Of course it couldn’t be simple; she couldn’t see what she was doing because her body was blocking the light, the brass thingy wouldn’t budge once she finally got the wrench adjusted over it, and she was pretty sure she was stuck. Twisting like a contortionist didn’t help, and neither did cursing. And just when she thought nothing else could go wrong, Olivia realized someone was standing behind her.
“I swear to God, John,” she growled, trying but failing to get unstuck. “You step one toe in this bathroom and I’m throwing your crutches in the lake.”
She heard a masculine chuckle. “Maybe if you had used that tone on your employee yesterday you wouldn’t have needed my help.”
Olivia shot backward out of the closet so fast she would have slammed into the opposite wall if a large hand hadn’t gotten between it and her head at the last second.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you,” Mac said, crouching down on his heels to smile at her. “You weren’t at breakfast.”
Olivia shuddered, though she was unsure if it was from the thought of breakfast or that new gleam in Mac’s eyes she couldn’t quite read. “I skipped breakfast this morning. I don’t particularly like tofu pretending to be sausage, and I hope if you don’t either that you shared your opinion with Eileen.” She smiled, trying to disguise how disconcerted he made her. “I’m afraid the real reason we let you and Henry come early is because Eileen needed a couple of guinea pigs for her new menu.” She shook her head. “It’s one thing to serve all-organic food, but I don’t know why she feels it has to be low-fat, too. I’ve warned her that we’re going to have a rebellion on our hands the first week we’re back in session if she insists on serving that stuff.”
Good Lord; there she went talking nonstop again! What was it about this man that turned her into a nervous ninny?
“Don’t worry,” he said, that gleam intensifying. “Henry voiced his opinion. Eileen told me she thought you were cleaning cabin eight, but when I finally found cabin eight it was empty.” He arched a brow. “Is there a reason all your cabins are numbered out of order?”
He’d been looking for her? “They’re numbered according to when they were built. And I’m sorry I forgot to return your jacket yesterday,” she flat-out lied, figuring he’d been looking for her because he wanted it back sometime before summer.
But as pathetic as it seemed in the stark light of day, she had in fact slept with his jacket spread over her blankets, unable to resist the feel of its substantial weight holding her all night—even as she’d fantasized it had been the man who owned it instead.
So much for not being a lonely widow.
She tried getting to her feet. “It’s on a peg at home. I’ll go get it for you.”
He placed one large hand on her shoulder to stop her. “There’s no hurry. That’s not the reason I was looking for you.” He sat down on the floor beside her and gestured at the water heater. “John and Eileen spent most of breakfast worrying that you don’t have anyone to help you get Inglenook ready for the upcoming sessions.”
Olivia looked down, saw that her jeans were filthy from crawling under the cabin, and brushed at the dirt. “I plan to go into town this afternoon to see if I can find someone local who might be willing to work with me for a few weeks.” She sighed. “Although anyone who would have been available is already helping the sporting camps’ owners get ready for the summer tourist season.”
He picked up the book she’d tossed on the floor, looked at its title and then at the water heater, then over at her. “John mentioned that might be a problem for you, so I said I’d be willing to fill the vacancy.” He grinned. “Eileen immediately hired me, and after offering to take Henry to town with her and Sophie, she told me to report to work.”
Olivia could only gape at him. Eileen had hired him?
He actually reached over, placed his finger under her chin, and lifted her mouth closed. “Should I assume from your expression that you can’t quite picture me doing an honest day’s work, Olivia?” he asked quietly.
“Huh? No, of course not. I just figured that for you an honest day’s work would be in a boardroom, not down on your hands and knees in mud,” she said, gesturing at her pants as she dropped her gaze. “And we can’t even come close to paying what you’re used to.” She forced herself to look at him again and even managed to smile, albeit sheepishly. “I already spent the check you sent us, so I can’t exactly give some of it back to let you work for room and board.”
If her smile had been sheepish, his was downright smug. “What if I said I’d be willing to work for extra parenting advice?”
“I believe I mentioned when you called two weeks ago that we’d be hard-pressed to give you and Henry much attention as it was.” She shook her head. “I have no idea what Eileen was thinking when she insisted on letting you arrive early, considering she’s scrambling to finish her dissertation before camp starts up again. And next week she’s heading to a couple of universities to interview interns for this year’s program. Then she wants to work with our cook when he arrives, to figure out what we’re going to feed everyone so he can stock the kitchen. I’m sorry; I just don’t see how she can find any extra time.”
“But that’s exactly why my offer makes sense. My working with you throughout the day will give me access to all those wonderful pearls of wisdom on parenting you sprinkle around like a fresh gentle rain.” He arched a brow when she started gaping at him again. “Which, I assure you, I’m eager to soak up like a thirsty sponge,” he said, his eyes so vivid now they were practically glowing.
She burst out laughing before she could stop herself.
