Authors: Samantha Lovern
He nodded but hooked a thumb toward the door. “I’m done, unless you want to take a spin.” The smile he flashed must have gotten her attention, for she stopped and looked as if she was considering it.
“I better not. Mr. Taylor might not like that.” She turned and walked to close the door.
“You might be right, but I’d chance it.” Martin smiled, enjoying the view. She ignored his comments. Generally by this time she’d be in that cute nightshirt. Taking the dog to the vet had thrown her off her schedule.
By the time she turned, making her way back to the bike, his attention was on putting his helmet away and gathering tools. He should have done that before taking his shower. “You don’t have to help,” Martin said as Randi carefully picked up a screwdriver, laying it on the cloth on the workbench.
She was close and cut her eyes up quickly to his. “Are you trying to run me off?”
“Not in a million years.”
She smiled, and though he didn’t know what she’d say, Martin stole a quick kiss. He just moved in, brushed his lips across hers, and straightened, smiling, like the cat that ate the canary.
“That was nice.”
“Just nice?” he asked, looking back at his tools.
“Better than nice.” She said, and though he kept his eyes on the tools, he could hear the smile in her voice.
“Well, if you’re going to help, reach me a couple of clean rags. They’re over there on the tool box.”
“I can do that.” She did as he asked and in a matter of ten minutes the few tools were wiped down and they both walked to the garage sink. There was a foot pedal to turn on the water, so she stepped on it as he washed his hands.
“Soap?” She asked.
“Yes, that orange bottle.” Martin nodded at the counter and slipped his hands under the water.
Randi reached out, picked up the bottle, squirted some into her hands, and then, much to his surprise, began to rub the soap from her hands onto his.
“Enough?” She asked.
Electric, was the only thing he could think of when she touched him. “Yeah, that’ll work,” was all he said.
He could see a smile playing on her lips, but she didn’t dare look him in the eye. He was disappointed when she moved her hands, rinsed them, and seemed to regret her actions.
“I’ll get a towel.” She stepped back, reached for a clean towel, and waited for him to scrub the oil away.
Pulling her into his arms once his hands were dry was what he wanted to do. Instead, he took the towel and spoke. He didn’t want her to retreat inside just yet. “How’s the pup? Was it serious?”
“No, he had this thing on his back leg. Emma wanted to have it removed because he chews on it all the time. The vet wanted me to get him fixed, but I didn’t.”
“If he could, he would thank you.” Martin smiled.
“I’m sure he would, and I might want to sire a litter. Also, I think it changes them too much.”
“It would change me.” She shook her head at his comment but laughed and turned to go into the house.
“I should go check on him,” she said over her shoulder.
Martin had every intention of getting one more kiss so he followed her, turning out the lights as they stepped into the kitchen.
Neither of them spoke until they were at the place where they parted ways most nights. She stood at the entrance that led to the back rooms, and since the kitchen light was on he could see hesitation in her eyes. He still held the towel in his hands, and in her own way she brought about a connection, by taking hold of the towel.
“I’ll put that in the laundry for you,” she said, looking into his eyes.
“In a minute you can,” He tugged on the towel and smiled. She obediently stepped closer, as he had hoped she would. Martin wanted to ask Randi out, wanted to see where this attraction would lead, but he wasn’t ready.
He had Celia and this party standing in the way. Since he couldn’t say or ask what he wanted, his body language would have to help in moments like this.
Martin kept tugging lightly on the towel, until Randi was close enough to kiss. Their height was a perfect match. He barely had to lean down to kiss her, and he did.
The first touch was soft. Then he pulled back just an inch, and paused for effect. Sometimes it was hard to turn off the acting side of his abilities.
The second time his lips touched hers, he felt her hand slip from the towel, but felt it again on his chest. Was she going to push him away?
No. She wasn’t. Her hand slowly slid up to the base of his neck. He could feel her fingers on his skin, then in his hair, and then heard and felt a sigh escape her lips.
Martin wanted to deepen the kiss, but something caught his attention. Was it a door opening, or a footfall? Whatever it was, he wanted to push it out of his mind and focus on Randi, but he couldn’t.
Slowly, he pulled back. The dreamy smile that met his gaze from the lady in his arms let him know he was on the right track. He not only wanted to kiss Randi, he wanted to know everything there was about her.
What did she want out of life? What was her favorite color? He wanted to know all of those things a person should know about someone they were beginning to have feelings for.
“I should go,” she said, but he could feel her fingers curl into his hair. It made his heart beat faster, but slowly she stepped back, releasing her hold, once again putting her hand on the towel. “Will I see you tomorrow?” she all but whispered as she took two steps back.
Martin’s mind was once again on the noise in the other room, so he kept his tone low. “I’ll be busy tomorrow, but I’ll see what I can do.”
With that he turned to go, hoping that by this time tomorrow night, Randi would still be speaking to him.
Chapter 32
Addison
It had been a long day and Addison couldn’t go to sleep. It could have been the time zone difference, or the bed, but whichever, she couldn’t get comfortable. She got out of bed and paced awhile. She tried to read but finally gave up. Her room was downstairs, next to her mother's, so she decided to go outside for a breath of fresh air.
She listened at her mother’s door for a few minutes but didn’t hear anything. Hopefully her mother wasn’t having the same issues. She walked down the hall and saw the kitchen light on. At least she wasn’t the only one that couldn’t sleep.
None of Celia’s family had arrived yet, so it was Celia, Martin, or some of the help. It seemed strange to Addison to have maids and such living under the same roof with you. It wasn’t anything she thought she could ever get used to.
