A Mother’s Hope

Three years ago, Kate Wydell made a big mistake: she ran away, leaving her baby daughter behind. Now Kate’s back in the small Alabama town, desperate to make amends. But she’s afraid to reveal who she is. Especially since her new boss, a widowed father of young girls, is the kind of parent, the kind of person, Kate hopes to be. Mitch Gillespie sings lullabies and teaches his daughters how to be their best. With every passing day, Kate falls harder for him. But once Mitch knows her secret, will she lose him—and her deepest wish—forever?

“You just met me three days ago,” Mitch said. “How could you be ‘captivated’ by me?”

Kate blinked back tears. “Because you’ve done it all right. You accepted responsibility and you found the courage to give your girls every bit of your life and your love. You’re a real parent. And that’s what I so wish I could be.”

“You want to be a mother,” he said softly, as though he understood.

But he didn’t. “I had a daughter,” she said, “nearly four years ago. She’s—” she blinked through more tears “—the same age as Dee.”

“You had a daughter?” he asked, his voice tender with emotion. “What happened, Kate?”

“I gave her up.” Her chin trembled, and a sucking gasp escaped.

Her sobs tore through the stillness of the night, but they were soon smothered against the broad planes of Mitch’s chest, because he pulled her close, holding her through the pain, through the tears, and whispering the words he must’ve thought she wanted to hear.

“I’m so sorry, Kate.”

But he had no idea who she really was.

RENEE ANDREWS

spends a lot of time in the gym. No, she isn’t working out. Her husband, a former all-American gymnast, co-owns ACE Cheer Company, an all-star cheerleading company. She is thankful the talented kids at the gym don’t have a problem when she brings her laptop and writes while they sweat. When she isn’t writing, she’s typically traveling with her husband, bragging about their two sons or spoiling their bulldog.

Renee is a kidney donor and actively supports organ donation. She welcomes prayer requests and loves to hear from readers. Write to her at Renee@ReneeAndrews.com, visit her website at www.reneeandrews.com or check her out on Facebook or Twitter.

Mommy Wanted

Renee Andrews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

—Ephesians 4:32

This novel is dedicated to Clair Zeringue,

my amazing mother-in-law. I love you, Mom Z!

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Excerpt

Chapter One

Kate Wydell’s nervous fingertips rattled the pages of The Claremont News, the sound echoing through her car and magnifying her jitters. The Help Wanted section encompassed less than a column, the short list ending with the sole position for which she was qualified. Gillespie Insurance Agency needed an office assistant, no previous insurance experience required. Good people skills, a knowledge of word processing and an ability to remain calm in a crisis were the only criteria for the job.

She had all of those office skills and then some, and over the past year she’d perfected the ability to remain calm during a crisis. Her own personal crisis had led her back to this tiny North Alabama town, a place she’d left behind three years ago without a care in the world...and without regard for her baby girl.

Two blinks and a thick swallow warred against the tears that sought freedom. She would not allow herself to cry. Mascara streaks would only showcase the paleness of her face and the cheekbones that seemed much more prominent with the loss of fifteen pounds.

She’d stopped at Hydrangea Park while she gathered her courage and searched the classifieds. Flipping the visor, she checked her makeup in the tiny mirror. She was healthy now; the doctor said so. But did she look sick? Had she used too much blush to compensate for her pallor? Those questions ricocheted through her head, but the biggest and most pressing question now was...

Would Mitch Gillespie recognize her?

She tugged at a rogue black curl dangling precariously near her right eye. The inky corkscrew locks only drew more attention to her ridiculously fair skin. The last time she’d been in Claremont she’d had her trademark tan, an athletic build and blond wavy hair. And the last time she’d been in Claremont, she’d been married to one of Mitch’s best friends.

Another look in the mirror. Even her family hadn’t recognized her when she’d visited. Why would Mitch?

She took a deep breath, huffed it out. This would be so much easier if Chad were in town. Then she could tell her ex what she wanted in person and then deal with the consequences of a town that probably still hated her for hurting their golden boy. She hadn’t considered that mid-May meant the end of the school year and his break from teaching at the college, when he’d naturally head out of town on vacation. But maybe this was better. She’d get settled in while he was away and have time to prepare for the fireworks when he returned and learned she was back.

God, don’t let anyone remember me until I get a chance to talk to Chad.

Praying still felt new for Kate, even though she’d pleaded and begged God aplenty over the past year. Probably enough for a lifetime. And now she’d see if He would truly have mercy on her, and if Chad would have mercy on her, too.

But first she needed a job.

* * *

Mitch Gillespie unbuckled Dee’s car seat and helped the three-year-old out, while Emmie whimpered from the other side of the car. “I’m coming, sweetie,” he said, taking Dee’s hand and leading her around the car so he could free her sister.

“Why is her face so red?” Dee asked, peering in as Mitch worked with the abundance of fasteners holding Emmie in place. “’Cause she’s sick?” Dee was at an age where she questioned everything, and he tried his best to always provide an answer. “Her eyes look funny, too, like she’s sad. Is that ’cause she’s sick, too?” she continued.

Mitch’s stomach knotted. He hated that his baby was ill, and he hated even more that he had to bring the two of them back to his office because he’d forgotten his laptop. But in the flurry following the call from the day care about Emmie’s fever and the need for her to be picked up quickly, he’d forgotten all about the fact that he had several policies that had to be updated today.

“I’m sure it’s because of her fever,” he said, as Emmie pushed the last strap away and reached tiny hands toward her daddy. Heat radiated from her cheek as Mitch pulled her against him. Eighteen months old, Emmie had experienced a fever only a couple of times, following her immunizations, and she’d never had one due to sickness.

“But you gave her medicine,” Dee said, ever the voice of preschooler reason.

“Right, but that was only—” he glanced at his watch “—ten minutes ago. It’ll take a little longer for it to kick in.”

Dee’s strawberry brows furrowed and she frowned. “Everybody’s sick. I don’t like it when everybody’s sick. There’s nobody to play with.”

Carrying Emmie, Mitch led Dee toward the front door of Gillespie Insurance. Based on what Emmie’s teacher said, Dee’s statement wasn’t that far off the mark. Apparently, a virus was passing through the day care like wildfire, with fever and vomiting taking their toll on the victims. If the lady were right, Dee would probably have it by tomorrow. Which meant he’d be away from the office for at least two days, and that was if he didn’t catch the bug, too. “Come on,” he urged. “Daddy is going to get his computer and then we’ll head home and rest.” He attempted to sound positive.

“I don’t want to rest,” Dee said. “I want to play, but there’s nobody to play with.”

Emmie dropped her head to his shoulder, mumbled, “Daddy,” and then closed her eyes.

Mitch eased her downy curls aside and kissed her warm forehead then found a little relief that it didn’t seem as hot as it had when he picked her up from the day care. Maybe the children’s Tylenol had already kicked in. “I’m getting you home soon, sweetie,” he whispered, and then to Dee, “I’ll play a game with you at home, okay?” He wasn’t sure how he’d pull that off with so much work to do. Plus he’d planned to get a few groceries this afternoon before he picked them up. Now he had to take them home when there was virtually no food in the house. And he couldn’t very well drag them through the grocery store.

God, please, help me.

Any other time he could call Bo and Maura, his in-laws, and they’d help with the girls. Or Hannah and Matt, his sister-in-law and her husband. But the remainder of his wife’s family had headed out of town for a week at the beach following the end of the school year like many Claremont families determined to enjoy the kids’ first weeks of freedom. Naturally, they’d invited Mitch to come, but he did have a lot of work...and going on vacations with Jana’s family had seemed odd ever since her death.

It wasn’t as if the family didn’t want to include him, but Mitch found himself miserably lonely and spending his entire vacation thinking about what might have been. Or wondering what life would be like now if he were a normal twenty-nine-year-old, with two beautiful little girls and a loving wife who’d help him with the day-to-day activities of raising them. And at times like this, when they were sick.

“Daddy, I think she’s going to...” Dee’s warning came at the same time that the door opened and a petite dark-haired woman stepped inside his office.

“Oh, hello, I wanted to see if the position was still—” she started, but Mitch didn’t hear anything else. Emmie’s tummy started convulsing, her wail piercing as she attempted to get sick, dry heaves causing her little body to shake while Dee shouted, “Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Daddy, run!”

