A Mum For Amy

But right now, where was Lisa with that water? Frowning, Maggie slipped her hand out of the tank and dried her arm with a towel. The girl should have been back by now.

She hoped Lisa wasn’t pestering the housekeeper. And had Maggie told Lisa that she mustn’t ever venture farther into a client’s home? The room holding the aquarium, the kitchen or bathroom were fine, but everything else was off-limits. She couldn’t afford any accidents in one of these homes.

Maggie hurried to the kitchen. The room was techno-shiny with stainless steel equipment, but empty.

“Lisa,” Maggie called in a half whisper.

No one answered, and a premonition of trouble flared at the edge of Maggie’s mind. If the girl had been foolish enough to explore, Maggie would make her sit in the car once she found her. And definitely no beach. Even if Lisa hadn’t been told the rules, she ought to know better….

Maggie left the kitchen and went into the formal dining room. Nothing. She walked into the next room, obviously Huckabee’s domain since it was dominated by a huge home theater setup and enormous workout equipment that made the space look like a torture chamber from some medieval castle.

The room led off to the back deck and pool, and Maggie caught movement there. It was Lisa, all right. Standing beside a patio table, chatting with a barefoot man in a white terry-cloth robe who had his back to Maggie. She recognized him as Huckabee—no mistaking that slick blond haircut—and the girl had obviously disturbed him during his sunbathing. He had his hands on his hips, and Maggie wondered if he was annoyed. She knew she was. God, she was going to kill Lisa for bothering a customer—even a jerk like Huckabee.

She made a move toward the French doors, not understanding why in that moment goose bumps rose along her arms. Halfway there, Maggie stopped. She realized suddenly that Lisa wasn’t talking at all, she was listening. And the look on her face was so wary, so anxious, that Maggie immediately knew something was wrong.

And in the next moment Maggie discovered what it was. While she watched, stunned, Huckabee slipped the knot from his robe and pulled apart the edges to expose himself to Lisa.

The air left Maggie’s lungs in a rush as a wave of nausea rippled at the back of her throat. Even as she strode toward the door, galvanized by an anger so deep and strong that she could hardly see the handle for the red haze in front of her eyes, she knew that everything was about to change. Everything.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Not in her world.

Not in Lisa’s.

CHAPTER TWO

Eight years later

MAGGIE WAS on her computer, creating a six-hundred-gallon wave tank on her AutoCad program, when Zack Davidson strode into her small office. He must have come directly from his workshop behind the building, because a paper face mask still dangled from the string around his neck and bits of sawdust clung to his brown hair like a sprinkling of snow.

He was a tall, good-looking man with impressive biceps from years of carpentry work. He’d been Maggie’s partner in Sapphire Seas Designs for four years, and right now, he didn’t look happy.

“I just got off the phone with Lou Myers,” he said. “Did you tell him he could have cherry instead of oak cabinets?”

“I did,” Maggie replied absently. She used her mouse to erase an errant line from her computer design. “He wants the cabinets to match the waiting room furniture he bought yesterday.”

“Damn it, Mags,” Zack said as he shook a tiny shaving out from underneath the collar of his shirt. “Why didn’t you tell him it was too late to change his mind? You know I’ve already cut the wood.”

Maggie tilted back in her chair. She smiled up at Zack, though she couldn’t really see his features because the Key West afternoon sunlight coming through the window cast his face in shadows. “I know. But remember customer service?”

“We won’t have any customers to service if you drive us out of business by wasting inventory. What am I supposed to do now with a bunch of oak cut for cabinets we haven’t sold?”

“Zack, do you know what Lou Myers does for a living?”

“Dentist?”

She shook her head at him in playful disgust. They’d been friends since high school, even when he was making moon eyes at her sister, Alaina, and getting the brush-off. After he’d moved down here to Key West, she hadn’t seen much of him, but eight years ago, when she’d had no place else to go, he’d been there for her. She owed him a debt of gratitude she could never repay, but he drove her crazy sometimes.

“This is why you’re still back in the workshop, you know.” She saved her design in the computer, then shut it down. “Because you won’t take an interest in the customer side of the business.”

He came to her desk, letting his weight settle against the edge so that one jean-clad leg could dangle as he crossed his arms and stared at her. “I’m back in the workshop because I like to build things. What’s your point, partner?”

“Lou isn’t just any dentist. He’s head of the Pediatric Orthodontia Society of America. That means he talks to thousands of kiddie dentists all over the country. The guy’s excited about the Atlantis theme we’re building for his front office. Really excited.”

“So?”

Maggie sighed heavily. “So once he has pictures of the finished product, he’s going to be showing them off at every convention he goes to.” She tapped her monitor for emphasis. “And he goes to a lot, according to the research I did on him. Some of his colleagues may want aquariums for their own offices. And I want Lou referring them to Sapphire Seas. He’ll do that if we go this extra mile for him.” She offered her friend a consoling look. “Cut the cherry, Zack. We can always save the oak for another project.”

Zack remained thoughtful for a long moment. Then he cocked his head at her. “Do you ever stop hustling for business?”

“No, and neither should you. Not if we’re going to put Sapphire Seas on the map this year.”

“Do you know who you sound like?”

“Who?”

“Your sister.”

That surprised her a little. Alaina’s name rarely came up between them. Partly because Maggie so seldom saw her family anymore, even though they were only hours away in Miami Beach. But mostly she avoided talking about Alaina for Zack’s sake. Her sister had broken his heart years ago, and he could pretend all he wanted, but Maggie knew he was still in love with her. He just wasn’t willing to do anything about it. Of course, Alaina was married, so maybe that was just as well.

Maggie shuffled the latest stack of bills on her desk. “Good,” she said in a deliberate tone. “It’s taken me twenty-seven years to turn into Alaina. Too bad Mom and Dad aren’t here to see it. Like they’d ever bother to come down for a visit.”

“Like you’d ever invite them.” Zack snorted. “Hell, no. You’re not bitter.”

He was right, and Maggie knew it. The fiasco of eight years ago was like a scar that wouldn’t fade. Just to be civil, she kept in contact with her parents. But it wasn’t much of a relationship, and none of them tried very hard to change it.

She stopped fiddling and stared up at him. “I’m trying to grow this business. To stick with the game plan. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” Zack said with a shrug. “If it’s the right game plan. If it doesn’t keep you from enjoying yourself.”

Lately Zack had been giving her grief about her social life—or the fact that she didn’t have much of one. But after what had happened in Miami so long ago, after she’d had to depend on someone else’s kindness just to keep from ending up on the streets, Maggie had learned that there were a lot of different ways life could beat the crap out of you. What was wrong with being…cautious?

“I am enjoying myself,” she shot back. “Now stop pestering me. I’ve got work to do.”

“I liked you better when you were Alaina’s wild and crazy kid sister. You were a lot more fun.”

“Wild and crazy and fun doesn’t put food on your table or money in the bank. It only gets you into trouble.”

She suddenly realized she sounded like her father. Wow. Maybe you really could mature.

“You need to lighten up, Mags. You’ve been pushing hard for months now—”

Before she could cut him off, the phone did the job for her. She looked at Zack to see which one of them was going to answer it.

“Let it go to the machine,” Zack said.

She shook her head at him again as she snatched up the receiver. Really, sometimes Zack was the least motivated businessman she’d ever met. “Sapphire Seas Designs. This is Maggie Tillman.”