Sealed With a Kiss (9 page)

It would be fine. The two months would go
fast. Before she knew it, she would be back at Bozeman Elementary,
teaching a class of students without a bodyguard in sight.

“Ms. McReedy, come and see our
classroom.”

Bella was practically hopping from foot to
foot. Excitement shone from her face as Rachel made her way up the
stairs. She gave Bella a quick hug before walking toward the front
door. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”

“Mr. Daniels said it’s cold enough to freeze
his whiskers.”

“Mr. Daniels is a wise man.”

A soft chuckle drifted across the room.
“Don’t tell him that. His head will get so big that it will pop
right off his shoulders.” A woman walked toward Rachel. “I’m Patty
Daniels. It’s nice to meet you, Rachel.”

Rachel held her hand out. “It’s nice to meet
you, too, Mrs. Daniels.”

Mrs. Daniels waved her hand in the air. “Call
me Patty. When an adult calls me Mrs. Daniels it reminds me of my
mother-in-law.”

Patty didn’t look anything like the
housekeeper Rachel had imagined. She’d expected to see someone in
their mid-sixties with gray hair and a no-nonsense approach to
life. Patty might have been in her mid-sixties, but she had short
brown hair, a wide smile, and twinkly blue eyes that hinted at a
streak of mischief.

“Tank has taken your teaching things into
Bella’s classroom. Can I get you a hot drink to warm you up?”

“Thank you. That would be great.” Rachel
needed to find out as much about Bella as she could. A hot drink
sounded like a good way to begin.

When she’d called John to let him know that
she could take the job, he hadn’t told her very much about what the
last tutor had been doing. He’d sent her Bella’s academic record
and a study plan of what Mrs. Daniels had been teaching her. There
were notes about what Bella enjoyed and didn’t enjoy. It had filled
in some blanks, but left others wide open.

Rachel held her hand out to Bella. “What if
we all have a hot drink together? We can get to know each other a
little better?”

Bella nodded and took Rachel’s hand. “Mrs.
Daniels made some peanut butter cookies this morning. Do you like
peanut butter?”

“I love peanut butter.”

Patty led the way into the kitchen while
Bella chatted the whole way. Their home was every bit as
traditional on the inside as the outside. A wide staircase wound
its way upstairs from the front entranceway. Painted in a soft
shade of buttermilk, the area was warm and inviting.

They walked through a large set of double
doors. The living room’s paneled walls and marble fireplace gave
the area a sense of grandeur, a feeling of permanence. The view
from the windows was far prettier than she’d imagined a house in
town could be. Snow covered trees glistened in the large backyard
creating a picture-perfect winter scene. There were no fences
separating John’s home from the other properties nearby, nothing to
say that they were in residential suburbia.

Patty must have known what she was thinking.
“The backyard overlooks two vacant lots that the owners of this
property bought. I never get tired of the view from this room. It
changes so much with each season.”

Rachel was confused. “Doesn’t John own this
home?”

“No. He has a long-term lease.”

Bella looked up at Rachel. “Dad’s going to
build a new house when the snow melts.”

Patty nodded. “He bought a parcel of land at
Emerald Lake. It’s going to be even prettier than what we’ve got
here.” She walked through another set of double doors and turned to
Rachel. “Welcome to the heart of the house.”

Rachel followed Patty and looked around the
huge kitchen. She could have almost squeezed her entire apartment
into the beautiful space. Everything sparkled - from the marble
counter to the pendant lights hanging from the ceiling.

The smell of sweet cookies filled the air and
made Rachel sigh. “This is wonderful. You must enjoy spending time
in here?”

Patty looked around the kitchen. “It’s a
lovely space. Whoever designed it, knew about cooking.”

Bella disappeared behind a set of pantry
doors and reappeared with a plate in her hands. “Mrs. Daniels makes
the best food ever. I helped her bake these cookies.”

Rachel watched Bella carefully lift a dozen
cookies onto the plate and carry them across to a wooden table.
“They look delicious.”

Bella nodded solemnly. “We measured out the
ingredients. Mrs. Daniels is teaching me about fractions.”

