Circle of Shadows (6 page)

She’d forgotten to ask the new
owner’s name. Oh, well, what did it matter?

A few minutes after Lili walked
out of the store, Ken Mills stopped in to buy some coffee on his way to his new
house. He remembered he’d forgotten to tell Lili that he’d asked Renee to have
his office supply house ship her a computer set-up like the ones the rest of
his managers used. It should arrive in the next couple of days, and he didn’t
want to antagonize Lili further by surprising her with it. He realized that he
was looking forward to seeing her often, now that he’d be living so close.

Lili hadn’t answered his ring at
her house, so Ken was hoping she might still be at the store. The store was
busy and Arthur was manning the second till instead of his meat counter. He
looked startled to see Ken, and informed him Lili was still in her office, then
walked back with Ken and pushed open the door. The office was dark.

Arthur said, “I guess she did
leave. I didn’t see her go.” He reached around the corner and snapped on the
light, almost as though he expected her to be sitting there in the dark.

Ken stared in shock at the
office. It had been fairly neat just two days ago, now stacks of papers covered
the desk and the long table against the wall. She must be doing a complete
overhaul of the filing system.

“She’s been very busy back here,
I guess,” Arthur commented sheepishly. “Robert didn’t like office work much.
Lili probably has a lot of catching up to do.”

“I guess,” Ken said through tight
lips. He picked up a few of the invoices on the stacks nearest him, then put
them down and flipped through another stack, noting that some of them were
months old.
What the hell was going on?

“Well, I’ll just leave this for
her and stop another time.” He dropped the large manila envelope he’d been
carrying in the most conspicuous place on her desk, directly in front of her
chair.

He noticed that the waste basket
held empty heat and serve food trays. More than one! She must have been eating
here, working through her lunch and dinner hours.

For Pete’s sake! Had he come across
to her as that much of a slave-driver? His frown deepened. He was sure that no
one else saw him that way. Should he go to her house and tell her to ease up,
or would that only make it worse? She had already put in a long day, so she was
not likely to welcome seeing him.

Ken turned back to Arthur. “You
can tell her I stopped,” he said shortly, and strode out.

“Sure thing,” Arthur said,
snapping off the light.

No wonder Lili had asked for some
time to do the reports he wanted, Ken mused as he drove through the rain to his
new house. He could see that Robert’s affairs were in no kind of shape from
which to type up a quick report. Lili must have been too loyal or too
embarrassed to tell him so.

Sighing, he realized it was going
to take more than a little time to build some trust between them. He’d better
invent some excuses to spend time with her. He tried to ignore the thrill of
pleasure that decision brought him.

He would call her tomorrow. He
smiled, remembering that soft curvy body and gorgeous strawberry blonde hair.
This assignment was going to be a pleasure. If she’d cooperate.

His smile faded. He’d have to use
business to bribe her until she made peace with him over his purchase of Adams’
Foods.

He spent the evening dodging cold
raindrops as he unpacked his car. Later, he paced his new home, deciding where
he wanted his furniture.

Finally, Ken spread his sleeping
bag on the carpet in the living room alcove in front of the large windows. He
could have spent the night in a motel and been much more comfortable, but he’d
wanted to spend it here. He wanted to physically claim his new home. It was the
first time he had owned a house. He’d always lived in a rented apartment.

He showered, thankful that Agnes
hadn’t shut off the utilities. Tucked in at last, he found himself thinking
about Lili instead of sleeping. He told himself he was only anxious to get her
reports, to try to figure out for himself why Robert had said Adams’ Foods was
losing money. And, if it was, to try to turn the situation around, in spite of
Robert’s warning.

He hadn’t told Lili what Robert
had said. Maybe he should have. Maybe Robert had sold the store because he
didn’t want his daughter to be saddled with a losing business, rather than
because of his male chauvinism as she thought. Maybe if she could accept that
idea, she would get over her anger sooner.

Then again, maybe she was right,
and was having a hard time accepting that her anger at her father’s chauvinism
was getting in the way of grieving for him.

