“Maybe. I’d be very surprised if Jim let you leave, Tasha. He likes you.”
Tasha felt her face flush and was glad when her phone vibrated a text alert in her pocket.
Sara took that as her cue to leave but not without a final comment regarding her daughter. “Lizzie can be a handful. I know it. Jim knows it. She has been let down in the past with Jim’s partners and has also manipulated situations, but she’s not a bad girl.”
Tasha was unsure if it was a warning not to let her daughter down or if it was a warning to be careful of not being taken advantage of by her, maybe a little bit of both.
Chapter 10
Returning to the kitchen a confused Tasha found Sandra clearing away. “How long have you been over here?”
“Seventeen years,” she replied without pause or hesitation.
“Have you known Jim since you arrived?” Tasha wondered how he’d ended up with English staff he was clearly fond of.
“Most of it. Mike started driving for Jim about twelve years ago and then when he moved here and was looking for a house keeper I applied.”
“Have you always done this kind of work?”
“Not always. I did office work in England and when we came out here I took whatever work was going and eventually ended up working as a nanny come cleaner for an English family nearby. They moved back home and Jim was buying this place…”
“Oh right. Good timing then?”
“Yes. Are you settling over here?” Sandra turned the tables now.
Tasha shook her head. “I have no plans to. I’m only here until the end of the week, but I’m looking to work out here in the future.”
The other woman looked at her suspiciously. “You’re an actress?” She sounded suspicious too. Her tone as she’d uttered the wordactressmade it sound like an insult.
Tasha could see exactly what Sandra was thinking about her, especially with her admission about leaving. With a small frown for herself rather than the other woman Tasha wondered just how she was going to walk away without another thought and knew she wouldn’t be able to do it, even if she wanted to and she really didn’t want to.
“Yes, but fortunately I’m unknown over here so I can at least hit the shops with Lizzie without raising any eyebrows,” she replied, hoping to lighten the mood and remove the potential to be judged by the other woman.
Sandra’s expression softened, albeit slightly, meaning there was clearly still some judgement to be had. “Hollywood is full of actresses looking to find their lucky break—any way they can.”
Tasha nodded. “I know, but I’m not one of them. I like to earn my roles based on my ability to do the job not the guy doing the hiring.”
Sandra seemed slightly uncomfortable at Tasha’s direct summing up of her inference. “I wasn’t suggesting—”
“I know,” Tasha interrupted, smiling, waving off the other woman’s protests, but thought Sandra was in fact suggesting exactly that. But who could blame her? And she was actually attempting to protect Jim in some way. “Which is why nobody knows I’m here. Not my family, my friends, nor my agent. They all think I’m still in New York.”
Sandra smiled again now. “Well my lips are sealed, but Lizzie’s may not be.”
Tasha had to agree and decided Lizzie was likely to be loose lipped and a loose cannon. She struggled to know what to say so settled with a simple, “Hmmm.”
Her phone text alert sounded, reminding her of her unchecked earlier message. She wandered out poolside and sat on one of the loungers to open the three messages she now had from Jim.
She giggled and was rather pleased her ass may not be safe, although she was unwilling to analyse why she of all people found that quite so enjoyable. She moved down to the second message with a subconscious rub of her still tingly behind.
She opened at the third message, wondering what Sara’s text had said.
Tasha smiled because even though he was annoyed with her his kiss on the message remained.
