After the guys had a chance to scan their pitiful checks he said, “We got a call today
for a possible job that pays pretty well, but it involves playing chauffeur to a teenager.
Anyone interested?”
“Not a chance,” Seth replied quickly.
“Not really interested either, sir,” Ian said.
“Ronnie?” he asked.
Ronnie looked at his check again. “I need more money than this. I like to eat and
I need a place to sleep. And you need to make something out of all this, too, sir.
So sign me up.” Ronnie squared his shoulders. “So it’s cleaning the house
and
driving the kid around…how bad can it be?”
Chapter One
The craziness had become pretty bad and was getting worse daily. It had to stop.
“Addie! Come on, honey, we’re going to be late!” Kayla Clark hollered up the stairwell.
“I’m almost done. Go on out and start the car, I’ll be right there!” Her teenage daughter
yelled back.
Pulling on her overcoat, Kayla picked up her purse and dug around in the bottom looking
for her car keys.
Great
… She must have laid them down somewhere.
She looked on the small entry table near the front door with no luck. Heading back
down the hallway, she looked on the messy coffee table in the living room. As she
walked into the kitchen, she noticed that she had completely forgotten to load the
dishwasher after dinner the night before.
After a stop by the nursing facility to visit with her mother, Kayla hadn’t arrived
home until 7:30 last night. By the time she had fed herself and Addison and started
on the sketches of her ideas for the campaign meeting scheduled for today with a potential
new client, she hadn’t felt like tackling housework. At least she had a good start
on the design for the upcoming marketing promotion, and she had combed through several
jingle ideas for radio spots. Landing this client was a big deal, not only for Kayla
but also for the whole firm. She knew the extra hours in the office would be worth
it, but lately it felt like all she did was work.
When her mother had lived with them, the long work hours hadn’t been so bad. They
all chipped in and made the best of things. After her mother had been diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s, though, things had gradually worsened, and Kayla had been forced to do
more and more on her own.
Kayla sighed in frustration at the sight of a nearly full loaf of bread that had not
been properly tied up and was probably stale already, then glanced at the dishes in
the sink and the bills and papers spread out on the breakfast table.
Something had to give, and soon. The ten- and twelve-hour days were taking their toll
on her and Addie—and on her household, by the look of things.
Please, please let Man Maid Cleaning respond today.
She had her resume in for a new position with a couple of other competing ad agencies.
A raise wasn’t what she was looking for in a new job…a life outside of the office
was what she needed. But that was at least a month away, or more, and wouldn’t help
her out right now.
The here and now entailed a full ten hours in the office followed by a quick stop
at the nursing home for a brief and usually disturbing visit with her mother, her
only surviving parent, and then a rush to get home to feed Addie and herself before
she picked work back up again until midnight, only to get up the next day and do it
all over again. Even weekends were crazy and sometimes included stopping by the office
while out running errands. At this point, a housekeeper was starting to sound not
only pretty nice, but also necessary.
“Mom! What are you doing? We have to go, remember?” Addie yelled from near the front
door.
Finally spying the keys laying on the counter, Kayla snatched them up and nearly sprinted
for the front door. As she got in the driver’s seat and buckled up she noticed the
piece of paper Addie was holding out to her.
“I need you to sign the permission slip for the varsity football cheer squad and the
competition cheer squad. I have to turn it in today or I can’t participate,” Addie
said, pulling a pen out of her purse.
Grabbing the piece of paper and the pen, Kayla scanned the form quickly and signed
on the bottom line. Perhaps she would get lucky and have both a housekeeper
and
someone to pick up Addie from cheer practice by the end of the week. It wasn’t fair
to Addie not to let her participate because Kayla didn’t have time to pick her up
from practices or drop her off for games.
“I’m sorry I forgot to sign this earlier, sweetie. Things are just crazy at work right
now with this new potential account. It will slow down soon, and I will make it up
to you,” she heard herself say. “I promise.”
“It’s fine, Mom.” Addie sighed, looking out the passenger-side window.
Kayla backed her car out of the driveway and headed to the high school.
Hearing the disappointment in her daughter’s voice was more hurtful than the unspoken
words. It wasn’t as if Kayla didn’t
want
to be there for Addie. She’d taken this job because it allowed her to provide the
same kind of opportunities as any two-parent environment would. Addie deserved that…after
all, it wasn’t her daughter’s fault she was being raised by a single parent.
When Addie was little, there had been more balance in their lives. Kayla’s mom had
helped out with child care and housework when she could. But now…
Much like when Addie had taken her first steps, spoken her first words and started
kindergarten, Kayla would once again have to hear about it secondhand. But it couldn’t
be helped…especially not right now.
A part of her was proud that she’d put herself through college and found a good job
making decent money even
after
getting pregnant during her senior year of high school. Starting out as a mother
so young had made everything seem twice as hard, but at least her own mother had been
there to help with Addie while Kayla had been working and in school. After Kayla’s
father had passed away, her mother had moved in with her and Addie. Their life as
a threesome had been good—until her mother had become ill.
Now it was Kayla’s turn to care for her mother. Good nursing-home care wasn’t cheap,
though, and Kayla had been thankful time and again that this job had allowed her to
provide for the people in her life whom she loved.
Unfortunately, her gratitude for having such a good job was now being taken advantage
of by an extremely competitive boss who kept piling on more and more work. So even
though she was able to provide for both Addie and her mother monetarily, she was stuck
in the office while paying other people to care for them both.
That part felt like a failure. It was a hit to her pride and her heart.
It was supposed to get easier as Addie got older and more independent. Somehow that
was not the case. Now Kayla had to explain her choices to a girl on the wings of adulthood.
