Книга - The Summer Proposal

The Summer Proposal
Judith McWilliams


A IS FOR ASTONISHED AND AGOGWhich were Julie Raffet's reactions when Caleb Tarrington, a most eligible–and wealthy–bachelor made his proposal! Caleb wanted a tutor for his newfound son–but was Julie interested in a temporary position?B IS FOR BOLD AND BREATHLESSCaleb's determination was hard to refuse. Yet the sophisticated single dad shied away from women dedicated to their jobs–and still he wanted Julie! Could he forget the past long enough to see the caring heart behind Julie's prim facade?C IS FOR CALEB!And for the charm that was nearly irresistible. Once the summer was over, would he offer Julie a permanent position–in his arms?







“I have been exceedingly unreasonable,”

Caleb said, closing the distance between them. He reminded himself to think of Julie in an impersonal manner—to pretend she was his best friend’s fiancée.

Julie’s breath caught in her throat as he leaned forward slightly, towering over her. Making her aware of him in a way she had never before been aware of a man. She felt quintessentially feminine and emotionally vulnerable, but the odd thing was she didn’t feel threatened. On the contrary, she felt…invigorated.

He slowly lowered his head and his lips touched hers with the faintest of pressure.

Fiancée, he thought. He was supposed to be treating Julie like his best friend’s fiancée. Caleb struggled to force himself to end the kiss, but it became impossible when she trembled in his arms.

I’ll get a new best friend, he thought foggily.


Dear Reader,

Celebrate the holidays with Silhouette Romance! We strive to deliver emotional, fast-paced stories that suit your every mood—each and every month. Why not give the gift of love this year by sending your best friends and family members one of our heartwarming books?

Sandra Paul’s The Makeover Takeover is the latest page-turner in the popular HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY series. In Teresa Southwick’s If You Don’t Know by Now, the third in the DESTINY, TEXAS series, Maggie Benson is shocked when Jack Riley comes back into her life—and their child’s!

I’m also excited to announce that this month marks the return of two cherished authors to Silhouette Romance. Gifted at weaving intensely dramatic stories, Laurey Bright once again thrills Romance readers with her VIRGIN BRIDES title, Marrying Marcus. Judith McWilliams’s charming tale, The Summer Proposal, will delight her throngs of devoted fans and have us all yearning for more!

As a special treat, we have two fresh and original royalty-themed stories. In The Marine & the Princess, Cathie Linz pits a hardened military man against an impetuous princess. Nicole Burnham’s Going to the Castle tells of a duty-bound prince who escapes his castle walls and ends up with a beautiful refugee-camp worker.

We promise to deliver more exciting new titles in the coming year. Make it your New Year’s resolution to read them all!

Happy reading!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor




The Summer Proposal

Judith McWilliams





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




Books by Judith McWilliams


Silhouette Romance

Gift of the Gods #479

The Summer Proposal #1562

Silhouette Desire

Reluctant Partners #441

A Perfect Season #545

That’s My Baby #597

Anything’s Possible! #911

The Man from Atlantis #954

Instant Husband #1001

Practice Husband #1062

Another Man’s Baby #1095

The Boss, the Beauty and the Bargain #1122

The Sheik’s Secret #1228


JUDITH McWILLIAMS

began to enjoy romances while in search of the proverbial “happily-ever-after.” But she always found herself rewriting the endings, and eventually the beginnings, of the books she read. Then her husband finally suggested that she write novels of her own, and she’s been doing so ever since. An ex-teacher with four children, Judith has traveled the country extensively with her husband and has been greatly influenced by those experiences. But while not tending the garden or caring for family, Judith does what she enjoys most—writing. She has also written under the name Charlotte Hines.


Jimmy,

It’s me, Will. Remember that teacher I told ya about? The one my dad got to teach me a bunch a junk I don’t wanna know. Julie, she ain’t at all like what we thought. She can make cookies! Good ones full a chocolate chips and nuts. And she ain’t always going on about drinking that disgusting cow juice. And she don’t never yell, and when she smiles her eyes kinda sparkle.

I decided I’s gonna keep her. All I gotta do is figure out how to get Dad to marry her so she’ll have to stay. But I got a couple of great ideas to help Dad along. If’n you got any, write me back right away. I wanta get this settled before someone else grabs her.

Will




Contents


Chapter One (#ue0fe7313-7ca4-527b-a25c-a4300bc58eba)

Chapter Two (#ufbf1d80d-b6cd-5527-b2eb-2dca22f68166)

Chapter Three (#ucb85975b-4460-5d18-a1c9-302fad335451)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


“Really, Mr. Tarrington! This is most irregular! You should not be here.” The school secretary gave him a quelling look over the top of her bifocals that forty years of dealing with unruly grade-schoolers had perfected. To her annoyance, he didn’t even seem to notice.

“Yesterday was the day for parents to clear up irregularities,” Miss Boulton persisted. “Today is the day that the teachers have to get all the end-of-year records completed and turned in. Miss Raffet is much too busy to see you.”

“I won’t take up much of her time,” Caleb forced a reasonable tone despite the fact that he didn’t feel the least bit reasonable. But venting the turbulent emotions churning through him on a secretary, no matter how aggravating she was being, wouldn’t get him any closer to his goal. Which at the moment hinged on getting in to see Miss Raffet.

“Just see that you don’t!” Miss Boulton’s tone hinted at dire consequences.

She gestured toward the open office door behind him. “Miss Raffet’s room is to the right. Fifth door down. Please stop back here on your way out and let me know that you’re leaving the building. You wouldn’t want to get locked in for the summer, now, would you?”

To her irritation, her attempt at humor didn’t get any more of a response from him than her lecture. He merely nodded his head, gave her a perfunctory “thank you for your help” and left.

Miss Boulton watched him go, wondering what he wanted Julie for. Something personal? Something romantic? A flash of interest flared to life in her thin chest. Highly unlikely, she abandoned the idea almost immediately. Julie’s little students might love her to distraction, but in the four years she’d been teaching at Whittier Elementary, Miss Boulton hadn’t seen the slightest sign that a man might feel the same about her. Especially not one who looked like Caleb Tarrington.

She shook her head, effectively dislodging both Caleb Tarrington’s unwelcome presence and Julie Raffet’s romantic prospects from her busy mind as she reached for the internal phone.

