Helga laughed. “Have another baby.”
Mimi stared at her. “I don’t really know what to say to that. How? Why? With whom?”
The housekeeper smiled. “Same way as the first time. Why? So Nanette won’t be lonely. Although I think another baby would be more for you. And the only man you want to father your children is Mason. So, with Mason. That would be best for everyone.”
Mimi jumped as she heard Mason’s boots coming up the stairs. “Uh-oh.”
Helga drifted away, leaving Mimi to face Mason alone.
“What are you doing?” Mason said when he saw Mimi. He noted her suitcase and frowned.
“Well, if you won’t come to the mountain, the mountain must go to you. Or something like that,” she said, feeling very, very nervous.
“Meaning?” he asked with a bigger frown.
“That I’m moving in.” She lifted her chin defiantly, waiting for the storm to erupt.
He shrugged. “Make yourself at home. Pick a room, and ask Helga for towels. Excuse me.”
He disappeared into his bedroom and closed the door. She stood in the hall, her mouth open. Helga peeked her head from around a door frame and gave her a grin before disappearing again.
Mason’s bedroom door jerked open, scaring her half out of her wits, since she hadn’t fully recovered from his acceptance of her decision. She was still in fight-or-flight mode, and the adrenaline hadn’t had time to filter through her body.
“Nanette’s downstairs eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Can you go watch her for me? I need a shower.”
He closed the door. Mimi stood still for one second, then hurried down the stairs. Nanette sat at the table, chewing happily, her hair prickly with straw pieces. “Sweetie!” Mimi exclaimed. “I’ve missed you!” She hugged and kissed her daughter with delight.
Nanette handed her a piece of sandwich. Mimi shook her head. “No, thank you. But it looks delicious.”
“Uncle Mason made it,” Nanette said.
“Oh.” Obviously, Mason hadn’t seen fit to enlighten his daughter to what he was apparently crowing all over the town and to all his brothers. Mimi wondered why Mason hadn’t told Nanette the truth.
Maybe it was because she was so very young. Mimi sat next to her daughter on the bench, wondering how Nanette would react to a truth that would change her life. Was changing it even now.
All thanks to Mason. He was in the process of changing Nanette’s world to the way he thought it should be—and didn’t seem too inclined to include Mimi in his plans.
MASON STOOD UNDER a hot shower, letting the water run over his muscles. He was tense, more from the fact that Mimi was in his house and likely to cause more trouble than from any labor he’d performed.
She had changed his world. With her typical dive into unthinking actions, she had sent him on new paths he’d never thought of exploring. He was a father, had been a father, and she had stolen his chances to experience the wonder of fatherhood fully. She would have justification and reasoning, but this time he would not allow her to sway his mind.
He was extremely angry with her. He wasn’t certain he could forgive her.
And yet, for Nanette’s sake, he was going to have to learn to live with the fact that Mimi was now an inescapable part of his life. There was no running from her or ignoring her now. Over the years, he’d mainly shoved his feelings about Mimi to the background.
Now, in spite of his anger, a very secret part of him was relieved that they were inextricably tied together—and forever so. Another part of him was deeply grateful that she’d given him a child. It was mind-bending, and he hadn’t expected the overwhelming rush of proprietary emotions that came with fatherhood.
So, good or bad, Mimi was impacting him, as always, only on a new level. He should expect Mimi’s influence in his life to grow ever more profound. Good or bad, then: what to do about Mimi?
For Nanette’s sake, he should marry Mimi. Mason stood under the water, unblinking, as the foreign thought stayed in his mind, echoing. For Nanette’s sake….
He shut off the water and toweled off slowly. What other option was there? Providing his daughter with a whole home and family would be the right thing to do.
He had done the right thing all his life. When Maverick left, Mason and his brothers should have been put into foster care. But Union Junction was a small town, and people had known Maverick and his beloved wife. The boys were in church every Sunday and in school during the week. Townspeople weren’t anxious to see a grieved family split up, so Sheriff Cannady stepped in, saying he’d keep an eye on the Jefferson boys. Papers that should have been filed somehow never were; reports to authorities were never made. The family stayed together.
Everyone figured Maverick would come back. By the time anybody finally realized the boys were completely on their own, Mason had turned eighteen, legal age to raise a family if need be. He had done right by his brothers, and Mason was damn proud of it. Family was what made daily existence meaningful. Otherwise life would be simply survival in a lonely, empty void.
Mimi was now part of his family, in a way that no game of pretend between playmates could have made it so. He needed to do right by her and Nanette. But if he was going to marry Mimi, there was a price to pay, and he damn sure expected to make her pay it.
A man needed to be the head of his household. No Mimi-hijinks, or his world would stay continually unsettled. If she thought that because she’d moved herself in here—a fact he admired—she could run his household and therefore his life, she was in for a rude awakening.
If she thought that now that the truth had come out, he would pursue her, she would find herself wrong about that, as well. His brothers had pursued their women, gaga and smitten, until they caught their prey. But he was no hunter. His driving need was for a family that contained no fracture, and he would not play the games of courtship.
Mimi would need to accept his terms.
But first, he intended to let her stew in her own worry and uncertainty, just as he’d done ever since she’d dropped her emotional bomb on him. In fact, she’d dropped a lot of emotional bombs on him over the years, and he was in no hurry to put away his bomb shelter.
Dressed now, he went downstairs to check on Nanette. His daughter sat contentedly working a puzzle, and her mother sat next to her. Mimi looked up at him. “We need to talk.”
He nodded. “I know.”
She hesitated. “Do you have your schedule at hand so I can pencil in an appointment?”
“I have time now.” Might as well see what was on her mind.
“Well, I think it needs to be in private,” Mimi said, her tone uncertain.
“Helga!” Mason called up the stairwell. “Could you come watch Nanette for a few minutes?”
The housekeeper came down the stairs with a smile. “Yes. In fact, I am going into town to check on the sheriff—oh. Sorry,” she said to Mason. “You are sheriff now.”
He shook his head. “Sheriff Cannady will always be ‘Sheriff’ to me, as well.”
Helga smiled. “I have some chicken soup to put on for him.”
Relief was on Mimi’s face, and Mason knew that she hadn’t quite worked out the details of how she was going to stay here with him and Nanette, and yet spend time with her father. Helga had long been taking care of both households. Clearly, Mimi was grateful that could continue, as it