It Happened One Night
“Take your time,” he said, looking around. Several children sat in pint-size chairs at tables that were just as small. He couldn’t imagine ever being little enough to fit into furniture that size.
As he watched, Russ and Winnie Bartlett’s youngest little girl got out of her chair and walked over to hold up a paper with crayon scribbles for Kiley’s inspection. She acted as if the kid had just drawn the Mona Lisa, causing the toddler to beam with pride.
Josh had never taken much to little kids. For one thing, he had never been around them and didn’t have a clue how to relate to them. But he found himself smiling as he watched Kiley talk to the child as she pinned the drawing to a bulletin board. Only a coldhearted bastard would ignore the fact that she had just made the little girl’s day.
“Carrie, could you take over for me for a few minutes?” she asked a young woman Josh assumed to be the day care worker Kiley had hired not long after the center opened. When the woman nodded, Kiley walked over to him and motioned toward a door on the far side of the room. “Why don’t we go into my office? Otherwise, I can’t guarantee we won’t be interrupted.”
As he followed her to her office, he found himself fascinated by the slight sway of her hips. He had to force himself to keep his eyes trained on her slender shoulders. But that only drew his attention to the exposed skin between the collar of her red sweater and the bottom of her short blond hair—a spot that looked extremely kissable.
His heart thumped hard against his rib cage and heat began to fill his lower belly. What the hell was wrong with him? Had it been that long since he and his last girlfriend parted ways?
“Please have a seat, Mr. Gordon,” Kiley said, walking behind the small desk to sit down in an old wooden chair.
He recognized both the desk and the chair as having been in the storage room for as long as he had been a member of the club and probably for decades before that. If circumstances had been different, he might have felt guilty about the funding committee insisting her office be furnished with the club’s castoffs. But considering none of the members on the panel, with maybe the exception of Nadine Capshaw, expected the center to remain open past spring, it had been decided that the used furniture would be good enough.
“Call me Josh,” he said, sitting in a metal folding chair across the desk from her.
“I assume you’ve come to tell me the funding committee’s decision on my request...Josh?” she asked, sounding as if she already knew the outcome of the vote.
There was something about the sound of her voice saying his name that caused him to frown. “Before we get into the committee’s decision, could I ask you something?”
“I...uh, suppose so.” He could tell by the hesitation in her voice and her wary expression that she didn’t trust him.
“Do we know each other?” he asked, realizing immediately from the slight widening of her expressive brown eyes that they did.
“No,” she said a little too quickly.
“Are you sure?” he pressed, determined to find out what she knew that he didn’t.
“Well, we...um, don’t know each other formally,” she said, suddenly taking great interest in her tightly clasped hands resting on top of the desk.
She was hiding something, and he intended to find out what it was. “So we have met?” he continued.
“In a way...I guess you could say that.” Her knuckles had turned white from her tight grip and he knew whatever she hid was extremely stressful for her. “It was quite by accident.”
Every hair follicle on his head felt as if it stood straight up, and he suddenly wasn’t so sure he wanted to know what she obviously didn’t want to tell him. “Where would that have been?” he heard himself ask in spite of his reservations.
Getting up, she closed her office door, then slowly lowered herself into the chair when she returned to the desk. “You used to date my sister.”
A cold, clammy feeling snaked its way up his spine. “I did?”
When she finally raised her head to meet his gaze head-on, a knot the size of his fist began to twist his gut. “I’m Lori Miller’s sister. Her only sister.”
Josh opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. For the first time in his adult life, he couldn’t think of a thing to say. But his unusual reaction to her suddenly started to make sense. From the moment she’d walked into the meeting room to plead her case to the funding committee, he had been fighting to keep his libido under control. Now he knew why. He might not have realized who she was, but apparently his body had. The chemistry between them that night three years ago had been undeniable and it appeared that it was just as powerful now. Unless he missed his guess, her nervousness had just as much to do with the magnetic pull between them as it did with her reluctance to admit what had taken place.
