Harlequin Romance September 2013 Bundle: Bound by a BabyIn the Line of DutyPatchwork Family in the OutbackStranded with the Tycoon

by Kate Hardy

  * * *

  Poppy was starting to think she’d taken on more than she could cope with. The room was looking like a complete bomb site, and she didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t as if she could just pop down to a paint store and buy some bright colors to splash on the walls. Here it was do it yourself or don’t do it at all.

  She sighed and gathered her hair up into a high ponytail, sick of pushing it off her face each time she bent down.

  Right now she had a heap of bright orange stars she’d cut out from a stack of paper, ready to stick together and pin across one wall. Then she planned on decorating one rumpty old wall with huge hearts and stars made with her silver sprinkles, before drawing the outline of a large tree for the older children to color in for her. She had stickers of animals and birds that could be placed on the branches, but for everything else she was going to have to rely on her own artistic skills. And her own money.

  She didn’t have as much of that as she was used to, but at least being here meant she didn’t have anywhere to spend it. Groceries from the local store, her measly one-dollar rent and enough to keep the house running—it was all she needed, and she was going to make it work.

  “Hello?”

  Poppy jumped. Either she was starting to hear things or she wasn’t alone. Again. But surely it wasn’t...

  Harrison Black. Only this time he brought his children with him into the room.

  “Hey,” she said, standing up and stretching her back. “What are you guys doing here?”

  Harrison held up two bags, a smile kicking up the corners of his mouth. “We come bearing gifts,” he said.

  She grinned at the children as they stood close to their dad, both smiling at her. So this was his way of apologizing—coming back with something to bribe her with.

  “You’re not here to help me, are you?” she asked them, crouching down, knowing they’d approach her if she was at their level.

  It worked. Both children came closer, shuffling in her direction.

  “Now, let me try to remember,” she said, looking from one child to the other. “You’re Alex—” she pointed to the girl “—and you’re Katie, right?”

  They both burst out laughing, shaking their heads.

  “No!” Katie giggled. “I’m Katie and he’s Alex.”

  Poppy laughed along with them before glancing up at their dad. “I’m glad that’s sorted then. Imagine if I’d got that wrong tomorrow?”

  The children started to inspect her bits and pieces, so she moved closer to Harrison. She wasn’t one to hold grudges, and with two happy children in the room, it wasn’t exactly easy not to smile in his direction. Even if he had been beyond rude less than a few hours earlier.

  “So what’s in the bag?” she asked him.

  “A peace offering,” he replied, one hand braced against the door as he watched her.

  Poppy just raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to continue.

  “Dinner for us all.”

  Her eyebrows rose even farther at that. “Your idea or theirs?” she asked, hooking a finger in the kids’ direction.

  Harrison sighed, and it made her smile. She guessed he wasn’t used to apologies or to being questioned. “Theirs, but it was a good one, if that makes it sound any better.”

  Poppy was done with grilling him. “I’m just kidding. It’s the thought that counts, and I’m starving.”

  He held up the paper bags and cringed. “I just had a really bad thought—that you might be vegetarian.”

  She shook her head. “I’d like to be, but I’m not.” Poppy took the bags from him and placed them on an upturned desk. “I love that they still use paper bags here.”

  “Plastic is the devil, according to Mrs. Jones, so don’t even get her started on that topic.” Harrison stood back, letting Poppy inspect the contents. “Although she has an opinion about most things, so that kind of applies for any questions you throw her way.”

  Poppy laughed and pulled out the cake. “Now, this is what I call a peace offering!”

  A hand on her leg made her turn.

  “The cake was my idea.” Katie pointed at it. “Daddy said no, but...”

  “Uh-hmm.” Harrison cleared his throat, placing a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “How about you help Ms. Carter and I’ll head out and fire up the barbecue?”

  Poppy grinned and let Katie take her hand and lead her back to the pile of things she’d been working on.

  Harrison Black might be gruff and forthright, but his daughter had him all figured out.

  Poppy looked over her shoulder as he walked out the door, bag under one arm as he strode off to cook dinner. His shoulders were broad, once again nearly filling the doorway as he passed through. And she was certain that he’d be wondering why the hell he’d let his daughter talk him into coming back to help her.

  * * *

  Harrison was starting to realize he hadn’t planned this at all. They had no napkins, no plates and an old pair of tongs was his only usable utensil. His one saving grace was that the ketchup was in a squeeze bottle.

  He looked up to see his children running toward him. It was still light, but that was fading, the day finally cooling off. He usually loved this time, when he came in for the day and settled down with his kids. And he was thinking that tonight they should have just stuck to their routine.

  Poppy appeared then, walking behind his children.

  “They couldn’t wait,” she called out. “Their stomachs were rumbling like they’d never been fed!”

  He grinned, then tried to stop himself. What was it about this woman? She had him smiling away as if he was the happiest guy in the world, her grin so infectious he couldn’t seem not to return it.

  “Dad, is it ready yet?” Alex was looking up at him as if he were beyond starving.

