JACLYN SAT AT HER DESK, staring after Rick Perrini’s truck long after it had disappeared down the street. She’d been able to tell by the look on his face as he’d stormed out of the office that something was terribly wrong, but he hadn’t spoken a word to her. Neither had she heard anything in the past fifteen minutes from Cole. Had he fired Rick? Had Rick quit? Was it just a brotherly spat that would mend itself before noon?
Somehow she doubted it. The silence was too heavy, the screech of Rick’s tires too final for this incident to be anything less than serious. So what should she do now? Let it go as if nothing had happened and finish the index she was working on for the filing system? Or see if there was something she could do for Cole?
Smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress, Jaclyn rounded her desk and walked slowly down the hall, trying to muffle the sound of her approach so she could get a look at Cole before deciding whether or not to interrupt him. Would he rather not be bothered?
The door to his office stood open, probably just the way Rick had left it, and Cole was sitting behind his desk, staring off into space. His profile was grim, hard. He certainly didn’t look like a man who needed or wanted anyone. But then he turned, and Jaclyn saw the emotion in his eyes.
He was hurt. Evidently, Cole Perrini was as vulnerable as any other man.
Hesitantly, she crossed the room, wondering what she was going to do or say once she reached him. She had no idea what was wrong between him and his brother. And she didn’t know them well enough to guess. But Cole had been there for her when she’d been at the end of her rope, and she wanted to return the favor.
As she drew near, she expected the tough facade he normally wore to snap back into place. She thought he’d stand up and in his most professional voice ask her what she needed. Instead, he rolled his chair back and simply looked at her.
Stepping closer, Jaclyn tentatively put her hands on his forearm. “Are you okay?” she asked. His skin was warm beneath her fingers and she felt a sudden need to hold him, to comfort him.
He didn’t answer. Nor did he move. He looked at her as though he was experiencing the same need for contact she was. Jaclyn thought he might pull her to him, maybe lay his cheek against her stomach, but the sound of Chad’s voice intruded, and she moved away. “Where is everyone?” he called from the front office.
Jaclyn took another step back right before he appeared in the doorway. “Here you guys are. What’s going on?”
Jaclyn cleared her throat and glanced at Cole, who was watching her with a shuttered expression, the pain she’d seen in his eyes just a few moments earlier now hidden, if it still existed. “I was just, um, checking on something,” she said, when a more specific reason for being in Cole’s office—and for standing so close to him—eluded her.
“Was it okay?” Chad asked.
“Was what okay?” she asked, edging toward the door.
“Whatever you were checking on.”
“Oh, yeah. It was good.” Then she slipped from the room and fled to her desk.
“WHAT’S UP WITH RICK?” Chad asked, as soon as Jackie disappeared down the hall. “He told me yesterday he’d have the checks I need to pay the cement subs for Phase II waiting on his desk, but they’re not there. When I called him on his cell to ask him why, he said I needed to talk to you.”
Cole forced his attention away from Jackie and the longing she’d evoked when she touched him, and focused on his younger brother. “He quit,” he said simply.
“He what?”
“He’s going out on his own.”
“To do what?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Is he going to build houses?”
Cole shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Chad propped a callused hand on his hip and frowned. “That’s crazy, man. We can make a lot more together than we can apart.”
“I don’t think it’s about money,” Cole said.
“Then, what’s the problem?”
The problem was the past, the things he and Rick did, the things they couldn’t forget, the things they couldn’t forgive. It was the love and the hate between two brothers, but Cole wasn’t about to explain that. Deep down, Chad already knew.
“He’ll come around,” he said, hoping it was true.
“I’m sure he will. Rick was with you from the start, when the rest of us were still in school. I can’t imagine him walking away now.”
“Except, he’s changed,” Cole said. “Something’s up.”
Chad’s eyebrows lifted. “What do you mean by that?”
“Do you spend much time with him at night?”
“No. We used to go out every now and then to hit a few nightclubs or maybe a movie. We’d even double-date on occasion. You know how it was—you used to go with us sometimes until you got too busy. But he never calls anymore, and when I call him, he tells me he’s already got plans. I just assumed he’s met a woman and will introduce us to her when he’s ready.”
“He claims he’s not seeing anyone. You don’t think he’s gambling or losing his shorts in the stock market, do you?”
“Wouldn’t that motivate him to keep his job, instead of quitting it?”