Caleb paused outside the door the secretary had specified and took a deep, steadying breath, trying to organize his scattered thoughts. So much depended on him convincing the unknown Miss Raffet to help. If he couldn’t…

An image of Will’s pale face, his small features, rigid with fear he was desperately trying not to show, flashed through Caleb’s mind, and a fierce surge of love filled him. His son! Even after twenty-four hours, Caleb still expected the words to be accompanied by trumpet fanfare.

If only… Abruptly he sliced off the unprofitable line of thought. The past was dead. Over. All the regrets in the world couldn’t change it. All he could do was to try to shape the future differently. And the first step toward reshaping his son’s future was to enlist the aid of Miss Raffet. Caleb just wished he knew a little more about her. All his old friend, John, had said was that she was the best first-grade teacher he’d ever seen in his career as a school principal. That if anyone could help him, Miss Raffet could. But the question John hadn’t been able to answer was would she?

He’d soon find out.

Squaring his shoulders, Caleb marched through the door of Miss Raffet’s classroom. He paused just inside the large, sunny room, his eyes instinctively going to the battered oak teacher’s desk in front of the chalkboard. No one was seated there. His gaze quickly swept the room. The walls were stripped bare, and all the children’s desks had been removed. The space looked abandoned.

He walked farther into the room, not sure what to do. Sit down at the desk and wait for Miss Raffet to return? Or go back to the office and ask the elderly dragon masquerading as a school secretary if she might have any idea where Miss Raffet could be?

Wait, he decided. Facing the disapproving Miss Boulton again definitely qualified as a last resort. Besides…

He turned at the sudden thump to his left. The noise had come from behind a half-open door. A supply closet? he wondered. Could the elusive Miss Raffet be in it?

He watched as a woman slowly backed out of the closet. Appreciatively, Caleb eyed her trim hips, which were tightly encased in a pair of well-worn jeans. With obvious impatience, she shoved the door back and reached for something above her head.

Her action tightened the gray T-shirt covering her small breasts, outlining their perfection. Caleb swallowed, trying to ignore the unwelcome spark of sexual interest he felt.

Completely oblivious to his presence, she braced her slender legs and gave a hard jerk on whatever it was she was trying to get.

The thing she was yanking on suddenly came free causing her to lose her balance and land on her rear on the floor. A microsecond later, what appeared to be the entire contents of the shelf followed. Colored construction paper, yards of dusty white netting and some faded-looking plastic flowers bounced off her head and shoulders. Last to fall was a bag of gold glitter that broke as it hit her, sending gold dust everywhere.

It enveloped the woman, coating her light-brown hair and dusting her small, straight nose with golden freckles. Caleb blinked as the sun pouring in through the wall of windows behind her turned her petite figure into a radiant pillar of gold. For a heart-stopping second, long-forgotten Sunday-school images of angels welled out of Caleb’s subconscious. Then she sneezed, and the explosive sound snapped him free of his memories.

“Drat!” she muttered in exasperation as she ineffectively brushed at the gold dust coating her.

“Are you all right?” The deep velvety sound of a man’s voice poured over Julie, instantly smothering her annoyance. She instinctively turned toward him, squinting as she tried to focus through the glitter, which scattered at her abrupt movement.

Julie found herself staring at a large pair of black shoes. Not new, but immaculately clean and well shined. A part of her instinctively approved. Slowly, her gaze moved upward over long legs encased in suit trousers with a crease so crisp they must have just come from the dry cleaners. But this suit sure hadn’t come from the local department store. She studied the way the jacket molded his broad shoulders. Obviously hand-tailored by an expert. Although she had the feeling he’d look every bit as good in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Or even better, dressed like an Italian courtier from the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. All in velvets and silks and…

“Can you get up?” The worried note in the man’s voice pulled her out of her daydream.

Julie winced, embarrassed at being caught in such an unprofessional position by such a gorgeous specimen of masculinity. She studied his leanly chiseled features with a purely feminine appreciation, wondering who he was. Certainly not someone she knew. Or anyone she’d ever met. She definitely wouldn’t have forgotten a man who looked like the physical embodiment of every romantic fantasy she’d ever had. And a few she had yet to dream up.

“Did you hurt yourself?” he demanded, worried at her continued silence.

The concern in his bright blue eyes sent a shiver of response through Julie. If none of the normal, garden-variety men she knew saw her as a sexy, desirable woman, then one who looked like this guy sure wouldn’t, she reminded herself of a hard-learned lesson.

“I’m fine,” she muttered, taking the helping hand he held out even though she was oddly reluctant to touch him. But not only would it be rude to pointedly ignore his gesture, but he wouldn’t understand her hesitation. Any more than she understood it herself.

Even less did she understand her instantaneous reaction as his large hand closed around her much smaller one. Tiny pinpricks of sensation raced over her skin raising goose bumps as it traveled. Hastily, she pulled her hand back, breaking the disconcerting contact.

“You seem to be covered in this stuff.” He gently brushed her hair, dislodging both a cloud of gold sparkles and her remaining composure.

Hoping he hadn’t heard her quickly suppressed gasp, Julie hurriedly stepped back and made a production of dusting the glitter off herself as she struggled to recapture her teacher persona.

“May I help you?” Julie winced at the breathless sound of her voice. What was wrong with her? she wondered in confusion. She was acting as if she’d landed on her head not her rear.

“Not unless you happen to know where I can find Miss Raffet,” he said. “This is her room, isn’t it?”

“I’m Julie Raffet,” she said, watching with a combination of annoyance and dismay as his eyes widened in shock at her announcement.

“You were expecting a little old lady wearing a shapeless dress and orthopedic shoes?” she asked dryly.

“Not really, but on the other hand, I was expecting someone who looked old enough to have graduated from college. And John did say that you’d been teaching for years.”

“John?” Julie ignored her frustration at the proof that she hadn’t even registered as an attractive woman with this man and, instead, grabbed the thread of his conversation that sounded the most promising.

“John Warchinski. He was principal here a few years back.”

“Yes, I remember him. Although I’m at a loss to understand why he should be discussing me with you, Mr….?” Her voice rose, questioning.

“Tarrington. Caleb Tarrington.” He stared at her for a long moment trying to decide where to start. He hated revealing the abject failure of his marriage. An older woman, such as that blasted John had led him to believe Miss Raffet was, might have understood how a normally levelheaded man could have gotten himself into such a mess. But this woman…

“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Julie suggested with her normal practicality.

