There was a knock, and I turned on the sink full blast. “What is it?” I yelled through the door.
“What are you doing in there?” It was the pest.
“Taking a whiz.” I spoke loudly over the running water.
“Where are the car keys?”
I’d kept them earlier, not that I was planning to leave with my mom’s car, though it was tempting. “On the dresser in my room.”
After a few minutes, when it was clear the house was empty, I left the bathroom and headed down the back stairs behind the house. Thankfully everything was quiet. It was dark outside, and the air smelled like the beach. I placed the maid’s phone artfully on the ground near where we’d been standing together earlier.
That task completed, I headed back upstairs and grabbed a flashlight before going out through the front door.
“Any luck?” I asked as I walked over to the car. All four doors on my mom’s SUV were open, and the women were looking under the seats.
“It doesn’t appear to be here.” My mom stood up and shook her head. “Claire, honey, I’m so sorry, but I don’t see it.”
Claire bit her lip. “That phone is my entire life. What am I going to do?”
“Have you guys checked behind the house?” I asked.
“No, not yet.” My sister closed the doors and started shining her phone’s flashlight on the ground near the car. My mom and Claire joined her in the search.
“I’ll do it.” I glanced around for my cousin, who for some reason was down near the end of the driveway by some bushes. “Doug and I will search out back.” I headed over and told him to help me check behind the house.
“But I haven’t finished looking around these bushes yet,” he said, studying the edge of some thick foliage.
“Forget that. She was never over here.”
Doug was crouched and pushing some leaves aside. As I watched his determined expression, the perfect plan hatched in my mind. A plan that would set this whole thing right.
“Come on.” I grabbed his arm, yanking him to his feet. He resisted, but as with most things in life, I was stronger and more determined.
“Hey, where are you taking me?” he complained. “Let go! Claire’s phone might be back there!”
“Dial her number again,” I called over to my sister as I headed out back, dragging Doug alongside me like a skinny broomstick. He was a few inches taller than me, not that it mattered.
As we approached the back of the house, I ignored his complaints as he continued going on about searching those damn bushes.
“I know what you’re doing,” he spat out. “You don’t want me to find the phone.”
“Huh?” I glanced over at him.
“You’re going to find it yourself tomorrow when no one else is around. Then you can be the big hero!”
He wore an angry expression, and I was surprised he had the balls to even speak to me in that tone. “What the hell are you talking about?” I gave him my full attention now.
“I saw the way you were looking at her.” He swallowed hard. “At Claire. You want her. Don’t deny it.”
My brows went up, because obviously I did find her attractive.
“But she’s not one of your women,” he went on. “Claire isn’t like that. She’s sweet and kind, and I won’t let you treat her that way. She’s been through enough.”
I slowed my pace. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“No, I don’t. I know you, Philip, and I know you’ve been with a lot of women. But Claire deserves someone who wants her as more than just a distraction until the next ferry arrives.”
I stopped walking completely.
“Just leave her alone.” His voice quivered. “That’s all I ask.”
He was breathing heavily, and I studied his unhappy expression. “You really like this woman, don’t you?”
“She’s special. I’m smitten with her.”
I lowered my voice and leaned toward him. “Don’t worry, I’m not making a play for Claire.” My eyes flashed down the beach, to the spot where her phone sat waiting to be found. It was time to put my plan into action. “Why don’t you go check over by the deck post?” I nodded. “I’ll stay here and look by the house.”
“Fine.” My cousin sighed, then trudged off. I turned my flashlight on and moved it along the walking path as I waited for Doug to find the phone. It shouldn’t take long.
As I pretended to search, I thought about what he’d just said to me. About my using the maid as a distraction until the next ferry arrived. To be honest, the thought had occurred to me.
I wouldn’t even consider going after her now. Not when I knew Doug wanted her.
I glanced down to where he was still bumbling around, searching for the phone. Why hadn’t he found it yet? From where I stood, it looked like he was standing right on top of the damn thing.
It was no secret I dated a lot. I liked women, and they liked me. I didn’t hear any complaints—well, I did occasionally, but most of them knew I wasn’t the marrying kind, and that wasn’t going to change.
“I found it!” Doug suddenly shouted. “Hey, everyone, I found it!”
Finally. For Christ’s sake.
“Great!” I called down to him.
Doug came running up from the beach. “I found it!” he yelled, holding it up high. “I found Claire’s phone!”
“Dude, that’s great.”
He galloped past me like an Irish setter and was still yelling as he rounded the corner to the front of the house.
I grinned. Stealing that phone was a dick move, but this whole thing was turning out perfect. I had a solid gold feeling in my gut, the kind I always got right before a deal was coming together, one I knew would be a winner.
The women were all gathered around Doug as I walked over to join them.
“He didn’t want to check behind the house, but I insisted,” he was telling everyone. “Philip thought we should check by those bushes down there, can you believe that? But I said, ‘Let’s look out back,’ and I was right!”
