Ashley. “With my pink shoes, she has to tie the bow two times instead of just one, ’cause they’re so long.” Her voice indicated her reverence at the additional work her mother was willing to perform.
“I think I can get by with just one bow,” Jeff said, as he finished with the first shoe and started on the second. “Are you ready to go?”
“I need a coat,” the girl informed him.
“Do you know where yours is?”
Maggie nodded, then took off in the direction of their cot. Ashley waited until Jeff finished with her shoes and straightened.
The room wasn’t spinning so much now and her head felt slightly more clear than when she’d first awakened. Her body still ached and she knew she looked horrible, but as long as her brain continued to function, they would be fine.
“You’re acting as if it’s all decided,” she said.
“Isn’t it?” He jerked his head toward the cot where two members of the volunteer staff were already collecting her things. “You need time and a place to recover. I can provide both.”
“I want to trust you. As you’ve already learned, I’m running out of options. But I still have questions. I don’t know why you’re doing this.”
For the first time since he arrived, he wouldn’t meet her gaze. He looked over her head, but she doubted he was seeing the bustling activities in the temporary shelter. He’d gone somewhere else, and based on what she knew about it, it wasn’t a place she wanted to know about.
Finally he shrugged. “I’m under my good-deed quota for this lifetime.”
It wasn’t an answer. It wasn’t even a good fake answer. She had the sudden thought that maybe he didn’t know why he was doing it, either. Which was scary, but not as scary as having nowhere to go. It all came down to whether or not she trusted him. Ashley looked into his face, the strong bone structure, the empty eyes. He had a scar by his mouth and the few gray hairs at his temples. Both her gut and her daughter said he was safe. Was that enough?
“I’m a member of the Better Business Bureau. Does that help?”
The corners of his mouth turned up. The smile transformed him, making him handsome and approachable. It also made her heart beat just a little faster and her breathing increase.
The flu, she told herself. A physical manifestation of her virus. Nothing more.
“Thank you,” she said, pushing herself to her feet and swaying slightly before she gained her balance. “I’m very grateful for your assistance.”
“You’re welcome.”
There was a plus to all this, she thought. If Jeff turned out to be a nice guy in disguise, maybe she could convince him not to fire her from her cleaning job. Then in a few short days, she could return to her regular life and pretend none of this had happened.
The security-soldier business paid better than she’d realized, Ashley thought thirty minutes later when Jeff pulled into the driveway of a two-story glass-and-wood house more than halfway up Queen Anne Hill. The view through clouds and light rain was impressive, with Lake Union down below and the west side of the city visible across the water. She could only imagine how beautiful it would be when the weather was nice.
“Is this yours?” Maggie asked excitedly from the back seat of the luxury car. “It’s so big and pretty. Do you have kittens? There’s lots of room for them. If you wanted to get one, I’d help you take very good care of it.”
“Ever hopeful,” Ashley murmured. “Maggie is desperate for a kitten.”
“I’ve noticed.”
On their way over from the shelter Maggie had talked about kittens and her school and how nice everyone at the shelter had been. It gave the adults a break from having to make conversation. Ashley, for one, was grateful.
“Where’s your ’partment?” Maggie asked as they waited for the garage door to open. “Is it up high? Mommy and me live on the top floor and sometimes it’s fun to look out at the city or watch when the storms come. And in the summer when it’s hot, we open all the windows, ’cause no one can climb in when we’re up so high.”
Jeff turned off the engine and shifted to face the little girl. “It’s a house, Maggie,” he told her. “I live here by myself. While you and your mom stay here, I want you to be very comfortable.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. “It’s just you here? Don’tcha get scared being all alone?”
Ashley winced. Until this moment she’d never realized that her daughter hadn’t ever lived in a house before. They’d always been in apartments.
“Sometimes it’s quiet,” Jeff admitted. “But I don’t mind that.”
He was about to have a couple of days of nonquiet, Ashley thought. Maggie was a sweetheart and very well behaved, but she was a walking noise machine.
He unfastened his seat belt. “Let’s get you two inside and settled. I’ll bring your bags in later.”
Ashley nodded. She could feel the weariness settling over her again. Her consciousness through the drive here had taken the last of her reserves. All she wanted was to sleep for the next four or five weeks.
Jeff climbed out of the car, then opened the rear door to assist Maggie from the vehicle. Ashley trailed after them as they went up the two stairs that led to the main house. Before he opened the door, Jeff punched a long code into a keypad. There was an audible snick as the locking mechanism released. She had a brief thought of armed guards waiting on the other side and chuckled at the image of them walking through metal detectors before entering the living quarters of the house.
But whatever security measures existed were concealed because all she saw when she stepped inside was space.
The rooms were huge and sparsely furnished. Jeff showed them the living room, dining room and a study. Only the latter contained any evidence that a person actually lived in the house. The living room had two sofas, a couple of club chairs, along with low tables and a few lamps. But there was nothing personal or decorative. No pictures or photographs on the walls, no magazines, plants or even a pair of shoes marred the solitude. The dining room was the same. A massive table surrounded by chairs. A matching hutch—the glassed-in top of which was empty.
Cream carpet and pale walls added to the sense of space, as did the floor-to-ceiling windows in both the living room and dining room that offered a view of the lake and the shore beyond. The study was at the rear of the house, looking out on extensive gardens. At least here there were papers on the desk and a few books scattered on the leather sofa across from the fireplace.
Ashley looked around without saying anything, then followed Jeff into his huge kitchen. She took in the oversized refrigerator, the six-burner stove and the impressive collection of copper pots hanging above the tiled island.
“You must entertain a lot,” she murmured, not able to imagine such a thing. With someone else maybe, but not Jeff Ritter. He didn’t appear to be the entertaining type.
“No. It all came with the house.” He motioned to the refrigerator. “I eat out, or at the office. There isn’t much in the way
