displaced. Nothing was.”
Sari chewed on a fingernail. “Gosh, now I’ll worry if I talk in my sleep!”
“The cameras are why you should stay out of Mr. Paul’s bedroom. Besides that,” she added under her breath, “you’re tempting fate.”
“I am? How?” Sari asked blankly.
“Honey, Mr. Paul takes a woman out for a sandwich or a quick dinner. He never goes home with them.”
Sari flushed with sudden pleasure.
“My point is,” the older woman went on, “that he’s a man starved of…well…satisfaction,” she faltered. “You might say something or do something to tempt him, is what I’m trying to say.”
Sari sighed and rested her face on her palms, propped on her elbows. “That would be a fine thing,” she mused. “He’s never even touched me except to help me out of a car,” she added on a wistful sigh.
“If he ever did touch you, your father would be sure to hear about it. And I don’t like to think of the consequences. He’s a violent man, Sari,” she added gently.
“I know that.” Her face showed her misery. She was too innocent to hide her responses.
“So, don’t tempt fate,” Mandy said softly. She hugged the younger woman tight. “I know how you feel about him. But if you start something, he’ll be out on his ear. And what your father would do to you…” She drew back with a grimace. “I love Mr. Paul,” she added. “He’s the kindest man I know. You don’t want to get him fired.”
“Of course I don’t,” Sari replied. “I promise I’ll behave.”
“You always have,” Mandy said with a tender smile. “It all ends, you know,” she said suddenly.
“Ends?”
“Misery. Unrequited love. Even life. It all ends. We live in pieces of emotion. Pieces of life. It doesn’t all get put together until we’re old and ready for the long sleep.”
“Okay, when you get philosophical, I know it’s past my bedtime,” Sari teased.
Mandy hugged her one last time. “You’re a sweet child. Go to bed. Sleep well.”
“You, too.” She went to the doorway and paused. She turned. “Thanks.”
“What for?”
“Caring about me and Merrie,” Sari said gently. “Nobody else has, since Mama died.”
“It’s because I care that I sometimes say things you don’t want to hear, my darling.”
Sari smiled. “I know.” She turned and left the room.
* * *
Mandy, older and wiser, saw what Sari and Paul really felt for each other, and she worried at the possible consequences if that tsunami of emotion ever turned loose in them.
She went back to her chores, closing the kitchen up for the night.
When Isabel walked past Paul’s bedroom after she called Nancy, she noticed his door was closed and the lights were off.
She went into her own room, climbed into bed and extinguished the single bedroom lamp in the room.
She recalled what Mandy had said, about the dangers of getting too close to him, with sadness. Yes, of course, her father would fire him if anything indiscreet came to light. She also recalled the pain she felt when the older woman spoke of Paul going on dates with other women.
He didn’t take them to bed, that much was clear. But it also indicated that he wasn’t ready to get serious about a woman, that he wasn’t interested in marriage and kids. And Isabel was. She’d gladly have given up college to end up in Paul’s arms with a baby of her own.
But that seemed more unlikely by the day. She was living in pipe dreams. Paul was content to have her at arm’s length. He didn’t want her. At least, he didn’t want her the way she wanted him. She cared more for him than she’d ever cared for anyone, except her mother and sister.
As Paul liked to remind her, though, she hadn’t been out in the world long enough to know what she really wanted. That amused her. He seemed to think she was still the seventeen-year-old he’d taken to school every day in the limo. She was twenty-one, almost twenty-two now. She’d graduate from college in a few months. That made her, in the eyes of the world, an adult. Not to Paul, though. Never to Paul.
She had to start thinking about what she was going to do with her life after college. Law had always fascinated her. She’d been hanging around the courthouse after school, grilling one of District Attorney Blake Kemp’s assistant DAs about what it was like to practice in a courtroom. Glory Ramirez was happy to talk to her, filling her head with thoughts of working in the DA’s office.
“Blake knows how much time you spend here, on my lunch hour and after work,” Glory teased.
“Oh, no,” Sari began.
Glory held up a hand. “He doesn’t mind. There aren’t that many people blazing paths up the street to the courthouse to solicit work in the DA’s office.” She sobered. “It’s hard work, Sari, with long hours. Sometimes defendants’ families target us, because they think we’ve been unfair. Sometimes the defendants themselves try to attack us when they get out. Those instances are rare, but they do happen. Family life is hard.” She smiled gently. “I’m qualified to know that, because my husband and I have a son who’s almost four years old. Rodrigo still works for the DEA and I’m at the courthouse all hours. Sometimes we have to have the Pendletons babysit.” The Pendletons were Glory’s adoptive family. Jason’s father had been Glory, and Gracie’s, guardian.
“I don’t really think they mind,” Sari teased, because it was well-known that although Jason and Gracie Pendleton had a son and daughter of their own now, they still loved to watch their nephew. All the kids had enough toys to stock a nursery.
“Of course not,” Glory laughed. “But I’m still missing out on time with my family to do this job. I love it,” she added gently. “It’s a special thing, to help keep people safe, to make sure people who do terrible things are punished and off the streets. That’s why I do it.”
“I…would do it for that reason, as well,” Sari said, not adding that her terror of a father was one of her own motivations. He was the sort of person who should have been sitting in a jail cell, but never would, because of his wealth. “Justice shouldn’t be dealt according to who has money and who hasn’t,” she added absently.
Glory, who had some idea of Darwin Grayling’s illegal dealings, only nodded her head.
“Anyway, what about those courses you mentioned?” she asked, bringing Glory back to the present.
Glory laughed. “Okay. Here’s what you need to consider in law school…”
* * *
Sari was
