Eden shifted on the seat beside him. Her prim skirt brushed against his leg. An innocent occurrence that connected them for half a second and sent a current of awareness through him. Quickly she smoothed the cloth away, and he controlled the urge to lean closer. She might project a cool, calm demeanor, but there were still traces of the younger, skittish Eden. She’d obviously been hurt by men, and he was her employer, a man she had a right to trust.
“My troublemaking days are over,” he assured her.
“Because of your…”
“My blindness? No. It’s because I choose for them to be over.” Which implied that he might just as easily choose to start them up again.
She nodded. “What else do you do?” she asked, and he saw then that she had pulled out a pad of paper.
He reached out and gently pulled it away. He took her hand and felt her long, slender fingers in his grasp.
“I’ll help you with your research when I can, and I’ll even try the instruments out when it’s necessary, but don’t use me as your model. The things I do—well, it wouldn’t be wise to make those kinds of promises to a child or a parent. I don’t want to be a role model. That’s not me.” And never had been.
He felt her tremble and take a deep breath. “You’re not still the wild one?” she asked, raising her chin as if daring him to answer.
He laughed and gave her back her hand. “Not as wild as I’d like to be. I’m a businessman these days. Boring.”
“We’ll see,” she said with a smile of her own. “And I won’t make any promises I can’t keep to a child. I don’t like disappointing them.”
Something warmed inside him. “Ashley chose well,” he said.
She shrugged. “I’m her cousin, and she knew I needed the money.”
“No. She’s a pro. It’s more than that. Despite your situation, she wouldn’t have recommended you if you weren’t suitable. You care about kids more than the average person, don’t you?”
“I don’t know about that, but I like them a lot. I even plan to have a few of my own, even without a husband. And I want to start a private school where I can help disadvantaged children and make the ones who never feel special realize their potential. So don’t think I won’t consider your children’s needs first. I’ll run everything by you before I make any promises.”
Your children. Jeremy’s breath froze in his throat. He’d never gone so far as to think of them in those terms.
“They’re not mine. I don’t want to stake a claim on those children or have my own. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.”
She bit her lip. “I just meant—I spoke without thinking.”
Jeremy instantly regretted his knee-jerk reaction. He shook his head. “No, I overreacted. But having a family or children…that’s completely out of the picture for me.”
Thank goodness Eden had just told him that she intended to have some. Because while he found her desirable and could tell she wasn’t immune to him, her need to be a parent threw up an impassable barrier that would keep them apart. That was good. It would make working with her in close quarters much easier.
“Jeremy?”
“If you need anything, just ask,” he said. “And if you don’t eat and take care of yourself you won’t be any good for me or for helping the children.” His tone was light, but he meant every word.
Her answering laugh was delicious.
“What?”
“Forgive me, but that was such a pathetic ploy to get me to eat breakfast. I would think that someone who’d been born a rebel would know more about getting a rebellious person to do something,” she said, rising.
He followed her up so that they were both standing. “What do you mean?”
She tilted her head. “When you were a kid breaking all the rules, what would someone have to do or say to persuade you to do things their way?”
He knew what she was trying to do. “Nothing would have persuaded me if I really didn’t want to do something,” he told her in a low, conspiratorial voice.
For half a second she looked disappointed, but then she quickly recovered. “Exactly. And if I don’t want to eat breakfast, you can’t make me.”
He grinned at her.
But Eden was looking aghast. “I didn’t mean that to come out the way it did. That sounded childish, didn’t it?”
“It’s okay, Eden. I know you’re new at this rebellion thing. You always did what was expected of you, didn’t you?”
She frowned. “Always.” And then a triumphant look came over her. “That’s why I need to assert myself now and be a bit more forceful.” She picked up her pad of paper. “No matter what you think the children can and cannot do, I think that matter might be open to speculation. No one should be limited by one person’s opinion. Each person is an individual and some can do more than others, right?”
Okay, now he knew she was trying to manipulate him, but he couldn’t help applauding her tenacity. “I’m sure you’re right, Eden,” he said.
“Now…what other hobbies do you have besides running?” she asked, fishing a pen from the pocket of her skirt.
Appreciating how a woman looks when she believes she’s about to experience something wonderful came to mind.
Irrelevant, he reminded himself. And anyway, she had bested him and deserved to be rewarded for her efforts. “I play basketball when I can get Donald in a free moment,” he said, searching around for one of the less challenging of his activities. Nothing where a child would get hurt.
“Basketball? That’s wonderful.”
“Do you play?”
“No. I’m afraid I’ve never been good at anything physical.”
If he’d been drinking coffee he would have choked. As it was, she was the one who looked flustered.
“I mean, I never played sports in school.”
“Then you might have a talent for the physical that you haven’t discovered,” he said.
She looked up at him, blushing furiously. “I might, but I probably won’t find out. Too busy. Work to do.” And she scooted away, headed for his library.
Jeremy wondered which one of them had won that bout, but then he shook his head. Maybe both of them had won. Somehow he had managed not to touch her. Which was, of course, a good thing.
Eden carefully closed the library door behind her, then shut her eyes and slid to the floor. Her heart was racing faster than the winner of the Kentucky Derby. That interlude with Jeremy, all that sparring had been…
Invigorating, exciting. “Dead wrong,” she muttered. He was her boss, not some teenage fantasy crush she was still nurturing. And yet, when he had held her hand, it had been all she could do to sit still. She probably shouldn’t have challenged him. She was out of her league. With Jeremy, and in this town, she had always been out of her league.
But at least I got him to help me. She looked down at the almost-empty sheet of paper. Only one item was listed, but she had added to the knowledge she’d need to help any children. From here on out, she was going to absorb as much as she could by observing Jeremy.
Because while she wanted to escape the crushing weight of debt, the bad memories of this town and the all-too-potent aura of the man, she