And she left.
He heard the entry door click shut behind Eve. Even through the thick walls of the century-old row house, he heard Eve’s sports car’s motor rev to life, then drive off in a squeal of tires. The next moment, Mrs. Ferris appeared in the doorway. Her expression was somber, but then again, that seemed to be her normal appearance. “The driver is at the side door with your car, sir, and the wee one is in bed, one light on, eyes closed. She did not have her milk, just refused it, and wore the pink nightie Miss Ryder bought for her. I hope that is acceptable.”
He turned and said, “Yes, it is.”
“She has that doll with her, too. I think it might be close to a health hazard. Both the doll and its clothes need cleaning.”
That was the least of his worries. “Buy her a new doll.”
“That is not it, sir,” she said, with more than a touch of reproach in her voice. “She would not want a new doll, but that doll is dirty, and I just wanted to mention it so you know that I’m aware of the dangers.”
He was quite certain Mrs. Ferris was aware of everything, and he didn’t want, or need, a blow-by-blow description of what she knew or didn’t know. “Do whatever you think is best,” he said, his tone a bit more clipped than he’d intended.
“As you wish, sir,” she murmured.
“You have all my phone numbers, my contacts at LynTech, and my e-mail address,” he said as he gripped the briefcase. “If anything comes up, Miss Ryder can assist you. The bottom line is, just give the child whatever she needs.”
“That’s another thing, sir.” She crossed her arms on her chest. “I was always believing that spoiling a child, no matter what the reasons, was wrong. Children need rules and schedules. Trust me, that gives a child a sense of security.”
She was probably right. What did he know about kids? He and Eve hadn’t even talked about children, and the only real contact he’d had with children before this, had been when he was a child himself. “Of course,” he murmured.
“It is just my opinion, sir.”
He exhaled as he frowned at the gray-haired woman. “Mrs. Ferris, can we get one thing straight?”
Her lips tightened slightly. “Of course, sir.”
“I don’t know much about children, and I don’t have the time to learn right now. That’s what I’m paying you for, to leave me out of the loop, unless there is a major problem. I trust your professional instincts to do the right thing, so you don’t have to run everything past me. Do you understand?”
Her face flushed slightly. “Yes, sir,” she said.
“Good. Now, tell Victoria goodbye for me, and I’ll contact you when I get to Houston.”
“Yes, sir. Safe trip,” she said and left quickly.
He headed out of the room, and down the narrow wood-lined hall toward the side entrance. A soft sound stopped him, and he looked up the back stairs. It was shadowy, but he saw Victoria on the top step, sitting with her doll, rocking.
“Victoria?” he said, and started up, but Mrs. Ferris was there.
“Don’t trouble yourself, sir, she’s okay, just a mite restless.” The nanny reached down and took Victoria’s hand, urging her to her feet.
“Mrs. Ferris?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, the lady standing by the little girl in the semishadows.
“Stay with her until she falls asleep, and—” he exhaled “—do that every night.”
“As you wish, sir,” she said, and the two of them went silently out of sight into the upper hallway. Jack took a deep breath. He had to leave. He couldn’t change that. When he got back, he’d worry about the wedding plans and about a silent four-year-old girl. Right now he had to focus on Houston and what was waiting for him there.
Chapter One
Jack had barely landed in Houston when the phone rang in the company car. As the driver drove out of the airport, Jack answered the phone. “Jack? Zane. Glad you made it in.”
Zane Holden, one of the two men who took over LynTech from the founder, Robert Lewis, sounded rushed and anxious. “What’s going on?” Jack asked, settling back in the soft gray leather.
“We’re just waiting for you before we make a move toward Sommers.”
“He’s in Houston?”
“Not yet. He’s in New York at the moment. If we get lucky, he’ll agree to handle the negotiations himself, instead of using a middleman.”
E. J. Sommers, the founder and head of the EJS Corporation, wasn’t an easy man to pin down. He didn’t do things the way other corporate heads did. He was more freewheeling, more unstructured, and that bothered Jack. But the branch of EJS Corporation that LynTech wanted was a gem. A real find. “Any word on how our interest in EJS got out?”
“We’ll talk about that when you get here. I called Robert Lewis in on it as a consultant. We need his take on things.”
“That’s a smart move. No one knows the business around here like Robert.”
Robert Lewis had been Jack’s father’s friend from college days, just the way Ian had been his. Ten years ago, when Jack’s father had died, Robert had been there. Robert had known the full story about Jack’s father, and he’d been the one to trust Jack to make things right. He owed Robert a lot and, despite the fact that the company wasn’t Robert’s any longer, it meant a lot to the man, and Jack wasn’t going to let him down.
“Did you find a nanny?” Zane asked.
Jack grimaced as he remembered his last glimpse of Victoria alone at the top of the stairs. He was surprised that the co-CEO of LynTech was worried about a nanny. He’d dealt with Zane for over a year, and knew that his son, Walker, was the center of his existence along with his wife Lindsey, but he didn’t expect him to take much of an interest in his child care situation.
“It’s all settled,” he said and realized that he’d just uttered a lie of staggering magnitude.
“Good. The child, the little girl, is she okay with the nanny?”
That was when he realized why Zane was asking. It wasn’t the child he was asking about, he was asking if Jack was in any condition to give one hundred percent to the problem at hand. That annoyed him slightly, that Zane would even think that he wouldn’t be effective in a crisis. “She’s fine with the nanny, and she understands I had to leave.”
“I never found a good nanny when I needed one.”
He knew enough about Zane to know what he was referring to, when his son had been dropped into his life. When Lindsey, now his wife, had stepped in to be a mother to the boy, and they’d become a family. There was a vague similarity between his and Jack’s predicaments with child care, except Victoria wasn’t his, and…well, Eve was Eve. She’d stepped right in,
