“What do you need?”
“Nothing. Just—” She held her fingers under the water, turned back to the stove, and flicked water on the skillet. The water droplets danced and sizzled, skipping across the pan until they evaporated. “Making sure the skillet’s hot enough.”
“Oh.” He turned off the tap and came to stand behind her. “Neat trick.”
“I’m full of neat tricks.” Using a ladle, she dropped measured amounts of batter into the pan, making four neat pancakes that immediately started sizzling at the edges.
He took a metal spatula from the crockery jar and handed it to her. She held it over the pan and sprayed it with oil but made no move to flip the pancakes.
He leaned forward to get a better look, resting a hand lightly on her hip without even thinking about it. “You gonna flip them?”
“Not yet. Not until the little bubbles on top burst. Have you decided yet about coffee?”
“None for me, thanks. I’m still planning to get a little sleep after this, if that’s okay. I’m looking forward to determining whether your sheets are softer than mine.”
When the pancakes were all done, stacked on a plate and covered with a dish towel, Heather carried the plate to the kitchen table, which was nestled in an alcove with a bay window that looked out onto the horse field.
He helped her set the food on the table, and she set out plates, silverware, and napkins. She stuck a serving spoon in the bowl of berries and another in the whipped cream, then went back to the kitchen. “Have a seat. Fix your plate.” She took the lid off the mason jar of syrup and poured some into a small ceramic pitcher, then zapped it in the microwave. “Don’t be shy. Get as much as you want.”
He loaded his plate, then drizzled hot syrup onto his masterpiece. “Aren’t you gonna call the kids to breakfast?”
She sat next to him and started serving her own plate. “Don’t worry. The pancakes are already calling them. They’ll be down soon enough. If we’re lucky, we might have a few quiet moments before the hordes descend.”
Chapter 6
The hordes descended. First, Jasper barreled down the stairs to skid into the kitchen, his body vibrating with excitement. He lapped some water from his bowl, then put his wet face in Heather’s lap and gazed up at her adoringly with his blue-and-brown-marbled eyes.
She rubbed his silky ears. “Every new day’s an exciting event, huh, Jasper?”
Josh trailed behind more slowly, wearing a pair of rumpled summer pj’s Heather had sewn herself. Josh went straight for the food, catapulting into a chair and grabbing a pancake off the stack. “Yay! Pancakes!” He took a bite before putting the rest of it on his plate and dousing it with syrup.
Then he noticed Adrian. “Hey! You came!” He abandoned his pancake to leap into Adrian’s lap and hug his neck.
“Josh, be polite. It’s not good manners to choke our guest to death.” Heather had been just the teeniest bit worried what the kids would think when they came downstairs and saw a man—even one they knew—sitting at the breakfast table.
Josh, apparently, couldn’t be happier. He sat back, his face alight with joy. “What are you doing here?”
Adrian grinned. “I heard this place had great pancakes. Thought I’d check it out.” Adrian’s smile made his already-handsome face almost unbearably beautiful. Heather felt her cheeks grow warm, then even warmer when Adrian caught her eye.
His smile widened.
He had to know that she was blushing because he was so damn good-looking. It was like having a movie star sitting at her kitchen table. Josh was starstruck too, so starved for an adult male role model that any glimmer of attention from Adrian had about the same effect as plugging the kid into a light socket.
“Josh, would you please let Jasper outside?”
“Yeah, sure!” Jasper jumped out of Adrian’s lap. “I’ll be right back,” he assured Adrian, “as soon as Jasper does his morning poops.”
“Can’t wait,” Adrian replied, smiling at Heather’s embarrassment.
She knew that her windowpane face showed every thought that crossed her mind, so she ’fessed up. “It’s hard having a kid with no social filter between his brain and his mouth.”
Adrian laughed. “I bet it is.”
Caroline came into the room quietly and hung back behind Heather’s chair for a minute before easing forward and climbing into her lap. Heather knew that Caroline wouldn’t show any outward response about Adrian’s presence here, but the wheels were turning behind her solemn green eyes. They’d have to talk about it later, after Adrian left. Heather kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Good morning, sweetie pie.”
