“Oh, come on, Nell, this is a sinking ship. You know that as well as I do.”
“I don’t know that and even if it were true, you don’t want to be the first rat to jump ship.”
“No, that honor belongs to Adam.” Lara rubbed her temple, tired already, even before eight o’clock. “I’m not working for Bryce. I can’t…even if he could resist the delicious pleasure of firing me, which we both know he won’t.”
“He’s not as dumb as you like to believe he is,” Nell insisted. “And he’s certainly smart enough to know he can’t fire you.”
“He’s even dumber than I believe he is, and he will fire me at the first opportunity. Except that I’m not going to let him. Period. End of story.”
“Well, you’re not quitting, so get that idea out of your head right now.” Nell tore the paper in half again for emphasis. “This place would fall apart without you and Bryce is certainly smart enough to know that. Besides, Adam will be back. I give him a week of honeymooning, two at most, before he’ll be breaking his neck to get back here.”
Lara recalled all too easily the expression of wonder on Adam’s face when he’d looked at his bride on Saturday, and she didn’t think he was coming back. Not anytime soon. Certainly not in time to save her job. “You were at the wedding, Nell. You saw him. He’s not coming back.”
The truth of that was in Nell’s crisply assessing hazel eyes, but she wouldn’t admit it. “All the more reason for you to stay, then,” she said, quickly shifting tactics. “Bryce has never bothered with the business much. He’s going to need your knowledge of the company and your business savvy. He’ll want your help.”
“He’ll lock the doors and send everyone home before he’ll ask for my help. The man can barely stand to breathe the same air I do, and that goes double for me. So if he’s coming to work here, I have to either stop breathing or resign. Pretty clear choice from where I’m standing.”
“You could at least give him a chance to—”
Ka-thunk-a-thunk-a-thunk!
Lara turned her head in unison with Nell as the leather chair bumped recklessly against the desk, rocking as it slowed to a listing wobble. Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. Ka…thunk. “Calvin?” The chair was empty, its well-worn leather showing less than a wrinkle where a small boy had been. “Calvin?” Lara’s voice rose, as did a knot of tension in her throat. Amazing, how quickly a woman’s maternal instincts kicked in…even when the woman wasn’t particularly maternal. An empty chair meant a child somewhere else and, if that somewhere else wasn’t within view, a completely out of proportion panic set in. She’d learned a lot about that smothering sense of alarm during the past several days. Calvin was turning out to be a regular Houdini. “Calvin,” she called louder now, her gaze sweeping the ins and outs of the room, any space a forty-pound boy might squeeze in, under or behind.
“The door’s open.” Nell was already heading that way, but Lara beat her to the doorway and into the next office, listening hard for the sounds of a small boy on the loose. A swift visual check under Nell’s neat-as-a-pin desk revealed no Calvin. There was no Calvin hiding behind the file cabinet, no Calvin in the coat closet either, and Lara’s strides lengthened as she started for the hall. “Calvin? Come back here, right now.”
A husky, little-boy giggle wafted back from the reception area at the end of the hall, followed by the slapping sound of small rubber soles on ceramic tile. Then the ding of the elevator bell, a faint, “Oomph!” and a surprised, “Whoa there, Peter Pan. You’re flying a little low, aren’t you?”
“Who are you?” Calvin’s voice demanded.
“I’m Captain Hook,” Bryce’s voice growled back playfully. “…and I eat little lost boys for breakfast!”
“Mommy!” Calvin shrieked. He was, understandably, not overly trusting of men these days. “Mommy!!!”
Lara came around the corner into the large reception area and Calvin practically buckled her knees in his clinging haste to get behind her. She wished there were someone she could put between her and Bryce, but unfortunately, all the available knees were taken. “You didn’t have to scare him to death,” she said defensively, because she was a little shaken and Bryce was a handy target. “He’s only four.”
Bryce looked from Calvin to Lara and, beyond her, to Nell. Then he stooped to the child’s level, even though he remained a respectful distance back. “Sorry, Cal,” he said with a smile, both beguiling and tender. “I’m not really Captain Hook and I never eat anything larger than a bagel for breakfast. I was only playing.”
Calvin’s death grip on her knees loosened. “Who’s Pe’er Pan?” he asked.
“A boy who can fly.”
Cal thought that over carefully. “Who’s Cap’n Hook?”
The corner of Bryce’s mouth lifted in tune with the arching of his eyebrows. “A pirate,” he said.
Stepping out from behind Lara, Cal kept his hand clenched in the linen of her slacks. “Who are you?”
Bryce stayed at the four-year-old’s level as his gaze momentarily lifted to Lara’s. “I’m your mommy’s new boss.”
“She’s not my mommy,” Cal corrected sternly and without prompting. “She’s Aunt Lara.”
“In that case, I’m your Aunt Lara’s new boss.”
Intent on clearing up any possible misunderstanding, Cal raised a determined little chin. “I’m the boss of myself.”
“That’s an interesting philosophy. What does your Aunt Lara think about it?”
“She likes it,” Cal stated confidently.
“I’ll just bet she does.”
“Uh-huh.” Calvin, sensing a kindred spirit, but not quite sure enough to risk getting too close to Bryce, stepped away from Lara into the no-man’s land in between. “Who’s the boss of you?”
“Until today, I was the boss of myself, too, but now I think the shareholders may have the upper hand.”
“I hold Aunt Lara’s hand when we cross the street,” Calvin informed him. “So she won’t get runned over.”
“I’m glad to know that, Cal—is it all right if I call you Cal?”
The child nodded solemnly, his little chest expanding with self-importance, obviously falling victim to Bryce’s charm despite Lara’s devout wish otherwise.
Bryce sealed the deal with an answering nod. “I’m glad you keep your Aunt Lara safe, Cal, because that is a very important job. I would be very sad if anything happened to her.”
Oh, right, Lara thought. As if he wouldn’t shove her in front of the nearest Mack truck if he thought he could get away with it. But he was being nice to her nephew, and for that she could give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Me, too.” Calvin smiled up at her with the gaptoothed grin that had already found a soft spot in her heart. “He likes you
