by Elsie Davis
She laughed. “Maybe, but it makes it easier for me to take care of you. Should I pick you up one of those dark chocolate and almond cookies you enjoy?”
“Why not. A sugar rush might be just what I need.”
“I’ll be back shortly, and we can have lunch together. It’ll be a nice break.”
That wasn’t exactly what he’d intended. She’d be camped out in his office if he didn’t find something else to do during that time. Garrett sat back in his chair, his thoughts drifting to last night and April.
He’d gone home at six just liked she’d requested. Dinner on the table. Family talk. Movies. Kid’s bedtime. Alone time with April. There was something to be said for having someone to talk to when he arrived home at night, and he hadn’t even minded a lot of someones while the kids were still awake.
Garrett smiled to himself as he pictured April’s smiling face, her hair blowing gently in the wind. He’d stopped himself from kissing her a second time, having already crossed the line once. But the warmth of her sunny face was hard to resist. He knew better than to travel down that road. His road was in the city, and hers was in the country, and the two had no chance of a collision. Their relationship was just a fender bender that had brought them together and made him think of possibilities.
Thinking of April made him want to hear her voice. See how her day was going. He stared at his cell phone for all of thirty seconds, debating whether to call. He picked up the phone and dialed, the decision made. It was just a phone call.
Disappoint settled in hard when her voicemail clicked on. He hung up the phone without leaving a message. Garrett tried the house phone just in case her cell was dead. Again, no answer. Bryan or Melanie could answer the phone if April was tied up with Sandy or in the kitchen. Maybe they’d gone out exploring?
Yes, that’s probably what it was. Five minutes later, he hadn’t read a single word of the report he’d pulled up, his thoughts all on April.
It was easy enough to find out if she’d left the building, although he hated the idea of checking up on her. Just one phone call and no one would ever know.
Garrett located the number and dialed.
“Sutton Hill, front desk, this is Ted.” Garrett was relieved to hear Ted’s voice. The other new guy who covered for Ted, Bill something or other, wasn’t as easy to work with. Getting information from him was, at best, like digging a well to get to the water.
“Hey, it’s Garrett. Do you know if April and the kids left the building? She’s not answering the house phone or her cell. With her being in a new area, I worry.” The excuse sounded plausible even to his own ears.
“No. She hasn’t passed by my desk, and I’ve been here all morning. Probably just got her hands full.” Ted’s answer made him feel better. At least she wasn’t out trying to manage the hustle and bustle of the city.
“That’s what I was thinking. Thanks.”
Fifteen minutes later, Garrett still hadn’t read another word. He tapped his pencil against the desk and thought about trying to call April again. He reached for the phone just as Brooke entered the office, carrying several brown paper bags.
“Lunch is here. I’ll set up a place to eat over by the window. Just give me a few minutes.” Brooke took charge, just like she always did.
Except he didn’t want to have lunch with his secretary. He wanted to have lunch with April. Or at least talk to her. Just to make sure she was okay. Yeah right.
“Don’t unpack mine. I’m going to take my lunch on the run and catch a taxi back to the penthouse. I need to check on April and the kids.” He pushed up from his chair and started across the room. Boss’s privilege.
“But you never—”
“I realize that,” he insisted, cutting her off. “Let Jim know he can reach me on my cell and that I’ll be at the penthouse. Thanks.” He took the bag from her and headed for the door.
“Will you be back this afternoon?” Brooke called out after him, clearly unhappy with the change in plans.
“No. I’ll see you in the morning. Call me if you need anything.” Suddenly, everything felt right. He hadn’t blown off work in years, and he was long overdue.
“Okay. I have those boarding school information packets you asked me to get. I’ll put them on your desk.”
“Thanks.” He closed the door, ending any further chance of conversation.
Garrett hailed a taxi and was back at Sutton Hill in less than twenty minutes. “Hey, Ted.” He waved at the concierge on his way to the elevators.
“Mr. Bradley?” Is everything okay? I’ve never known you to come home in the middle of the afternoon on a workday.” The man looked truly perplexed.
“I know, I know. But April’s only here a few more days, and I feel terrible for dumping everything on her shoulders. It’s my duty to help out.”
“Sounds like a plan. She’s a beautiful lady, and one could see why you would want to spend time with her.” Ted winked.
“It’s not like that.” He wasn’t sure what it was, but he did want to enjoy what was left of it. Jim’s face would be priceless when he found out Garrett had left for the day.
The ride to the top floor didn’t take long, and Garrett pulled out his key card and swiped it across the pad.
He pushed open the door, bending to put his briefcase by the front door. “Hello, anybody home?” Three faces stared back at him their eyes wide in shock.
“Wh…wh…what are you doing here?” April was the first to speak, but it was the terrified expression on her face that struck him the hardest.
Not exactly the greeting he’d hoped for. “Is that any way to greet someone? I wanted to come home and take you all somewhere to get out of the penthouse. I’m trying to be more hospitable.” He glanced from one face to the other, not liking what he was seeing. And why was she holding his DVD player?
“We weren’t expecting you. Maybe you should head back to the office.” April’s directive was reinforced by Melanie and Bryan standing close to her, one on each side, both nodding their agreement.
