The Summer Proposal. Judith McWilliams

I need your help. Will needs your help.”

      Julie instinctively shook her head.

      “Please don’t refuse until you’ve heard me out.”

      “All right.” Julie agreed more because she didn’t know what else to say. The truth was certainly not an option. She could just imagine his reaction if she were to say, “So sorry, Caleb, but I can’t help your son because I want to throw my arms around you and kiss you senseless, and it scares me. It scares me because I’ve never felt like this before.”

      Not only that, but it was a feeling that most emphatically didn’t fit into her plans. She already had her future neatly mapped out. In seven or eight years, she intended to find a nice, pleasant man with whom she could build a marriage. A fellow educator who shared her love of teaching and wouldn’t expect her to give it up to play housewife. A man who would be content with one child and would be an equal partner in raising him. A man who would be willing to accept the role she gave him in her life, not try to take it over.

      As she very strongly suspected Caleb would do. The very intensity of his personality would preclude the kind of warm, companionable relationship she intended to settle for. Julie frowned slightly as she realized the word she’d chosen. She wasn’t settling for anything, she mentally refuted her subconscious’s choice of words. That was the type of relationship she wanted. There was no room in her life for a mad, passionate love affair in or out of marriage.

      Besides, she thought with a complete lack of self-deception, chance would be a fine thing. She wasn’t the type of woman who inspired thoughts of unbridled lust in men. All the men she’d ever known had either seen her as the girl-next-door or as the kid sister they’d never had. Even Caleb. She remembered his comment about her looking too young to have graduated from college. Men didn’t whisper sweet nothings in her ear. They told her about the women they were in love with in mind-numbing detail and asked her advice on how to catch them.

      “Please listen,” Caleb responded to her frown, thinking it was in reaction to his request and not her own thoughts.

      “I said I would, and I will,” Julie said, “but that’s all I’m promising.”

      “If you will tutor Will and help me figure out how to muzzle his language, you can name your price,” Caleb said.

      “This isn’t a job that can be totally delegated to a tutor,” Julie said, trying to make him understand the necessity of his being personally involved. “Will is your son, and he needs you.”

      “I know he’s my son, but until two days ago I hadn’t even met him. I had no idea when I set up my work schedule last year that I would have him living with me.”

      “Change your work schedule,” Julie said flatly.

      Caleb ran his fingers through his short dark hair in frustration.

      “It isn’t that easy. I not only have to finalize the plans for a shopping center, but the preliminary plans for the renovation of the high school are also due at the end of next month. Both of them have to be turned in on time because contractors and builders are lined up to act on them. If I cause a delay, it’s going to cost a lot of people a lot of money. Some of whom can ill afford to lose it.”

      “Even without the financial consideration, the kids need that high school fixed,” Julie conceded. “The old one is falling down around their ears.”

      “Just the ceiling tiles,” Caleb said. “And to further complicate matters, Miss Andrews, my secretary, had to leave town last week with no warning because her mother had a heart attack. At the moment, her mother’s in the hospital, and Miss Andrews has no idea when she’ll be able to return.”

      “Miss Andrews?” Julie’s voice rose questioningly. She’d done temporary work in dozens of offices while she was in college and in every one of them the boss had been on a first-name basis with his secretary.