The Villa

house for the holidays while she'd buried herself in work.
    She should have taken the time, made the time to help. Didn't put it on your appointment calendar, did you, Sophia? she thought with a wince. The annual Christmas party was nearly on them, and she'd done nothing to help with the planning or preparations.
    She'd amend that immediately.
    She went out the side door, instantly regretting she hadn't stopped for a jacket, as the wind had a bite. As a result she ran down the winding stone path, cut left and sprinted to the greenhouse.
    The warm, moist heat felt so inviting. "Mama?"
    "Down here. Sophie, wait until you see my paper-whites. They're spectacular. I think I'll take them and the amaryllis into the parlor. Very festive."
    Pilar stopped, looked up. "Where's your jacket?"
    "Forgot." Sophia leaned over and kissed her mother's cheek, then took a good, long look.
    Her mother's ancient sweater was pushed up at the elbows and bagged at the hips. Her hair was tied back at the nape of her neck. "You're losing weight."
    "Oh, I am not." Pilar waved that away with hands covered in stained gardening gloves. "You've been talking to Maria. If I don't gorge myself three times a day she's convinced I'm going to waste away. As it is, I stole two sugar cookies on the way out here and expect them to pop out on my hips any moment."
    "That should hold you till lunch. Which I'll buy. I'm so behind on my shopping. Help."
    "Sophia." With a shake of her head, Pilar shifted her long trough of narcissi and began to fuss with the tulips she was forcing. They would bloom, she thought, and bring color to the dreary days of winter. "You started your holiday shopping in June and finished it in October. Just as you always do to make the rest of us hate you."
    "Okay, caught me." Sophia boosted herself up on the work counter. "Still, I'm dying to go into the city and play for a few hours. It's been a brutal week. Let's run away for the day."
    "I was just there a couple of days ago." Frowning, Pilar set the tulips aside. "Sophie, is this new order of things your grandmother's set up too much for you? You're up at dawn every day, and then you spend hours in your office here. I know you're not seeing any of your friends."
    "I thrive on pressure. Still, I could use an assistant, and I believe you're supposed to fit that bill."
    " Cam , we both know I'd be useless to you."
    "No, I don't know that. Okay, we move to Plan B. I'm putting you to work. You've done all the decorating in the house and it looks beautiful, by the way. I'm sorry I didn't help."
    "You've been busy."
    "I shouldn't have been too busy. But now it's office time, and that'll segue into party-planning time. You need to bring me up to date on that, which is part of an assistant's duty. Now, which flowers do you want to take in? I'll help you with them, then we start the clock."
    The girl, Pilar thought, made the head spin. "Sophie, really."
    "Yes, really. You're the trainee. I'm the boss." She scooted off the counter, rubbed her hands together. "I get to make up for all the years you bossed me around. Especially between the ages of twelve and fifteen."
    "No, not the hormone years. You couldn't be so cruel."
    "Bet me. You asked if this new system was too much for me. It's not. But it's damn close. That's a fact. I'm not used to doing all my own filing and phone tags and typing. Since I'm not about to admit to Nonna, or to MacMillan, that I'm feeling the least bit squeezed, you could help me out."
    Pilar blew out a breath, tugged off her gloves. "You're doing this to keep me busy, just as Maria hounds me to eat."
    "Partially," Sophia admitted. "But that doesn't change the fact that I spend time every day doing basic office work. If I could pass that over, I might actually begin to date again in this decade. I miss men."
    "All right, but don't blame me if you can't find anything in your files." Pilar pulled the thin band out of her hair, scooped her fingers through it. "I haven't done basic office work since I was sixteen, and then I was so miserable at it, Mama fired me."
    She turned, started to laugh, then noticed Sophia was gawking at her hand.
    Embarrassed, Pilar nearly stuck her hand, and the five-carat square-cut ruby on her finger, behind her back. "It's a little much, isn't it?"
    "I don't know. I think I've been struck blind by the glare." Sophia took her mother's hand, examined the stone and the stunning channel-set diamonds around the square. "Wow. Magnifico."
    "I wanted