Brooke nodded.
Her son tensed. “He doesn’t look friendly at all.” It didn’t matter. The success of this particular job meant the kids had to develop a rapport. So for all their sakes, she would use every one of the skills she possessed to make sure they did.
Chapter Three
Landry grumbled the moment he laid eyes on the supper selections. “There are dead fish on this pizza.”
Brooke knew it was a mistake to have Landry’s first meal with Nate in the formal dining room. The black lacquer table seated fifty. But there was no other place to eat inside the house, since the equally enormous kitchen was set up like a fancy hotel cook space, with stainless-steel counters and massive state-of-the-art appliances. So she had ignored her own instincts—which were to dine at one of the wrought-iron tables outside on the terrace—and gone along with Nate’s suggestion.
Nate looked momentarily taken aback by Landry’s disdain. “I had them put anchovies on only one of the pies.”
Landry stared at the dinner laid out for them, thanks to the local upscale pizza-delivery service. “That purple stuff looks gross, too.”
Nate glanced down at the colorful assortment of veggies topping another crust. “That’s grilled eggplant. And if you don’t like it, you could remove it and just eat the rest of the vegetables.”
That suggestion was met with mute resistance.
“Maybe you could try the Hawaiian pizza,” Brooke suggested kindly.
Landry scowled. “Who puts pineapple and ham on top of cheese and tomato sauce?”
“Actually, you’d be surprised. It’s pretty good.” Cole held out his plate. “I’ll have some,” he said.
Nate cheerfully handed over a generous slice.
“You might like it,” Brooke told Landry.
The boy stared glumly at the last option—a pale pizza with spinach and garlic—then looked back at Brooke. His great-grandmother had only been gone an hour, she thought. Already Landry was near meltdown. Her heart went out to him. Leaving Jessalyn would have been tough under any circumstances. Going to a place he didn’t know, to be with an old family friend he had never met …
She touched his arm lightly and offered a comforting smile. Landry gazed into her eyes, then wordlessly held out his plate. “My mom used to look at me like that, when she wanted me to do something I didn’t want to do,” he muttered beneath his breath.
Which was as close as they were going to get to verbal capitulation, Brooke thought, as she served him a slice of Hawaiian pizza. “You have to eat,” she said, using every ounce of motherly persuasion in her arsenal. “Otherwise, you’re only going to feel worse.”
Landry exhaled, bent his head over his plate, took a bite. Then another … and another.
Nate asked Cole how summer camp was going. Smiling, he launched into an account of everything he had done in the first two weeks. Brooke’s pride in her son’s outgoing nature and accomplished social skills was tempered by her concern for Landry. The orphaned child was so out of his depth here. Worse, she wasn’t sure Nate had the tools to reach him.
“Perhaps your attorney had a point,” she said half an hour later, when the two boys had gone outside to hit some tennis balls around the sport court behind the swimming pool. She cleared the table while Nate put the leftover pizza away. “Maybe you should slow this process down a bit, have Landry get to know you better first.”
“And put him where? Jessalyn’s heart is failing. She’s moving into a retirement village with round-the-clock nursing care tomorrow.”
“She can’t put it off even a short while or move in here with him temporarily?”
“I’ve already suggested both. It is Jessalyn’s opinion that Landry won’t bond with me or anyone else unless there’s no other option. She does think that he’ll enjoy academic camp. Apparently, he’s been extremely bored since school let out for the summer, and he’s as interested in computers and technology as Cole is.” Nate paused. “So I’ll work on getting that set up first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to figure out what to do about the sleeping arrangements tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Brooke asked.
“Initially, I thought I would just put Landry in one of the guest rooms, and have you and Cole bunk in the caretaker’s cottage. Now I’m thinking it might be better to have you all stay in the main house this evening.”
“Or we could simply go home and come back tomorrow,” she offered hopefully.
Nate’s glance narrowed. “I don’t think Landry would like that.”
She sighed. “Probably not.”
Nate stepped closer.
She noticed the evening beard darkening his jaw. It lent a rugged masculinity to his already handsome features. Irritated to find herself attracted to him—again—she stepped back. She had a job to do here. One that did not involve lusting after the boss …
Oblivious to the desirous nature of her thoughts, Nate looked into Brooke’s eyes. “Landry’s bonding with you.”
She felt drawn to him, too. Landry needed a mom in his life again. So much so that he had immediately latched onto her.
But that was no solution, Brooke realized sadly.
She fought getting any more emotionally involved in a situation that was not hers to fix. She was trying to bring balance to her life, not more conflict. “He needs to bond with you, Nate.”
“And he will … over time,” Nate concurred calmly.
A little irked to see him treating this like just another life challenge, when it was so much more than that, Brooke murmured, “Never met a target you couldn’t charm?”
His persuasive smile faded, and with an understanding that seemed to go soul-deep, he murmured, “I never wanted to be in a situation where I had no family.”
But here he was, Brooke thought, unmarried and childless—until today, anyway.
“And I’m certain Landry doesn’t want to be in that situation, either.” Nate paused, before finishing resolutely, “When he realizes we can help each other, he’ll come around.”
Brooke hoped so. Otherwise, all four of them were in for a bumpy ride.
“PSSSST, MOM! Are you still awake?”
Her heart jumping at the urgency of the whisper, Brooke sat up in bed. “Cole?”
The guest room door eased open. Seconds later, Cole and Landry tiptoed in. Both were barefoot, clad in cotton pajama pants and T-shirts. Cole’s were stylish and vibrant: Landry’s were faded and on the verge of being too small.
Promising herself she would get Nate to take care of the clothes issue for Landry as soon as possible, Brooke turned on the bedside lamp. “Why aren’t you two asleep?”
Cole perched on the foot of her bed, then signaled for Landry to do the same. The boy came around to the other side.
It seemed being in the same boat had forged a bond between the two, Brooke noted. Realizing a first tentative step toward Landry’s future had been made, she smiled. Maybe Nate was smarter about all this than she had realized ….
“Because the place is too big and too quiet.” Hands clenched nervously, Landry sat down, too.
“It feels like we’re in a hotel—only we’re the only ones here,” Cole acknowledged with a comically exaggerated shiver. “Which is kind of spooky if you think about it too much.”
Ten thousand square feet of space was