Caleb grimaced, knowing that the beginning had been an acute attack of plain old lust on his part, but he could hardly tell Julie Raffet that. She looked as if she’d never even heard of lust, let alone experienced it firsthand. She’d probably be disgusted at his admission. Or even worse, think he was in the habit of letting his sexual appetites overrule his common sense and refuse to have anything to do with him. And he needed her far too much to risk scaring her off.

He decided to gloss over the beginning and concentrate on the present.

“The beginning started with a youthful marriage that didn’t—” Caleb made a gesture with his hand that conveyed a helpless sense of frustration “—work out.”

Julie searched his face, looking for signs of pain at the memory of his failed marriage. She couldn’t find any. Outwardly, at least, it appeared that he had recovered emotionally. But if that were true, then why was he finding it so hard to talk about it?

“I’m not doing this well,” Caleb muttered, caught between embarrassment at being forced to reveal what he preferred to keep hidden, and the knowledge that if he wanted to enlist Julie Raffet’s aid, he had to tell her enough to make her understand how desperate his need was.

“You’re divorced?” The question escaped Julie’s lips before she had a chance to consider the wisdom of asking. It wasn’t that she wanted to know personally, she assured herself. She was simply trying to help him get to the point.

“Yes.” The stark word sent through Julie a flood of contradictory emotions that she made no attempt to sort out.

“My ex-wife was an artist of considerable talent and, when she found out she was pregnant, she decided that marriage stifled her creativity. So she filed for divorce.”

Julie arched her pale brown eyebrows in disbelief. “She thought marriage was too stifling, but motherhood wouldn’t be?”

“Murna was into her Madonna phase at the time,” he muttered obscurely.

Wrong, Murna was into her lunacy phase, Julie thought acidly.

“And you let her have custody of the baby?” Some of the anger Julie felt at the emotional mess two supposed adults must have created for their poor, defenseless child sharpened her voice.

“Murna said that the baby wasn’t mine,” he said starkly.

“And you believed her?”

“I had good reason to believe her! But even knowing about her affairs, if I had just stopped and thought… If I had insisted on a DNA test…” His voice was harsh with pain, regret and self-condemnation.

“I see.” She felt an unexpected impulse to put her arms around him and comfort him. To try to ease the anguish darkening his eyes.

Don’t get emotionally involved, Julie reminded herself of one of the cardinal rules of good teaching. One she broke regularly.

“But all that’s history,” Caleb said. “What’s important is that yesterday morning without any warning my wife’s lawyer dropped Will off at my office along with a document from Murna transferring custody to me.”

Caleb’s voice was flat, revealing none of the tremendous upsurge of love he’d felt when he’d seen his son for the first time. He hadn’t needed the proof of paternity Murna’s lawyer had offered. His relationship to Will was written on the boy’s face for the whole world to see. No one who saw Will would ever mistake him for anything other than a Tarrington.

Caleb had wanted to throw his arms around his son and hug him. To try to explain why he hadn’t been a part of his life before. But Will’s rigid posture had discouraged any show of physical affection, and Caleb knew he couldn’t try to justify his absence from his son’s life by telling the child about his mother’s lies. A six-year-old couldn’t handle that kind of knowledge.

“To cut to the heart of the matter, Miss Raffet, the situation is this. I find I am suddenly responsible for a six-year-old son I know nothing about. Hell, I’ve never had more than a nodding acquaintance with any kid. Added to which, my housekeeper is an old maid who has never worked in a household with children.”

“Single,” Julie muttered. “We don’t say old maid anymore.”

Caleb didn’t even hear her correction. He was too intent on making her understand the gravity of his situation.

“But the coup de grâce came this morning when I asked Will what grade he was in so that I could enroll him in school for next fall. And do you know what he said?”

Too agitated to stand still, Caleb began to pace back and forth in front of the blackboard.

“Be careful not to get chalk dust on your dark suit,” Julie automatically warned.

“What?” Caleb glanced around as if surprised to find himself where he was. He gave her a rueful smile. “Then we’d be a matched set. Me in chalk dust and you in gold glitter.”

A set. The curiously seductive word lingered momentarily in Julie’s mind before she was able to banish it.

“My son said he didn’t know what grade he was in because he’d never been to school.”

“Kids say lots of things,” Julie warned him. “Especially at six. Their distinction between fact and fantasy is not very firm.”

“Well, he was dead-on with that particular fact! I called Murna to find out what was going on, and she said that she thought school stifled young minds. That she wanted Will to learn because he wanted to, not because he was forced to. So she simply registered him as a home-schooled student and left him to his own devices. She insisted that if I just leave him alone, eventually Will will learn everything he needs to know.”

“An…interesting theory.” Julie bit back her real opinion with an effort. Caleb Tarrington’s ex-wife sounded like the most selfish, egocentric woman she had ever run across. She must have been monstrously beautiful for Caleb to have missed what had to have been warning signs of her self-centered personality. The thought unexpectedly depressed her.

“Why now?” The question suddenly occurred to Julie.

“What?” Caleb looked puzzled.

“Why suddenly give you custody of your son after all this time?”

“Murna’s been commissioned to sculpt something or other in Venice, and she doesn’t think Will would like it there.”

Translated, it meant that dear Murna thought that a six-year-old would be too much trouble to drag around Europe, Julie thought angrily. So the woman off-loaded Will onto his father.

“Anyway,” Caleb continued, “when I realized that Will was going to have to go to school not knowing what all the other kids knew, I called John, the only educator I know, and asked him for advice.”

“And John suggested me?” Julie said slowly, beginning to understand.

“Yes, he said you were the best first-grade teacher he’s ever encountered.”

Julie tried not to be swayed by the compliment. But she was. John had never handed out praise with a liberal hand, and his comment was praise of the highest order.

“I want to hire you for the summer to teach Will what he needs to know so he can enter second grade next fall on a level with all the other kids his age,” Caleb said. “It’s going to be hard enough for him to adjust to living with a father he’s never met, in a town he’s never even heard of, without flunking the first grade through no fault of his own.”

“We don’t flunk kids these days.” Julie instinctively rejected the bleak picture he presented.

“So you plunk him down in the second grade where he can’t do the work and let him constantly fail?” Caleb demanded. “Is that supposed to be better?”

