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

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