Fresh Temptation: Barboza Brothers, Book One (5 page)

Her eyes welled up. “But
he was supposed to pay me tomorrow. What am I gonna do?”

“He’ll undergo a
full-scale audit and we’ll figure out what he owes us and what he
owes his employees.” He frowned. “I hate to tell you, ma’am, but
the audit’ll take a while and even then, you may never see that
money. I’m sorry. It’s always the employees who get hurt the most
in these situations.”

“Okay,” Cara said. If the
IRS agents told her anything else, she was too numb with anger and
worry to hear it. She simply walked to her car and drove out of the
parking lot, unsure what she was going to do next.

When she got home, she
yelled, “I’m back!” to her mom in the kitchen, then went right
upstairs to Isaac’s room where he lay in bed. His tired eyes perked
up when he saw her.

“Mommy!” His voice was
scratchy. He reached out for her with both arms. “Mommy Mommy
Mommy!”

Her heart melted at the
sight of his smile. She dropped her purse to the floor and sat down
on the bed beside him for a quick hug. “You croak like a frog when
you talk.” She pulled away, smiling and ruffling his shaggy blond
hair with her fingers. “You’re Mommy’s little croaky
frog.”

He laughed. “I’m not a
cwoaky fwog.”

“Yes you are.” She leaned
down to kiss his cheek. “Did you have your popsicle after I left
this morning?”

“Yes. And some gwape
Jeh-wo.”

“Good.”

“Can we go to the pawk
now?”

“No, baby. You need to get
some rest.”

“But aw I do is west.” His
eyes got big. “I need to see Joey. He was s’posed to bwing me a
wace caw.”

“Joey and the race car can
wait, sweetie. I know you feel a lot better but you’ll get sick
again if you go outside to play too soon.”

His little lips formed a
frown. “No I won’t.”

“Yes you will. You don’t
wanna go back to the hospital, do you?”

“No.”

“Okay then. You stay here
in bed. If you feel good later, maybe we can walk outside for a
minute. But we need to make sure you get better so you can go back
to the park and see your friends again.”

“Gwammah said my tonsahs a
gwow back if I weave bed for too wong.”

Cara didn’t know how to
answer. She despised the idea of lying to her son, and she didn’t
know Patty had concocted this idea. But she also didn’t like the
idea of him not getting enough rest after surgery. “Well, if you
thought your tonsils would grow back, why’d you wanna go to the
park?”

“I want a wace caw.” He
grinned.

Patty appeared at the
door. “What are you doing home so soon? What happened? Why didn’t
you call?”

“Shh.” Cara’s eyes widened
at her mom. She turned back to Isaac. “I’m gonna go get you some
more to drink. We’ll talk about that race car later.” Cara stood
and turned on the small television to Isaac’s favorite cartoon
channel, then left the room.

“So?” Patty asked, her
hand on her hip. She followed her daughter downstairs. “What
happened?”

Cara raced down to the
kitchen, trying to put this talk off as long as possible. Like she
could change the past if she didn’t talk about it. “I lost my
job.”

“What?” Patty brought her
hand to her chest. “You got fired?”

“Not exactly.” Cara opened
the refrigerator and took out a small bottle of apple juice. When
she plunked it down on the kitchen table, tears ran down her face.
“They shut the company down.”

“Who shut the company
down?”

“The IRS.” She sniffled.
“Doyle owed taxes.” Her cry changed to a high-pitched wail. “I’ll
probably never get the money they owe me.”

Patty put her arms around
her daughter and let her cry against her shoulder.

Cara continued through her
tears. “What am I gonna do? I’ve applied for jobs everywhere.
There’s nothing.”

“We’ll see if you can get
some unemployment.” She rubbed her back. “And you can stay here and
help me fill some cake orders.”

Cara groaned at that
thought. Her mom worked at a bakery before she retired. She now
lived on a fixed income and baked for the few cake orders she
received. Cara, however, hated to cook. She felt she just wasn’t
born with that gene, and her mom’s skills had never rubbed off on
her. “If you get a lot of orders I’ll help, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, dear. We’ll
be okay. You make enough from Marcy’s cleaning service to pay for
groceries for you and Isaac. We’ll scrape by.”

Cara pulled away from her,
wiping her face with her hands. “I don’t want to just ‘scrape by,’
Mom. I was trying to save money so I could relocate when I finally
get another job offer.”

“I know that, but life
doesn’t always go the way we want.”

Cara scoffed. “You don’t
have to tell me that. I learn that lesson, daily.”

Patty rubbed Cara’s
shoulder. “You know, I think you’re missing the obvious
here.”

“What’s that?”

Patty sighed wistfully. “A
certain rich Mexican gentleman who gave you his business
card—”

“Oh, Mom.” She shook her
head. “Will you stop talking about that? I know you told Marcy all
about it, too. Look, he’s probably moved on to some other charity
case by now. Just because he’s rich, it doesn’t mean he’s sane.”
She picked up the juice bottle and started toward the stairs.
“Trust me, he’s gotta be crazy to come all the way out here like he
did. Remember that movie we saw about that girl who fell in love
with that oil tycoon and he was psycho and killed her whole
family?”

“That was a
Lifetime
movie. It
wasn’t real.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it
was based on actual events.” Cara knew it was a stretch but she had
grown tired of her mom’s nagging. “Think about it. A guy like that
could ruin our lives. He might be a total nut job.”

“Sure, he might be. Or he
might
not
be.
Seemed like a nice guy as far as I could tell. Very down to Earth.
And he loved my cooking.”

Cara sighed as she walked
upstairs. “Everyone loves your cooking. Especially
psychos.”

“I don’t care what you
say. If you don’t call him, I will.”