Mitch grabbed his jacket from the back of his desk chair and held it beneath his baby’s mouth as he darted to the bathroom at the rear of the office.

Chapter Two

Kate watched as Mitch took the crying baby toward the back of the small building and then disappeared into what she assumed was the restroom. She could hear his soothing words echoing down the short hallway.

“It’s okay, Emmie. Daddy’s here.”

He’d hardly acknowledged Kate before rushing the sick child away, but she hadn’t detected any recognition in the brief glance. Then again, she’d only been introduced to him once three years ago. Typically, a girl would know her husband’s friends well. But Kate’s relationship with Chad hadn’t been typical, and that was entirely her fault. Their Vegas wedding, which she’d urged him to have, had happened without the attendance of any friends. And when he’d moved her from Atlanta to Claremont in an effort to save their marriage, she’d blurted the news that nearly destroyed him and then hightailed it back to the city in a matter of days.

The only other person remaining in the front office turned wide blue eyes to Kate and shrugged small shoulders. “Emmie’s sick.”

Kate hadn’t been around many children, so she wasn’t all that certain how to respond. “I’m sorry,” she said, figuring an apology wouldn’t hurt.

“Yeah.” Red pigtails bobbed up and down as she released an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. “Everybody’s sick, and I don’t have anyone to play with.”

“I’m sorry,” Kate repeated, and wished she had something intelligent—or at least somewhat motherly—to say.

Mitch’s words were suddenly muted by the sound of running water in the bathroom. Kate could no longer understand him, but the little girl apparently did.

“Daddy’s trying to get her to stop crying, but Emmie is sad. It makes you sad to be sick.”

Kate couldn’t agree more. “Yes, it does.”

Seeing that they now agreed on something, the girl lifted one corner of her mouth and asked, “Are you Snow White? You look like Snow White.” She squinted a little as though trying to reconcile Kate as the beloved character. “Yep, you look like her a lot.”

Kate’s smile lifted her cheeks. Jet-black hair, fair white skin—why hadn’t she thought of the resemblance before?

Because in my mind, I’m still blonde and tan.

The little girl’s brows lifted while she waited for an answer.

“No, I’m not,” Kate said, though she didn’t mind the child relating her to someone she obviously liked. “I’m...” She felt odd merely saying Kate, so she pulled from her own youth and added the Southern salutation. “I’m Miss Kate.”

The little girl wrinkled her nose, sending a tiny spray of freckles dancing. “That’s okay, I guess. But I like Snow White better.”

Kate laughed. “Me, too.” She was glad for the chance to chat with this little princess while waiting to talk to her dad. Her nerves had almost disappeared with the interaction, and the fact that Mitch didn’t seem to remember her didn’t hurt, either. “So, what’s your name?” she asked.

“Dee.” She moved to the smaller of the two desks in the office, put her back against the front wooden panel and then slid down to sit on the floor. She wore a yellow shirt with tiny pink flowers, matching yellow shorts and brown buckled sandals. Pink bows capped her strawberry pigtails. “Dee Ellen Gillespie,” she added, her s coming out with an adorable lisp that made the name sound like Gillethpie.

As soon as Kate heard the name, she remembered even more about the time she’d met Mitch. He was with his wife, and she held their baby, a little girl only a couple of months older than Kate’s daughter. Was this that little girl? Kate took a nearby seat and asked, “How old are you, Dee?”

Concentrating, she put her thumb and pinkie together and held up the middle three fingers. “This many.” Then she released her pinkie finger. “But I’m almost this many. That’s four.”

Kate’s heart tugged in her chest. Three, and almost four. This was the baby she remembered, almost exactly the same age as Lainey, who would be four on August 30.

Wow. Kate’s daughter would be like this little girl, full of ideas and opinions and able to express herself and carry on a conversation with her mom.

But the only mom Lainey knew...wasn’t Kate.

The door to the restroom opened, and Mitch came out carrying Emmie, her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed, thumb stuck in her mouth. He looked exactly like Kate remembered, with reddish hair and a ruddy complexion, bright blue eyes and broad shoulders. A strong resemblance to Prince Harry, in Kate’s opinion, and the exact type of look she’d never take an interest in for herself. She’d always gone for the Bradley Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, good-looking-enough-to-stop-traffic kind of guy. But that didn’t matter now anyway, because Mitch was married, and Kate wasn’t here for any romantic interest. She’d chased after what she thought was love in Atlanta, and when the going got tough, Dr. Harrison Tinsdale had checked his bedside manner at the door. Then again, as a world-renowned plastic surgeon, he dealt with “pretty” on a regular basis; he had no concept of how to deal with “sick.”

Mitch’s eyes glanced right past Kate and zeroed in on the little girl still sitting against the desk. “Dee, you okay?”

“Yep.” She bobbed her head. “She’s not Snow White, though. She’s just Miss Kate.”

His eyes warmed toward the little girl, and then he turned his attention to Kate. “I’m afraid it isn’t always this eventful in my office, but I was called to get Emmie—” he tilted his head toward the little girl now sleeping on his shoulder “—at day care because she’s sick.” A lift of his mouth. “I guess you figured that out.”

“She going to be okay?” Kate asked.

“I’ll get her home so she can rest, and then hopefully she will be. The teacher said there’s a twenty-four-hour bug going around.” He looked toward the bigger desk. “I’m afraid I was just stopping by to get my computer so I could work from home while I’m taking care of her. I wasn’t prepared for customers, but if you want to write down your name and number, I can call you later to answer any insurance questions you may have. Are you looking for coverage? You must be new to Claremont.”

“I am,” Kate said. In fact, she’d crossed the city line only an hour ago. “My name is Kate Wydell. But I’m not here for insurance. I’m actually here for the position you advertised in the paper. I have a résumé.” She’d nearly forgotten that she still clutched it in her hand. She lifted the résumé.

He winced. “You said that earlier, didn’t you? That you were here for the job.”

“Yeah, she did,” Dee said, fiddling with one of the buckles on her sandals.

He gave Dee a grin, then to Kate said, “Sorry about that. My mind was on taking care of Emmie.”

“That’s fine.” She admired the fact that he was so dedicated to his little girls. Obviously they took priority over the potential employee. Kate wished she’d have put her own little girl as a priority three years ago, but she’d attempt to rectify that now, starting with a move to Claremont and a place in Lainey’s world. “Is the job still available?”

“It is,” he said. “And to be honest, I’ve never needed help more than I do right now. I’m behind on, well, pretty much everything and—” he patted Emmie’s back “—it looks like I may be taking a couple of days to work from home. Let me get my things, and I’ll take your résumé with me.” He turned toward the larger desk, which Kate now noticed had his nameplate perched at one corner, balanced Emmie a little more solidly in his arm and then used his opposite hand to close his laptop. Then he lifted a black computer bag from the back of the desk and started trying to put the laptop in one-handed.

Kate wasn’t certain whether the feat could be accomplished while holding his baby, and she could tell he wasn’t about to put the sleeping child down, so she quickly moved to stand beside him. “Here, let me help.”

He already had the computer in his grasp, and her hands brushed against his as she opened the case and guided the computer inside.

She zipped the bag and then realized that she was standing closer to him than she’d intended, his height catching her off guard as she looked up into blue eyes framed with reddish-blond lashes. The contrasting color only emphasized the brightness of his eyes, as well as the compassion of a daddy holding his little girl. Kate swallowed and felt another tug of her heart. This was a real parent, what she desperately wanted to be.

* * *

Mitch cleared his throat. “Thanks.”

He was thrown by the instant awareness of the woman standing so near. She was several inches shorter than Mitch, but it was her petite features, her tiny hands touching his as she helped him with the laptop, that made him feel taller. He grasped Emmie, protecting his sick baby girl by holding her close as she slept, but he found himself feeling the oddest sensation that this pretty lady needed protection, too.

And he felt another sensation as well, something he hadn’t experienced in quite some time. His skin bristled with the awareness of a definite attraction to the dark-haired beauty standing so near.

A sharp stab of guilt pierced his heart and he swallowed through the assault. He’d lost Jana only a year and a half ago, merely two weeks after they’d had Emmie. He wasn’t ready to feel attraction again. Didn’t know if he’d ever be ready.

He was exhausted from all of the work he’d had this week and worried about his little girl. Therefore, he wasn’t himself. That had to be what caused this unwanted feeling toward a woman he’d just met.

