“Two sugars and a pinch of cream,” Chloe announced, setting the sterling silver serving set on the edge of Lara’s desk. “Also, if it’s okay, I’m going to take my half-hour break.”
Lara looked away from her financial spreadsheets and caught sight of a suppressed grin on Chloe’s face. “You finished your other duties for now?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The present lady of the house gestured to the serving set, and with a flourish, the young maid poured more coffee into the cup. “Then it’s fine.”
Chloe excused herself. Lara sighed, sipping her hot coffee and perusing her email. A voicemail from Kennedy waited on her phone. She would be home late again.I need to postpone dinner until 7:30. Hopefully, Lara would remember to tell Roberta, the live-in chef.
Since she was in a productive mood – it helped that she and Kennedy were getting ready to remodel a day spa to sell to an expanding company, and thinking about free manipedis and massagesalwaysgot her ass moving – Lara finished work early and decided to take her calls outside. Why not? It was an unusually sunny day for that time of year. She needed a light scarf and sweater to brave the chill, but once she was in the sunshine, walking past the pool and into the trails behind the house, she couldn’t care about the chill.
Her cousin the lawyer called, asking where her weekly gripe about a divorce was. This was followed by another call from Kennedy saying their current real estate deal went up two million dollars, and, oh, could her dear wife and business partner come with her to negotiations next time? Finally, she got a call from her sister, coordinating their Christmas dinner at their parents’ house. Kennedy’s family was coming over... so were the sisters of Lara’s brother-in-law. For the first time in a long while, Lara would be surrounded by children, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
No, thank you.
She would have to enjoy the peace now. Eventually, she would summon her driver to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Especially for those children.Sigh.
Toward the end of her stroll, she came upon Chloe, sitting on a bench in the sunlight. This wasn’t unusual, since the girloften took her breaks outside on nicer days, but today she held something in her hand.
That something was a large piece of Kennedy’s personal stationery. Easy to see that soft yellow even in the sunlight.
Chloe giggled at something written on the paper. Before she saw Lara approaching, the maid covered her mouth as a smile erupted on her stricken face. It was a face of adoration. Love.Lara knew that face well. It made her stop in her steps and bile erupt in her throat.I knew it. She looked away as Chloe noticed her, furiously fighting to put the paper away in a purse strapped around her chest.
“What do you have there?” Lara asked sweetly, taking her chances.
Chloe ran her fingers nervously through her hair. “Nothing special,” she replied, much too quickly. “I mean…”
“Love letter from your boyfriend?”
The fake look of innocence dropped from Chloe’s mien. Instead, she paled, the winter sunshine sucking all color from her face. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she finally said.Yes, sweetie, I saw whose stationery you were perusing. Naughty girl.
“Too bad. Pretty girl like you should have someone around Christmas.”
“I’m going home to visit my parents, anyway.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Lara took her leave, diverting from the main house to the kitchen wing nestled on the far west side of the property. Roberta was there, prepping ingredients for dinner. Looked like braised chicken and a vegetable medley.
“Kennedy will be home late,” Lara said, standing in front of the island counter stacked with fresh vegetables. Roberta, a stocky woman with a mean visage but a straightforward heart, sliced and diced as if it were second nature. It probably was, like buying and selling properties flowed in Lara’s blood.We all haveour strengths. Wasn’t Lara’s fault that hers made her one of the richest women in the region.
Roberta stopped cutting long enough to consider the food in front of her, then Lara’s stoic face. “Gives me longer to cook dessert.”
“What’s for dessert?”
“Peach cobbler. For Ms. Anderssen.”
Her favorite. Seemed Kennedy was a popular person today. “Can I ask you a question?”
Roberta glanced at Lara as if she had grown a second head.I know, I’m not very personable. Although Lara tried to keep emotional distance between her and the help she hired, Roberta was the house’s longest-standing employee at seven years. She lived in a sizable apartment above the kitchen, where the Anderssens let her host guests and even a live-in boyfriend for three out of those seven years – the boyfriend had worked as a lawn keeper for a neighboring property, meaning hardly any commute. These were perks Lara wouldn’t dream of offering her other employees.
So even though she and Roberta were far from friends, she was the closest thing Lara had to one in that house outside of her partner. If there was anyone she could talk to, it was this sullen woman who often looked like she was about to rip the chicken in half with her bare hands.
“Do you think my partner is cheating on me?”
Lara went ahead and laid that out on the island counter, now didn’t she?
Roberta spared her another glance before dumping a pile of diced carrots into a bowl. “It’s too close to Christmas for a question like that,” she mumbled.
