SEATTLE CINDERELLA: FOUR-IN-ONE COLLECTION Page 9

  “Wouldn’t miss it. See you Wednesday.”

  Chapter 4

  Brent looked up as the bell tinkled. “Walter, it’s good to see you. Are you feeling better?”

  Walter pressed his fist against his chest as he walked to his desk. “Almost, but it still hurts right here.” He gave a feeble cough then sank into his chair. He flicked through the small stack of papers in his basket. “Where’s everything that piled up while I was gone?”

  Brent smiled. “It’s done. Luke’s sister-in-law did it for us.” His smile faltered. Annie wasn’t really a sister-in-law; was there any such thing as a stepsister-in-law? He shook his head. “Sorry. I got distracted. Annie just graduated with a degree in accounting, so we’ve hired her to help you since we’ve been getting busier.” He glanced through the glass door to see Annie step outside Cindy’s shop. “Here she comes.”

  Instead of the relief Brent expected, Walter scowled. “I don’t want any help. I have everything all set up and it’s under control.”

  “Actually, Annie found a few mistakes. Luke and I needed to do a deposit, and we couldn’t get it to balance with the invoices. I’ve asked Annie to show you what happened. She said there was some kind of programming miscalculation.”

  Fortunately Annie walked in the door, sparing him from having to try to explain something he knew nothing about.

  “Oh good,” Brent said, his relief evident. “Walter, this is Annie. I’d like you to show her everything she’ll need to close off the fiscal month end, generate the profit-and-loss reports, and show her where everything is filed.” He wheeled a chair for Annie to sit with Walter then went back to work.

  While he worked he kept an eye on the two of them, watching Annie point out what had happened and Walter explaining as he fixed it. He didn’t understand what Walter said, but he felt certain Annie should have. Yet judging from her expression, it didn’t look like she did either.

  He wasn’t as sure as Luke that hiring her was a good idea. As a recent graduate she would know the current accounting programs, but theirs was no longer current. It was the same program they’d bought when they started their business. Since not much changed in the way they did business, Walter saved them money by using the older version, and everything had been running fine. Until now.

  When Luke walked in from a sales call, Brent laid his pen down. “How did it go?”

  Luke slid the folder into the pending slot. “They still have to run it past their board, but it looks good.”

  Brent glanced outside to the green Mustang, parked where Cindy’s truck used to be. He smiled, thinking of Cindy’s face and squeal of glee at the birthday party. “You just gave her that car yesterday—I can’t believe you took her car instead of yours for a sales call.”

  Luke tossed his key ring on the counter. “I promised her I’d put gas in it, so she was happy to let me have it.” He ran his fingers through his messy hair, a sure sign he’d been driving with the top down. “Gotta take it when I can get it.”

  At Luke’s words, Brent saw Annie gazing at Cindy’s new car with stars in her eyes, while Walter grumbled and typed furiously.

  Luke turned to Annie. “Has she let you take it for a spin yet?”

  Annie sighed. “Yes, but only around the block. It was magnificent.” She sighed again then closed her eyes.

  Brent imagined the wind blowing through her hair. He could picture her in Cindy’s car. It would suit her.

  Luke cleared his throat. “Cindy told me she needed to ask you something about a back order that was supposed to come in today.”

  Walter waved one hand in the air. “Go. I have to fix this anyway.”

  Annie stood. “I’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”

  It should have felt normal for the three men to be alone in the building, but for some reason it didn’t. Brent stared at Annie’s purse and coffee mug sitting on the corner of Walter’s desk. He couldn’t believe it, but he’d begun to enjoy her presence.

  Evan, the lot boy, came in through the back door. “I’m glad you’re back. I have to show both of you a dent in the silver Maxima.”

  Brent pulled the file for the car out of the cabinet then followed Evan and Luke to the lot. He made a mental note to use this car to show Annie how to do the insurance claim in case Walter was out sick again. Although, he was very happy to remind himself, this was the first time Walter had taken sick time in five years.

