But even though Molly was being fed and cared for, she had still inwardly hoped that her mother would come back one day and claim her.
In the seventeen years that had passed since that time, she hadn’t seen or heard from her mother again.
The police had continued looking for her for several weeks, of course. But it was as if this time, Sarah had simply disappeared off the face of the earth.
Molly believed it had been the similarity of their backgrounds that had encouraged Mia to employ her after Molly had seen the position of live-in minder at the animal shelter and boarding kennels in the window of a job agency near where she was renting a single room.
Her curiosity to see Mia Kingston, the young woman who had been reunited with her father two years ago, after so many years apart, had been immense. Molly had immediately applied for the job at the animal shelter.
The fact the job came with the apartment had been a big plus in Molly’s eyes. Rented accommodation in the city was unbelievably high, and the one-bedroomed apartment above the reception area of the animal shelter was a definite step up.
It could get a little creepy being alone in the shelter at night, and she occasionally saw men walking about at the back of the building. She’d decided not to tell Mia about those men because they never came close to the building, merely walked up and down outside the perimeter.
Besides, there were several apartment buildings nearby and a few coffee shops and convenience stores, meaning the pluses of living and working at the animal shelter far outweighed the minuses.
Whatever Mia’s reason for having hired her, Molly had ensured the other woman never had reason to regret it.
Living on-site meant Molly was never late for work. She never missed a shift either. And she always offered to fill in if one of the other two permanent employees or any of the three part-time students were off sick or couldn’t come in for any reason.
After just a few weeks, Mia had told her she was the perfect employee.
But she doubted Mia would still feel that way if she knew the real reason Molly had applied for the job. Or that Molly had been lusting after her dad since the moment she’d first looked at Rufus Wynter!
An attraction Rufus’s remark just now, regarding how his feelings for his deceased wife were none of her business, showed he obviously didn’t reciprocate.
“Mia asked me to collect and bring Honey here and care for her when she went into hospital.” She changed the conversation to what she hoped was the safer subject of Mia and Darius’s golden Labrador.
Rufus nodded. “Which is why I picked Honey up on my way over here.” The lightness of his tone implied he was just as relieved at the change of subject as she was. “She’s in the SUV outside. I’ll go and get her. I leave some old clothes in a locker here now, in case Mia asks me to help out at any time, so I’ll change and then get stuck in to help when I get back.”
“That would be great, thank you.” Molly beamed before sobering. “But we can manage here if you would prefer to go to your office…? I’m sure you must have a lot to do.”
* * *
Rufus grimaced at the uncertainty he could hear in Molly’s husky voice. He also knew that he and his bad temper were the reason for it.
“I employ enough staff and have three partners, all of whom can manage without me for one day,” he dismissed.
Owning and running a high-profile international security company in partnership with three of his cousins did occupy a lot of his time. Which had been his intention following the deaths of Beth and Emily. Two of his cousins, Magnus and Fergus were twins, not identical, and were two years younger than his own age of forty-four.
The company had gone from strength to strength in the past twenty years, and they now had offices in New York and several in Europe too, with hundreds of assets around the world, as they tended to call the men and women who worked for them.
Magnus ran the New York office and Fergus was currently in Paris, but Rufus usually visited the other offices regularly and spent time with the two men who had helped him to hold on to his sanity after the death of his wife and daughter.
Magnus and Fergus’s brother Linus was several years younger than the three of them. He had become another partner in the company fifteen years ago, after graduating from university with mad computer skills. He preferred to work wherever the hell he felt like it, being able to utilize his hacker skills from anywhere in the world. At the moment, he was living in London, but that could change at any moment.
So yes, Wynter Security kept Rufus very busy, sometimes too much so. Which was why, when Mia came back into his life two years ago, he had made a promise to himself. It was that Mia and whatever she needed would always come first with him in the future. By that time he had already missed twenty years of her life. He had no intention of missing any more of them. And he hadn’t. He’d been very much included in Mia’s life with Darius the past two years.
“Nothing is more important to me than Mia and the baby, which includes her not needing to worry about the care of the animals here while she’s in labor. Just ignore my moodiness.” He’d softened his voice after seeing Molly wince at the harshness of his tone. “I’m always a grouch in the mornings until after I’ve had my second cup of coffee.”
“In that case, I’ll go to the kitchen and ensure that second cup of coffee of the morning comes right up,” she announced cheerfully as she stood and turned to go through to the staff room behind the reception.
Rufus knew he should get Honey from the back of his SUV and not stand and watch Molly’s hips as she walked through to the other room. Or notice how the denim material fit perfectly over the globes of her perfectly delicious bottom.
He should have gone to get Honey.
Instead, Rufus’s feet remained firmly fixed on the tiled floor as he watched the swaying of Molly’s hips and arse until she’d disappeared out of sight into the kitchen next to the staff room.
This was going to be a fucking long day, and not just because they were all waiting on news of Mia and the baby.