Casey watched the muscle in his tight jaw jerk and wondered what was going through his mind. Memories of kissing him last night had been looping through hers all day. But he was a guy and probably hadn’t given it another thought.
“It belongs in the study,” he said, neither confirming nor denying. “How did she get the thing open?”
“She’s smart?” Mia said, part statement, part question.
Casey stood and met Blake’s gaze. “Obviously it was left open.”
“No.” All statement, no question.
It left no room for debate, but Casey didn’t take the hint. “We’ve had this conversation before. Unless Frankie grew opposable thumbs, her canine abilities are severely limited. There’s no way the dog opened the laptop.”
“You left it open,” Mia accused him.
“I don’t do that,” Blake responded just as stubbornly, and the glares between uncle and niece were almost identical.
“I bet when you were growing up and did bad stuff, you always blamed it on my mom.”
“I have no independent recollection of that,” he said.
“Look at it this way,” Casey suggested. “When you’re in court and you need an excuse for the judge, you can tell him the dog ate your computer.”
“Not funny.”
“I thought it was,” Mia said, unsmiling, as she stared at him. “You’re going to make Frankie leave.”
“It’s crossing my mind as we speak,” he confirmed.
“You can’t do that,” she cried.
Casey agreed with her but had a feeling their reasons were very different.
“She’s a good watchdog,” Mia said.
“Who’s going to watch her?” he shot back.
Mia thought for a moment. “She helps the housekeeper.”
“What?”
Mia’s chin lifted defiantly. “Crumbs on the floor. She cleans them up. Better than the vacuum.”
“It’s true,” Casey agreed.
“The nanny isn’t supposed to take sides,” he reminded her.
“I’m not doing that,” Casey lied. “Just being a witness to the truth. Frankie waits for someone to drop food and it barely touches the floor before it’s gone. Environmentally she’s a benefit.”
“Right,” he said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “No taking sides there.”
“She’s good to talk to,” Mia continued. “She always listens and doesn’t argue or talk back.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “So she’s a good role model for you?”
“Yes,” Mia said. Then it sank in. “I don’t argue or talk back. Anymore,” she added.
“Except now,” he pointed out.
Mia’s eyes were suspiciously bright as she rubbed a finger underneath her nose. “She just wants to love you.”
“You mean she wants to love you.” Blake shook his head and blew out a long breath. The anger seemed to drain out of him. “This can’t happen again.”
The girl’s expression turned eager. “It won’t. I swear, Uncle Blake.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“If she does anything wrong, you can ground me for the rest of my life.”
Casey saw his mouth twitch and noted the way he brushed his hand over the lower half of his face to hide the fact that he wanted to smile.
“Please don’t make her go away,” Mia begged.
“Okay, but here’s the deal,” he said. “She’s your responsibility. That means if you want to keep her, you have to walk her, feed her, care for her and not let her destroy stuff.”
“I promise.” Mia stood and slid her fingers under the dog’s collar to lead her down the hall. “You won’t be sorry.”
“Wait. There’s more,” he said.
She stopped and looked warily at him. “What?”
“You need to attend your grandparents’ anniversary party in a couple of weeks.”
“This is blackmail,” Mia protested.
“I know.” He grinned. “And you’ve done a really good job of making a case for the dog to stay. You might want to consider a career in law.”
“If I consider it, will you let Frankie stay and not make me go to the party?”
“Not a chance, kid.” He was enjoying this. “This is the deal. Not only will you voluntarily go to the party, but you will be gracious to your grandparents and everyone there. You’ll say please and thank you. No slouching, shrugging or rolling your eyes when you disagree with anything.”
“But, Uncle Blake—”
He held up a finger to stop the words. “No arguing. No negotiating. Those are my terms. Yes or no?”
She released a big sigh, rolled her eyes, shook her head and finally glared, but eventually said, “Deal.”
“Okay, then. Frankie can stay.”
Without a single gesture or word that could jeopardize her pet, and before he could change his mind, Mia left the room with her dog and the door down the hall slammed behind them.
Blake grinned at Casey. “I think I’m getting the hang of this whole parenting thing. Who knew it was so easy to control the kid?”
“She’s right about the blackmail thing,” Casey pointed out. “Would you really make her get rid of the dog?”
He rubbed a hand over his neck. “I considered it, but did you see the tears in her eyes?”
“Yeah.” But she hadn’t realized he’d noticed.
Casey realized the man actually had a heart and it was really soft. And she was in a whole lot of trouble. If the sexy five o’clock shadow on his jaw hadn’t convinced her, the fact that he wouldn’t have followed through on his threat to get rid of the dog would have.
He might be getting a handle on parenting, but Casey was losing the battle to resist him.
Mia stomped into the penthouse foyer after coming home from their counseling appointment and glared at her uncle. “You only think about yourself.”
Blake stared angrily back at her. “I don’t claim to be an expert in raising kids, but one thing I’m learning, if something I do sends you into brat mode, it must be right.”
