The Good Father

“What are you doing?” Kaylee asked.

“Mommy’s had a brainstorm.” She rummaged around until she found the business card she was looking for. Dave Shenkler. He was the CEO of some Internet auction site, and he was rolling in money. A couple of weeks ago, Jane had discovered him and his wife standing on the dock, admiring the Princess II. He had offered to buy it on the spot, and Jane had automatically turned him down.

But the Princess II was worth a lot of money-enough to bail out the Remington Agency and then some.

Everyone had told her she ought to sell it and use the money to put a down payment on a nice little condo. She’d fought the suggestion time and again. She loved this boat. She had redone the interior with a loving hand, turning it into a cozy retreat that had always felt more like home than her big, echoing minimansion back in Houston.

Most of her happy memories from her marriage had to do with the boat. She and Scott had sailed it all along the Texas coast and to Mexico. They’d gotten their scuba certifications and gone diving on every coral reef they could find within the boat’s range.

Of course, all that was before Kaylee, back when Scott had still been trying to please her.

She took out her cell phone but hesitated before dialing. This was a big step. But then she remembered the look on Max’s face, and imagined how he would feel if he could make his real-estate client happy by reprinting the magazines. That was worth more to her than clinging to a few memories that had passed their expiration date. She dialed.

Chapter Ten

“Max, I found someone.” Carol stood at Max’s office door. For two hours last night and an hour this morning, both of them had been on the phone, trying to find a printer that could do the job within the required time frame. “Sharp Printing in San Antonio. They have a narrow window on Wednesday they can fit you in, but you have to commit by noon today.”

If Jane didn’t come through by noon today, he was sunk anyway. She was noticeably absent from work, and Max had chosen not to call and check on her. He hoped-perhaps irrationally-that she was out doing something to raise the ridiculous sum of money he needed.

“How much do they want?”

Carol stepped into the office and handed Max a slip of paper with the quote on it. Max winced, though it was pretty much what he’d expected.

“Good work, Carol.”

“I’m counting on someday getting a bonus. And a raise.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Aw, come on, boss. We’ll get through this. Every new company takes a few missteps.”

“Not like this. I screwed up. I spent too much of my money on the office remodeling. I was sure business would come rolling in a lot faster than it has, and I didn’t keep near enough money in savings as a contingency fund.”

“We’ll get through this,” Carol said again. “Don’t you have a bunch of rich relatives who would lend you money?”

“No way,” he said automatically, because he had promised himself he would do this without any help from his family. He could just imagine how his brother would spin it. He would call it a bailout. He would turn it into a joke.

But so what if he suffered some humiliation? The alternative was to close his doors and put people out of work, people like Jane and Carol who really needed their jobs, and Finley, the account executive he’d just hired, the one who’d turned down another, less risky position because he’d been swayed by Max’s enthusiastic forecasts for the future.

He reached for the phone just as Jane burst through the front door. “I got it. I got it!” She stormed through the reception area and nearly ran Carol over as she plowed her way into Max’s office. “Max, if you’ll come to Coastal Bank with me right now, we can set up a line of credit for ten thousand dollars with a whole lot more to come in five days.”

Max was too stunned to speak.

Carol wasn’t. “Get out of here. You are da bomb, girl!”

“Come on, Max.” Jane came over and grabbed his arm, attempting to drag him out of his chair. “Did you find a printer?”

“We did,” Carol answered. “Should I call them back, Max, and commit?”

“Jane, where did you get ten thousand dollars?”

“That’s not your worry.”

He was tempted, but only for a moment. “I can’t borrow money from you.” If he wouldn’t borrow from his own family, how could he justify accepting money from his employee, a struggling single mom?

Jane looked crestfallen, but only for a moment. “Let’s not call it a loan, then. I’m investing in the Remington Agency.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that. Much as I want to believe this is only a temporary cash-flow problem, I can’t guarantee a return on your investment.”

“I don’t need a guarantee. I believe in you.”

He started to turn her down again. But then he saw something in her eyes, and he knew he couldn’t. Jane wasn’t just bailing him out. Keeping the agency afloat was important to her, personally.

Then there was Carol, staring at him with hope glowing from her face. How could he disappoint her, too?

“You understand that getting these magazines reprinted is only a temporary solution. I have a balloon payment on my business loan coming up next week.”

Jane didn’t seem fazed. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Just take the money, okay?”

Max was out of his chair and across the office in two seconds flat. He scooped Jane into a bear hug. “I don’t know what you did, or what I did to deserve having you come to the rescue, but thank you.”

She returned the hug, and they probably held each other for too long, given that Carol was standing right there looking on with a knowing half smile.

With determined effort, Max withdrew from the hug. Jane was beaming up at him. “What next?”

“Carol, tell the printer they’ll have files by the end of the day. Jane, you and I will go over the page files one more time and make sure everything’s perfect, then we’ll send them to the printers. On Wednesday I’ll go to San Antonio to personally oversee the printing.” He crossed his fingers. “Then this nightmare will be over.”

MAX DIDN’T ASK Jane again where she’d gotten the money, for which she was grateful. He would have a fit if he knew she’d sold her boat. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew she’d made the right decision.

A boat was no place to raise a child. Kaylee was old enough now that locked doors wouldn’t contain her for long. What if she wandered outside when Jane wasn’t paying attention?

Kaylee needed a backyard to play in, or at least a neighborhood playground, and a neighborhood where there’d be playmates rather than rough dockworkers and fishermen.

With the proceeds from the sale of the Princess II, Jane could comfortably buy a two-bedroom condo or maybe even a little house. She’d seen several cute cottages in the real-estate magazine as she and Max went over the proofs.

“Let me fix the color balance on that picture,” Jane said. She and Max were nearly finished going over the real estate magazine, sitting almost side-by-side at her computer. After an hour and a half of this, his nearness was getting to her. Every time he reached for the keyboard to move to the next page, his sleeve brushed her bare arm.

But nothing had been said about yesterday’s incendiary kiss. She still didn’t know how she felt about it, only that she’d been reliving it on a regular basis since it had happened.

She wasn’t going to bring it up if he didn’t. He’d probably put it behind him. He’d probably kissed three or four women since her.