Heather didn’t prompt Caroline to say hello to Adrian. Caroline’s extreme shyness had worsened after Dale’s death. She took a while to warm up to new people, and though she’d been introduced to Adrian at the shelter, she hadn’t spent much time in his company. Forcing her to be sociable would only result in a quick and tearful exit. “Do you want me to fix a plate for you?”
Caroline stretched up to whisper in Heather’s ear. “Can I eat in the den?”
“Yes, you can eat in the den. But just for today.”
“Me too,” Josh yelled as he came back inside with Jasper. He loaded another pancake onto his plate and soaked it in syrup. “I want to watch cartoons.”
“Just be careful with all that syrup, okay?” Normally, Heather didn’t allow the kids to eat in the den, except for special popcorn movie nights. But she knew Caroline wouldn’t eat in front of Adrian. She’d just pick at her food and look down at her lap, and that would be awkward for everyone. Heather reached past Caroline to put a pancake on a plate but had trouble reaching the whipped cream.
Without speaking, Adrian spooned a dollop of whipped cream onto Caroline’s pancake, then stuck a strawberry in the center. Heather shook her head no when he reached for the syrup. “That’s perfect, thank you.”
Adrian nodded but didn’t speak. He seemed to understand that Caroline’s anxiety around new people was less severe if there wasn’t too much noise and activity going on.
Josh headed toward the den with his plate in one hand and juice glass in the other. “Come on, Caroline.”
She slipped out of Heather’s lap and carried her food carefully into the den. Jasper fell in line behind Josh, looking up at his syrup-laden plate.
“Do. Not. Feed. That. Dog.” Heather stressed each word. “You remember what happened last time.”
“What happened last time?” Adrian whispered when the kids left the room.
“Josh never would listen when we told him why it was wrong to sneak food to Jasper. Dale threatened that if it happened again, Josh would have to clean up the mess. So even though Josh was only four at the time, when he fed the dog syrup and pancakes, Dale made sure that Josh learned the hard way that people food can be hard on a dog’s digestive system.”
“You’re telling me that last time was two years ago?”
Heather chuckled. “Yes. And it made a never-to-be-forgotten impression.”
“Wow. So Dale was a tough disciplinarian, huh?”
She nodded. “Absolutely. I could never have followed through with that threat, but Dale never said anything he didn’t mean. He was dependable that way.”
The TV came on in the den, and after a brief argument, Caroline came to the doorway to complain about her brother hogging the remote (a usual thing), then saw Adrian and scuttled back into the den. Adrian waited a second, then spoke quietly, his expression compassionate. “I guess Caroline is a little bit shy.”
Heather couldn’t help letting her frustration show. “Thank you for putting it so kindly in that colossal understatement.” She folded her napkin, then folded it again and again into ever-smaller squares. “Caroline used to be a little bit shy. But when Dale died, her shyness became off-the-charts paralyzing. She turned into a different child overni
ght.”
“How is Josh doing?”
“Fine, except for the fact that he spends every other afternoon in the principal’s office.”
Adrian’s eyebrows went up. “What for? He seems like a sweet kid.”
“He is. But he doesn’t take kindly to bullying, and when someone hurts his feelings, especially on purpose, he sometimes forgets to use his words instead of his fists.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. It must be hard for you.”
“It’s been hard on everyone. Erin has been a big help, but…” Heather hesitated but reminded herself that Adrian already knew the truth of what she was about to say. “I realized last night that I’ve been depending on her too much. She’s been so grown-up, I’ve…” She cleared her throat, but the lump she felt forming there didn’t go down. “I thought that since she was so good at taking care of her siblings, I could trust her to take good care of Charlie too. I should have checked behind her.”
Adrian opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again without speaking. Anyway, he didn’t need to. He had already told Heather what he thought last night, and she really didn’t need to hear it again.
