Baby Kisses

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Personal Assistant

Tooty tucked Harris into bed in the tiny bedroom they shared at her parents' house. It was the same room she'd grown up in.

She tickled her son and said, "Can I have some baby kisses?"

"Mommy, I'm too old for that. I'm not a baby anymore. Next year I'm going to school."

"You certainly are. You might even have my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Schwartz."

"That's a funny name."

Tooty tickled Harris again. "Well, don't tell her that."

"Mommy, I liked playing with Toby and Preston today. They got all the Happy Horse toys and their daddy played with us. I can't wait to play with them tomorrow." He yawned.

Tooty bent and kissed his soft cheek. Maybe, if she was even more frugal, she'd have money left over from her first paycheck from Mr. Brightman to buy Harris a Happy Horse. She heard her baby sigh and glanced lovingly at him. As he drifted to sleep, he said, "Sure wish I had a daddy to play with."

A lump the size of a golf ball lodged in Tooty's throat and she swallowed to keep from crying. Crying never solved anything. She hadn't cried since Harris' father had denied his paternity and told her to get the hell out of his life. All she'd been to him was a one night stand—an easily forgotten castaway.

Instead of crawling into her own bed across the room, she slipped in next to Harris and cradled him to her heart. She had enough love for both a father and a mother. Besides, their probably wasn't a man out there that could live up to her standards.

Precisely at nine the next morning, after dropping Harris off with Sarah, Tooty returned to the cottage to begin her first day as personal assistant to Miles Brightman a.k.a. Maxwell Henry. He opened the door as soon as she knocked and backed his wheelchair up for her to enter.

"Good morning, Tooty."

"Good morning, Mr. Brightman."

He winced, "Please call me Miles. Mr. Brightman is my father."

"Okay." She felt tongue-tied. The man may be in a wheelchair but he oozed testosterone. She tried not to look at his muscular chest and shoulders in his form molding T-shirt. The fact that he needed a shave and his longish mahogany hair looked mussed, didn't help. Even now, he absently combed his fingers through its thickness. The man had definitely been on the receiving end of "gorgeous" genes.

He said, "Why don't we get some coffee and get to work. I only have you a couple of hours a day, so I want to make the most of those hours."

Tooty almost winced at his innocent words. Girl, don't even go there.

He motioned for her to precede him into the kitchen and this time she didn't make the mistake of waiting for him to enter first. In a repeat of the day before, she poured coffees for both of them. After that, he led her to one of the two bedrooms that had been set up as an office.

"This is your work space." He pointed to a small desk with a laptop. "I'll be in the living room on my other laptop. Go ahead and have a seat."

Tooty pulled out the office chair and Miles wheeled beside her. He said, "Please don't take offense, but do you have computer experience? I'm only asking so I know where to start my training."

"I used a computer in school."

"Good. Okay, there's a notepad and pencil for you to jot notes while I lead you through the motions of getting my emails."

Tooty listened and wrote while he explained how to sign on to his different email accounts.

"These are folders I've set up for different types of emails: fan, publisher, family, junk, miscellaneous. Even though I screen for junk mail, sometimes it gets through. If you think something's junk, put it in that folder and I'll look at it later. Here's how you move things around. Just hold the left side of the mouse down and drag it to the folder." He demonstrated.