Silver Thaw (13 page)

But despite her concern about the pictures she’d taken of Chloe’s injuries, what loomed at the front of her mind was that Jeb, who would normally carry the bags, considered her daughter’s safety more important. He was even putting Amanda’s safety second.

Watching him hold Chloe steady on the ice, Amanda felt a lump lodge at the base of her throat. And it
hurt
. They had escaped Mark, who had inflicted harm on those he should have loved, and landed with Jeb, a man who had no reason to give a fig about either of them. And yet he
did
. Her thawing heart was in serious danger, but how could she steel it against him when all she sensed from him was goodness?

*   *   *

Jeb invited Chloe to go with him to tend to his animals. Amanda was left to prepare dinner. Her thoughts were so tangled that she couldn’t think what to fix. She definitely had to do a fast thaw of meat. She grabbed hamburger, found Jeb’s instruction book for his digital pressure cooker, and decided to give it a try. After browning the meat, she added rice, canned broth, cream of mushroom soup, spices, grated cheddar, and some diced veggies. She could think of no way to describe how nervous she felt about fixing a meal using an unfamiliar appliance. She only knew Jeb and Chloe would return soon and all of them were hungry.

Mark had detested one-pot meals, but when Jeb and Chloe arrived and they all sat down and ate, Jeb said he’d never tasted a better one. Amanda relaxed about
the food, but other concerns kept her as tense as a freshly tuned guitar string.

*   *   *

Over the meal, Jeb could tell that Amanda was upset. He couldn’t blame her. She had little money and hadn’t earned a dime since Monday. She had a little girl to care for and needed to find a house to rent that she could afford. She would probably have to spend every cent she’d saved to get settled in a new place. Jeb planned to do a reverse search on the address of her former rental to get the name of the owner, who, in Jeb’s opinion, should at least reimburse her for the loss of her furniture.

“Mr. Jeb has a red hen named Lucy,” Chloe announced. “And a gray one named Ethel. We didn’t have time for him to tell me the names of the rest. He said it was too cold to stay outside.”

Amanda nodded. “Mr. Jeb is right.”

After eating, Jeb helped clean the kitchen, which went quickly because the pressure cooker made very little mess. While Amanda stowed the latex glove under the sink, Jeb put Bozo’s snow boots on him, grabbed his jacket, and took the dog out back for a final evening run. He had a hunch that Bozo would sleep with Chloe again.

Later, right after Chloe fell asleep, Jeb heard over the news that the predicted morning temperatures would still be so low that there would be no school again. Jeb suspected that the bus drivers were having trouble getting the engines to start. The roads were also still dangerous, and the classrooms might be too chilly to be safe for the children.

When Amanda came back downstairs, Jeb gave her the latest report. She shook her head. She wore a green sweatshirt, which looked almost as old as she was, over
faded jeans. With her hair twisted up and caught with a clip, and her face bare of makeup, she still managed to look gorgeous.

“I can’t afford to miss this much work.”

“I guessed as much,” Jeb replied as he drew two snifters and a bottle of fine brandy from his liquor cabinet. Bozo had gone upstairs with Chloe, and Jeb missed the sound of his snoring, but he couldn’t fault the dog for falling in love when he was guilty, too. “I hope you’ll join me,” he said as he sat at the table. He had briefly considered adjourning to the living room where they’d be more comfortable, but he suspected Amanda felt more at ease with the table as a barrier between them. “Two fingers of good cheer and conversation after a wonderful dinner seems like a great way to end the evening.”

Amanda took a seat across from him. “It’s nice to enjoy the ritual of a nighttime brandy again. Mark got so mean when he imbibed that I came to detest spirits of any kind.”

“It sounds to me as if Mark got mean no matter what.”

“True,” she replied in a thin voice. “But he was especially vicious when he was drunk.”

Jeb measured out liquor into the two glasses. “I don’t get drunk. Mostly I enjoy one measure of brandy, sometimes two.”

She smiled. “In that way, you remind me of my dad. He loved his evening brandy.”

“You miss him,” Jeb observed, hoping she’d talk about her family. “Where is he now? Your father, I mean.”

