he won’t have a caterer to clean up. He’s going to need you to send someone tonight after the party to do that. He’ll pay extra, of course.”
Liz fell into her office chair, her cheeks flaming. So much for being invited to his party. He wanted her to clean up. She was his maid. Not a friend. Not a potential lover or date…or even an ex-wife. She was an employee.
He wasn’t trying to ease her into his life. He wasn’t even trying to show her they could be friends. He wasn’t thinking that hard about it because in his mind there was no longer a question.
He didn’t want her.
She swallowed again, easing the lump in her throat so she could speak. That was, after all, what she wanted.
“We’ll be happy to clean up after the party.”
“You’ll only need one person.”
No longer upset about the call itself, Liz noticed the pinched, tight tone of Ava’s voice.
“It’s a small party. Mr. Nestor and the partners of his new venture are gathering to have dinner before they sign a contract. He believes everyone will be gone by nine. Let me suggest you arrive around a quarter after nine.”
The first time Liz had spoken with Ava, she’d been light, friendly, eager to get some housecleaning help for her boss. Today’s stiff voice and formal tone puzzled Liz.
“A quarter after nine is fine.”
She hung up the phone confused. Could Cain have told his assistant that Liz was his ex-wife? But why would he? What difference would it make? He never shared personal information with employees. Why start now?
Placing her fingers on her computer keyboard to begin inputting her workers’ hours on a spreadsheet, she frowned. Even if he had told Ava Liz was his ex-wife, why would that upset his assistant?
And was that why she hadn’t received any referrals from Ava?
She’d expected at least one person to call and say they’d been referred. That was how it worked in Liz’s business. Maids had to be trusted. A word-of-mouth recommendation worked better than cold advertising. Yet, she’d gotten no recommendation from Cain.
She shook her head, dislodging those thoughts and getting her mind back on work. She didn’t want to waste this precious time she had to do her paperwork fuming and speculating. With Rita working, Liz could now spend afternoons in the office and she basked in having evenings off.
She frowned again. She wouldn’t have tonight off. She couldn’t ask one of her employees to work on such short notice; all of them had children. Evening work meant extra child-care expense. Besides, Cain’s house was back to being her assignment. After he’d been angry that she’d sent someone else after the waffle debacle, she’d taken the job back herself.
She sighed. She’d have to go to his house tonight. But maybe that was good?
If nothing else, she had her perspective back. They were divorced, not trying to reconcile, and she had something to tell him. Alone in his house tonight, they could be honest with each other.
A mixture of fear and relief poured through her. Though telling him about the miscarriage would be difficult, it had to be done. He deserved to know.
She finished her paperwork around five and raced home to shower and change to have dinner with Ellie. She didn’t mention that she had to work that night—
Or the odd tone in Ava’s voice—
Or her realization that they hadn’t gotten one referral from Cain—
Or that this might be the night she told Cain the secret she’d kept from him.
All of that would put Ellie on edge. Or cause her to make one of her powerful wishes. Instead, Liz listened to Ellie chatter about the Happy Maids employees. From the sparkle in Ellie’s amber eyes it was clear she enjoyed being everyone’s supervisor. Not in a lord-it-over-her-friends way. But in almost a motherly way. Which made Liz laugh and actually took her mind off Cain. Ellie was twenty-two. Most of the women she now supervised were in their thirties or forties, some even in their fifties. Yet Ellie clucked over them like a mother hen. It was endearing.
Because they talked about work most of the meal, Liz paid for dinner, calling it a business expense, and parted company with Ellie on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. When she slid behind the steering wheel of her car and saw the clock on the dashboard her mouth fell open. It was nearly nine. No time to go home and change into a Happy Maids uniform.
She glanced down at her simple tank top and jeans. This would do. No matter how messy his house, she couldn’t damage a tank top and jeans.
Worry over being late blanked out all of her other concerns about this job until she pulled into Cain’s empty driveway. Ava had been correct. Cain’s guests hadn’t lingered. But suddenly she didn’t want to see him. She really wasn’t ready with the “right words” to tell them about their baby. She wasn’t in the mood to “play” friends, either, or to fight their attraction. Their marriage might be over, but the attraction hadn’t gone. And that’s what made their situation so difficult.
If they weren’t so attracted to each other there would be no question that their relationship was over and neither of them wanted to reopen it. But because of their damned unpredictable attraction, she had to worry about how she would react around him. Not that she wanted to sleep with him, but he’d seduced her before. And they were about to spend hours alone. If she was lucky, Cain would already be in the shower.
She swallowed. Best not to think about the shower.
But as she stepped out of her car into the muggy night, she realized it was much better to think of him being away from her, upstairs in his room, ignoring her as she cleaned, rather than close enough to touch, close enough to tempt, close enough to be tempted.
Cain watched her get out of her car and start up the driveway and opened the front door for her. “Come in this way.”
She stepped into the echoing foyer with a tight, professional smile.
She was wary of him. Well, good. He was wary of her, of what was happening between them. It was bad enough to be attracted to someone he couldn’t have. Now he was melting around her, doing her bidding when she looked at him with her big green eyes. He’d already decided the cure for his behavior around her was to treat her like an ex-wife. But he knew so little about her—except what he knew from their marriage—that he wasn’t quite sure how to do that, either.
When he’d finally figured out they needed to get to know each other as the people they were now, he’d had Ava call with the request that Liz clean up after his dinner party. Maybe a little time spent alone would give them a chance to interact and she’d tell him enough about herself that he’d see her as a new person, or at least see her in a different light so he’d stop seeing the woman he’d loved every time he looked at her.
“Most of the mess is in the kitchen,” he said, motioning for her to walk ahead of him. He didn’t realize until she was already in front of him that that provided him with a terrific view of her backside and he nearly groaned, watching her jean-clad hips sway as she walked. This was why the part of him that wanted her back kept surfacing, taking control. Tonight the businessman had to wrestle control away.