“No, of course not, and I sympathize with your problem, but I have plans for the summer.” Julie tried to sound firm. She did have plans, she assuaged her conscience. She was going to landscape her yard. And she was enrolled in two graduate classes at the university. And she had a stack of reading material six feet high to get through. Her entire summer was over-flowing with activities. Safe activities that wouldn’t threaten the secure life she’d built for herself. Something she instinctively knew Caleb had the power to do.

“You can name your price,” Caleb tempted her.

For one mad moment, a vision of her being enfolded in his arms filled her mind. Appalled, Julie shoved it aside. What was the matter with her? she wondered uneasily. Why did her attention keep drifting from what Caleb wanted to the man himself? She didn’t have an answer and that bothered her almost as much as her unprecedented physical reaction to him. She wasn’t used to her emotions going off on their own agenda. Usually they did exactly as they were told. Which was to stay firmly out of sight.

“It isn’t a question of payment,” she finally said. “It’s a question of time. I really do have a lot planned this summer.”

Caleb shoved his fingers through his dark hair in frustrated desperation.

“Please.” He gritted the word out as if it were one he didn’t use very often. “At least come and meet Will before you refuse to help. See what the situation is. Tell me what he needs.”

Julie stared into the swirling depths of Caleb’s blue eyes and was lost. His appeal, combined with the child’s obvious need, made her retreat from a flat refusal.

“All right, I’ll meet Will and assess his skill levels. But that’s all I’m promising,” she hurriedly added at his suddenly hopeful expression.

“Now?” Caleb asked eagerly, afraid to let her out of his sight for fear she’d change her mind.

Julie grinned at him. “You did meet Miss Boulton on the way in, didn’t you? The only way I’d get past her without having turned in my end-of-year reports is on a stretcher.”

“Tomorrow morning?” Caleb persisted. “Say, ten?”

“Okay,” Julie agreed, and then swallowed uneasily as her stomach suddenly lurched, giving her the oddest feeling that she’d just stepped off a stair that wasn’t there. She wasn’t actually getting involved with Caleb Tarrington, she assured herself. Not really. All she had promised was to meet his son. She’d do that and then recommend someone else to tutor Will.

“Thanks.” Caleb gave her a relieved grin that lit diamond sparkles in the depths of his blue eyes. Sparkles that momentarily seemed far more interesting than her carefully planned future.




Chapter Two


“Julie, any chance of you having lunch with me?”

Julie looked up, smiling at the unexpected sight of her older sister, Darcie, standing in the classroom doorway.

“I’d love to. Miss Boulton signed off on my materials list ten minutes ago, so I’m free. And starved. Let’s get out of here before the woman finds something else for me to do.”

“Why are you covered with glitter?” Darcie asked. “Are you starting a new trend?”

“Only for being caught in embarrassing situations,” Julie said. “The stuff fell on me earlier while I had a visitor. I felt like a perfect fool.”

“Nobody’s perfect.” Darcie grinned at her. “Although I will admit, you’ve improved enormously since you were a pesky little kid.”

Julie grinned back. “I could say the same about you, but I’m much too polite. Although…”

She paused as it suddenly occurred to her that Darcie, with her active social life as well as her extensive contacts in the business world, might know Caleb Tarrington.

“What?” Darcie prompted as they left the classroom.

“What do you know about Caleb Tarrington?” Julie asked.

Darcie’s green eyes widened slightly. “I know he’s outside your league, Julie. Don’t try to cut your teeth on him. You’ll wind up breaking them.”

“I cut my teeth, as you so inelegantly put it, years ago. And I have a perfectly valid reason for asking that has nothing whatsoever to do with what you are obviously thinking. Now, tell me what you know.”

“Well, there’s the obvious. That he looks like the answer to every woman’s romantic fantasies.”

The memory of Caleb’s head tilted to one side, a lopsided smile softening his dark features, and his eyes gleaming with humor as he’d brushed the glitter from her hair popped into Julie’s mind. She shivered slightly as she savored the image. No doubt about it. Caleb Tarrington was most definitely qualified to star in a romantic fantasy. Just not hers. She had better sense.

“True, but looks can be deceptive,” Julie said. “Take me, for example. I may look like the proverbial girl-next-door, but beneath my prosaic exterior beats the heart of a dedicated career woman.”

“Where are you parked, dedicated career woman?” Darcie shoved open the building’s outside door, which led to the school’s parking lot.

“I’m not. My car wouldn’t start this morning, so I took the bus.”

“No problem. I’ll drive, and drop you off at home afterward.”

Darcie unlocked the door to her sleek black luxury car.

“So what else do you know about Caleb Tarrington?” Julie asked once Darcie had pulled onto the road.

“I know that he inherited more money than he could ever spend. That he’s an extremely successful architect. That he very quietly supports quite a few charities. But I don’t know much about his personal life.”

“Anything else?” Julie persisted.

Darcie grimaced. “I know blondes don’t turn him on. At least, this blonde didn’t.”

Julie blinked. “You tried to…”

“Attract his interest is as good a euphemism as any. And, of course, I did. Any normal, red-blooded woman is going to have a go at Caleb Tarrington. It was at a Christmas party last year we both attended. I gave him my best sultry look.”

“And?”

“And I could have been ninety years old for all the response I got.”

“I find it hard to believe that someone as beautiful as you didn’t get some reaction from him,” Julie said slowly.

“Actually, I was rather surprised, too,” Darcie agreed with her usual candor. “I guess it comes under the heading of you can’t win them all.

“So tell me why you want to know about Caleb Tarrington,” Darcie demanded.

“He came to see me today about his son,” Julie said.

“His son!” Darcie yelped, and the car suddenly shot forward as her foot inadvertently depressed the gas pedal. “I didn’t know he had a kid.”

“He’s six years old. Will has come to live with him, and Caleb wants to make sure the child has covered everything we teach in the first grade here,” Julie said, reluctant to tell even her sister the personal details Caleb had given her about his marriage.

“And Caleb wants you to tutor the kid this summer?” Darcie immediately made the connection.

“Got it in one.”

“Don’t do it,” Darcie said.

“Why not? Don’t you think I’m a match for Caleb Tarrington?” Julie demanded, her pride stung.

“No,” Darcie said succinctly. “Hell, I’m not a match for him, and I’m a hundred times more knowledgeable about men than you’ll ever be.”

“Not about six-year-old men,” Julie said smugly. “And it’s the six-year-old I’d be dealing with.”

Darcie took her eyes off the road long enough to give Julie a rueful grin.

