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“From my research, I understand you don’t have a family,” she ventured.
Adam glanced up from the computer where he’d been entering information. “No. Why?”
“It just means you may also lack experience dealing with kids, but I suppose you don’t necessarily need it to be an effective agent.”
He gave her another one of the smiles that must have won him plenty of modeling contracts in the past. “I don’t believe so. In any case, experience with your own children is completely different than dealing with them in the business world.”
“True.”
She wondered what Adam’s views were on marriage. The research she’d done on Moonlight Ventures and its partners suggested he’d been linked with a number of beautiful women, though no one serious since his fiancée’s death years earlier. Her hidden romantic side wanted to speculate that he was still nursing a broken heart, but logic said the truth was probably much more prosaic...not to mention it was none of her business. Did all women turn into hopeless daydreamers when they met Adam Wilding?
“No one is going to release information about us, are they?” she asked, forcing her mind into the moment. “Such as where we live and other details?”
“The agency has strict confidentiality rules. We have security procedures in place to be sure that only legitimate employers can look at photos of our underage clients. Even then, we just post name and age. No other personal data is placed on a computer connected to the internet, so you don’t need to be concerned about hackers. Nonetheless, I can’t guarantee that someone in the media won’t get curious about you as the twins’ guardian or want to know more about them beyond their official biography. Especially if they become well known.”
Cassie winced involuntarily.
Her carefully cultivated privacy might be at an end. Of course, she could torpedo the whole project, but that didn’t seem fair to her niece and nephew. Any money they earned would be a big help toward college expenses.
Glen had become a demon researching which universities to attend and had been talking about top schools in different parts of the country. Out-of-state tuition was high and there were no guarantees he’d get a scholarship. Though Tiffany’s ambitions were less established, having a nest egg would help, whether she stayed in modeling or decided to do something else.
Adam leaned forward in his chair. “How soon do you think Glen will decide if he’s interested?”
“Probably by tonight. If so, I’ll call the agency in the morning. He doesn’t procrastinate, but he’s mature for his age and wants to weigh the pros and cons.”
“And Tiffany?”
Cassie shrugged. “She already knows what she wants. Tiff is a love. She’s also smart and has a good sense of humor. While she was nervous before coming in today, she’s over that.”
“Then I’ll draw up a representation agreement for her and one for Glen, in case he says yes. They should be ready in a few days.”
“I’ll have my godfather check them over. I don’t mean to sound suspicious—”
“You sound careful,” Adam returned. “It’s nice that you aren’t tearing into this like a stereotypical stage, er, aunt.”
She questioned whether he was telling the truth. Something about his manner made her think he saw her negatively, though it might be her imagination, of which she had plenty. A vivid imagination was how she stayed sane in the midst of complex computer programming issues.
She shook Adam’s hand and went back to where the kids were waiting.
Her palm tingled from contact with the dynamic former model and she reminded herself that men like Adam didn’t go for geeks like her, which is what she preferred. After all, she’d already tried to be the proverbial square peg in a round hole and she was much happier with her life the way it was now.
CHAPTER TWO (#u75b96caf-2f2d-596e-ab67-b8887b1ae83d)
TIFFANY CHATTERED EXCITEDLY all the way back to the small Victorian house that Cassie had bought years ago. It was tight living there with two teenage kids, but they got by. Glen and Tiffany used the bedrooms, converted family room and bath upstairs, while she’d moved down to the ground floor.
Someday she hoped to live in the mountains, but for now she was afraid she’d be ineffective as a website designer if she became too much of a hermit. Her clients wanted someone in touch with modern culture. Yet it was also a question of economics—the kind of mountain home she wanted cost money, her business was relatively new and now she was raising Glen and Tiffany. Her niece and nephew were more important than saving for another house.
Glen was quiet, no doubt processing the Moonlight Ventures offer to represent him, but Tiffany jumped and let out a little squeal of excitement.
“Hey, Aunt Cassie,” she declared, “when I make lots of money, we can buy a bigger place.”
“Nope,” Cassie replied serenely. “Anything you make will go directly into a trust fund. No matter how successful you are, there won’t be any sports cars at sixteen and no buying of houses.”
“It isn’t about me, I want you to have a bigger place and an awesome car like the one you had to get rid of when we moved in here.”
Cassie had traded her sporty convertible for a larger sedan before the kids arrived, wanting something safer and more solid. The kids had noticed the change, but she hadn’t realized they blamed themselves for the switch to a different model.
“That’s really sweet of you, but I prefer the car I have now. It’s newer and gets much better gas mileage than the other one.”
“Then what do you want?”
Cassie cupped her niece’s chin in the palm of her hand. “I don’t need anything, except to protect your income so that it’s ready to help your dreams come true.”
