Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,33

you lose your home? I think that qualifies as the kind of thing your boss ought to know. We could help you out, give you a loan, represent you if you want to sue the landlord.”

Deanna stared at him in astonishment. She had never considered asking him for free legal assistance. The kind of cases he normally handled involved hundreds of thousands of dollars, not what would amount to pocket change in his world. “You would do that?” she asked.

“Well, of course we would,” he said with a hint of exasperation that she even had to ask. “What did you expect? As far as I’m concerned, every employee in this firm is like family. When anyone’s having a problem, I expect them to come to me before it interferes with their job performance.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember that in the future.”

“Forget the future. What about the here and now? What can I do?”

Deanna refused to ask for more money. He was already paying her a decent wage for the receptionist’s job she’d been doing. And she certainly didn’t want a loan she would have to struggle to pay back.

“Nothing, really. I’m handling everything.”

“Not if this mistake is an example of the way you’re handling things,” he chided, but more gently this time. “Who was at fault for the fire?”

“The fire inspector said it was the landlord,” she said. “But the landlord made it clear when I signed my lease that he wasn’t responsible for damages to anything in any of the apartments, that I needed to carry my own insurance.”

“Did you?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t afford it,” she admitted. “And we didn’t have that much. I didn’t realize until we lost everything how much it would cost to replace what little we did have.”

Mr. Hodges pulled out a legal pad and a pen. “What’s the landlord’s name?”

“Lawrence Wyatt.”

To her surprise her boss reacted with disgust. “Typical of Wyatt,” he muttered. “This isn’t the first time I’ve run across him. I’ll have a talk with him. I think I can promise you a settlement of some kind. Will that mean you can cut back on your hours at Joey’s, maybe start getting some sleep?”

“Yes.”

“See that it does,” he said sternly. “And, Deanna?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Next time there’s a crisis, don’t wait so long to come to me.”

“No, sir,” she said, exiting the office before the tears of gratitude stinging her eyes could fall.

Charlotte studied her worriedly. “Did he fire you?”

“No.”

“Thank heaven,” the secretary said fervently.

“I just can’t imagine what happened, though. I’m always so careful. I know how important papers like that are.”

“Mistakes happen to everyone,” Charlotte said.

It was such a rare attempt at reassurance that Deanna regarded her with sudden suspicion. “You never put that envelope on my desk, did you?”

Charlotte’s thin mouth remained clamped firmly shut, but the misery in her eyes was a dead giveaway.

“Never mind. I won’t say anything,” Deanna promised. “But you owe me, Charlotte.”

The woman finally sighed. “You’re right. I do. I wouldn’t have let him fire you, you know. I would have confessed if it had come to that.”

“But you were willing to let the mistake go on my record,” Deanna reminded her. “I won’t forget that.”

She turned and left the suite before Charlotte could respond. When Deanna reached the outer office, she was surprised to find Sean perched on the edge of the reception desk chatting with Ruby. They both regarded her with worry when they spotted her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked Sean.

“I called him,” Ruby said. “Mr. Hodges never yells like that unless he’s ready to can somebody. I was afraid you were about to get fired, so I figured you’d need a big, broad shoulder to cry on. So, what happened in there?”

“He blew a gasket about a really stupid mistake, but then I explained about the fire and the extra hours at Joey’s, and instead of firing me, he’s going to talk to the landlord and try to wrangle a settlement for me. Actually, except for Charlotte’s role in it, it’s pretty amazing,” she said, still bemused by the whole turn of events.

“Charlotte?” Sean asked, looking confused.

“The snake who runs Mr. Hodges’s office,” Ruby said, then turned to Deanna. “What did she do?”

“Turns out she was the one who made the mistake I was getting blamed for.”

Ruby regarded her with indignation. “I hope you told Hodges,” she said.

Deanna shook her head. “No. I didn’t even realize what had really happened until after I’d left his office.”

“Why the heck didn’t you