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kitchen, but after fifteen minutes she realized they had probably come in through another door. Two seconds later, Mac walked into the kitchen wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
    â€œEverything okay?”
    Trying to behave like a normal maid, not an overly suspicious idiot, she smiled shakily at him. “Great. I spent the afternoon creating a cleaning schedule, so I can hit the ground running tomorrow.”
    â€œThere’s no rush.” Mac opened the refrigerator and snagged an apple. “The place is immaculate. It can go a dayor two without being dusted. I want you to get accustomed to the house and the cleaning end of things these next few days so that when I go back to work, the kids can be your priority.” He caught her gaze. “I also want this time for the kids to get accustomed to seeing you around the house. To get to know you before you’re their primary caregiver.”
    Okay. See? He had a good explanation for having her around the kids, but not actually interacting with them. He was giving her time to get accustomed to the house and giving the kids time to get accustomed to her. That made more sense than to think something was wrong with him.
    â€œI’ll be fine with the kids.” That she could say with complete confidence. “Helping some friends—” She almost said the women living in A Friend Indeed houses, but thought the better of it. She didn’t really know Mac and most of the charity’s work was confidential to protect the identities of the women seeking shelter. “I’ve babysat, played board games and gone to the beach more times than I can count.”
    He crunched a bite of the apple, chewed then swallowed and said, “Great.” He paused for a second before he added, “This job won’t last long. My assistant is working with two employment agencies now, looking for a replacement for Mrs. Devlin. She’ll do initial interviews. I’ll do the second interview.”
    â€œSo you should have a replacement in three weeks?” Ellie asked hopefully.
    He winced. “More like four.”
    Liz’s entire honeymoon.
    â€œI’m sorry that I sort of strong-armed you into this. But my kids are important to me and I don’t want just anybody around them.”
    Surprised, but pleased that he’d apologized—once again confirming that he was a nice guy and she had to stop looking for bad things about him—she nodded. “I get that. We’ll be fine.”
    â€œAnd there’s one other thing I forgot to mention. I’d prefer that you not tell anyone where you’re working.”
    She winced. “I’m sorry but I already told Ava. She’s helping me with Happy Maids. But you don’t have to worry,” she hastily added, not wanting to anger him unnecessarily. “Ava works for Cain. He owns five businesses. She knows how to be discreet.”
    â€œOkay.” He turned to leave the room, but suddenly faced her again. “What are you making for dinner?”
    â€œPenne pasta with red and yellow peppers.” She glanced up at him. “I never asked what time you’d like to eat.”
    â€œI eat with Lacy, which means we always eat before six.”
    â€œOkay.” That gave her forty minutes. “I better get a move on then.”
    Henry’s soft cries poured from the baby monitor and Ellie froze. Already her impulse was to drop everything and rush to get the baby when he cried. But she waited to see what Mac wanted her to do.
    He said, “I’ll get him,” and headed for the back stairway. “As I said, when I’m here, I take care of the kids.”
    This time his doing her job didn’t bother her. He’d explained that he wanted her to get accustomed to things…the house, the cleaning schedule… All that was good. It even made more sense from the perspective of his wanting to give the kids a chance to get accustomed to her.
    She had