A Time To Forgive. Darlene Gardner

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СКАЧАТЬ had started dating her after she’d hired him to build her stock portfolio. In the nine months since then, he’d never seen her look anything but her best.

      That included tonight. Despite the pout she wore, along with her beaded, curve-hugging designer dress, she still managed to look beautiful. “What do you mean you can’t go? We’ve been planning this for weeks.”

      By this, she meant a two-hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner supporting the D.C. Professional Women’s Association at a venerable downtown hotel. She’d offered to swing by and pick Connor up since his place was en route to the hotel, and she now stood in the foyer of his town house.

      She’d arrived at a bad time.

      Thirty minutes after he’d told Jaye to pick up her dirty clothes, he’d found his niece lying on her bed listening to her CD player with the clothes still on the floor. She was testing him, he knew. The school guidance counselor had told him to choose his battles. He’d been considering whether this one was worth fighting when the doorbell rang.

      “I’m sorry, Isabel.” Connor brought his focus back to her lovely pouting face. “My neighbor just called a few minutes ago to say she can’t babysit.”

      “Can’t you call somebody else?” Her voice was persuasive, her smile coaxing. “I was really looking forward to tonight.”

      He ran a hand over his smooth-shaven chin. He’d been getting ready for the benefit when he’d gotten the call from Mrs. Piper, a widow in her sixties who lived next door. “I don’t know anybody else to call. I’m lucky to have the one babysitter.”

      “So what am I supposed to do?” Her lower lip thrust forward a fraction more. “Go to the dinner by myself?”

      “Not if you don’t want to. I already paid for the dinners so we’re covered there. I was going to order out for Chinese for Jaye and me. You could join us.”

      She ran a hand down the cloth of her expensive dress. “In this? I don’t think so. I’ll go to the benefit myself and take my chances that someone will want to have dinner with me.”

      She knew very well she wouldn’t be dining alone and wanted Connor to know it, too. Wherever Isabel went, men followed. It was a fact of life he couldn’t get worked up about.

      “Have a good time, then,” he said, without a touch of the jealousy he suspected she’d tried to arouse.

      “Oh, believe me, I will. But before I go, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” She carefully and unnecessarily brushed her hair back from her face with long, slender fingers. He noticed that her nails were tipped with white in what looked like a fresh manicure. Abby Reed’s nails, he remembered, had been unpainted. “How much longer will you be taking care of Jaye?”

      He shrugged. “Like I’ve told you before, I don’t know. It depends upon how long it takes Diana to get her act together.”

      “What if she never gets it together?”

      The question was one Connor hadn’t considered but supposed he should have thought about before now. Diana wasn’t a kid anymore. She was twenty-seven, past the age when he could chalk up her actions to immaturity.

      “Then I’ll keep on taking care of Jaye. I’ll become her legal guardian or adopt her if I have to.”

      “Are you serious?” Her voice turned disbelieving. “You’d raise somebody else’s child?”

      “I’d raise my niece.”

      “But why is she your responsibility? You have parents, Connor. Why can’t your mother take her? Or your father?”

      He’d explained his family situation to Isabel before. He wasn’t about to do it again. “The best place for Jaye right now is with me.”

      “I understand that, and I’m trying to be patient. But can’t you see what a strain this is putting on our relationship? We talked about living together, getting to know each other better, but how can we do that with your niece around?”

      “I’m getting to know you better than I want to,” he said in a low voice.

      “What’s that supposed to mean?”

      He thought of Abby Reed standing in front of his desk, censure on her face. “Did you tell Jaye she wouldn’t be staying with me for much longer?”

      “I thought I was doing her a favor,” she said, pasting on a look of innocence. “I never dreamed her stay here didn’t have an end date.”

      Connor shook his head, wondering why he hadn’t picked up on this aspect of Isabel’s character before. Probably because he’d been so blown away by her good looks.

      “Jaye can stay here as long as she needs to.” Connor crossed his arms over his chest, wondering what he’d ever seen in her. “You’re the one who should go.”

      Her lovely eyes widened. “Are you breaking up with me?”

      He didn’t need to think about his answer. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

      Isabel even looked beautiful when her mouth thinned. “This is unbelievable. One day you’ll realize that you just threw away the best thing that ever happened to you.”

      He let her have the last word. It was the least of his concerns. The angry click of her high heels on the hardwood of the foyer followed by the slam of the door echoed in his ears as he trekked upstairs to deal with Jaye and the pile of dirty clothes.

      Isabel was wrong.

      He’d never come to believe that a woman who couldn’t open her heart to an unhappy, displaced child was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

      He was more likely to think of her as one of his many mistakes.

      CHAPTER TWO

      ABBY STOOD IN FRONT of the school bus, her arms crossed over her chest, the sole of her right shoe tapping on the pavement. All of her students and two of her three chaperones were on the bus, not so patiently waiting for her signal that they could leave.

      She checked her watch, the face of which showed one minute before she’d told her third chaperone the bus was leaving. It was well past the time she’d instructed him to arrive.

      Damn it. Where was that arrogant Connor Smith?

      She had half a mind to hop on the bus and tell the driver to head out, but the other half warned her of the consequences.

      The principal had made it crystal clear that Jaye Smith couldn’t attend the symphony unless Connor Smith chaperoned. If Connor didn’t show and she allowed Jaye to come along anyway, Abby would be in a world of trouble.

      She had no intention of denying the child an opportunity to hear the symphony, but she’d prefer accomplishing that without jeopardizing her job.

      She leafed through a folder, searching for the emergency care form on file for Jaye. Hopefully it would list a cell-phone number for Connor Smith.

      Abby СКАЧАТЬ