  “We have a few technical issues, but so long as you’re okay with no plates and wiping your fingers on the grass—” he nodded toward the overgrown lawn “—then we’ll be fine.”

  Poppy came closer and took out the loaf of bread, passing a piece to each child. “Sounds fine to me,” she said. “Sauce first or on the sausage?”

  “Both,” Katie replied.

  “Well, okay then. Sauce overload it is.”

  Harrison tried not to look at her, but it was impossible. Even his children were acting as if they’d known her their entire lives.

  He knew he should be happy. A teacher who could make his children light up like that should be commended. But there was something about her that worried him.

  Because there was no going back from this. If she left, then...it wasn’t even worth thinking about.

  All he could do was get to know her and make sure he did everything within his power to convince her to stay.

  He cleared his throat and passed her the first sausage, which she covered with lashings of ketchup.

  If only he could stop staring at the way her mouth had a permanent uptilt, the way her eyes lit up every time she spoke or listened to his children or the way her ponytail fell over her shoulder and brushed so close to her breasts that he was struggling to avert his eyes. Because none of those things were going to help him.

  Just because he hadn’t been around a beautiful woman for longer than he could remember didn’t give him any excuse to look at her that way. Besides, he was sworn off women...for life.

  “So what do I need to know about Bellaroo?”

  Harrison blinked and looked at Poppy, her head tipped slightly to the side as she looked up at him.

  “What do you want to know?”

  * * *

  Poppy wrapped Alex’s sausage in bread before doing her own and joining them on the grass. It was parched and yellowed and in definite need of some TLC, but she didn’t mind sitting on it. Besides, it was either that or
the concrete, so she didn’t really have a choice.

  “So what’s happened to this place? I mean, is it just that too many families moved away from here, or is there something else going on that I don’t know about?” she asked Harrison.

  He was chewing, and she watched the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, the strong, chiseled angle of his jaw as he swallowed.

  She needed to stop staring. For a girl who’d moved here to get away from men, she sure wasn’t behaving like it.

  “Are you asking me if the town is haunted? Or if some gruesome crime happened here and made all the residents flee?”

  Harrison’s tone was serious, but there was a playful glint to his eyes that made her glare at him mockingly.

  “Well, I can tell you right now that I searched the place online for hours but couldn’t come up with anything juicy,” she teased in return. “So if it’s been hidden that well, I guess I can’t expect you to spill your guts straight off the bat.”

  Now it was Harrison laughing, and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. His face changed when he was happy—became less brooding and more open. He was handsome, she couldn’t deny, but when he grinned he was...pretty darn gorgeous. Even if she did hate to admit that about a man right now.

  “Honest truth?”

  Poppy nodded, following his gaze and watching his children as they whispered to each other, leaning over and looking at something in the long grass.

  Harrison drew his knees up higher and fixed his gaze in the distance. “It’s hard to bring fresh blood into rural towns these days, and most of the young people that leave here don’t come back. Same with all small towns.” He glanced at her, plucking at a blade of grass. “I’ve stayed because I don’t want to walk away from the land that’s been in my family for generations. It means something to know the history of a place, to walk the same path as your father and your grandfather before him. This town means a lot to me, and it means a lot to every other family living here, too.”

  Poppy nodded. “Everyone I’ve met so far seems so passionate about Bellaroo,” she told him earnestly. “And I really do believe that if you fight hard enough, then this town will still be here by the time you’re a grandfather.”

  He shrugged. “I wish I was as positive as you are, but honestly?” Harrison sighed. “I never should have spoken to you the way I did earlier, because if you don’t stick around, then there’s no chance we’ll be able to keep our school open. And that’ll mean the end of our town, period.” He blew out a big breath. “Being sole-charge teacher to a bunch of five-to eleven-year-olds isn’t for the fainthearted, but if you do stay? There won’t be a person in Bellaroo who won’t love you.”

  Now it was Poppy sighing. Because she didn’t need all this pressure, the feeling that everything was weighing on her shoulders.

  Before she’d moved here, she’d taken responsibility for everything, had tried to fix things that were beyond being repaired. And now here she was all over again, in a make-or-break situation, when all she wanted to do was settle in to a gentler pace of life and try to figure out what her own future held.

  “Sorry, I’ve probably said way too much.”

  Poppy smiled at Harrison’s apology. “It’s okay. I appreciate you being honest with me.”

  The kids ran over and interrupted. “Can we go back and finish the room?”

  “Of course.” Poppy stood up and offered Harrison a hand, clasping his palm within her fingers. She hardly had to take any of his weight, because he was more than capable of pushing up to his feet without assistance. But the touch of his skin against hers, the brightness of his gaze when he locked eyes with her, made her feel weak, started shivers shaking down her spine.

  “How about I join you in the classroom after I’ve tidied up here?”

  Poppy retrieved her hand and looked away, not liking how he was watching her or how she was feeling. “Sure thing. Come on, kids.”

  She placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder and walked with them the short distance to her new classroom.

