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“Almost to my waist.”
“Wow.” Katie’s eyes went wide. “How do you wash it?”
“It takes time,” Jenna allowed. She inspected the doll. “One of my sisters has hair this color. And another one has naturally curly hair she keeps short, like yours.”
Katie folded her small hands in her lap. “How many sisters and brothers have you got?”
“No brothers. Three younger sisters. And I helped all three fix their hair while they were growing up.”
Katie mulled that over. “Maybe Pandora could wear her hair like the twins on the TV show I watch sometimes after school.”
“You might be on to something there,” Jenna agreed after a moment, clearly recognizing the show in question when Ross had no clue. Myra wouldn’t, either, he knew, despite the fact that she was here every day when his daughters got home from school.
His current housekeeper was a fine person in her own right who cooked good, healthy meals, kept his house sparkling clean and could be trusted without question to watch over his children whenever he was away. Yet, for all of Myra’s virtues, taking time from her busy day to watch a kid’s television show with Katie on occasion would simply not have occurred to her.
But it obviously would to Jenna.
While a spirited discussion of how the new hairdo might be best achieved continued, Ross found himself wondering how his visitor would look with her own midnight-dark hair spilling past her shoulders and down her back.
Exotic, he decided. Yet classically female, as well. In fact, her oval-shaped face with its straight nose, high cheekbones and fine, creamy skin—not to mention those chestnut-brown eyes that slanted up slightly at the corners—would probably look right at home in a painting by one of the old masters.
As to the rest of her, he couldn’t make out enough to judge. Both of the tailored outfits he’d seen her in so far were by no means formfitting. Still, although she was several inches shorter than his own six-feet-plus, petite wasn’t the word that came to mind. Not when he suspected that a full figure with plenty of curves might be lurking out of sight.
Whatever the case, she’d been in his thoughts ever since their initial meeting. Something about her had captured his attention, that was plain. Something that might turn out to have little to do with her qualifications as housekeeper, if he wanted to investigate the matter further.
One thing for certain, when it came to her qualifications, she was the right choice to run his household, as he’d concluded soon after she’d offered her credentials. If he’d had the least lingering doubts about that, the way she was currently chatting so easily with Katie would have routed them once and for all.
Too bad Tom Kennedy had hit the nail on the head, Ross thought, recognizing that more than ever as his hooded gaze silently told him in no uncertain terms just how striking Jenna Lorenzo was—how vivid, how…alive she looked against a backdrop of almost total white. People were bound to talk if she moved in and took Myra’s place. Despite Harmony’s genuinely friendly atmosphere, gossip was a fact of life.
And the truth was that even if he chose to ignore the gossip, he was a long way from certain he’d be doing the fair thing by subjecting this woman to it.
Logic said to just tell her face to face that it wouldn’t work out and to thank her for her trouble, which he’d undeniably been of more than half a mind to do when she’d arrived on his doorstep. On the other hand, something that went beyond pure logic was still urging him not to let her go so easily.
Ross frowned at the knowledge that he had to make up his mind before his prospective housekeeper decided he’d left her hanging long enough and walked out on him.
JENNA SOMEHOW FOUND herself seated at a round, glass-topped kitchen table, a pair of shiny scissors and a small tube of clear glue set in front of her on a gray-and-white-checked place mat. Moments earlier she’d learned that the deep blue eyes belonging to the youngest member of the Hayward household could be very persuasive when attempting a woeful look. Even before Katie had followed it up with a whispered, “Please,” Jenna had suspected that her immediate future would include treating Pandora to a new hairdo.
Probably only an objection from the man now seated beside her would have changed her fate, she reflected as she placed a silver-gray linen dishtowel trimmed in lace around the doll’s neck. Instead, Ross had merely suggested that they adjourn to the rear of the house, where he’d again played host, offering refreshment and providing what materials she needed to get the job done. Then he’d settled into a chrome-backed chair in his not surprisingly gleaming kitchen and seemed to sink into his thoughts, as he had during most of their time in the living room.
What was he thinking so hard about? Jenna had to wonder. And was she going to be offered the position or not?