“I hate you,” she said, then turned and went down the hall, the dog on her heels. The next sound was the door to her bedroom slamming.
“Okay.” Casey set her purse on the entryway table, wishing for the silence on the ride home, which had been the calm before the storm. “Feel the love.”
Blake leveled his scowl on her. “I thought you said counseling would help. Her attitude is worse than ever. For crying out loud, all I said was no to a stop at the mall. Why does that put me at the top of America’s Most Wanted?”
Casey folded her arms over her chest and tried to ignore the fact that in his worn jeans and T-shirt he looked really hot. Not heat hot because it was August and this was the desert, after all. Hot as in she wanted to feel his lean, muscular strength and his manly flesh pressed against her. Preferably while they were both naked. The image did nothing to help her focus on negotiating a peace.
“She’s not angry about the mall. It’s about painful feelings that were stirred up. You probably already know this, Blake, but counseling doesn’t work like aspirin for a headache. It’s more like surgery. Open up your guts and take out the bad stuff, with all the pain of recovery and no meds to take the edge off it.”
“Gee,” he said. “Remind me again why I listened to you and agreed to go?”
“Because I threatened to quit.”
“Right.”
Still using the medical analogy, she realized there was a reason doctors weren’t encouraged to treat family members. It was called losing objectivity due to personal involvement. As if she hadn’t known she’d done just that after the first kiss, Casey really got the message when she didn’t stop him from getting her naked from the waist up. She should have quit way before Blake agreed to counseling in order to get her to stay.
He blew out a long breath. “Would you like to take a walk?”
Bad idea. Really bad. “I should start dinner. And I should be he
re if Mia needs to talk.”
“I need to talk to you.” He met her gaze. “I can make it an order.”
“Not necessary. You’re the boss.” Why couldn’t she have remembered that when they were drenched in moonlight and his mouth was on hers?
When she returned from telling Mia where they were going, he opened the front door and held out a hand, indicating that she should precede him. After a ride in the penthouse elevator, they went through the building’s luxurious lobby and turned right into a hallway, then walked past the his and hers spas and out the door next to the workout room.
The grounds at One Queensridge Place were as impressive as the rest of the complex. An Olympic-size pool was surrounded by chaise longues and patio tables, but there were also cabanas, tentlike areas for a little extra seclusion. Casey glanced up at Blake and the intensity in his profile instantly bumped up her heart rate. Seclusion with him would be dangerous in every way she could imagine.
After they passed the tennis courts, they reached a walking path that was bordered on either side by palo verde trees and vibrant desert plants blooming in red, yellow, pink and purple. It was after six in the evening and the temperature was still in the nineties, but the air was pleasant, as opposed to July’s oppressive heat.
At intervals along the winding path, ornate wrought-iron benches had been placed for anyone who wanted to sit and chat. When Blake indicated she should take a seat, she did. Casey didn’t want to, but an order was an order. Unfortunately he did, too, and when his leg brushed hers, a quiver started between her thighs that not even an order could stop.
“So, what do you want to talk about?” She folded her hands and rested them in her lap.
“I don’t understand why she’s so hostile,” Blake began. “In the session things started out okay, then went downhill when the counselor brought up her mother.”
“Did you talk to her about what happened when her mom left home?”
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can. I know it’s difficult and painful, but you can give her the facts.”
“No. I mean, I really can’t, because I don’t know the facts. I was away at law school when April got pregnant. I didn’t witness the events.” He leaned back and extended his arm across the back of the bench.
Casey slid as far away from him as she could get and struggled to keep a clear head, what with his nearness scrambling her brain. “So, you’re saying that during that time you never spoke with your folks? You didn’t call home? Come back for Christmas? Or summer?”
“Of course I talked to them.”
“Your sister’s name never came up? Patricia and Lincoln didn’t dump on you about the crap that was going on with their daughter? Your sister?”
“Yeah, they said she’d taken off. But I was never clear on whether or not she was thrown out or just took off with her boyfriend when she got pregnant.”
His mother had implied that Mia’s mom had rebelled when she’d been forbidden to see the guy her parents didn’t like. “And you didn’t bother to find out what actually happened?”
The look he turned on her was filled with dark intensity. “I was up to my ass in law review and classes. My sister never contacted me and I thought she was making a life for herself.”
If Casey had been in the same predicament, her brothers would have found her. There was no question in her mind about that. They would never be accused of sensitivity overload, but they’d have made sure she was okay. The Deckers made her family look like communication central.
Casey weighed her options. She could be honest and say that or sugarcoat it and keep from getting fired. What made up her mind wasn’t a desire to retain her job, because just a while ago the thought had crossed her mind that leaving would have been best. Telling him anything less than what she truly thought was a waste of breath. She owed it to him and Mia to call it like she saw it.
“I think the truth is that it was easier for you to believe your sister was okay than to get involved.”
