Adorable and Charming

Carrie Remington has worked for the first family of Schuyler Square for almost four months. During that time, she has come to like the Schuyler sons--Brad and Tyler--and loathe their mother, Mavis. The other person living at Schuyler Manor, Brad's girlfriend Claudine, is more of a puzzle to Carrie. When Claudine first arrived in Schuyler Square, she was a down-to-earth, for-the-people kind of woman and was usually considerate and friendly whenever she spoke to Carrie. Living in the lap of luxury slowly changed Claudine from that considerate person into something that was a lot closer to being a clone of Mavis Schuyler...

"Seriously? You're Claudine's husband?" Carrie didn't get it. Claudine was all right looking but she'd never stop traffic. And yet she'd obviously gotten the gorgeous guy standing in front of Carrie to marry her and now she'd somehow bewitched Brad Tyler. The woman had some kind of charm.

"Well, sort of." Larry glanced inside. "Would it be all right if I came in? It's kind of cold out here."

"All right," Carrie agreed,stepping back so Larry could enter the spacious foyer. He walked inside, the heels of his cowboy boots making loud clackety clacking sounds against the parquet floor.

"Nice," he commented as he glanced around. His eyes rested again on Carrie. "Very nice."

Wow. Not only adorable but charming as well. It was as clear as the nose on Larry's face that he wasn't from Schuyler Square. Schuyler Square men were unfortunately short changed when it came to the charm factor. Reluctantly, Carrie remembered the steam cleaning she needed to finish in the family room. "I have some work that I need to get done. Why don't you wait in the living room?"

"Would you mind if I waited in the kitchen? Fancy places like this make me nervous."

"All right," Carrie agreed. She led Larry back to the kitchen. "Would you like a cup of coffee? I'm not sure where Claudine is at the moment but she'll probably get home pretty soon."

"That would be nice." Larry sat down at the kitchen table while Carrie fixed a cup of coffee for him. "Cream or sugar?"

"Black."

Carrie liked to hear that. Men who put too much stuff in their coffee made her nervous. She had noticed that the more flavorings and crap men put in their coffee, the more demanding they were in their lives. She set the cup down in front of Larry, fighting the urge to sit down and join him. "Here you go," she said.

"Won't you join me? I hate drinking alone."

Carrie hesitated. She needed to finish the family room. On the other hand, she was almost done and there was no way that she was going to steam clean the entire house. There were times when the demands that Mavis made bordered on the ridiculous and this was one of them. Besides, no one in their right mind would turn down having coffee with Steve McQueen's doppelganger. "All right," she agreed. "I can take a coffee break."

"Good." Larry's smile was warm and genuine. "What's your name?"

"Carrie Remington." Carrie got a cup of coffee and joined Larry.

"How long have you been working here, Carrie?"

"A few months. I started right around the time Claudine came here."

Larry's face instantly darkened. "How is Claudine?"

"She seems fine." Carrie suddenly remembered that Claudine and Brad were engaged. She also remembered the looks of pure longing that she had seen Claudine throw in Tyler's direction on a regular basis. Then she remembered how that annoying Tiffany's equally annoying boyfriend had been dropping in to see Claudine. Carrie didn't get it. What did that woman have that made her so irresistible? "Um, you do know that Claudine moved her to be with Brad Schuyler, don't you?"

"Yes, I know that."

"So does she know that she's still married to you?"

"That's what I came here to find out."

The kitchen door opened and Claudine stepped in, her arms weighed down with packages from the most expensive shops at the Schuyler Square Mall. "Carrie, would you mind going out and getting the rest of the stuff from the car?" she requested. "I just maxed out three credit cards." Claudine stopped when she spotted the guest at the kitchen table. A moment later, the packages she had been carrying were scattered across the kitchen floor, Claudine out cold next to them.