“She wants to make sure Mom can’t get her fingers on any dough we make,” Glen observed.
Cassie’s stomach dropped. She didn’t want the kids to feel their mother was a terrible person, though accepting Marie for what she was might be helpful to them.
Tiffany’s mouth turned down. “Is that the problem? Because Mom might take our money for booze?”
“I simply want anything you earn to be there for your future,” Cassie explained carefully. “This way, nothing can happen that we don’t expect.”
“Uh, okay.” Like Glen, Tiffany internalized and usually didn’t say much until she’d thought it through, such as her comment about the car.
* * *
LATER THAT EVENING, Glen came in as Cassie finished cleaning the kitchen.
“I’m gonna do that modeling thing,” he told her.
“You thought the guys at school might give you a hard time. How will you feel about that?”
He made a face. “Not so hot. But money for medical school sounds terrific, and it might be the best way to earn it. Besides, I hate mowing lawns and yanking weeds and that’s the only other kind of job I’m gonna get for a while.”
Something Adam had said came back to Cassie...that at the twins’ age, they didn’t have many work opportunities. It was true. Unless they had a video go viral on social media or came up with a brilliant entrepreneurial scheme, their income-earning potential was limited. In Glen’s case, it was largely offering his services as a general garden helper. Even when he turned sixteen, it would mostly be minimum wage.
“We can’t know how much you’d earn at modeling,” she warned, wanting him to be realistic. “It’s probable that only a few people make the huge bucks.”
“Maybe, but I’ve been thinking about what Tiff said earlier. If we make some money, it shouldn’t all go into a trust fund. We should help around here.”
His eyes were serious and Cassie hated knowing he’d needed to grow up faster than other kids.
“That isn’t your job. You’re thirteen and—”
“Almost fourteen.”
“In a few months. But it doesn’t make any difference. You’re a kid and it isn’t your responsibility to provide for yourself.”
“That isn’t fair to you.”
“Right, it isn’t fair that I get the pleasure of having my niece and nephew living with me the past year because my sister has a problem. And it isn’t fair that you don’t get to have the mom and dad you deserve. But if you’re worried about houses and cars, don’t. The bedrooms aren’t large and you and Tiff have to share a bathroom, but that’s no different than any family that has to make do with the space available. Do you dislike this house? I know it’s a quiet neighborhood, but there are families with kids your age on the street.”
Glen shook his head. “Your place is loads better than our tiny apartment in San Diego, and we really like Seattle. It was so amazing when you told the judge that you wanted us to live with you. I’d figured they’d split us up, and like, you know, all the bad stuff you see on TV about foster homes.”
“I’m sure most foster homes are fine, but I thought this would be best and I love having the two of you with me. Okay, in a few days I’ll meet with Adam Wilding and get the representation agreements. Uncle Orville will take a look at them and who knows? Next week, you might be posing in front of a camera.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Cassie studied his expression; he still seemed uncertain. “Are you sure this is what you want?” She didn’t want to push him one way or another.
“I’m sure.” Glen gave a crooked grin. “I’ve been looking at how much medical school costs and it could choke a pig, the way Uncle Orville says.”
Orville Calloway, her godfather, had become the twins’ honorary uncle. “Okay. But if you or Tiff change your minds in the future, we’ll deal with it.”
“Thanks.” Glen reached over and gave her an awkward, boyish hug.
* * *
ELIZABETH WILDING FINISHED the dishes and looked at her husband reading a newspaper at the kitchen table. Ever since he’d retired, she could hardly get him out of the house. Part of the time he fussed around “fixing” things that weren’t broken, the rest of the time he was just sitting, usually in the room where she was trying to get something done.
She wanted him to enjoy his retirement but not to slow down completely.
“Dear, why don’t you call Mr. Villareal and see if he needs help with that clogged drain he mentioned?” Elizabeth suggested.
Mr. Villareal was their neighbor on the corner and he was quite elderly, though he still managed to put out dozens of luminarias every Christmas in memory of his wife and only child who’d died in a car accident.
“Took care of it yesterday,” Dermott said without looking up from the newspaper. “Don’t you remember?”
She recalled him being gone for fifteen minutes or so, which hardly seemed long enough to unplug a sink. But Dermott was awfully talented with a pipe wrench.
“I’m sure he would have appreciated having you stay and talk.”
“You talk to Hector almost every day.”
Oh my, her husband could be dense.
“The women in the neighborhood check on him and bring food, but he enjoys having male company, too.”
“I’ll go over later. I don’t get it, Lizzie. We finally have time to spend together and you keep trying to send me away.”
Together?
Elizabeth glared at his bent head—they weren’t spending time together, they just happened to be in the same room most of the day. Well, enough was enough. She’d been pushing him to visit Seattle, hoping they could find a way to mend fences with their son. Dermott had agreed to take a trip “sometime,” so now she’d have to find the right way to make that happen. It shouldn’t take too much...he wanted to go; he just needed the right prodding.
