smiling at him when he left. That smile stayed with him all the way to his office.
* * *
Tied up with clients who wanted to make out a will, close on a house sale or draw up powers of attorney, Daniel hardly had time to breathe the rest of the morning. At some point the espresso would let him down, but hopefully not until the end of the afternoon. Raina knew he liked to see clients in the morning and deal with paperwork later in the day.
He’d started reading the history of a neighborly dispute over land boundaries between two properties when his cell phone buzzed. Cell phone rather than office phone meant it was a personal call.
“Hello,” he said. “Busy lawyer here.”
“Oh, Dad, you’re always busy,” Paris complained. “I have a problem. Aunt Shannon wants me to eat a sandwich and a salad. I don’t want to. She’s so vehement about it, I’m afraid she’ll force-feed me.”
Just where had Paris learned the word vehement? She wasn’t studying for her SATs yet, he thought wryly. However, when Paris was in a snit he did his best to calm her. “Do you want me to talk to your aunt? You can put her on the phone.”
“No. You have to come home. I’ve got to lose weight before school starts in September. She doesn’t understand that. Oh, and Penny missed her last soccer game of the season this morning because you didn’t tell Aunt Shannon about it.”
Daniel rubbed his hand over his brow. “Why didn’t Penny tell her about it?”
He could almost hear the shrug in Paris’s voice when she answered, “I guess she forgot, too. It was scheduled at the last minute.”
He had a decision to make—whether to be honest or patronizing. Paris didn’t take patronizing well. “I do have to work. Are you sure you can’t settle this yourself?”
“I didn’t tell you the worst part.”
Now Daniel held in a breath, then let it out. “The worst part?”
“Um...” Paris hesitated. That was unusual and worried Daniel even more.
“Just spill it, Paris. It won’t get any easier if you turn it around in your mind ten times.”
“Pippa got into something you’re not going to like.”
“Is this going to be twenty questions?” He really was losing patience. Maybe he should take up meditation.
“There was this shoebox in your closet. It had all of mom’s makeup in it. Now it’s all over Pippa’s face.”
Pushing aside the papers on his desk, Daniel faced the problem head-on. When Lydia had left, he’d hoped she’d return to her family, so he’d kept all of her things. When she hadn’t, he’d packed everything up and then forgotten about that box in the deepest recesses of his closet.
“What made Pippa go in there in the first place?” he asked Paris.
“I don’t know. Honest. Maybe she saw you put it in there and she remembered.”
More than once Pippa had asked why her mommy had left. He’d never been exactly sure what to tell her. Lydia sent the girls birthday cards and she’d written them a couple of short notes, but that had been the extent of her communication since the divorce. No wonder they felt abandoned.
What had Emma said just this morning? Animals are so much like children. When neglected, they act out.
So much for working at his office on a Saturday. “I’ll be home in about ten minutes, Paris. Do you think the three of you would like to visit Fiesta at Furever Paws?”
“Dad’s coming home,” Paris announced to her sisters, who must have been standing right there.
He heard the “yay” that filled the kitchen. Then Paris asked Pippa and Penny, “Do you want to go visit Fiesta at Furever Paws?”
Their yeses were loud and clear. So were their needs. Shannon was great with them but they needed somebody full-time who concentrated just on them. They needed a nanny.
An idea zipped through his mind. Emma needed a job. Maybe she’d consider coming to work for him as a nanny. However, he wouldn’t hire her on a whim. He needed to speak to Rebekah Taylor, the shelter director, to see what Emma was like as a volunteer. This visit to Fiesta could suit more than one purpose.
* * *
Emma saw them coming. She had just finished the paperwork and handed over the cutest black toy poodle to his adoptive parents. The woman, who was about sixty, stood back until Daniel’s daughters entered, then Daniel waited for her to leave with her dog.
When Penny and Pippa spotted Emma, they ran right over to her. Paris proceeded more slowly. Pippa looked up at her with her big chocolate-brown eyes. “We came to see Fiesta. Can she have visitors?”
Emma smiled. “Sure, she can have visitors. We gave her a special little home with her own litter box and a plastic bin with shredded newspaper that she can use when she feels her babies are going to be born.”
Now Paris gave her attention to Emma, too. “Why shredded newspaper?”
“Because it can be replaced easily. Cats also like to lie in paper for some reason.”
Daniel eyed Emma, and when he did, she felt herself blush. What was it about this man that made him so attractive? Sure, he was tall. He was handsome. He cared about his daughters and an animal he’d found under his porch, too. But none of that proved he’d be a good romantic prospect.
No more impulsive decisions, Emma told herself fiercely. Her last impulsive decision had landed her here in Spring Forest without a job or a place to stay. Living in a studio apartment with a month-to-month lease, she’d used up most of her savings. She needed to find a job fast...that is if she was going to stay in Spring Forest.
If she didn’t find a job soon that paid her a decent wage, she’d have to return home. She really didn’t want to do that because it would prove her father had been right.
She motioned the girls down the hall. “Turn left at the first door.”
Daniel walked beside her and she was totally aware of him. His navy striped tie was tugged down and the top two buttons of his royal blue oxford shirt were open. Suddenly he touched her elbow and they both paused. Her arm felt as if he’d touched her with fire.
“You must be a miracle worker,” he said.
She felt stunned by his touch and immobilized by the admiration in his eyes. Somehow she found her voice. “Why do you say that?”
“Because Paris doesn’t talk to anyone unless she has to. And she never asks questions. She acts as if she knows everything about everything. With you, she’s different.”
“I’m just a new person in her life. I love animals, and maybe she does, too.”
Daniel was still looking at her as if he was debating something in his mind. Finally he said, “You’re good with Penny and Pippa, too. Pippa has had a hard time. She’d rather I hug her and keep
