said. “If you insist. Come on.”
As Eliza followed Lachlan’s daughter to the door, she glanced in the direction of the kitchen... This interview was not at all going how she’d hoped.
“Tell me this is some kind of sick joke, Linda!”
Holding her chin high, she folded her skinny arms over her surgery-enhanced chest and glared at him. “Joke? Looking after my ailing aunt is not a joke.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Cut the crap. There is no aunt.” Her father had never been on the scene, and as far as he knew, Linda’s mother was an only child.
Linda let out a long, deep, clearly irritated sigh. “She’s my mom’s estranged sister if you must know.”
“So why isn’t Carol trekking across the country to look after her, then?”
“What part of the word estranged don’t you understand?” she said, speaking slowly as if he were five years old. “Besides Carol has just started a new job in Bend, she can’t just take time off when she feels like it.”
“But you can, because you have never worked a day in your life.” He was about to ask her if she had any idea what it was like to look after someone with a terminal illness—Linda had never been the nurturing type—but he figured she’d work that out pretty quickly.
“There’s no need to be such an ass about this.” She blew air between her lips, flicking her platinum blonde bangs upward as she did so. “You’d think I’d asked you to sail around the world naked, not look after your own daughter.”
“Keep your voice down,” he growled, glancing toward the shut door. He’d been in such a good mood five minutes ago—thinking that he might have finally found the perfect person to lead his waitstaff—but now he could almost feel the steam hissing from his ears. “You’ve got some nerve. You know I want her. I’ve always wanted her and our son, but your timing couldn’t be worse. I’m trying to open a new restaurant here, and you interrupted me in the middle of an interview.”
Linda smirked. “Oh, that makes sense—for a moment there, I thought you were on a date.”
He hated himself for it but he took the bait. “And why would that be so amusing? You don’t think I date?” She’d be right. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a date—between having permanent custody of their son, every second weekend with both kids and work, he didn’t have the time—but he wasn’t about to admit that. Not to her.
“Keep your pants on,” she said, obviously highly amused. “I just meant that woman isn’t your type. She’s a little too... How should I put it? Rounded?”
His hackles rose even further. He didn’t have a type—not anymore—but he didn’t like the way Linda spoke about Eliza. She might not look anorexic like his ex-wife, but she had womanly curves in all the right places and he thought that was a hell of a lot more sexy than someone who was afraid to eat carbs.
“So how long do you think you’ll be?” he asked, his voice louder than he’d meant. Already he was mentally calculating the extra things he’d have to do now that he had Hallie full-time. He loved his daughter—and his son—more than life itself, but he also understood that kids required time as well as love. Hallie had dance and singing classes and she went to school in Bend, not Jewell Rock, which would mean an hour round-trip twice a day. All this on top of Hamish’s therapy appointments and his extracurricular activities. Had Linda thought any of this through?
Again, his ex-wife rolled her eyes as if she were talking with a plank of wood. “She has cancer, Lachlan, I can’t give you an exact time and date when she’s going to breathe her last breath.”
“Isn’t there anyone else who can look after her? I’m opening the restaurant in a month!”
“You want me to dump our daughter on strangers?”
“Shh,” he hissed again. Then he firmly added, “I meant your aunt.”
She shook her head. “Can’t you show a little compassion? Besides, your mom and your family will help you look after Hallie. It’s not like one extra person in your massive family is going to make much of a difference.”
They stood there for a few moments, glaring at each other like two opponents in a boxing ring. How dare she assume his mom could help? Although he knew she would do her best, he didn’t like asking her to do any more than she already did. And with two family weddings imminent and his two future sisters-in-law pregnant, Lachlan’s mom had enough on her hands already. He wasn’t a violent man and he would never hit a woman, but the frustration coursing through his body right now made him want to pick something up and throw it against the wall.
Only the thought of his daughter and Eliza in the next room held him back.
Eliza. What must she be making of all this? Would she still be there when he went back out? It was definitely not the first impression he wanted to make on a potential new employee.
Feeling resigned and realizing they’d left their daughter with a stranger, Lachlan let out a long breath. “I take it you’ve packed Hallie’s school uniform?” Linda might have seen fit to take her out of class to bring her to him, but he didn’t want her missing any more because of this.
“Of course.”
“And can you give me a list of all her extracurricular activities?”
Linda smiled like a child who’d just been told they could stay up past their bedtime and eat junk food. “I’ll text everything to you while I’m waiting to board my plane. You’re a good man, Lachlan McKinnel.”
She moved forward as if to throw her arms around him but he held up a hand, warning her off. If she thought him so good, why had she looked elsewhere for excitement when they were married? Maybe he wasn’t good, maybe he was just a pushover. A pushover who had been blinded by Linda’s looks and the fun they’d had together when they’d first met but had been paying the price ever since.
“Go say goodbye to Hallie,” he said instead and then turned and opened the door for her to go through.
“She’s not here!” Linda exclaimed, then turned to him in horror. “Who was that woman? What has she done with our daughter?”
“Will you stop being so dramatic?” Lachlan snapped. “They’re probably just outside.” Although inside, his heart clenched as if someone had wrapped string around it and was tightening quickly. Where were Hallie and Eliza?
He strode quickly to the door and breathed a sigh of relief when he opened it and spotted Hallie and Eliza a few yards away, seemingly deep in conversation in the garden. Eliza glanced up as if sensing his presence and the look she gave him told him exactly why they’d moved outside.
Shame washed over him and he felt heat creeping into his cheeks that a stranger had thought it best to intervene so his daughter didn’t hear the raised and bickering voices of her parents. At the same time, he was thankful that she had. However many times he told himself not to let Linda rile him up, he always failed miserably in this resolve.
“She’s