Shadows darkened her eyes. “He passed away after a battle with cancer.” She cupped the snifter in her palms. “I still feel guilty because I couldn’t be there afterward to support my poor mom. She was an only child, just like
me, and Dad grew up in foster homes. I was all she had.” She took a sip of the brandy, and at the taste, she closed her eyes and smiled. Lifting her dark, lush lashes, she added, “Mark allowed no phones in the house. Dad died right before Christmas. Mom sent me a letter, but with the backlog in post offices at that time of year, I didn’t get it until New Year’s Eve.”

“And I’m guessing Mark wouldn’t let you go to see your mom.”

“You’re a good guesser.” She toyed with a saltshaker. “I don’t contact Mom anymore. It’s safer for her not to know where I am. She’s a lousy liar, and if Mark thought she knew, he wouldn’t hesitate to beat it out of her.”

“It seems to me that it ought to be safe enough to call her on your cell—or mine. You could refuse to tell her where you are.”

Her gaze clung to his. “I worry about the cell phone call being traced.”

Jeb couldn’t argue the point. He wasn’t sure how all that worked. However, he did know that if his phone was lost or stolen, he could pinpoint its location easily with Find My iPhone. He had an iPad in his office, and the location app worked within seconds.

“Maybe for now it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he conceded. “So let’s change the subject. I lost my cleaning person a few weeks ago, and though I’ve managed to keep on top of it so far, this is a big house. I’m not busy now, but I will be soon, and any time I spend working indoors is time away from my shop, where I earn my income. I’ve also noticed that you’re beyond excellent as a cook.”

“Are you offering me a job?” she asked, her tone incredulous.

“I am. I’m not much of a cook. I’d really enjoy hot breakfasts and dinners. You could keep your cafeteria job as backup in case it doesn’t work well for you here. When your shift ends, you can do the household shopping in my truck or the older one out in my shop.”

She searched his expression as if she were waiting for him to say one of her duties would be to service him in bed. He bit back a smile. “On weekdays when you work at the cafeteria, you wouldn’t need to do housework. You could do that on weekends. I’m pretty easy to please. A weekly pass is good enough for me. I’m offering room and board, plus a thousand a month. With no electricity, water, propane, or garbage collection services to pay for, you should be able to save enough for an older-model vehicle in only a few months. I know my way around cars, so I’ll be happy to help you find something dependable.”

Amanda shook her head. “I think you’re dreaming up a job because it’s the only way you can think of to help me.”

Guilty as charged
. But Jeb wasn’t about to admit it. “I’ve been looking for a housekeeper and cook for what seems like forever. You can ask Tony across the road. It’s easy for me to find someone to clean, but finding someone to work split shifts during the week to cook me breakfast and dinner is another matter.”

She nodded, which eased the squeezing sensation in Jeb’s chest. “That would be difficult. The cost of gas alone to drive each way would make someone think twice.”

“And there’s the wear and tear on the vehicle. I understand that it isn’t ideal for most people, but if you lived here, it wouldn’t be so bad. You could work at the
school and be back here in plenty of time to spend the afternoons with Chloe.”

She joined him in taking another sip of brandy. “What would the neighbors think?”

Jeb couldn’t stop himself; he barked with laughter. Then he sobered because he saw that Amanda was serious. “I guess it won’t be the most conventional arrangement, but in this day of people living together without getting married, why would we bother to lie about it?” He shook his head. “Hell, we could just say we’re living together, and no eyebrows would be raised.”

“I’m still married. Not because I want to be. I haven’t wanted to be for a long time. So a car isn’t all I’m saving for. I need money for a divorce, enough to hire an excellent attorney who can make sure Mark never gets unsupervised visitation with Chloe.” She broke off and swallowed. And then, in a whisper, she continued. “Mark can be
difficult
. I’m afraid he’ll hurt her.” Her face flushed. “You’ll think I’m a horrible mom when I tell you this, but he’s hurt her before. I can’t let that happen ever again.”

Jeb realized that he needed to tread cautiously. Amanda had just opened a door, and he wanted to keep it open. “I don’t, for a second, think you’re a horrible mother. I’ve seen how much you love Chloe. It may have taken you longer to get her away from him than you wanted, but you managed it. And I know it hasn’t been easy for you. But you’re doing it. And you’re doing it without any help.”

“I won’t be if I take this job!”

