working hard. I’m good at my job. Where’s the problem?”
“You’re good at the computer end of your job. You don’t have enough experience in the field. And like Paula pointed out, you need to make time for a life.”
“I have a life. A good one. You know how active I am in the adoption society—”
“More time spent behind the computer.”
“If memory serves, I just took off a morning last week to attend the preschool graduation of one of your little rug rats.”
“A real life. You barely come out from behind the computer for holidays. When was the last time you were out with friends? Or on a date?”
April could hear Paula’s arguments as though she were actually broadcasting them through her husband’s mouth. “I was just out with the girls a few weeks ago for Marietta’s bachelorette party. I’m sure every female in this place will corroborate my story.”
“What about a date?”
“I haven’t met a guy I’m interested in.”
She wouldn’t mention that if she happened to meet one she’d run in the opposite direction.
“Cut me a break, April.” John spread his hands in entreaty. “What am I supposed to do? This is Wilhemina we’re talking about here. Paula’s on the warpath. She wants me to help her sister and she wants you out from behind the computer. This is a straightforward job. You pretend you’re this guy’s assistant and keep your eyes on him. You can handle this. Getting out of the office will be a challenge.”
Challenge? Oh, John was right about that. She inhaled deeply and tried to appeal to reason. “Send Sherry. She’s much better at this sort of thing.”
“Sherry’s married. We don’t have any idea how long it’ll take in-house security to complete their investigation. It makes more sense to send single you.”
“Just because I don’t have a husband doesn’t mean I don’t have important things going on in my life, you know. I happen to be in the middle of an adoption search.”
A bald lie, since she’d just reunited Dawn Conover with her birth sister and hadn’t been assigned another search yet.
“Bring your laptop. You can work your search into your cover. An occasional break will keep you fresh.”
“Sherry will blend in much better.”
His dark gaze settled on her thoughtfully. “You’ll blend in just fine. Don’t borrow trouble.”
John didn’t have to define borrowing trouble, and while April appreciated his confidence in her abilities, the simple truth was that jumping into new situations was not one of her strengths, at work or in her personal life.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been nicknamed April Accidentally for no reason. She was high-strung by nature and whenever she got nervous, accidents were the likely result, which didn’t make her prime undercover material.
Of all the crosses she might have to bear in life, April considered this one tame, if rather unfortunate. She accepted her flaws right along with her strengths and coped with them.
“John, this isn’t a good idea.”
He arched a grizzled brow at her. “Is the sex part making you uncomfortable? I was sure you could handle it.”
Before her breakup with Jeff, April might have been able to handle glory holes and bedding companies. But now…
“The sex does bother me a little, to be honest.” Unwilling to elaborate on the reason why, she quickly added, “I’ll have to be close to spy on this guy and you said everyone in the company has sex on the brain…shouldn’t you send a man?”
“I told you, I checked him out. He’s okay. This is a baby-sitting job, April, plain and simple. All you have to do is make sure Rex Holt doesn’t make contact with any rival manufacturers. This is not difficult stuff.”
“A baby-sitting job?” She tried not to sound panicked or resentful and didn’t think she succeeded on either count. “Since when have you had baby-sitters on your payroll?”
John steepled his hands before him and looked at her over his fingertips. “This is the perfect job for you. Wilhemina needs a professional in place and she trusts you. She asked me to send you specifically, if that makes you feel any better. If anything unusual catches your attention, you report it. Should any questions be raised about this guy’s integrity, you’ll be able to testify that he conducted good business on the road.”
Both Wilhemina and John had lost their minds, April decided. It wasn’t that she wasn’t well trained or competent, but just the thought of heading into the field made her adrenaline pump so hard she could barely hear past the rush of blood in her ears.
“I know you’ve said Wilhemina’s people exhausted the computer angle, but give me a crack at it. They’re not as good as I am. I can track those posts. I’m sure of it.”
“We’re not being hired to investigate. We’re being hired to baby-sit. Wilhemina wants you. Besides, who else in this firm will be able to hold his own with nibbies, piles and pills?”
“Nibbies, piles and pills, oh my!” She pushed off her perch on the chair arm and started pacing again. Babbling was not a good sign, it usually indicated another step toward panic. If John had been paying attention, he’d have noticed.
He wasn’t. Or perhaps he was just ignoring the symptoms.
April could have appealed to him to send someone else. If she was pathetic enough, she might just wear him down and she wouldn’t have to make excuses to Wilhemina until Easter. But that would mean standing up for herself and she wasn’t so hot at standing up for what she wanted on the best of days. And especially not with John.
So she scowled instead.
He scowled right back.
Whoever lasted the longest would win.
Unfortunately, John had the edge. If he was determined to send her to the Luxurious Bedding Company how could she possibly refuse him? Besides being her boss, John Patrick Mooney was also the closest thing she had to a father. He’d come into her life at a time when she’d desperately needed a friend, after her adoptive parents had died tragically in a ski-lift accident during a long-anticipated second honeymoon.
Learning of her situation through their church, John and Paula, whose own daughters had been either married or attending college at the time, had opened their home to April so she could avoid toughing out four years of foster care until reaching eighteen and adulthood.
A very decent thing to do, considering the circumstances of their first meeting.
She certainly hadn’t meant to trip John as he welcomed her into his home, but she’d nearly sent him sprawling right through the decorative glass door. The poor man had still been sporting the goose egg a week later when she’d moved in.
Fortunately, he hadn’t held the accident against her. He’d taken her under wing through the ups and down of her high school years, including her decision to