Two of the maids she’d met earlier in the day didn’t live in the house, and for that she was thankful. They didn’t seem friendly in the least. She would only hire nice, warm women, like Emma.
Emma seemed to be really concerned that Addison and her mother felt at home. She had said several times that if either of them needed anything they could just let someone know.
Also there was the maid, Randi. She had some kind of a phone, or intercom, and at any time day or night if her mother wanted anything, she only needed to call on Randi.
Addison wondered what Martin was paying Randi for that kind of service. She stepped around the hall and started to go into the kitchen, but when she saw the tree glowing she changed her path. Who would leave a tree on all night? What a waste of electricity.
After a few minutes she managed to find the switch and turned the tree off, which was a mistake. Without the light of the tree she couldn’t see well. She let her eyes adjust and walked toward the kitchen light.
She was just stepping up to the landing when she looked across the way into the kitchen. Addison stopped in her tracks and her mouth fell open.
Well that explained a few things. No wonder Randi was going out of her way to be kind to Lillian. If a man kissed me like that, I just might babysit his mother for free too.
Addison wanted to cough or barge in, but it wasn’t her place. If her brother wanted to sleep with every maid in the house, who was she to criticize? It wouldn’t, though, keep her from giving him an earful, and kindly letting him know her opinion on the matter.
She was in the dark now since the tree was out, and she felt like a Peeping Tom. They were just pulling apart from what she assumed was a goodnight kiss. She could tell this wasn’t the first time, but she could also see something in her brother’s body language that said more than she cared to see.
This wasn’t just a torrid affair. She would even guess he hadn’t slept with Randi. They were holding hands, and looking at each other like school kids. Addison shook her head. My brother really has a mess on his hands.
This enlightened her as to why Martin hadn’t jumped down her throat for lying to her mother about her dating situation, which normally he would have. Brothers, no matter what they did, always thought they could tell little sisters what to do.
Slowly, the two lovebirds parted ways and Addison stepped off the landing and walked toward the kitchen. The maid was out of sight now and Martin was turning her way. She didn’t want to say anything. She just stood there, arms crossed, waiting for him to turn and find her.
Seconds later as he reached out to turn off the kitchen light his eyes met hers. Though he normally didn’t curse in front of them, she could all but read his lips.
“Pretty much what I was thinking too,” Addison said, stepping closer. “Have you lost all of the good sense that God gave you?”
Martin glanced over his shoulder, and pointed toward the door. “Let’s take this outside.”
“I can’t sleep, and this will only add to my problems, so sure. I can’t wait to hear what kind of an excuse you come up with for this one.” Addison grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and followed Martin out the front door. They walked a good distance from the house before he stopped and turned to face her.
“This isn’t what it looks like.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and in the moonlight she could see his features well. She opened the bottle of water and took a long sip, then looked in his direction.
“That’s a good start, but go on. You definitely have my attention.”
Martin let out a long breath, glanced back up toward the house, and began. It was good thing that they were away from the house, because as he went along with his story, at one point Addison stopped him. “She what? She has no idea who you are?”
“I know. It’s a mess -- a really big mess. I never planned on any of this. It just happened.”
“Yeah. You told one lie, and then told another, and then had to tell one to cover that one. Did you learn anything from our mother, the patron saint of truthfulness?”
Martin laughed. “I’m just glad it was you instead of mom. I’d hate for her to walk in on something like that.”
“What about Celia? Does she know?” Addison listened as Martin went on. By the time he was done and had spilled his story her water was gone. She needed another drink, and she could see how he’d slowly fallen into this trap he’d set for himself.
She put the lid on the empty bottle and looked into the eyes of her only, older, sibling. “So, brother dear, tell me. Where do we go from here?”
Chapter 33
Lester
“Are you sure you have time to take me to work today? I could get a cab.” Emma worked on getting ready to leave. She glanced at her husband, Lester, as he ate his last few bites of breakfast.
“I have time. I meant to ask you about that last night, but when I picked you up, we were talking about the kids coming over for Christmas and I forgot. You said something about a doctor visit. I know you don’t loan out your car. I guess it was important.”
Emma picked up her cup of coffee and nodded. “I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but I didn’t really see a way to get around it. I had to let one of the maids borrow the car to take a pet to the after-hours hospital. She wasn’t back by the time I was ready to go home.”
“For a pet? I hope she’s a good driver.” Lester rolled his eyes but he didn’t say anything. Emma had her car, and he had his. It took both their salaries to make things easy, so since her salary was as important as his, and contributed to their mutual bank account, there wasn’t a lot of arguing. No this is mine, this is yours kind of thing.
Emma took the last few bites of her pancake, rose, and then washed off her plate. “Randi seems like she’s got it together, and besides, it was kind of work-related, so I didn’t mind.”
“I’m going to go shave. When we get in the car you can explain this to me. I don’t recall you ever mentioning a pet in the household.” Before Emma could say anything else, Lester was gone. She picked up his plate and washed it, and then went to change clothes.
Emma’s employment at the Taylor mansion in general didn’t consist of manual work. Now and then she would wash clothes or dishes, but she mostly just kept the household running.
Emma kept a calendar for Mr. Taylor, told him what bills needed to be paid and when. She set up his appointments, and reminded him daily what was on his itinerary. She was more like a personal assistant than a housekeeper, and that suited her just fine. She dealt with enough sweeping and washing dishes at her own household to last her a lifetime.