Her Necessary Husband. Sharon Swan
eyes, a sight that instantly reminded her of the woman Ross Hayward had married. This slender-as-a-reed girl with straight, shoulder-length blond hair could only be Cynthia Morgan’s child.
The man of the house proceeded to introduce his eldest daughter, Caroline, who shook hands with the quiet courtesy of someone far older than her own ten years. Again he made no reference as to why their visitor was there. This time it had Jenna more than suspecting that the children weren’t aware of her status as a potential employee, as Myra plainly had been. They probably thought she was an acquaintance of their father’s.
Or a girlfriend.
No, not hardly, she informed herself in the next breath, belatedly reminded of what seemed to be common knowledge in Harmony—there had been no woman in Ross Hayward’s life since his wife’s death. As far as his children were concerned, their current visitor was no doubt a friend, and the most casual kind, at that. Which was fine with her, Jenna thought. And she would be fine, as well, regardless of whether she got this job or not.
“I recently moved back to Harmony after being away for several years,” she told Caroline, summoning a smile, “and I’m very glad I did.”
The girl’s own soft smile broke through. “It’s a good place to live, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“It’s cool,” Katie added.
Caroline straightened a fold of the powder-blue shirtwaist dress she wore with ballerina-style blue slippers and looked at her sister. “Cool means the weather,” she said in a small lecture. “It has nothing to do with a city.”
“Does, too,” Katie quickly countered, lifting her little chin.
Well acquainted with how easily sibling arguments could erupt, although she couldn’t imagine her own lively family ever butting heads over something as formal as a question of grammar, Jenna stepped into the breech. “Whatever the case,” she said, “Harmony happens to be where I was born a loo-ong time ago.”
Ross leaned back in his chair and found his mood lightening as the stretched-out word, issued with an exaggerated flutter of his visitor’s dark lashes, had both girls abruptly giggling. The sound was music to his ears.
Yes, he reflected with assurance, this was exactly what the daughters he loved more than anything in the world needed, and what had been behind his thought to hire a younger housekeeper in the first place. They needed someone who could joke with them on occasion as well as care for them. Someone who could offer a female perspective on things and fill a gap he couldn’t hope to fill. His daughters could only benefit from having a young, vibrant woman in their lives, no question about it.
And so would he, he knew. But in his case, it would have to go beyond having someone around to take care of his household. He wouldn’t satisfy any of the private needs that had begun to build inside him by hiring a housekeeper, any housekeeper. He needed something else. Something more.
Hell, what he really needed was a wife.
Which, in his more candid moments, he’d been telling himself for a while now. Not only would it give his daughters a motherly influence and provide some physical comforts for himself, it could also lead to more children, maybe even the son he would desperately like to have while he was young enough to do a good job of being a father to an active boy. Marrying again, and sooner rather than later, might well be the best solution all around, he’d conceded more than once. Trouble was, no single woman of his acquaintance even stirred his interest…except the one who had recently returned to Harmony. The more time he spent with Jenna Lorenzo, the more he was beginning to recognize that fact.
“Daddy, are you that old?”
Ross brought his attention back to the discussion, realizing he’d missed a turn in the conversation. “What?” was all he could ask in response to Katie’s question.
“Ms. Lorenzo said you were older than she is,” Caroline explained in her usual calm manner.
“Way older is what she said,” Katie tacked on.
He shot Jenna a look and found her eyes lit with amusement, as though she hadn’t been able to resist that little zinger. “If four years is way older,” he said dryly, “then I suppose I am.”
With that issue cleared up, Katie jumped to her feet. “I’m gonna put Pandora to bed for a nap.”
Jenna removed the towel from the doll’s neck. “Better let her sit up awhile longer to make sure the glue’s set.”
“Okay. I’ll sit her in her rocking chair.”
Caroline reached for the scissors and glue. “I’ll put these away, Dad.”
Ross nodded to his eldest child. “Thanks, princess.”
“You have two wonderful daughters,” Jenna told him when the children had left.
“I’m in total agreement on that score.” He sat forward and rested his forearms on the table. “And what can I say but thank you?”
She switched around to fully face him and frankly met his gaze. “You could say whether I’m going to be offered the job.”
Well, this was it, he thought. Despite her qualifications, he knew the chances of that particular relationship working out were slim to none. Added to his earlier reservations about offering her the position, seeing her in his home had led to his viewing her in a different, and far more personal, light. The sheer truth was that he’d become too aware of her as a woman, and a desirable one at that, to regard her as merely an employee.
He released a gusty breath. “No, I’m afraid not.”
“All right,” Jenna said after a silent second. She gave him the briefest of smiles as she scooted back her chair. “You must have things to do. I won’t take up any more of your time.”
Ross knew he could have summoned a courteous smile in return and seen her to the door. With his contacts, he could even have offered to help her find another job. And he would, in fact, have done both without hesitation—if he could have actually stood back and watched Jenna Lorenzo walk out of his daughters’ lives. Out of his life.
But he couldn’t.
Every instinct he had—instincts that had served him well in the business world—had begun to tell him in no uncertain terms that he could only benefit from doing his damnedest to further another sort of relationship with this striking-looking woman. A private relationship.
“If you’ll give me a few more minutes,” he said before she could step away from the table, “I’d like to discuss, not the housekeeper’s position, but something else entirely.”
Her brow furrowed as she looked down at him. “What else is there to discuss?”
He met her question with a blunt one of his own, deciding to just plunge in. “Would you consider going out with me?”
Even as he watched, a blank expression wiped every trace of emotion from her face. Moments passed before she issued yet another question.
“I came here to talk about a job, and you’re asking me out on a date?”
“Yes.” Jeez, how did he put what he was thinking into words when he was still groping his way through it in his own mind? “But it could lead to…something more. And I don’t mean an affair,” he added before she could misunderstand him.
While his body wouldn’t have protested much—not with this particular female—he knew that an affair was the last thing he wanted to start. It wouldn’t provide what his children deserved to have in their lives. Or what he needed beyond the rewards of a purely physical relationship, for that matter. Because, if he chose to look to what the future might bring and view things from a strictly practical standpoint, taking a lover also wouldn’t help in conducting a mayoral campaign.
No, it all boiled down to the fact that what he had to have to meet both his current and potential