As he stared at her, it occurred to him why Kiley seemed familiar to him. Although it had been too dark to tell what she looked like that night, he could see the resemblance between her and her sister now. Kiley had the same extraordinary brown eyes and flawless alabaster skin that Lori had. But that seemed to be where the similarities between the two women ended. While Lori was considerably taller and had auburn hair, Kiley was shorter and had dark blond hair that looked so silky it practically begged a man to tangle his fingers in it as he made love to her. When his lower body began to tighten, he swallowed hard and tried to think of something—anything—to get his mind back on track.
“Your last name is different,” he stated the obvious.
She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. “I was married briefly.”
“But not anymore?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
“No.”
He swallowed hard as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “You weren’t married—”
“No. Not then.”
Relieved that he hadn’t crossed that particular line, Josh released the breath he hadn’t been aware of holding. “That’s good.”
“Look, I’m not any happier than you are about having to work with you on the day care center’s funding,” she said, her cheeks coloring a pretty pink. “But this isn’t the time or the place to get into what happened that night. I think it would be for the best if we forgot the incident ever happened and concentrate on my request for the day care center and the committee’s decision not to give me the extra money I need to keep it running.”
He knew she was right. A day care center full of little kids certainly wasn’t the place to talk over his mistakenly making love to her. And she had a valid point about forgetting that night. It would definitely be the prudent thing to do. But some perverse part of him resented her wanting to dismiss what had arguably been the most exciting night of his life. He’d never been with a woman, either before or since, as responsive and passionate as Kiley had been.
“I agree,” he finally said. “We can take a trip down memory lane another time.” He could tell his choice of words and the fact that he thought they should revisit the past wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
She folded her arms beneath her breasts, causing his mouth to go dry. “Mr. Gordon—”
“I prefer you call me Josh,” he reminded her.
“Josh, I think you’d better—”
“I have good news and bad news,” he said, thinking quickly. If her body language was any indication, she was about two seconds away from throwing him out of her office.
Whether it was due to the lingering guilt he still harbored over his part in the incident or the distrust he detected in her big brown eyes, he wasn’t sure. But he suddenly felt the need to prove to her that she had the wrong opinion of him.
“I’m going to give you a month’s worth of the funding you requested in order for you to convince me that the day care center is worthwhile and a needed addition to the services the club provides to the TCC membership,” he stated, before she could interrupt.
She frowned. “That isn’t what the committee decided, is it?”
“Not exactly,” he said honestly. “The committee voted four to one to deny you the extra money. But after seeing the way you were with the Bartletts’ little girl, you’ve got my attention. I’ll be checking in periodically to see for myself that the money was needed and put to good use.”
If anything, she looked even more skeptical. “What happens at the end of that time?”
“If I determine that you do need the additional funding, at our meeting just before Christmas I’ll give my personal recommendation to the committee that we add the amount you asked for to your yearly budget,” he finished.
“If my request was turned down, where is this money going to come from?” she asked, looking more suspicious by the second.
“You let me worry about that,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’ll see that the appropriate amount is added to the day care’s account as of this afternoon. It should be accessible for whatever you need by tomorrow morning.”
Before she could question him further, he opened her office door and left to go to the TCC’s main office to make arrangements for the funding to be put into the day care’s account. He was going to be taking the money out of his own pocket to subsidize the center for the next month, but it would be worth it. For one thing, he wanted to prove to her that he wasn’t the nefarious SOB she apparently thought him to be. And for another, it was the only thing he could think of that might come close to atoning for his role in what happened three years ago.
Two
Kiley spent most of the next day jumping every time the door to the day care center opened. True to his word, Josh had added money to the center’s account and she did appreciate that. But it was his promised visits to observe how she ran things and to see what the funds were being used for that had her nerves stretched to the breaking point. She didn’t want to see him again or have to jump through hoops to get the money the center needed. Besides, every time she looked into his blue eyes, it reminded her that they shared a very intimate secret—one that, try as she might, she couldn’t forget.
