Undaunted

“Grace?”

Her eyes widened at the venom in his tone.

His pale eyes glittered with bad humor. “I’m not much on religion. Just pour the coffee. And if you want to say grace, say it silently, please,” he added curtly.

She didn’t know what else to do. She nodded. Then she realized that he couldn’t see her, and guilt washed over her like a wave.

“Well?” he prompted, his tone cutting.

“Sorry. Coffee?”

“Obviously I want coffee. Hence the empty mug right here.” He fumbled for it and rattled it.

“You are a very unpleasant man!” she pointed out.

“And I work hard at it, too.”

She grimaced as she poured his coffee.

He reached for it, managed it on the second try and lifted it to his mouth. “I want bacon and eggs. No pancakes.”

She got up and ladled them onto a plate. She put the plate down in front of him, caught his big hand and put a fork in it. “Bacon at three o’clock, eggs at nine o’clock. Buttered toast?” she added.

“I don’t eat much bread.” He dug into his breakfast, downed a swallow of eggs and coffee and put the cup down. “How did you learn to do that?” he asked.

“What?”

“The positions on the plate.”

“Oh. We had a blind lady who went to our church. I used to sit with her when we had picnics. She taught me. That was how she managed her food. She was eighty-six and she could ride a bike and play the piano. I was very fond of her.”

He finished eating, then leaned back with a sigh and pursed his lips. “Did she teach you anything else about blind people?”

“That you never grab them. It disconcerts them.” She told him about the guide dog the woman had, and her determination to learn Braille.

He was smiling faintly. “You learned a lot.”

“I listened,” she said simply. “People mostly don’t listen. They want to tell you about themselves, they want to discuss the latest vote on the reality shows and the latest fashions.” She sighed. “I never cared about those things. I don’t watch much television.”

“I listen to the news. I don’t follow anything except the stock market.”

There was a brief, companionable silence while she finished her coffee.

“You said you were in between jobs.”

“Just briefly. I’m going to put my name down with one of the temporary agencies in Gainesville...”

“Come work for me.”

She almost dropped the cup. “What?”

“Come work for me,” he repeated. “I have secretaries in all my corporate offices, but I don’t have a private secretary. Administrative assistant. Whatever the hell you call it. Someone to take dictation, answer the phone, make appointments and see to it that I keep them. Things like that. I used to have the Atlanta office send someone up, but I don’t want my condition to get around.”

She knew what he meant. Any bad news about his health would probably drop stock prices. People gossiped.

So he was offering her a job. She didn’t dare. She couldn’t. But she wanted to. “For how long?” she asked breathlessly.

“We’ll give it a month’s probation to see if we suit each other. How about that?” he asked, and his face tensed, as if her reply really mattered.

She smiled. A man like him wouldn’t care whether she said yes or no. It would be insane to agree. If he ever found out who she was, if he ever recognized her voice...

On the other hand, she could help him, take care of him, try to make up for what she’d done to him. It pained her to realize the price he’d paid for her stupidity. If only she’d never gotten behind the wheel of the stupid boat, if only she’d looked where she was going!

“Well?” he prompted curtly.

“I...I would like to,” she heard herself saying with absolute horror. It was nuts!

His face relaxed. He drew in a breath. “Fine. You’ll live in. Marie can show you to a bedroom later and help you get settled.” He named a salary that was six times what Mamie paid her.

She blanched. Her gasp was audible.

“Not enough?” he chided.

“Not enough?” she burst out. “I don’t make that much in a year!”

“You’ll earn it,” he said, and his pale eyes twinkled faintly. “I’m a difficult man, Emma. You may wish you’d said no.”

“If you get too troublesome, I’ll push you headfirst into the lake and use my alligator whistle.”

He thought for a minute, and then burst out laughing. “If you can find an alligator in any North Georgia lake, I’ll double your salary,” he mused. “All right. We’ll give it a month.”

* * *

The first few days were hectic. There was a learning curve, because he wasn’t as flighty as some of her bosses had been. He was studious, methodical, exacting and sometimes maddening. He wanted files in a certain order. He wanted letters done exactly as he said, even if they weren’t always polite. He wanted routine in everything. Emma found it exasperating.

“You’re making that sound again,” he said curtly from his desk. “Now what?”

“I feel like I need to ask permission to change my clothes,” she muttered. “Organization. Heavens! I’ve never been able to organize anything in my life. I’m too scatterbrained.”

“You’ll learn. You can pretend you’re in the military.”

“I’m not going on military time, and I’m not saluting you,” she shot back.

He chuckled. “Okay.”

“You’ve got two thousand unanswered emails,” she added.

“Go through them and delete the ads. That should get rid of ninety percent.”