Clair was a city girl, and until she heard the ease with which Jace Brimley persuaded the woman he’d called to let Clair stay with her, she didn’t believe anyone would do such a thing. But less than two minutes later he hung up and turned back to her.
“It’s all set. Rennie’s glad to have the company.”
“Just like that? Without knowing me from Adam? What if I’m a crazed serial killer or something?”
That made him smile, and if she’d thought he was good-looking before, it was nothing compared with how he looked when that sculpted face was lit with amusement.
“Are you a serial killer?” he asked with a laugh that creased the corners of his eyes and drew very sexy lines down the center of each cheek.
“Not on my good days. But still…”
“I don’t think she’s worried. She said for you to go on over and she’d get you settled in. Then tomorrow—if you’re interested—you can come out to the ranch with Willy and me. Start gettin’ to know him. Lettin’ him get to know you.”
“I’d like that.”
Since there didn’t seem to be any more to say, Clair stood and headed for the door.
Her host reached it before she did and opened it for her. “Rennie’s place is just to the right. Rennie Jennings. You’ll like her. She’s great.”
For no reason Clair understood, she suddenly searched his expression and analyzed his tone, wondering much more than she should have if there was affection for the other woman in either.
But she couldn’t tell if there was more between Jace Brimley and Rennie Jennings than neighborliness, and she was just left wondering and feeling something oddly—and inappropriately—like jealousy.
She tamped it down and pushed aside the very notion that she might care whether Jace Brimley was involved with his neighbor, and said, “Thanks for not slamming the door in my face.”
His square brow wrinkled in a confused frown. “Why would I have done that?”
Clair shrugged. “Someone else might have. They might not have welcomed my showing up out of the blue. Horning in.”
“Lives have room for a lot of people in them. I don’t see any harm in Willy knowin’ he has an aunt who cares enough to come all the way from Chicago to see him.”
It was a nice way to look at things, and Clair was grateful for it. She also felt a little guilty for having ulterior motives.
But she only smiled and kept the truth to herself.
“We usually get out of here pretty early, but seein’ as how we’ll have company, why don’t you come back at nine?” he suggested.
“Nine it is,” Clair agreed as she stepped back out onto the porch.
“I’d walk you over to Rennie’s, but if I drag this boy away from Barney we’ll have a half hour fit on our hands.”
“It’s all right. It’s enough that you arranged for a place for me to stay. I can introduce myself.”
“Tomorrow at nine, then. Come comfortable.”
“Tomorrow at nine,” she repeated.
And with that she said good-night and went back to her car to get her suitcase.
Jace Brimley didn’t go into the house then, though. He stayed on the porch, watching her until she’d rung the bell on the house next door.
As Clair waited for the bell to be answered she marveled at what she’d found in this particular small town. A shopkeeper friendly enough to introduce herself, a man who hadn’t balked at all at her sudden appearance in his life and instead had found her a place to stay so she could be near her nephew, and a woman willing to open her home to a total stranger.
In comparison to what she was used to, Clair felt as though she’d just landed on another planet.
And in comparison to other men she knew—less polite, less considerate, more threatened, and much, much less gorgeous—Jace Brimley seemed like something from another world, too.
But she wasn’t there to be impressed by Jace Brimley, she reminded herself as she heard Rennie Jennings coming to the door.
She was there to connect with her nephew. To convince Jace Brimley that she should be the person to raise William.
And that was exactly what she intended to do.
Chapter Two
Willy didn’t do it every morning, but he did it often enough that Jace didn’t even open his eyes when he felt the little boy get into bed with him. He didn’t have to look at the clock to know it was about 4:00 a.m., either. When Willy got into bed with him it was always about 4:00 a.m.
Jace didn’t mind.
He was lying on his back, his hands on his chest, and he just stretched one arm up and out along the second pillow so that the toddler could burrow into his side like a pup looking for warmth.
It made him smile, and once Willy was situated and settled, Jace gazed down at him.
Yep, there he was, curled up to him as close as he could get, sound asleep again, one index finger poked through his security washcloth to rub it methodically against his chubby cheek.
Jace didn’t really understand the appeal of the washcloth. He knew some kids got attached to blankets and stuffed toys, but a washcloth? He couldn’t figure that one out. It had been a stocking-stuffer the year before last—a washcloth with a big, goofy-looking Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on it. Kim had said that Willy wouldn’t go down for a nap or a night’s sleep without it, and for a while after the accident he hadn’t let go of it for a single minute.
But now he was back to just wanting it to sleep with, and that felt like an accomplishment to Jace, as if he’d been able to return Willy to the same sense of love and safety the little boy had felt with his mom and dad.
Jace pulled the covers up over the child, rubbed his head as if he really were a puppy snuggled up to him and waited to fall back to sleep himself.
But that didn’t happen as easily as it usually did. Just the way it hadn’t happened earlier in the night. And for the same reason.
Clair Fletcher.
Jace just wasn’t too sure what to make of her and her sudden appearance in Elk Creek.
She’d said she wanted to be a part of Willy’s life and she wanted Willy to be a part of hers. A simple enough statement. But what exactly did it mean? Did it mean she wanted to be someone who visited him now and then, who maybe had him visit her occasionally? Someone who talked to him on the phone to keep up with him, and sent him gifts for birthdays and holidays?
Or did it mean something more than that?
That’s the part that had Jace on the alert. Because the truth was, his gut instinct told him that she’d meant more than that.
He didn’t have anything tangible on which to base his doubts. But he’d seen her eyes well up with tears when she’d taken her first real look at the boy, and for a minute Jace had thought she might actually reach out, snatch Willy and run with him. From that moment on Jace had had a strong sense that she’d come to claim Willy for herself.
But if that was true, she was in for a rude awakening. Because Jace wasn’t going to let that happen. No matter what she might think, he wasn’t giving Willy up. Not only had he been granted legal guardianship through his best friend’s will, but he’d made a pact with Billy Miller the day Billy’s adoption of Willy had become final. A pact that if anything ever happened to Billy, Jace would take over for him and raise the boy. And Jace didn’t take that lightly.
Besides, he had been more than happy to step