“The children have put away the toys and I’ve finished reading them a story. Would you like for me to take them outside to the play area for a bit before we start practicing their songs?” Carrie Kramer asked, walking over to where Kiley had finished putting stars by the names of the children who had remembered to wash their hands before their afternoon snack.
“That would be great.” Kiley smiled at the young woman she’d hired to be her assistant after meeting her at the Royal Diner. “While they expend some of their excess energy outside, I’ll get things ready for us to practice their songs before they go home.”
As she watched Carrie help the children get their coats on and form a single line by the exit to the play yard, Kiley turned to go into her office for the things they would be using for the holiday program they were putting on for the parents the week before Christmas. Gathering the props, she decided she would have to make two trips as she turned to retrace her steps back into the main room. Distracted as she tried to remember everything they would need, she ran headlong into Josh standing just inside the doorway to her office.
“Oh, my dear heavens!” The giant jingle bells in the box she carried jangled loudly as she struggled to hang on to it.
Placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her, he frowned. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I called your name when I found the other room empty.”
The warmth of his hands seemed to burn through her pink silk blouse. Kiley quickly took a step back. “I must not have heard it over the sound of these bells.”
“Let me help you with these,” he said, taking the box from her. “Where are the kids?”
“My assistant took them outside for playtime before we start practicing for their Christmas program,” she said, picking up her CD player and several large plastic candy canes.
Their arms brushed as she walked past him, and an awareness she hadn’t felt in a very long time caused her heart to skip several beats. She did her best to ignore it.
“I intended to stop by earlier in the day, but I got tied up at one of our construction sites and it took longer than I anticipated,” he said, following her over to the brightly colored carpet where the children gathered for story time. “I wasn’t sure anyone would still be here. When do the kids go home?”
“Normally, all of the children get picked up by five-thirty,” she answered, setting the candy canes and the CD player on a small table. “But Gil Addison sometimes gets detained by club business and runs a few minutes late picking up his son, Cade.” A single father, the current president of the TCC had been one of the first to enroll his four-year-old son in the preschool class. Unlike the members of the funding committee, Gil seemed extremely enthusiastic about having the center at the clubhouse. “No matter what time it is, I stay until every child is safely in the care of their parents or someone they’ve designated to pick up the child.”
“So this isn’t just a nine-to-five job, then?” he asked, placing the box on the carpet.
“Not hardly.” Shaking her head, she removed a disc from its case to put in the player. “I have to be here at seven each morning to get things ready for the children’s arrival.”
“When is that?” he asked, his brow furrowing.
“A couple of them get here a few minutes after I do, but they’re all here between eight and eight-thirty,” she said, wondering why he was so interested in the hours the day care center operated. “Why do you ask?”
He ran his hand through his short, light brown hair. “I realize you’re working on contract with the club and aren’t paid overtime, no matter how many hours you work, but doesn’t that make for a pretty long day?”
She couldn’t help but smile. Being able to be with her daughter while she did her job was well worth any extra time she had to put in at the center. “I don’t mind. This is my dream job.”
“I guess if that’s what makes you happy,” he said, looking as if he couldn’t understand anyone feeling that way about working those kinds of hours with a group of small children.
When the children began filing into the room from outside, Kiley breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that she was afraid of Josh. But being alone with him made her feel jumpy and she welcomed the distraction of a roomful of toddlers and preschoolers. She wasn’t at all happy about the effect he had on her and refused to think about why he made her feel that way. She was almost certain she wouldn’t like the answer.
“After you’ve hung up your coats, I want you all to come over to the carpet and sit down, please,” she announced to the children. “We’re going to practice our songs for your Christmas program before you go home this afternoon.”
Her daughter ran over to wrap her arms around one of Kiley’s legs, then looked up at her and giggled. “Me sing.”