“Can we go home now?” Dee asked, pulling him out of the momentary trance.

He took a slight but noticeable step back from the woman. “Yes, we should be heading home,” he said, and wrapped his fingers around the handle of his computer bag.

“You want me to put my résumé in your bag?” she asked. She’d placed the single page on the desk while she assisted him with the laptop and neither of them had thought to add it.

“Sure.”

And again, soft hands brushed his as he released the handle and she quickly unzipped the bag, slid the paper in and then closed it. Mitch winced through the realization that even the touch of her hands caused an awareness he didn’t need or want.

“Do you think you’ll be making a decision soon? I have four years of experience as an office manager, although it was a medical office, but I do know word processing and can definitely stay calm in a crisis situation.”

Mitch had been looking for someone to help out in his office for over a month. A few high schoolers had applied, saying they wanted to work in the summer but then would need to head back to school. And they’d also wanted a couple of weeks off for family vacation, mission trips or cheer camp. No one over twenty had walked through his door, and no one had any experience. This lady had four years?

“You did stay calm when I bolted to the back with Emmie,” he said, thinking God may have answered his prayer...but also given him something he wasn’t ready to handle. He found himself glancing to the embroidered Bible verse his mother-in-law had given him on his first Christmas without his wife, framed and hanging directly behind his desk.

God is faithful. He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear.

“Yes, I did stay calm,” she agreed, and then smiled.

Her smile caught him off guard because it transformed her unique face into something beautiful. Fair skin, blue eyes, jet-black curls.

Mitch wasn’t so certain this was something he could bear. Could he push the bizarre attraction aside in order to hire someone who may be exactly what he needed to help him run this office...and have more time with his girls?

Her hands still rested on the computer bag, and Mitch waited until she moved them away. No need for another awkward physical contact toward his potential employee, because he was thinking about hiring her...and dealing with this whatever-it-was. If God had sent this lady as an answer to Mitch’s prayers, then God would also help him control this unusual response to her presence. The bottom line was that he needed help. And he wanted to be able to leave this place when Dee and Emmie needed him. “I’ll call your references tonight. If everything checks out, you could start tomorrow,” he said. “Would tomorrow be too soon? Like I said, I really do need some help.” A major understatement.

“Tomorrow would be great.”

“Dee, you ready to go? I need to get home and get some work done.” And put a little space between himself and his potential employee, for now.

She clamored up from the floor. “Just work? Or can we play some, too?”

“We’ll play something,” he assured her, hoping that Emmie’s tummy would stay settled and that he could somehow take care of her, play a game or two with Dee and also get all of today’s policies updated before midnight. He really did need some help.

They left the office, and he began putting Emmie in her car seat while Dee stood nearby waiting for her turn.

“Miss Kate,” Dee said, and the lady stopped walking toward her car.

“Yes?”

“You can help me get in my seat.”

Mitch had started buckling Emmie, but his hands fumbled over the fastener. He looked up in time to see the lady smile at his little girl and change direction to walk toward his car.

“I’d love to help you,” she said, her voice filled with so much compassion that Mitch thought she seemed on the verge of tears. He focused on her eyes, blinking more than normal and definitely fighting whatever emotion Dee’s request had evoked.

Mitch was fighting one himself, because other than their family members, Dee didn’t typically ask for help from anyone but her daddy. He kept his attention on securing Emmie, now snoring softly, into her seat, but looked up to lock gazes with Kate. Her dark, unruly hair framed her petite face as she focused on buckling Dee in and then gave his daughter a smile.

“How’s that?” she asked.

Dee examined the buckle on her car seat and nodded. “You did good.”

Kate’s face practically glowed at Dee’s praise. “Thanks.” Then she looked up, caught Mitch staring, and they both quickly got out of the close space and shut their respective car doors.

“I’ll call you after I’ve spoken with your references,” he said, attempting to sound as professional as possible given whatever had just passed between them.

It’d been eighteen months since he’d felt anything remotely near to this. Maybe it was because she was someone new, someone who wasn’t from Claremont and didn’t know him as the young widower in town, as Jana’s husband, or as Dee and Emmie’s dad. Those were the references to him nowadays, and rarely did he simply feel like Mitch. But he didn’t want to give up his new monikers because giving them up meant letting go of Jana.

Wasn’t happening.

“Can you tell me something before you go?” Kate asked.

Mitch paused, his hand on the door handle. “Sure.”

“I’m going to stay at the town’s bed-and-breakfast until I find a place to rent. Can you give me some easy directions to—” she pulled a small slip of paper from her pocket “—111 Maple Street?”

Mitch nodded. “It’s easy to find, only three miles away, but it’d be even easier for me to show you, since I live across the street from the B and B. You can follow me.”

Another one of those mesmerizing smiles blindsided him again. “Thanks!”

Mitch climbed in the car, buckled up and then checked the rearview mirror to see Emmie still sleeping and Dee looking directly at him in the mirror.

“I like Miss Kate,” she said.

“I do, too,” he admitted. Which was good. He would need to like his employee, as long as he made sure to control the extent of that “like.”

Dee peered out the window and waved to Kate before Mitch put the car in Reverse and backed up. “She’s like Snow White,” she said.

Mitch thought of Dee’s favorite story and of the lady who seemed out of her element and took care of everyone she met. And maybe that was why God had plopped Kate Wydell in his world. He needed to simply thank Him and accept the fact that he might finally have someone to relieve the workload at the office. “Maybe,” he said, “she is.”

Chapter Three

Annette Tingle walked ahead of Kate toward the last room on the second floor of the bed-and-breakfast. “I know you said you wanted a small room, but this is the only one that we have available for an extended stay.”

“I’ll be looking for a house to rent,” Kate said, “but I’m assuming I won’t be able to move in until the first of the month.”

“That’s probably true,” the lady agreed. “Hard to believe it’s nearly June already. The year is flying by, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Kate said. Life, in fact, had flown over the past year and a half.

“Well, this is your room.” Annette opened the door to a spacious bedroom complete with a canopied four-poster bed. A simple old-fashioned coverlet topped the mattress with embroidered pillows in shades of blue and rose adding a subdued hint of color. An enormous bay window with a window seat upholstered in the same shades overlooked Maple Street and consequently offered a direct view to the antebellum home across the street, the one where she’d watched Mitch pull in a short while ago.

Unable to stop herself, she walked to the big window, peered at his home and wondered how he and the girls were doing.

“Your bathroom is connected through this doorway,” Mrs. Tingle said from behind her, “and you have extra linens in your closet if you need them at night. We’ll charge you the regular room rate, even though this is master-sized, since that’s what you’d have preferred.”

“Thank you,” Kate said, still focusing on the house across the street.

“And you said you’re moving to Claremont?” Mrs. Tingle asked, causing Kate to reluctantly turn away from the window. She’d so enjoyed her time with Mitch’s little girls. Maybe that was an indication that she could be a good mother, which was the entire reason she was here. “Are you here for a job, or family?” the woman continued.

Kate swallowed. Family would be the most correct answer, a little girl who was the same age as Dee Gillespie and whom Kate had abandoned nearly four years ago. But she wasn’t ready to divulge that colossal secret. She focused on answering the woman’s question instead of breaking down in tears. “I’ve applied for a job at Gillespie Insurance Agency as an office manager.”

Mrs. Tingle clasped her hands together. “Well, that’s wonderful. I’m so glad Mitch is getting some help. He’s been trying to find someone for quite a while now, but it’s a small town, you know. Not a lot of people with the kind of experience he needed. I told him that someone would turn up, though, and here you are.” She smiled so broadly she practically beamed.

“Yes, here I am,” Kate said, her voice raspy with emotion. Would Mitch still be so happy about her presence when he realized that Kate was the one who had hurt his friend?

“That young man stays so busy with work and raising his girls by himself and everything,” Annette said. “It’ll be good for him to have some help in that office. He’s our neighbor, you know, lives just across the street.”

“I know,” Kate said, wondering why Mitch was raising his girls “by himself.” “I was putting my résumé in at his office and asked him where I could locate the B and B, and he told me I could follow him, since he lived across from y’all.”

Mrs. Tingle frowned. “He’s home already? That’s surprising. It’s only four-thirty. He usually doesn’t finish at his office until five o’clock, then he goes to get his girls and then comes home.” She waved a hand in front of her face. “I bet that sounds like I’m nosy. I’m not, really. It’s just that L.E. and I try to watch after our neighbors, and they do the same for us. Mitch has a fairly regular schedule. Usually he doesn’t come home until his day is done.”