“Don’t worry.” She unfolded her napkin and started rolling it against the table instead, forming the flimsy paper into a tube shape. “I’ll take care of Charlie from here on out. Erin needs to get back to being a normal teenager, not just my mini-me.”
Adrian put a hand over hers, stilling her nervous fingers. “Would you like to start working on my napkin?” He handed it over. “Yours is about shredded.”
She chuckled, though his lame offer had the opposite effect of the comic relief he had intended. She felt her eyes fill with tears. Slipping her hand out from underneath his, she used the napkin to blot her eyes. At least she hadn’t put on any makeup after her shower. She had deliberately left her too-blond eyelashes naked so he wouldn’t think she was trying to seduce him.
Which, when she thought of it, was ridiculous. She looked sideways at Adrian—who made tons of money and made Henry Cavill look like a troll by comparison. Adrian Crawford was not about to fall for an overcommitted single mom with three troubled children. He probably dated a different Victoria’s Secret model in every city he traveled to for his work. And Heather was no Elsa Hosk.
She didn’t mind not being Elsa Hosk, though. She never had. Even in high school, she hadn’t let her generous curves give her a body image complex. She hadn’t let her buxom bosom and shapely hips stop her from trying out for cheerleader and making the squad or from becoming head cheerleader by her senior year. She liked to think it was because of her intrinsic emotional stability, but it was also because Dale had loved her, every inch of her, exactly as she was.
Adrian’s lips quirked in a charming, slightly quizzical grin. “You gonna cry or what?”
She snorted. “No, I’m not gonna cry. It was touch-and-go there for a second, but I’m okay now.”
Heather heard Erin come down the stairs, and she took a breath to steady herself. Against what, she wasn’t quite sure. Erin could be mercurial. How she’d act when seeing Adrian sitting at the breakfast table was anyone’s guess. Heather turned to look over her shoulder as Erin walked into the room, her slippers scuffing on the tile floor. “Erin, you remember Adrian from the shelter.”
“Oh.” Erin wouldn’t have sounded any more shocked if she’d come into the kitchen to find a spaceship had landed inside their house. She tightened the sash of the thin cotton robe she wore over her pj’s. “Yeah. Hey.”
“I stayed to help with Charlie,” Adrian explained, his deep voice casual.
“Is Charlie…?” Erin’s shock forgotten, she rushed up to sit at the table. “Is he okay?” Her blue-eyed gaze pinged between Heather and Adrian. “Is he going to be okay?”
“The vet’s coming to check him out in a couple hours,” Heather said, “but, yes, we think he’s going to be okay.”
Erin wilted with relief, and even reached out to touch Adrian’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for helping with him. Mom and I couldn’t have gotten him up on our own. We tried.”
“I know you did,” Adrian said. “I’m glad I was close enough to come and help out.”
Heather was grateful he didn’t mention the state they’d found Charlie’s stall in last night. She would have the conversation with Erin sometime today, but not until they were alone. She passed an empty plate to Erin. “Eat your pancakes before they get cold.”
***
A light tap on the guest room door woke Adrian from a sound sleep. He wasn’t sure whether Heather’s sheets were better than his, but he’d slept like a rock from the moment his head touched the fluffy down pillow. He sat up and rubbed his face.
“Adrian, it’s Heather.”
“Yeah. Come on in.”
She didn’t. She spoke through the closed door. “Mack’s on his way, but you don’t have to get up.”
“No, I’ll come. I want to check on Charlie.”
She opened the door a crack and peeked in, then opened it all the way. She held his clothes, clean and folded. “Here are your clothes.” She stepped into the room and set the neat stack of clothing on the bedside table, then stepped back again to hover in the doorway. “I already checked on Charlie once before I went to sleep.”
“And?”
“He’s doing good.”
Adrian sat up on the edge of the bed, blinking to clear the cobwebs.
“There’s coffee downstairs.” She was apparently the kind of person who knew what was needed before being asked.
“That sounds good.” He’d be willing to bet that she made good coffee too.