“That’s right, Emmie,” Kiley said, stroking her daughter’s dark blond hair as she smiled down at the only good to come out of her brief marriage. “Can you go over and sit with Elaina and Bobby so we can get started, please?”
Emmie nodded, then hurried over to join her two friends where they sat with the rest of the toddlers.
“Miss Kiley, Jimmy Joe Harper pulled my hair,” Sarah Bartlett accused, glaring at the little boy seated beside her.
“Jimmy Joe, did you pull Sarah’s hair again?” Even before he nodded, one look at the impish grin on the child’s face told Kiley that he had. “I’m sorry, but I told you that if you pulled Sarah’s pigtails again you’d have to sit in the ‘time out’ corner for five minutes.”
Without further instruction, the child obediently got to his feet and walked over to sit in a chair by himself in the far corner of the room. When she noticed Josh glancing from her to Jimmy Joe in the “time out” corner, Kiley raised an eyebrow. “Is there something wrong?”
“You didn’t even have to tell him to go over there,” he said, sounding as if he couldn’t quite believe a child would willingly accept his punishment. “And he didn’t protest at all.”
“Jimmy Joe is no stranger to the ‘time out’ corner,” Kiley answered, smiling fondly at the adorable red-haired little boy. “He loves aggravating Sarah.”
Josh looked confused. “Why?”
“Because he likes her.” Kiley turned to her assistant. “Could you please pass out the bells and candy canes, Carrie?”
“I see,” Josh said as a slow grin curved the corners of his mouth. “In other words, he’s teasing her to keep her attention focused on him.”
“Something...like that,” Kiley said, her breath catching at how handsome Josh looked when he smiled.
As her assistant finished handing each child an oversize bell or a giant plastic candy cane, Kiley queued up the music on her CD player and purposely avoided looking at Josh. He made her nervous and she wished he would leave. But it appeared as if he intended to stay for a while.
Deciding that as long as he was there, he might as well participate, she picked up one of the bells and shoved it into his hand. “I assume you know the words to ‘Jingle Bells’?”
He looked surprised, then determined as he shook his head. “Yes, I’m familiar with the song, but I’m afraid I can’t stay. I promised a friend I would stop by his place this afternoon and I’m already running late.”
“That’s a shame,” she lied. She had accomplished what she set out to do. He was going to leave. She couldn’t help but smile. “Maybe another time.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he said, sounding doubtful. He reached out and, taking her hand in his, placed the bell in the center of her palm, then gently folded her fingers around it with his other hand. “Will you be free tomorrow evening?”
Startled by his unexpected question and the warmth of his hands holding hers, she stared at him a moment before she managed to find her voice. “Wh-why?”
“I’d like to discuss a couple of things with you,” he said evasively. He gave her a smile that made her insides flutter. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time to talk to you about it now. I’ll come by here around five-thirty on Friday evening and we’ll have dinner in the club’s restaurant. They have an excellent menu and we’ll be able to talk without interruption.”
Kiley opened her mouth to refuse, but when he tenderly caressed her hand with his, she forgot anything she was about to say. As she watched him walk across the room to the door, she shook her head in an effort to regain her equilibrium.
What was Josh up to? And what did he think they needed to discuss? She had been quite clear when she spoke to the funding committee about the use of the extra money for the day care center. Surely he couldn’t want to talk about what happened that night....
“Miss Kiley, can I go back to the carpet now?” Jimmy Joe asked from the “time out” corner.
“‘May I go back to the carpet,’” Kiley automatically corrected.
“May I?” the little boy asked, flashing his charming grin.
“Yes, you may,” she said, deciding that she could give more thought to Josh and his dinner invitation after the children had gone home for the day.
Kiley went through the motions of rehearsing the Christmas show the children would put on for their parents in a few weeks. But her mind kept straying back to Josh and his ridiculous invitation. Even if she were willing to go to dinner with him—which she wasn’t—she didn’t think he would be all that enthusiastic about dining with a two-year-old.
