“Hi,” said one little girl, her silky dark hair in a ponytail, her brown eyes big and watchful. “Who’re you?”
“I’m Sasha. Who are you?”
“Julia.”
“What are you having for lunch?” Sasha asked.
“Sandwiches. Are you having lunch?”
“Um, no. Not here.”
“You can have this.” Julia pushed a sandwich toward her. “It’s tuna. I hate tuna.”
Sasha smiled. “Do you?”
“It stinks.”
Sasha laughed. “So Julia, how old are you?”
“I’m ten. How old are you?”
Sasha was amused at the little girl’s directness. “Twenty-six.”
“My mom is twenty-five,” she said.
Sasha’s eyes widened. Whoa. “Your mom is twenty-five?” she repeated.
Julia nodded. “Yup.” She took a bite of her sandwich.
Sasha picked up the tuna sandwich, frowned at it, then took a bite too. “What about your dad?”
“I don’t have a dad,” Julia said matter-of-factly. “Just a mom. She goes to school and works a lot, so I come here.”
“Oh. That’s good she’s going to school.”
“Yup. She says when she finishes school she’ll be able to just work one job and she and I can spend more time together.”
“How many jobs does she have?”
“Um…right now, just two. She works as a waitress at two different places, one at night and one in the day. Before, she was also working at an office building, cleaning at night.”
“Who stays with you at night?” Sasha asked, lowering her sandwich from her mouth.
“Nobody.” Julia shrugged her small, thin shoulders. “I go to bed by myself and my mom is there when I wake up. Then she brings me here and goes to her other job or to school.”
Sasha swallowed. A girl her own age was raising a daughter, going to school and working three—three!—jobs to support them. A little ache of sympathy tightened her stomach.
“Well, it’s good you’re so grown up and you can help your mom,” she said, her throat tight. She smiled at Julia.
Julia was looking at Sasha’s hands. “Your nails are pretty.”
“Thanks.”
“Some day I want to have nails like that.”
“You will, if you want. So what are you going to do this afternoon?”
“I’m going to do art.” Julia’s face lit up. “This afternoon we’re going to do some stuff with beads.”
“Ooh,” Sasha said. Beads. She loved jewelry design. She’d done some jewelry design courses in art college. “That sounds fun. Maybe I’ll come see what you’re doing.”
“Okay,” Julia agreed. “Maybe you can make something too.”
“I’d love that.”
So she did. After lunch, the leaders organized the kids into different groups and took them off to various parts of the building. Some went outside, some went to the library, some to the gym in the basement. Sasha followed the jewelry making group upstairs.
She introduced herself to the leaders and sat down at one of the tables. They gave her a kind of funny look, glanced at each other, then shrugged.
They had some pretty nice beads to work with, but not much choice of findings.
“I don’t know what to make,” one girl said. She sat there, overwhelmed by all the choices.
Sasha poked through the findings and found two ear wires. “How about a pair of earrings?”
“That’s too hard.”
“What’s your name, sweetie? I’ll show you how.”
“Emily.”
“Hi, Emily. I’ll do one and you copy me with the other. What colors do you like?”
They picked out some pretty blue and green beads. “These crystals would look nice too,” Sasha suggested. In no time they had a pair of sparkly drop earrings. “Are your ears pierced?” She checked Emily’s ears and they were, but she had no earrings. “Do you want to wear them?”
Emily nodded and Sasha carefully helped her put them in. Emily shook her head, her eyes shining. “I want to see them!” She jumped up and ran to a mirror on the counter and inspected her new earrings, turning her head one way, then the other.
“I want earrings like those!” Julia said. “Sasha, help me, help me!”
A circle of little girls formed around Sasha as she began helping the others, picking out beads and colors. Julia was surprisingly creative, choosing an unusual combination of glass beads that was actually quite stunning.
The girls were all modeling their creations, pushing each other away from the mirror and giggling, when Nick walked into the room.
He frowned at Sasha, sitting on a small chair at a low table. “What are you doing here?”
She smiled at him. “I love jewelry design. When I heard they were going to be doing some this afternoon, I decided to hang around.”
“That’s not necessary,” he said, folding his arms across his wide chest. “As a member of the fundraising committee, you’re not obligated to do this.”
“I know that.” She kept her smile firmly in place. “I just wanted to.”
“Nothing else to do?”
She blinked. Was that a jab? “Uh. Well, I had a free afternoon.”
Hell, most of her afternoons were free. Her charity work and decorating the house only took so much time.
“I’m sure you did. Well, thanks.” And he turned and stalked out of the room, shoulders rigid as if he was pissed off she was there. Not exactly what she’d been hoping for. She sighed.
Chapter Ten
Tara had some questions about the high density planting only Blair could answer, so Friday afternoon she drove out to the ranch. It was also a good way to avoid seeing Joe.
She got the info she needed, met with Juan on some other issues and was sitting in an empty office tapping away at her laptop computer late in the day when Joe walked in.
He looked dismayingly sexy in a pair of jeans riding low on his lean hips. A navy blue polo shirt, soft and well-washed, hung from his broad shoulders and outlined the muscles of his chest, the short sleeves showing off his rounded biceps.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a frown. “I thought you were busy with Fiona.”
“We finished going over things last night.”
She lifted a brow.
He laughed. “I mean late yesterday. In case you haven’t noticed, she has a diamond the size of an olive pit on her hand. I think there’s a fiancé in the picture.”
“Yes. There is.”
“You know, I seriously think you’re underutilizing her skills,” he said.
She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“She’s an incredible asset to the company. Working with her on this tax audit has given me a good sense of her abilities. She’s incredibly detail oriented and extremely knowledgeable. The external auditors think so too. It’s made the whole thing go much smoother.”
“Oh. Well. That’s good.”
Huh. She wasn’t sure what to think about that. Of course she knew Fiona was bright and capable, otherwise Tara wouldn’t have hired her. But underutilizing her…?
“So. It’s Friday. Wanna go get a drink somewhere?”
She blinked at him. “A drink? You came all the way out here to ask me out for a drink?”
He grinned. “No. I had to talk to Blair about some things.”
“Oh. Well. No. I don’t want to go for a drink. I still have work to do.”
He shook his head. “Okay. Maybe I’ll see you later at Le Château?”
“No. I’m not going there tonight.”
“No?” He moved closer. “Why not?”
“I just…I’m just not.”
“Tara.”
He stopped beside her chair.
“What?” Her heart thudded in her chest at the look in his eye. God, why did he do this to her?