The Good Father. Kara Lennox
book, flew out of her chair and attached herself to Jane’s leg.
Jane leaned down to pick up her little girl. “Have you been a good girl for Ms. Washington?”
Kaylee nodded. “We ate Goldfish and juice—”
“And some apple slices,” Carol interjected, probably so Jane would know the snack had been somewhat nutritious.
“—and we played horsey and colored in the book—”
“Excuse me,” Max said, looking more and more irritated, “but can we finish our business before you’re off in Mommy Land?”
“Yes, of course, Max. What is it?”
“Is the ad done? Please tell me it’s done.”
“Of course it’s done,” she said calmly, as if she’d finished it ages ago. “It should be in your inbox as we speak.”
He bolted out of the room.
“He’s mean, Mommy.” Mean must have been Kaylee’s new word.
Carol laughed. “Not mean. Just not into kids, I don’t think. Listen, you better hit the road before Mr. Remington looks at that ad and decides he wants changes.”
“Oh, but it’s perfect,” Jane said, alarmed to think she might have more work to do. “I’m sure he’ll be pleased with it.” The finished product had been beautiful, even if she did say so herself.
“One thing you better learn fast in this business, honey. No matter how hard you work, no matter how perfect it is when you let go of it, the boss will always want changes and the client will, too. The sooner you realize that and don’t let it bother you, the better.”
Jane nodded. “Point taken.” She quickly gathered up Kaylee’s toys and stuffed them into the tote bag. “C’mon, princess. Let’s go home and have some macaroni.”
They’d almost cleared the reception area when Jane heard her name. She considered scooting out the door and pretending she hadn’t heard. But since Max had bellowed at her loudly enough to shake the walls, she decided she better obey the summons.
She sighed. Oh, God, what if he hated the ad?
He appeared in the doorway to the reception room just as she reached to open it. “Oh, there you are. I thought I’d missed you.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Not much, really. The ad is beautiful. Really, Jane, you have such an eye for color and composition. There’s just one teeny-tiny problem.”
“What?”
“You left off the client’s logo.”
Chapter Three
Jane gasped. In the span of two heartbeats she’d gone from glowing with pride to cringing with mortification. She’d left off the client’s logo? How could that be possible?
Just then Kaylee let out an unexpected shriek—right in Jane’s ear. She strengthened her grip around Jane’s neck, putting her in a wrestler’s stranglehold.
“That man is mean!”
“What?” Max asked. “Did she just say I was mean?”
But Jane’s mind was shifting back to the ad and the final steps she’d taken, and she remembered something. “I think I know what the problem is. Give me five minutes.”
She dropped everything but Kaylee and ran back to her office. “Kaylee, honey, please be good for another couple of minutes while Mommy fixes this disaster.” How humiliating would it have been to show the client an ad with no logo?
While her computer booted up, she tried to convince Kaylee to play quietly, but the child was crabby now and wanted none of it. Jane had to work with Kaylee in her lap and Max standing in the doorway, glowering at her.
If she didn’t fix this problem in two seconds, she was fired. She knew it.
She called up the file from the graphics program. Yes, there it was! She’d made the logo transparent while she was working on the background, and she’d simply forgotten to restore it. One button click, and the problem was fixed. With a huge sigh of relief, she sent it to Max.
“It’s fine now. The corrected version should be in your inbox.”
He didn’t rush to his office, as she’d expected, but continued standing in her doorway staring at her, an inscrutable expression on his handsome face.
Oh, God. He was going to fire her anyway.
He opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it and turned away.
Jane wanted to get herself and her fussy child out of there—before the day got any worse. But she forced herself to wait until Max had okayed the ad. If he wanted her to do more work on it, she would, but she would find a babysitter first.
At least Kaylee had stopped crying. She was now flopped across Jane’s shoulder, her little body relaxing muscle by muscle as drowsiness took over. Poor thing, today had been long and confusing for her.
Still carrying her daughter, Jane tiptoed to Max’s office. He was at the computer, but he must have sensed her presence because he looked up.
“Is it okay now?” she asked.
“It’s fine. I’ve sent it to the client.”
“Do I still have a job?”
He actually smiled. “Yes, you still have a job. I shouldn’t have reacted like I did, not on your first day. I’m sure things will go smoother once you settle in.”
Jane smiled back. “Absolutely. See you tomorrow, then.” She turned to leave.
“Oh, Jane. One more thing.”
Shoot, what now?
“I’m courting a new client, a children’s clothing manufacturer from Houston. If I land the account, it will be by far my biggest.” He pointed to a folder sitting on the corner of his desk. “That’s some of the print advertising they’ve done over the past couple of years, along with some concepts I’ve brainstormed. Would you mind looking them over tonight? I’ll want you to do some mock-ups for a presentation. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Sure, of course.” What sort of mock-up was he talking about? Sketches, or something more polished? She should ask, but she didn’t want to look any more ignorant today than she already had.
Jane grabbed the folder, which she would study after Kaylee was in bed. “Have a great evening.” Did he have a date? Oh, Lord, why did she care about that? He could have ten dates, and it was none of her concern.
As she made her way to her car, the day’s events floated around in her brain, but the one she focused on was when Max had said her ad was beautiful. Maybe his praise hadn’t been sincere, but she’d gone all tingly inside.
For a moment, she imagined how it would feel to hear him say she was beautiful. The tingly feeling returned. It was a miracle she got her car home in one piece.
OLD SALT’S BAR & GRILL was nothing like the ultra-hip clubs in SoHo and the Village Max used to frequent when he lived in New York. But it had its good points—like a big deck that looked out over the ocean, decent food and drinks that didn’t cost your whole paycheck.
Although lots of bars dotted Port Clara’s coast and downtown area, Max and his cousins had adopted Old Salt’s as their home away from home.
Max worked long hours these days trying to get the agency up and running and profitable—profitable being the point that interested him most at the moment. He had walked out on his job at Remington Industries, his family’s New York conglomerate, with a lot of big promises about how he was going to make it on his own with no help from them.
He