Emotions were complicated things,
and he had better let her deal with hers in her own way.

He had a rule, he always stayed
out of his employees’ personal lives. He was not succeeding with Lili. He was
already emotionally involved.

Ken lay awake for a long time.
The rain ended and the sky cleared. He watched the stars twinkle far above and
listened to the waves lap at the lake shore below. He found himself fantasizing
about what it would be like to have her here with him in this lovely room.

He thought about how nice it
would be to make love here, in front of these wide windows with only the sky,
lake, and stars as witnesses. He grew hard thinking about Lili, and he cursed
himself for a fool to dream of the impossible.

Anxious to get the day going, Ken
made do with coffee and a cinnamon roll for breakfast. Until the movers arrived
with his furniture, he could do little except stroll about the house, mentally
arranging his furniture and possessions in each room. Everything was spotless
and Agnes had left behind the refrigerator and stove, so those were already
usable.

When he found himself pacing, he
went outside and walked down to the dock to watch the white-capped waves roll
into shore. A stiff breeze ruffled his hair, yet the sun blazed brightly
against a brilliant blue backdrop of sky and lake.

The scent of flowers captured his
attention. He found its source in a mass of pink blossoms overhead and off to
his left, where a flowering crabapple tree stood along one side of the house.
He followed the path around the house, along the flat stones set in crushed
rock to the back of the house, and through the pines to the driveway on the
same level as the upper floor of the house.

Ken’s explorations were
interrupted when the telephone company’s truck appeared. He went back inside to
supervise the installation of two phone lines. The locksmith arrived soon after
and he explained what he needed changed.

At last Ken felt as if he were
back in business. He called his office and gave Renee his new phone numbers,
telling her to fax him any urgent letters or messages and to hold the others
until he came in on Monday. Then he set up the fax machine on some cardboard
boxes of files on the floor.

In spite of having told Renee
that he was taking Friday off, he began filling the spare time with calls. He
dialed the Allied warehouse and set up Adams’ Foods as a new account, writing
down account numbers and dates for a field ‘rep’ to call on Lili so that he
could pass them on to her the next time he saw her.

Ken groaned as he remembered that
he hadn’t yet told Lili that she had to switch warehouses. Of course, she might
realize that, but he had emphasized that things wouldn’t change too much at
that staff meeting. Had he overdone it? Surely she’d understand that stores in
a corporation had to be compatible with each other, wouldn’t she? He sighed as
he thought of the mess in her office last night. He was definitely rushing
things. His big weakness was impatience. She was not going to appreciate it.

“Hold off implementing this for a
couple of weeks, will you, Tom?” he asked. “Lili’s new at this, and her father
just died as well. I think she needs a little more time to get adjusted before
we change her store over.”

“Whatever you say, Ken. I’ll put
it on my calendar.”

Ken dialed Adams’ Foods and
waited for the checkout clerk to ring Lili’s office. He swallowed when he heard
her soft, clear voice on the other end of the line. “It’s Ken Mills, Lili.”

“Oh, hello, Ken. I’m sorry I’d
already left when you stopped here last night.”

Wariness had crept into her
voice, warning him to keep the conversation focused on business, or she was
going to refuse to have dinner with him. “Did you find the sample reports I
left on your desk?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“There are a few things we should
discuss as soon as possible. Are you free for dinner tonight?”

“No, I’m sorry, I’m on duty
tonight.”

“You’re not working there alone,
are you? Don’t you get a dinner hour?”

“Yes, of course, but I have to
stay within call. I usually just grab a sandwich or salad at Lander’s House
down the street.”

“Fine. I’ll join you and we can
talk while we eat. What time?” he asked, giving her no polite way to refuse.

“Six.”

He smiled. Her voice sounded
resigned rather than pleased, but she had agreed. “I’ll meet you there, in the
dining room.”

Finally, the moving van arrived.
Two burly men were soon placing furniture and boxes of his possessions in their
proper rooms as Ken directed.

