His Two Little Blessings. Mia Ross

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “What a fabulous idea!” Emma approved, eyes sparkling with a childlike enthusiasm that even a pragmatic data hound like him could appreciate. “Maybe they’d like to help me pick out which projects I should include in the slides. I usually do that to show the board some real-life examples of our results and the benefit the kids get from working on their projects.”

      She’d called herself a dreamer the other day, and he was pleasantly surprised to discover that she had a practical streak under all that perky sweetness. “That’s a nice touch, for sure. With the fate of the arts program on the line, this presentation is important to you and a lot of other people here in town. If we both put our minds to it, we’ll have a better chance of getting your proposal approved.”

      She studied him for a few moments before asking, “What about you?”

      “I’m sorry?”

      “You made it sound like the program’s not important to you. If that’s the case, I don’t understand why you’d go to all this trouble to save it.”

      “I’m a numbers guy,” he explained, leaning back in his chair to put a little more distance between them. “But intellectually, I understand the value of creative things.”

      “You liked that landscape painting well enough to pay me a lot of money for it,” she pointed out, clearly baffled by his response. “Or were you just being nice to Caitlin’s new teacher?”

      In spite of his resolve to treat her professionally, he smiled as he shook his head. “No, I really do like it. As you can see, this office needs something.”

      “It needs a lot of somethings,” she corrected him with a cheeky grin. “All these empty beige walls... This must be what the inside of oatmeal looks like.”

      Her comment made him laugh out loud, and through his open door he saw a couple of the other managers stop and stare at him. Their amazed expressions told him they didn’t know he had a sense of humor, and in fairness, he hadn’t given them much reason to think otherwise. As far as his coworkers knew, he was a serious, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of person who worked hard and always got the job done flawlessly and ahead of schedule.

      Now that he thought about it, he seldom laughed unless he was with his girls. Why that had suddenly changed was beyond him, but he couldn’t deny that his lovely guest had something to do with it. Although the easing of his usual composure felt good to him, he recognized that the effect would by necessity be short-lived.

      Once he was finished with the task he’d volunteered for, he and Emma would return to the uncomplicated relationship they’d had since he’d moved to Liberty Creek. She was his daughter’s teacher, and he was her brother’s banker. Simple, straightforward and pleasant.

      The realization should have been comforting to him. But as he helped her scoop up the documents she’d brought with her, there was a sinking feeling in his chest. It only got worse as he walked her to the bank’s main entrance door and said goodbye.

      Back in his office, he sensed that something had changed. It took him a minute, but then he registered the fact that the perfume she wore had lingered behind her, lacing the air with the scent of a summertime garden. The idea of sharing a picnic in the town’s charming gazebo with her flashed into his head.

      At this point in his life, a romantic connection was the furthest thing from his mind, he thought as he resolutely got back to work.

      Allowing himself to fall into a relationship with another woman battling cancer was simply out of the question. After two years of unimaginable heartache, he and his daughters had finally begun to recover from losing Sarah. He had no intention of setting them on that path again.

      Resilient as they were, he wasn’t sure they’d make it through a second time.

       Chapter Three

      “Miss Calhoun is here!” Caitlin sang, sailing down the colonial home’s handcrafted wooden staircase and out the front door before Rick had a chance to respond.

      Clearly amused, Mrs. Fields turned and gave him an indulgent smile. “She really loves her new teacher, doesn’t she?”

      “Cait’s my little Rembrandt,” he said fondly, reaching out to where Aubrey sat at the kitchen table to flip the complex single French braid he’d finally mastered with a little help from an internet discussion board for dads who needed advice on such things. “Aubrey’s going to be a scientist. Right, honey?”

      Munching her apple, she tilted her head with a serious expression. “Or a zookeeper. Or maybe a really good cook, like Mrs. Fields.”

      The grandmotherly woman laughed and hugged her from behind. “Whatever you decide, I’m sure you’ll be the best. I’m just glad to know that girls these days have so many choices of what they want to do for a career. In my day, there weren’t nearly as many options.”

      Fascinated, Aubrey spun partway around in her chair. “What did you want to be?”

      “Oh, it wasn’t very realistic,” the woman responded, waving her hand as if her old dream was something that should be pushed aside and forgotten.

      Ordinarily, Rick took people at their word and didn’t pry beneath the surface of what they said to him. For some reason this time he went the other way. “Maybe not, but it sounds like it meant something to you when you were younger. What was it?”

      After a moment she shook her head with a wistful look. “I wanted to be a music teacher. I love children, and helping them learn new things makes me happy.”

      That explained why she was so wonderful with his girls, Rick thought in admiration. He’d never asked the agency for details on prospective nannies beyond the usual references and salary requirements. It occurred to him that as he’d gotten to know more about her over the past few months, he’d begun to view the cheerful middle-aged woman as more than an employee.

      She felt like part of the family. How had that happened? he wondered. Before he had a chance to ponder it, Caitlin joined them in the kitchen, pulling a laughing Emma behind her.

      “Miss Calhoun said we can call her Emma when we’re away from school. Isn’t that awesome, Daddy?”

      “Very awesome,” he agreed, chuckling as he stood to relieve their visitor of the load she was carrying. Glancing inside the large plastic bin labeled “Art Program,” he looked at her in confusion. “There’s a lot more in here than what you brought to the bank yesterday.”

      “More of the kids’ artwork,” she explained before dropping into the chair next to Aubrey. Peering at the preschooler’s book of animals, she pointed to one of the pictures. “I’ve never seen one of these before. What is it?”

      Always ready to jump in, Caitlin quickly said, “It’s a—”

      Rick cut her off with a shake of his head, and she abruptly fell silent to let her younger sister answer. Aubrey was a little slower to warm up to adults, and he looked for any opportunity to encourage her to interact with people outside her very limited circle.

      To his surprise she quietly confided, “I don’t know.”

      “Me, СКАЧАТЬ