place as she said, “Yes, I know. But sometimes the joy of giving back is more than enough payment.”
Mrs. Lytton made a sound that was suspiciously like a snort. “Very well. I’ll walk you over to the front office, where we’ll get you set up on the app. You should see bookings right away.”
Sage followed the other woman down the long hallway. She was sure her willingness to tutor rich kids in French and Italian didn’t make sense to anyone but her, and sometimes she wasn’t sure about it, either, yet here she was.
The idea, born on the long flight from Italy to Los Angeles, had surprised her, not only with its arrival but with her own willingness to actually do the work to make it happen. She knew the reason was that tutoring was very close to teaching and lately she’d been thinking that maybe it was time to see if she could do that. Maybe being the operative word. Finding a rich husband while she still had her looks probably made a lot more sense. But every now and then a girl had to do something crazy, right? So she would tutor a few kids, conjugate a few verbs. If it got too tedious or she met someone interesting, then she could dump the whole thing. No one, least of all Mrs. Lytton, would be shocked if it turned out she had no follow-through.
* * *
By seven o’clock, Daisy thought she might have all the crises in her life a little more under control. Krissa hadn’t thrown up since the afternoon, and Ben was definitely on the mend.
She leaned against the kitchen counter and debated whether to eat dinner or simply have a glass of wine and call it a night. The sensible choice was to eat something and she was mostly a sensible person. But she also had to face Jordan sometime in the next hour or so, and right now she was feeling ill-equipped.
“When is Mr. Jordan coming by?” Esmerelda asked, wiping an already clean counter for the sixth time.
“He didn’t say.”
Daisy had already told the other woman about the phone call. Despite the size of the house, there weren’t many secrets—not from Esmerelda. The housekeeper had figured out Jordan had left before Daisy had. She’d seen the empty hangers in his closet and the suitcase missing from the shelf.
“I have a nice pork chop for you,” she said. “With the green beans and almonds. Or I could make you a salad. I roasted the golden beets you like.”
“I can get myself dinner.”
“You can do a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean I’m not standing here, wanting to do my job.”
Daisy smiled. “You’re very sweet to me.”
“You’re family.”
Employer/employee, but also family. Esmerelda’s older cousin had been Daisy’s nanny when she’d been growing up. Daisy had hired Esmerelda shortly before her wedding to Jordan. Esmerelda managed the house and helped with the kids. Daisy would be lost without her.
“Jordan’s moving into a long-term-stay hotel,” she said.
Esmerelda’s concerned expression didn’t change. “For how long?”
“I have no idea. He’s on his way over so we can figure that out along with what to say to the kids. I’ll eat after I talk to him,” she said.
Esmerelda pressed her lips together. “After you talk to him, you won’t feel like eating.”
“So, hey, a new diet program. We could make a fortune.”
Esmerelda murmured something Daisy couldn’t hear and started pulling packages out of the refrigerator. She placed a small bowl of olives, several slices of cheeses and some crackers at one end of the massive island. While Daisy poured herself a glass of red wine, Esmerelda cut up an apple and added a few clusters of grapes.
“So the wine doesn’t go to your head,” she said, adding a cloth napkin.
“You are wise, as always.”
On an empty stomach, Daisy was a total lightweight. Better to deal with Jordan with all her faculties intact. He was better at fighting than she was. She’d graduated from UCLA with a 4.0 GPA but she lacked the killer instinct to be a really good street fighter—at least when it came to her marriage.
As she picked up a slice of Brie and put it on a rosemary cracker, she supposed not being good at the emotional dig was something she should be happy about. If only she wasn’t always the one getting gut-punched and left on the side of the marital road.
She was just polishing off her snack when Jordan arrived. Esmerelda let him in while