Million Dollar Maid ✔

Chapter 3

In Ava's mind, the master of the house equaled trouble. She'd never had any kinds of problems with the lady of the house before or their kids.

It was always these older married men who'd just stare at her a little too long or 'accidentally' brush their hands against her body. It always made her feel icky and on alert. So, she learned the best way to tackle the issue was to avoid them as best she could.

And she was getting pretty good at that. For the next few days anytime she'd clean a room she'd close the door behind her. She'd scan the hallway before entering it and made sure that she was nowhere near the dining area when he'd eat.

His sudden reappearance had stressed out George as well as Lauren since they hadn't had the time to make any 'preparations' which, as it turned out, was just making his bed, turning up the pool temperature, and getting groceries. Ava made his bed when she was sure he was eating his dinner that evening.

She'd been in the large room before to clean so she was somewhat familiar with it. The big king-sized bed was the first thing she'd spotted the first time she entered. The next was the beautiful balcony outside his sliding doors where a cast-iron garden set stood waiting to be used again.

Apparently, the decision to come here was a last-minute one. George had told Ava that Mr. Chastain had closed a particularly large deal and felt it was time to take some time off.

She still couldn't believe he looked like that, she'd expected someone older and maybe a little uglier. But she also knew looks could be deceiving and that she should stay out of his sight. Which wasn't hard since despite claiming to be on vacation, he spent most of his time in the main office.

Ava had just finished doing her rounds of the second floor and was currently making her way towards the storage closet when a deep male voice rang out, "Rebeccah."

Her spine stiffened. She knew he meant her, Rebeccah had been the previous maid and he probably hadn't heard about her replacement yet. She blamed herself for not noticing him earlier so she could have made her escape.

As she turned around she let out a small gasp at his surprising proximity. He was way closer than she thought he would be but made sure he didn't notice her surprise. His beautiful eyebrows turned downward in a frown as he inspected her face.

"You're not Rebeccah." It wasn't a question.

"No, she's left. I'm Ava, the new maid?" She wasn't sure what it was about him, but he intimidated her. Maybe it was the way his tall frame towered over her or the way that his dark eyes seemed to see right through her.

"Where'd she go?" he demanded while completely ignoring her attempt at introducing herself formally.

"I heard she got married and moved away," Ava offered up.

"Okay, well, I need you to prepare the living room because we have guests coming over tonight."

"Oh I'm not really supposed to go there, George said--"

"George isn't here right now, is he?" he said, interrupting her.

"N-no." George had left earlier in the day because he didn't work the Wednesday afternoons for some reason.

"Then get it done," was the last thing he said before taking off, leaving Ava to fend for herself.

While she felt bad about making a bad first impression on him she also knew it didn't go as badly as it could've gone. He didn't yell and he didn't touch her, which counted as a win in her book. She followed his retreating figure with her eyes until he was out of sight and quickly made her way to Lauren, who she found in the kitchen preparing his dinner.