Marjorie looked rather smugly satisfied that her plan had worked out. Teresa couldn’t read Riley’s expression.
She wasn’t sure what emotions her face might reveal, since she wasn’t at all sure what she was feeling about the prospect of living next door to Riley O’Neal.
Hearing noises in the driveway next door, Riley stepped out his front door to investigate and discovered Teresa and the kids moving in.
It looked as if she had plenty of assistance. Teresa drove a bright orange rental van. Marjorie, her daughter, Serena, and Serena’s husband, Cameron North, followed in another vehicle. All were dressed in jeans and casual shirts and looked ready to get to work. Fortunately it was a nice day, sunny and not as stiflingly hot as September had been.
Teresa looked very nice in her jeans and cherry red pullover, he couldn’t help noticing, his gaze drawn inexorably to her. With her hair in a ponytail and her feet clad in trendy sneakers, she certainly didn’t look old enough to have two school-age children.
When he’d discovered at the football game last weekend that she had children, he’d decided she must be divorced. He had come home from the game with a promise to himself that he had asked her out for the last time. He’d always been resolute in his determination not to date women with children. He’d seen too many kids hurt by adults moving in and out of their lives.
His best friend in high school had come from a broken home and had suffered through a series of his parents’ girlfriends and boyfriends and the occasional stepparent and step siblings. Nick had once confided in Riley that it hurt every time he got attached to someone new only to have them leave him without a backward glance when the adult relationships ended. Riley didn’t ever want to put himself in the position of hurting a child.
Learning that Teresa was widowed rather than divorced had been almost as big a shock as discovering that she had children. It had never occurred to him that she might be a widow until Marjorie had described her as a “dear, widowed friend.” Teresa was so young, so close to Riley’s age. Her children were so small to have already lost their father. He suspected it was that surprise revelation that had made him change his mind about renting to someone with kids. His sympathy, for once, had overridden his selfishness.
He’d have to be careful or he’d ruin his reputation in this town, he mused wryly.
“Hey, Riley. You just going to stand there and stare or are you going to get over here and help me carry some of this stuff?” Cameron called when he spotted Riley standing on his stoop.
Pulling his hands from the pockets of his jeans, Riley resigned himself to a couple of hours of manual labor—something else he usually avoided whenever possible. “Just remember you’re only my boss at the newspaper,” he reminded his editor as he approached the rental van.
Cameron grinned, his golden hair gleaming in the early afternoon sun. “No problem. I have a feeling neither of us is going to be the boss on this job.”
“Cameron, you should probably unload the bedroom furniture first,” Marjorie called from the open doorway of the apartment. “I think it will be better to carry things upstairs before we start downstairs.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cameron replied to his mother-in-law.
“Oh, Riley, how nice. You’ve come to help.” Marjorie gave him a smile of approval before adding, “You boys make sure you don’t bump the stairway walls with the furniture, you hear? You don’t want to scuff those nice freshly painted walls.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Riley said.
Cameron chuckled and murmured, “See what I mean?”
Mark and Maggie dashed out the open front door, followed closely by Teresa and Serena. “Hi, Riley! We’re going to live in your house,” Maggie announced as if he hadn’t already known.
“Not exactly in the same house,” Mark corrected her impatiently. “Only in half of it.”
Unconcerned with details, she shrugged. “I picked my room,” she confided to Riley. “It’s the one with the white fan. I like that one best. Mommy gets the biggest room and Mark gets the other.”
“That sounds like a good arrangement.”
“My room’s closest to the stairs,” Mark said, claiming his own bragging rights. “It’s the best.”
“No, mine’s best,” Maggie insisted.
Teresa settled the brewing argument swiftly. “You each have the room that’s best for you.” She gave Riley a slightly distracted smile. “The paint job looks great. You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
He shrugged. “It was something I’d already planned to do. The old paint looked dingy. I’ve been on the painter’s schedule for a couple of weeks. I’m glad he was able to get the job done before you moved in.”
“Can we unpack my stuff first?” Maggie requested. “I want to fix up my room.”
“We’ll unpack everything when we get to it,” Teresa assured her. “Why don’t you and Mark go check out the backyard while we carry some things inside?”
“But I want to help the guys,” Mark insisted, moving closer to Riley.
“Me, too,” Maggie added.
“We’ll find things for them to carry,” Cameron assured Teresa in a low voice that Riley overheard. “They want to feel useful.”
“Just don’t let them get under your feet.”
“They’ll be fine.” Cameron turned to the van. “Okay, let’s get some of these boxes out of the way so we can get to the furniture.”
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Teresa said to Riley. “I have plenty of help if you have other things you need to do today.”
“I don’t mind,” he said carelessly, and was almost surprised to realize it was the truth. “It’ll earn me a few brownie points with my employers.”
She smiled a little at the joke, then turned to take a box from Cameron. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder to Riley.
“Thank him after he’s actually done something,” Cameron suggested. “Riley, let’s get this dresser first. It has to go upstairs.”
Riley winced, pushed up the sleeves of his long-sleeved T-shirt and prepared to sweat. “Okay. Let me at it.”
He soon noticed that Teresa had brought just enough belongings to furnish the few rooms of the duplex apartment. She didn’t have an overabundance of possessions, but what she had looked very nice. Riley would almost bet another day of hard labor that some of the items he and Cameron carried to her bedroom were rather nice antiques. She had good taste.
Every tidbit he learned about Teresa Scott only increased his curiosity about her. Which might not be a good thing, he reflected, considering that he was always too easily intrigued by a puzzle.
Just before six, when almost everything had been brought inside, Marjorie laid out sandwiches for an early light dinner. It provided everyone a welcome break from hauling and arranging furniture and toting and unpacking boxes. Even the kids were starting to wear down, their excitement over the novelty of the move fading. Gathered around the kitchen table while the children picnicked on a tablecloth spread on the floor, the adults chatted for a while, something they’d been too busy to do so far.
“So you and Serena were college roommates?” Riley glanced from Teresa to Serena as he asked the question, finally clearing up the connections between this group.
“Yes.” Teresa sent Serena a quick smile. “I finished high school a year early and I was a bit younger than the average college freshman. I was scared spitless. It helped to discover that I’d been assigned a very nice and friendly roommate.”
“And