Living in a nice, safe neighborhood meant the cost of living went up along with the
size and value of the homes. Making enough money to live in an area with one of the
best public schools around meant working long hours.
It wasn’t that Kayla didn’t appreciate the opportunities her career had provided.
But the simple truth was that she just couldn’t do it all by herself anymore.
Determined to put on a cheerful face, she said, “I am proud of you. Imagine that,
my
tenth grader making varsity cheer squad
and
competition cheer squad.”
Addie looked over and gave Kayla a forced smile, then went back to staring out the
window. When they pulled up to the curb in front of the school, Addie simply opened
the car door and got out, closing it behind her without saying goodbye.
This was why working so hard had to stop. It felt like Kayla didn’t even know her
own child anymore. It was hard to keep a good relationship with your daughter if you
hardly ever saw her.
Just the other day, Addie had asked once again for the dog she wanted so badly. Kayla’s
intense fear of the furry four-legged critters was the main reason Addie went without,
but realistically, if they did have a dog that would just be one more thing for Kayla
to take care of. With the hours she worked, she was glad they didn’t have a pet. But
she couldn’t so easily dismiss all of Addie’s requests.
She also couldn’t continue putting in the long hours and weekends, and giving up vacations
for deadlines, for the rest of her life. She was looking for a change…a life outside
the four walls of her office.
Once she landed this big account for the firm, she would have paid them back for being
so good to her over the years. Then she could move on to another job, one with fewer
hours, and not feel guilty about it.
As she pulled into her parking spot in front of the large office building where she
worked, she realized she had three minutes to get upstairs for the meeting or she
would be late.
Not exactly a good first impression for a new client
.
Racing inside, she threw her keys and purse behind the receptionist’s desk and nearly
sprinted for the conference room.
“Cutting it kind of close, aren’t you, Kayla?” James asked from his chair at the head
of the large well-polished conference table.
“Sorry,” she replied, pulling her sketches out of her case.
James Emory was her boss and a real stickler for time. She was pretty sure a couple
of the people in the office maintained their status as his favorites simply because
they were fifteen to twenty minutes early every day. She was lucky to even get here
most days. Once she was here, though, she stayed—well past everyone else’s eight-hour
shift.
She had the most accounts, she brought in the most money, and she felt good about
earning the top salary in the company—under James’s of course. However, the highest
salary meant working the longest hours, too. Kayla grabbed some coffee from a side
table and sat down as James’s assistant entered the room with the clients, showing
them to their seats and offering drinks.
Three hours later, they had a signed marketing agreement, an idea of where their clients
were heading with their business, and clear expectations regarding the image they
wanted to portray. As she collected her purse and keys, which she would have forgotten
if not for Megan, the receptionist, Kayla noticed a missed call on her cell phone.
She tapped the screen to call the number back as she hurried to her office to finally
check voice mail and emails.
“Russell Hawkins,” a man answered after only one ring.
“Yes, this is Kayla Clark. I noticed a missed call from this number,” she said, dumping
her purse and case on the chair near the window of her office.
“Yeah, I am the owner of Man Maid. I wanted to let you know that I may have a potential
housekeeper who is also willing to pick up your daughter from school activities. The
housekeeper is a man, though—will that be a problem?”
A man?
Kayla had envisioned a lovely older woman, maybe around her mother’s age, who would
take both her and Addie under her maternal wing. This wasn’t the 1950s, though, and
truthfully, no housekeeper could ever replace the love and care her mother had given
them. With the economy the way that it was, who was she to frown upon a person with
a job…man or woman? She did need to ensure that Addie would be safe with the person,
though, even if it was only for a limited amount of time each day.
“My daughter is a teenager. I’m not sure… I probably should talk it over with her
first and make sure she would be comfortable with a male…cleaning person.”
Well, that sounded intelligent.
“Ronald Brown is the man’s name, and he is a veteran. I can personally vouch for him.
He was under my command during two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He’s
a good and honorable man, and I’m sure he’d be happy to meet you and your daughter
first, if that would put your mind at ease,” Mr. Hawkins offered. “I emailed you his
background check. I do one for all my employees. And I included a list of references
for him, if you’re interested.”
“Let me think about it and talk it over with my daughter. I’ll let you know by tomorrow,”
she insisted.
Maybe the influence of an older male, especially a veteran, would be a good thing
for Addie. Addie had been fairly young when her grandfather had passed away, and she
didn’t really remember him. Her father had only seen Addie a few times. Once he and
Kayla had graduated from high school, he’d taken off and never looked back. Kayla
still wanted to consider Addie’s feelings on the matter, though. Perhaps rather than
the grandmotherly figure she’d imagined being there for Addie after school…it would
be a grandfatherly figure instead.
After hanging up with Russell and briefly reading the material he’d emailed about
the housekeeper, she dove into phone calls, emails and piles of things dumped in her
inbox with sticky notes attached. When her desk phone rang a while later, she looked
up and realized it was well past lunchtime. She had been so busy she hadn’t even eaten.
Seeing her boss’s number on the digital display now, she cringed.
Here comes the “can you stay and get that done” call.
No sooner had she finished her call with James—and once again agreed to stay late—when
her cell phone rang. It was Addie.
“Hey, Mom, the cheer squad is going to Starbucks after school and then to Kaitlyn’s
house to work on new cheers for this season. I want to go… I
need
to participate, Mom, or I may not make the team
next
year. Please?” Addie begged.
As much as she doubted that Addie would be excluded from the team in subsequent school
years—the squad wasn’t as good or as big as they should be for their school’s size—it
was still good for Addie to spend time with friends. Unfortunately, with this new
account came even
more
hours in the office.
“I’m sorry, honey, but I have to work late tonight…. I got the account,” she said,
trying to sound more excited than she really was.