“His little girl was sick, so he went home early,” Kate said, then explained, “I’d stopped by to drop off my résumé, and he was there getting his computer so he could work at home.”

The worry on Annette’s face was instant. “Oh, bless that boy’s heart. I wonder if he’s got some soup for her. I bet he doesn’t. And some food for himself. If he’s trying to work from home and take care of both of the girls, too, he’ll need help, especially if one is sick.” She paused. “Which one is sick?”

“Emmie,” Kate said, touched by the concern the woman showed toward her neighbor.

“Poor little Emmie,” Annette said. “Well, okay, I’d normally have L.E. take some things over for them, but he’s gone to Stockville to pick up some supplies. And I’ve got a few more guests that are supposed to arrive within the next hour, so I shouldn’t leave. Do you think you’d mind running a little care package over to Mitch from us, dear? You did meet him already, right?”

“I did, and I’d be happy to.” In fact, she hadn’t been able to get the girls off her mind. Emmie was so sick, and Dee had seemed sad that her daddy’s attention would have to be focused on his youngest daughter instead of playing with her. Following along as the woman returned to the hallway, Kate thought of Mitch, holding Emmie and promising Dee that he’d find a way to play a game with her, too. What a wonderful parent he was, someone whom she could watch and learn from, for sure. Because she desperately wanted to be a parent, a wonderful parent, to Lainey. If Chad would give her a chance.

Annette stopped halfway down the hall and indicated a different staircase than the one they’d taken earlier. “This leads to the kitchen,” she said, heading down with Kate following in her wake. “So if you ever get hungry for a snack or would like iced tea or coffee, it’ll always be available for you down here. But for now, we’ll use it to get some things together for Mitch and the girls.” She crossed the room and removed a patchwork quilt from the top of a chest freezer.

Kate moved to stand beside her and got there just in time for Annette to fill her arms.

“Here we go,” she said, handing her a large bowl labeled Chicken Noodle Soup. Then she balanced a Ziploc bag labeled Corn Bread on top of the bowl. And then she withdrew another flat container with Pecan Pie written across the side. “You can take the soup over to the microwave for me, if you don’t mind,” she said. “There’s a defrost button we can use for that and the corn bread. We’ll have everything ready to eat, in case they’re all hungry now.” She continued rummaging through all of the labeled containers in the freezer.

Kate nodded. “Okay.” She found the oversize microwave, took the lid off the soup container and then started defrosting. She found it oddly comforting to hear the woman instruct her around the kitchen. She hadn’t had those experiences growing up that she often saw in commercials or on paintings, where the little apron-clad girl stood on a chair beside her mom and poured the chocolate chips into the cookie batter. Her stepmom hadn’t liked the kids in the kitchen, so Kate’s first attempts at cooking hadn’t occurred until she was in her first apartment. Assisting Annette Tingle in the kitchen touched her heart, and again, she found herself swallowing past tears. Wouldn’t it be something if she could help her own little girl make cookies one day?

By the time Annette joined her with a breakfast casserole and another large bowl labeled Potato Soup, Kate had harnessed her emotions, defrosted the soup and corn bread and was moving on to the pie.

“We’ll just defrost the pie and leave it that way for him to put in and heat up a piece at a time. But the soup and corn bread we’ll go ahead and heat so it’s ready to go,” Annette said, taking the other frozen items in her hand with her to a set of side shelves organized with plates, cups, utensils and a couple of picnic baskets. She brought the largest basket to the table, placed the potato soup and casserole in the bottom and then situated several red-and-white-checked fabric napkins over them. “We’ll put the heated things on top, and you can let him know to put the food for tomorrow in his fridge.” She smiled. “That’ll help him out a bit. He’s such a sweet man and a great daddy to his girls. I’m sure you will enjoy working for him, too.”

Kate continued heating the food for tonight but found the courage to ask what she wanted to know most. “You said he takes care of the girls all by himself?” She attempted to sound nonchalant. She remembered meeting the pretty lady who had been Mitch’s wife three years ago, though she couldn’t recall her name. And she also remembered that the two had appeared very much in love and absolutely thrilled with their little baby. Dee.

“Oh, yes,” Annette said, placing the pie in the basket and putting more napkins around it while making room for the soup and corn bread. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking that you wouldn’t know. I’m sure Mitch wouldn’t mind me telling you since you’ll find out soon enough working for him and all. He’s a widower, poor dear. His sweet wife, Jana, had breast cancer, and it got really bad when she was carrying little Emmie. She wouldn’t have treatments while she was pregnant because she was afraid, you know, chemo and radiation might hurt the baby.”

“But you can be treated while you’re pregnant,” Kate said. She didn’t explain why she knew. Luckily, the lady didn’t ask.

“Oh, I know. That’s what they told Jana and Mitch, but she was so afraid that it might hurt the baby that she didn’t want to risk it. You know, they’re always finding out new things, and she didn’t want to be treated and then find out later that they just didn’t realize it’d hurt Emmie.”

“And the cancer got worse?” Kate guessed.

Annette pulled the steaming soup from the microwave and put it on top of the napkins in the basket. “By the time Emmie came, there wasn’t any chance of survival. Jana lived a couple of weeks after the baby was born.”

Kate’s stomach pitched. A year ago, she’d thought that she wouldn’t have the chance to ever see her little girl. Mitch’s wife had barely met Emmie before she died. “That had to be so hard for him.”

“It was hard on him and on the whole town really,” she said. “Everyone loved Jana. Her family has lived in this town for as long as I can remember. And everyone loves Mitch.” She placed the corn bread in the basket and closed the lid, then winked at Kate. “We all try to take care of him and those girls. That’s the way this town is, you know. Everyone is like family.”

Kate nodded, remembering Chad trying to sell her on the move to Claremont by saying that very thing. And remembering how she’d stayed here only a few days before leaving him, the town he loved and her baby girl behind.

“So would you mind taking this over to him?” Annette asked. “And I’ll finish getting those other rooms ready for our guests.”

“I’m happy to do it,” Kate said, meaning every word.

* * *

Mitch poured apple juice into Dee’s sippy cup and handed it to her while he looked at the bare shelves of his refrigerator. He had eggs, so he could scramble some for dinner. That should be easy enough on Emmie’s stomach. But then if he cooked those tonight, what would they have for breakfast in the morning?

“Daddy, I’m hungry,” Dee said, echoing his problem.

“How about an apple to hold you over until I can get something fixed for dinner?” He plucked one out of the fruit bowl.

She frowned. “I want green this time,” she said, then added, “please.”

Mitch returned the Red Delicious and retrieved a Granny Smith apple from the bowl. Lately he’d noticed her voicing her opinions and making more decisions on her own, displaying the independence and confidence that he’d always admired in her mom. He couldn’t be more proud. “One green apple coming up.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome.”

She watched as he sliced the apple, put it on her Dora the Explorer plate and placed it in front of her at the kitchen table. Emmie had been asleep ever since they got home, but he expected her to wake soon. She’d be hungry and thirsty, and he wanted to make sure he was prepared.

“Maybe I’ll go ahead and have some eggs ready for when Emmie wakes up,” he said to Dee.

Dee, chomping happily on her apple, nodded. “Yep, that’ll be good. You want to play a game while she’s still asleep?”

“Sure.” He’d kind of hoped she would forget the game promise for a while, at least until he got a few of those policies checked out, but he didn’t want to let her down, and playing while Emmie was asleep was probably the best route to take, since Emmie would undoubtedly not want to leave his arms once she woke. Which would also make it impossible for him to get his work done.

Help me out, here, Lord. You know I need it.

Mitch almost didn’t hear the tiny tap from the front of the house, but Dee did.

“Someone’s here,” she said, abandoning the apple and crawling off her seat to run toward the front of the house. She was probably hoping it was one of her friends coming to play. Mandy and Daniel Brantley occasionally brought Kaden over, and Chad and Jessica Martin visited every now and then with Lainey. But the majority of Dee’s friends were out of town with their families. Mitch had considered letting the girls go along with their grandparents on the family trip, but he simply hadn’t wanted to part with them for that long. Now, with Emmie’s sickness, he was glad he’d kept them home. But somehow, he’d need to find a way to combat Dee’s boredom with their current situation. Maybe whoever was at the door would help.