Was this guy for real? Or simply so determined to get his way that now he was stooping to good old-fashioned, outrageous flattery?
She held up the pipe wrench. “I’m not the brains of this operation, Mac, I’m just the brawn. Eileen is better equipped to answer your questions. Because the truth is, I’ve been known to turn tail and run when I see Sophie headed my way wearing a certain expression.” She crawled back onto her hands and knees, hoping he’d get the hint and leave. “So if you’re looking for something to do, maybe when everyone comes back from town you and Henry could walk to the main road and look for moose. And while you’re at it, you could have a nice little chat about… oh, I don’t know; maybe about him calling you Dad instead of Father.”
Of course he didn’t leave, because that would mean he’d actually been listening to her. Instead he swiped the wrench from her hand and shouldered her out of the way, then reached into the closet without having to contort so much as a muscle—although Olivia did see several of them bunch with seemingly little effort just as she heard a deep metallic squeak followed by a really loud snap.
Okay; because she wasn’t a complete idiot, maybe she’d hold off a bit before firmly telling Mac the only thing he’d be soaking up like a sponge would likely be dripping from his cabin ceiling the next time it rained.
And if he still wouldn’t take no for an answer… well, maybe a couple of days spent replanking two hundred twenty feet of docks would change his mind.
Because honest to God, if she wasn’t careful, Olivia was afraid she might start wondering what it would be like to replace that big leather jacket with the big strong man who owned it.
Chapter Four
Olivia was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes opened as she leaned against the bathroom doorjamb to supervise Sophie’s bedtime ritual. Her daughter, however, was so wound up she hadn’t stopped talking even while brushing her teeth.
“I wish you could have seen Henry’s face when Gram let us go to the bookmobile and he found that book of baby names,” the girl said from inside her pajama top. Her head popped out, sporting a huge grin. “He was so excited he wouldn’t even look at anything else the librarian tried to show him. He said that one book would keep him busy for weeks while he tries out all the different names.”
“Tries them out on whom? Are you letting Henry name Tinkerbelle’s kit
tens?”
Sophie stopped with her hairbrush halfway to her head. “No, he’s trying them out on himself. Henry said his father’s thinking of changing his first name, too, just like he changed his last name from Penhope to Oceanus. Only his dad said it’s got to be a noble name, befitting his… lineage or something.”
“I hope you told Henry that Henry is a lovely name,” Olivia said, plopping down on the hamper at the realization the boy had been serious yesterday in the truck. But what was wrong with the name his dear dead mother had given him—other than its not being noble enough? Was Mac trying to erase Cordelia from Henry’s life completely?
“Mom?” Sophie asked, suddenly serious. “If you ever got married again, would I have to change my name, too, like Henry did?”
“No, sweetie. Until the day you get married you will always be Sophie Baldwin—and even then you don’t have to take your husband’s last name if you don’t want to.”
“You changed your last name to Daddy’s.”
Olivia took the hairbrush out of her hand, turned her around, and started working the tangles and several pieces of hay out of her hair. “Yes, I did, because I loved your daddy so much I wanted everyone to know I was his.”
“And I love him so much that I’m never changing my name to some other man’s,” the girl said with all the conviction of a loyal daughter. She turned with a frown. “I don’t think Mac should make Henry change both of his names, because that would be like his mama never even existed.”
Olivia was too tired to stop herself from wincing; Lord, she hated hearing Sophie call adults by their first names. Growing up she had addressed everyone, even whichever foster parents she’d been living with at the time, as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So.
But she’d lost that particular battle to Eileen when Sophie had started talking. Olivia wondered how she managed to stand upright, considering she didn’t have much of a backbone sometimes. She’d certainly been lacking several vertebrae today—which is why a tall, ruggedly handsome man with short dark hair and intense green eyes was going around calling her boss now and was responsible for her wanting to fall asleep right here in the bathroom.
Spending the day hiding from a fantasy was exhausting.
“Mom, are you listening to me? I asked if Mac and Henry can come with us on our picnic tomorrow.”
“But that’s supposed to be our special you-and-me time, sweetie. I thought you looked forward to our time alone together.”
“It would only be just this once,” Sophie said. “When I told Henry I couldn’t play with him tomorrow because we were going on a picnic, he suddenly got all teary-eyed and said he used to go on picnics with his mama all the time, too. But when he suggested going on one to his father, Mac said maybe they would sometime, only they never have. And I thought if Mac saw how much fun picnics are, he’d start taking Henry every Sunday just like you take me.”
Heaven help her, Sophie was turning into Eileen!
The girl cupped Olivia’s face in her tiny hands and looked directly into her eyes—exactly like Eileen did when she was primed for battle. “Please, Mom, can we take them with us just this once? Your big old sappy heart would have just melted today if you’d seen how sad Henry got. He misses his mama so much, and he… he asked me how I got over missing my dad.”
“And what did you tell him?” Olivia asked past the sudden lump in her throat.