“I hate to be the one to break it to you, but most men are six-year-olds at heart. Besides, I won’t be here to give you any sage advice if you do accidentally get in over your head.”

“Where are you going?”

“The firm is sending me off the backwoods of Vermont to buy a patent.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me doing anything stupid. I fully intend to turn the job down. I was only curious about him.”

“Just you remember that curiosity killed the cat!”

Julie chuckled. “Clichés yet. Where’s your sense of originality?”

“Originality be damned. It’s the truth, and don’t you forget it.”

Darcie’s advice was probably right, Julie told herself. And it was definitely prudent. She’d enjoy her lunch and then go home, have a piece of chocolate and figure out how she was going to tactfully decline Caleb’s plea.

Julie frowned slightly as she remembered the determined jut of Caleb’s square chin. Maybe she’d have two pieces of chocolate.

Despite eating most of an eight-ounce box of truffles, by the following morning Julie still hadn’t been able to think of a light, witty way to tell Caleb she wasn’t going to help him.

Probably because she wasn’t a light, witty person, she decided as her cab came to a tire-shrieking stop in front of the address Caleb had given her. At least, not when it came to kids who needed her help. But this time would be different. This time she would say no and make it stick.

“Hey, lady.” The cabdriver broke into her thoughts. “This is the address you gave me.”

“Sorry.” Julie paid the man and climbed out, barely managing to get the door closed before the cab tore off down the street.

But Julie barely noticed. She was too busy studying Caleb’s house as she slowly walked up the redbrick sidewalk that curved across the velvety, green lawn. Darcie had said that Caleb Tarrington was rich. Very rich. And Darcie had sounded very sure of her facts. Yet his house certainly wasn’t ostentatious. The bottom story was built of a soft-gray limestone and the second story was white clapboard. The roof was a dark-gray slate punctuated by six attic dormers. Dark-green shutters outlined each of the oversize windows. The house looked like the comfortable, well-kept home of a professional, not the estate of a wealthy man.

Julie had no trouble imagining a child’s bicycle lying on the grass or a baby stroller on the front steps. Maybe Darcie had her facts wrong for once, Julie thought, and then dismissed her speculation as irrelevant. Caleb Tarrington’s financial status had nothing to do with her.

Julie nervously straightened her cream linen jacket, brushed the front of her blue silk shirt and then swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her mouth before she rang the doorbell.

The door was jerked open before the melodious sound of the chimes had died away, and Julie found herself staring at the harassed features of a middle-aged woman.

“Yes?” the woman asked. Her eyes slipped to the bulging briefcase Julie held. “I never buy from door-to-door salesmen.”

“A wise policy, I’m sure.” Julie slipped into her best schoolteacher mode. “However, I am not here to sell you anything. I—”

“There you are.” Caleb’s voice came from behind the woman. It was threaded with some emotion that sounded suspiciously like desperation. He grabbed her arm as if he expected her to make a run for it, and pulled her into the house.

She’d been right, Julie thought distractedly. Caleb Tarrington did look every bit as good in casual clothes as he did in a suit. Maybe better. Definitely sexier. She studied his khaki pants and worn denim shirt with approval.

“You said ten o’clock and…” Julie used the excuse of checking the time to remove her arm from his grasp. For some reason, physical contact with Caleb Tarrington played havoc with her thought processes, and she needed to keep her wits about her.

“It’s exactly ten now,” she said.

Caleb grimaced. “Strange, I feel like it’s been years since I got up this morning. This is my housekeeper, Miss Vincent. Miss Vincent, this is Miss Raffet. She’s going to help Will get ready for school next fall.”

Julie opened her mouth to remind Caleb that she had only agreed to see what Will needed to learn, not supply that knowledge herself, but before she could get out a word, a small boy got up off the sofa and walked toward her.

“My mom she says that school stifles creativity,” he said. “I don’t want my creativity stifled.”

“I’d like to stifle more than his creativity!” Miss Vincent muttered darkly.

Julie blinked. For a child who’d only been here a day, Will seemed to have made quite an impression on the housekeeper.

Stepping farther into the house, Julie took a good look at Will. His thin frame held not even the promise of someday developing the muscles that shaped his father’s body. Although his slightly oversize nose and his bright blue eyes had clearly been fished out of the same gene pool that had produced Caleb. But the expression of misery in the boy’s eyes made Julie’s heart contract with pity.

Poor little kid. How could his mother have just given him to a man the child had never even met? Caleb’s son deserved better. Any kid deserved better.

“Miss Raffet teaches first grade at the school you’ll be going to in the fall.” Caleb tossed the conversation gambit into the growing silence.

“And I promise our school tries to keep the stifling to an absolute minimum.” Julie smiled at Will.

“My mom says that public-school teachers is incompetent!” Will eyed her challengingly. “My mom says they only teach there ’cause they can’t do nothing else. My mom says I can learn everything I need to know at home all by myself!”

“Your precious mother—” the housekeeper began hotly, only to be quickly cut off by Caleb.

“We won’t keep you anymore, Miss Vincent,” he said firmly.

“Yes, sir,” the woman muttered, and with a final, frustrated glare at Will, stomped out of the room.

Julie felt a sneaking sympathy for the housekeeper. Clearly, Will wasn’t going to be easy to deal with.

Although, Julie studied Will’s forlorn face, she didn’t think he was being intentionally rude. Six-year-olds rarely understood the full impact of their words. Nor did they tend to think before they spoke. They just came right out with what they were thinking. Or with what they’d heard, and in Will’s case, he seemed to have heard more than he should have.

“How about if we go out on the patio, Will?” Caleb used the bright tone adults reserve for kids when they haven’t the vaguest idea how to talk to them.

“No,” Will replied promptly.

“No, what?” Caleb stared at his son in surprise.

“No, thank you?” Will tried again.

“First lesson on surviving in the adult world, Will,” Julie said, “is to learn about rhetorical questions.”

“What’s a re…ret…one of them?” Will asked curiously.

“It’s a question that doesn’t expect an answer. Like, don’t you think it’s time to go to bed? Or I’m sure you want to eat your spinach? Your father wasn’t asking your consent for us to go to the patio. He was politely telling you to do it.”

“And polite is getting to be in short supply around here this morning,” Caleb said.

Julie looked at Caleb, her eyes lingering on his face. There was a line between his dark eyebrows, and she could clearly see the muscles knotted along his jawline. The brilliant glitter of his eyes seemed dimmed. He looked as if he’d had a bad night, followed by a worse morning. Maybe what Caleb needed was a few minutes away from his son. And her away from him. The second thought followed on the heels of the first. It would give her a chance to totally regain her teacher persona, which being around Caleb had ruffled.