Patty took three mugs out of a set of
drawers. “You’re a natural at math. I’ve never seen anyone learn
what three-quarters of a cup of sugar looks like so quickly. Would
you like coffee or hot chocolate, Rachel?”

“Hot chocolate, please.”

“Me too, Mrs. Daniels.” Bella sat at the
kitchen table and waited for Rachel. “Hot chocolate is about my
most favorite thing in the world.”

Rachel sat beside Bella. “So you like math,
hot chocolate, and baking. What else do you like?”

Bella thought hard. “I like the beach, ice
cream sundaes, and pasta. My friend Poppy is nice, too. I met her
at my ballet class.”

“What about triple fudge brownies?” Patty
added. “You ask me to make them at least once a week.”

“I love your triple fudge brownies. I love
them even more because dad likes them, too.” She turned to Rachel
and lowered her voice. “He dunks them into his coffee, then eats
them before they fall apart. Don’t tell Mrs. Daniels. She keeps
telling him off.”

Rachel leaned toward Bella. “Your secret’s
safe with me.”

Bella held her hand out. “Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.” Rachel curled her little
finger around Bella’s and smiled. “Where is your dad, Bella?”

John was supposed to meet Rachel nearly
twenty minutes ago. She’d written down the questions she needed to
ask him, rehearsed how the conversation would go. She’d start their
professional relationship with the minimum of fuss and high
expectations of a successful ending.

She thought back over their conversation four
days ago. He’d definitely said he’d be at home when she arrived.
Maybe the education of his daughter wasn’t high on his list of
priorities. Maybe he had different expectations about how this
teaching position would work out.

Patty left a mug of hot chocolate in front of
Bella, then put a second mug in front of Rachel. “Don’t go
fretting. John asked me to let you know that he was called in to
work urgently. He wouldn’t have gone unless it was important.”

“Dad keeps people safe,” Bella said
matter-of-factly. “Sometimes he has to miss important things.”

Patty pulled a chair away from the table and
sat down. “He doesn’t mean to,” she told Bella. “Your dad tries his
best.”

It didn’t look as though John’s best
coincided with his daughter’s.

The back door opened and Tank strode into the
kitchen. “You’re having coffee already?” He glanced at the plate of
cookies. The corner of his mouth tilted into an almost smile. “Is
there enough room at the table for me?”

Patty patted the back of the chair beside
her. “Of course there is. Come and warm up. I was just telling
Rachel that John had to go into work early this morning.”

Tanks face fell into an indifferent mask.
“He’ll be back as soon as he can.”

Rachel didn’t ask what the problem was. Tank
didn’t look inclined to share any information and she had to
remember to keep their working relationship professional.

“Did dad remember that we’re going to the
mall this afternoon?” Bella looked hopefully at Tank. “Poppy’s
birthday is on Wednesday. He said we could go and buy her a
present.”

Tank took the cup of coffee Patty handed him.
“I’ll remind him, Bella. But just in case he can’t make it, I could
go with you?”

Bella looked heart-broken. “He said he’d take
me, Tank.”

“I know. He’ll take you if he can.”

Rachel looked between Tank and Bella.

Tank was trying hard to make up for the
disappointment written across Bella’s face. “I’ll call him at
lunchtime and see if he can come.”

Rachel glanced at Mrs. Daniels. She was
watching Bella with a worried frown.

Rachel knew what it was like to be put behind
all of the other things happening in a parent’s life. “If your dad
can’t make it, I could go to the mall with you?” She forced a smile
onto her face and pretended that she didn’t know how Bella felt.
“You could tell me what Poppy likes? It would be like a treasure
hunt.”

Bella looked down at her hot chocolate. “I
guess that would be okay. But only if dad can’t make it.”

Rachel hugged Bella’s shoulders. “It will be
fun. After we’ve been shopping, you could come to drama club with
me.”

A smile lit Bella’s face. “Really?”

Rachel didn’t look at Tank. Going to drama
club hadn’t figured on his plans today, but plans were made to be
broken. She was sure he’d be able to fit drama club into his
schedule.

Tank slid Rachel’s car keys across the table.
“You’ll need these if you’re going to the mall and the library. I
can follow you in my truck.”