It sounded like he was recounting a war story, and a false version at that, but I didn’t stop him. It was good to see my cousin pleased with himself for a change.
“Thank you, Doug,” Claire said. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am.”
“I’m just happy I was here to help.” He gave her a satisfied grin.
“I appreciate it.” She stepped close to him and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a hug. I saw his eyes widen, and then they widened even more when she planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
I’d never seen my cousin so happy.
I glanced at my mom and sister, the three of us exchanging a look of understanding. Doug may have been a tiresome bore, but he was also one of us. He was family. And more than anything, I wanted him to get the girl of his dreams.
Chapter Five
~ Claire ~
My ankle still bothered me. The pain wasn’t anybody’s fault, but in my mind, I couldn’t stop blaming that rotten phone thief, Philip. Even though Doug found it, I just knew Philip was guilty. I wanted to accuse him, but how could I? As soon as I arrived at the house, I realized I had no evidence at all that he took it.
“You’re limping, Claire,” Mrs. Lamb said as she watched me wipe down her kitchen counters. “Are you all right? You don’t need to go to the store today if you aren’t up to it.”
Mrs. Lamb was one of my many elderly clients. Normally, I preferred to clean alone and disliked having any client follow me around, but she was a favorite and enjoyed making friendly chitchat.
“It’s no trouble at all,” I said, loading her dishwasher. I already knew she was running low on milk and eggs. Her son, Elliot, wouldn’t be by until sometime next week.
“Well, only if you’re sure. I left a list there for you. Did you see it?”
“No worries. I’ve got it right here.” I patted my front pocket.
Mrs. Lamb was a retired history teacher, and as I cleaned her house, she
often told me interesting historical facts. She knew a lot about Truth Harbor and the people who settled here. It was fun learning who they named the streets after or about the ships that came into our harbor, which had something of an infamous past.
I took my apron off, folding it before adding it to my cart of cleaning supplies.
I wasn’t always a maid. I used to help manage a small insurance office. During the last year of our marriage, Ethan and I were trying to have a baby, and he convinced me to quit my job. It might not sound very modern, but I couldn’t wait to have children. I was eager to be a mom and begin a new phase of my life.
All that changed when he left me for Ivy.
Suddenly I was divorced, broke, and unemployed.
My former boss wasn’t hiring, and I didn’t know what to do. But then I saw an ad to be a maid. I’d enjoyed housekeeping since I was a kid. It might sound like a strange hobby, but I had a shelf full of books on how to keep house and knew how to clean anything.
The job was hard work, but it suited me. My life had spun out of control, but as I scrubbed and polished during those horrible days, at least I could turn one small corner of the universe into something that made sense.
Mrs. Lamb started to rise from the dining room chair, and I went over to help. Her favorite soap opera was starting in a few minutes, and I set her up in the living room.
“I’m headed out now,” I told her. “But I’ll be back soon with your groceries.”
I pushed the wire cart of cleaning supplies out to my car so I could load everything in the back.
Doug had called earlier and left a message about coming over to look at the room I’d hired him to work on. It was a mistake to kiss him on the cheek last night. I meant it in friendship, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I suspected he might have a crush on me, and I didn’t want to lead him on.
Since my divorce, I hadn’t dated—though I’d forced myself to sleep with someone last year. A photographer acquaintance of Leah’s. She set up the blind date, convincing me I’d like him since he was from Scotland and had a sexy accent. I purposefully drank too much, and it became my first one-night stand ever. Except I felt nothing. Not during the sex or afterward. I told myself it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Ethan was no longer the last man I’d been intimate with.
I headed over to the grocery store. After parking, I checked my schedule. I had a meeting with a new client that afternoon.
As I finished shopping and was pushing the groceries out to my car, who should I see but the phone thief himself—Philip.
He wore black jeans and a dark gray T-shirt, casually leaning against that silver SUV. He was staring at a phone, of all things. Apparently he’d gotten his hands on one after all.
I tried to detour around him, hoping he wouldn’t see me.
“Claire,” he called out.
I gave a curt nod, hurrying past, but to my annoyance, he didn’t take the hint.
“Your ankle’s still bothering you,” he said, coming up alongside me. “I can help with those bags.”
“No, thank you. I’ve got it.”
Except he didn’t go away, reaching out to try and take the cart from me instead. Talk about pushy.
I sped up even more, limping along as fast as I could.
By the time I got to the car, my ankle was killing me, and I was out of breath. I opened the rear to unload the bags. Philip took the first one, but I grabbed it from him.
He picked up a different bag, and I grabbed that one too, wrestling it from his hands. My behavior was bizarre, but I didn’t care.
He stopped moving and stared at me. “I’m only trying to help.”
“You’ve done enough,” I said, shoving the bag inside my car.
He went silent. I glared at him only to discover he was smiling at me. It looked like he was enjoying himself.
There was a flash of white from his teeth, and his cheeks had that natural flush some guys got which I’d always found appealing.