  When Brent and Luke returned to the office, it was vacant. Walter had left a note stuck to the computer that he’d gone out to pick up his prescription and would be back in ten minutes.

  “What do you think? How’s it going?” Luke asked.

  Brent looked absently at the computer, recalling Walter’s scowling face and Annie’s nervous expression. He didn’t understand why Walter and Annie didn’t seem to get along. Every time Brent had talked to Annie about their accounting issues she seemed very intelligent. And she wasn’t afraid to ask questions. But clearly Walter didn’t like her. It didn’t make sense.

  Before he could come to any conclusions, Walter returned.

  “Hey, Walter, how’s it going with Annie?” Luke asked, sparing Brent the need to be subtle.

  “Not good. She’s making a lot of mistakes.”

  Brent’s stomach clenched. That was the same thing Annie had said about Walter. If accountants had turf wars, he didn’t want to be in the middle of one.

  Luke frowned. “Then it’s up to you to teach her how to do it right.”

  “I could get everything done faster if I did it myself.”

  Luke crossed his arms. “I want you to give her a fair chance; that’s all I ask.”

  When Walter stormed back to his desk, Brent motioned with his head for Luke to join him outside.

  Once the door closed behind them, Brent could no longer hold back. “I didn’t want to say this, but—if Annie isn’t good at what she does, why are you so intent on hiring her? I don’t want her if she can’t do the job.” He shook his head. What was he saying? He still wanted to see her. He wanted to get to know what made her smile, to know that he could make her smile. He couldn’t help it; he wanted to get to know her better.

  Just not on the job.

  Luke narrowed his eyes. “Cindy says she’s been doing an outstanding job. And without Annie’s mother in the middle, they’re starting to become friends. Annie promised to make up for all the miserable things she did, and Cindy said she seems very sincere.” Luke lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. “As a new Christian sister, family or not, I think she deserves a chance.”

  A cloud of guilt pressed heavily on Brent’s chest. He’d resolved to give her the benefit of the doubt and he would. “Fine,” he grumbled. “But if she can’t work with Walter, she’s gone.” Or, if she did something absolutely fantastic, he would feel better, Walter would feel better, and everything would be fine.

  “That’s fair. Let’s go back inside; here she comes.”

  Brent smiled at Annie. “Ready to get back to work?”

  Strangely, Annie wouldn’t look at him. She simply nodded and returned to the chair beside Walter. She only stopped working briefly to greet Kat when she got off the school bus. Then Kat went to the lot to help Evan wash cars, and Annie went back to the computer.

  The sounds of splashing water drifted in through the air vents.

  Brent hadn’t minded when Luke hired Kat. It was good for a teenager to learn responsibility. Not to mention that Evan worked harder and faster, either to impress Kat or to compete with her. It didn’t matter which one. It only mattered that their cars were cleaner than they’d ever been. But hiring a kid to wash cars was different than hiring an accountant. Anyone could wash cars. And Evan and Kat got along. Walter and Annie didn’t.

  At the usual time, Luke and Kat left. Not long after that, Evan left, then Walter, and then Annie picked up her purse and coffee mug and returned to Cindy’s shop, leaving Brent alone.

  The quiet in the office was a dramatic change from
the tension of the day. Brent replayed the sound of Walter grumbling and bickering about Annie not knowing what she was doing in his head.

  After the last car due was checked in, inspected, and parked, Brent locked up.

  He hoped things would go better tomorrow.

  Seated at her desk, Annie looked up at Brent, hovering above her, waiting for her reply. She looked through the window, across the parking to Like a Prince Car Rentals, where Luke sat at Walter’s desk staring at the computer screen. “I suppose I could go help him. Is it the same problem?”

  “He’s not sure.”

  She waited for Brent to say more, but he didn’t.

  She turned back to watch Luke, hoping that he would jump up and do a little Snoopy dance to show he’d figured out what was wrong.

  He didn’t.

