Her eyes widened. “I don’t... I can’t. I gave my word. They’re expecting me.”
Did she always do what was expected of her? He had a purely naughty urge to entice this quiet, reserved librarian into doing all manner of wild and dangerous things.
He did his best to rein in the impulse. Julia Winston appeared to be a nice woman—caring, compassionate, willing to offer a home for two boys going through a rough time, simply because she saw a need.
She seemed sweet, vulnerable, maybe a little needy herself—exactly the kind of woman he tried his best to avoid. He didn’t quite understand why he was having such a hard time resisting this particular temptation.
“Next time, then. Meanwhile, I’ll take the boys with me and get them out of your hair, then you can come join us for turkey. It’s the perfect solution.”
“Are you always so sure of yourself?” Though there was a hint of tartness to her voice, like taking a bite out of a pie cherry when you were expecting a Bing, he also sensed it was sincere.
He shrugged. “Sometimes the best course of action is to come up with a plan, then try your damnedest to make it work. It’s a military thing.”
“Full throttle ahead?”
He smiled at her aviation reference. “Exactly. I’d like to be wheels-up by eight tomorrow morning. Do you think Clint and Davy could be ready by seven thirty?”
“I’ll make sure they are.”
“There’s always room for one more,” he cajoled.
“Don’t plan on it,” she said.
“Fine.” He rose to leave, surprised at his reluctance to go back upstairs. Julia was turning out to be far more intriguing than he ever would have guessed when he moved in—which was probably the very reason he should leave, before he made a mistake he couldn’t take back.
“Thank you again for dinner,” he said.
She rose, as well. “We both know I’m the one in your debt. You calmed the waters, and you helped put their bunk bed together. I know dealing with two rambunctious little boys wasn’t on your agenda for the evening, but I truly would have been sunk without you.”
“My pleasure. Really.” He was quite looking forward to seeing the boys with his family. Pop would take one look at the two cute, needy little boys and want to tuck them under his considerable wing.
“I’ll see you in the morning when I pick up the boys and then later at Snow Angel Cove as soon as you’re done volunteering at the care center.”
“How many of you did you say would be there?”
He laughed. “There’s only one of me, darlin’. But I think Eliza’s planning for upwards of twenty.”
“Good gracious,” she exclaimed. He didn’t think he ever heard a woman of his generation say that particular phrase before. He found it rather adorable.
“Every time my family gets together, I think the exact same thing,” he lied. In truth, his imprecations were usually a little stronger than good gracious. “We always have a good time, and the food is invariably delicious. And then when you leave, you can have one more thing to be thankful for tomorrow—that you’re not stuck with us.”
Her mouth lifted into a soft smile, and Jamie had a sudden wild urge to press his lips to that lush bottom lip, to see if it tasted as delicious in reality as it did in his imagination.
What was wrong with him?
“Good night,” he said quickly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He hurried away before he could do something both of them would regret.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHEN THE DOORBELL rang the next morning, Julia felt as if a hundred butterflies were dive-bombing in her stomach.
“He’s here! He’s here!” Davy raced for the front door, while Clint followed a little more cautiously.
“We’re really going on an airplane?” the older boy asked, for probably the fiftieth time that morning. He couldn’t quite seem to accept the idea, which she didn’t find all that unusual, considering it had all happened on the spur of the moment.
“That’s the plan,” she answered, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Isn’t it nice of Mr. Caine to take you on a quick ride?”
“I suppose,” he said, though he didn’t sound at all convinced of it.
“Airplane. Airplane. Airplane,” his brother exclaimed with glee, as he yanked open the door.
“Hi, Mr. Caine. Hi. I’m all ready to go on your airplane. See? I even have an airplane on my shirt.”
“I see it. That’s a great-looking shirt.”
He smiled down at the boy, and Julia tried not to notice how completely gorgeous Jamie looked that morning. His hair was damp from the shower she had heard running earlier, and he was freshly shaved, with none of that irresistible stubble he’d had the night before.
She didn’t know which version she found more appealing: fresh-out-of-the-shower Jamie or sexy pirate Jamie.
Neither, she told herself sternly. She had no business finding either of them appealing.
He looked up from Davy and spotted her and Clinton. “Good morning,” he said brightly. Before she realized what he was about, he stepped forward and kissed her cheek.
He smelled delicious, that irresistible combination of cedar and bergamot and pine from his soap.
“Morning,” she murmured, blushing when she heard the breathy sound of her own voice. She was an idiot. So the man had kissed her cheek. Big deal. That was the sort of meaningless gesture guys like him did all the time.
“Happy Thanksgiving. Are you two ready to go?”
“I am!” Davy declared. He pulled out the paper airplane he had folded over breakfast out of a piece of scratch paper and zoomed it around in circles.
Clint, Julia noticed, said nothing and appeared more subdued than she had seen him.
Was he nervous? Or upset about something else?
“Are you sure about this?” she asked Jamie. “Last chance to bow out.”
