Fairy-Tale Family. Pat Montana

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СКАЧАТЬ cupboard and filled them with bear-faced pancakes, adding lots of butter and syrup.

      Stalling again.

      She had to convince Mitch Kole to go back to Colorado. He’d made it clear that he hadn’t wanted to come in the first place, so the task shouldn’t be too difficult. Gathering courage, she set the plates in front of her sons.

      “Eat up. guys.”

      “S‘pose I could get that cup of coffee now?”

      “Coffee—?” Omigod. She’d completely forgotten. Rattled by another of Mitch’s breathtaking smiles, she poured the mug too full. Steamy brown liquid sloshed onto the counter.

      Mitch lifted the mug, and she swiped away the puddle with a cloth, ignoring the inquiring rise of his dark brows. He was watching her too closely. She recognized that look. Once Peter had watched her like that, when she’d been young and rebellious and smitten with his promises. Before they’d had children.

      Peter had made her giddy, the way only an eighteen-year-old could feel. Mitch’s regard stirred something else, something that made her nervous and selfconscious and short of breath. Something that made her spill coffee and made her heart race. Whatever it was, she knew she had reason to be alarmed.

      King had told her Mitch wasn’t a family kind of man. She’d already known that kind of man.

      “These are my children, Mr. Kole.” She presented them to him with a wave of her hand, her protectors, her talismans against whatever weakness it was in her that Mitch’s charm touched. She was well aware that four children under the age of ten would ward off just about any kind of man.

      He continued to watch her too closely, with just a shadow of a smile. “Call me Mitch.”

      Ellie regrouped her defenses. “This is Gabe, my oldest. He’s ten. Michael’s going on nine. Rafe just turned six....” Pride filled her as each of the boys offered a reluctant hand “...and you’ve met Seraphina.”

      “I’m four years old and two months,” Seri piped up, holding up four fingers. “We’re The Angels,” she added. “Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and—”

      “Seri!” Instantly Ellie regretted her sharpness.

      “We used to be The Angels,” Seri said softly. “Before...”

      Ellie’s throat tightened with contrition. “Sweetheart, I’m sure Mr. Kole isn’t interested—”

      “Oh, but I am.” He eased onto the empty stool beside Seri. “You’ll call me Mitch, won’t you, Princess?”

      she nodded eagerly.

      “Good. Then tell me, who’s Bubba Sue?”

      “Don’t you know? Bubba Sue’s King’s dog.”

      “King’s dog? Well, I’ll be a—” He looked down at the little dog curled up under the stools. “I’m surprised her name’s not Queeny.”

      Seri giggled.

      With a sinking heart, Ellie watched her wide-eyed daughter warm to Mitch. In spite of Peter’s haphazard fathering, Seri missed her daddy. Ellie didn’t want her daughter filling his absence with Mitch’s easy appeal. She didn’t want her hurt all over again.

      Like mother, like daughter—both suckers for those Prince Charming types. Ellie would have to teach Seri better. Right after she convinced Mitch Kole to leave.

      “Hey, Mom, it’s five past nine.”

      Gabe’s too-grown-up voice interrupted her worries. Almost gratefully, she grabbed at the safety of routine.

      “Okay, kids, Saturday morning schedule. Michael, kitchen, Rafe, bathrooms, Seri, beds. Gabe, I need you in the store to move boxes. If anybody needs anything, remember the bell.”

      She hurried to the stairs leading to the shop below, glancing back for one last check. Burners off, pan in the sink, nothing harmful left untended.

      Except Mitch Kole.

      “We have things under control here, Mr. Kole. You can go visit your father right away. I’m sure he’ll be glad you came. Please tell him we’ll be there this evening.”

      Mitch’s watchful gaze sent her backing down the stairs. “I—uh—guess we won’t see you again, so I hope you have a very nice life in Colorado.” She marched down three more stairs. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have things to—”

      The telephone made her stop. Through the stair railing, she watched Rafe snatch the ringing phone from the counter.

      He punched it on. “Daddy? Oh.” The hope in his dark eyes faded quickly. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay.” Dejectedly he punched the Off button.

      Ellie’s heart ached for her son. She had to make Rafe give up that phone—soon. “Who was it, sweetheart? What did they want? You should have let me talk.”

      “It’s okay, Mom. It was just King. He said...he’ll bring him home from the hospital.” He pointed at Mitch.

      Ellie lurched back up the stairs. “Home? Did he say when?”

      “Um...yeah.” Rafe laid the phone back on the counter. “I think he said...tomorrow.”

      Mitch stood outside the doorway to his father’s narrow room staring at the high, four-poster bed his mother had loved, trying to ignore the memories. Now was not the time to brood over the past. He had a problem to solve here.

      “I thought you’d be at the hospital by now.”

      Somehow he managed not to turn, though he couldn’t mistake Ellie’s voice. Or her challenge. “I didn’t expect you back from the store so soon.” He sure as hell didn’t want to see her again now. Especially not here.

      “The high school kid who works weekends came in early.”

      Hell, Ellie practically looked like a high school kid herself. Too young to have four kids. Too damned young to be living with—No. He shoved down the anger. Her relationship with his father was none of his business.

      “I thought I’d check the place out first, get an idea of what King will need.”

      “That’s what I tried to tell you at breakfast.” Without looking up at him, she brushed past and into the room. “You can go back to Colorado right away. We’ll take care of King.”

      He should be glad she was avoiding him. But heaven help him, he wanted to look into those blue eyes. “You can’t take care of him by yourself.”

      She still wouldn’t look at him. “Yes, I can. The kids and I can take perfectly good care of him.”

      “There’s hardly space in this room for one person to move around. He won’t be able to get in and out of that bed.”

      Ellie pulled herself to her full height and turned to frown at him. “We can help him.”

      “We? Who else are you planning to СКАЧАТЬ