“Will and I can…” she began.

“No,” Caleb flatly rejected the idea before she could even formulate it. “Will is my son, and I want to find out firsthand what is going on.”

“As you wish, Mr. Tarrington.” Julie ignored the spurt of pleasure she felt as irrelevant.

“Caleb,” he corrected her. “And if I might call you Julie?”

The sound of her name on his lips did odd things to her equilibrium. Somehow, shaped by his deep voice, her name took on an allure that she knew it didn’t really have. It sounded mysterious and seductive, totally different from her normal practical self.

Mentally, Julie shook her head, trying to dislodge the fantasy. You are here to work, she reminded herself. Concentrate on the son. Him you can handle.

Julie’s gaze dropped to Will, noting the belligerent thrust of his lower lip. He looked confused and unhappy. She wanted to assure him that everything would be all right, but she refused to lie to him. She had no idea if everything would be all right in his world. Nor had she any way of making it so. She shot a quick glance at Caleb, who was watching his son with a hungry longing, and felt fractionally better. If human effort could fix Will’s world, then she didn’t have the slightest doubt that Caleb would do it.

“What’s you going to do?” Will demanded.

“Just read a little with you, ask you a few questions and play a few games,” Julie said.

“I ain’t ath…a…letical.” Will stumbled over the word. “Sports is dumb.”

“Tell me, what are your feelings on the English language?” Caleb asked dryly.

“Huh?” Will gave his father a blank look.

Julie cleared her throat, and gave Caleb a repressive look. This was no time to be worrying about Will’s command of English. Or lack, thereof. Trying to focus on too many things at once would only confuse the child. And probably make him more uncooperative than he already was.

“If we could get started?” Julie said.

“This way,” Caleb said as he headed toward the open French doors on the far side of the large recreation room.

“Is that one of them ret…things?” Will whispered to Julie.

“Yup,” Julie whispered back.

They followed Caleb through the French doors onto a brick-paved terrace. There were large terra-cotta pots filled with multicolored flowers scattered around, and beneath the shade of a huge sugar maple tree was a glass-topped table with four wrought-iron chairs circling it. To the left of the French doors were several loungers with brightly flowered cushions. The whole scene radiated a sense of peace and tranquillity. It would be the perfect place to relax after a busy day.

“How lovely this is,” Julie voiced her appreciation.

“He ain’t got no swimming pool,” Will pointed out. “At home, everybody’s got a swimming pool.”

“Everybody?” Julie set her briefcase down on the table and pulled out a pack of cards.

“Well, everybody who ain’t poor,” Will claimed. “Is you poor?” He shot the question at his father.

“Don’t worry. I have enough money to pay the bills,” Caleb said.

“Mom says that no one never has enough money. I have lots though. I gots me a trust fund from Mom’s dad who died afor I was ever born. I don’t mind sharing with you,” Will offered.

“I appreciate the thought—” Caleb smiled at his son “—but you can’t spend your money until you are of age.”

“I got age, six years of age,” Will insisted. “And Mom said I can spend my money just as I please.”

“I am not your mother,” Caleb said.

Not hardly, Julie thought with an appreciative glance at Caleb’s very masculine body, her eyes lingering on his muscular forearms beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his pale blue denim shirt.

“But—” Will began.

“Shall we get started,” Julie interrupted before the argument could escalate.

“Will, you sit there.” She pointed to a chair.

Reluctantly Will sat down. “I hate tests.”

“Really?” She sounded mildly curious. “If you haven’t been to school, how do you know about tests?”

Will opened his mouth, closed it again and scowled at her.

“Please sit down there, Caleb,” Julie said, hoping that having the distance of the table between them would help her to ignore him. It was a tactical error. Across from her, he was directly in her line of sight, and her eyes kept straying to him.

You are a teacher, she reprimanded herself. You are here to evaluate a child, not fantasize about the child’s father.

“What’s them?” Will pointed to the deck of cards she was holding.

“These are to test your ESP, because if you really are an alien in disguise then I can’t teach you. Aliens are outside my area of expertise,” Julie said seriously as she dealt ten of the cards facedown in front of him.

“Cool! Just like on X-Files!” Will scooted around on the chair in excitement. “Do you find many aliens?”

“Nary a one,” Julie said.

“Aw, sh—”

“William Alister Tarrington!” Caleb bit out.

“What?” Will gave his father a confused look.

Julie looked from Caleb’s furious features to Will’s confused ones and stifled a sigh. From the look on Will’s face, she had the discouraging feeling that the boy had no clue as to why his father was so mad. It would appear there was a cultural gap a mile wide between father and son.

“I absolutely forbid—” Caleb began.

Julie hastily reached across the small table and touched Caleb’s shoulder, intent only on stopping him before the whole situation exploded into anger on Caleb’s part and tears on Will’s, which would ruin any chance for her to evaluate the child today. Her fingers involuntarily twitched as she felt the warmth of his body beneath the soft cotton of his shirt.

Her touch felt like a live wire had been laid on Caleb’s bare skin. It scorched his flesh and raced over his nerve endings, speeding up his heartbeat. He took a deep breath, hoping to regain control of his senses. It didn’t work. The faint scent of the perfume she was wearing drifted into his lungs, deepening his sexual awareness of her.

Damn! Caleb thought with black humor. Of all times for his body to indulge in a sexual fantasy. When he was lecturing his son about inappropriate social behavior!

“Why can’t I say sh—that word?” Will substituted at Caleb’s glare. “Everybody says it. Mom does and all Mom’s friends, and in the movies and—”

“What kind of movies do you see?” Caleb demanded.

“We seem to have wandered from the purpose of my visit,” Julie interrupted, despite her sympathy for Caleb. He was really going to have his work cut out for him. Not only was the poor man going to have to try to forge some kind of relationship with a child he had never laid eyes on before two days ago, but he was also going to have to teach that child what was and wasn’t allowed in normal society. A task that was bound to initially earn Will’s resentment.

To Julie’s relief, Caleb subsided without another word. Almost as if he was relieved to have her deal with the present problem.

Julie turned to Will. “I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on the number that is hidden on each of the ten cards. Tell me what you think each one is.”