By the time he got to the foyer, Dee had already started reaching for the doorknob. Naturally, it was locked, but even so, he wanted her to remember the rule. “Wait, sweetie. Daddy needs to open the door, remember?”

“Okay.” She’d already moved to the sidelight, pulled the skinny curtain aside and peered out. “Hey! It’s Miss Kate!”

At the sound of Kate’s name, Mitch realized that he’d actually hoped to see her again tonight. He’d planned to call her and let her know he’d talked to her references, but telling her in person would be better. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but he wasn’t about to try to analyze it.

He unlocked and opened the wooden door, which left the screen door separating Mitch and Dee from their visitor.

“What you got in the basket, Miss Kate?” Dee bounced in place while she waited for Mitch to open the screen door.

Kate clutched the handles of an oversize picnic basket with both hands. From the strained look on her face, the thing was pretty heavy.

Mitch pushed the door open and hurried to take the large basket.

Kate smiled. “Thanks. I don’t think I could’ve stood here holding it much longer.”

“What have you got in here?” he asked, turning to go back into the house.

“It’s from Mrs. Tingle,” she called, and Mitch realized she still stood on the porch.

“Come on in!” Dee said, waving her inside, and Mitch nodded his agreement.

“Yes, forgive me. Please come in.” He led the way to the kitchen, where he placed the basket on the table then opened the lid to release the most amazing aromas he’d smelled in this kitchen in months.

“Oh, that smells good,” Dee said, climbing up on her seat to peer into the basket.

“It’s chicken noodle soup, corn bread and pecan pie for your dinner,” Kate said, as Mitch removed each of the named items from the basket.

He lifted an abundance of checked napkins and then saw more containers on the bottom.

“That’s a breakfast casserole and potato soup for tomorrow,” Kate said. “Mrs. Tingle said she didn’t want you to worry about cooking.”

“That lady spoils me,” Mitch said, grinning, “but I’m not about to complain.”

“She seems very sweet,” Kate agreed.

He placed the hot items on the stove and the cold ones in the fridge. Then he turned to see Kate standing awkwardly near the table as though she weren’t certain whether to stay or to leave. Mitch didn’t know whether he should politely usher her out or follow an instinct he didn’t quite understand...and ask her to stay.

It turned out, the decision wasn’t really his to make. Dee took over.

“Daddy has to work but I really want to play a game. Would you play a game with me?”

Kate’s eyes lifted and found Mitch’s. “Would that be okay with you?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, that’d be fine. I’m sure Dee would like it.” He’d like it, too, actually. He did have a lot of work to do, but he hadn’t wanted to let his little girl down.

“Yes, I sure would,” Dee said. “I can get my Memory game. Do you like the Memory game?”

“I’m not sure, but we’ll see,” Kate said.

“Okay!” Dee jumped off her chair and darted out of the kitchen toward the game room.

Mitch found himself alone with Kate. She eased into a chair at the table and nervously pulled at one of her black curls.

“Are you sure you don’t mind staying here a little while to play Memory with her?” he asked. “I can promise you she won’t be satisfied with one game, and I should also tell you she’s pretty good and doesn’t tend to show mercy.”

A small laugh escaped. “I was just hoping you didn’t feel like I was trying to bombard your space or take away from your time with your girls.” One corner of her mouth lifted along with a shoulder. “Or try to sway you into feeling like you have to hire me because I’ve won Dee over.”

“I’ll admit it doesn’t hurt that she likes you so much already,” he said. “But truthfully, I called your references as soon as I got home, and they all sang your praises. Just be forewarned that Dee and Emmie come with the territory. Playing games and having tea parties may actually end up being a part of your job description.”

Her eyes practically danced. “Oh, Mr. Gillespie, I can’t tell you how much I’d enjoy that.”

“Mitch,” he corrected. “Please call me Mitch.”

She blinked, and he saw something pass over her face that he didn’t understand, as though maybe she were debating them being on a first-name basis. But it didn’t mean anything. Everyone in Claremont went by first names. And thankfully, she nodded. “Okay. Mitch. I can’t tell you how much I’d enjoy that as a part of my job description.”

Dee bounded into the room with the game clutched in her hands, and he watched the two flip the square pieces over on the table. Dee’s excited chatter and Kate’s gentle words to his daughter filled the kitchen, but Mitch heard only one thing.

Kate Wydell...saying his name.

Chapter Four

Mitch quietly stepped away from Dee’s room so he wouldn’t wake her from her nap. His oldest princess had tried to deny the virus had gotten the best of her, saying that she was not going to let Emmie’s “bad bug” make her sick, too.

But as Mitch suspected, yesterday afternoon, when Emmie had begun to feel better, Dee’s stomach had started, in her words, “feeling yucky.” And then, like Emmie, she hadn’t been able to keep any food down. Today, after two full days of taking care of the girls, it seemed the worst of the virus was thankfully behind them.

And he was thankful for his new employee’s willingness to spend her first couple of days on the job working from Mitch’s front porch. The weather, in the low seventies with a frequent breeze, had made their temporary work environment quite enjoyable, and Mitch was glad for the ability to keep the office running remotely while also personally taking care of his girls.

He’d kept the wooden front door open throughout the day so he could listen for Dee through the screen one. Now he took advantage of that from the opposite side as he listened to Kate speak to one of his clients, her fingers tapping the keys of her laptop while she cradled the phone between her right ear and shoulder.

“Yes, Mrs. Tolleson,” she said, “I’ll be happy to let you know how much that would cost. I just need a little more information about your son.”

Mitch stopped walking and watched her capably select the website path to obtain a quote for renter’s insurance. And while Kate followed through the standard questions about the son’s age, address, marital status and home-contents value, Mitch studied the picturesque scene of his front porch.

A few feet from Kate, Emmie dozed peacefully in her pack-and-play, the mesh sides allowing Mitch to see one tiny hand clutching her nighty-night, the blanket Jana had sewn for her while she was pregnant. She’d created the satin border from one of her blouses and had said she hoped it’d somehow keep her close to her baby after she was gone.

Whether Emmie realized the fabric was from her mommy or not, the blanket was a must-have whenever she slept. Her opposite hand was balled near her chin with her tiny lips subtly moving around her thumb. The image would make a beautiful painting, but Mitch would be lying if he said that the sleeping child was the only thing worthy of a painting on his front porch. He turned his attention to the woman still speaking softly on the phone, her quiet tone obviously due to the sleeping baby.

A couple of decorative, very feminine bobby pins held back Kate’s dark curls on each side. Like yesterday, her outfit was dressy enough to qualify as business-casual but also appeared comfortable and modest. Today she wore a short white crocheted jacket over a sleeveless sky-blue dress that reached her ankles. Small pearls dotted each ear and a matching single-pearl necklace rested against her throat. She wore minimal makeup, only a hint of eye shadow and a pale pink lipstick, from what Mitch could tell. He wasn’t an expert on makeup or anything, but it seemed that the small amount only accented her blue eyes and heart-shaped lips.

Definitely an image worthy of a painting.

He swallowed. She was pretty. Very pretty. Unnervingly pretty. But he wasn’t certain whether it was the fact that he noticed her attractiveness that bothered him or the fact that he found himself appreciating scenes like this, where she sat comfortably on the top porch step, her dress sweeping the stairs and her back leaning against the wood column as she worked and occasionally smiled at his sleeping baby.

She looked like a sweet young mother.

A sharp stab of guilt slammed him. Jana should be here, on this porch, smiling at her daughter and being the center of Mitch’s world. Then this scene might actually be real, a part of his life, instead of an instance where an employee worked at his home to help him through a difficult situation.

Maybe he should have pushed harder to have Jana take the chemo treatments during the pregnancy. Maybe then she’d be here now, and he wouldn’t be thinking about how things would be if he had a woman in his life.

He shook his head. He’d been doing fine raising the girls on his own, and just because this scene with Kate seemed picture-perfect, that didn’t mean he needed someone else, not to be a mother to his girls or to be a—

He didn’t finish the thought. Several friends had asked about his plans for the future over the past couple of months, specifically whether he saw himself dating again, marrying again. Each time, he’d said no. And he’d meant it. He still loved Jana, would always love Jana. This awkward feeling around Kate didn’t mean anything. He simply hadn’t been around a female for an extended period of time since Jana passed away. Plus all of the ladies from Claremont still thought of him as “Jana’s Mitch.” Mitch liked that. Really. And thankfully, Kate hadn’t seemed to show any interest in him beyond a working relationship. He liked that, too.