Sophie dropped her gaze to her hands on Olivia’s cheeks, her own baby-soft cheeks turning pink. “I told him I was really little when Daddy died, and that before then I can only remember bits and pieces because he was gone most of the time.” She looked up. “I asked Henry if he had any pictures of his mom, but he got all teary-eyed again and said he hadn’t been able to bring anything from home because his uncles had stolen him out of his bed in the middle of the night.” Her own big brown eyes grew misty. “Isn’t that sad? Henry doesn’t have anything to remind him of his mother.”
“He has his memories, sweetie.”
“But he’s only six. He’s going to forget if he hasn’t got pictures. Sometimes I can’t remember what Daddy looked like when he wasn’t wearing his uniform, so I dig out our photo albums.” Her tiny hands pressed deeper into Olivia’s cheeks. “Please can we take them with us tomorrow? And when you have a chance, could you ask Mac to get a picture of Henry’s mom for him so he won’t forget what she looks like?”
Four hours. All she wanted—all she looked forward to all week—was four hours every Sunday alone with her daughter: away from Inglenook, away from John and Eileen, and away from anything that reminded her of Keith.
“Okay,” she said with a quiet sigh. “Tomorrow at breakfast you can invite Henry and Mr. Oceanus to come with us.”
Sophie threw her arms around Olivia’s neck with a squeal of excitement. “Oh, thank you! He’s going to be so happy!” She pulled away and ran into the hall toward her bedroom. “And we can fly the kites Gram bought us today.” She hopped into bed, burrowing under the blankets when Olivia sat down beside her. “So the surprise place you pick out this week needs to have a really big field.”
She had planned on disappearing for the entire day and driving down to Bangor to take Sophie to a movie and do some shopping, their picnic being in a really nice restaurant for a change. Only that plan was blown to hell now, thanks to the big old sappy heart Sophie had inherited from her.
And the don’t-take-any-prisoners determination she’d gotten from the Baldwins.
Olivia gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead and stood up. “I’ll make sure there’s room for kite flying,” she promised. She shut off the bedside lamp. “And don’t take too long talking to your daddy tonight, okay? You’re up at the crack of dawn with me tomorrow, so we can find a safe place for Tinkerbelle to raise her kittens. The hay truck is coming in a couple of weeks, and we need to move her out of the loft so she can get used to a new nursery for them.”
“The kittens would be safe in my bedroom closet.”
Olivia stopped in the doorway. “Tink’s a barn cat, sweetie, and likes to come and go as she pleases. Even a beautiful home like ours would feel like a prison to her.”
“Mom? Are you ever going to get married again?”
“Not in the foreseeable future, I’m not.”
The young girl gave a soft snort as she folded her hands on her stomach and looked up at the ceiling. “I guess you would need to get a boyfriend first in order to get a husband.” Olivia saw the blankets shudder. “Just as long as it’s not Simon Maher.” Sophie lifted her head to make a face at her. “Ezra told Gram today that Simon is moving to Spellbound Falls. You know he’s going to keep bugging you to go out with him if you don’t just tell him to get lost.” She bolted fully upright. “Or unless you got another boyfriend first. I know; maybe Mac could be your boyfriend.”
“Don’t even go there, young lady.”
“But he’s really big and handsome and strong looking, and a whole lot closer to your age. Simon wouldn’t dare keep bugging you if Mac was your boyfriend.”
“Sophie.”
“And next time we went to the Drunken Moose, I’d get to finish my oatmeal.”
“Sophie.”
“And you wouldn’t have to hide from everyone anymore.” She beamed Olivia a brilliant smile. “Because Mac would protect you, just like he protected you from Mark the bastard.”
“Sophie! You don’t ever call anyone a bastard, young lady.” She stepped back into the room. “Who told you about Mark?”
The blankets pulled up to her chin, Sophie’s cheeks turned a dull red. “Henry did,” she squeaked, her eyes widening as she slapped a hand over her mouth. “But you can’t tell him I told you! And please don’t tell Mac, either. It’s my fault; I kept bugging Henry until he told me how you really hurt yourself yesterday. He said his father didn’t want me to know Mark hit you because he was afraid I’d get upset, but I promised Henry I wouldn’t tell anyone. Please, please don’t tell him I told.”
“I won’t say a
nything to either of them. But you have to promise me you won’t use the word bastard again, okay? And if Henry uses it again, you tell him to stop saying it because it’s a very bad word.”
“I promise, I will. Why did Mark hit you?”
“Because he’s a really dumb kid. And he’s gone home to Georgia, so you don’t have to worry about him, okay?”
Her daughter went back to smiling. “That’s because Mac told him to get out of town before sunset. See, having a strong boyfriend would be handy. Maybe tomorrow on our picnic you could ask Mac if he’d like to go on a date with you. I bet he’d say yes, because Henry told me his father thinks you’re pretty.”
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