I regretted my attraction to him, because in the light of day, with my normal wits about me, I could see what a gigantic pain in the ass he was. The kind of man who steamrolled over anyone who got in his way.
“Is there something you’d like to say to me?” he asked, smirking now.
I loaded the last bag in the car and slammed the rear closed. I turned and met his eyes. They were ridiculous. Sky blue fringed by those sooty lashes. Intelligence shone out from them.
We considered each other. He was taller than me, but then everybody was taller than me.
“You’re a thief!” The words spewed out before I could stop them. “A rotten thief.”
His brows went up, but he didn’t seem surprised by the accusation.
“You stole my phone.”
“My cousin found your phone on the beach.”
“You set that up. I don’t know how, but you must have.”
He didn’t reply, his gaze wandering down to the turquoise polo shirt I was wearing.
“What kind of person are you?” I ranted. “Pretending to help someone but then actually stealing from them. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? It’s not like you didn’t get your phone back.”
“So you admit you stole it.”
He shrugged. “I’m not admitting anything.”
What he did upset me, but it was like he wasn’t even paying attention. He was studying the logo on my shirt. “Your House Sparkles,” he read aloud.
Taking a page from some of the larger maid franchises, I’d had these turquoise polo shirts created for the employees of my small company to wear. I figured when people saw them, it was free advertising.
“But that doesn’t really work, does it?” he murmured, tilting his head slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“As a name, it’s lacking.”
I couldn’t believe this jerk. What an asshat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s a perfectly good name.”
“No.” He appeared to be thinking it over. “It’s terrible.”
Who did this guy think he was? “Who do you think you are? I don’t need to stand here and be insulted.”
“You need something stronger. Something that announces what your business is right away.”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever.
“Your House Sparkles could be anything,” he continued. “It’s a lousy name for a maid service.”
“No, it’s not. And I don’t care what you think.” I grabbed the grocery cart to push it back up to the store. He didn’t follow, and I had the distinct impression he was staying back to watch my ass, though I hoped not. My ass was ample—quite ample. Let’s just leave it at that.
When I walked back to my car, he was still standing there. He was holding his phone again, but there was a sly grin on his face.
“I’ll be going now,” I informed him in a frosty tone as I moved past him to get to the driver side.
Philip nodded. His eyes lingered on me before abruptly turning away. “Another time” was all he said before heading back to his SUV.
I stood for a moment and watched his ass, though I shouldn’t have. His ass was perfect. It was a pleasure watching it encased in those black jeans.
“I’m sure the devil has a perfect ass too,” I muttered as I got inside my car and slammed the door shut.
Unfortunately, I kept thinking about Philip’s comment that my business name sucked. Was it true? When I took over the maid service from Jane a few months ago, I’d changed the name from Jane’s Maid Service to Your House Sparkles. I decided to make a real go of it.
The other two maids who’d worked for Jane—Laurie and Kyle—couldn’t care less about running the business. They worked part-time since both of them had families and wanted a job with flexible hours and little responsibility. So after Jane called it quits, they were more than happy to let me take over. I didn’t have any family to distract me. No children or husband. Let’s face it�
��I had no life at all. I was grateful too, because right after I took ownership of the maid service, Ivy and Ethan moved back to Truth Harbor.
It might have sounded pitiful, but running my own business—no matter how small—made me feel like less of a loser.
Not that I knew what I was doing. I’d been learning how to track expenses, and I always made sure everyone got paid on time, but I was barely scraping by. I’d taken out some ads to try to bring in new business. Then I had the great idea to paint my car turquoise and have the Your House Sparkles logo added to it. I figured it was an advertisement everywhere I went. But all that cost money.
As a result, things were tight. Even with me living in the carriage house, it was a stretch to get by every month. When my father passed away, he left me half of Sullivan House, but he left the other half to Violet with instructions that she be allowed to live there as long as she wanted. I’d inherited some money in a trust, but I needed all of it to cover my yearly portion of the taxes and insurance. I’d also taken out a small loan for the room addition on the carriage house.
I was determined to grow my maid service, determined to never rely on a man financially again.
The new client I was meeting lived on the edge of town in a housing development not far from Ivy and Ethan. The houses were all minimansions. Nice, but a little soulless for my taste.
“Hello,” I said aloud to myself, practicing my greeting as I pulled into the driveway. “I’m from Your House Sparkles. My name’s Claire, and I’m the owner.”
I got out of the car and glanced around. Each house was large with a similar architectural style. All the lawns were green with immaculate landscaping.
After I rang the bell, a well-groomed woman about my age opened the door. I gave her my rehearsed greeting and then put my hand out. “Are you Mona?”
She nodded. Mona was a tall, slender brunette with a limp-fish handshake so lifeless, I worried whether someone should check her pulse.
“You’re the maid?” She lifted her nose slightly and took in my appearance in a way that suggested I was emitting an odor.
“Yes. It’s nice to meet you.”
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