that he might have finally found the perfect person to lead his waitstaff—but now he could almost feel the steam hissing from his ears. “You’ve got some nerve. You know I want her. I’ve always wanted her and our son, but your timing couldn’t be worse. I’m trying to open a new restaurant here, and you interrupted me in the middle of an interview.”
Linda smirked. “Oh, that makes sense—for a moment there, I thought you were on a date.”
He hated himself for it but he took the bait. “And why would that be so amusing? You don’t think I date?” She’d be right. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a date—between having permanent custody of their son, every second weekend with both kids and work, he didn’t have the time—but he wasn’t about to admit that. Not to her.
“Keep your pants on,” she said, obviously highly amused. “I just meant that woman isn’t your type. She’s a little too... How should I put it? Rounded?”
His hackles rose even further. He didn’t have a type—not anymore—but he didn’t like the way Linda spoke about Eliza. She might not look anorexic like his ex-wife, but she had womanly curves in all the right places and he thought that was a hell of a lot more sexy than someone who was afraid to eat carbs.
“So how long do you think you’ll be?” he asked, his voice louder than he’d meant. Already he was mentally calculating the extra things he’d have to do now that he had Hallie full-time. He loved his daughter—and his son—more than life itself, but he also understood that kids required time as well as love. Hallie had dance and singing classes and she went to school in Bend, not Jewell Rock, which would mean an hour round-trip twice a day. All this on top of Hamish’s therapy appointments and his extracurricular activities. Had Linda thought any of this through?
Again, his ex-wife rolled her eyes as if she were talking with a plank of wood. “She has cancer, Lachlan, I can’t give you an exact time and date when she’s going to breathe her last breath.”
“Isn’t there anyone else who can look after her? I’m opening the restaurant in a month!”
“You want me to dump our daughter on strangers?”
“Shh,” he hissed again. Then he firmly added, “I meant your aunt.”
She shook her head. “Can’t you show a little compassion? Besides, your mom and your family will help you look after Hallie. It’s not like one extra person in your massive family is going to make much of a difference.”
They stood there for a few moments, glaring at each other like two opponents in a boxing ring. How dare she assume his mom could help? Although he knew she would do her best, he didn’t like asking her to do any more than she already did. And with two family weddings imminent and his two future sisters-in-law pregnant, Lachlan’s mom had enough on her hands already. He wasn’t a violent man and he would never hit a woman, but the frustration coursing through his body right now made him want to pick something up and throw it against the wall.
Only the thought of his daughter and Eliza in the next room held him back.
Eliza. What must she be making of all this? Would she still be there when he went back out? It was definitely not the first impression he wanted to make on a potential new employee.
Feeling resigned and realizing they’d left their daughter with a stranger, Lachlan let out a long breath. “I take it you’ve packed Hallie’s school uniform?” Linda might have seen fit to take her out of class to bring her to him, but he didn’t want her missing any more because of this.
“Of course.”
“And can you give me a list of all her extracurricular activities?”
Linda smiled like a child who’d just been told they could stay up past their bedtime and eat junk food. “I’ll text everything to you while I’m waiting to board my plane. You’re a good man, Lachlan McKinnel.”
She moved forward as if to throw her arms around him but he held up a hand, warning her off. If she thought him so good, why had she looked elsewhere for excitement when they were married? Maybe he wasn’t good, maybe he was just a pushover. A pushover who had been blinded by Linda’s looks and the fun they’d had together when they’d first met but had been paying the price ever since.
“Go say goodbye to Hallie,” he said instead and then turned and opened the door for her to go through.
“She’s not here!” Linda exclaimed, then turned to him in horror. “Who was that woman? What has she done with our daughter?”
“Will you stop being so dramatic?” Lachlan snapped. “They’re probably just outside.” Although inside, his heart clenched as if someone had wrapped string around it and was tightening quickly. Where were Hallie and Eliza?
He strode quickly to the door and breathed a sigh of relief when he opened it and spotted Hallie and Eliza a few yards away, seemingly deep in conversation in the garden. Eliza glanced up as if sensing his presence and the look she gave him told him exactly why they’d moved outside.
Shame washed over him and he felt heat creeping into his cheeks that a stranger had thought it best to intervene so his daughter didn’t hear the raised and bickering voices of her parents. At the same time, he was thankful that she had. However many times he told himself not to let Linda rile him up, he always failed miserably in this resolve.
“She’s out here,” he told his ex-wife.
The possible-kidnapping drama forgotten, Linda rushed over to Hallie and made an elaborate show of bidding her farewell. “I’ll miss you, my darling. Be good for Daddy and Grandma Nora. I’ll call you every night.” She clung to her a few more moments, then kissed her on both cheeks and stepped back.
“Au revoir, folks,” she said with an irritating wave of her fingers, before turning and tottering away in her ridiculously high heels to her car. She seemed more like someone off on a beachside vacation than someone off to play nurse.
As Linda sped off down the long drive, Lachlan turned to Eliza. This is awkward, he thought, wondering what she must make of arriving in the middle of his family drama. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “That was my ex-wife.”
“I guessed.” She nodded and her shoulder-length, chocolate-brown hair bobbed a little.
“I had no idea she was going to come over like that or I wouldn’t have scheduled the interview.”
“I guessed that, too,” Eliza replied, but her lips didn’t even offer a hint of a smile.
“Daddy.” He felt Hallie tugging at the side of his shirt. “Dad-dy. I’m hungry.”
“Wait a moment. Can’t you see I’m talking?” The moment his words were out, he realized how snappy they sounded.
“Sorry, Daddy,” she said, a quiver in her voice and her eyes glistening.
He swallowed the frustration at his daughter—none of this was her fault—and took her small hand in hers. He squeezed it gently three times, which was their secret, silent way of saying I love you. “It’s okay, glitter-pie. Everything’s going to be okay. Can you just give me a moment and then we’ll go get some lunch?”
She nodded solemnly and squeezed his hand three times in reply. His heart flooded with warmth. No matter how angry he was at her mother and however untimely this new arrangement was, he never wanted to make Hallie feel like she were a burden.
He looked back to Eliza and offered her a conciliatory smile. He could tell she wasn’t impressed with his and Linda’s behavior. Although it really wasn’t any of her business, he wanted to stick up for himself, wanted to give her a little history of the last tumultuous decade with his ex-wife. But he would never speak badly of Linda in front of Hallie. And besides, there were still so many questions he wanted to ask Eliza about herself and her own professional experience.
Sadly, conducting an interview with his eight-year-old daughter in tow