What's A Housekeeper To Do? / Tipping the Waitress with Diamonds

‘There are a lot of old buildings in Adelaide that I haven’t seen.’ Lally made the comment as he began to row them back towards shore. ‘I’ve seen a reasonable amount of Australia generally, though.’ She paused as she realised the interview appeared to be over. ‘Am I rambling?’

‘Slightly, but I don’t mind. You have a soothing voice.’ Cameron continued to row. ‘I’ve travelled a lot myself. Sydney is where I keep a permanent apartment, and I’m in the same boat with that.’ He glanced at the oars in his hands and humour warmed his eyes. ‘I know a lot of Australia, but there are parts of Sydney that I don’t know at all. There’s a tendency to stick to what you need to know on local turf sometimes, isn’t there?’

‘Indeed there is.’ Now Lally could add ‘empathy’ and ‘able to laugh at himself’ to his list of attributes. Employer’s attributes. ‘Do you often travel and incorporate your writing research or settings with your property-development projects?’

‘Yes. I work long hours and need to keep occupied, so I actively seek ways to keep my mind fresh and to keep busy.’ A slight sound that could have been a sigh escaped him before he returned his attention to his rowing. ‘Property development came first for me. I got into that straight out of school, and was fortunate enough to make money and be able to expand and make a strong, successful business of it. When I needed more to keep me occupied, I hit on the idea of writing a book. I mostly started that for my own amusement because I enjoyed reading. I was quite surprised when my first book was picked up by an agent, and from there a publisher. Making a second career out of writing was an unexpected bonus.’

And now he entertained and fascinated readers around the world.

I’m not fascinated by him, Lally told herself.

But her other side wanted to know why she couldn’t be a little fascinated within reason, provided the fascination was focused on his work. ‘And you became a famous author.’

‘An author with a looming deadline and an unwelcome bout of writer’s block.’ Cameron brushed off her reference to his fame.

But he was famous. His series had gained a lot of popularity over the past few years. He had become at least somewhat a household name.

Cameron seemed to hesitate before he went on. ‘Usually I’d thrive on my deadlines, but lately? There’s the development of this property to get in motion, the rest of the business to keep an eye on via remote control and I’m more tired than usual—maybe because I’ve been pushing harder with the writing, trying to get somewhere with it.’

He didn’t just want an assistant, he needed one.

The knowledge went straight to the part of Lally that had given herself to her family so exclusively for the past six years. The part that yes, had felt just a little threatened when they hadn’t needed her at the end of her last job. Even her sisters had said no to child minding, and they were always asking if Lally could find blocks of time for that.

‘Oh, no thanks, Lally. I’ve put them all into after-school care and a sports programme for the next few months.’

‘Actually, Ray’s parents are going to have the girls after school for a while.’

And so it had gone on.

Who’d heard of Douglas children going to after-school care? The family did that! And Ray’s parents never had them.

It had felt like a conspiracy, but that thought was silly. Lally shoved it aside accordingly.

‘You need to be looked after a little, to have someone to take the stress off you so you can focus on what you most need to get done.’ Lally could care for this man for two months, and then she would go back to where she wanted and needed to be—to the heart of the family who had all been there for her through thick and thin. ‘I’ll be the best housekeeper and assistant I possibly can, Mr Travers, if you choose to employ me.’

Cameron eased the boat in towards the makeshift dock. ‘I do want to employ you.’ He named a generous salary. ‘We’ll need to figure out what days you’ll be having off, that sort of thing.’

‘I have the job? Oh, thank you!’ The wash of happiness Lally experienced had to be relief that she would be financially secure for the next two months, she decided. Her family would have helped her out, of course, they’d all offered that. But she couldn’t accept that kind of support and then just sit around and twiddle her thumbs.

So this was good. Very good. ‘Thank you, Mr Travers. I’ll do everything I can to be a valuable employee to you.’

For some reason he looked quite taken aback for a moment. Cameron let the small craft bump into the dock. ‘How soon can you start?’

‘Later today, or first thing tomorrow. Which would suit you best?’ Lally said—judiciously, she hoped, though excitement was bubbling all through her.