Really.

Emmie made a smacking noise as she pulled her thumb from her mouth, stretched and rolled over. Mitch stepped toward the screen door so he could pick her up when she woke, but before he got there, Kate finished her call and smiled at the little girl reaching both arms toward the woman on the porch.

“Kay-Kay,” Emmie said, her eyes still heavy with sleep and her soft strawberry curls standing on end.

Kate closed her laptop and placed it to the side then eased toward the edge of the playpen. “Hey, there, sweetie. Did you have a good rest?”

Mitch held his breath as she picked up Emmie, and his little girl contentedly rested her head against Kate’s slender shoulder.

She gently patted Emmie’s back. “I’ll hold you now,” she said, “and Daddy will be back in a second. He went to check on your sister.”

“Kay-Kay,” Emmie repeated as she snuggled in Kate’s arms. Mitch couldn’t help but notice it was the same tone she used when he picked her up from her nap and she said, “Daddy.”

He cleared his throat and prepared to take over, but then he heard tiny feet approaching from behind him.

“I woked up,” Dee said.

Mitch turned as she reached him, her blue eyes blinking as they adjusted to the sunlight filtering into the hallway from the screen door. Picking her up, he kissed her cheek, no longer warm from fever. “Yes, you did,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

She nodded. “I feel better,” she said, then with a yawn asked, “Can we play?”

His laugh surprised him. He’d felt ill at ease watching Kate interact with Emmie, but Dee’s arrival had squelched his unease and brought him back to what was important, the fact that both of his little girls were starting to feel better. And the fact that he had a capable new employee who’d been willing to help him out when he was in a bind.

Lord, help me continue to see the good in all of this instead of feeling guilty over something that I can’t change.

“Daddy.” Emmie spied Mitch and Dee as they neared the screen door. She didn’t make any effort to reach for him, probably because he was already holding Dee, or maybe because she seemed quite content in Kate’s arms.

“Hey, sweetie,” Mitch answered. He pushed the door open and stepped onto the porch. The breeze carried the faint scent of peaches, which Mitch had determined over the past two days as the fragrance of Kate’s perfume. The smell suited the woman holding Emmie. Sweet and tender. A good-hearted woman and a diligent employee. He needed to stop seeing the way she fit in with his girls as a bad thing and realize that God had given him exactly what he’d asked for.

Thank You, Lord.

“I feel better now,” Dee pronounced.

Mitch smiled. He felt better now, too.

“I think I can play now,” she continued. She seemed to direct the statement toward Kate, which made sense, since Kate had played several games with her before she’d gotten sick.

Kate grinned. “Nothing overly exertive, I’d think, but maybe something low-key.”

“What’s ‘over zertive’?” she asked.

Mitch grinned. “That’s a little much for a three-year-old’s vocabulary,” he said quietly to Kate. Then to Dee, he said, “Miss Kate just means that you should take it easy, since your tummy hasn’t felt too good the past couple of days. Maybe not play anything that causes you to run around, like hide-and-seek. That’s what ‘overly exertive’ means.”

“Oh,” Dee said with a shrug. “Okay.” Then she peered down the street toward the square. “I’m hungry, too. Can we go get ice cream?”

At the mention of her favorite treat, Emmie’s head lifted from Kate’s shoulder. “Ice cweam?”

“Please, Daddy?” Dee asked.

He was a sucker for the way she said please and he was pretty sure she knew it. Even so, he grinned. They’d had a rough couple of days and deserved a treat. “You know, we are pretty much finished with the accounts for today, aren’t we, Kate?” he asked.

“I actually finished the last one thirty minutes ago,” she said. “But then Mrs. Tolleson called, and I wanted to get her the policy information she asked for. She seemed like a really sweet lady on the phone.”

“She is. She and her husband own the variety store on the square. Maybe we will see them when we go for ice cream. So, are you at a good stopping point?” Mitch asked.

“You could go get ice cream with us?” Dee asked. “Please?”

“You want me to go, too?” Her surprise at his question was evident. For the past two days, she’d worked with him here, but she’d always walked across the street and had her meals at the B and B with the Tingles and the other guests. Asking her to eat with them at their home had seemed too personal, and Mitch had wanted to keep their relationship as professional as possible.

But this was different. His girls were feeling better, and he wanted to celebrate. It only made sense to invite the woman who’d helped them through their sickness.

“Of course I want you to go,” he said. “Unless, say, you don’t like ice cream?”

“You don’t like ice cream?” Dee’s eyes widened in shock. “Why?”

Kate laughed, causing Emmie to lift her head and smile, and then she put her hand to Kate’s cheek. “Kay-Kay.”

A ripple of something passed over Mitch, but he swallowed past the feeling.

“I do like ice cream,” she said to Dee. “I like it very much, in fact, and I’d love to get some with all of you.” She glanced at Mitch again. “If you’re sure it’s okay for me to go.”

“Of course.” He forced a laugh and hoped she saw it as a casual invitation, which was exactly what it was, nothing like a date or anything.

“Yay, Miss Kate is going, too!” Dee’s high-pitched cheer delivered near Mitch’s right ear caused him to flinch.

“I guess I am,” Kate said, squeezing Emmie in a hug. “Let’s go get some ice cream, Emmie.” From the smile claiming Kate’s face, he thought she might actually be more excited about the treat than his girls.

* * *

Kate waved to Mr. Tingle, trimming the azalea bushes on the side of the bed-and-breakfast, as they began the short walk to the square. She’d already grown very fond of the sweet couple that ran the B and B. They reminded her of the kind of parents anyone would want, the kind she’d never had, and the kind she wanted her own daughter to have.

She blinked past the emotion causing her throat to tense. Her little girl undoubtedly had parents like that. Would Chad and his wife be okay with her having one more? And would they believe that she could be a good mom to Lainey after what she’d done in the past?

“Look at the flowers on those trees, Miss Kate.” Dee pointed to the row of Yoshino cherry trees lining Maple Street and leading to the square. The vivid pink blossoms resembled oversize roses and covered nearly every branch of the stunning trees. Her comment pulled Kate from the fear of Chad’s reaction to her arrival in Claremont and brought her back to the joy of spending time with these two little girls. This must be what motherhood felt like. And it was wonderful.

Kate swallowed. “I do see them, and they’re so pretty.”

“Pretty,” Emmie echoed. But she wasn’t looking at the trees; instead, she patted Kate’s cheek the way she’d done several times throughout the day and repeated, “Pretty.”

Kate kissed her chubby cheek. “You’re pretty.”

“And me, too?” Dee asked. Mitch had put her down midway to the square. She still held his hand but looked at Kate for an answer.

Kate recalled the many times growing up when she asked her stepmom that very question. “Am I pretty?” And the traditional answer, a quick “You’ll do.”

She moved closer to Mitch and Dee so she could reach out and run a hand along the soft curl of one of Dee’s pigtails as she answered, “You’re very pretty, Dee. In fact, you’re beautiful.”

Dee’s smile beamed, her walk turned into a skip and Kate felt a rush of warmth to her heart. She would never let her child wonder whether she were pretty. She just hoped she got the chance to tell Lainey, and soon.

“Bew-ful,” Emmie said.

“Yes, you’re beautiful, too.” Laughing, Kate looked from Emmie to Mitch. Though he continued walking toward the town square, his eyes were focused on Kate, not merely looking at her but studying her in a way that sent a shiver down her spine. What was he thinking now? Should she not tell his girls they were beautiful? Because they were, and she so wanted to make sure they knew. “Everything okay?” she asked him.

He inhaled thickly, let it out and then nodded. “Yes, everything’s fine.” Then, as though he needed to say it before he changed his mind, he added, “Thank you, Kate.”

Confused, she asked, “For what?”

“For helping me this week,” he said, “and for reminding the girls...of what they are.” He tweaked Dee’s cheek. “You are beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful, too, Daddy!” Dee continued to skip, and her daddy grinned.

And Kate noticed that, while she might not call him beautiful, Mitch did have an appealing quality, especially when he looked at his girls, and occasionally...when he looked at Kate.

* * *

Mitch wiped the smear of strawberry ice cream from Emmie’s chin with a napkin, and she gave him a full baby-teeth grin.

