Balancing Act. Laura Browning

fair trade-off. With a couple more keystrokes, she turned to him.

      “You leave National at five-fifteen a.m. and arrive at Raleigh-Durham at six AM Saturday morning,” she said at last. “A rental car will be waiting for you. When would you like to return?”

      “Sunday.”

      She punched a few more keys. “I can get you on a noon flight back.”

      “Book it. Use my travel account. The number’s there next to the keyboard.”

      A couple more minutes and Tessa was pulling his ticket voucher off the computer printer.

      “Done.”

      She crossed the room and handed him the voucher, and then Barrett did do something that caught her off-guard. He smiled. It transformed the lean features of his face and made him look years younger.

      “Thank you, Tessa.”

      Now he’d rattled her. A smile and her correct name. She knew she was staring at him, probably with her mouth gaping, but she couldn’t help it and could only nod in response.

      “Go home. Enjoy your weekend.”

      She smiled back. “Thank you.”

      * * * *

      Seth watched the door close behind her. Tessa Edwards. She’d made it through the first week, and that was an accomplishment in and of itself. It had taken him a few days to notice, but she was stunning in her own way. Hers was not a stand up and smack you in the face kind of pretty, but a harmonious blend of classic bone structure and subtle curves with the staying power pretty women seldom had. Not until she smiled at someone else had he seen the vivid personality to go with the flamboyant coloring. Fiery red hair, thick and straight, and the most unusual ice-blue eyes. Yes, he’d noticed Tessa Edwards, not just for her looks, but for the grit and unflappable serenity she’d demonstrated all week long.

      He needed that right now, especially after the little nuclear bomb she’d unknowingly dropped in his lap with that package. Seth tapped his fingers on his desk.

      He was not an easy man. He knew that. In fact, many of the people who had faced him across a negotiating table described him as a Class-A bastard who made his father look like a blessed saint. Seth knew what people thought, what some even voiced behind his back, but didn’t care. He was what his father had molded him to be. He had taken over daily operations of Barrett Newspapers four years after college. When all was said and done, he was a Barlow-Barrett and couldn’t drop that responsibility from his shoulders to pursue his own desires.

      One soft spot remained in the armor he’d built around himself over the years. That was his sister Anna. He and Brandon were the only ones who called her that, yet that was the name she now chose to use in her professional life. Little Anna, the veterinarian. So different from the rest of them, yet she was the embodiment of what he longed to be. She was his heart, and he would do anything to protect her. He knew she viewed herself as the ugly duckling, but he saw her as the one Barlow-Barrett who had dared to be different, inside and out. When the rest of them had followed like sheep in the family footsteps, Anna had walked away. Phillip, his youngest brother, had taken a slight detour into law, but he was still right in the family fold. Anna was the rebel, and he admired her to no end.

      His eyes lifted to the DVD player and the disc he still hadn’t removed. Watching even a portion of it had made him almost sick. Then the anger had exploded, costing him a piece of artwork he’d paid through the nose for. He wanted not only the blackmailers who’d sent the video, but the fucker on the disc with her.

       Chapter 2

      Tessa pushed thoughts of Seth from her mind as soon as she arrived at her neighbor’s apartment to pick up Zach. His freckled face split into a huge grin when he saw her and he leaped up from the video game he played. She laughed and hugged him. He was the joy in her life and had been ever since his birth. Their parents’ deaths had served to draw them even closer.

      “Tessa! I got to the third level of Space Zombies.”

      “That’s great, Zach.” Tessa grinned back at him.

      Reading might be a problem, but he was a real whiz when it came to math or anything resembling computers. They had bought this latest video game just yesterday. If she allowed it, he would play all the time, but Tessa tried to make sure they spent time doing other things when they were together.

      She read to him and took him out in the country as much as possible.

      “Why are you home so early? Was your boss as bad as everyone told you and you quit?”

      “No. He told me I could leave. You know what that means?”

      Zach’s eyes widened. “We’re going to the beach today?” At her nod, he tossed down his game remote and danced around the room. “Yes! It’s almost like getting a whole ‘nother day.”

      Zach talked almost non-stop as they packed their camping gear, fishing poles and plenty of snacks. Tessa knew he got bored over the summer. As much as he disliked school, it still offered a change of scenery from the neighbor’s apartment.

      “Do you think we can catch any sharks?”

      “Sharks!” Tessa laughed. “Who’s going to take them off the hooks?”

      “I can,” Zach reassured her with an air of importance. “Remember, I did last year.”

      Tessa smiled. They had caught some baby sharks that Zach insisted on taking off the hooks. Tessa had let him. It made him feel like the man of the family to have his hands on a shark, even one a foot and a half long. They’d marveled at the sandpapery feel of the little sharks’ skins. Tessa much preferred it to handling a slippery fish. She wasn’t keen on fishing, but Zach enjoyed it, so she indulged him as much as she could.

      As they neared the campground at the shore late in the afternoon, Zach drifted off to sleep. Tessa glanced at him and smiled. His hair was as red as hers, but his eyes were dark blue, and he’d gotten the freckles that somehow missed her creamy skin. She knew he took ribbing about his looks. What redhead hadn’t? Add in the freckles and it just made it worse. He’d also inherited a double dose of intelligence, and a severe reading disability that made life at school miserable. Her mother and stepfather had worked with him and had him tested. Things had been getting better until last year when the call came about their parents.

      Tessa had broken the news to Zach. He had been quiet to start, but then the problems began at school. Tessa worked with the counselors and a psychologist. She took the first job she could find in her field to be near him. The job was part-time and kept her away many evenings. That was when the trouble with Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Edwin had first started. They claimed she shuffled Zach from one sitter to another and was too young and irresponsible to have custody. Tessa feared their grumbling would soon evolve into more than idle threats.

      It wasn’t her brother they wanted, just the trust fund that came with him, so she couldn’t afford to give them any fuel. They would crush Zach. He didn’t need more humiliation. He needed to have the talents he possessed nurtured. They would never understand the way his mind worked. Tessa could because hers worked much the same way, so she understood how important it was to get him away from everything now and then.

      Zach fished all evening from the pier. Tessa helped bait hooks in between watching other people and, she had to admit, thinking about her new boss.

      She had seen many of Seth’s moods during this first week, most of them unpleasant, but today something had rattled him. Whatever was in that envelope she had given him wasn’t good. She checked off what she knew. One of his sisters lived in North Carolina–she’d seen the address in the computer file. Preston. No. Anna was what it had said. Dr. Anna Barlow, without the Barrett attached. Something in that envelope must have involved her. It had shaken Seth. While he often growled orders and paced around like a caged animal, she’d never seen that look of angry frustration.

      Tessa didn’t like unsolved puzzles. Her mind went back to the package.