“Why do they have to keep calling Adam a former model and printing a picture of him in a swimsuit?” Dermott said out of the blue, slapping his hand on the table. “Can’t they just say he’s a businessman?”
Elizabeth tensed. He must be reading one of the Seattle newspapers that Adam had sent. She knew her husband didn’t mean to make her feel bad about the direction their son’s life had taken, but she did; if it hadn’t been for her getting sick, Adam would be a lawyer now.
Or would he?
Thinking back, she couldn’t honestly say Adam had been enthusiastic about studying law—not opposed, just unexcited by a legal career. And he’d used his fame as a model in good ways, including helping environmental and wildlife causes...though the videos he’d done interacting with wolves and bears had made her gulp in worry for his safety. Still, who wouldn’t take the chance of being that close to such amazing animals?
“No matter how we feel, Adam is famous,” she said finally. “I’m sure the agency gets more business when the public is reminded of who owns it.”
“Yeah, so we can see more models in bathing suits and other nonsense,” Dermott muttered.
Maybe he would have accepted Adam’s modeling better if his coworkers at the construction company hadn’t kidded him so often about his son, “the swimsuit guy.”
Sighing, Elizabeth took an aspirin for the pain starting to throb in her temples. It wasn’t just Adam she felt guilty about, it was Sophie, too. She’d been so young when her mother needed major surgery. It was as if Sophie had lost a big chunk of her childhood, taking on responsibilities and worries that a child shouldn’t have to face. No wonder she’d turned wild for a period and ended up pregnant at seventeen.
Elizabeth couldn’t regret her grandchildren, but her daughter’s teen marriage had quickly fallen apart and raising two kids alone was hard. In her own way, Sophie was just as stubborn and proud as her dad and wouldn’t accept much help from the family.
“Are you all right, Lizzie?” Dermott asked. “You took something. Is your blood pressure up?”
“It’s a headache, that’s all.”
Her husband’s concerned expression eased slightly, but Elizabeth’s own tension rose even higher. Sometimes she wanted to scream that she wasn’t going to break and for everyone to stop worrying. Okay, the doctor didn’t want her getting too stressed and the family knew it, but that didn’t mean she was fragile. Her health was pretty good for a woman her age.
She cleared her throat. “Have you thought about when you want to leave for Seattle? We’ll get a better price on plane tickets if we don’t buy them at the last minute.”
“I thought we’d drive. That way we’ll have the truck and won’t be locked in to a specific time.”
Pleasure went through Elizabeth. They’d never traveled outside of New Mexico. Their short vacations had been spent visiting Dermott’s grandparents or taking camping trips in the Sandia Mountains or around the Bosque del Apache wildlife preserve, south of Albuquerque. A road trip meant traveling through some of the most beautiful country in the United States.
“I’d love that,” she exclaimed. “And maybe we could get a little apartment and spend some real time up there.”
“Why not stay with Adam? He mentioned his place has an extra bed.”
Elizabeth winced; she couldn’t deal with her son and husband in the same enclosed space for more than a few days. Even when they weren’t arguing, their colliding expectations were hard to take. “It would be best to get an apartment,” she urged. “Not in the city—I’m sure that’s too expensive—but in one of the smaller towns.”
Dermott brightened. “That way I might be able to pick up odd jobs as a handyman.”
Elizabeth almost protested that he didn’t need to work, but maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. They could see Adam when he was available—really get to know him again—but Dermott would also have a distraction from driving his wife and son crazy.
“I suppose. I wish we could go right away,” she said wistfully. “Summer sounds lovely in Washington.”
“Maybe next month.”
“How about tomorrow?” she asked firmly. “Packing wouldn’t take much time and Sophie can check on the house while we’re gone. Please, dear. Adam says it’s mostly been cool and pleasant there and I’d love to experience the long days they have farther north in the summer. And what’s the good of us both being retired if we can’t do what we want?”
Dermott gave her an exasperated look, but he folded the newspaper and got up. “Oh, very well. You pack and I’ll do an oil change on the truck. Call Adam and tell him we’re coming.”
“Maybe it could be a surprise,” she suggested. “We’ll find a furnished apartment, get settled and then go visit him. Besides, we can’t be sure when we’ll arrive if we do any sightseeing along the way.”
“I suppose.” Dermott headed out the door and she knew he’d probably been looking for a reason to agree to her plan.
Elizabeth happily started a batch of cookies to bring on the trip. Packing was easy, even though they’d also need to bring the basics like bedding, towels and kitchen supplies for an apartment.
She could use her phone to search rental listings on the trip north. They loved Albuquerque, but doing something completely different would be good for them both.