  Their dad was gruff and charming at the same time, and it wasn’t something she wanted to be thinking about. Not at all.

  She was here to teach and to find herself. To forget her past as best she could and create a new life for herself. Alone.

  Which meant not thinking about the handsome rancher about to join her in her classroom.

  * * *

  “Wow.”

  Poppy looked down, paper stars between her teeth as she stood on a chair and stuck the last of them to the wall. There was already a row strung from the ceiling, but she was determined to cover some old stains on the wall to complete the effect she was trying to create.

  “Your children are like little worker bees,” she mumbled, trying to talk without losing one of the stars.

  “Little worker bees who’ve started to fade,” he replied.

  Poppy glanced back in his direction and saw that he’d scooped Alex up into his arms. The young boy wasn’t even pretending he was too big to be cuddled, and had his head happily pressed to his father’s chest as he watched her.

  “It’s getting pretty late. Why don’t you head home? I’ll be fine here.” She wobbled on the chair, but righted herself before it tipped.

  “How about we give you a lift home?”

  Poppy shook her head. “It’s only a short walk. I’ll be fine, honestly.”

  Harrison didn’t look convinced. “What else do you need to do here?”

  Hmm. “I want the kids to walk in tomorrow and not be able to stop smiling,” she told him. “So I need to put the glue glitter over the hearts in the middle, and the same with the border over there—” she pointed “—because that’s where I’m going to write all their names in the morning when they arrive, in their favorite colors.”

  She heard Harrison sigh. Which made it even crazier when, from the corner of her eye, she saw him put his son down on his feet and pick up a gold glitter pen.

  “Is this what you use for the fancy border thing?” he asked.

  Poppy took the remaining paper stars from between her teeth and bit down on her lower lip to stop herself from smiling. She nodded, watching as Harrison walked to the wall and started to help.

  “Like this? Kind of big, so it’s obvious?”

  “Yep, just like that,” she said, still trying to suppress laughter.

  From what she’d seen of him so far, she had a feeling he’d just storm out and leave her if she made fun of him for using the glitter, and she didn’t mind the help. Not at all. Even if a masculine rancher wouldn’t have been her first choice in the artistic department.

  She stepped down and pushed her chair back behind her desk before finding the silver glitter and covering some shapes at the other end of the wall from Harrison.

  “Daddy, we didn’t eat the cake,” called out a sleepy-sounding Katie.

  Poppy had forgotten all about the cake. She moved back to look at the wall, pleased with the progress they’d made. The children could help her decorate it more in the morning, but for now it looked good.

  “How about we finish up and reward ourselves with a piece? What do you say?” she asked.

  Harrison passed her the pen as his kids nodded. “Only problem is we don’t have a knife.”

  She gave him a wink. “But I have a pocketknife. That’ll do, right?”

  He stared at her, long and hard. “Yeah, that’ll do.”

  Poppy pulled it out and passed it to him, careful not to let their skin connect this time. “Well, let’s each have a big piece, huh? I think we all deserve it.”

  And hopefully, it would distract her, too. Because she might be done with men, but she sure wasn’t done with chocolate.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “THANKS FOR THE ride.” Poppy swung her door shut and waved
to the children in the back. She didn’t expect to hear another one open and close.

  “I’ll walk you to the door.”

  What? She hadn’t ever had a man walk her to the door just to be chivalrous.

  “Thanks, but I’m fine. It’s not like we’re in the city and I’m at risk of being mugged,” she joked.

  The look on his face was anything but joking. “I’m not going to drive you home and not walk you to the door. It wasn’t how I was raised, and if I want my daughter to grow up expecting manners, and my son to have them, then I want to make sure I set a damn good example.”

  “Well, when you put it like that...” She smiled at Harrison, shaking her head as she did so.

  “I know I’m old-fashioned, but then so is this place. You’ll realize that pretty soon, Ms. Carter.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with old-fashioned,” she said. And there wasn’t; she just wasn’t used to it. “Except, of course, when it comes to plumbing.”

  His eyebrows pulled together as he frowned. “You having problems with this place?”

  She waved her hand toward the door as they reached it. “The shower produces just a pathetic drizzle of water, and the hot doesn’t last for long. But for the price I’m paying I wasn’t exactly expecting a palace.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he told her.

  “Honestly, I shouldn’t have said anything. Everything’s fine.”

  Harrison stood a few steps away, cowboy hat firmly planted on his head, feet spread apart and a stern look on his face. “I’ll take a look myself, check it out. Maybe later in the week.”

  “If you’re certain?” She didn’t want him going out of his way, but if he could work his magic on the shower she’d be more than grateful.

  “I’m certain,” he replied. “You take good care of my kids at school and I’ll make sure your house doesn’t fall down around you. Deal?”

  “Deal.” This guy was really something. “You better get those children home. Thanks for all your help tonight. I’m glad you came back.”

  “So we could start off on the right foot second time around?” he asked, one side of his mouth tilting into a smile.