“Absolutely sure. I talked to Aidan about it last night, and he’s thrilled to have a few other children aboard to keep Maddie company. When she doesn’t have someone her own age to entertain, she tends to talk both our ears off.”
He seemed to have a particular skill of twisting a situation where he was doing something nice for someone else to make it seem like the recipient of the gesture was actually doing him a favor.
Both of them knew it was the other way around.
“Let’s go!” Davy said, tugging Jamie toward the door.
He laughed. “We will. Hold your horses. The plane can’t go anywhere without me.”
As she had predicted, the boys had been vibrating with excitement after she told them Jamie’s plan for the day. They seemed to have forgotten their anger with her, and Julia had to work hard to get them to eat.
As they’d finished breakfast, though, Clint grew quiet, his responses increasingly monosyllabic. She’d tried without success to get him to tell her what was bothering him.
“Grab your coats,” she said now. “It’s as cold in Colorado as it is here.”
Davy immediately complied, but Clint seemed to be dragging his feet. As she found his parka and helped him into it, she decided to try one more time.
“Did you change your mind about going?” she asked quietly. “I thought you’d be excited about having a fun adventure.”
“Why aren’t you going?”
“I told you. I have a commitment already. I’m helping serve Thanksgiving dinner to some older citizens of Lake Haven.”
He drew in a ragged-sounding breath. “Are you sending us away because we were bad last night?” he asked, his voice miserable. “Tell me the truth.”
Her heart twisted. Poor thing! She should have realized the anxiety behind his sudden distance.
“Oh, honey. Of course not!”
She knelt down in front of him. “Jamie thought you might enjoy a ride in his airplane. That’s all it is. He’ll bring you back, I promise. This afternoon we’re having Thanksgiving dinner with his family, and I’ll see you there.”
“You swear?” His eyes were fierce and protective. “I only ask because Davy likes the bed and said how nice it was not to be cold when he woke up.”
Her heart twisted in her chest. These poor children had little reason to trust the adults in their lives.
“I swear on every bookshelf in my house. And I’m a librarian. You know how much I love books.”
At her words, the tight set of his features started to relax. “Good. My mom needs to be able to find us when she comes back. If we go to some other town, she won’t know where to look for us.”
Where was their mother? Julia sent up another wordless prayer that Mikaela Slater could be found safe so these children didn’t have to endure another heartbreak. “You’ll be here in Haven Point. Right here. I made a promise to take care of you when I asked Mrs. Emmett if you and Davy could stay with me, and I intend to keep it.”
It seemed important to remind him that she had volunteered to take the boys in. Maybe if he understood that, he might come to accept the situation.
“We’re really going on an airplane?”
Some of her tension trickled away at his wondering tone. “Yes. And I want you to remember every moment of it so you can tell me about it later, okay?”
He nodded, and she took a chance and gave him a hug. He didn’t return it, but he didn’t try to wriggle away either.
“Everything okay?” Jamie asked, while the boys were grabbing their mittens.
“Crisis averted for now. He’s afraid you won’t bring them back here. And if they’re not in Haven Point, he worries his mom won’t know where to find them when she comes back.”
His handsome features softened with sympathy. “Poor kids. They’ve had a rough break. I’ll take good care of them, I promise. I wasn’t being cocky when I told you I’m an excellent pilot.”
She didn’t doubt it for a moment. Something told her Jamie Caine would be excellent at everything. And she meant everything.
Her cheeks suddenly felt hot, and she had to look away. This was what happened when she read too many steamy romance novels. Her dratted imagination took her brain in wild directions.
To her relief, Clint and Davy rushed out of their room before she could say something stupid.
“There are the boys’ booster seats,” she said, pointing beside the door where she’d pulled them from her vehicle. “They can be tricky. Do you need me to help you hook them into your SUV?”
“I have hundreds of nieces and nephews, remember? I can figure it out.”
“I’ll see you this afternoon, then.”
“Thanks. Have fun at the nursing home. It’s still not too late for you to come with us,” he said.
She shook her head in answer, and he grinned and ushered the boys outside.
The house seemed eerily quiet after they all left. How was that possible when Clint and Davy had only been there since the previous afternoon?
She fed the cats, straightened up a bit, threw in a load of laundry. She had never minded her alone time before but suddenly felt at loose ends until it was time to pick up Muriel to drive to the care center at Shelter Springs.
* * *
“WELL, THAT’S OVER for another year.” Lani Tucker collapsed into a chair in the kitchen. “Good job, us. Everybody seemed to have a great time.”
Julia smiled at the other woman, who was a nurse at the regional hospital positioned halfway between Haven Point and Shelter Springs.
“Yes,” Julia agreed. “We didn’t have any fistfights this time, and Eugene Peterson only tried to goose me three times.”
Lani laughed. “That’s because you spent most of the time in the kitchen. I was out here on the front line. I’m going to have bruises from that old lech.”
