Upstairs Downstairs Baby. Cat Schield

Prologue

      Everly Briggs made sure she gave every appearance of listening sympathetically as London McCaffrey imparted her romantic woes. They were attending the “Beautiful Women Taking Charge” networking event, featuring a keynote from Poppy Hart, a motivational speaker and owner of Hart Success Counseling.

      “And he gave you no reason for breaking off your engagement?” Everly sounded aghast, though in truth, she already knew all about London’s failed romance with professional baseball player Linc Thurston. It was the reason she’d contrived to meet her tonight.

      London pressed her coral-tinted lips into a thin line as she shook her head. “He claims he isn’t ready to get married, but we’ve been engaged for two years.”

      Everly tried not to wince at London’s affected Southern accent. The beautiful woman, with her silky straight blond hair and expensive clothes, was originally from Connecticut and that made her an outsider here in Charleston.

      “Do you think he was cheating on you?” Zoe Crosby asked, her light brown eyes blazing with outrage from inside their frame of dark, lush lashes.

      “Linc...cheat?” London toyed with her string of Mikimoto pearls as she considered this. “Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility. He travels more than half the year with the team and lives in Texas during the season.”

      “And you know how women love professional sports players,” Zoe added. “My former brother-in-law is a race car driver and has women after him all the time.”

      “These men have no right to treat us so badly,” Everly said. Each of the three women had shared a tale of being wronged by a wealthy, powerful man. “We need to get back at all of them. Linc, Tristan and Ryan. They all need to be taught a lesson.”

      “As much as the idea appeals to me,” London said, “I can’t imagine taking revenge on Linc without it blowing up in my face.”

      “What good would it do any of us? Anything we try would only end up making us look bad,” Zoe said, echoing London.

      “Not if we go after each other’s men.” Everly restrained a smug smile as she took in her companions’ curious expressions. “Think about it. We’re strangers at a cocktail party. Who would ever connect us? I go after Linc. London goes after Tristan. And, Zoe, you go after Ryan.”

      “When you say ‘go after,’” Zoe said, sounding hesitant even as her head bobbed eagerly, “what do you have in mind?”

      “We’re not going to do them bodily harm,” Everly said with a silvery laugh. “But there’s no reason why we couldn’t ruin a business deal or mess with their current relationship. We’ve each been the victim of a ruthless man. And yet we’re strong, empowered women. Don’t you think it’s time we acted like it?”

      London started nodding right along with Zoe. “I like the idea of striking back at Linc. He deserves to feel a little of the pain and humiliation I’ve endured since our engagement ended.”

      Zoe leaned forward. “Count me in, too.”

      “Marvelous. Now, here’s what I think we should do...”

       One

      He needed to fire Claire.

      Lincoln Thurston opened his mouth to do just that as she set his morning smoothie of kale, protein powder and blueberries on the breakfast bar near his gym bag. Then she gave him a smile of such sweetness that he was helpless to do anything but grin back.

      Letting his housekeeper go was a matter of desperation. He was obsessed with the lovely young woman who cooked and cleaned for him. Over the twelve months since he’d hired her, it had become increasingly difficult to avoid thinking about her in a certain way. A certain carnal way. Which was why he absolutely, positively couldn’t have her living in his house another day.

      And yet he felt responsible for her welfare the way he did for his mother and sister. Claire was almost three thousand miles from her family and her husband had been killed in Afghanistan two years earlier. Besides, what excuse could he give? She cooked like a dream and kept his Charleston house in perfect order. And she was more than his housekeeper. She cared about him. Him. Linc Thurston, the regular guy. Not Linc Thurston, the ballplayer or the multimillionaire or the recently single and highly eligible bachelor.

      Linc gave his head a brisk shake. He had to stop thinking about Claire as if she meant something to him. It had already proved detrimental to his love life, causing him to end his engagement.

      Not that it was fair to blame Claire. She was the perfect employee. She never once encouraged him or acted as if she was even aware that he was an attractive, financially stable man who could take her away from the drudgery of her current occupation. It was refreshing that she wasn’t working an angle, and yet part of him wished that seduction was her goal. He wouldn’t have minded being at the heart of her sinister plot to trap him. At least then he could sleep with her and never for a second regret it.

      As a shortstop with the Texas Barons, making fifteen million a year, Linc was accustomed to having women throw themselves at him. Not even his engagement had slowed them down. At twenty-six, when he was at the beginning of his eight-year, nine-figure contract, he’d basked in the attention. Now, at thirty-three, with only one year left to go, he wanted to settle down with a wife and kids. Or that had been the plan, until he’d reevaluated his feelings for London McCaffrey and realized he wasn’t in love with her.

      So, what was it about Claire that preoccupied him?

      “Mama.”

      The reason Linc would be the biggest jerk of all time if he fired Claire ran into the kitchen buck naked.

      “Where are your clothes?” Claire exclaimed as her daughter streaked past.

      With her straight shoulder-length brown hair and a sprinkling of freckles over her nose, Claire had a fresh girl-next-door look that sometimes made her seem too young to be the mother of a toddler.

      Two-year-old Honey Robbins made a beeline for Linc. He scooped her into his arms, whirling her around. She was a bright-eyed, enthusiastic charmer who’d wrapped him around her finger from their first meeting. Honey shrieked with laughter, and he smiled. Mother and daughter had burrowed beneath his skin to such an extent that not having them around would be so much worse than his constant battle with attraction.

      He would just have to endure.

      “I don’t know what it is about this child that she can’t manage to keep her clothes on,” Claire said, her brown eyes fixed on the toddler’s chubby cheeks.

      “Maybe she takes after her mother?” Had he just said that? His careless words put bright spots of color in Claire’s cheeks and inappropriate thoughts in his head. “I don’t mean that you can’t keep your clothes on,” he hastened to add. “It’s just something people say. I mean, about children taking after their parents.”

      “Well, that’s a relief,” Claire said. “I thought maybe the security cameras caught me skinny-dipping last week.”

      In truth, there were no security cameras and there was no way Claire would take her clothes off and slip naked into his pool. Which was why she could joke about it. Despite the provocative nature of the banter, Claire was a very proper and modest twenty-seven-year-old widow who still wore her wedding band. She obviously wasn’t over her husband, a hero who’d died two years earlier when a suicide bomber attacked his military convoy.

      “I guess I better go review the video,” he said, filling his voice with lighthearted good humor. “What day might that have been?”

      “I’m not gonna tell you.” Her grin wasn’t flirtatious, merely one of standard amusement. “It’ll give you something to do while I’m vacuuming upstairs. You do get underfoot