***

Lili took a table near the
windows in the dining room of Landers’ House. She laid her portable phone
beside the red pebbled glass bowl holding a flickering candle and rested her
chin in her hand. A waitress appeared with a glass of water, menu, and a pot of
coffee.

“The usual, Lili
?
” she inquired, softly.

Lili glanced up. “Hi, Nell. No,
I’m waiting for Mr. Mills tonight. I’ll probably just have the salad bar, but
you’d better come back when he gets here
.
”

“Sure thing. I’ll watch for him.”
Nell poured Lili’s coffee and set the pot on the table.

Lili sipped her coffee, keeping
an eye on the street for Ken’s silver Mercedes. She still hadn’t seen it when
she glanced up to see him crossing the dining room. He was dressed casually in
brown slacks and a soft beige sweater that she was sure was cashmere. A soft
gasp of appreciation for his broad shoulders and narrow hips curled in her
throat. Did the man have to be so damned attractive? Why couldn’t he have been
balding with a spare tire around his middle, so that her traitorous hormones
wouldn’t react to him this way?

Every woman in the place turned
her eyes towards him as he strolled across the room and took the chair opposite
her. Lili swallowed nervously and glanced up to see an envious look on Nell’s
face as she hurried to serve them. Damn. Now she was going to have to put up
with gossip, in addition to everything else. Still, Lili felt pleased at the
idea of other women envying her.

She and Ken greeted each other
and ordered under Nell’s watchful eyes. He nodded in agreement when Lili chose
the salad bar.

“I’ll have the same. But let’s
have some meat off that smorgasbord too. I’ve been living on hamburgers for
days. And you could use a bit of fattening up.” His eyes raked over her.

How dare
he
!
Heat rose in her face. “My weight is fine,” she began, then met his eyes, and
thought better of antagonizing her new boss. Forcing a smile, she added, “But
some chicken or fish would go nicely with my salad.
.
”

They filled their plates and ate,
chatting about the town, the restaurant, the coming tourist season, and the
house he’d bought on Long Lake and had already moved into. He told her he was
looking forward to trying out the fishing. She half listened, thinking if you
had enough money, you could make things happen with amazing speed. People
always moved heaven and earth to prioritize the wishes of the rich, she thought
bitterly.

Lili glanced at her watch, noting
that half her dinner hour was gone, and Ken still had said nothing about
business.

When the waitress had taken their
plates and brought a fresh pot of coffee, he leaned back and met her eyes.

“Did you have time to look at
those sample reports that I left on your desk last night?”

“Yes, thank you. They were
similar to others I’ve done.”

“Good. Then doing some for your
store will be no problem?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll do
one the first of the week.”

“Are you sure that’ll be enough
time? You seemed to be doing quite a housecleaning job in your office.”

She flushed. “I’m afraid my
father left it rather unorganized. I’m almost finished putting it in order.”

“Good. I’m sure you’ve done
reports on a computer?”

“Yes, of course. I did
spreadsheets and reports on computer in St. Louis. But Dad never learned, so we
don’t have one.”

“I’ve ordered one for you. The
whole setup should be delivered Monday or Tuesday,” he said, that watchful
expression still in his hazel eyes.

“Just like that? Don’t I get any
say in what kind of computer I’d prefer, or what system I’m used to working
with?”

His voice stayed calm and quiet, but
now it had a steely edge in response to her angry outburst. “I’m sorry, but no,
that’s not possible. All my stores’ computers and software programs have to be
compatible with mine, so all the systems are alike.”

“I see.” She drew a deep breath,
listening to the details of his system. What he said made sense. Of course her
system would need to be compatible with his, and she, as the new kid on the
block, would have to be the one to learn new software.

“There’s no hurry. If you have
time on Sunday, Lili, I could go over the software program with you on mine.”

“All right.” She glanced at her
watch, and pushed back her chair. “I really must get back.”

“How about one o’clock on Sunday?
I’ll pick you up.”