If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. April’s own words. His stomach clenched. He took a step forward. “What’s going on?”
“N…nothing.” She winced.
“April St. James, I haven’t known you long, but long enough to know you’re not telling me something. I demand you tell me what’s going on. And why weren’t you answering your phone? And what are you doing with my DVD player?” He fired off the questions, out of patience. All three of them seemed guilty about something, and he wanted to know why.
Even the dog was hunkered down in the corner, eyeballing the scene unfolding but staying out of the mix.
“Garrett, I’m sorry. This isn’t a kid-friendly place. I was in the shower, and Sandy got a hold of the crayons again. When I came out and shouted at her to stop, Rufus got overly excited. And then the kids told me there was a problem with the DVD player. Everything’s just a mess.” She was on the verge of tears.
“Go back to the part about a crayon.” Images flashed through his mind that she’d drawn on the floor or something, and he cringed. He had to see for himself. “Step aside.”
The three of them looked at each other, and April nodded her head slightly. When they stepped back, he saw a nightmare come true.
His stomach plummeted and, in the void, anger took its place. “What happened here? This is insane. Are you serious?” If it had only been the floor, it might have been okay. But red and blue crayon drawings decorated his walls. His crystal floor lamp lay on its side, the glass globe shattered across the floor. Food crumbs were littered everywhere, and a purple stain next to the coffee table now colored the white rug like an abstract painting.
He shook his head, trying to dispel the image. His head was going to explode. Count to ten. April’s words popped into his head, but he wasn’t sure he was capable of counting.
He tried to focus, closing his eyes to block out the war zone. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nin
e. Ten. He opened his eyes. Nothing had changed. Not the destruction or his mood. There was only one thing left he could do.
“Don’t wait up for me.” Garrett turned, grabbed his briefcase, and headed out the door, slamming it hard behind him. The only place he wanted to be right now was back in his office. Work would drown out the images. Allow him to think of anything other than what he’d just seen. The man who controlled everything in his life suddenly couldn’t control anything.
He’d always known kids were a problem, and this was proof. Why his mother had ever thought this could work for him, he’d never understand. If April couldn’t control them, he didn’t stand a chance. Boarding school was sounding more and more like a winner.
* * *
What happened to two adults having a grown-up conversation? April understood Garrett’s reaction. His place had been destroyed. She’d have given anything to make it all disappear, but she couldn’t, at least not in the short time that had passed since she’d first discovered the disaster.
Fifteen minutes. That’s how long she’d been in the shower enjoying the luxury of Garrett’s massage jets. The interviews this morning hadn’t gone well and had been topped off with a healthy dose of guilt laid on by the kids unintentionally with their pleas for her to be their permanent nanny and housekeeper. She’d just wanted a few moments of peaceful bliss.
Fifteen minutes. That’s all it took to realize she could kiss her bonus goodbye. She wasn’t having any luck finding a replacement, but worse, when Garrett got home and took one look at the place, he’d fire her before she had the chance to interview the last couple of people.
And she wouldn’t blame him. April glanced around the living room, still unable to comprehend the level of destruction.
She hadn’t been sure whether to be mad as a hornet, crawl under a rock to hide like a bug, or cry like a baby. None of those options would have fixed the problem—neither one of them. The house or Garrett.
They’d just started to clean up when Garrett had shown up unexpectedly, blowing all her plans to have the place in tip-top shape by the time he returned. But at least he hadn’t fired her—yet.
“All right, kids, let’s get to it. He’ll be back, and then he’ll see it’s not so awful.” April tried to put on a cheerful face and rally the troops.
“What if he stays mad and doesn’t want us? Will he send us away?” The poor darlings. April’s heart was breaking, knowing what they were thinking. Especially since she also knew Garrett had been thinking of sending them to boarding school. Although that had nothing to do with anything the children did wrong, and everything to do with poor judgment on Garrett’s part.
“It’ll be fine. Trust me. Mr. Garrett will be back, and all will back to normal.”
“I’m sorry, Miss April. I know you asked us to watch Sandy. We didn’t do a good job, did we?” Sandy, the little termite, had turned into a Picasso, her artwork gracing the walls and the floor. The silver lining, if there was one, was that she’d left the sofa alone, just like April had told her. Bryan and Melanie had been too wrapped up in their tablets to notice their sister having her own kind of fun.
“Don’t worry about it. Accidents happen. But next time I ask you to watch her, you’ll know why it’s important to do just that. It only takes minutes for everything to go wrong.” Other than the lamp and DVD that needed fixing, the rest could be cleaned, provided the grape soda came out of the rug.
“Yes, ma’am,” they answered in unison. Poor things.
It wasn’t their fault Garrett hadn’t given her a chance to explain. He was probably back in his office, venting his woes to Brooke, who would be all too willing to comfort him. Fringe benefits with the job. Although April was pretty sure Brooke was looking for more than fringe benefits. That woman was after a ring.
Garrett needed to understand he had responsibilities, and he couldn’t just walk away because he was angry. She got that he wasn’t familiar with having kids around or anything to do with them, but she could’ve told him about one of the greatest inventions since the washing machine. Washable crayons.