“Myra’s gonna be surprised to see how Pandora looks when she gets back.” Katie tucked small feet snuggled into pink socks under her and leaned in from her seat at Jenna’s other side. “Do you start cutting now?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Jenna sat the doll on the table, picked up the scissors and carefully began her task, her eyes narrowing for a better look. Her thoughts drifted to the brief meeting that had taken place in the hallway outside the kitchen just before Myra Hastings, a tall, thin woman with short salt-and-pepper hair, had left to visit her elderly mother who remained hospitalized after a stroke.
The housekeeper’s greeting could hardly be classified as warm, not when she’d explained, oh, so primly, that it took a great deal of effort to keep a home like this in tiptop shape. Plainly she knew, although Ross hadn’t said as much during his introduction, that Jenna had applied to replace her. And the older woman wasn’t exactly impressed. The question was: how much would Myra’s opinion count with her employer?
Certainly he didn’t seem any happier now than he had earlier. No, less, Jenna concluded, slanting a glance his way. But even with the corners of his mouth turned down and a deep frown marring his brow, he still looked good to her.
Probably too good.
“There, I think that’s enough off,” she told Katie, mustering a cheerful tone for the little girl’s sake. “Now we’ll glue on some new bangs and cut them on an angle, just like the television twins wear theirs.”
When the job was finally done, Katie clapped her hands and wasted no time in offering her judgment. “Pandora looks neat!”
“She looks very nice,” another young voice politely chimed in from behind Jenna. Startled, she turned around to find herself being calmly studied by light, clear blue eyes, a sight that instantly reminded her of the woman Ross Hayward had married. This slender-as-a-reed girl with straight, shoulder-length blond hair could only be Cynthia Morgan’s child.
The man of the house proceeded to introduce his eldest daughter, Caroline, who shook hands with the quiet courtesy of someone far older than her own ten years. Again he made no reference as to why their visitor was there. This time it had Jenna more than suspecting that the children weren’t aware of her status as a potential employee, as Myra plainly had been. They probably thought she was an acquaintance of their father’s.
Or a girlfriend.
No, not hardly, she informed herself in the next breath, belatedly reminded of what seemed to be common knowledge in Harmony—there had been no woman in Ross Hayward’s life since his wife’s death. As far as his children were concerned, their current visitor was no doubt a friend, and the most casual kind, at that. Which was fine with her, Jenna thought. And she would be fine, as well, regardless of whether she got this job or not.
“I recently moved back to Harmony after being away for several years,” she told Caroline, summoning a smile, “and I’m very glad I did.”
The girl’s own soft smile broke through. “It’s a good place to live, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“It’s cool,” Katie added.
Caroline straightened a fold of the powder-blue shirtwaist dress she wore with ballerina-style blue slippers and looked at her sister. “Cool means the weather,” she said in a small lecture. “It has nothing to do with a city.”
“Does, too,” Katie quickly countered, lifting her little chin.
Well acquainted with how easily sibling arguments could erupt, although she couldn’t imagine her own lively family ever butting heads over something as formal as a question of grammar, Jenna stepped into the breech. “Whatever the case,” she said, “Harmony happens to be where I was born a loo-ong time ago.”
Ross leaned back in his chair and found his mood lightening as the stretched-out word, issued with an exaggerated flutter of his visitor’s dark lashes, had both girls abruptly giggling. The sound was music to his ears.
Yes, he reflected with assurance, this was exactly what the daughters he loved more than anything in the world needed, and what had been behind his thought to hire a younger housekeeper in the first place. They needed someone who could joke with them on occasion as well as care for them. Someone who could offer a female perspective on things and fill a gap he couldn’t hope to fill. His daughters could only benefit from having a young, vibrant woman in their lives, no question about it.
And so would he, he knew. But in his case, it would have to go beyond having someone around to take care of his household. He wouldn’t satisfy any of the private needs that had begun to build inside him by hiring a housekeeper, any housekeeper. He needed something else. Something more.
Hell, what he really needed was a wife.