“Fine. Thank you for dinner,
Ken.”

She picked up her phone and
hurried away. The delicious dinner she’d eaten sat like a lump in the pit of
her stomach. So many changes, so fast. She wanted to go home and cry, but duty
called. Two more hours until closing time. If she was lucky and the tills
balanced, she would be home shortly after that.

But of course, the tills didn’t
balance. She counted and re-counted the cash, ran two tapes on the checks and
came up with two different totals. Frustrated, she laid the two adding machine
tapes side by side and found the mistake. Then she added the totals on her
accounting sheet three times before she found another mistake.

It was all Ken’s fault, she
thought unreasonably. She kept seeing his sandy brown hair and the crinkles his
smile made around his hazel eyes on the page in front of her. And thinking of
the way his touch made her tingle, instead of how the charges and paid on
accounts added up. No wonder she was making mistakes.

Sunday she was going to have to
go to his house to learn the new software program. Why-ever had she agreed to
that? They would be alone in his home! People around here would talk if they
knew. Landers was a small town, full of gossips. But she was looking forward to
it, her traitorous body reminded her.

She went home, built a fire in
the fireplace, and relaxed in front of it with a tall glass of iced tea.

She wondered what he was doing at
this moment. He’d said he was getting settled in a house on Long Lake.

Staring at the flames, she
imagined him moving furniture around and hanging pictures in his new home. His
muscles would be rippling under his tee-shirt, like they had as he swam laps at
the pool. She wondered how those muscles would feel moving under her hands, if
she placed her hands on that hairy chest as he moved his arms to put them
around her.

Damn the man. She should be
figuring out ways to regain control of Adams’ Foods from him, not mooning over
his body. What was the matter with her anyway? Was she going to let her
hormones rule her head? Couldn’t she control her own feelings?

By noon Saturday Lili was furious
for another reason. Three people had told her how pleased they were that Mr.
Mills had purchased Agnes’ house. All her employees knew before she did. It was
a dreary, rainy day that suited her mood exactly. The gossip was Mrs. Langley’s
fault, of course. Happy about her large sales commission, she’d told someone,
and then that person had told three others. Lili knew how Landers’ grapevine
worked. Of course, it really didn’t matter that she had told, Lili scolded
herself. The sale was a fact, and in any small town nothing anyone did was a
secret for long.

Wasn’t she really only angry that
Ken hadn’t told her himself at dinner last night? She should have guessed,
should have put the pieces together. She’d known someone had bought Agnes’ house.
Why did she mind that it was Ken?

By the time Ken picked her up on
Sunday, she’d brought her temper under control and was able to smile and
converse politely as he drove.

The rain had washed everything
clean and made the grass and trees a brilliant shade of green. Dandelions
formed a carpet of yellow along the roadsides, as if challenging anyone to call
them an ugly nuisance.

“Are you getting settled
?
” Lili asked.

“Pretty well. I’ll have to buy a
few more pieces of furniture. My apartment was considerably smaller.”

She noticed his furtive glance
and guessed he was wondering if she knew which house he was talking about. For
just an instant she wondered if he might be as uncomfortable about her feelings
as she was about his. She made no comment as he turned into the drive to the
house she knew so well.

She couldn’t help noticing the
pride in his face as he looked at the house before getting out and coming
around the car to open the door for her.

“You knew this was the house I’d
bought
?
” It was more
of a statement than a question.

“Yes. I heard through the
grapevine
.
”

“I hope you don’t mind
?
”

“Mind? Of course not.” She pushed
away the prick of her conscience for uttering the lie, and added the bitter
truth. “Aunt Agnes put the house on the market. It was her decision to make,
not mine.”

“Yes, it was,” he said, glancing
at her.

She looked away, out across the
blue water of the lake. The sunlight shimmered off the surface, which was only
slightly broken with ripples. Down past the corner of the house, she could glimpse
Agnes’ favorite red tulips. She turned back toward him and caught her breath
when she found him watching her.