“Yes. Thanks.” Only trouble was, she didn’t have her own. But she had managed to save some money. It wouldn’t hurt to spend a smidge of her precious savings on the perfect floral comforter set to match her soon-to-be newly painted walls.
Quinn had fallen asleep in her arms.
The sensation of once again holding an infant struck her as sublime.
For the past year, she’d held a steady after-school child-care position until the Norfolk naval family had been transferred overseas. Pandora’s charges had been two little girls aged five and seven. During that time and up to the present, she lived at a halfway house in a gloomy basement bedroom no bigger than some closets. The enormity of this job and all the secondary perks it entailed were too great to presently absorb, so she held them close as she might have a secret gift she wouldn’t open until she had some privacy. No, she wouldn’t even think about the full ramifications until Calder signed the agency paperwork that officially brought her dream one step closer to fruition.
“Want me to take him?” Her new boss nodded to his son before leading Pandora into the hall.
“Thanks, but I’m good.” And she was. Nuzzling the infant’s downy hair, she drank in his familiar baby smells of lotion and powder. If this angel were truly hers, she’d never let him go. “If it’s not too personal, where’s Quinn’s mom?”
Calder’s expression darkened as he said, “Not to be evasive, but that’s a long story best told over a few beers.”
“Oh.” He drank? She’d hoped he didn’t, but that was probably expecting too much.
“Come on. I’ll show you Quinn’s room and the rest of the house. We’ve only been here a few weeks. My schedule made it tough to nail down the closing date.”
“You work a lot of overtime?”
He snorted as he led the way into a surprisingly drab nursery. “Guess you could call it that. Sorry—I’m still off my game from the whole choking thing. I’m a navy SEAL. A big part of my job is being called out with little or no notice. Like, I might tell you I’ll be home for dinner, but then get assigned a mission and won’t be back for six months—granted, it’s usually not that long, but it can happen. Technically, for just that reason, my mom has shared custody of Quinn. But since she’s in North Carolina, I need you here for any and all immediate contingencies. That’s why it was important for me to hire someone through an agency. I need to know you’re not only reliable and great with my kid, but have the kind of stable history and experience in caring for children that allows me to be one hundred percent certain you’re doing a great job. That way, I can fully focus on what I do, which makes my life a helluva lot saner.”
Pandora wished she were as confident with the trust he placed in her as Calder. Though in her head, she’d put her past firmly behind her, in her heart the fallout still remained.
Rocking Quinn, she asked, “How can you stand being away from this cutie?”
For a split second, Calder looked blank. “I, ah, guess for what I do, I don’t have a lot of options. Come on, I’ll show you the kitchen.”
Pandora followed, trailing her fingertips along white walls. Had Calder already painted the hall? Somehow she couldn’t imagine the same person who’d attacked her room with color being satisfied with a vanilla thoroughfare.
In the kitchen, Calder said, “Nothing fancy here. I don’t expect you to cook for me. Just make sure Quinn gets decent meals. I set up a household account at the bank. You can use it for groceries, diapers—whatever else we need around here or for Quinn.”
She nodded, though inside, she felt as if she may be dreaming. How many nights had she gone to bed hungry because she had no cash for food?
You sure managed to scrape up enough dough for other things, her conscience was all too happy to point out.
Fighting fire with fire, she squelched the seemingly constant voice in her head, reminding her she was destined to fail, by saying, “Thanks again for this opportunity. I’ll care for Quinn as if he were my own.”
Wrong choice of words considering what had happened to her sweet Julia. She squelched that thought, too.
“I’m pretty sure I should be thanking you.” He fished a key from a meticulously organized drawer, handing it to her. “Everyone I know with kids says the agency you work for doesn’t fool around when it comes to hiring the most qualified people.”
Pandora knew that to be true. Her best friend, Natalie, put all of her employees through extensive background checks. She feared the only reason Natalie had hired Pandora was because of the friendship they’d struck up at the restaurant where Pandora waited tables. But no matter how many times Natalie assured Pandora that wasn’t the case, or how much additional training she’d done on her own, she never quite felt part of acceptable society—or worthy of receiving good fortune.
* * *
“WELL? YOU EVER going to tell me how the interview went?”
Pandora glanced up from cramming her few books into a box to find Natalie seated on the halfway house’s twin bed. She may have offered to help, but so far had done nothing but talk. “Obviously, it was good, or Calder wouldn’t have hired me.”
“Duh. I’m the one who filled out the paperwork. I want the inside scoop. Did you find out what happened with Quinn’s mom? I kept waiting for an explanation, but he never told me.”
“I asked, but Calder said he’d talk about it later.” Pandora purposely left out the part about the beers. No need for her friend to worry about her returning to the dark side.
“Interesting.” Natalie tapped her index finger against her lips. “Wonder what happened for her to leave? The guy’s so handsome it hurts to look at him. Don’t you think?”
“No,” Pandora lied. In truth, not only was Calder easy on the eyes, but her cheeks flamed at the mere memory of the heat caused by just shaking his hand. “Even if I did, what would I do about it? Don’t you have a strict nonfraternization policy with clients?”
“True, and I appreciate you pointing that out, but you’d have to be a zombie not to have at least noticed that killer grin—and the width of his shoulders. Dear Lord...” Natalie fanned herself.
Pandora pitched a pillow at her usually more serious friend. “Knock it off. All you need to know is that Calder seems to be a great guy, and the fact that he hired me is a miracle.” She swallowed hard to keep the tears at bay.
“You deserve every ounce of good that’s been happening for you lately.” Standing, her friend ambushed Pandora with a sideways hug. “I never would’ve suggested you for this job if I didn’t think you were capable of handling it.”
“Thanks.” Pandora sniffled and nodded. “But it’s hard, you know? And I didn’t expect that. For years, I’ve dreamed of living a normal life and now that I’m getting out of here and moving into this adorable home with an even cuter baby, I...” Her blessings plate felt inordinately full. The only thing missing was her daughter. But not for long, she promised herself.
* * *
PANDORA WOKE THE next morning at five. Calder said she didn’t need to be at
