The Good Father

Max turned over to face Jane. He pulled her down and into his arms, because he couldn’t stand not touching her. “I don’t want to hurt Kaylee that way. She’s a great kid, and I like being around her. She’s like…sunshine.

“But I think you’re right. I think I should keep my distance.”

“And what about at work? Do we just act like before? Keep it secret?” She pulled the sheet up over her face. “Oh, God, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

“At work, of course we behave like professional colleagues.” He hooked his finger on the edge of the sheet and pulled it down. “What’s wrong with this conversation?”

“We’re setting up the rules for a…a thing. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

“Better than misunderstandings and fights and tears down the road,” he said reasonably, which didn’t seem to comfort Jane a great deal.

JANE WAS STILL a seething mass of conflicting emotions as she arrived for work the next morning. She was excited and terrified, happy and terrified, aroused at the mere thought of seeing Max…and terrified.

Mostly terrified that she’d done something incredibly stupid. And yet…she was glad she’d done it. No regrets. Just terror.

Carol greeted her with a smile. “Morning, Jane. Where were you all afternoon?”

“Oh, I had some personal business to take care of. Stuff left over from the divorce.” Like not having a place to live.

After hours of slogging around in the muggy heat looking for a suitable apartment, Jane had finally found one she could stand. It was almost within her budget and not too vile. It was tiny, but then again, she and Kaylee were used to close quarters.

One small hitch, though. She couldn’t move in until mid-October. And she had to turn over her boat to the new owners next week. That left her with almost two weeks with no roof over her head.

“So you heard the big news, yes?” Carol said.

“Yeah, I was there when Max talked to Ellen. It’s great.”

“It’s fantastic. We don’t have to go job hunting! I’m planning a party. It’s tonight after work, can you come?”

“Oh, I’d like to, but I’d have to find a sitter for Kaylee.” Hard to do on such short notice.

“You could bring her along.”

“We’ll see.” But no, because Max would be there. She felt terrible, deliberately keeping Max and her daughter apart when they were so clearly crazy about each other. But after her conversation with Max yesterday, it only made sense.

She’d seen the pain on his face when he talked about Hannah. She didn’t want to be the cause of something like that. And clearly their “thing” did not have a high chance of survival, not when she and Max were so not ready to make any commitments.

Jane was sifting through some mail that had arrived for her-amazing how quickly art-supply companies had pegged her as a potential customer-when Max walked in.

“Carol, have you talked to-oh, good morning, Jane.” He had a big silly grin on his face, and Jane was afraid she had one to match.

“Hi.”

“Uh, Carol, do you have the, uh…what did I come in here for?”

“Have I talked to…” Carol parroted his words back to him.

He snapped his fingers. “Right. Finley, the new account exec. He was going to call in with some information for payroll.”

“Got it right here.”

Jane slipped past Max and practically sprinted for her office. Being around Max and acting strictly professional was going to be harder than she’d thought. But she had to. It would look really, really bad for everybody to know he was sleeping with his art director.

She had a pile of work waiting for her, mostly small ads that needed minor updating. She put her purse away and fired up her computer, intending to make up for the time she took off yesterday.

Midway through the first ad, though, Max came into her office to discuss one of the projects.

Her mouth watered just looking at him. He was casual today, and he looked better in a pair of faded jeans than any man she’d ever seen.

Their conversation was strictly business. Anyone seeing them or overhearing them would think nothing of it. But as they both bent over the ad on her drawing board, she could smell his soap-the same soap she’d used in his shower yesterday when he’d sudsed her up and done unspeakably wicked things to her body, causing him to be late returning to work.

Her whole body tensed with longing.

No. She was not going to give in to it. She had to focus on her work, because now she really needed this job. She’d forked over almost all her ready cash for the deposit and first month’s rent on her new apartment.

Once the newness of sex with Max wore off, she wouldn’t feel like this all the time, she reasoned. She would be able to partition off that part of her life.

“So, we’re squared away on the surf shop ad?”

“Yes, mm-hmm.”

“Something wrong?”

“No. No, everything’s great.” Sort of.

“Are you coming to the party tonight?”

“If I can get a sitter.”

“You can bring-” He stopped himself. “Right. I hope you can make it, since you were instrumental in landing the account.”

“I hope I can, too.” Mrs. Billingsly sometimes did evening babysitting. Jane made a mental note to call her. “Where is this party, anyway?”

“On the Dragonfly. What’s the use of owning one-sixth of a fishing business if I can’t get a free charter now and then? Sara is doing the catering for the cost of food. We’ll fish for a couple of hours in the bay, then anchor and eat and drink until the refreshments run out. If it’s dark by then, we’ll look at the stars through Cooper’s telescope.”

“It sounds like fun. I’ll try to make it.”

Carol leaned her head in the door. “Hey, girlfriend, I’m headed to Fresco Deli for lunch. You in?”

Jane took stock of her work and decided she had everything under control. “Sure.”

“How about you, boss man?” Carol asked.

“I have some work to do. But if you could bring me back a ham and swiss on rye with mustard, I’d be grateful.” He handed Carol a ten.

“Um, this is a health-food place. I could probably manage tofu and avocado on seven grain.”

He grimaced. “Whatever. God, I miss New York sometimes.”

It was a gorgeous day. The lingering summer heat and humidity had finally broken, and Jane inhaled deeply as she and Carol exited the building.

“Why don’t we walk?” she suggested as Carol pulled her car keys out of her purse. “It’s only a few blocks.”

Carol shrugged. “Okay. I guess it is the perfect day for it.”

They walked in companionable silence for about half a block, until finally a question burst out of Carol. “So? Are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?” Jane asked warily.

“About you and the boss man.”

“What are you talking about?” Jane asked to buy herself time. Oh, dear, this was bad. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since Jane and Max had succumbed to temptation, and already Carol knew about it.

“Come on, girlfriend. It’s all over your faces-both of you. When he walked into the room you stared at each other like a couple of lovesick calves.”

“Um…I plead the Fifth.” What else could she say? Denials seemed ridiculous, and anyway she didn’t like