“Sure you will. You’ll be getting fair wages for the work you do for me. That isn’t
help
; it’s earning a living.” He reached to replenish their snifters, noting that his was
nearly gone. “Proof’s in the pudding. Am I acting mean yet?” He lifted his glass. “I say we need to make a toast to success at your new job.”

“I haven’t agreed to work for you yet.”

“True, but it’s an offer I don’t think you should refuse. You can save for an attorney to keep Chloe safe after the divorce
and
save for a car.” He toasted to the agreement. “Tell me, did your dad get mean when he drank his brandy at night?”

A soft, glowing smile curved her lips. “Dad never got mean. He was so sweet and such a hard worker. He treated my mother like a queen.”

Jeb had grown up in the same sort of atmosphere, one of the reasons he’d never been able to settle for a second-rate woman. He’d wanted what his parents had—true love. “So you grew up believing that
all
marriages are like that.”

She shrugged. “I was young when I got in trouble.”

“How young, exactly?”

“Seventeen, almost eighteen. Chloe will be seven right before Christmas, and I’ll turn twenty-six next spring.”

“So you were way too young to understand that all guys weren’t good of heart like your dad, that there are a lot of rotten apples in the barrel.”

“I’ve never really analyzed it. I only know I got one of the rottenest apples.”

She took another sip of brandy and murmured with pleasure. Jeb realized that she had tasted her share of fine brandy and missed it. “I’m thinking that your dad sometimes poured you a nip or two.”

She grinned, dimpling both cheeks. Oh, how he loved those dimples. “He even got Momma to join us. And I
drank brandy with him long before I was of age. Dad believed that kids need to experience the effects of alcohol in a supervised environment so they won’t go out and get stupid somewhere, followed by getting hurt.”

He nodded. “My dad—his name is Jeremiah, by the way—felt the same way. He was always careful about how much he let us kids taste when we were young, but when we got to be teenagers, he allowed us to have enough to understand the effects.”

Amanda’s gaze, which Jeb could have gotten lost in, clung to his. “He sounds like a really great dad.”

“He is.” Jeb thought about his father. “He could be stern, but only when one of us was really messing up. And even then, we knew we had it coming.”

“I think I’d really like your dad.”

Jeb thought,
Yes, you will.
He fully intended to take
this
lady home to meet his parents, and in all his thirty years, he’d
never
done that.

“So,” he ventured, “what do you think about my job offer?”

“I have reservations.”

“Are you nervous about living with me?”

She studied him for a long moment and then smiled slightly. “I have every reason to distrust you, but Bozo is telling me and Chloe, with canine eloquence, that you are a kind man. It’s just that I
need
to make it on my own. Even if I can’t raise Chloe in grand style, just managing to do it will make me feel better, like a whole person.”

Jeb understood that. She was one of the sweetest people he’d ever met. A wonderful mom, kind to animals, a hard worker. Mark Banning didn’t deserve to breathe the same air she did, and so far as Jeb was concerned, the
marriage had been nothing more than writing on a form, the words never recorded in heaven.

“I expect you to work for your wages and for the use of my home,” he said. “And just because I’ve made the offer doesn’t mean you have to accept it. I’ll be glad to take you out again tomorrow to look at more rentals.”

Amanda gazed into her brandy. “I’ve already done some figuring in my head. If I keep the cafeteria job, the most I can give you during the week is four hours a day. I make twelve dollars an hour at the school and work only five-hour shifts. That is a grand total of three hundred a week, twelve hundred a month. And out of that, I must pay for taxes, rent, electricity, garbage collection, and food. Even if I work long hours for you on weekends, I can’t put in enough time to be worth what you’re offering to pay me.” She gestured at the house. “No charge for living here? I’m sorry, Jeb, but your offer means I won’t be doing it on my own.”

“Okay.” Jeb moved forward with as much caution as he would have on cracking ice. “What do you think is a fair wage?”

Her eyes went soft, like chocolate melting in a pot. “Five hundred a month is more reasonable.”

Jeb wondered where she’d come up with that number, but he wasn’t going to make it easy for her. “Seven hundred a month then. You’ll be working weekends, remember. So I’m figuring in time and a half for overtime.”

He knew that his offer of free room and board, plus the seven hundred, was worth far more than she could make for cooking and cleaning anywhere else, but he hoped that since she’d had limited work experience, she didn’t realize that.