“Just because you’ve made some foolish decisions, that’s no reason your child should suffer,” Wanda had proclaimed. Wanda wasn’t so much upset about the divorce as she was about the settlement her daughter had accepted. Jane hadn’t confided her reasons for bowing to Scott’s unreasonable demands.
Jane had been willing to listen to a sermon or two if it solved some of her child-care problems. Though Max hadn’t taken her up on her offer to work for free, her starting salary wasn’t much more than she could have earned as a waitress. But he’d promised her raises would be forthcoming once she proved herself.
“I don’t like that place,” Kaylee proclaimed as Jane buckled her into her car seat.
“Really? What don’t you like?”
“Icky food.”
“Maybe you’ll like tomorrow’s lunch better. Is that all?”
“Billy took my bunny. He’s mean.”
“Oh.” Jane slid behind the steering wheel, wondering what the appropriate advice was. Should she encourage Kaylee to share? Or was this mean boy a bully, someone Kaylee should stand up to? Lord knew she wanted to teach her daughter to be independent and learn to solve her own problems.
Jane’s parents had not raised her to be independent. They had raised her to be a rich man’s wife. Looking back at her marriage with some hindsight, she now knew she had been drawn to the security Scott offered her. She had convinced herself she was in love with the handsome but overbearing man, and she had mistaken Scott’s possessiveness for love.
Truth was, she didn’t really know what love was, only that her and Scott’s relationship had been unhealthy from the start. But she had been too scared to leave him, too scared to try to make it on her own. It was only when his behavior began to border on abusive that she’d filed for divorce—before he could carry out any of his threats.
“Macaroni for dinner, Mommy?” Kaylee asked, the bunny incident apparently forgotten.
“Absolutely. But first I have to finish some work at my new job.”
“What’s a job?”
“You know. Like Daddy goes to work every day to his job. Now I have a job. I…draw pictures, and I get paid money for them.”
Kaylee frowned. Her father’s long working hours had been a continual source of friction in their family. Maybe Kaylee believed her mother would stay away all the time, too. No doubt about it, Jane’s job would require a lot of adjustments. Kaylee was used to having almost constant access to her mother.
“I’ll be going to my job every day to work,” Jane said. “But I’ll be home every night for dinner. We’ll still play together and I’ll tuck you in and read you a story every night.”
Kaylee still looked worried. She was growing so fast, getting more complex every day. Jane usually had no idea what was going on behind her daughter’s bright blue eyes. The child had taken her parents’ breakup reasonably well. Not having her father around wasn’t much different than before the divorce, as Scott had spent very little time at home. He had either been working, playing golf or dragging Jane around to this party or that while Kaylee stayed home with a sitter.
Once parked at the office building, Jane grabbed a tote bag filled with favored toys, unbuckled Kaylee from her car seat and walked with her inside the cool lobby.
Carol looked surprised to see the child, but then her face melted into a smile. “What an adorable little girl!”
“This is my daughter, Kaylee,” Jane said. “Kaylee, this is Ms. Washington.”
Kaylee held out her favorite yellow baby blanket, now tattered and faded. “This is my blankie.”
“And a very nice blankie it is, too,” Carol said.
“My after-school child care doesn’t start until next week,” Jane said, then lowered her voice. “Is Mr. Remington here?”
“No, he’s out calling on clients.”
“Oh.” She was actually relieved. Bringing her daughter to the office on her very first day was unprofessional and she knew it. But she simply didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“Did you need something?” Carol asked.
“No. I just have a tiny bit of work to finish up, and I thought he’d be here to approve it before I left for the day.”
“Oh, don’t worry. If he doesn’t like something, you’ll hear about it.”
“Really?” From what Allie had said—and what little Jane had previously observed—she thought Max was the easygoing, laid-back Remington cousin. He’d been somewhat testy with her earlier, but she’d attributed that to anxiety over his deadline.
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good boss,” Carol said. “I mean, I’ve only been working for him a short time, but he’s fair-minded and flexible. You always know exactly what he wants from you, so you aren’t expected to read his mind like with some bosses.
“But he does want things a certain way, and he’s not shy about telling you.”
“You mean he’s a perfectionist?”
“Yeah.” Carol nodded. “That’s a fair description. But not in a nitpicky way. You’ll see what I mean.”
“Mommy.” Kaylee tugged on the hem of Jane’s skirt. “Can I get a drink?” She pointed to the gurgling fountain.
Oh, Lord, she could just imagine Max returning to the office and finding Kaylee with her head in his fountain.
Carol grinned. “We have some juice in the break room. You want me to watch her while you work?”
“Oh, would you? That would be great.”
“You come with Aunt Carol,” Carol said to Kaylee, standing and holding out her hand. “We’ll see if we can find juice and a yummy snack in the break room.” Carol looked at Jane. “Is that okay?”
“Sure. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
Jane hurried to her office, listening for sounds of Kaylee’s displeasure at being abandoned. But she seemed to take to Carol, which wasn’t surprising; Kaylee wasn’t a clingy, shy child and usually was happy to meet new people.
As Jane worked on the ad, making only small adjustments now and feeling slightly more confident with her graphics program, she could hear her daughter’s happy but shrill voice and laughter coming from the break room down the hall.
When the ad was as good as Jane knew how to make it, she e-mailed it to Max as per instructions. She looked at her watch, surprised that it was nearly five o’clock. That had taken far longer than she’d expected. Time flew by so quickly when she was engrossed in something creative.
Thank God for Carol. If Jane had been forced to divide her time between her computer and entertaining Kaylee, she never would have made the deadline.
Jane found her purse and headed out of her office, grateful she had survived her first day of work. Just as she closed her door, she heard Max’s voice and froze, torn. Part of her wanted to see him and have him look at the ad. His approval was important to her on this, her first assignment. But another part of her wanted to make a clean getaway. Max was exciting to be around, but a little draining on her, too. She was ready to share mac-and-cheese with her daughter and decompress.
“Who’s that?” she heard Max ask.
Oh, no. He was in the break room with Carol and Kaylee.
“This is Jane’s daughter, Kaylee. Kaylee, can you say hi to Mr. Remington?”
If Kaylee said anything, it was too quiet for Jane to hear.
“I’m watching her while Jane finishes up