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Chapter 1
"Want to see where I work?" Malcolm asked his three year old niece, Paula, as he helped her get her socks on. She turned up her big, blue eyes to him curiously as he explained what they were going to be doing. "You're going to come to the office with me today. Let's see which coloring books we should bring."
"OK, Uncle Malcolm," Paula said. She hopped down from the couch and picked up a whole, big stack of coloring books from the coffee table, hugging them to her.
"Just those then. OK," Malcolm told her with a smile and grabbed a shopping bag to stuff them into along with the safer choice of colored pencils instead of crayons.
After getting her shoes on, Malcolm bundled her up in a yellow coat and pink cap over her blond hair. She looked a lot like Malcolm's younger sister when she was little, and that meant she looked like Malcolm too with her dark blond hair and blue eyes.
Paula hadn't lived with Malcolm for very long, only a few weeks, and he didn't think she was ready for either daycare of preschool. She usually spend her days with Mrs. Saddler, but she called to say she woke up with the flu and she couldn't expose Paula, of course. There was also Mona. She was his friend Candy's mom, but she was usually only available in the evenings and on weekends. That left Malcolm with only one option, to bring Paula to the office with him. The good thing was that his boss, Mr. Argent, wasn't going to be in the office today. He was still away on his business trip.
As Malcolm walked into the sleek offices of Argent Holdings with Paula in tow, Amy, the receptionist smiled at them. She said good morning and asked Malcolm, "Does this little lady have an appointment?"
"Yes, she does. Her appointment is with me. It's bring your niece to work day," Malcolm said and smiled at Paula reassuringly. He could tell that Amy's mock serious tone was making her worry.
Paula's situation before she came to live with him made her anxious and scared of anything unexpected, especially new people. She often became petrified if adults spoke to her even when they were being friendly. This kind of 'you're in trouble' teasing was sure to frighten her.
Bringing her to such a cold and intimidating environment wasn't ideal, but she was doing OK so far. Paula gazed wide-eyed at the sleek glass walls and black marble everywhere, and she ducked her head if she noticed anyone looking at her and clung tightly to Malcolm's hand.
As they made their way down the corridor, past even more glass and dark marble, Malcolm opened the door to Mr. Argent's office and froze. Why didn't Amy tell him? He was supposed to be on his business trip for another two days, but Mr. Argent was sitting behind his desk. Malcolm could see him clearly because the whole wall separating Mr. Argent's office from the outer office where Malcolm worked was glass.
"Oh, crap," he said under his breath as Mr. Argent raised his head from the laptop screen and noticed Malcolm and then Paula. His handsome face registered surprise and then disapproval. Damn. Malcolm hadn't worked for him long enough to get away with something like this.
"Is he mad?" Paula whispered worriedly.
Malcolm shook his head and put his arm around her. "Nah, he's not mad. He's just a busy guy," he said, but there was a good chance Mr. Argent was mad.
Malcolm took a deep breath and had Paula sit on the floor with the bag with her coloring books and colored pencils. "You get outone of the coloring books and color something nice. I'll be right back."
Mr. Argent was in his late twenties, good-looking with dark hair and eyes, a beard and some great muscles on his perfect body. He was also all business. Hell, Malcolm wasn't sure if he had ever seen him crack a smile. He couldn't imagine that a guy like that would be OK with Malcolm bringing his niece to the office.
Now Malcolm was going in to explain himself. "Sorry about this, sir. That's my niece, Paula. I just got custody of her. My two possible babysitting options fell through, that's why I brought her with me," Malcolm said as he walked in.
He couldn't judge the level of displeasure from Mr. Argent's usual stern expression. Then a questioning frown formed on his handsome face. "Do you mean to keep her out there all day?"
"I was hoping, but..." Malcolm trailed off. Obviously that wasn't happening.
He looked out toward his area of the office and saw that Paula was getting anxious. Mr. Argent noticed too. "Why does she look scared?"
"She's been through a lot and she's so little," Malcolm said vaguely. He wasn't about to go into how neglectful his sister had been toward her kid. "Can I have some time off to sort this out?"
Mr. Argent frowned at him. "Actually, I'm back early because there was an unexpected buyout offer for MLH. We need to make changes to our proposal and update everyone involved. This needs to happen today."
That meant Malcolm had to stay to do the work. He looked toward the outer office again. "I can stay if I can keep Paula here," Malcolm stated.
"Are you sure she wants to stay? I think she hates it here," Mr. Argent said archly and he wasn't wrong, but Malcolm was surprised he noticed something like that.
"She should be fine once I tell her everything is alright," Malcolm said. "But it would help if I brought her in here and introduced you. She can see you through all this glass so..."
"It is like a fishbowl in here. And I guess I look scary to her?" Mr. Argent said like there could be any doubt about that. And he didn't look scary just to Paula. Plus the fishbowl design was his choice.
Malcolm didn't confirm to Mr. Argent that he frightened little children. With his permission, he brought Paula in to meet him. "So this is Mr. Argent, my boss. And this is Paula, my niece. Say, 'Nice to meet you,'" Malcolm instructed her.
"Nice to meet you, Mister, but I can't say your name. It's too hard," Paula said while still looking scared, but Malcolm was so proud of her for speaking up especially to someone as intimidating as his boss.
"That's OK. 'Mr. A' is fine," Mr. Argent told her. "It's nice to meet you."
Standing up, Mr. Argent opened his desk drawer and got out something that turned out to be an interlocking, wooden puzzle. He handed it to Malcolm. "Maybe she would like to play with this?" he said.