  Annie walked to the shop door and called to Cindy that she was going to Luke and Brent’s for a few minutes, hoping that Cindy would say she needed her to stay and watch for new customers coming in.

  She didn’t.

  Slowly, Annie turned. “I guess I can go.”

  She wanted to keep working on Cindy’s bookkeeping. She’d enjoyed coming back to a system that worked and data that made sense.

  Instead she followed Brent and began the same battle with his accounting program as the last time, trying to find out why the credits didn’t balance against the debits.

  It took hours, but she finally found the problem, which puzzled her even more than the data itself. The best she could do was create a general journal entry to make everything balance then wait for Walter to fix it, because she couldn’t figure out what he’d done.

  The arrival of the school bus and Kat told her she’d spent far too much time fixing someone else’s problem. Even though it had taken so long and she would have been perfectly justified to charge by the hour, she chose to let it go because she wanted Luke and Brent to hire her permanently.

  As she reached for the deposit book, Cindy walked in.

  “Hey, Kat,” Cindy said. “I guess I’ll be taking you home today.”

  Luke stepped out of his office. “Why?”

  Cindy blinked at the sight of him. “What are you doing here? I thought you left.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because my car isn’t here.”

  Luke turned to Cindy’s usual parking spot, where her freshly washed pickup truck shone in the sunlight. “Why did you bring the truck? You were just complaining about the gas mileage.”

  “I brought it because you took the Mustang.”

  Luke swept his hand in the air toward his parking spot, where his blue Caliber sat. “I didn’t bring the Mustang. I brought my own car.”

  Cindy’s face paled. “I brought my truck because the Mustang was gone.”

  “When I left this morning, it was in the driveway.”

  Kat gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “It was there when I left for school this morning.”

  The silence that hung in the air was deafening.

  Cindy’s voice came out in a squeak. “I think we had better call the police.”

  Chapter 5

  Brent should have been accustomed to being alone, but suddenly he felt abandoned.

  Cindy, Luke, and Kat had all dashed off to meet the police at their house. Annie took off to take care of the brake and muffler shop. And Evan wasn’t coming in because they’d let him have the day off to study for a test.

  He couldn’t believe the car had been stolen right out of Luke’s driveway between the times Luke and Cindy had left for work. This thief was very daring. Luke lived in an affluent neighborhood. Not only did all the houses have security systems, but the neighbors watched out for each other, although Luke said it was simply an excuse for being nosy. Maybe the police would find a neighbor who saw something.

  As he did every evening, Brent watched the three mechanics as they left Cindy’s shop then stood at the door and watched Annie lock up and leave. Then, as he did every night, he checked the perimeter, locked the gate, and reentered the office to tidy up. He shook his head at Luke’s messy desk and closed the office door so he wouldn’t have to look at it. His own desk was always neat, so he continued to Walter’s desk, where he began stacking the papers into an orderly pile, since Annie had left things in a mess when she’d gone back to the muffler shop.

  On the desk beside Annie’s half-full coffee mug was her watch.

  He picked it up to put it in the safe, but the rough surface of the back made him flip it over.

  It was engraved: School behind you, the world before you. Love, Dad.

  A lump formed in his throat. He didn’t know anything about Annie’s side of the family except that her mother had married Cindy’s father and they’d all lived together in the same house after Cindy’s father died. Yet the watch seemed a recent gift, since Annie had just earned her bachelor’s degree a month ago.

  He didn’t know the next time she was due to work at Cindy’s shop, but if it wasn’t for a few days, he didn’t want to just put the watch in the safe. It was obviously special, so Brent slipped it into his pocket. He knew she lived only a few minutes out of his way.

  Besides that, seeing her away from the office would be a good place for a nonconfrontational discussion about her ability, or inability, to handle their accounting program.

  Maybe that would be a good topic to bring up over dinner. Or maybe they would end up talking and not discussing work at all.

  Annie sat alone at the kitchen table, poking at her supper, unable to eat. She couldn’t believe Cindy’s car was gone.