‘Let’s go with first thing tomorrow.’ Cameron left the boat with an agility that made it look easy. He extended his hand and offered a smile that seemed to wash right through her. ‘It will be nice to have someone else in charge of some of these things while I try…’

He didn’t complete the sentence, but Lally assured herself that that was not because he was distracted by the touch of her hand in his.

More likely he had to focus on not letting her plop into the water like that packet of sand, because she wasn’t paying as much attention to proceedings as she should have been as she wobbled her way out of the boat and onto the dock.

Pay attention, Lally, to getting your feet on solid ground—or planks as the case may be—not to the feel of warm skin against your hand!

‘Um, thank you.’ Lally detached her hand from where it had somehow managed to wrap very securely around his. She could feel the pink tingeing her cheeks again; yes, it was possible to feel pink.

‘You were about to say, while you try…?’

‘To manage two key areas of my life so they both get, and stay, under control.’ Cameron pushed his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

He appeared quite unaware of the way that the action shifted the cream jumper across his chest so Lally could enjoy an unimpeded view of the movement of the muscles that ran beneath the layer of cloth.

She was not noticing!

To make up for her consciousness, Lally gifted Cameron Travers with a full-wattage, ‘thank you for employing me’ smile. ‘Your property work and your writing. I understand. So, seven tomorrow morning at your development site, bags packed and ready to leap straight in to whatever is on your agenda for the day? Me, not the bags, I mean.’

Cameron blinked once, and the dark green of his eyes darkened further. ‘Yes. That will be fine. We’ll eat breakfast while I give you a list of duties to start you off.’

‘Excellent.’ Lally considered shaking his hand again, and rejected the idea.

Better to keep her hands to herself. Instead, she tucked a long brown curl behind her ear and turned towards the exit of the park. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr Travers.’

‘Cam,’ he offered mildly, and took her elbow in a gentle grip. ‘Cameron, if you really must. I’ll walk you back to your car.’

‘And I’m Latitia. Well, you’d have seen that on my job application and some of the references. But I prefer Lally. Um, will your boat be safe?’ Lally’s words ran together in a breathless rush.

‘I hired the boat. The owner should be along to collect it soon.’ Cameron didn’t seem worried one way or the other.

He could probably simply buy a replacement. The man no doubt had the money to do that if he wanted.

Lally hot-footed it at his side to the exit as quickly as she could, where she immediately made her way to her elderly, fuel-inefficient station wagon, and bade him an equally swift farewell. The car seated six people, and that was important when a girl had a really big family. She needed to regroup and get her thoughts sorted between now and tomorrow, so she could approach this new work from the right perspective. From a completely efficient, professionally detached, businesslike perspective.

‘See you tomorrow.’ He turned to walk towards his own car, parked some distance beyond them.

The last thing Lally saw as she drove away was Cameron getting into a sky-blue convertible and putting the top down.

Her final thought was of how much she would love a drive through the countryside in that vehicle with him.

Even if it would only fit the two of them.

Not that she was thinking of them as ‘two’.

That would be just plain silly, and dangerous into the bargain.

Lally hadn’t protected her emotions and avoided men for the past six years to now get herself into trouble again in that respect!

CHAPTER TWO

‘HERE I am, suitcases in tow as promised.’ Lally spoke the words in a tone that was determinedly cheerful and didn’t quite cover a hint of nerves.

She pulled the suitcases in question behind her along the courtyard pathway. ‘I have more things in my car, but I can get those later. I pretty much take my whole world with me to every new job among the family; it’s a habit I’ve formed over the years. I like to surround myself with my belongings. That way I can feel at “home” wherever I am. I’m sure I’ll feel at home here, too, once I’ve settled in.’

Perhaps she’d formed the habit of chattering sometimes to try to hide things such as nerves.

Cam felt an odd need, that seemed to start in the middle of his chest, to reassure her and set her at her ease. He rose from where he’d been seated at the outdoor dining-table, and started towards her.

