

A quick inspection of the cabinets revealed a package of macaroni, three cans of green beans, and half-full bag of dry cat food. Kelli dumped food in the empty bowl and put fresh water in the other one. That gave her just enough time to run a brush through her hair and smooth on some lipstick before Jason arrived to pick her up.

Not that she needed to dress up for her mother’s substitute son. Just that she wanted to look her best in front of the hospital staff.

Jason wracked his brain to come up with a conversation starter during the drive to the hospital. Small talk wasn’t his forte. Especially small talk with attractive women who obviously distrusted him. Kelli situated herself on the far edge of the passenger seat, as far away from him as she could get, and stared with a stony expression through the windshield.