Which, in his more candid moments, he’d been telling himself for a while now. Not only would it give his daughters a motherly influence and provide some physical comforts for himself, it could also lead to more children, maybe even the son he would desperately like to have while he was young enough to do a good job of being a father to an active boy. Marrying again, and sooner rather than later, might well be the best solution all around, he’d conceded more than once. Trouble was, no single woman of his acquaintance even stirred his interest…except the one who had recently returned to Harmony. The more time he spent with Jenna Lorenzo, the more he was beginning to recognize that fact.
“Daddy, are you that old?”
Ross brought his attention back to the discussion, realizing he’d missed a turn in the conversation. “What?” was all he could ask in response to Katie’s question.
“Ms. Lorenzo said you were older than she is,” Caroline explained in her usual calm manner.
“Way older is what she said,” Katie tacked on.
He shot Jenna a look and found her eyes lit with amusement, as though she hadn’t been able to resist that little zinger. “If four years is way older,” he said dryly, “then I suppose I am.”
With that issue cleared up, Katie jumped to her feet. “I’m gonna put Pandora to bed for a nap.”
Jenna removed the towel from the doll’s neck. “Better let her sit up awhile longer to make sure the glue’s set.”
“Okay. I’ll sit her in her rocking chair.”
Caroline reached for the scissors and glue. “I’ll put these away, Dad.”
Ross nodded to his eldest child. “Thanks, princess.”
“You have two wonderful daughters,” Jenna told him when the children had left.
“I’m in total agreement on that score.” He sat forward and rested his forearms on the table. “And what can I say but thank you?”
She switched around to fully face him and frankly met his gaze. “You could say whether I’m going to be offered the job.”
Well, this was it, he thought. Despite her qualifications, he knew the chances of that particular relationship working out were slim to none. Added to his earlier reservations about offering her the position, seeing her in his home had led to his viewing her in a different, and far more personal, light. The sheer truth was that he’d become too aware of her as a woman, and a desirable one at that, to regard her as merely an employee.
He released a gusty breath. “No, I’m afraid not.”
“All right,” Jenna said after a silent second. She gave him the briefest of smiles as she scooted back her chair. “You must have things to do. I won’t take up any more of your time.”
Ross knew he could have summoned a courteous smile in return and seen her to the door. With his contacts, he could even have offered to help her find another job. And he would, in fact, have done both without hesitation—if he could have actually stood back and watched Jenna Lorenzo walk out of his daughters’ lives. Out of his life.
But he couldn’t.
Every instinct he had—instincts that had served him well in the business world—had begun to tell him in no uncertain terms that he could only benefit from doing his damnedest to further another sort of relationship with this striking-looking woman. A private relationship.
“If you’ll give me a few more minutes,” he said before she could step away from the table, “I’d like to discuss, not the housekeeper’s position, but something else entirely.”
Her brow furrowed as she looked down at him. “What else is there to discuss?”
He met her question with a blunt one of his own, deciding to just plunge in. “Would you consider going out with me?”
Even as he watched, a blank expression wiped every trace of emotion from her face. Moments passed before she issued yet another question.
“I came here to talk about a job, and you’re asking me out on a date?”
“Yes.” Jeez, how did he put what he was thinking into words when he was still groping his way through it in his own mind? “But it could lead to…something more. And I don’t mean an affair,” he added before she could misunderstand him.
While his body wouldn’t have protested much—not with this particular female—he knew that an affair was the last thing he wanted to start. It wouldn’t provide what his children deserved to have in their lives. Or what he needed beyond the rewards of a purely physical relationship, for that matter. Because, if he chose to look to what the future might bring and view things from a strictly practical standpoint, taking a lover also wouldn’t help in conducting a mayoral campaign.
No, it all boiled down to the fact that what he had to have to meet both his current and potential needs was a—
“Then what do you mean by, ah, something more?” Jenna asked, her tone wary as she broke into his thoughts.
“What I mean is…” He met her gaze, noting that her frown had not only reappeared but deepened. She hardly looked ready to go out with him at the moment, that was for sure.
If he didn’t get on with this, he told himself, she’d be headed for the door. He hadn’t missed the barest hint of temper glinting in her eyes; he had a temper himself, although he seldom displayed it. It also hadn’t escaped his notice that in addition to her growing irritation with his drawn-out explanation, she was fast coming to the conclusion that he was acting strange.