“I don’t know. Rick’s not an easy person to second-guess.”
“Are you saying he might be in some sort of trouble?”
Cole shook his head. “I wish I knew.”
BORED. BORED. BORED. She was bored. She’d been working for Cole more than two weeks, and every day she had less to do.
Covering a yawn, Jaclyn checked the clock on the wall and counted the hours and minutes until five: three hours and eight minutes—six minutes less than the last time she’d looked. She synchronized her watch and straightened the few items on her desk, then stared at the phone, silently pleading for it to ring. She’d already interviewed all those who had called about the sales position and had made her recommendations to Cole. He was planning to meet with the final three candidates tomorrow, but she hated to see him hire someone so soon.
Then the only task she’d been given of any consequence, besides the filing system index, which she’d finished long ago, would come to an end. Cole had promised to train her at some point, but ever since Rick had quit, he hadn’t had the time. He was doing his job and his brother’s, too, and was either gone on appointments or shut away in his private office until late at night. Which left Jaclyn with nothing to do but answer the phone and hope the opportunity to do another interview would break the tedium, despite all the things piling up on Rick’s desk. If only she had a few minutes of Cole’s time, or the permission to dig through the stack of work and see what she could do to help, she might be able to accomplish some of the items that needed attention, but most days Cole was too engrossed to even speak to her.
The phone rang, and Jaclyn snatched it up. “Perrini Homes, Oak Ranch Estates.”
It was Margaret Huntley, one of the real-estate agents she’d recommended to Cole, returning her call. Jaclyn set up a time for her to come in tomorrow and meet with him, then hung up and wondered what she was going to do until the phone rang again. Finally she picked up the receiver and called the kids.
“Mommy, we’re fine. Why do you keep calling?” Mackenzie asked when their sitter, Holly Smith, brought her to the phone.
“I’m just missing you,” Jaclyn said. “How’s Alyssa?”
“She’s fine.”
“How’s Alex?”
“Good.”
“Does he want to talk to me?”
Mackenzie didn’t answer directly, but her voice nearly broke Jaclyn’s eardrum when she yelled for her brother. In the interim that followed, Jaclyn heard Holly encouraging Alex to come to the phone, but he must have refused, because Mackenzie spoke to her again instead. “He’s playing Wii,” she said. “He wants to know when you’re going to get to drive your boss’s car again.”
“Probably never. Our car is working fine since I bought the new battery. There’s no need to borrow anyone else’s. Does Alyssa want to say hello?”
“She’s outside on the patio riding her trike with Travis.” Travis was Holly’s son, an only child just six months older than Alyssa and one of two other children in the neighborhood.
“Okay. No need to bother her. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Mackenzie said goodbye, and Jaclyn hung up. So much for talking to the kids. They were beginning to get annoyed by the number of times she’d called. After working at Joanna’s, where she’d been running every minute, the sudden standstill was driving her nuts. She’d wanted this job so she could learn real estate and build a future for herself and her children. She didn’t want Cole paying her twenty-five hundred a month just because she was an old friend he couldn’t refuse. If only she knew more about office work, she’d start to dig through the things on Rick’s desk the way she had the filing. But she was afraid she’d mess something up or overstep her bounds.
Unfortunately the only thing she was really good at was running a household. She could cook and sew with the best of them. She could can and bake and decorate. And she could clean. Not that any of it was very useful in her current situation. Or was it?
Suddenly Jaclyn had an idea. If Cole didn’t have time to teach her the business and preferred to let Rick’s job go undone, maybe she could help him in other areas. Judging from the bare cupboards in his kitchen, the few meals he actually took the time to eat and the thick layer of dust covering almost everything in his part of the house, he didn’t need an administrative assistant half as badly as he needed a housekeeper and cook.
And she was a good cook.
SOMETHING SMELLED like heaven.
Only half listening to what Larry Schneider from the bank was saying over the phone, Cole pushed away from his desk and sniffed the air. Pot roast, with onions. Or maybe it was steak and onions, but it sure smelled like pot roast…. “Cole?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you have to say?”
“About what?”
