LITMIR.BIZ

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her a job, but only until she could find something else. What did the other hand hold? The hatchet if she blundered? Did he realize how awful his offer sounded? Or had he only been trying to help her and had accidentally made it sound as though he didn’t want her around?

      Evidently, she’d voiced her opinions, because Justin responded.

      “That’s not the way I meant it. I simply meant you’d be doing me a great favor by helping me out. Look, Sarah, I know we never got along before, but you’re family. Can we at least try—for Mickie’s sake?”

      Sarah swallowed. For Mickie’s sake? Well, what did she expect? That Justin would say he had been wrong in the past, wrong because of all the pain he had caused her family? He’d come to them and told them he was sorry for what had happened, had even offered compensation and jobs…and married Amy, too. If that didn’t show he felt remorseful, what did? But she’d never believed it. She’d thought he should pay for everything that had happened and have no happiness. She’d made it her crusade to make his life miserable, and she had succeeded. If rumor could be believed, he and Amy had been having problems. Amy had never said anything to her, but Sarah wondered now if it was because of all the grief she herself had caused him whenever she was around.

      Guiltily, Sarah looked away from the deep brown eyes that stared at her with such intensity. She needed to let go of the past. Wasn’t that just the reason she’d come yesterday? Justin was offering to let her look for a job while she worked for him. That was it. Very simple. A way to put the past where it belonged, while proving herself trustworthy.

      It galled her, though, to feel that she was taking charity.

      As if reading her mind, Justin said quietly, “I’m family, Sarah. Let me help you.”

      She swallowed her humiliation. She would take the job, but she would make sure that she earned every penny of her pay. “Very well.”

      He expelled a great breath. “Fantastic.”

      When he named her salary her eyes widened in shock. “You can’t be serious. That’s too much.” Her temper rose again. She didn’t think housekeepers made that in a month and she didn’t like that he thought she was an idiot. After all, how hard could housekeeping and taking care of a child be? She had kept her own house.

      “I assure you, Sarah, for cooking, cleaning and taking care of a child, that’s the going rate. If you don’t believe me, you can call Bill.”

      Studying him, she decided he was telling the truth. In any event it didn’t matter. She was going to make sure she earned her paycheck, with no room for questions.

      “Is it a deal?”

      “It’s a deal.”

      “Okay. Uh, well, do we need to get clothes, car, anything like that?”

      Sarah burned with embarrassment. “Most of my clothes are in a suitcase at the shelter. I do have a few boxes in a storage area that’s paid up through next month.”

      Sarah hated that she’d had to admit such a thing to this man. But he hadn’t said anything or given her the slightest reason to think he pitied her. If he had, she would have walked out, despite her desperation for needing the job.

      “You can pick them up whenever you’re ready.” He strode over to a door leading to the garage, where he lifted a key off a hook on a piece of wood shaped like a small house. He brought it back to her. “This is to the car. I’ll drive the four-by-four to work—and don’t object. We’re low on groceries. If you have time today, you’ll need to go shopping. Consider free use of my car part of the job.” He opened his wallet and pulled out some money.

      Sarah’s eyes widened.

      “This is your first month’s salary plus household expenses. The other housekeeper just took the money and as we needed supplies or whatever she paid for them out of an account she’d set up in her own name. There was a box in the office, where she kept all her receipts and stuff. However, if you’d prefer not to have a separate household account, you can buy whatever you feel the house or Mickie needs, then I’ll reimburse you.”

      “No, that’s fine. I—I’ve never done this before. It’ll take me a week or two to learn my way around.”

      “I would expect no less.”

      “Fine.”

      “Fine.”

      They stared at each other for what seemed like minutes before Sarah broke the stare. “Well, I—”

      “Sarah,” he said softly.

      His hand came to rest on her shoulder to keep her from walking away.

      “I hope this will be a time to heal for you, me…us. We need to let go of the past and go on.”

      Sarah couldn’t turn around and face him right now. She could not talk about this because she knew her face would give away her feelings. She was attracted to this man. Had she been before her sister had died? She couldn’t face that question and certainly couldn’t face him as she wondered about it. So instead she simply nodded. “I agree.”

      When she still didn’t turn around Justin dropped his hand.

      “When will Mickie be home?”

      “Any time. I need to go up and change. I have some important work that must be finished today. But let me show you around first.”

      Sarah followed but heard little of what Justin actually said. Her mind was on the agreement she’d just made. She would be here for at least one month and she already wondered if this might be a mistake. Would she be able to live in the same house her sister had lived in, with a man who had loved her sister but destroyed her family’s business? The same man she found herself undeniably attracted to?

      Well, the room definitely reminded Sarah of Amy’s taste in decor. Amy had loved greens and yellows.

      Sarah walked around the large suite that included a living room and bedroom. Decorated in her sister’s favorite colors, it wasn’t exactly her taste—she preferred earth tones—but she couldn’t deny it was more than she’d had this morning. She could thank God she once again had a roof over her head, even if a man who still despised her had offered it.

      Well, Father, she whispered, studying the nice-sized double bed covered in a forest green spread, Show me what I must do to prove to this man I’m sorry for the past. Help me to restore his trust in me again. It’s important that I at least right that wrong so Mickie won’t suffer any pain.

      Sarah wondered again if she was a fool coming here like this. But when faced with the shocking news of her infertility and the cruelties of André’s family after he’d left on a trip to sort everything out, she’d suddenly realized how much she regretted breaking off all contact with Mickie.

      True, Amy had married Justin at their parents’ urging, but it was possible she had come to love Justin, while Sarah had still blamed him for everything that had happened to her family. She owed it to Amy and Mickie to try to get to know him.

      She remembered that time long ago when she’d first seen him, how attractive she’d thought him when he’d come to the office. Then she’d found out he wasn’t one of the underlings from the company that had just destroyed her parents’ lives but the actual owner. He and his partner had taken over the business. Her mother had been too torn up to come in and her father too ill from the shock of losing a business that had been in the family for a hundred years. As the market had changed, so had their family changed the goal of the business. It had been her father’s idea to turn the main part of the organization toward producing computer software components.

      When he’d lost the company, he’d suffered a mild heart attack. Amy hadn’t been keen on working in the office so Sarah had gone in to handle the business until whatever flunky the new owner would be sending showed up and officially took over.

      The man who arrived hadn’t been the rude jerk who had so cruelly laughed

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