Will, with a cautious look at his father, obediently squeezed his eyes shut and caught his lower lip between his small teeth in concentration.

“The first one is six,” Will decided.

“Am I right?” He opened one eye and peered hopefully at her.

“I’ll tell you at the end,” Julie said. “Guess the rest.”

Will quickly guessed the remaining cards and then she flipped over the cards. “Aw, sh—damn!” he quickly amended.

“God give me strength,” Caleb groaned.

“I guess I ain’t no alien,” Will lamented. “I only got two of the ten right.”

“Oh, well, not everybody is lucky enough to be an alien,” Julie sympathized.

“Yeah.” Will looked morose for a second and then suddenly brightened. “Maybe I can get possessed.”

Caleb grimaced. “Maybe you already—”

“Since you’re a human, let’s test some human skills,” Julie hurriedly said. She didn’t want Caleb giving Will ideas. The kid had enough already.

Handing Will a small beginning reader, she said, “Would you see if any of that looks familiar?”

Will opened the book and flipped through the pages.

“Nope,” he finally said.

“No, what?” Julie, wise in the ways of kids, sought clarification.

“No, it don’t look familiar. Ain’t never seen it before,” Will said.

“A literalist yet,” Caleb said. “He sounds for all the world like his great-grandfather.”

Will peered uncertainly at him. “I gots me a great-grandfather?”

“You had,” Caleb said. “He died when I was a teenager. He was a judge, and you had to be really careful what you said to him because he took everything literally.”

“A judge?” Will looked intrigued. “Did he hang anyone?”

Caleb chuckled, and the sound slipped through Julie’s mind, soothing her sense of frustration at the way this session kept going off on tangents. Caleb had the most attractive chuckle. It made her feel warm and excited. As if something exhilarating was about to happen.

“Not that I know of,” Caleb said. “Although he did threaten to horsewhip me the time I drove his car without permission.”

“Really?” Will’s eyes widened as he tried to imagine the scene.

“Can you read the book, Will?” Julie broke in.

“’Course I can,” Will scoffed. “But I don’t wanna. It’s dumb.”

“What do you like to read?” Julie asked.

“Star Trek books and Goosebumps and lots a’others.”

“I see,” Julie said slowly. “Unfortunately, I didn’t bring anything like those with me.”

“I gots a great book in my room. That guy that brought me here, he bought it for me in the airport to read on the plane,” Will said. “Wanna see it?”

“Sure,” Julie said.

Will jumped up and raced toward the house.

“What are those books he mentioned?” Caleb watched his son disappear through the French doors.

“Upper elementary level,” Julie said slowly.

“Do you think he really can read them? I mean, he’s never been to school.”

“Did you notice the cards?” she asked.

“I didn’t pay much attention. I assumed they were simply to break the ice. As far as I was concerned, he’d already melted it with his vocabulary,” he said dryly.

“It does seem to be a bit on the X-rated side,” she conceded. “But about those cards, Will remembered what he had guessed on all the cards. He didn’t have to ask. Or even stop and think. And he didn’t make a mistake.”

“There were only ten cards,” Caleb said.

“The average kid would be lucky to remember four of them.”

Caleb frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning he has a good memory. A very good memory.”

“I already knew that! He’s apparently remembered every vulgarity he’s ever heard.”

“Here it is.” Will burst through the French doors waving a ragged paperback. “It’s a great book, all about a Jewish boy whose parents come to live in the United States from Russia a long time ago. You wanna borrow it?” he offered.

“Thanks.” Julie accepted the book and tucked it into her briefcase.

“Have you ever tried writing a book yourself, Will?” she asked.

“Nah,” Will rejected the idea. “Printing’s too hard. Them squiggly letters don’t never come out right.”

“I see. How about math?” Julie asked. “What are six and eight?”

Will shrugged. “Don’t know. Ain’t got my calculator.”

“Which would seem to be a powerful argument for learning to do sums in your head,” Caleb observed.

“No, it ain’t,” Will said. “’Cause I ain’t the one what wants to know. She does.” He pointed a grubby finger at Julie. “She’s the one what should learn to add.”

“Definitely the judge’s offspring,” Caleb muttered.

“But—” Will started.

“Never mind,” Julie cut him off. “I think I have a fair idea of what I wanted to know. Thanks for your help, Will.”

“You all done?” Will looked surprised. “No more questions?”

“Nope. No more.”

“You coming back?” Will eyed her hopefully. “Maybe we could try them cards again. Maybe I gots that ESP, but it’s hidden deep.”

“Let’s hope it stays hidden,” Caleb muttered. “Will, I’m going to talk to Julie for a while. You go amuse yourself.”

Will obediently got to his feet and stood there looking at him.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

“Where’s my ten bucks?”

Caleb frowned. “What ten bu…dollars?”

“Mom always gives me ten bucks to go outside and amuse myself when she wants to talk to her dates.”

Julie closed her eyes, praying the scorching heat she could feel burning its way over her cheekbones wasn’t as visible as it felt. She had no doubt why his mother had given him the money to disappear. And it sure wasn’t so she and her dates could talk.

She stole a quick glance at Caleb, but he looked more taken aback than angry at Will’s inadvertent disclosure.

“I don’t give bribes,” Caleb finally said. “And I expect to be obeyed.”

Will wrinkled his nose as he considered the situation. “But I expects my ten bucks, and I ain’t seeming to get it.”

“There is a difference,” Caleb said sternly. “I am the adult.”

“All that means is that you done lived longer,” Will retorted. “Someday I’ll be as old as you.”

“Not if you don’t get out of here right this moment!” Caleb snapped.

“Grown-ups!” Will grumbled as he stalked back into the house.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Caleb muttered.

Julie studied Caleb’s tense, frustrated features, not sure even in her own mind what to say to him. She liked Will and wanted to help him. But the trouble was, she also liked his father and that worried her.

“Caleb,” she began slowly.

“Not here,” Caleb cut her off. “He’s probably eavesdropping.”

“No, I ain’t!” Will yelled from just inside the French doors.

Julie hastily swallowed the giggle threatening to escape. She had the distinct feeling from Caleb’s harassed expression that he was not seeing the humor in the situation at the moment.

“Come on.” Caleb got to his feet. “We’ll go out for a cup of coffee. Away from little pitchers.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to drive. My car won’t start, and I haven’t had time to take it to the garage,” Julie said, trying to tell herself that the pleasure she felt at his suggestion they go out for coffee was only because she could use the extra time to figure out how to phrase her refusal and not because she wanted to be alone with him. The problem was, she had never been very good at self-deception.