“About the interest rate. Are you willing to go up half a percent? Otherwise, I doubt I’m going to be able to sell this loan to the board. I mean, if I were the only one who had to approve it, that’d be different. But on a project this size…”
Where was that aroma coming from? A barbecue outside? No, a few of the homes in the first phase of Oak Ranch had already sold due to drive-by traffic, but they hadn’t closed escrow yet. The closest neighborhood to his development was more than a mile away. Even with every window in the house open—and there weren’t any because the air conditioner was running—he wouldn’t be able to smell someone’s dinner cooking from that far away—
“Cole? Are you there?” Larry demanded.
“Yeah, I’m here. What was that again?”
“What was what? I need an answer.”
Cole couldn’t give him an answer because he couldn’t remember the question. He couldn’t think of anything except dinner. He’d been holed up in his office for nearly eight hours without breaking for lunch. He was famished and tired and annoyed about the amount of work Rick’s absence had caused, and worried about everything that wasn’t getting done—and he couldn’t figure out why his house suddenly smelled like a winter holiday in late August.
“I’m sorry. I have to go, Larry. I think someone’s cooking pot roast in my kitchen.”
“You think? You don’t know?”
“It could be something else.”
“I meant—”
“I’ll call you in the morning.”
After hanging up, Cole followed his nose out of his office and down the hall to the kitchen, where he found Jaclyn lifting a roasting pan out of the oven.
“Hello,” she said, smiling when she saw him.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “It’s four-thirty in the afternoon. You’re supposed to be in the office.”
Her expression grew uncertain. “There wasn’t anything to do in the office. There hasn’t been for over two weeks. And I can’t imagine that you appreciate paying me twenty-five hundred a month to sit behind my desk and answer five or six calls an hour. So I brought the cordless phone in here with me and decided to make better use of myself.”
Cole eyed the steam coming off the meat and cut-up carrots, potatoes and onions she’d just uncovered. “I knew it was pot roast.”
She glanced up at him as she set the lid aside. “It was the only thing I could find without running to the store. I was going to ask if I could defrost the meat, but you’ve been on the phone for hours. So I called Chad on his cell, and he said to do whatever I thought would be the most helpful.”
“And that was making dinner?”
She shrugged. “You’ve got to eat. Restaurant food has to be getting old for you, and at least this way you’re getting something for the money you’re paying me. Hope you don’t mind.”
Did he mind? Cole jammed a hand through his hair as he tried to decide. If his admin assistant had been anyone else, someone old and gray, perhaps, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it. He would have thanked her and enjoyed the meal. But seeing the girl he’d dreamed about all through high school standing in his kitchen wearing oven mitts and serving him dinner seemed to cross the “too personal” line. Ever since the day Rick left, when she seemed to know just what he needed and had reached out to him in his office, he’d been careful to keep his distance. If he didn’t, he could end up raising another family, and he just didn’t have it in him for a repeat performance, especially after raising a child as difficult as Rick.
“I don’t mind, but neither do I expect it,” he said, rounding the island to find coleslaw, an apple-nut salad and what looked like breakfast biscuits waiting in separate bowls for him on the table.
“I know it probably seems like an odd medley,” she said, glancing at the food. “But you didn’t have any fruit aside from apples, and you had very little produce. I’ll go to the grocery store tonight. Tomorrow’s dinner will be better.”
Tomorrow’s dinner? Was she going to make a habit of this? Cole opened his mouth to explain that he had no intention of having her cook for him on a regular basis. But the food smelled so good, and she seemed so pleased with her efforts, that he decided to save the “never again” until later.
“It looks great.”
“Good.” She put a single place setting on the table and started serving up his plate.
“Am I eating alone?” he asked. Considering the amount of food, he’d expected her to join him.
She checked her watch. “Unless you’d like to invite someone over. I have just enough time to clean up the dishes. Then I’m off to pick up my kids.”
The single setting and her brisk, matter-of-fact manner quickly dispelled the intimacy of her having cooked for him. He even felt embarrassed about the way his mind had jumped to the conclusion that she was probably trying to shackle him. But instead of bringing Cole the relief he expected, the thought made him feel…slightly disappointed. Apparently the pot roast didn’t mean anything.
“Are you saying you’re willing to cook as part of your job?” he asked.
“Just until I can learn more about real estate. I’ve signed up for some home-study classes to get the mandatory school credits out of the way and to help me prepare for my state test. And I’m hoping you’ll still train me around here when you get the time. Meanwhile, I thought I could do some cleaning, maybe take over the laundry, pick up your dry cleaning, that sort of thing. I know this is a…difficult time, with Rick gone, and I want to help. You’re paying me too much to just answer the phone.”
