swallowed hard as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “You weren’t married—”
“No. Not then.”
Relieved that he hadn’t crossed that particular line, Josh released the breath he hadn’t been aware of holding. “That’s good.”
“Look, I’m not any happier than you are about having to work with you on the day care center’s funding,” she said, her cheeks coloring a pretty pink. “But this isn’t the time or the place to get into what happened that night. I think it would be for the best if we forgot the incident ever happened and concentrate on my request for the day care center and the committee’s decision not to give me the extra money I need to keep it running.”
He knew she was right. A day care center full of little kids certainly wasn’t the place to talk over his mistakenly making love to her. And she had a valid point about forgetting that night. It would definitely be the prudent thing to do. But some perverse part of him resented her wanting to dismiss what had arguably been the most exciting night of his life. He’d never been with a woman, either before or since, as responsive and passionate as Kiley had been.
“I agree,” he finally said. “We can take a trip down memory lane another time.” He could tell his choice of words and the fact that he thought they should revisit the past wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
She folded her arms beneath her breasts, causing his mouth to go dry. “Mr. Gordon—”
“I prefer you call me Josh,” he reminded her.
“Josh, I think you’d better—”
“I have good news and bad news,” he said, thinking quickly. If her body language was any indication, she was about two seconds away from throwing him out of her office.
Whether it was due to the lingering guilt he still harbored over his part in the incident or the distrust he detected in her big brown eyes, he wasn’t sure. But he suddenly felt the need to prove to her that she had the wrong opinion of him.
“I’m going to give you a month’s worth of the funding you requested in order for you to convince me that the day care center is worthwhile and a needed addition to the services the club provides to the TCC membership,” he stated, before she could interrupt.
She frowned. “That isn’t what the committee decided, is it?”
“Not exactly,” he said honestly. “The committee voted four to one to deny you the extra money. But after seeing the way you were with the Bartletts’ little girl, you’ve got my attention. I’ll be checking in periodically to see for myself that the money was needed and put to good use.”
If anything, she looked even more skeptical. “What happens at the end of that time?”
“If I determine that you do need the additional funding, at our meeting just before Christmas I’ll give my personal recommendation to the committee that we add the amount you asked for to your yearly budget,” he finished.
“If my request was turned down, where is this money going to come from?” she asked, looking more suspicious by the second.
“You let me worry about that,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’ll see that the appropriate amount is added to the day care’s account as of this afternoon. It should be accessible for whatever you need by tomorrow morning.”
Before she could question him further, he opened her office door and left to go to the TCC’s main office to make arrangements for the funding to be put into the day care’s account. He was going to be taking the money out of his own pocket to subsidize the center for the next month, but it would be worth it. For one thing, he wanted to prove to her that he wasn’t the nefarious SOB she apparently thought him to be. And for another, it was the only thing he could think of that might come close to atoning for his role in what happened three years ago.
Two
Kiley spent most of the next day jumping every time the door to the day care center opened. True to his word, Josh had added money to the center’s account and she did appreciate that. But it was his promised visits to observe how she ran things and to see what the funds were being used for that had her nerves stretched to the breaking point. She didn’t want to see him again or have to jump through hoops to get the money the center needed. Besides, every time she looked into his blue eyes, it reminded her that they shared a very intimate secret—one that, try as she might, she couldn’t forget.
“The children have put away the toys and I’ve finished reading them a story. Would you like for me to take them outside to the play area for a bit before we start practicing their songs?” Carrie Kramer asked, walking over to where Kiley had finished putting stars by the names of the children who had remembered to wash their hands before their afternoon snack.
“That would be great.” Kiley smiled at the young woman she’d hired to be her assistant after meeting her at the Royal Diner. “While they expend some of their excess energy outside, I’ll get things ready for us to practice their songs before they go home.”
As she watched Carrie help the children get their coats on and form a single line by the exit to the play yard, Kiley turned to go into her office for the things they would be using for the holiday program they were putting on for the parents the week before Christmas. Gathering the props, she decided she would have to make two trips as she turned to retrace her steps back into the main room. Distracted as she tried to remember everything they would need, she ran headlong into Josh standing just inside the doorway to her office.
“Oh, my dear heavens!” The giant jingle bells in the box she carried jangled loudly as she struggled to hang on to it.
Placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her, he frowned. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I called your name when I found the other room empty.”
The warmth of his hands seemed to burn through her pink silk blouse. Kiley quickly took a step back. “I must not have heard it over the sound of these bells.”
“Let me help you with these,” he said, taking the box from her. “Where are the kids?”
“My assistant took them outside for playtime before we start practicing for their Christmas program,” she said, picking up her CD player and several large plastic candy canes.
Their arms brushed as she walked past him, and an awareness she hadn’t felt in a very long time caused her heart to skip several beats. She did her best to ignore it.
“I intended to stop by earlier in the day, but I got tied up at one of our construction sites and it took longer than I anticipated,” he said, following her over to the brightly colored carpet where the children gathered for story time. “I wasn’t sure anyone would still be here. When do the kids go home?”
“Normally, all of the children get picked up by five-thirty,” she answered, setting the candy canes and the CD player on a small table. “But Gil Addison sometimes gets detained by club business and runs a few minutes late picking up his son, Cade.” A single father, the current president of the TCC had been one of the first to enroll his four-year-old son in the preschool class. Unlike the members of the funding committee, Gil seemed extremely enthusiastic about having the center at the clubhouse. “No matter what time it is, I stay until every child is safely in the care of their parents or someone they’ve designated to pick up the child.”