Julia grimaced in sympathy. “On the plus side, your mom seemed happy today,” she commented.
The other woman sighed. “She had a good day—so far, anyway. Who knows? In five minutes, everything could change. Alzheimer’s sucks.”
“This I know too well,” Julia said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It is what it is. I just wish you could have known my mom before this cursed disease took her. She was the most amazing woman.”
“She must have been, to raise such a loving daughter,” Julia said with a smile as she wiped down the countertops in the kitchen. “You take such good care of her.”
“It’s not easy. But I don’t have to tell you that.”
The two of them had met when Julia’s mother had been here the last year before her death. Julia had been impressed that Lani visited twice a week and played an active role in her mother’s care. She was the youngest of four children and the only one in the area, so the bulk of the care fell on her, which couldn’t be easy.
“Can I ask you something?” Lani asked.
“Sure.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Julia held up the dishcloth. “I felt something sticky. Guess I didn’t wipe them well enough earlier.”
“Not that. I mean, why are you here? Now that your mom is gone, you have no reason to keep coming to the care center and helping out. It’s nice of you and all, but I can think of much more enjoyable ways to spend Thanksgiving than in this depressing place.”
“I helped out last year, and when the volunteer director asked if I could help out, I didn’t have any reason to say no.”
This had been her first holiday without family. While Eliza and others in the Helping Hands had invited her to join them, she hadn’t felt right about inserting herself into someone else’s family dinner, but why hadn’t she thought about hosting her own celebration for others who might not have anywhere else to go? She had at least a half-dozen friends she could think of who might have enjoyed having somewhere to go.
It made her feel small and selfish that the idea had never even occurred to her.
Next year, she told herself. She would start keeping a list of potential guests now—and Lani would be close to the top of her list.
“Thanksgiving is for counting your blessings, right? My mother spent the last months of her life here, surrounded by people who took good care of her. That’s a huge blessing for me. I’m glad I had the chance to give back a little.”
“That’s sweet of you.” Lani smiled. “Look, a couple of my friends are getting together later this evening to play games and watch a chick flick. Why don’t you join us?”
They had both been so busy with dinner, Julia hadn’t had a chance to tell Lani about the radical life change she’d undertaken the day before.
“I can’t. I’m so sorry. It sounds like fun. A few days ago, I would have jumped at the offer, seriously, but my life has become...complicated.”
Lani looked intrigued. “That sounds promising. Do tell. Is there a male involved?”
“Two of them, actually.” Three, counting Jamie. Not that she was really involved with him—and not that she wanted to mention anything about him to Lani.
The nurse’s eyes widened. “Two? My goodness. For a shy, retiring librarian, you’ve got an interesting life, honey. No wonder you said things were complicated.”
“Two very young males,” she amended. “I’m temporary guardian to a couple of little boys who needed a home for a few weeks. They’re eight and six and have been through a rough time.”
Lani’s pretty features softened with compassion. “Oh, the poor things. But where are they? You should have brought them with you today. You know how the residents dote on little lost lambs.”
“A...friend offered to take them while I was busy here. I’m meeting them all to have Thanksgiving dinner w
ith his family.”
“Even more exciting. Is he cute? The friend, not either of the boys, I mean.”
Cute didn’t begin to cover it. “I suppose,” she said. “As I said, we’re just friends, though.”
It was an odd thing to say about Jamie Caine, especially when he made those butterflies stampede in her stomach every time he smiled at her, but it was true. Who would have guessed she would become friends with him?
“Anyway, I wish I didn’t have another commitment. You have fun with your movie night. It sounds great. Maybe another time.”
She didn’t have that many friends in Shelter Springs, mostly in Haven Point. It would be fun to branch out.
“You got it. We get together once a month or so. It’s always a wild party.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” she said.
After they finished cleaning up, Lani returned to her mother’s room, and Julia said goodbye to the nursing home staff before heading out to the parking lot. Muriel had decided to take up a last-minute invitation to have dinner at a cousin’s house in Shelter Springs and had caught a ride there after helping out with things at the care center, so Julia didn’t have to take her back to Haven Point. She could go straight to Snow Angel Cove from here.
The blue skies of the morning had given way to gathering clouds while she had been inside, and she had to brush a light film of snow off her windows.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel as she drove toward the two-lane road that circled vast Lake Haven toward Haven Point and Snow Angel Cove.
She didn’t like driving in the snow, even though her vehicle had four-wheel drive. She focused on the road, trying to ignore the nerves zinging through her from both the weather and her destination.
A big SUV loaded with kids pulled in behind her, following entirely too close on the slick, winding road. Apparently the driver was in a big hurry to go over the river and through the woods this Thanksgiving afternoon.
She was going about ten miles below the speed limit, but she didn’t dare speed up, not when conditions could be slick.
The driver of the SUV grew impatient after another mile. Though there was a double yellow line on the winding road, he disregarded the law and pulled over to pass her.
Sugar Pine Trail--A Small-Town Holiday Romance Page 9