Smoldering Desire by Desiree Day

picture that made her pause.  The lady had her wavy hair blowing behind her, like a blanket of black silk, with a white sheet covering her breasts, the shot was demure and sexy at the same time.  It was the eyes that drew her in, they were staring boldly at the camera, but Barrett could easily imagine her casting them shyly away. 
    Her eyes lingered on the picture for a moment before moving to the profile.  Barrett skimmed her bio, she was twenty-five, with a bachelor’s degree, five eight and bi-lingual, with her being fluent in Spanish.
    “She’s it,” Barrett breathed, unable to take her eyes off the picture. 
     
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    Barrett McKenzie pushed the shopping cart through the grocery store, it was eight o’clock on a Friday evening, the worst time of the week for her to shop.  The grocery store was filled with single people hoping to find something to squeeze in the produce department that didn’t spoil in fourteen days, people running in to get last minute items for dinner and families like herself who always forgot about the Friday evening crowd and think that they could run in and out in ten minutes.  Three years ago, she would’ve been in and out so fast that she would’ve left skid marks.  But no more, her two-year-old, daughter, Kelsey, and six-month-old, son, Tavis Junior, T.J., changed all that.
    Barrett had made the mistake of going down the aisle with the miniscule toy section, however; no matter how small, her daughter found it and picked up a Hot Wheels car.
    “Put it down,” Barrett said softly.  But instead of returning it to the shelf, Kelsey got down on her hands and knees and began pushing the car on the dirty floor.  Barrett’s grip tightened on the nylon strap wrapped around her hand.  “Come on Kelsey.  We need to finish shopping.”
    Kelsey looked over her shoulder at her mom.  “No!”
    “Put it down Kelsey,” Barrett murmured.  Her daughter ignored her and continued playing.  Barrett tugged discreetly on the leash that was attached to a harness buckled around her daughter’s torso.  She didn’t want to draw too much attention to them; she had already gotten the usual looks from other shoppers. People pointed and giggled at her, some scowled and made her feel like she was treating her daughter like a disobedient puppy.  She had seen it all.
    You don’t know how hard it is, she wanted to yell.  Over the last two years she had gone through fifteen different nannies.  She caught one yelling at Kelsey and one hitting her daughter.  The beating was so bad that it left bruises.  There were the ones who never showed up on time, some who showed up for a couple of days then stop coming and some who never showed up at all.  A couple of them even tried to hit on her husband.
    “Put it down,” she repeated.
    “No!”
    Barrett sighed, rounded the cart, pulled Kelsey up and wrestled the car out of her hand.  You either have supernatural strength or I’m tired.   Kelsey wailed loudly as soon as the car was returned to the counter.  Kelsey’s screech cut through every nerve ending in Barrett’s body.  Damn you Tavis.   He had to work late again at the hospital.  She debated whether to stick her daughter in the buggy, but the two twenty-four mega roll packs of toilet tissue took up the majority of the room and she still had more shopping to do.  She imagined wedging her daughter between the toilet tissue, but decided against it when she imagined the hateful looks she’d get from strangers.
    Barrett knelt in front of her daughter, cupped her chin and forced her to look her in her eyes.  “You’re going to stop that crying and behave yourself.” Kelsey paused and looked her mother in the eyes, they had a stand-off.  They locked eyes, both stubbornly eyeing each other, neither backed down, until T.J. burst out crying.
    Barrett pointed her finger at her daughter before she stood up.  “You didn’t win this, and you’d better behave