  The police had talked to a few of Cindy and Luke’s neighbors. One person had seen the car as it turned the corner, remarking that Cindy had apparently left for work a bit early, as if he already knew her timetable.

  The ring of the doorbell made her drop the fork.

  Thinking of police chases and stolen car rings, Annie held her breath and tiptoed to the door.

  Brent stood on the landing, his hands in his pockets, checking out the neighborhood.

  Part of her was glad to see him, but she wasn’t in the mood for company. She was less in the mood to discuss another problem with his bookkeeping.

  Annie sighed and opened the door. “Hi, Brent. What brings you here?”

  He pulled her watch out of her pocket. “I came to give you this.”

  Immediately she wrapped her fingers around her naked wrist. If she weren’t so annoyed with him for his lack of confidence in her accounting skills, she could almost think he was a nice man. “Thank you,” she mumbled as she took it from him and fastened it to her wrist.

  “It looked like it was special, so I thought I’d deliver it instead of waiting until I saw you next.”

  “I appreciate it. It’s very special.” She waited to see if he would turn and leave, but he remained still, like he was waiting for an invitation.

  “Would you like to come in?” she asked, hoping his answer would be negative.

  “Yes, I would.”

  She stepped aside as he entered.

  He looked around the mess. “Is someone moving?”

  Annie’s cheeks heated up as Brent looked around at the boxes piled everywhere. “This is so embarrassing. We reorganized after Cindy moved out. We’re going to have a garage sale next month.”

  “Then why aren’t these boxes in the garage?”

  “We can’t seem to find the time for all three of us to get together to move them. I’ve been putting in extra time at Cindy’s shop, and Zella’s been working the late shift all week. Then yesterday Zella went to Portland for a seminar, and Gramma hurt herself a few days ago, so my mom went to stay with her. I can’t carry some of these boxes by myself, so they’ll have to sit here until we’re all home at the same time.”

  Brent grimaced as he scanned the boxes piled haphazardly through the living room. Cindy knew Brent’s office was always meticulous, and she suspected he was a neat freak at home, too.

  He turned back t
o her. “I read the inscription on the back of your watch. Graduation gift?”

  Annie’s throat tightened. “Yes. After my parents split up, my father moved to Europe. When I started college he mailed me this watch and told me to keep it on the corner of my desk, not to put it on until I graduated. He told me to look at it when I got discouraged and to remember that a few hours studying would mean years of success after graduation.”

  “That’s really something. I think—” The ringing phone cut off Brent’s words.

  “Excuse me. It might be my mom. She’ll be calling about Gramma.” Annie dashed off to take the call. Her grandmother hadn’t broken anything, but the ankle was badly sprained and bruised—which was serious enough at her age, so her mother would be staying for at least a week. Annie didn’t want to be rude to Brent, but she needed to hear the doctor’s report, so she listened for longer than she wanted to.

  When she returned to the living room, Brent was gone. And so were all the boxes. The front door was wide open.

  She dashed outside to see Brent placing the last box in front of the closed garage door.

  He wiped his palms down the sides of his pants and blew out a deep breath. “If you’ll open the door, I’ll slide them in.”

  Mentally, Annie cringed. The main reason the boxes were in the living room for so long wasn’t only that they were too heavy for her or her mother or sister to carry. The garage was so messy that they would have to reorganize it before the boxes would fit inside. She wasn’t prepared to do that by herself, but she didn’t know how to ask him to carry the boxes back inside the house.

  “Thanks for doing this, but—”

  He raised his palms in the air to silence her. “My pleasure. I know how a mess like that would drive me nuts. I don’t mind.”

  Maybe he didn’t, but she did. “I’m sorry, but we can’t do this now. The light in the garage is burned out and we won’t be able to see.”

  Brent glanced over his shoulder. “Then you had better hurry and open the garage door before it gets completely dark. We can always use the headlights from my car, but for now I think we’re okay.”