Chapter Three


Julie looked around with interest as Caleb pulled into the parking lot of a diner. The front of it was shaped like an old-fashioned trolley car, and it exuded a homey charm that appealed to her. But that it would appeal to Caleb surprised her. It was not at all the type of restaurant she would have expected a wealthy, sophisticated man like Caleb Tarrington to patronize.

“Coffee, please,” Caleb told the waitress who appeared beside their booth the moment they sat down.

Julie studied his long, tanned fingers as they beat an impatient tattoo on the tabletop while he waited for their coffee to arrive. They were strong fingers, but it wasn’t just physically that he was strong.

Caleb Tarrington was strong inside, where it really counted. In the character department. His dogged determination to do his best by his son was proof of that. His entire concentration had been on Will and how to best help him adjust to his new life.

The man deserved the truth from her.

“Thank you,” Julie murmured absently as the waitress set her coffee down. But how much of the truth would be beneficial without discouraging him? she wondered.

“Spare me the euphemisms.” Caleb seemed to read her mind with no difficulty. “Tell me what you think in plain English, not wrapped up in a lot of educational jargon or psychobabble.”

“Okay, if the plain unvarnished truth is what you want, then it’s what you’ll get.

“First of all, I think your son has been neglected. Not physically, but emotionally and socially.”

Caleb clamped his lips together as if holding back angry words, but who they were directed at, Julie didn’t know. His ex-wife for what she had done to Will, or, more accurately, hadn’t done, or herself for having the audacity to point it out.

“I figured that one out myself,” Caleb finally said. “But that’s past. It can’t be changed. Now we need to devise a strategy for dealing with it.”

Not we, Julie mentally corrected him. Caleb. She wasn’t going to get involved.

“I will give you my input, but I have plans for the summer,” Julie said.

“And your input is?” Caleb ignored the second part of her sentence.

“Based on my brief, my very brief, observation of your son, I would say that you have a two-pronged problem. The first and the easiest to deal with is his lack of necessary first-grade skills. It’s a big plus that he reads well. Hopefully, his reading has brought him into contact with some of the history he should know.”

“History!” Caleb’s dark eyebrows arched in surprise. “In the first grade?”

“Definitely. Oh, we still do a few of the old-style social studies units on family and community, but we also give the kids a solid grounding in the history of the world and the United States.”

“Don’t you think you’re pushing them a little? These are six-year-old kids, after all.”

“Inquisitive six-year-old kids. Giving them a sense of history early is crucial.

“But that’s a side issue,” she said. “Scholastically, Will’s most pressing need would appear to be bringing his writing and math skills up to speed. I don’t anticipate much of a problem because he seems to be a very bright little boy.

“However, his social skills…” Julie paused, mentally searching for a diplomatic way of saying it.

“You mean his language would send any suburban soccer mom running for her four-wheel drive?” Caleb said bluntly.

Julie sighed. “Unfortunately that’s exactly what I mean. But even worse than his colorful language is that he doesn’t seem to realize that he shouldn’t say…the things he does.”

Caleb smiled ruefully. “He’s more amoral than immoral?”

“Got it in one! Which unfortunately is going to make the job that much harder.”

Caleb frowned, and Julie watched as a muscle in the corner of his mouth twitched with the strength of the emotions he was holding in check. Seeing Caleb angry would be a formidable sight, Julie thought with an inward shudder. She wouldn’t care to have that anger directed at her.

“Why harder?” Caleb asked.

“Because if Will knew that the words he used were…”

“Bad?” Caleb filled in.

“No!” Julie vehemently shook her head, and Caleb watched in fascination as the light-brown strands brushed the velvety skin of her cheeks. Her hair looked so soft and silky.

He wondered what it would feel like to leisurely run his fingers through it. To have the curly ends brush against his bare skin. He swallowed uneasily as his body began to react to the images flooding his mind. With an effort, he wrenched his thoughts back to what she was saying and not what she looked like.

“Words in and of themselves are not bad,” Julie insisted. “It’s people’s reactions to them that cause the trouble. Most kids learn very early which words get a rise out of their parents, and they tend to save those words to use on the playground to try to impress the other kids with how daring they are.”

“But Will isn’t being daring,” Caleb said. “He’s simply repeating what he thinks is normal.”

“Exactly. You’re going to have to teach him to substitute more acceptable words.”

“How am I supposed to do that? I can’t stand over him twenty-four hours a day and correct his English.”

Julie chuckled at the image Caleb’s words evoked.

Caleb momentarily forgot his growing sense of impending disaster at the enchanting sound of her laughter. It trickled through his mind, lightening his mood, and making him believe that he really could cope with his son’s problems.

“Maybe if I found Will a playmate or two from among my friends’ sons,” Caleb said thoughtfully.

“Bad idea,” Julie vetoed. “At least, initially. Kids being kids, Will is far more likely to teach his language to them than learn to suppress it because they don’t use it.”

“You think so?” Caleb asked doubtfully.

“I know so,” Julie said firmly. “And I also know that the mothers’ reaction will be to refuse to allow their sons to play with Will, which will effectively isolate him. And social isolation is a recipe for a very unhappy childhood. Give him a month to get used to not using objectionable words, and then you can find him a couple of playmates.”

“I suppose—” Caleb broke off as the cell phone in his pocket rang. “Excuse me, I’d better get this,” he said. “It could be Miss Vincent about Will.”

Julie leaned back against the vinyl cushion as he answered the call. It quickly became apparent that the caller wasn’t his housekeeper. From the totally incomprehensible conversation Caleb was carrying on about stress mass, she guessed the call was work-related.

She watched him as he talked, fascinated by the way he gestured with his hands to make a point. Caleb Tarrington was the most physically compelling man she had ever met. There was something about the sum of his parts that appealed to her on an instinctive level as no other man ever had.

Intellectual attraction she could understand and deal with. But how on earth could she reason with the breathless excitement that flooded her every time she looked at him? She had no idea because her reaction defied logic.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Ben.” Caleb concluded his call, switched the phone off and put it back in his pocket.

For a long moment, he studied the gray tabletop as if marshaling his arguments, and then he looked up. His blue gaze caught and held hers.

“Julie, 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.





Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Получить полную версию книги.


Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/judith-mcwilliams/the-summer-proposal/) на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.