Cara shook her head. As
she approached Isaac’s room, she thought she heard him talking
aloud, maybe to the television. But her mouth dropped open when she
saw him laughing with her cell phone to his ear.

“Uh-huh,” Isaac said into
the phone, laughing hysterically. “Cwoaky fwog.”

Cara ran across the room.
“Who are you talking to?”

He put both hands on the
phone, holding it like he didn’t want to let it go.
“Bictow.”

“Big toe?” Cara snatched
the phone and brought it to her ear. “Who’s this?”

A man laughed.
“
Big toe
.” He
laughed some more. “
I mean,
Victor
.” He cleared his throat.
“
Victor Barboza
.”

Her eyes and mouth both
dropped open. She stared at Patty as she rushed to the hallway for
privacy. She stumbled over her words, nervous. “Um…um…my son isn’t
supposed to be using my cell phone. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m the
one who called him. Smart little guy
.”
Victor paused. “
So, I hear you might be in
need of new employment
.”

Oh Lord, he really
is
psycho
, she thought. How did he know
that already? Had he planted a microphone in the house? “Uh…I don’t
know what to say.”

“Say you’ll come to my
office to interview for a position. It’s in public relations. We
could use someone with your experience
.”

“How do you know anything
about my experience?”

“Found your resume
online
.”

“Oh.”

“Says here you ran some
national projects. Very impressive. Too bad the company’s doing so
poorly or they’d probably rehire you. Anyway, be here this
afternoon. Two o’clock. I’ll email you with
directions
.”

“Well, uh…sure, I
guess.”

“Good. See you
then
.” Victor hung up.

Perplexed, Cara stared
down at the phone in her hand. “How did he get my number?” In a
huff, she walked into Isaac’s room where her mom was watching him
drink juice, a big smile plastered across her face. “Mother, dear,”
Cara often used this term for her mother when she was upset, “do
you know how Mr. Barboza got my phone number? Because it sure
wasn’t from me.”

Patty set her smile on
Isaac as she said in a singsong tone, “I don’t know, I may have
given it to him when he stopped by a few days ago.”

“Mom!”

“What? He asked for it.
And he was so polite.”

Cara paced the floor.
“Well, he already found out, somehow, that I lost my
job.”

Patty’s eyes met Cara’s.
“What?”

“Yeah. How did he know
that? I didn’t put my new phone number or Doyle Construction on my
online resume. He wants me to interview for a job at two o’clock
today.” She lowered her voice and leaned in closer, covering most
of her mouth so Isaac couldn’t see. She whispered,
“
Psycho
!”

Patty’s lips formed a thin
line. She spoke quietly, her mouth barely moving, “You need a job,
don’t you?”

“Yeah, but not like
this.”

Patty’s eyes rolled. “You
better go pick out what you’re gonna wear to that
interview.”

Cara groaned. “Oh…” she
paused, looking at Isaac as she stopped herself from saying “shit.”
She hit her forehead with her palm. “I hope something fits. It’s
been so long since I had to wear one of my nice suits.”

“You’ll be fine. You have
time to go shopping. I’m sure the mall has plenty of clearance
racks this time of year.”

Isaac’s eyes lit up. “The
maw?”

Patty shook her head,
angry with herself for using one of their forbidden words. “Not
today. Maybe next week.”

Isaac pouted. “No maw?”
His expression quickly changed to a smile. “What about the pawk?
Mommy said I could go.”

“No,” Cara said. “I’m
right here and I said you could go outside for a minute. Not to the
park.”

Isaac’s smile disappeared.
“Can Bictow take me to the pawk?”

Patty laughed.

Cara answered. “No, baby.
Drink your juice and you’ll be back at the park in no time.” She
kissed his cheek, then turned around and left the room, ignoring
her mother’s snide grin.

Victor smiled at the
clock. It was one-thirty. Cara had replied to his email with a
simple, “Thank you. See you at two.”

He sensed her hesitation
and he tried to see it her way. Maybe it was strange that he was so
forward, inviting her to an interview, knowing she’d lost her job
that morning. But she needed his help and he felt justified in his
actions. After all, Doyle Construction was already under scrutiny
of the IRS. All Victor did was call in a favor to speed up the
process. Soon, she’d have a better job in a nicer environment.
That’s all that mattered.

He went over her resume
again for at least the twentieth time. Thankfully, a lot of people
owed him favors or he’d never get anyone to make room in the budget
for a new employee, especially someone in public relations. It was
one of the few areas that had to make cutbacks. He pored over her
skills and experience, trying to think of a brand new position he
could create just for her. Something that would overlap to his
division. Then he let out a soft chuckle. Hiring Cara was a done
deal. He could always think of reasons to borrow an employee. Why
was he stressing about it so much? He’d keep her duties vague for
now until he really found something for her to do.

The woman had some kind of
hold on him. It was undeniable. His heart raced every time he
thought about her. The sound of her melodic voice on the phone
drove him wild. She was a breath of fresh air in his life. Fresh
air he didn’t know his life was missing.

The phone on his desk
buzzed at fifteen minutes till two.

“Yes?” he
answered.

Gary said,
“
Ms. Green’s here for her two
o’clock.
”

He swallowed, tempering
his voice in case she could hear. “Thanks. Please ask her to have a
seat in the waiting area. I’m almost ready.”

Victor stood and walked to
the sideboard, straightening his tie in the mirror on the wall
above it. He had to calm down and act like he was really
interviewing her. Like he hadn’t invented a fictitious job posting
to spend time with her. He made sure he had a list of questions to
ask, printed straight off the Internet. Screening new employees
wasn’t one of his usual duties. The last person he’d interviewed
was his assistant, Gary, and that was almost an entire year
earlier.