His fingers curled into his palm. “You have no idea what I believed.”
“Not specifically. But I know how you are now, what your priorities are. Work comes first. In my book, family members should look out for each other. You can’t phone it in like you did with your wife.”
“Wait a damn minute. What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s your pattern and it didn’t happen overnight. College, law school and career are all excuses for turning your back on the personal, painful, messy stuff. The stuff you don’t want to do.”
“That’s ridiculous. I wanted to stay married. My wife knew I was focused on building a law practice—”
“You say focused. I say workaholic.”
“Whatever. She knew how I was when we got married. Later she changed the rules. She thought she could make me a different man, and when she couldn’t, she found another one.”
Casey folded her arms over her chest and met his gaze. “Why does that surprise you?”
“What?” He blinked.
“You spent more time with your secretary than you did with your wife, the woman you loved. She wanted to see more of you.”
“If she’d told me—”
“Oh, please, Blake. Look at the way you are now. When you hired me, you promised to be here the nights I had a class, and the very first time you broke your word. That behavior started a long time ago.”
“Who died and made you the psychology queen?” Anger glittered in his eyes.
“My mother, actually. And I’m no professional. I can only tell you how I felt about it. My dad didn’t know what to do with a little girl who cried every night for her mother, so he ignored me. When kids are ignored, they’ll do whatever they can for attention and approval. I’m sure you realized that I’m sure the only one of his kids to follow in his footsteps and join the army.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Blake said.
“Mia wants your attention.”
“She hates my guts.”
Casey shook her head. “She hates that her mother got cancer and died. She hates that she and her mom were abandoned. Caring and being dumped again would be pretty high up on her list of things not to do. So it’s easier to lash out and push you away. It’s easier to make you not like her. But hate you?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“From here in the cheap seats, I’d say you’re wrong about that.”
She’d certainly been wrong before. So wrong, she thought, remembering the innocent face of the Iraqi teenager she’d befriended. Once before it had been her belief that a sincere desire to help could erase all the bad stuff, but her naiveté had been the means to an unspeakably evil end and innocent people had paid the ultimate price.
And here she was again, going above and beyond the call of duty. For what? Her job was child care, but where did she draw the line? Physical well-being? Or did she try to make a difference by building a bridge from Blake and Mia’s past to their future? Was this a hill she wanted to die on?
“Like I said, I can only tell you what happened to me. Rather than deal with me and my grief over losing my mom, Dad hid in his cave. Maybe he handled his own grief that way. I have no idea, because he never talked to me about it. I’m saying that Mia really just wants an explanation. Your instinct is to fix things and you can’t in this case. So you’re hiding.”
“Whoa. I showed up for counseling—”
She held up her hand. “I’m not saying you didn’t. But there are lots of ways to hide from things you don’t want to deal with. Work is one. My point is that I can’t make you come out. But with Mia under your roof and doing negative things to get your attention, there’s no way you can pretend that she’s okay.”
“Don’t hold back, Casey. Tell me how you really feel.” He stood up.
“Look, Blake—”
“I think I’m talked out.” The look in his eyes was somewhere between angry and confused.
Then he turned and walked away from her without a
nother word. Casey watched until he and his excellent butt disappeared around a curve in the path. Her heart ached for him and his niece.
And for herself.
Apparently what had happened to her overseas hadn’t been enough of a lesson to keep her from getting in over her head. The next time she went for a walk with Blake…Halt. About face.
There wouldn’t be a next time. Heart-to-heart talks were not in her job description. And from now on she needed to remember that this was just a job.
Message received, but following the order would be tougher to pull off.
Chapter Nine
Casey returned to the penthouse after a Sunday visit with her dad and felt as if she were going back and forth between caves. The highlights of dinner conversation with Nathan Thomas had been politics, sports and a rousing debate on whether or not this was the hottest summer on record for Las Vegas.
For her it had been, but that had nothing to do with how many days the thermometer had registered one hundred degrees or more. From the moment she’d met Blake Decker, awareness and heat had ruled her world. And today she’d wished her mother were still alive to talk about things. She’d thought about confiding in her dad. She’d even mentioned Blake and Mia, and he’d said that she looked happy, that working for the guy must agree with her. Reading between the lines, Casey had realized he only wanted the fairy-tale version of her life, not the problems. Yet another way for him to hide.
She let herself into the penthouse, set her purse, sunglasses and keys down, and listened. The underlying hum of the air conditioner was all she heard. No voices. Not even the TV.
That was weird.
The television was Blake’s primary defense system in his cave. Whenever he was alone with Mia, he had a gazillion channels of programming between him and an actual conversation with his niece. Casey had suggested he come out of hiding and have an honest-to-goodness conversation about the kid’s mother, but there was no historical behavioral evidence to indicate that he would actually do it.
Casey walked down the hall to Mia’s room, which was her hiding place. Surprisingly the door was open. That never happened, except when the girl wasn’t in there. Like now.
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