She grinned. “Remember this the next time I request an assignment.”
“Yeah, right.”
Brenda rolled her eyes, then collected her dog. Maggie scrambled to her feet. “Bye, Mommy. See you when I’m done with school.”
They hugged briefly, then Ashley waved as her daughter headed for the front door. “Have a good day,” she called after her.
As the front door closed, bread popped out of the toaster. Ashley started to get up but Jeff motioned her back into her seat.
“You’re still recovering,” he told her. “Until yesterday morning I didn’t even know I had a toaster. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use it.”
He rose and put the two pieces of toast onto a plate. Butter and jam already sat on the table. He set the plate in front of her, then poured her a mug of coffee.
“Milk, sugar?”
“Black is fine,” she said, slightly confused by his solicitousness.
He set the mug by her left hand, then resumed his seat. “Eat,” he said, pointing at the food.
Cautiously she reached for the butter and picked up a piece of toast. This was all too strange. What was she doing in this man’s house? Although based on the fact that she’d already spent two nights here, it seemed a little late to be asking questions.
“I spoke with Maggie’s teacher yesterday afternoon,” Jeff said when she began to eat. “I was told she didn’t seem to be suffering any ill effects from being in a strange place.”
“Cathy spoke with you?” The preschool had a strict policy of dealing only with parents or legal guardians.
Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t she?”
A simple enough question. Jeff was the kind of man who got what he wanted. That much was obvious from the way he’d brought her and Maggie here, despite her protestations and concerns.
“I’m glad Maggie is doing well,” she said in an effort to avoid his question.
“She is. Last night we had spaghetti and salad for dinner. She had a Pop-Tart for dessert.”
It might have been her imagination, but Jeff seemed to shudder. She felt herself smile slightly.
“I did not,” he continued.
“No real surprise there,” she murmured.
A slight upward tilt of the corner of his mouth was his only response. “Then we watchedThe Little Mermaid. Maggie was in bed by eight and asleep by 8:10.”
Before she could comment, he passed her the folder Brenda had brought him. “Here are your notes from your classes yesterday. If you’re not well enough to attend classes tomorrow, I’ll have Brenda arrange for someone to sit in for you. Also—” he took a sip of coffee “—I sent someone over to your apartment building to collect more of your belongings. You’ll find them stacked in the living room.”
She flipped through the notes—typed and in perfect order—then looked at him. She didn’t know what to say. The man had completely organized her life, and made it look simple in the process. She thought of how her daughter had been dressed and fed in plenty of time that morning. He’d prepared dinner the previous night and provided entertainment. By comparison, all the men she’d ever known were incredibly incompetent.
“Maggie’s father couldn’t even find the clean diapers to change her,” she said, “and he sure wouldn’t be able to get her ready for school. How do you know how to do all this?”
“I had help from Brenda. She’s raised four kids of her own and has a couple of grandchildren. Besides, compared to an antiterrorist campaign, running your life is easy.”
“It’s anything but that for me,” she murmured, thinking it was not possible for their worlds to be more different. “Anything else?”
“Yes. Maggie’s class is taking a field trip to the zoo next Friday. The permission slip had to be back yesterday for Maggie to go, so I signed it. Is that all right?”
Ashley sighed. “Of course. I’d meant to take care of that last week. I guess with her being sick and everything else that happened, I just forgot. She would have been heartbroken to miss the trip.”
She studied her host. He wasn’t just physically strong and a little scary, he was also incredibly competent. She needed that in her life right now, and the urge to let him take over and handle everything nearly overwhelmed her. No one had been around to look out for her since she was twelve.
A nice fantasy, she told herself, but one that had no basis in reality. The truth was she was an employee of Jeff Ritter. For reasons that still weren’t clear to her, he’d taken her and her daughter and was making them feel very welcome in his beautiful home. But gracious or not, he was a stranger with a past that made her more than a little nervous.