April couldn’t shake the guilt for her part in the fiasco. She replayed the scene in her head, still unable to believe what had happened. How was she to know that when she hollered for Sandy to stop coloring the walls, she would set off a chain of events that turned one mess into utter chaos? Rufus had gone nuts and charged into the room, knocking into Bryan, spilling his drink, and sending popcorn flying everywhere. And then the dog knocked into the lamp and busted it as he tried to get away from the uproar and raced for the corner, his tail tucked between his legs.
It was a comedy of errors, made worse because of the penthouse suite’s perfection. And if it hadn’t been for Garrett’s reaction, by now, April might be laughing. She’d managed to order a replacement globe for the lamp that would be delivered in two days. And the DVD player was only jammed—a pair of tweezers and two minutes had it fixed. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she played electronics repairman.
She’d avoided his calls because she hadn’t wanted him to sense anything wrong in her voice, but never in a million years had she expected him to come home. And to think he’d been ready to take the afternoon off and spend time with them. She’d been trying to make him understand that investing time in the kids would take him far. The kids would have loved another outing with Garrett. Unfortunately, today’s fiasco was three giant kid-sized steps backward in the bonding and relationship process, something she couldn’t afford if she intended to fix Garrett’s relationship with the kids before she left.
The kids were working hard to help, cleaning the crayon off the walls and the floor. Even Sandy chipped in while April took care of the glass and vacuuming. It wasn’t long before they had the place back to the way it was, except for the lampshade she had on order. Objects were replaceable, his relationship with the children wasn’t, something Garrett needed to learn.
The question was, would he?
Garrett didn’t come home for dinner. His absence was noticeable, and the kids were rather quiet. There wasn’t much she could say to make things right. That would have to come from Garrett.
April stayed up, hoping for a chance to talk to Garrett and explain things when he was calmer and prepared to listen. Except that hours later, he still hadn’t come home. She started to fall asleep on the sofa when her phone dinged, alerting her to a text.
Garrett: Working. Might not be home.
Working? Yeah, right. It was after eleven p.m. The only thing he’d be working on this late was his secretary. Seeds of jealousy sprouted out of nowhere. April headed for bed, but sleep evaded her. No matter how hard she tried, images of Garrett and Brooke drove her crazy.
It was none of her business who he dated, or who he married, for that matter, but she’d feel bad for the kids if they were stuck with a woman like Brooke, she-devil that she was.
The kids would be off to boarding school before seven sunsets had passed if he married Brooke. What April needed to do was find someone to replace her, someone that would do the job so well that Garrett wouldn’t need Brooke, boarding school, or marriage. It was the perfect solution for the kids and her because they needed someone who cared about their well-being, and she needed to be able to leave knowing in good conscience they would all be okay.
She needed more candidates, because the two scheduled for tomorrow didn’t sound ideal, and she held little hope one of them would work out. One was nineteen, and April worried about the older kids not respecting her authority since she was so young, and the other… Well, she wasn’t sure the woman could handle Rufus. From the picture in the file provided, it looked as though a strong wind could blow her over in a storm. Her petite build was no match for the dog.
She would put out several more calls in the morning and try to line up more qualified candidates. The biggest problem she kept running into was finding someone who would do everything he required. A lot of people were fine with some of the things, but not all of the
m. It was asking a lot of someone.
What he needed was a wife.
The right wife.
Chapter Sixteen
Garrett still couldn’t believe he’d made a mistake that would cost Mr. Hamilton millions of dollars if he couldn’t find a way to fix things. But how could he fix the price of oil when he had no control over it? After the incident in his penthouse suite, he’d returned to the office furious and silenced his phone, not wanting to talk to anyone. Biggest mistake he ever made.
Mr. Hamilton’s sources had been right, or at least they appeared to be right. Garrett still wasn’t convinced. Every indication pointed to a false drop but convincing his client before he fired him would be difficult. Garrett spent all afternoon and evening working on a new plan of action, one Mr. Hamilton would agree to.
“Go home, Brooke. Get some sleep. I’ll keep working on this.” Garrett let out a deep sigh.
“I can stay. I don’t mind, and you know it. Stop beating yourself up over this. Kids are a distraction. You would have never missed the changing market price if you hadn’t been provoked to outraged by the fiasco you described at your place. I can’t imagine how you felt walking into such a mess.” Brooke shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You’re not to blame.”
It wasn’t that easy. Garrett was sure Jim wouldn’t see it that way. Jim’s personal life had never interfered with his ability to get a job done right.
“It doesn’t matter what happened at home. I should have been monitoring the situation. I was aware Mr. Hamilton was concerned about oil prices, and it was my job to stay on top of the situation. I still don’t get it though. All signs pointed to the fact this couldn’t happen. I still can’t believe oil prices tanked in the space of twenty-three minutes.”
Two and a half million dollars divided by twenty-three minutes calculated out to over a hundred thousand dollars a minute lost to Mr. Hamilton’s bottom line, because there was no way Baden Enterprises would merge for the same price they’d negotiated earlier.