“See you downstairs.” She closed the door behind her.
He changed back into his clothes and made the bed, leaving the sweats and T-shirt she’d loaned him folded at the foot of the bed. When he got downstairs, he found her sitting at the table with a mug of coffee, gazing out the window with her chin propped on her hand. He couldn’t decide whether she looked sad, pensive, or just relaxed. She straightened and turned toward him, then smiled. “Everything’s on the kitchen counter. Help yourself.”
Relaxed, he decided. He poured his coffee, added sugar but no cream, then joined her at the table. Jasper sat at her feet—actually, he was lying on her feet—but the kids weren’t around, and the vibe of the house seemed to reflect their absence. No TV playing in the den, no video game sounds from a bedroom, no sounds of kids yelling outside. A sense of quiet calm reigned, sort of like at his loft but without the loneliness—which, he reminded himself, he was totally used to and didn’t mind one bit. He enjoyed his own company. “Where are the kids?”
“Erin’s at a friend’s house.”
Noting his incredulous expression, Heather lifted her chin. “I know she deserves to be punished for neglecting Charlie and lying to me, and she will be, but not until we have enough time and privacy for that discussion.”
“Makes sense. And anyway, not my place to judge.”
“And yet…” She gave him a quick, steely-eyed glance before looking away. “Josh and Caroline went to spend the night with Sara’s son, Max. She picked them up about an hour ago. Sara’s a good friend; we help each other out a lot. She took over the PTA meeting last night when I couldn’t make it because of Charlie. You met her at one of the shelter’s brainstorming sessions, I think.”
He nodded. Willowy redhead who hovered over her son a lot.
“Sounds like you’ve been busy while I was sleeping. Did you get any sleep at all?”
She grimaced. “I tried, but my brain wouldn’t stop churning.” Then she shrugged and smiled. “Anyhow, when you’ve got kids, it’s kind of hard to check out of life during the day. I’ll catch up tonight.”
Jasper sprung up as if someone had stuck him in the butt with a hatpin. Barking maniacally, he scrabbled across the kitchen’s tile floor and hurled himself
at the back door.
“Great alarm system,” Adrian yelled over the earsplitting noise.
Heather stood. “That’ll be Mack.”
They met Mack in the barn. Mack fit the part of a country vet—broad-shouldered and muscular, his dark, no-nonsense hair clipped short. Mack had parked his dirt-caked pickup on the grass by the open door to the field. His assistant sat in the passenger seat looking down.
Beyond Mack’s truck, Adrian’s car sat in the center of the horse field, alone and unprotected from the elements. Adrian had forgotten all about it; he had shut it off intending to come back a few minutes later and head home to New Orleans. He hadn’t even locked the doors, though the chances of someone traipsing through a horse field to hot-wire an unlocked car seemed a less-than-remote possibility.
Jasper leaped up on Mack’s leg, and the man reached down to rub Jasper’s ears. “Hey, good boy.” Mack looked over at Charlie. “Looks like y’all worked a miracle last night. I was mighty worried about that old horse.”
“I was plenty worried myself.” Adrian and his dad had been active in a horse-riding club, so he’d heard a few horror stories of colic cases gone wrong.
Heather went up on tiptoe to wrap her arms around Mack’s burly neck, then held tight for a minute with her head on his shoulder. She didn’t say anything, and neither did he, but he must have been used to this kind of display from his clients because he just stood there and patted her back until she was done hugging. He met Adrian’s eyes over the top of Heather’s head with a you know how it is look.
Mack McNeil was a fifty-ish country vet with a rugged yet tenderhearted appeal that Adrian thought probably made many female hearts go pitty-pat. Mack was also a man’s man who looked capable of making a backwoods camp of weatherproof huts out of willow limbs and palm fronds using only a Swiss army knife and a wedge of flint. Adrian would bet cash money that Mack cut his short, dark hair with the same clippers they used to shave down dogs at the vet’s office, and if he had ever owned a comb or a hairbrush, he had probably long since misplaced them.
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