“What about your fiancé. Missing him?”
“There’s another surprise. No.” She laughed. “Finding the man you’re about to marry in bed with his best friend has a way of altering things…in the blink of an eye.”
“His best friend?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“You know, I don’t really want to talk about him.” She managed a smile. “There was a lot of truth to what you said that first night. I dodged a bullet.”
He frowned, clearly still disconcerted about making light of her situation. By this time they’d reached their houses. Rather than head up his sidewalk, he stopped and held her gaze. “He lied to you. That’s not your fault.”
“No, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering if I’d somehow caused it.” If maybe it was her fault that she didn’t turn him on. Maybe she wasn’t feminine enough. Not sexy enough. There was one way to find out. “So I was thinking…maybe we could…I don’t know. Go out to dinner some night.”
“Dinner?” His entire body went still. “You mean just the two of us? That’s not a good idea.”
The intensity of his eyes belied his words. “I’m not talking about anything serious, Adam. Just dinner.” Dessert, hopefully, would come later.
“Sorry. Widower, remember? The kids. The way I move around.” He shook his head. “I don’t date.”
“So that’s it?”
His gaze traveled all over her face and settled on her lips. His eyes darkened, almost as if he might reconsider. Then he turned and started up the walk. “That’s it.”
Apparently, she wasn’t woman enough for Adam Harding, either. That is, if she bought his excuse lock, stock and barrel. Which she didn’t. Colin and his betrayal might’ve thrown Marin for a loop, but she was pretty sure Adam was attracted to her and fighting it.
This wasn’t over. Not yet, anyway.
A DATE. ADAM HADN’T BEEN on a real date since high school, since Beth. Even if he could fathom returning to that scene, he wouldn’t have had a clue what to do, how to act, what was appropriate. Not that Marin hadn’t tempted him with her offer.
As he opened the front door to his house and stepped inside, he glanced back at Marin. Head down and lost in thought, she was stalking back to her house like a woman on a mission. Very likely, she wasn’t used to taking no for an answer. Cool, calm and all-business women had never really been his type, but she sure filled out running gear nicely.
Not gonna happen. Not now. Not ever.
On a sigh, he walked into the house and Phyllis, looking stressed out, met him at the door.
“It’s about time.” She handed him a stack of phone messages. “These are critical. The rest I’ve left for tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Phyllis.” He glanced through the calls he’d missed. “How did it go with the kids?”
“Fine. They’re playing outside.” She grabbed her laptop and several files. “I’m out of here, thank God. I can get back to my real job on Monday morning, right?”
“Yep. Angelica’s set to go.”
“Great.” She was already halfway out the door. “See you Monday.”
Adam set his own laptop and messages on his home office desk and then walked toward the rear of the house.
Julia spotted him in an instant and came running inside. “Hi, Daddy!”
“Hey, sweetie.” His gaze caught a basket full of clean clothes that still needed to be folded and another load lying on the floor still needing to be washed.
Wyatt ran at him from outside and hugged his leg. “Daddy! I’m hungry.”
“Me, too!” Julia said, bouncing up and down. “Can we go out to dinner tonight and go shopping?”
“Shopping? For what?”
“School starts soon. We need to get stuff.”
He stopped and closed his eyes. He’d all but forgotten about school starting, and it’d take a trip to Ashland to get what they needed. All the work he had to do between now and then piled up like a checklist inside his mind. “Honey, Mirabelle doesn’t have the kind of stores we need, and I’m not sure—”
“Daddy, it’s a…ritual. Everybody goes school shopping.”
“I want a backpack,” Wyatt added. “I need one, right, Julia?”
“You need supplies, too,” Julia said, nodding. “And a jacket. And some new jeans.”
She was right. The island was going to start getting chilly and most of Julia and Wyatt’s clothes were suited to warmer climates. Still, he couldn’t afford a day away from the construction site.
“I can’t manage the time away right now,” he said. “I’m sorry. We’ll get on the computer together tonight and order online what you need for the first couple weeks of school. I’ll make sure it’s shipped here on time. That’s going to have to do.”
“Okay,” Julia said, sounding miserable. “Will you take us another time?”
“Sure.”
“Promise?”
He wasn’t going to promise. He’d done that and hadn’t followed through too many times. “I’ll do my best. Now let’s go figure out what we’re having for dinner.” He was going to have to make time to go grocery shopping this weekend, too.
A date. As if Adam had the time.
CHAPTER SIX
“YOUR HOUSE LOOKS JUST like ours.” The young girl’s voice came from the kitchen along with the sounds of the patio door sliding open and an umbrella being shaken out.
What were they doing here? Marin frowned. Her mother had promised she’d babysit the Harding kids where they belonged. At the Harding house.
From Marin’s position, stretched out on the couch in the living room reading—devouring, might be a better word—another one of Missy’s romance novels, she couldn’t see the three, but she could hear them. All morning, as a warm, late summer rain had been drizzling down, she hadn’t moved off the couch except to eat, drink and use the bathroom. Now, she wondered if she shouldn’t head upstairs in an effort to maintain this uncharacteristic sense of tranquility.
“I hadn’t noticed until now, but our house does look a little like yours, doesn’t it?” Angelica said. “Except you have a fireplace.”
“That rain makes me thirsty,” Wyatt said.
At that, Marin smiled. Rain always made her thirsty, too.
Marin’s mother and Missy both appeared in the entryway to the living room. Missy was holding a clear plastic storage box filled with what looked like art supplies.
“I thought we agreed you’d be watching those kids at their house,” Marin whispered.
“We did, and I will,” her mother replied. “Most of the time. But I wanted to do a messy project with them.”
“So you’d rather destroy our kitchen,” Marin said. “Why don’t you go over to Missy’s?”
“Jonas is getting the boys down for a nap and we didn’t want to keep them awake,” Missy explained. “What have you been doing all day? I thought you might stop by to visit.”
“Reading.”
“All day? You? Lying on the couch?”
“Miracles