Page 13 of Hold My Heart

Chapter 4

Olympia was a pieceof work, Harlan decided as he carried a drowsy Renee upstairs to her room five nights later. Not that he was an expert when it came to judging women, especially single ones, but he had two working peepers, a brain, and he wasn’t completely dumb, either.

She hadn’t batted an eye that first night when he’d caved to her wishes and did so with a smile on his face. Although he could see the cogs turning in her head. She wasn’t sure what to make of him. Which, at the end of the day, he was okay with because he was starting to understand her better.

Underneath the tough exterior was a good heart, asoftheart, a heart afraid of being hurt again. She hid her vulnerability behind an impenetrable wall of perfection and questioned anyone who didn’t react the way she expected them to react.

Which meant he had freaked her out more than she was willing to admit.

Good, he mused with a grin. He wanted to keep her on her toes. And he was enjoying getting to know her better, taking down her walls with kindness. It hurt him that she didn’t expect the kindness.

How had her husband treated her, so that any kind of selfless reaction was foreign?

It was unfair to blame a dead man. Maybe it wasn’t his fault at all.

Harlan shook his head. It also wasn’t right, considering the circumstances, for him to entertain some healthy daydreams—and night dreams, come to think of it—about his employer. Her face...there was something memorable about her kind of beauty. It brought men to their knees and made them wonder what was beneath it. Wonder and imagine stripping away the layers to get to the core of her. Or maybe it was just him.

He knew she was intelligent. She was competent and responsible. Obsessed with doing, saying, thinking,beingthe right thing. Her heart was in the right place.

Even if she hadn’t hired him to care for Renee, the fantasies would have to stay in his head and remain there. Harlan knew from personal experience that flings didn’t work. Especially flings and one-night stands where both parties weren’t on the same page. Olympia, for all he respected her, was not in a position for a relationship. Of any kind.

Too bad, the wistful area of his heart argued. The romantic part he hadn’t gotten to use much. It would have been amazing to romance her, seduce her. Love her.

“Harlan?”

The tiny voice broke through his thoughts and he returned his attention to the nearly asleep child. He’d carried her upstairs after she’d nodded off in front of the television. Olympia was working late and asked him to stay until she got home. It was no problem.

He shifted her in his arms. “Yes, honey?”

“I don’t like it here.”

His heart broke at the tremor in her words. “Why not?”

“I miss Mommy and Daddy. I miss my room. It doesn’t feel likeminehere.”

“I know it’s hard for you,” he said gently, setting her down on the bed before tucking the sheets around her, “but it is going to take a little time before things start to feel normal.”

“She hates me.” Renee raised her fists to rub her eyes.

His heart broke a little more. “You mean your Aunt Oly?”

He’d taken to calling her that when he and Renee were alone. Renee couldn’t quite pronounce Olympia, so it was another way for them to bond, and at this point Harlan was taking any opportunity that came his way. Renee was a beautiful child inside and out, it was easy to tell. She was quick and spunky and full of life. She was also lonely and traumatized.

That makes two of them, he thought, as Olympia popped into the forefront of his mind. Although she would never admit to being lonely and traumatized.

Renee nodded, the curls around her face bobbing with her movement. She could barely keep her eyes open now, her breathing becoming even. “She hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” he insisted. “You know how you feel? Like nothing is right anymore? Like your whole life has been put into a snow globe and shaken, shaken, shaken?” He demonstrated. “Aunt Oly feels the same way.”

The little brow wrinkled. “She does?”

“Yes, she does. We need to give you time to let the bits of snow settle. And we have to give Aunt Oly the same kind of time. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but she lost something too.”

“What?” Renee asked sleepily.

Trust a little girl to ask the hard questions, the ones he was not really equipped or prepared to answer. “Never mind. It’s a story for another day. You go to sleep and I’ll be here to make you breakfast in the morning.”

She didn’t utter another peep, drifting off amidst the twinkling of her Little Bo Peep nightlight. That was one thing Olympia had already scored major points on, Harlan mused, and a good thing too. There was nothing better to help push a scared little kid over the edge like fear of the dark. Renee was resilient, and he gave her credit for how well her four-year-old mind was handling the upheaval—tantrums and crying aside. At least she was eating. At least she was open to taking a bath and brushing her teeth and hair.

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