Page 36 of Daddy's Unexpected Gift

“It was remarkably successful. And when we sat down to review where the problems were, we ended up making a huge game plan, finding all kinds of holes and things that had been missed. Hey, do you know if there are master files somewhere?”

Peggy lifted her brows.

“I have the client file, but there seems to be some information missing. I figure if those records are available, they would be in a master file,” I said.

She shrugged. “I’ve never not had the information I needed. You can check with Greta.”

“Thanks. I will.”

And then I went back to putting my things away. I went into the break room and poured a cup of coffee. While I was there, I made the necessary copies I needed to fill in to create the report I needed to put together this morning. I returned to my desk. Peggy wasn’t at hers, but I didn’t put any serious thought to it. We had work to do. I assumed she was doing hers.

I had just started to compose my report when Greta had used the phone intercom system to ask me into her office. She didn’t look up as I stepped into her office before she started hurling words at me. At first, I thought she was barraging me with questions because she always seemed to be multitasking and in a hurry. But she never paused long enough for me to respond.

“We are concerned you are falling in love with your client.”

Those words were a complete sucker punch to the solar plexus. I struggled for air. There was no way she could have known about my feelings for Sterling. None. And unless they had spies watching me, there wasn’t any reason for them to think I had… Nope, I wasn’t even going to let that thought enter my mind in case I somehow blurted out the truth of what happened between me and Sterling.

“You are spending excessive time with the baby, taking her to the zoo, watching her in the evening so her guardian can attend events?—”

“That’s not what happened. I clearly put in my report that the client overstepped and that I?—”

Greta waved my concern away. “Regardless, you’re being reassigned. We have already made the decision.”

What ‘we’? The greater office was like a ghost town. I had only ever met Peggy and another caseworker, Jeanne. And as far as management was concerned, I hadn’t met anyone. There was one woman who would have whispered conversations with Greta from time to time, but I had no idea who she was.

I was beginning to think that maybe this agency wasn’t as renowned as I had thought or been led to believe.

Closing my eyes, I took a few seconds to compose myself. Yes, I did find Georgie adorable, and yes, I was probably too invested in making certain Sterling properly took care of her. I wanted their situation to be a success story. I didn’t want Georgie to grow up the way I had—tolerated. And yes, maybe I wanted to be around them more than what could be considered professional interest.

Opening my eyes, I tried to pin my stare on Greta, but she was back at flipping through file folders and muttering how this would be so much easier if someone would just requisition a laptop for her.

I let out a long, slow breath. “Okay. Whom should I return the Alexander file to?”

Greta patted one of the many piles on her desk. “You can just leave it here.”

“Is there a master file on the baby? Her guardian”—I didn’t know if I could say their names without getting upset— “needs some medical records so he can take her to a well baby appointment.”

“Is the baby sick?” Greta asked.

“Not at all. But we agreed yesterday that she should probably have a checkup to make sure there aren’t any health issues he should be aware of.” I hesitated. She was ignoring me already. “I’ll just put it in my report.”

“You do that. We’ll need a thorough assessment, including all actions taken and where you were in the greater scheme of things.”

I nodded. I understood. They needed me to do a complete dump of everything, and not just a bi-weekly progress report. Instead of putting down that on an excursion intended to assess the readiness of the client, we found out how woefully unprepared he is in all phases of caring for a child, and the resulting task list was created, I was going to have to document everything. And I was pretty sure they wanted everything.

Fine. I would write the Georgie and Sterling story thus far for them, leaving out anything that had to do with my feelings on the matter. They were going to get an amazing report from me.

As I started to leave, Greta stopped me. “Cecelia.”

“Yeah?” I stopped and waited.

“You need to complete that report and get the file back to my desk by noon. I’ve got a meeting and will need that so I can reassign the case.”

That’s not what I hoped to hear. I had wanted her to tell me to take my time.

“You don’t have the client’s information on your phone, do you?” Greta asked.

“Yeah, so I can call. I did some shopping for them last night.”

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