Mallorcan Magic – Episode 21
DANNY had decided to replace the old filing cabinet inherited from his villa’s former owner. He’d kept it when all other furniture was removed because he reckoned it might help keep his documents tidy. This hadn’t been the case.
Nor had Kasha possessed the time or inclination to help. His solution was to hang on to important documents and discard anything he knew he didn’t need, so as he didn’t drown in a sea of paperwork.
When Eira walked into his life he felt something stir within him. She was simply dressed; her hair, though glossy, wasn’t geometrically styled in the fashionable way, but suited her quiet attractiveness. When she’d smiled at him, he felt as though he’d reached the summit of Mount Everest.
Danny placed another file in his brand new, lockable filing cabinet. Seeing Eira later that day, at the swimming pool, had decided him he needed this girl in his life.
In her turn, she must have thought he had something about him, or else why would she have taken the position he offered? Unless she really was desperate for money?
Danny closed the top drawer and wandered over to the open windows. Already his kids loved her and now he’d sorted that Raoul business, she seemed at ease. Except, of course, he’d thrown her a suggestion she was still contemplating.
She’d agreed to look after his children but clearly her qualifications suited those of a personal assistant. He could afford to hire someone but he wanted Eira. He had a hunch, given time and maybe a chat with her best friend, that Eira would accept.
They needed one another. At the moment he was a lost soul and he got the impression that Eira was, too. But his reputation wasn’t exactly tarnish free though he knew most of the jibes about his business methods were down to jealousy. Eira’s friend’s boyfriend belonged to the Garcia family. Danny had met the old man and his son, Antonio, several times and knew they commanded respect.
But did the men respect Danny Carpenter enough to put Eira’s mind at rest over plunging deeper into her employer’s business? Danny felt sure this weekend, with Eira away from the villa, would prove to be a testing time for her and for him.
She’d expressed concern over having enough time to care for Louise and Richard but he reassured her that he wouldn’t expect her to begin her new duties fully until his children started at their new school. They were no longer babies. As they grew older they’d probably want to spend more time with their mother anyway.
In a couple more years, Lulu would be tickled pink to be in charge of her younger brother, beneath the protection of a cabin attendant, with a loving parent, one in Palma, the other in Paris, seeing them on and off their flights.
The thought of seeing less of them pierced him like a dart. But he needed to move on although, after one relatively brief but tumultuous marriage, he was in no hurry to repeat the experience.
Except, he felt sure, Eira, with her calm personality and those blue, blue eyes that seemed to know what he was thinking, would make a far more suitable wife than Kasha ever had.
He gulped. Was his subconscious voicing the longing he’d struggled to subdue ever since becoming Eira’s employer? It was far too soon even to contemplate such a possibility. Eira’s broken engagement would take a while to recover from.
She was some years younger than him but he knew he could still afford to wait. Having a glamorous woman on his arm at swanky parties and dinner engagements no longer appealed. And he felt convinced that this beautiful, sensible girl, despite being a loving carer for his children, longed for the challenge of more demanding tasks than organising picnics and swimming lessons.