It wasn’t that Emmie wasn’t well-behaved. She was. But by the end of the day, she was tired and wanted nothing more than dinner, a bath and to go to bed. Besides, there was absolutely nothing Kiley felt the need to discuss with Josh. Now or in the foreseeable future.
* * *
As Josh drove his Mercedes through the gates of Pine Valley, the exclusive golf course community where several of the TCC members had built mansions, he couldn’t help but wonder what he’d been thinking when he asked Kiley to dinner. Why couldn’t he just drop what had happened that night three years ago?
He knew that would be the smartest thing to do and what Kiley wanted. But for reasons he didn’t want to delve into, some perverse part of him wanted her to admit that, although the circumstances that brought them together that night might have been an unfortunate accident, their lovemaking had been nothing short of amazing.
“You’ve lost your mind, Gordon,” he muttered as he steered his car onto Alex Santiago’s private drive.
Doing his best to forget the matter, he parked in front of the palatial home, got out of the car and climbed the steps to the front door. Before he could ring the doorbell, the door opened.
“Hello, Señor Gordon,” a round-faced older woman with kind brown eyes said, stepping back for Josh to enter. “Señor Alex is in the sunroom.”
“How’s he feeling today, Maria?” Josh asked as the housekeeper whom Alex’s fiancée, Cara Windsor, had recently hired led the way toward the back of the elegant home.
Maria stopped, then, turning to face him, gave Josh a worried look. “Señor Alex still has headaches and can’t remember anything before he was found.”
“I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he recovers his memory.” Josh wasn’t entirely sure who he was trying to reassure—the housekeeper or himself.
Alex had been missing for several months before being found, suffering a head injury, in the back of a truck with a group of migrant farm workers smuggled across the border from Mexico. No one seemed to know how he wound up across the border or how he got into the back of the truck with the workers, and he couldn’t tell the authorities anything. There was strong evidence that he had been beaten several times and one theory was that he had been kidnapped. But no matter what had happened, Alex still had amnesia. It had only been recently that he’d been released from Royal Memorial Hospital. With Cara’s encouragement, Alex’s friends from the TCC had been taking turns dropping by to check on his progress. No one had said as much, but Josh knew they all hoped to help him recover his memory so they could find whoever had done this to him.
“How are you feeling today, Alex?” he asked, walking into the sunroom where his friend sat reading a book.
Alex smiled and slowly rose to his feet to extend his hand. “Josh, isn’t it?”
Nodding, Josh shook Alex’s hand. The man’s grip was firm and Josh took that as a good sign that his friend was regaining some of his strength. But he was still cautious about making sure he called his friends by the correct name, which indicated his memory wasn’t much better.
“I wanted to stop by and let you know that we’re all hoping to see you and Cara at the Christmas Ball.” Before his disappearance in the summer, Alex had been on the planning committee for the annual holiday gala. Josh hoped that referring to the event might spark a memory.
“Yes, Cara and I discussed it and we’re hoping that being at the Texas Cattleman’s Club with all of my acquaintances will help me remember something,” Alex answered. He sighed heavily. “It’s damned irritating not being able to remember anything about my life before waking up in the back of that truck.”
“I’m sure there will be a break in the case soon,” Josh said, hoping he was right. “The Royal Police Department’s detective unit is one of the best in the entire state and they’re letting Britt Collins, the state investigator, take the lead. With her FBI training and specialty in kidnapping cases, they’ll have whoever did this to you behind bars in no time.”
“I was told this morning they intend to send my picture to the national television networks in an attempt to find anyone who might have seen who I was with while I was missing. It might also help locate any family I have,” Alex added. “Apparently none of them live close by, because there haven’t been any family members respond to the local news reports about me.”
Josh smiled. “I’m sure the news of all this going national will help to escalate the investigation.”