fit a stereotype.”
He didn’t know what to say. Annabelle didn’t seem to notice. She smiled as she looked at her daughter. Love was evident in her expression and voice as she said, “Besides, it’s who she’s meant to be. Can you imagine her as a Christie or a Sarah?”
No. Actually, he couldn’t. Naming a kid something like Honey was a little too hippy-dippy for his sensibilities, but the longer he stared at the child he realized the name fitted her well. The kid was downright cherubic. He couldn’t remember if all kids that age were that cute or just this one. He glanced at the clock and his odd musing fled.
“Uh, well, as long as she stays in that playpen,” he said, not quite sure of what else to do. “This place isn’t baby-proof and it’s not safe. I’m not even sure if we’re insured for this sort of thing. God, I’m betting we’re not. Just keep her contained, will you?”
“Absolutely,” she agreed, bobbing her head. “You won’t even notice she’s here. I promise. She’s the best baby. Thank you.”
Dean eyed the baby and all the gear that came with her and was thrown off-kilter. His son, Brandon, was seventeen and self-sufficient. Dean hardly remembered what it was like to have a baby around. And that’s just the way he wanted to keep it, he almost growled.
Grabbing his coat, he was stalking out, ready to get to the job site and back to something he understood and felt comfortable with, when he realized he hadn’t told Annabelle her duties. Stopping at the door, he gestured toward the mess, saying, “Don’t touch anything. I have a system and I don’t want anyone messing with it.”
She gave his cluttered desk a dubious look but nodded to indicate she wouldn’t touch it. “So, what should I do?” she asked.
“You can make coffee, answer phones, take messages, scrub the bathroom, general office stuff.”
“I don’t consider scrubbing the bathroom general office stuff,” she retorted, frowning. “I could file things for you. Type up whatever you need. I’m pretty handy with the computer, too. What computer programs are you running?”
“Uh.” He glanced down at his watch and swore. “I don’t know. Sammy does all that stuff. You’ll have to ask him. Don’t file anything. Like I said, you’ll mess up my system. Just…just…I don’t know, stay out of things. I’ll be back in a while. I’m late!”
Dean got to the job site and although part of his brain was on work and he managed a coherent conversation with the foreman, another part of his brain was stuck on the woman sitting in his office with a toddler.
She should’ve mentioned she had a kid.
Why?
Because…well, there was no defensible answer because it was none of his business. Still, it became his business when that kid ended up in his office.
This wasn’t something that could become a habit. He hadn’t wanted to hire her in the first place and now he had a woman with daycare issues.
He glanced skyward at the clouds rolling in for an end-of-season storm and knew it would be raining before he returned to the office. It wouldn’t be a cold rain, but rather a mild soak promising some muggy humidity afterward.
Sammy drove up, raucous music blaring from his truck loud enough to split an eardrum, and Dean was ready to take out his frustration on his youngest brother.
“What’s up, big brother?” Sammy asked with typical good humor. Sammy had been born with an innate ability to find the lighter side in every situation. “I hear you hired Dana’s friend? Good. Sounds like a win-win situation on both sides.”
News traveled fast. Especially between women. “You know she has a kid?”
“Yeah? So? You like kids. You got one of your own, remember?”
Dean glowered. “I didn’t expect her to show up for her first day of work with a baby on her hip. That’s not professional by my standards.”
“You need to loosen up. You’re wound so tight if you were a clock you’d bust a spring. Listen, Dana told me a little about her story and she deserves a break.”
“What do you mean?”
Sammy shrugged. “For being only twenty-six, she’s had a hard life.”
“How so?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
Dean backed off. “I don’t want to get involved.”
“Too late. She’s your employee now. I’d say you’re involved…at least a little.” At Dean’s sour look, Sammy chuckled. “So she’s packing a kid around. Big deal. What counts is she’s a good person looking for a fresh start, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Dean said, softening just a little. He admired people willing to work hard and earn what they wanted in life, but he also knew that sometimes luck played a part. By the sounds of it, she hadn’t had much in that department. “All right. She can stay—for a while. We’ll see how good an office manager she turns out to be. No promises, got it?”
“No problem. I’ve done my part by talking her up. The rest is on her. Dana understands that. I think,” he added with a slight frown.
Dean eyed Sammy speculatively. “Everything okay? With you and Dana?”
“Yeah, sure,” Sammy said, waving away Dean’s concern but then added, “You know, this marriage stuff isn’t as easy as you and Beth made it look. I guess I figured as long as you loved someone all the other stuff would fall into line. Besides, the other stuff is petty, right?”
“Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. What’s going on with you two?”
Sammy shrugged. “Sometimes I don’t get Dana. I ask her ‘what’s wrong?’ and she says ‘nothing,’ but then glares at me for the rest of the day as if I haven’t asked. She’s got me so turned upside-down I don’t know which end is up anymore.”
“You love her, right?”
“More than I thought possible. It’s kinda scary, actually. I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone.”
Dean remembered those early days when he and Beth were two dumb kids playing house rather than two adults trying to foster a good marriage. “Then stick with it. It gets better with time. You get to know each other and then you fall into a rhythm. There were times when Beth and I could almost finish each other’s sentences we were so in tune with each other,” he said. “And then there were other times when it seemed we were talking different languages. It’s a dance, brother. When you have a good partner sometimes you lead, other times you follow, but it’s always a beautiful song.”
A moment of silence passed between the brothers as a wave of loss rippled between them. Inhaling slowly, Sammy clapped Dean on the shoulder. “Beth was one of a kind. No doubt about it.”
“That she was,” Dean agreed, his throat closing. He looked at Sammy. “Hey, enough of this serious stuff. We’re sitting here sniffling like two old ladies when we’ve got work to do.”
“Ever
