He closed his eyes for a moment, absorbing the sensation of not being on his feet and moving. When he opened them again Sara was looking at him quizzically.

"Sorry," he muttered, straightening. With very little encouragement he could probably fall asleep right there, sitting up.

Sara held her gla.s.s between her hands, rotating it slowly on the table.

She had all but given up on him. "I should hope so."

Her reply had him narrowing his eyes. "What?"

Maybe the pending trip to her father's had her unduly antsy and short-tempered. Whatever the reason, she didn't feel very forgiving at the moment. " " I don't like to be kept waiting more than an entire season When I first sat down, this was a tall candle. " She pointed to the stubby yellow waxed candle flickering in the bowl in the center of the table.

Glancing at his watch had become second nature to him, as involuntary and unconscious as breathing. As he did so now, he realized that Sara had been sitting here over an hour. He'd still be in the kitchen, working, if Jennifer hadn't come in and all but pushed him out.

Nik dragged a hand through his light brown hair. He really didn't have the time to conduct an interview. The irony of it struck him. It was like being given a time-saving device and not having the time to read the manual in order to make the device work.

"Listen," he began, "today's rather hectic-"

Sara leaned closer and looked at him knowingly. " " Do you really think tomorrow will be any better? "

"No." He didn't even have to think about it. It had been like this for the past six months. And while he blessed his patron saints for watching out for his business, this pace was going to burn him out soon. "I don't."

She rested her case. "I didn't think so. Jennifer tolc' me how well business was going," she added when he raised a brow. She laced her hands together, her eyes on his face. It was a nice face, she thought, strong and broad and sincere. "I'll make it easy for you. Tell me the salary you're thinking of, point me toward the work and I'll give you my answer : She smiled. " That shouldn't take us too long: '

Rather than be pleased at her solution, Nik held it suspect He was always suspicious of things that were too easy. "Are you always this slipshod?"

Her eyes held his for a long, pregnant moment. Hers were the color of hot chocolate on a cold, toe-freezing winter's morning. Or maybe caramel, warm, melting caramel, sliding slowly downward along a mountain of ice cream.

Nik roused himself. He had definitely been slaving over a hot stove too long.

Sara's smile tightened just a smidgen around the edges.

"Never. The word, Mr. Sinclair, is fast. I have always been fast."

At times she resented having to defend that gift. "Fast does not mean sloppy, or careless, it just means being blessed with quick reflexes and a quick mind."

And obviously, Nik thought, a large ego. There was no room in his operation for something like that. It was just asking for trouble. His doubts multiplied.

"You seem to think a lot of yourself, Ms.-?" He didn't even know her last name, he realized. " " Santangelo, " she supplied.

She moved her napkin aside, deciding to dig in and take this man down a little. She didn't know why she felt challenged , but she did. " " A positive image always helps, " she told him. " " If I don't think well of myself, why should you?"

Nik supposed it made sense in a simple sort of way. He rose and gestured toward the back. "You have a point, I guess." He began to lead the way to the back office, then stopped abruptly. Maybe Brom hadn't filled her in completely' Listen this isn't going to be a permanent position"

Nothing ever was, which was just the way she liked it. Sara shrugged carelessly in response. "Good. I'm not looking for anything permanent."

Antic.i.p.ating an argument, Nik continued quickly, walking her through the kitchen. Force of habit had him scanning the area to ascertain if everything was proceeding as usual.

"This is just until I get everything back on the disc that was blown up and in general get things under control again." Her words replayed themselves in his mind. "Why aren't you looking for anything permanent?" Nik held the back door open for her.

Sara stepped out into the narrow corridor, brushing against him as she pa.s.sed. She felt a shimmer of something warm and pleasurable ripple through her. She looked up in surprise and saw by his expression that he had experienced the same unsettling reaction. Just random chemistry, she told herself. Iqer eyes held his. Or maybe not so random. She wasn't altogether certain she wanted to find out.

After a beat she realized she hadn't answered his question'I'm here on family business. When that business ends, so will my time here. "

That was an odd way to put it, he thought. He was already aware that he wasn't dealing with an average woman, no matter how vague his memory of the gender-outside of his sisters-was as a whole. "You make it sound like you're serving a jail sentence."

The knot in her stomach twisted a little tighter as she thought of what lay ahead of her this afternoon. She wasn't very good at confrontations.

"Close, but not quite." It was bad enough she had to go through it; she didn't want to talk about it, as well. She changed the subject.

"So what is it that you want me to work on? Your books, or your program, or what?"

"I think it's in the realm of " or what," " Nik answered in a moment of weakness as he opened the office door.

Candy, a college freshman who worked at Sinclair's part time , was on the floor, playing with Katie. She looked up, startled and then pleased. She got up slowly, like smoke rising in the air, her eyes on Nik. Candy ran a hand over her picture-perfect hair, gave Nik a sensuous look that drifted right over his head and smiled. The invitation was so blatant it would have knocked over a more receptive man. Nik appeared completely oblivious to it.

"I guess I'd better be getting back to work," she said in the best imitation of Marilyn Monroe that Sara had heard in a long time. "My break's over."

Sara was tickled that Nik was apparently unaware of the come-on. She decided right then and there that she was going to like working for him.

"You run a nursery on the side?" She nodded toward Katie.

The little girl was clutching a fat crayon and seriously decorating a huge sheet of paper in front of her. With a sigh befitting an artist, she lay the crayon down and appeared to survey her work.

Sara had been an only child, but there had always been cousins galore of every size and shape while she was growing up. Instinct took over.

She crossed to the little girl and picked her up. She smelled of apple juice and baby shampoo

Katie's cornflower blue eyes opened wide as she studied Sara's face. A smile broke through as she obviously decided that Sara was to be trusted.

The little girl was going to break a lot of hearts when she got older, Sara thought. She turned toward Nik, who was watching her quietly. She couldn't tell if he approved or disapproved of her holding the child.

"Everywhere I turn, there seem to be babies a.s.sociated with you people."

"That's because we're so family oriented," Jennifer told Sara as she looked in the doorway. She had seen Candy leaving and had come to check on her little girl. Jennifer looked from Nik to Sara.

"Everything okay here?"

Sara jiggled Katie on her hip and the little girl laughed. "Couldn't be better," Sara answered.

Nik, Jennifer could see by the expression on his face, wasn't completely sure about that yet. She wondered if his disquietude had to do with Sara's qualifications, or just surrendering a piece of the control in general.

With the front desk at a lull, Jennifer took the opportunity to steal a few minutes with her daughter. She crossed to Sara. "I see you've met Katie."

Katie stretched her arms out to her mother. "Yours?" Sara asked as she handed the child over. Jennifer nodded, brushing her cheek against the tinier one. Sara turned toward

Nik. "Where are yours?"

Right now the only way he could have children, he thought, was to send away for them through a mail-order house.

"I don't have any." He nodded toward his sister. "Raising

Jennifer and Julia was enough for me, thanks. "

Which wasn't completely accurate. Lately, seeing Julia with her family and Jennifer with hers, a longing had risen within him, a longing in the form of a faint voice that echoed , Where are mine?