A Diamond For The Single Mum. SUSAN MEIER
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THAT EVENING, SETH returned a little later than he had the night before, looking like a sex god in a T-shirt that showed off his chest and shoulders and a pair of sunglasses he’d probably bought in Europe.
Harper’s breathing shivered. Her muscles froze. For the next ten seconds, she was sure her heart stopped beating.
“We’re going to do your résumé tonight.”
“That’s great.” She thought of Clark, realizing how happy he’d be once she was settled, and all the feelings she’d had about Seth lessened. “But I made dinner.” A thought occurred. “You haven’t eaten, have you?”
“No. But the résumé probably should come first.”
“Or maybe we can talk about it while we eat?” That way they wouldn’t have to discuss other things. Not that she hadn’t appreciated the conversation the night before. She had. It was more that it had warmed her a little too much.
“Okay.”
He set the table as she brought Crystal’s baby seat over and strapped it to a chair. She’d already put the pot roast and potatoes and carrots into a huge serving dish and he carried it to the table.
“Smells good.” His voice sounded funny, like he had caught the scent of the food and shivered around it.
“Thanks. I learned to cook after Clark and I got married. Mrs. Petrillo watched Crystal while I checked out the little grocery store a few blocks down.”
They both sat. Each of them dished up a plateful of food.
Seth took a bite and squeezed his eyes shut in ecstasy. “This is fantastic.”
It had been so long since anyone had complimented her that even a simple expression of pleasure went through her like warm honey. Luckily, they had work to do.
She bounced from her chair. “I’ll go get my laptop.”
She raced into her bedroom and found her computer. She turned it on, pulled up her résumé and headed to the dining area again.
When she got there, Seth was standing in front of Crystal’s seat.
He glanced up at Harper. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew you were probably okay with her sitting there. But I’m new to all this and when you were gone so long, I figured I’d better be safe rather than sorry.”
Crystal grinned and he laughed. “She’s really cute.”
The sight of him by her little girl warmed her heart, but more than that, he was getting accustomed to her baby. Maybe growing to like her baby—
He wasn’t supposed to like Crystal. Or her. She was here temporarily. They’d probably never see each other again after her short stay here. She needed to remember that.
“She’s fine as long as the she’s strapped in.” She slid the laptop on the table. “Here’s my résumé.”
Seth returned to his seat. He angled the screen toward him and started reading.
After only a minute, he glanced over at her. “What kind of a job are you trying for?”
“I’d like to be somebody’s assistant.”
“Okay. Good. I think your qualifications should line up. But you do realize there’ll be some other things like typing involved? Maybe writing reports.”
“That would be fantastic. I like to work. I think I’d like a job that would challenge me.”
He finished reading what she had in her résumé as he ate his roast and potatoes. After they’d cleaned the kitchen and dining area, she put the baby to bed.
When she returned to the living area, he pointed to the laptop, still on the dining room table. “Okay. We need to punch it up a bit, but we’ll figure it out together. If I’m going to recommend you, I want to know what’s in your résumé.”
Her spirits brightened. “You’re going to recommend me?”
“I saw how you worked when you lived beside me and Clark. I know you were dedicated to your clients. I know you put in long hours.” He shrugged. “I’m the perfect person to recommend you.”
She sat at the table in front of the laptop. He stood behind her.
Leaning in, he said, “Our first problem is that you haven’t worked in five years. We have to downplay that.”
The woodsy scent of his cologne floated to her. Her shoulder tingled because he had his hand on the back of her chair and every time she moved, she brushed it. Her mind tried to go blank, to enjoy the sensations, but she wouldn’t let it. They had a job to do.
She turned to make a suggestion about how to get around the gap between her work experience and the current date, but when she turned, the way he leaned in put them face-to-face. So close, they could have rubbed noses.
Close enough to kiss.
Her chest froze. Where the hell had that thought come from? She did not want to kiss him. This feeling tumbling through her had to be wrong. Seth was her husband’s best friend.
She started to turn away, but his eyes held hers. When she’d met him, she’d thought he had the eyes of a bad boy. Dark. Forbidding. But she once again saw the spark of wisdom or experience that she’d seen when he’d opened his condo door to her a few days before.
It was as if something had happened in the past five years. Something that had changed him. She knew what his dad had been like. She knew his mom had been oblivious—
She blinked to break eye contact. She wasn’t supposed to be curious about him.
“I, um, thought maybe we could just admit that I got married five years ago and hadn’t worked since.”
He pulled back. “I think you have to. The worst thing a person can do is lie on a résumé.”
Surprised, she laughed. “You think that’s the worst thing a person can do?”
He turned away. “There are definitely worse things a person can do in general. But we’re talking in terms of getting a job.”
“Oh. Right.” She faced her laptop again, moved the cursor to the spot she needed to change and started typing. But she couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. They were not the eyes of a serial seducer. They weren’t the eyes of a poet, either. They were the eyes of a cautious man.
Probably because of what had happened in his family.
Sure, he was working for them...but he’d already mentioned not being close to his mom. Whatever had caused him to run from his family must not have been resolved. Or had they swept it under the rug like a good high-society family?
Curiosity rose and knocked and knocked and knocked on her brain, begging for attention.
She ignored it.
Her wanting to know about him could be nothing more than the curiosities of a lonely woman.
They fussed with her résumé for another hour before they got it right. Then she raced off to her room and Seth was left with the scent of her shampoo lingering in his nostrils, making him crazy.
But the fact that she’d run off proved to him that he wasn’t the only one feeling things. He’d seen it when she’d sat staring into his eyes. She’d covered that by being strictly professional as they tidied her résumé, but her racing off brought back all his instincts that she was every bit as attracted to him as he was to her.
Clark’s widow.
That made it doubly important that he help her with her job search, so she could leave.
The baby woke him again that