Rachel didn’t know how he knew that drama
club was at the library, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was
that Bella was now happily munching a cookie. If her dad couldn’t
come home early, she had something else to look forward to.

And that, Rachel knew, was as good as it got
sometimes.

***

John looked at his computer screen,
re-reading the police report in front of him. One of his security
teams had been transporting a wealthy client’s collection of
eighteenth-century jewelry across two states. They’d been heading
toward New York when they’d been ambushed outside of Stamford. No
one had been seriously hurt, but it had been close.

Even though the jewelry hadn’t been taken,
the vehicle his team had been driving would be written off. John’s
eyes traveled over the report, stopping at the third paragraph. Up
until they’d hit Port Chester the journey had been uneventful. That
had all changed when they’d driven over the Rippowam River.

All of John’s teams followed strict
pre-assignment protocols. Before they left, they checked all
national and state websites, making sure they knew of all planned
events that could impact on their assignment. They checked weather
conditions and accident reports. Traffic congestion data was
analyzed and they planned their journey to avoid any unnecessary
holdups.

They’d done everything they should have, but
they’d still been caught in unscheduled roadworks.

The team had quickly realized that something
wasn’t right. As they’d overtaken all of the traffic to get away
from the slow-zone, two black SUVs had tried to block their path.
Tony Martinez, the driver of Fletcher Security’s SUV, had swerved
to the opposite side of the road and slammed into the side of one
of the vehicles. He’d kept driving and called for back-up.

They’d made it to their destination,
delivered the jewelry, then sent through their report with the
dashboard camera images.

Sam and Tanner, two of John’s team based in
Montana, had been studying the video for the last few hours. After
pulling every piece of data they could find off the video, they
were no closer to locating the owner of the SUV.

A quick knock on John’s door pulled his
attention away from his computer.

Tanner stood in the doorway. “Sam and I are
heading home. Are you coming?”

John glanced at his watch. It was eight
o’clock - too late to do anything more for his team in New York.
“How’s Tony?”

“Better than your SUV. He’ll contact the
insurance company tomorrow.”

John sent Tony a quick email. “We can do that
from here. He’s got enough to worry about.” He frowned at the
printouts on his desk. He’d looked through each paper at least a
dozen times. Nothing that had happened today made sense. Compared
to some of the contracts they carried out, the transfer of the
jewelry had been a routine operation. Nothing should have gone
wrong.

He scooped all of the papers into a pile and
locked them away in his bottom drawer. “I’ll leave with you and
Sam. Bella’s going to be upset that I missed her bedtime.”

Tanner stared solemnly at him. “Don’t make
work your entire life, John. Before you know it, she’ll be heading
off to university and making her own way in the world. Make the
most of having her with you.”

From anyone else, those words wouldn’t have
had the same impact. But John knew about Tanner’s past, the
heartache that had followed him to Montana. “I wish it was that
simple.”

“It is.” Tanner waved John through the open
door. “Sam’s waiting for us by the main reception desk. Don’t ask
her how she’s feeling.”

John grabbed his jacket and left his office.
“What happened?”

“She was supposed to go on a date tonight.
The guy had a hard time believing that she couldn’t meet him for
dinner.”

“Sounds like she needs to date a different
person.”

Tanner grinned. “I told her the same thing.
You don’t want to know what she said.”

John flicked the lights out in his office,
locked the door and headed toward the front of the building. “Sam
wouldn’t know how to be rude if she tried.”

A woman in her late twenties walked down the
hallway, frowning ferociously at Tanner. At five-foot-five, the top
of Sam’s head wouldn’t have reached John or Tanner’s shoulders. But
size, in Sam’s case, meant absolutely nothing.

“I heard that, John Fletcher. Just because
I’m quiet, it doesn’t mean I don’t get annoyed.” Her blue eyes were
flashing fire. If he’d been a betting man, John would have put ten
dollars on her trying to box his ears if she could have reached
that far.

Tanner’s grin got a whole lot wider. “It’s
just as well your boyfriend can’t see you now. He’d run straight
toward the Rockies and never come back.”