“Tank oo, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

Dee had wanted to sit by Kate at the Sweet Stop candy shop while they ate their ice cream, and now that the ice cream was gone, she remained at Kate’s side. “Can we take Miss Kate to see the toy store?” she asked.

Mitch gathered the abundance of used napkins from their table and, with Emmie perched on his hip, took them to the trash. “That’s mighty nice of you to want to show Miss Kate the toy store,” he said, knowing that the Tiny Tots Treasure Box was Dee’s favorite store on the square, with the Sweet Stop running a close second. “Are you sure Miss Kate wants to see the toy store?”

“Everyone loves toys, and Miss Kate loves games, and they’ve got lots of games there, too.” Her pigtails bobbed to emphasize the fact. “Don’t you want to see it, Miss Kate?”

Kate smiled as Dee reached for her hand. “If your dad says we have time to go,” she answered.

“Way to throw it back on me,” he teased, but truly he didn’t mind taking his girls to their beloved toy store.

Kate grinned. “Sorry, but you’re the daddy, so you’re the boss, right?”

Dee nodded. “Yep, he’s the daddy.”

Mitch held the door and tilted his head toward the square. “I guess we’re going to the toy store, then.”

Obviously excited to hear their new point of destination, Emmie gave him one of her openmouthed kisses on the cheek, which Mitch was fairly certain would leave him sticky. He didn’t care. He lived for those hugs.

Dee, looking as happy as Emmie, took Kate’s hand and tugged her toward the sidewalk. “Come on, Miss Kate. You’ll like the toy store.”

“I’m sure I will,” she said, passing close to Mitch as they walked through the doorway, the hint of peaches following in her wake.

“Mr. Gillespie?”

Ignoring the impulse to inhale deeper, he turned toward the teenager who’d been working the ice cream counter. “Yes, Jasmine?”

She waited a beat as Kate moved farther away, then said, “I like her. Kate. She seems very nice.”

He’d introduced Kate to the girl when they arrived and had also told her that Kate was his new employee, just in case she got the wrong idea about the four of them coming for ice cream. Had she gotten the wrong idea anyway? He glanced outside, where Dee had already tugged Kate toward the next store. “I like her, too,” he said. “I think she’s going to be a good employee,” he added for good measure.

Jasmine’s mouth dipped in a frown and her brows followed suit, giving him one of those looks girls perfected that said he didn’t know what he was saying. But he did. And he wouldn’t justify her curiosity by trying to explain more. As a teen, Jasmine undoubtedly romanticized everything. Eventually she’d see that he and Kate had a professional relationship and that was it. No need for the people around town to think anything more of it than that.

“Have a good day, Jasmine,” he said, closing the door behind him and ignoring the fact that her frown had slid into a smile, as though she knew something he didn’t.

Teenagers. In ten years, he’d have one, and then soon after, he’d have another. And by then, hopefully, he’d understand them a little better.

But he wouldn’t rush his little girls getting older. He wanted to enjoy every day, every age, like they were doing today, spending time together on the square.

“Well, hello, girls,” James Bowers said as they approached Bowers’ Sporting Goods store. He put several fishing rods in a large red barrel on the sidewalk. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Miss Kate,” Dee said. “She likes ice cream.”

Kate laughed. “Yes, I do.”

Mitch quickly caught up and explained, “Kate just moved here and is my new employee.”

Mr. Bowers situated the rods in the barrel and then turned it so the sale sign faced the street. “Well, that’s great,” he said. “You’ve needed some help for quite a while now, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have.”

“So, you came to Claremont for the job?” the man continued.

Kate blinked a couple of times, and her cheeks seemed to tinge a little more pink before she answered. “I wanted to live in a small town for a change, and Claremont seemed like a great place to settle down.” She glanced around at the square. “It’s lovely here.”

“Been here all my life,” he said, “and I haven’t found any reason to complain. Met my sweetheart here when we were still kids at Claremont Elementary.”

The door to the sporting goods shop opened, and Jolaine Bowers stepped out. “Well, hey, Mitch. How’re you doing?” she asked.

“I’m good,” Mitch answered, not missing the fact that while she spoke to Mitch, her eyes were definitely more focused on Kate.

“Your ears burning?” Her husband winked at her. “Or did you come out because you saw a new face and wanted the scoop?” He tilted his head toward Kate.

She playfully punched him in the biceps. “I’m just being friendly, James,” she chided. “But I don’t believe we met,” she continued to Kate. “I’m Jolaine Bowers.”

“Kate Wydell. I’m working for Mitch at his insurance agency now,” she said, then gave a soft smile. “Well, I will be working there. I haven’t actually worked at the office yet.”

“We’ve been working from my house, since the girls have been sick this week,” he said.

“Miss Kate likes ice cream,” Dee said. “And playing games. And toys.”

Jolaine’s deep dimples pierced her cheeks as she grinned at Mitch’s three-year-old. “I think that’s great, Dee,” she said. Then she turned her focus to Mitch and said, “I think it’s wonderful, actually.”

Mitch didn’t have to wonder whether she had the wrong idea. She did. And the knowing look she gave him said she was probably already seeing a wedding in his near future. Maybe it wasn’t just the teenagers in this town who tended to romanticize too much. And he really needed everyone to realize that Kate was his employee, nothing more. “We’ve had a tough couple of days,” he said, “with the girls dealing with the virus going through the day care and all, and so we decided to go for ice cream. Didn’t seem right not to invite Kate, since she’s helped us out so much.”

The couple nodded...and continued grinning.

Mitch gave up. “Well, we’ll see you around,” he said, and started walking away, but Jolaine halted them with her question to Kate.

“Kate, I’m assuming you don’t have a church home in town yet? If not, then you should come to our midweek service tonight at Claremont Community Church. We have a great group of folks there and a wonderful preacher with Brother Henry. He teaches the auditorium class on Wednesdays.” She waited a second for Kate to speak, and when she didn’t, Jolaine continued, “Mitch, you and the girls will be there tonight, won’t you?”

She knew he would, but Mitch went ahead and answered, “Yes.”

“So he could show you where the church is,” Jolaine continued, her smile managing to grow even more and those dimples sinking to oblivion with her excited grin. “We’d sure love to have you.”

Kate hesitated, looking to Mitch as though trying to determine his thoughts on the invitation to church. Mitch, however, was mentally kicking himself. He hadn’t thought to ask her to church. He also realized that he hadn’t thought to ask her why she’d come to Claremont initially. Obviously it wasn’t for the job, since she’d already arrived in town before she answered his classified ad. What would bring someone like Kate to Claremont? She’d come from Atlanta, as big a city as you could find in the South, and moved here to Tinyville, Alabama. A moment ago she’d said that she came to experience life in a small town.

Was that it? Or was there more?

“You’ll like church,” Dee said to Kate. “But we’ll go to the toy store first.”

James and Jolaine chuckled, and Mitch realized he’d yet to state his own invitation.

“Yes, you will,” he said. “You can follow us to the building, if you want. We meet at seven o’clock.”

“That sounds nice,” Kate answered. “I had recently started attending a church that I liked in Atlanta, but I haven’t had a chance to find a place to attend here. Mr. and Mrs. Tingle had mentioned their church, though, and I thought I might visit.”

Mr. Bowers grinned. “Same church, so we’ll see you there either way.”

“That’s great,” Kate said, but Mitch noticed she still looked a little hesitant and not all that excited. Was faith something new in her life? And had that been a part of what brought her to Claremont?

“Toys, Daddy,” Emmie said, patting his cheek with her small hand. “’Kay?”

“Okay, sweetie,” he said, then told Mr. and Mrs. Bowers that they would see them tonight at church and continued across the square. But he couldn’t get his thoughts off the niggling question...what really brought Kate Wydell to Claremont?

By the time they reached the toy store, Mitch had introduced his new employee to the majority of Claremont’s merchants on the square, and each time they received the same look and response that they’d gotten from Mr. and Mrs. Bowers. A questioning gaze of whether there was something more to this ice cream outing quickly followed by a knowing smile that they suspected Mitch had an interest in the new girl. And then the response that bothered him most—a tender smile toward his girls that he knew meant “Oh, how wonderful it’d be if they had a mommy in their world.”

