Page 24 of Just My Luck

“Which secret?” he said warily. That wine was going to his head and giving everything a light and pleasant blur. He was afraid he might blurt out something he didn’t want her to know.

“The reason why you’re so cagey and don’t have a car or much knowledge about gardens. I figured it out. You just got out of prison, didn’t you?”

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?”