Free Maid for the Single Dad by Susan Meier Page B

don’t want outsiders in the house. I understand your responsibilities to your boss’s company, but I also want my house rules kept. Plus, you’re free to leave anytime you don’t have charge of the kids. Tomorrow,” he said, pointing at Ellie, “you go to her—” he pointed at Ava “—for this meeting.”
    With that he walked out of the kitchen, his heart pounding and his head beginning to ache. This had been a terrible plan. Hiding in plain sight had sounded so good when Mrs. Pomeroy suggested it, but it was failing. He couldn’t use a typical maid company. He’d hired a woman who needed more training and guidance than he had time to give. And that woman was probably growing tired of breaking rules she didn’t even know existed.
    Still, he didn’t blame himself. He blamed the circumstance. His options had been limited.
    Walking along the marble floor Mac headed to the main stairway. The cell phone in his pocket rang and he grabbed it. Phil. Thank God. He didn’t know what he’d do if he had to fire Ellie. He’d used his only option for secrecy when he’d found her. But he did know that one way or another something had to give.
    â€œCan you talk?”
    â€œI’m on my way to my room.” He couldn’t even go to his office because he had to be available in case Lacy or Henry woke. It was no wonder he was off his game. “So you talk for the two minutes it will take me to get there.”
    â€œOkay.” Phil paused and Mac heard the sound of his indrawn breath as if what he had to say wasn’t good. “I don’t know if you’re going to like this or not.”
    â€œJust spill it. This situation has to change. Even if what you tell me is bad, it only means I start over.”
    â€œOkay. Ellie Swanson was a foster kid who ran away. South to Florida where it’s warm.”
    â€œAll of which I know.”
    â€œShe actually got a job in a pizza shop that was part of a big chain of shops that was growing with leaps and bounds in the South Florida area.”
    â€œOh.” So she hadn’t spent a lot of time on the streets. That relieved Mac. He hated thinking of her cold and hungry. Which didn’t just puzzle him; it angered him. The very fact that he cared about her showed he was beginning to like her and he didn’t want to like her. She was insubordinate, pretty, funny…all kinds of things that could be trouble. He wanted her to be a normal employee.
    â€œYeah. All that’s good,” Phil said as Mac reached his bedroom.
    He walked inside, closed the door behind him and flopped into one of the white leather chairs in the sitting room in front of the bedroom. “So what’s bad?”
    â€œI did some digging. Real digging. Talked to friends, employees of the pizza shop who’d been around awhile, neighborhood people, and discovered that the owner of the chain of shops took a special liking to Ellie.”
    Mac sat up on his chair. “What do you mean ‘special liking’?”
    â€œThey dated and eventually moved in together.”
    â€œOh.” Technically that had no bearing on her ability to be a nanny, so Mac wasn’t happy when the news squeezed his heart. It could mean that he was jealous, but since he didn’t know her well enough to be jealous, that left option two. He knew what happened when starstruck employees dated bosses who had money and power.
    â€œOne employee…a Jeanie Blair…said that Sam Kenward hung around the shop where Ellie worked for a few weeks chatting her up, flirting, being really good to her. He asked her out and he continued to be good to her. Then they moved in together and within a few weeks, Ellie became withdrawn.”
    Mac sat back in his chair again. “Damn.”
    â€œShe lived with him for a year. Nobody ever saw a mark on her, but it was fairly common knowledge that he verbally abused her.”
    Mac