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There was a lot to be said for being waked up at
three in the morning by someone pounding on your door. At least he’d not said
anything when she answered the door with a ball bat over her shoulder. Going inside,
she tried to get warm by dancing around the tiny space, but only made a breeze
around her feet. Getting back into the bed, she covered up with every blanket
she owned and still couldn’t get warm.
    “No hope for it, Kennedy dear, might as
well get your butt rolling and get to work.” She gathered up her things and
took them to the bathhouse. Turning the water as hot as she could get it, she
stripped down and waited for the steam to warm up the tiny room. She was
washing her hair when she thought of Mr. Payne.
    For some reason she’d expected his voice
to be softer. Mrs. Payne, Summer as she’d asked Kennedy to call her, told her
that her son was a great man. Kennedy didn’t think much of the man right now
and didn’t particularly want to meet him either. But today he was going to have
breakfast with the staff and apparently tell her how sorry he was. She was glad
now that she’d not told anyone but her seanmháthair that she’d gotten
this job. She might just be out of work by the end of the day.
    Her car started with its usual moans and
groans. She knew that she needed to get it in for repairs, but the money that
she was saving didn’t include a thousand dollars to some guy who thought he
might be able to fix it. She was going to take her chances with sweet talking
it. When it finally rolled over she patted the dashboard as she put it into
gear. Time to get moving.
    No one was in the kitchen when she got
there. They’d given her a key a few days ago when she’d had to wait in her car
for the household to open up. Summer had told her she could come and go as she
pleased, but Kennedy didn’t really think she meant coming over for a barbeque
or a dip in the indoor pool. So she started getting things set up just as the
sun was rising.
    There were cinnamon rolls still proofing
on the counter when Butler and Brigitte came in the room. Nodding to them, she
continued to knead bread that she was preparing for dinner tonight, and if she
was still there after the meeting, she was making a standing rib roast,
apparently the lord of the house’s favorite.
    Kennedy had taken to calling him that
under her breath since he’d pissed her off. She was pretty sure that Summer
knew she did it, but other than laugh a few times when Kennedy had said it,
Summer had said nothing else. By the time breakfast was ready to be served, the
table had been set and coffee was brewing. She looked up when the door opened
again, thinking it was Butler coming back for more platters.
    The master of the house wasn’t at all
what she’d expected him to look like either. She had no idea what she’d thought,
but this man, this gorgeous hunk of a man, was no way near it. When she
swallowed twice she had a feeling he knew she’d been struck dumb when he
laughed. Turning away from him before she did something incredibly stupid like
ask him if she could nibble on him, she picked up the last of the food and took
it past him into the dining room.
    He touched her arm and stopped her. “I’d
very much like a word with you before we eat. It’s about the last night.”
    “I’ve a breakfast to put on the table,
if you don’t mind.” Her voice was sharper than she’d meant it to be, and his
raised brow told her he’d noticed it too. “Ye make me nervous. I’m a wee bit
afraid of saying the wrong thing.”
    “You’re Irish.” She nodded, embarrassed
now that he’d think she was daft too. “My mother said that I needed to
apologize to you before we ate.”
    “Ye mother? Ye not be doing this on yer
own then.” She pulled from his hand, moved back into the kitchen, and slammed
the platter down. “Ye be not wanting to piss off yer mother, so you come to do
her bidding no matter what.”
    “That’s not what I meant. I only meant
that