And after he said what he was about to say…Hell, she just might think he was flat-out crazy.
But he was saying it, anyway.
“If we started seeing each other and it goes well,” he told her, measuring out the words, “how would you feel about possibly marrying me?”
Chapter Two
Jenna’s jaw dropped. In the next instant she sank back into her chair and hit the seat with enough force to snap her mouth closed and rattle her teeth. Then she stilled completely and groped to take in what she had just heard.
How would she feel about marrying him? Him? Ross Hayward, once half of the Golden Couple, talking about walking down the aisle again with her. Her? No, he couldn’t have meant it!
“I must,” she said, finding her voice at last, “have misunderstood you. You weren’t—you couldn’t have been—talking about the two of us and…marriage.”
He studied her for moment. “I was.”
Now she had to suck in a breath, a big one. As her lungs filled, a short study of her own told her that he really did mean it. His watchful expression was far too serious to reach any other conclusion. Good Lord. Even in her wildest adolescent dreams, she’d never imagined that this man would ever consider asking her to marry him.
Then again, he wasn’t asking now, she reminded herself as the brain she normally put to good use began to recover from the undeniable jolt to its circuits. He’d mentioned possibly getting married, which was a far cry from an actual proposal.
“Maybe I’d better go into a few more details as to what I had in mind,” he said.
She cleared her throat. “Details,” she couldn’t help but say, “would be good.”
He sat forward and propped his elbows on the table. “First off, I’d like to get something straight. I’m not currently involved with anyone, and I take it, since you just recently returned to Harmony, that the same is true in your case.”
“It is,” Jenna agreed. Not only wasn’t she currently involved with a man, she had, in fact, been extremely careful for some time when it came to personal relationships with the opposite sex. The truth was, she’d been burned once, badly, and she had no wish to repeat the experience. She dated on and off when it suited her, but live-in housekeepers didn’t have much chance for a private life, and she’d accepted the restrictions.
“Then since we’re free in that regard,” Ross continued, “marrying each other could have some definite benefits for both of us.”
She was slowly getting his drift. “You mean that, rather than just a housekeeper, you’d have a wife to take care of things around here.”
“You’re right, of course,” he conceded, “but more than that, I would have a mother for Caroline and Katie.”
“And that’s important to you,” she summed up, all at once sure of her words as she looked him straight in the eye and saw the clear reality of the matter reflected in his gaze.
“It is,” he confirmed. And with that quiet acknowledgment, he went on to explain how he felt his daughters needed a younger woman’s influence in their lives. “I think it’s going to be even more important as they get closer to being teenagers,” he added, “and Caroline’s already on the brink.”
Jenna could hardly disagree, remembering how her own mother had dealt so well with her four girls. “I can’t deny that the mother-daughter relationship is important. Having a large family meant that both my parents had to work to make ends meet while I was growing up, and I remember how I sometimes couldn’t wait for my mother to get home—for more reasons than one, I’ll admit, as I got older. As the eldest child, I was often in charge of the younger girls once I was big enough to take on some responsibility, and it wasn’t always easy.”
He nodded. “That’s why I would prefer a stay-at-home mom for my kids, and in this case, living on my salary alone wouldn’t pose a problem.”
“No, I expect not,” Jenna replied. Which, she realized, was an understatement. Haywards had been among the more successful of Harmony’s residents for many years. None had ever been truly wealthy, but comfortably well-off would certainly apply, especially when compared with such families as the Lorenzos. The city didn’t have a bad side of town, so Jenna couldn’t honestly say she’d been born on the “wrong side of the tracks” from Ross Hayward. Nevertheless, a social gap remained between them. At least it would in some people’s eyes.
And now he was suggesting they date with the possible goal of marriage? Her eyes narrowed of their own accord. “Are you sure you don’t want to hire me as housekeeper?”
For the first time in many minutes, his lips curved in a smile. “I’m sure.” His gaze never wavered from hers.
“And the position we’re currently discussing would be far more permanent, when you think about it. You would have a secure future, financially and otherwise.”
And what about love?
