“You think?”
He nodded, his smile fading. “Actually, Meagan is the one who’s most like her, and she almost paid dearly for that last year. She discounted some pain she was experiencing as intense but ordinary monthly cramps. She was too busy with work to pay close attention to her own symptoms, and by the time she did, she needed emergency surgery. I can’t remember if that was before you met her.”
“I met her while she was on medical leave to recover from that operation,” she reminded him. “She’s the one who originally interviewed me as a favor to Seth. He was going through a busy time at the law office and she had some time off, so it worked out for both of them for her to screen some applicants for the housekeeping position.”
“And she highly recommended you, as I understand it. With a strong endorsement from Alice, who’d also met you that first day and decided you were the perfect candidate.”
“I was grateful to both of them,” she answered candidly. “Without their support, I’m not sure Seth would have even looked at my application twice. He had in mind someone older and more experienced, like his previous housekeeper. She’d been with him for several years and still would be if she hadn’t fallen and broken her leg. I know they stay in touch, although he said she seems happy living in Mississippi near her daughter now.”
“We’re all glad Meagan urged Seth to hire you,” Mitch murmured.
Suddenly the kitchen seemed shadowy and intimate again, their lightly casual conversation morphing into something a little different. She swallowed and backed a half step away from him. He wasn’t really standing all that close, but she needed that extra bit of distance.
Maybe he sensed that she was more than ready to end this line of conversation. “I guess I’ll turn in. Good night, Jacqui.”
“Good night.”
He paused in the doorway with a frown. “Mitch.”
Her eyebrows rose. “I beg your pardon?”
“Good night, Mitch. You seem to go out of your way to avoid calling me by name.”
So he’d noticed that, had he? It would have been so much easier to keep a firm distance between
them if he would just allow her to call him Dr. Baker. “Good night, Mitch,” she said.
His smile made it clear that the invisible barrier she’d so carefully erected had just shrunk considerably, despite her efforts. “Good night, Jacqui,” he said again. “Sweet dreams.”
She swallowed a groan when he turned and sauntered away. She didn’t even want to think about the dreams that might plague her that night.
Chapter Six
Mitch wasn’t quite sure how to ask Jacqui a big favor Saturday morning during breakfast. Because he’d been busy at work and had a full schedule for the past few evenings, he’d seen little of her since their conversation in the kitchen late Tuesday evening. He hadn’t come in until after ten last night, only to find a note from her saying she’d turned in early and he could help himself to the leftover pie in the fridge if he was hungry for a late-night snack.
Forgoing the pie, he’d gone to bed. Even as tired as he’d been after a hectic week, it had taken him a while to go to sleep. He’d lay there wondering if she’d deliberately avoided seeing him that evening because they didn’t have Alice as a buffer between them. Alice had left Friday morning for her extended weekend with her maternal grandparents. Jacqui had assured him there would be no differences in household routines while Alice was away, but it hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d gone up to her room earlier than was her usual habit last night.
She had greeted him this morning the way she always did, with a polite smile and a hot, healthy breakfast. At least she didn’t try to avoid eating with him this time. She sat at the opposite side of the table with her bowl of steel-cut oats and fresh fruit.
He glanced past her to the glass patio doors, through which he could see Waldo wolfing down the food in his big stainless steel bowl. “Looks like Waldo’s having his breakfast, too.”
She chuckled. “He didn’t get the kisses Alice gives him before breakfast, but I did rub his ears and throw the ball for him a few times.”
Kisses before breakfast sounded pretty good to Mitch. Pushing an all-too-appealing image out of his mind, he cleared his throat. “That dog’s got a pretty good life.”
“He does, doesn’t he? He’s lucky Seth insisted Alice choose a dog from the local animal shelter when she decided she wanted a pet for her thirteenth birthday. She’s been hinting strongly lately that she wants a cat, but Seth has been holding firm that the family is too busy to pay enough attention to more than one pet at a time.”
He could understand that. As much as he liked animals, he hadn’t had time to devote to a pet since he’d left high school. “You seem to enjoy Waldo. Ever thought of having a pet of your own?”
She shrugged. “I never had one growing up, but I might like to have a small dog, or maybe a cat, when I buy my own house.”
He was always interested in those passing mentions of her past, but he’d learned not to follow up with questions that only made her shut down. Instead, he focused on her future plans. “You’re buying a house?”
“Oh, not yet,” she answered quickly. “I’m saving for a down payment. I’d like to have my own house someday, but it won’t be for a couple of years yet.”
That seemed as good a segue as any for the favor he wanted to request of her. “Do you have plans for today?”
She paused momentarily in reaching for her coffee cup, as if trying to figure out why he’d asked. “Not specifically,” she answered after that almost imperceptible hesitation. “I had tentative plans to have lunch with a friend, but that fell through when something came up she had to attend to. So, I thought I might tackle some window washing this afternoon.”