That look pierced his heart. They did have a mommy. She’d been gone only a year and a half. And his girls were doing fine. So was Mitch, for that matter. He simply needed the town to realize that he could have a female employee without it being anything more, that he could take that employee for ice cream without it meaning anything more.

The string of bells on the door at the Tiny Tots Treasure Box sounded loudly as they entered.

“Welcome to Tiny Tots,” Mr. Feazell, the store owner, called from where he was settling a dollhouse in the middle of a display. He placed a tiny light so that it spotlighted the house and then quickly moved to the front of the store to welcome his guests. Unfortunately, Mitch saw the older man’s entire appearance change when he noticed Kate holding Dee’s hand. “Well, hello,” he said, grinning. “Who do you have with you today, Dee?”

“This is Miss Kate,” Dee said. “She likes toys.”

“You don’t say. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kate.” His head nodded subtly. “We’re glad you’re here. Where are you from? And how did you two meet?”

Leave it to one of the oldest men in town to toss out his filter completely and ask what everyone else was thinking. Mitch prepared to explain Kate’s employee role again, but Kate spoke before he had a chance.

“Oh, no,” she said, an embarrassed laugh bubbling out with her words. “It isn’t like that. Mr. Gillespie is my employer. I’m working in his office, and he was kind enough to invite me to the square this afternoon with him and his girls.”

Mr. Feazell had a good deal of snow-white beard covering his face, but even so, Mitch saw the tops of his cheeks redden with embarrassment at his presumption. He shook his head. “Oh, I, uh—” he chuckled “—well, I’m glad you got some help for your office, Mitch, and a right pretty helper, too, I might add.” Yet another testament to the fact that Ted Feazell had no problem saying exactly what was on his mind.

Looking uncertain about how to answer, Kate simply mumbled, “Thank you,” and then allowed Dee to pull her toward the dollhouse display.

“Come look, Miss Kate,” she said, and Kate obliged.

“Sorry about that, Mitch. Thought you had a lady friend,” Mr. Feazell said after they’d walked away. He attempted to whisper, but his ability to whisper had apparently flown out the window at the same time he lost his filter for words, and Mitch saw Kate’s cheeks blush bright pink.

“No problem,” Mitch said.

“Doggy.” Emmie pointed to an abundance of stuffed animals lining the entire right side of the store.

Mitch walked toward the packed bins and tried to spot the one that had caught her eye. He spied a fluffy white puppy with a purple bow and pulled it from the stack.

“No,” Emmie said, shaking her head and pointing again. “Doggy.”

There had to be thirty dogs in the overstuffed bin she indicated, and since he wasn’t entirely certain he’d gotten all of the strawberry ice cream off of her hands, he didn’t want to have her running her palm across the toys, but he also didn’t know how he would find the one she wanted. He lifted a brown Chihuahua.

Strawberry brows furrowed and her lower lip poked out. “No, Daddy. Dat doggy.” He leaned her closer, not close enough for her to touch, but close enough that he could narrow down his selection. It appeared as though she were reaching for either a tiny black poodle or a bulldog that had one of those “so ugly it was cute” looks. He plucked the poodle out as Kate and Dee walked over, with Dee moving to the fairy-tale figures near the Disney display.

“Trouble picking one out?” Kate asked.

“Trouble with me finding the one she wants,” Mitch clarified, while Mr. Feazell, standing nearby and watching it all, laughed.

Mitch couldn’t imagine her wanting the other dog, with its flat face and wrinkles, but he took it from the batch, and then was shocked when Emmie began clapping.

“Yes!” She grabbed the smushed-faced toy as soon as it was within reach and promptly buried her head against its fur. “Doggy!”

“That’s the one you want?” Mitch asked, but Emmie simply continued to snuggle and love the new toy. He looked at Mr. Feazell. “I guess that’s the one we’ll take.”

But Ted Feazell’s hand was over his mouth, his eyes were wide and his head shook slightly as he watched Emmie’s reaction to the toy. “I’m not believing...”

Confused, Mitch looked from him to his baby girl and then back. “Not believing what?”

“It’s just that, well, most little girls go for the cute puppies, you know, the fluffy ones, softer fur, that type of thing. I don’t get that many bulldogs in, because girls typically don’t like them, and the boys usually pick something bigger. I’ve only had one other little girl who ever had a fit over bulldogs like that. I remember each time she came in the store when she was little, that was what she wanted. She always said she wanted a real one someday, but she never got one.”

Mitch’s memory kicked into place, and he remembered his wife talking about the puppy they’d get when Dee was big enough. “Jana?” he asked.

Mr. Feazell’s eyes watered, and he rubbed a weathered hand across them before nodding. “Isn’t that something? She was just a baby when Jana passed, wasn’t she?”

“Two weeks old,” Mitch said, and he noticed that Kate had taken a step toward them, her mouth open in surprise.

“They always say kids take after their parents in what they like and all,” Mr. Feazell said. “Wouldn’t have thought about that applying to toy animals, but it sure does seem to be the case, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Mitch said thickly, “it does.”

“Doggy,” Emmie repeated, grinning against the animal’s face.

Mitch held her a little tighter and silently appreciated the fact that she’d obviously taken after Jana in what she liked. How many other things would he see and learn over the years that showed a glimpse of the woman he loved through their children?

“She likes...what her mommy liked,” Kate said, almost so softly that Mitch didn’t hear, but he looked up and noticed her hand held just beneath her throat as she stared awestruck at Emmie.

Mitch didn’t get a chance to think too much about Kate’s tender emotion at seeing Emmie’s reaction to the animal because at that moment, Dee cheered, “I found her. I finally found her!” Then she ran toward them from the Disney section holding up her prized find. A tiny figurine...of Snow White.

Chapter Five

After the town’s reaction to the two of them at the square this afternoon, Mitch hadn’t offered for Kate to ride with them to church. No need to add fuel to the gossip fire. So instead, he’d merely let her follow them to the building, and then when they entered the lobby, he curtly introduced her to Brother Henry. While the preacher welcomed her, Mitch explained that he needed to take the girls to their respective classes.

He ignored Dee’s tug on his arm as she tried to get him to wait for Miss Kate, and he ignored her complaint that she’d really wanted to show Kate her classroom. He’d also taken his time dropping the girls off at class so that his new employee would already be seated in the auditorium...and he could sit on the opposite side.

His odd behavior bothered him, but not as much as the events at the toy store this afternoon. And throughout Brother Henry’s lesson, his mind kept replaying that moment when he realized Emmie’s choice of stuffed animals was a tribute to her mommy. And that Dee’s toy choice...was a tribute to Kate.

By the time the Bible class ended, he’d glanced across the auditorium at least a dozen times at the woman who indeed resembled Dee’s new Snow White figure. Something about her captivated him, and Mitch had no idea why. Nor did he like the reaction. He didn’t want to be captivated. And as much as he wanted to deny it, he kind of hoped to catch her looking his way upon one of those glances. Didn’t happen.

He turned and exited the auditorium to go get the girls and noticed a small group of church members moving toward the new lady for introductions. Probably a good thing. He could pick up Emmie and Dee from class, get home and get a grip on the bizarre twist of spiraling emotions—a combination of guilt, fear...and infatuation.

That last one was the kicker, because he couldn’t deny that Dee’s infatuation with the lady had nothing on Mitch’s.

Lord, help me deal with this, he silently prayed as he went to the nursery to pick up Emmie. I can tell she’s a good person, and I know I need her help in the office—that’s what I asked You for, and You delivered—but I need help battling this pull toward her. You know I’m not ready for that, Lord, and I don’t think my girls are ready for it, either. Help me out here, God, please.

“Emmie seems to be feeling better,” Annette Tingle said, handing her over to Mitch. Mrs. Tingle worked in the nursery on Wednesday evenings. Mitch liked knowing the sweet lady was watching after his little girl. As his neighbor, she’d been around the girls almost daily since they were born and consequently treated them like granddaughters. “Tell Daddy who we talked about tonight, Emmie.”

Emmie grinned. “Je-sus.”

Mitch nodded, always happy to see the girls learning about their Lord while so young. “That’s great, Emmie. You can’t go wrong there.”

Mrs. Tingle reached for Emmie’s diaper bag, hanging on a peg near the door. Usually the pegs were all filled, but tonight only one more bag was present. “Only had three in here tonight,” she said. “Most of the town must be taking their summer vacations. Didn’t seem to be as many in the auditorium, either, from what I could tell.”

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