“No. No. Let me call,” Ava chirped happily. “I know that you don’t like to run into people. You don’t like to deal with people at all. That’s my job, remember?”
“I can handle one maid.”
Her expression skewed into one of total confusion. “Really?”
The skepticism in her voice almost made him want to ask her why she’d question that. But she was right. Her job was to keep little things away from him. Not necessarily people, but nitpicky tasks. It was probably a mistake that she’d said people. But whatever the reason she’d said it, it was irrelevant.
“I won’t have to deal with her. I’ll be out of my house by seven-thirty next week. It won’t be a problem.”
“Okay.” She nodded eagerly, then all but ran from the room.
As Cain sank into his office chair, he frowned, Ava’s words ringing in his head. Had it been a mistake when she said she knew he didn’t like dealing with people or was he really that hard to get along with?
Once again, irrelevant. He got along just fine with the people he needed to get along with.
He reached for the stack of mail. All of it had been opened by Ava and sorted according to which of his three companies it pertained to. He read documents, correspondence and bids for upcoming projects, until he came to an envelope that hadn’t been opened.
He twisted it until he could read the return address and he understood why. It was from his parents. His birthday had come and gone that week. Of course, his parents hadn’t forgotten. Probably his sister hadn’t, either. But he had.
He grabbed his letter opener, slit the seal and pulled out four inches of bubble wrap that protected a framed picture. Unwinding the bubble wrap—his dad always went a bit overboard—he exposed the picture and went still.
The family photo.
He leaned back in his chair, rubbed his hand across his chin.
The sticky note attached to the frame said, Thought you might like this for your desk. Happy birthday.
He tried to simply put it back in the envelope, but couldn’t. His eyes were drawn to the people posing so happily.
His parents were dressed in their Sunday best. His sister wore an outfit that looked like she’d gotten it from somebody’s trash—and considering that she’d been sixteen at the time, he suspected she might have. Cain wore a suit as did his brother, Tom, his hand on Cain’s shoulder.
“If you get into trouble,” Tom had said a million times, “you call me first. Not Mom and Dad. I’ll get you out of it, then we’ll break the news to the wardens.”
Cain sniffed a laugh. Tom had always called their parents the wardens. Or the guards. Their parents were incredibly kind, open-minded people, but Tom loved to make jokes. Play with words. He’d had the type of sense of humor that made him popular no matter where he went.
Cain returned the picture to its envelope. He knew what his dad was really saying when he suggested Cain put the picture on his desk. Six years had gone by. It was time to move on. To remember in a good way, not sadly, that his older brother, the kindest, funniest, smartest of the Nestors, had been killed three days before his own wedding, only three weeks after Cain and Liz had eloped.
But he wasn’t ready.
He might never be.
CHAPTER TWO
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Carrying boxes of groceries up the walk to the entrance of one of the homes owned by A Friend Indeed, Ellie “Magic” Swanson turned to face Liz. Her amber-colored eyes were as round as two full moons.
“Nope. My first client of the day was my ex-husband.”
She hadn’t meant to tell Ellie about Cain, but it had slipped out, the way things always seemed to slip out with Ellie. She was a sweet, smart, eager twenty-two-year-old who had gotten involved with the wrong man and desperately needed a break in life. Liz had given her a job only to discover that it was Liz who benefited from the relationship more than Ellie did. Desperate for a second chance, Ellie had become an invaluable employee. Which is why Liz didn’t merely provide cleaning services and grocery delivery services for A Friend Indeed, she also tried to give a job to every woman staying at the shelter homes who wanted one. She firmly believed in second chances.
Ellie shouldered open the back door, revealing the outdated but neat and clean kitchen. “How can that happen?”
“His assistant, Ava, hired us to clean the house of the CEO of Cain Corporation.”
“And you didn’t know your ex-husband was CEO of Cain Corporation?”
Liz set her box of groceries on the counter. “When we were married he only owned Nestor Construction. Apparently in three years he’s branched out. Moved to a bigger house, too.” In some ways it hurt that he’d sold the beach house they’d shared, but in others it didn’t surprise her. He’d been so lost, so despondent after the death of his brother, that he’d thrown even more of into his work than before. The much larger house on the beach had probably been a reward for reaching a goal.
Ellie walked out of the pantry where she had begun storing canned goods, her beautiful face set in firm lines and her long blond curls bouncing. “I’ll take his house next week.”
“Are you kidding? He’ll think I didn’t come back because I was intimidated.” She pointed her thumb at her chest. “I’m going. Besides, I have something else for you.” She opened her shoulder-strap purse and rifled through its contents. After finding the employment application of a young woman, Rita, whom she’d interviewed the night before, she handed it to Ellie.
“What do you think?”
“Looks okay to me.” She glanced up. “You checked her references?”
“Yes. But she’s staying at one of our Friend Indeed houses. I thought you might know her.”
Ellie shook her head. “No.”
“Well, you’ll be getting to know her next week. As soon as we’re through here, we’ll drop by the house she and her kids are using and tell her she’s got the job and that she’ll be working with you.”
“You want me to train her?”
“My goal is to get myself out of the field and into the office permanently.” Such as it was. The desk and chairs were secondhand. The air-conditioning rarely worked. The tile on the floor needed replacing. The only nice features of the crowded room were the bright yellow paint on the walls and the yellow-and-black area rug she’d found to cover most of the floor. But she was much better off than the women who came to A Friend Indeed, and working with them kept her grounded, appreciative of what she had, how far she’d come. It wasn’t so long ago that her mom had run from her abusive father with her and her sisters. The second chance they’d found because of a shelter had changed the course of not just her mom’s life, but also her life and her sisters’.
“To do that, I have to start teaching you to be my new second in command.”
Pulling canned goods from the box on the counter, Ellie glanced up again.
Liz smiled. “The promotion comes with a raise.”
Ellie’s mouth fell open and she dropped the cans before racing to Liz to hug her. “I will do the best job of anybody you’ve ever seen!”