‘I take a few regular things along when I travel.’ Those things were mostly to do with both aspects of his work commitments: laptops, business files, his coffee machine and research materials for his writing. The coffee machine was definitely work related! ‘Let me help you with that lot; your load looks ten times heavier than you. And I’m looking forward to you getting settled here too.’

It was ages since he’d spent any significant amount of time in close company with a woman. The last effort had been a disaster, but this was different, a working relationship. Cam wanted his housekeeper to feel welcome and comfortable.

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, and he watched much of the tension ease out of her.

Lally Douglas was a beautiful woman. It would be a very novel experience for him, to have a woman living in as his housekeeper, and to have this woman specifically. He’d anticipated someone older, perhaps in semi-retirement.

Maybe he would learn some things through contact with Lally Douglas that would help him to pin down the quirks and foibles of the female character for his book.

He did wonder why his new housekeeper carried that edge of reserve that seemed contrary to the vibrancy of her imagination, and the sparkle in her deep-brown eyes when something interested her. Cam put this curiosity down to his writer’s mind, and studied Lally for a moment from beneath lowered lashes.

She was a slender girl with skin the colour of milky coffee, and curly almost-black hair; she had thick lashes, high cheekbones and a heart-melting smile that revealed perfect white teeth when it broke over her face. Today she wore a tan skirt that reached to her knees, sandals with a low heel, a simple white blouse and a light camel-coloured cardigan thrown over her shoulders.

‘I can manage the suitcases.’ Lally gestured behind her. ‘As you can see, they stack, and the whole lot is on wheels.’

‘Yes, I can see.’ But he took the handle from her anyway. Their hands brushed and he tried, really tried, not to notice the smoothness of her skin or the long, slender fingers with perfectly trimmed, unadorned nails. Cam wanted to stroke that soft skin, wrap those fingers in his.

And do what? Bring her hand to his lips and kiss her fingertips? Not happening, Travers. He’d had this same reaction to her yesterday, and had done his utmost then to stifle it. Mixing business with awareness to a woman really wasn’t a smart idea.

Cam didn’t have time to worry about an attraction anyway right now. He saved that for when he felt like socialising, and chose companions who were not looking for a long-term involvement. Past experiences in his life hadn’t exactly helped him to trust in the concept of women in deeper, personal relationships, between the way his mother had raised him and the one relationship he’d tried to build in his early twenties that had failed abysmally.

Cam towed the load of suitcases to the doorway of the complex’s large apartment and pushed them inside before he turned back to Lally.

She had dropped her hand to her side almost awkwardly. Now she gave a small smile. ‘Thank you for that.’

‘You’re welcome.’ He gestured behind him. ‘That’s the apartment we’ll share while you’re with me. It’s the only one in the building that’s been kept in half-decent order and fully furnished, as caretakers have come and gone prior to my purchase of the place. I’ve claimed one of the bedrooms for office space, but there are two more, as well as all the other necessary amenities.’

‘That will be fine. Dad checked with the agency and confirmed your character references. ’ She bit her lip.

‘It’s best to feel certain that you’re safe.’ Cam led the way to the outdoor-dining setting and indicated she should take her seat. It was a large table, with half a dozen wrought-iron chairs padded with cushions facing each other around it. Lally and Cam sat at one end.

‘Thank you; I appreciate that you understand.’ Lally’s gaze went to the covered food-dishes and settled on the silver coffee-pot. ‘If all that’s as good as it smells, I think I’m being very spoiled on my first morning at work.’

Cam shrugged, though her words had pleased him. ‘It took less than half an hour to put together. I cooked while I tried to brainstorm some more ideas for my story.’ ‘Tried’ being the operative word.

‘I’ll make sure I have a good breakfast ready for you each morning from now on.’ As Lally spoke the words, the noise level at the far end of the site increased as two of the workers began to throw tiles off the roof into a steel transport-bin below.

Lally tipped her head to one side and her big, brown eyes filled with good-natured awareness. ‘Has the noise been interfering with your writing?’