She seemed in earnest. Cole couldn’t help but admire her work ethic. He couldn’t see how he stood to lose, either. As long as Jackie could manage what he needed her to do in the office, she could fill in around the house. Why would he want to say no to home-cooked meals, to having his shirts cleaned and pressed? Certainly she had no designs on him.
He cut a piece off the slice of roast she’d given him and took his first bite. Delicious. Every bit as good as the smell had promised.
“How is it?” she asked, above the water running in the sink.
“Excellent.” He smiled for the first time since discovering her in his kitchen. “I’ll give you some money so you can go to the grocery store and get whatever you like.”
“Any special requests?”
He sampled the salads and was surprised to find them almost as good as the roast and potatoes and gravy. If she could do this well with what he’d had in his cupboards, the situation might definitely be taking a turn for the better.
“Meat loaf,” he said decisively. “It’s been fifteen years or more since I’ve had meat loaf.”
RICK WAS EXHAUSTED. It had been three weeks since he’d quit Perrini Homes, but the last person he wanted to see, other than Cole, was Chad, standing on his front doorstep when he returned home after a long day.
“Did Cole send you?” he asked, braking in his driveway with his car window down so he could speak to his brother, who’d stepped off the porch and started toward him.
“Does it matter if he did?” Chad shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he walked.
Letting his engine idle, Rick stared at the two white holes his headlights seemed to bore into the garage as his brother came alongside his car. “It’s after midnight on a Wednesday night, and I know you have to get up early,” he said. “I was just going to save you the trouble of staying out any later if Cole’s behind your visit. Because if he sent you, I don’t have anything to say.”
Chad left his hands in his pockets but stood straighter, obviously surprised and probably offended by the statement, but Rick wasn’t about to back off. He had to draw a hard line with Cole, with all his brothers, or he’d soon find himself working at Perrini Homes again. And he didn’t want to go back.
“What’s going on?” Chad demanded. “Cole’s been good to you. He’s been good to all of us. Aren’t you being a little ungrateful?”
“Ungrateful?” Rick shook his head. It was gratitude and grudging respect that had tethered him to Cole in the first place. He’d spent the past ten years of his life helping to build Cole’s business, trying to repay his older brother for the sacrifices he’d made when they were growing up. But Rick had finally realized that what he owed Cole was a debt he could never satisfy. Nothing he did now would change what had happened when they were kids. Nothing could make up for it.
“It’s just time for something new,” he said to keep things simple, knowing that Chad would never understand how he truly felt. His younger brother was satisfied to be Cole’s contractor, would probably be happy with the position for the rest of his life. Chad wanted nothing more than to put in a good week’s work and collect his pay, all the while knowing Cole was behind him with a safety net should something go wrong. Why Rick couldn’t be more like him, or Brian or Andrew, he didn’t know. But for some reason, he had to prove, if only to himself, that he could make it without big brother’s help.
“Weren’t you making enough money?” Chad asked.
Rick glanced beyond Chad to the home he’d bought just a few months earlier. Set on a big lot in an upper-class neighborhood, it was a nice place. He hadn’t yet finished the landscaping in back or furnished all the rooms, but he’d bought it more as an investment, anyway. He planned to sell it in a few years, take his equity and upgrade to a larger place. Maybe by then, he’d have a family and need the space.
“It wasn’t the money. I just have some things I want to do on my own.”
Chad leaned against the side of the car and kicked a small stone off the driveway. “I’m not going to get in the middle of it,” he said at last.
“I don’t think it’s possible to remain neutral and still feel like you’re being loyal to Cole. I understood and accepted that when I left. I know how you feel about him.”
“I owe Cole a lot, but I’m not going to give up one brother because of another,” he said.
Rick smiled. He’d thought he’d have to walk away from the whole family to gain his freedom, but Chad seemed to be offering him an alternative, at least where he was concerned. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Chad shoved away from the car. “Want to go out tomorrow night? Have a couple drinks?”
“I can’t,” Rick said. “I’ve already got plans.”
Chad squinted through the darkness, studying him, and Rick expected him to start in where Cole had left off, drilling him about how he was spending his nights. But he didn’t.
After a moment he simply nodded and said, “Okay. You’ve got my number.”
Then he left.