Ace's Wild

“I can’t take care of a child!”

Ace, damn him, just looked at her that way he had that made her feel transparent and vulnerable, like one too many buttons had slipped loose on her blouse.

“You take care of several all day.”

“As a means to an end! You know I’m just saving up for a ticket out of here.”

That got her a smile that made her palm itch to smack it off his face.

“It’d be a shame if everyone else knew that.”

Somewhere in their heads they had to know this, but traditional beliefs held that women loved children, and the townsfolk of Simple were assuming that Petunia had found her place here. That being the case, they seemed happy to pretend she hadn’t ever declared this job was only temporary. She curled her fingers into a fist, suppressing the impulse to smack him. “You know they’ll advertise for someone else if they know for sure I’m leaving.”

“Yes, I do.”

“They’ll fire me if they find someone.”

“Yes.”

He had her over a barrel. She needed a different approach. Playing a long shot, she met his gaze and said softly, “It would hurt me.”

Nothing in his expression changed. “What makes you think I give a shit about that?”

She didn’t, but she was gambling. The only thing she knew about gambling was if she was going to do it, she had to be all in. So she bluffed.

“Because you’re not a cruel man.”

Something flickered across his face. “You don’t know me at all.”

No, she didn’t, beyond the fact that he drove her senses crazy, and she always wanted to touch him or nibble on him or do all kinds of things she couldn’t even put a name to when she was in his company. She knew very little about him except that he had one respectable job, one unrespectable one and lived a dissolute life.

“You’re not going to say anything to them?”

“No, I’m not.”

She didn’t like the way he said that. “Because you’re a good man under all that bluster?”

“Hell, no!”

“Then why not?”

His smile held all the confidence she was faking. “Because you’re not going to make me.”

“I can’t take care of that child.”

“Someone has to.”

She tried again. “What is he going to do when I leave?”

“He needs a place to stay tonight.”

In other words, one step at a time.

“We don’t have the boarding school set up yet. Terrance can’t stay there.”

He shrugged. “That’s not my problem. You told me to handle it. I did.”

“I asked you to give Brian Winter his money back!”

“Giving him his money back wouldn’t have been the end, and I would have to go back there tomorrow doing the same thing. You’ve harped on my lazy nature enough over the past couple months to know doing the same thing over and over isn’t my cup of tea.”

“You don’t even drink tea.”

He smiled that cat-and-mouse smile that made her pulse jump and her palm itch. “Actually, I do...sometimes.”

She could feel the walls closing in and her dream slipping away again.

“It’s almost Christmas,” he added as if she needed another stab to the heart. “You want the boy to live to see it?”

“Now, that’s not fair.”

“You didn’t see what I saw at the Winters’ place.”

“Was it really that bad?”

“The boy is lucky his situation caught your eye.” A grimace and a shake of his head. “And the rest of us need to be shamed it didn’t catch ours.”

She blinked. “Why, Mr. Parker, are you saying there’s a place for a busybody do-gooder in this world?”

There was a pause and a nod and then, “I’m saying you’ve earned yours.”

The quirk of his lips, neither smile nor frown, was irritating in all it didn’t say. Almost as irritating as the way he leaned against the porch rail, arms folded across his chest, as if he owned that space. And the way he looked at her, as if he owned her, too, just made her bristle. She wasn’t just any man’s plaything.

“So what are you going to do, Pet? Are you going to take the boy or am I going to have to add tattletale to my list of sins?”

Pfft. Who, except her, would even notice that sin on his long list?

“I’m thinking.”

“Not much to think about.”

No, there wasn’t. Tattling about her plans to leave wouldn’t hurt Ace’s reputation but for her, his tattling would be catastrophic. She was a month away from having enough money for her ticket. Taking in the boy could very well cost that money and some time—it would be too dangerous to travel come winter—but on the other hand, she’d have longer to save and the end result would be more money in her pocket come spring. But if Ace spread his tale, she’d lose her job. She had no doubt Ace would take care of her and arrange it so she’d still be able to take care of Terrance and anyone else who needed it, but she wouldn’t have an independent income. She wouldn’t make it to California.

Which meant a slight change in her plans. She needed to open the school. She felt the twinge of guilt for the kids she’d be leaving behind, especially Terrance, but he’d have a safe place to live, and if she could find somebody to run it with a good heart, then it would make a difference. There was a whole lot she needed to do in the next month, but she was a woman that worked well under pressure, and it wasn’t the first time she’d faced these kinds of deadlines.

“I have yet to secure the Haylens’ old place for the school.” The Haylens’ house was on the edge of town. It was a bit ramshackled, but it was huge with six bedrooms and a good-size yard. With elbow grease and determination, it would be perfect.

“I’ll take care of that.”