‘No. I can usually work through any amount of noise.’ He wished he could blame his lack of productivity on that. Cam didn’t know what to blame it on, or how to fix it, other than sticking at the writing until he got a breakthrough with this tricky character, and using Lally’s help to allow him to really hone his focus on that. ‘But they only actually started the work this morning. I’ve been here less than a week myself, and most of that time’s been spent organising a work crew, working with the site boss to get our orders in for materials, that sort of thing.’

Cam liked a good work challenge. He just wasn’t enjoying it quite as much as usual this time, thanks to his problems with the book. He’d always managed both aspects of his life—the property development and the writing—and kept both in order. He didn’t like feeling out of control at one end of the spectrum.

‘It’s good that noise isn’t a problem to you.’ Lally glanced around her, taking in the large pool that looked more like a duck pond at the moment. ‘Oh, look at the swimming pool. It’s a nice shape, isn’t it? A kind of curvy-edged, squished-in-the-middle rectangle. Very mellow.’ Her gaze moved around the large courtyard area, and encompassed the building that surrounded it in a U-shape on three sides, before returning to meet his eyes.

‘I can see why you wanted this place. It will be wonderful when the work is done.’ An expression that seemed to combine interest in her new job and a measure of banked-down hurt came over her face. ‘At least I’ll have plenty to do here while my family don’t need me.’ She drew a breath.

‘Ah—your family?’

‘I’ll be back in the thick of it with them straight after this.’ She rushed the words out as though maybe she needed to do so, to fully believe in them herself. ‘I help out in all sorts of ways.’

‘I’m lucky to have you to look after me for a while.’ It was true. His body was exhausted, pushed by even more hard work beyond the usual state of tolerable weariness induced by him being an insomniac-workaholic. ‘It’ll be nice to have someone to take care of some of the very ordinary everyday tasks.’

Heaven knew, he could afford to pay for the help; he’d just never sought it before. Doing the cooking and cleaning for himself burned up time, and time was something he usually had oodles of on his hands. He still had lots of time, but, thanks to a female character who simply refused to come to life on the page for him, that time wasn’t productive enough.

Cam lifted the coffee pot, glanced at the cup in front of Lally and raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

‘Yes please.’ The colour of her eyes changed from dark brown to clear sherry and a dimple broke out in her cheek. ‘I’m ready for my first dose of caffeine for the day.’

They sipped in silence for a moment. Cam let the rich brew hit the back of his throat and give his body a boost. He’d tried leaving coffee out of his diet for a while, hoping it might have a positive impact on his sleep issues, but it hadn’t made any difference.

Lally laced her fingers together in front of her on the table and looked about her again. ‘This property would make a great base for a character in your book.’

She cast a sheepish glance his way. ‘I bought the first book in your series yesterday after our interview. It said in the back that you sometimes use your development projects as settings for your stories.’

‘I hope you’re enjoying the read.’ It made Cam happy to know he was providing entertainment for readers, but Lally had said she didn’t usually read crime novels. ‘My kind of books aren’t to everyone’s taste.’

Lally said earnestly, ‘Oh, I finished it! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series so far. The only thing that could have made the story better would have been a love interest for your hero.’ She clapped a hand over her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry. What would I know about it?’

Cam gave a wry grimace. ‘The need for a love interest is an opinion shared by my editor and agent. I’m quite prepared to add her in, but I’m having trouble cracking her characterisation.

‘Let’s eat, anyway.’ Cam lifted the covers off the hot food and invited her to help herself. He’d prepared bacon, eggs, sausages and grilled tomatoes, and had added fresh bread-rolls from the small bakery two blocks away. ‘I hope there’s something here that’s to your taste, but if not I have cereal, fruit and yoghurt inside as well.’

‘This will be fine. Thank you.’ She helped herself to an egg, two grilled tomatoes and a warmed bread roll. ‘I’m truly sorry for what I said about your book. It’s none of my business.’ Lally still looked stricken. ‘I shouldn’t have told you that I wished there was a female counterpart in that book.’

