Chapter 11
Wine spewed from his lips and fountained over the coffee table, the playing cards, the bare hardwood floor. Zara jumped to her feet and ran to the kitchen, coming back with a roll of brown paper towels. As she mopped up the mess, he spluttered, “Why…I mean…what…”
“What gave it away?” She glanced up at him with sympathy in her eyes.
“Don’t ask me for details, but I know how tough it is for folks who have served their time.
No one wants to hire them, no one wants to rent to them.
I’m pretty sure you were staying in the linen storage closet.
I’m close with the housekeepers, and they alerted me. ”
Good God, he was leaving the Royal Leilani just in time. He would have gotten caught by someone less tolerant than Zara if he’d stayed much longer.
“I know the Royal Leilani does very thorough background checks, so if you’d gone to prison for something violent, they never would have hired you.
But the owner, Mr. Halligan, he has a certain, ah, history of his own.
” She pretended to speak from behind her hand.
“Tax evasion but don’t tell anyone,” she whispered.
“I doubt it will come up.”
“Halligan did some minimum-security time, and when he came out he said it opened his eyes to all the inequities in our justice system. I assume that’s why he hired you, because you too have done time, but not for anything dangerous. He’s super strict about that.”
Lincoln opened his mouth, then shut it again. The less he said about himself the better. Should he just let her assume he was a released prisoner? No, that would get complicated too. What if she asked him what crime he’d committed?
“I’ve never gone to prison. Never committed a crime,” he added, in case that wasn’t clear.
“Oh good.” She relaxed back in the armchair and whooshed out a breath of relief. “Then I feel much more comfortable about asking if you would like to…I know this is going to sound strange, but keep an open mind…”
Wild and inappropriate thoughts flew through his head. Spend the night? Get naked? Drink wine from her belly button?
She drew in a breath, oblivious to his lustful imaginings. “Would you like a job in childcare, specifically as a ‘manny’ of sorts for Eddie?”
He gaped at her. She went on.
“Odessa, my usual babysitter, is having some legal issues. I can’t get into it due to lawyer-client confidentiality.”
“She’s your lawyer?”
“No, I’m her lawyer.”
He squinted at her, wondering if the wine had distorted his cognitive functioning. This woman had such a way of surprising him. “You’re a lawyer?”
“Not yet. I’m still a few courses away, and of course I haven’t taken the bar exam yet.
But I have been providing legal-ish services for her.
Anyway, not the point. Clearly, I can’t leave Eddie on his own at the Royal Leilani.
I never should have to begin with, but I was in a jam.
I felt so bad about what happened with the tree, but I’m choosing to see it as a sign that I need a different child care arrangement.
Eddie already knows you, and you took really good care of him. He likes you. So I thought of you!”
For a moment, he imagined how anyone in the Kerr family would react right now. They’d roll on the floor laughing at the idea of a driven, workaholic, disconnected-from-his-own-family, former CEO becoming a “manny.”
They were right. He had no business being responsible for a young person.
Lincoln shook his head. “I let him fall out of that tree. I watched it happen.”
“It wasn’t your fault. The branch broke.
Eddie told me how it went down. Imagine if you hadn’t been there when it happened.
” She shuddered and covered her eyes with one hand.
“I hate even thinking about it. A hundred percent, it wasn’t your fault.
It was mine. I should have figured something else out for Eddie. ”
“Can I ask you something?”
She spread apart her fingers to look at him. “Does that mean you’re thinking about my proposal?”
“No.” Her proposal was insane. He couldn’t be anyone’s “manny.” Especially now, when he was neck-deep in the search for the CHUM. “It’s just a question. Where are your parents? Why do you have responsibility for Mia and Eddie?”
A young voice coming from the kitchen answered. “Because our mom is in a cult and our dad is in—”
Mia was interrupted by Zara scrambling out of the armchair. “Mia! Jim doesn’t need to know all that.”
“Fine, whatever. Have you seen my geranium cream?”
“It’s in the fridge, where thirty-dollar face cream is supposed to live.”
Mia made a face at her, grabbed the cream from the fridge, and padded to the rear of the house, where their bedrooms were located.
She and Eddie shared a room, Zara had explained, with only a curtain to separate them.
This was apparently one of the tragic circumstances that kept Mia wearing all black.
“You wouldn’t have to watch Mia,” Zara assured him quickly.
“She’s fifteen and very self-sufficient.
She’d love to have someone around to help out with Eddie, so I doubt you’d get many hassles with her.
She saves all her snarkiness for me. In answer to your question, Mia and Eddie are my half-brother and sister.
My mother is dead, and their mother ran away with a cult leader.
We all have the same father and he is currently unavailable for parenting duties. ”
As she met his eyes, her face fell. His reluctance must be as obvious as his sunburn.
“I have no relevant experience,” he told her. “I’m the youngest in my family so I’ve never babysat. I’m not close to my nieces and nephews. You must be able to find someone better suited than me.”
“But Eddie likes you. And you’ve proved yourself to me by your actions.
You might have saved his life today. Anyway.
” She waved her hand in that way that he was starting to associate with her.
“Think about it. I’m just putting it out there, but there’s no need to decide right away.
Let’s change the subject.” She poured herself another glass of wine.
“I looked up Lewis Hamilton. Belated laughter at that joke.”
He laughed too, although it hadn’t really been a joke. He knew the race car driver from a celebrity racing event in which wealthy people paid to drive with their favorite drivers. Hamilton had complimented him, although he probably shouldn’t take that too literally.
“Oh! Another thing. I almost forgot with all the craziness today. Remember that Japanese security dude who acted so strange at hale twelve?”
Every muscle in his body tightened. “Is he back?”
“Sort of. Big Joe saw him at the Kona Queen. He’s doing private security for some Japanese bigwig and his family. Which reminds me, I was going to look up Lincoln Kerr to see if he’s connected to this Tanaka guy. I mean, why did that dude name-drop Lincoln Kerr instead of his actual boss?”
She pulled out her phone. Lincoln panicked.
If she looked him up right now, while he was sitting not three feet away from her, for sure she’d recognize him.
He’d changed his appearance as much as possible—grown out a scruffy beard, allowed his face to get sunburned, let his hair get longer than the ruthless cropped style he usually favored.
No one had recognized him so far. He wasn’t the kind of famous person anyone would recognize, so that wasn’t a shocker.
But comparing him to an image on her phone…
He swept his hand against his glass and knocked it over. Wine spilled over the coffee table, which was fortunately empty since the last time he’d spurted wine onto it. He jumped to his feet. “Damn it. Not again!”
She put her phone away and rushed to the kitchen for that same roll of paper towels. Tearing off a length of paper, she handed it to him, and they both set to work mopping up the mess.
“I suppose you’ll never hire me now,” he joked. “That’s two strikes against me before I even start.”
“You’re not getting out of it that easy.” She wagged a finger at him. “The offer is still open. I’ll just make a point of keeping the coffee table cleared off.”
He smiled at that. She refilled his glass yet again.
“Please think about it. Manny-ing is much easier than gardening. I can write it all out for you. Best snacks, favorite books, library hours. You’d be striking a blow for gender equality, being a man in childcare.
You already know where the Urgent Care is, so you’re halfway there.
” She lifted her glass in a toast. “Cheers to maybe possibly considering it?”
She was irresistible. He clinked his glass against hers. Lincoln Kerr, Billionaire Manny. Was this really happening or had he hit his head a bit too hard when he’d caught Eddie?