“Yes, I’ve tried to reform her, but it’s futile.”
“What do you do when you’re not working?”
“Well, I have a very demanding and challenging job, so I don’t have a lot of time to spare.”
“Nice try. Now give the real answer.”
“I belong to a fitness club where I swim a few times each week. I volunteer with a professional advocacy organization for teenage girls and I have friends I jom for lunch, dinner and shopping. Are you asleep yet?”
“No,” he said and swallowed a chuckle. “Men?”
She paused and seemed almost to hold her breath. “Not at the moment.”
He nodded, not quite sure why he’d asked that question. “What do you think of your boss?”
She gave him a long-suffering glance, and Jack wondered how he’d missed the stories her eyes could tell. She looked away again. “He is very challenging and demanding, but also rewarding. Intelligent, makes things happen,” she said. “He leaps tall buildings in a single bound, but he is occasionally human.” Her gaze slid to the brass clock on the mantel and she handed him her still-full wineglass. “Five minutes is up.”
“I didn’t notice.”
“You weren’t the one under the microscope,” she said with gentle reproof, and stood. “Thank you for the wine. Your daughter is beautiful and sweet. You’re lucky. If you ever need me to pinch-hit again, let me know.”
He frowned thoughtfully as she turned away. “Amanda,” he said, stopping her with his voice.
She turned, her arms wrapped around herself as if she were braced for another trip under the microscope. “Yes?”
He detested asking the question, hated that he didn’t have the answer himself. “Why is my daughter afraid of me?”
Her face softened. “You said yourself that she hasn’t spent much time with you. You’re larger than life to her. So tall, so strong. Even your voice is strong.”
“That’s why she whispers,” he muttered, and took another sip of whiskey.
“She doesn’t know your secret yet.”
He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. “And what is my secret?”
“That you would do just about anything to make her happy. When she learns that, you’re cooked.” She met his gaze with gentle reassurance. “She’ll be okay. You’ll both be okay.”
Jack watched Amanda walk out of the room and wondered how his assistant knew so much more about him than he knew about her.
Two
He had looked at her.
Amanda stared wide-eyed at the ceiling in the guest bedroom of Jack’s home. She was wearing his pajamas, sleeping in his house.
All because she was good with kids, her rational mind reminded her. And she was not sleeping.
But he had looked at her. She had seen and felt the curiosity in his gaze. Her mind was whirling. When he’d asked her to forget he was her boss, she’d nearly dropped her wineglass. Did this represent some kind of breakthrough? Did this mean she was no longer invisible?
Taking a deep breath, her defense mechanisms kicked in and she closed her eyes. Probably not a breakthrough, she reasoned. Probably an aberration. She felt a clinch of disappointment at the same time she felt relief. Maybe she really wasn’t the right woman for Jack Fortune. The man might be a master communicator with clients, but he made her nervous.
Carol had once told her she thought Amanda was comfortable with Jack being her unreachable dream. Amanda had pooh-poohed the idea, but now she wondered if there was a grain of truth to it. It was much easier to be silently and secretly enthralled with Jack than it was to try to carry on a conversation with him that didn’t involve work.
She rolled onto her side and sighed into her pillow. He was still the most exciting man she had ever met. Tonight was an aberration. Tomorrow she and Jack would return to the office, and she would become invisible again. Everything would be normal.
The following morning Amanda put on her wrinkled suit, brushed the tangles from her hair and avoided looking into the mirror. She just didn’t want to know what she looked like.
She stepped into the kitchen and found Jack talking with a stern-looking, older woman. “Lilly, Mrs. Downey will take care of you today since Ms. Brown is still sick.”
Amanda glanced at Lilly and immediately saw the little girl’s feelings on the subject. The telltale protrusion of her bottom lip, followed by too-shiny eyes grabbed at Amanda’s heart.
Lilly shook her head, and in the middle of one shake, she spotted Amanda and ran to her. In her timid, whispered voice, she asked, “Can you stay with me?”
Amanda ruffled Lilly’s hair. “Oh, sweetie, I wish I could, but I work for your daddy at his office and—”
Attaching her small frame to Amanda’s leg, Lilly started to sob. Amanda looked helplessly at Jack.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Downey,” he said quietly and moved to Amanda’s side. “Let’s take her to the office.”
Amanda stared at him. “Pardon me?”
“The Eastco deal is done. It will be a light day,” he said.
“Easy for whom?” Amanda asked, knowing how quickly her work piled up in her absence. “I was gone yesterday. Remember?”
“I remember. It will be a light day,” he told her. “I promise. The poor kid’s been through too many changes lately. This one isn’t necessary.”
Amanda felt the intensity of his gaze down to her bones. She hadn’t become invisible again. Yet. With Lilly clinging to her and Jack looking at her that way, she had no choice. “Okay,” she said.
Jack glanced at Mrs. Downey. “We’ve had a change of plans, but I’d like to compensate you for coming out on such short notice.”
After quickly downing cereal, toast and milk, the three of them piled into Jack’s Mercedes and headed for Amanda’s town house apartment on the other side of town. Showing no favoritism, Delilah greeted them at the door, swirling between each pair of legs.
Lilly squealed with delight.
Jack quirked his lips into a wry grin. “The slut?” he asked in a voice for Amanda’s ears only.
“I didn’t exaggerate. Let me get dressed. It will only take a few minutes. Make yourselves at—” She broke off, the comparison between her comfortable but modest apartment and Jack’s luxurious home hitting her. “Have a seat,” she said instead.
Lilly wandered upstairs and watched Amanda lose a battle with a curling iron. When Amanda applied lipstick, the little girl puckered her lips; a silent invitation for Amanda to paint her tiny mouth, too. Amanda smiled and complied, then put on her pearl earrings. Digging through the jewelry box, Lilly selected the gaudy rhinestone drop earrings Amanda had received as a gag gift and never worn.
Chuckling, she clipped the large earrings on Lilly’s little ears. “Oh, your daddy is going to love these. Let’s go.”
They walked downstairs, and Amanda watched Jack do a double take at his daughter. “She has excellent taste, wouldn’t you say?” Amanda asked.
Audibly swallowing his amusement, he nodded. “You look beautiful, Lilly.”
“This is when you say thank you,” Amanda whispered to Lilly.
“Thank you,” Lilly echoed in a whisper.
Lilly