Cam said gently, ‘It’s all right. My ego can take some constructive criticism of my work. Who knows? I might bounce some of my ideas off you. In fact, I’ll almost certainly ask you to help with research, as you know your way around a computer and the Internet.’ That was a bonus Cam hadn’t expected to get in his temporary housekeeper.

‘Ooh. Helping will be fun.’ Lally’s eyes gleamed. ‘I can look up all sorts of interesting things for you.’

Cam smiled. ‘Perhaps I should just be grateful that my editor and agent waited until my sixth book to talk to me about the need to include this new character.’

‘Yes. You escaped it until now.’ Her grin started in the depths of chocolate eyes, crinkled the skin at their corners and spread across her lips like sunshine.

Teasing; she was teasing him.

And Cam was enjoying being teased. A corresponding smile spread across his face and they stared at each other; the atmosphere changed and suddenly he was looking deep into her eyes and the humour was gone. His hand lifted towards her.

He dropped it back to his side. They broke eye contact at the same time.

Cam reminded himself that this awareness he felt towards her, and that she perhaps felt towards him, wasn’t a good thing. Cam lived a chronically busy lifestyle. It had been that way for years. He pushed himself to survive, survived to push himself more. By doing both, he filled the endless hours in which he could never manage to sleep properly.

There was no breaking that cycle. He had to live with it. It was the only way he could live. It certainly wasn’t a cycle that lent itself to him getting into any kind of meaningful relationship with a woman. He’d proved that fact in the past.

Yet, you’re thirty-two now. What if you get hit with one of those biological urges and need to settle down, produce children or something?

Like his mother had produced and settled. Well, she’d produced.

Cam shoved the conjecture aside. It was quite pointless.

Lally took another sip of coffee and looked at him over the rim of the cup. ‘This is very nice. Thank you. I have to admit, I hang out for my first dose of coffee each morning.’ She gestured towards the far side of the building. ‘The work crew seem to know what they’re doing. If they keep on at that cracking pace, the work will be done quickly.’

‘That’s my goal.’ Cam glanced towards the crew and then let his gaze trail slowly back over the courtyard area; a small frown formed between his brows. ‘I’m not quite sure what to do out here. It needs something.’ He didn’t know what; surely getting the place organised into apartments was enough anyway?

He was only going to rent or sell them, so what did it matter if he thought the courtyard lacked soul? ‘I want to have the pool converted so it’s heated for year-round use. The courtyard and surrounding gardens need to be brought up to scratch as well.’

‘The place will be a hive of activity for the next while.’

They ate in silence for a few moments. Cam watched Lally’s delicate movements, observed the straightness of her back in the wrought-iron chair.

Her fingers were lovely. If Cam had to create a female love-interest for his book, she would have hands like Lally’s, he decided. They’d look good wrapped around a gun, a champagne glass or an assassin’s throat while his heroine resisted the threat with all her worth, or the woman could even be an assassin.

Cam had lots of ideas. He just couldn’t seem to hone them into something coherent. He cleared his throat. ‘The duties list…’

‘Do you have a written list for me?’ Lally asked her question at the same time.

They stopped and each took a sip of their coffee. Lally drew a breath that lifted her small breasts beneath the cowl-neck top. Her hair was loose about her shoulders, as it had been yesterday.

Her top was sleeveless, and Cam wanted to stroke his fingers over the soft smoothness of her skin. She had strength in those slender arms, despite her small size. So much for deciding he wasn’t going to notice her appeal.

While Lally nibbled on a bite of tomato, Cam fished a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. ‘I’ve jotted down a few basics for now.’ He handed it across the table to her.

While she read, he got on with his meal.

Lally finished the last of her tomato and egg while she read through the duties list. Though his gaze wasn’t on her, she felt his consciousness of her, and had to force herself to concentrate on the words in front of her.

The list included taking care of his laundry, cleaning the apartment, meals and changing the linens. She would be in charge of his mobile phone during the hours he was writing, take messages and make the decision as to whether to interrupt him or not depending on what messages came through from his Sydney business.

There were a few lines about how to deal with the work crew, but he mostly wanted to handle that for himself.

‘That all seems very reasonable.’ Lally glanced up.