Meet The Bravos of Valentine Bay...

And the single father of twin toddlers in desperate need of a nanny!

All his life Daniel Bravo has been the responsible one. So when he’s left widowed with adorable twins to raise, he knows he needs help, fast. Enter family friend Keely Ostergard—a woman with love in her heart for his children, and a gigantic chip on her shoulder for him. She’s the last person he’d ever fall for—the aversion is mutual. Until it isn’t...

CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at www.christinerimmer.com.

Also by Christine Rimmer

Married Till Christmas

Garrett Bravo’s Runaway Bride

The Lawman’s Convenient Bride

A Bravo for Christmas

Ms. Bravo and the Boss

James Bravo’s Shotgun Bride

Carter Bravo’s Christmas Bride

The Good Girl’s Second Chance

Not Quite Married

The Maverick Fakes a Bride!

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Nanny’s Double Trouble

Christine Rimmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07761-3

THE NANNY’S DOUBLE TROUBLE

© 2018 Christine Rimmer

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Marie Campbell,

friend and fellow book lover,

whose totally adorable basset hounds,

Fancy, Luke, Beau, Moses, Rachel,

Clementine and Sampson,

are the inspiration for Daniel Bravo’s basset,

sweet Maisey Fae.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

When Keely Ostergard entered the upstairs playroom, she found Daniel Bravo lying on the floor. His eighteen-month-old daughter, Frannie, sat beside him, rhythmically tapping his broad chest with a giant plastic spoon.

“Boom, Da-Da,” Frannie said. “Boom, boom, boom.”

Meanwhile, Jake, Frannie’s twin, stood at Daniel’s head on plump toddler legs, little hands over his eyes in a beginner’s attempt at peekaboo.

Watching them, Keely couldn’t help thinking that for a man who’d never wanted children of his own, Daniel sure was a dream with them. The guy rarely smiled, yet he lavished his kids with attention and affection.

“Boo!” cried Jake, followed by a delighted toddler belly laugh that had him toppling head over heels toward his father’s face. Daniel caught him easily and started to tickle him, bringing more happy chortling from Jake.

Frannie spotted Keely first. “Keewee!” She dropped her spoon, lurched to her feet and toddled across the floor with her little arms wide.

Keely scooped her up. She smelled so sweet, like vanilla and apples. “How’s my girl?”

Frannie’s reply was almost in English. “I goo.”

Daniel sat up, Jake still in his arms. “Keely.” He looked a little worried at the sight of her. She came by often to see the kids, but she’d always called first. Not this time. He asked, “Everything okay?”

“Absolutely.” She kissed Frannie’s plump cheek. “Sorry, I know I should have called.” But if she’d called and said she would like to speak with him, he would have asked what was going on, and she didn’t want to get into that until they were face-to-face. He could too easily blow her off over the phone.

Grace, Daniel’s youngest sister, who had answered the door at Keely’s knock, entered the playroom right then. “Keely needs to talk to you, Daniel.”

“Sure—down you go, big fella.” He set the giggling Jake on his feet.

“Come on, you two.” Grace took Frannie from Keely and held out her hand for Jake. “Bath time.” She set off, carrying Frannie and pulling Jake along, on her way to the big bathroom down the hall.

Daniel stood still in the middle of the floor, watching her. “How ’bout a drink?”

“Sounds good.”

Downstairs in the kitchen, he poured them each two fingers of very old scotch, neat. Keely wasn’t much of a drinker, and scotch wasn’t her favorite. But she had an offer to make, and she wanted him to say yes to it. Sharing a drink first might loosen him up a little.

She raised her glass and took a small sip. It burned going down, and she tried not to shudder. “Strong stuff.”

He looked at her sideways and grumbled, “Why didn’t you just say you hate scotch?”

“No. Really. It’s very good.”

He stared at her doubtfully for a couple of awkward seconds and then, with a shrug, he looked out the window. It was after seven on a cool Friday night in March, and already dark out. Beyond the glass, garden lights glowed golden through the thickening fog. Behind her, somewhere far out in the bay, down the tree-covered hill from the front of the house, a foghorn sounded.

Keely rested her hand on the cool, smooth soapstone counter. It was a beautiful kitchen. Her cousin, Lillie, had redone it with meticulous, loving care. It had lustrous heated wood floors in a herringbone pattern, a giant farm-style sink, twinkly glass backsplashes and chef-grade appliances.

Lillie.

Keely’s throat got tight just thinking of her. She’d died eighteen months ago, leaving behind two adorable newborn babies—and one very grim husband. For the last fifteen years or so, Daniel had hardly been what Keely would call a happy guy anyway, but since they lost Lillie, the man rarely cracked a smile.

She took another sip and inched up on the reason she’d stopped by. “So then, what will you do for childcare now?”

He shifted his gaze back to her. “What can I do? Guess I’ll try the nanny service again.”

Keely almost laughed, though it wasn’t all that funny. “Will you ask for the one with the alcohol problem or the one who gets sick all the time? Or maybe the one who’s in love with you?” Daniel was a Viking of a man, big and buff and really good-looking in his too-serious, borderline-broody way. It wasn’t the least surprising that one of the endless string of nannies and babysitters had decided she was meant to become a second mother to his children and show him how to heal his wounded heart.

He pinched the bridge of his manly nose as though he might be getting a headache. “Something will come up.” His eyes—of a rather eerie pale blue—had circles under them. Clearly, he hadn’t been sleeping well lately.

Keely felt kind of guilty for teasing him. Okay, she harbored some animosity toward him for what had gone down between him and her cousin in the last months of Lillie’s life. But that was private stuff, husband-and-wife stuff, stuff Lillie had shared with Keely in strictest confidence.

Daniel wasn’t a bad guy. He’d just had to shoulder too much, too soon. On the plus side, he was a man you could count on—and pretty much everyone did. Keely needed to remember his good qualities whenever she felt tempted to blame him for making Lillie unhappy.

He was doing the best he could, and he did have a real problem. President and CEO of Valentine Logging, Daniel worked long hours. He needed reliable childcare for the twins. Yet the nannies came and went. And Daniel’s mother-in-law, Keely’s aunt Gretchen, had always been his nanny of last resort, stepping up to take care of the kids every time another caregiver bit the dust.

Then two days ago Gretchen tripped and fell—over Jake. The little boy was fine, but Gretchen had four broken bones in her right foot. At seventy and now on crutches, Keely’s aunt was no longer in any condition to be chasing after little ones. Daniel needed another nanny, and he needed one now.

And that was where Keely came in.

She knocked back the rest of her scotch. It seared a bracing path down her throat as she plunked her glass on the counter. “Okay, so here’s the thing...”

Daniel gazed at her almost prayerfully. “Tell me you know a real-life Mary Poppins. Someone with excellent references who can’t wait to move in here and take care of my kids.”

“‘Can’t wait’ might be a little strong, and Mary Poppins I’m not. But as for references, your mother-in-law will vouch for me. In fact, Aunt Gretchen has asked me to take over with the kids for a while, and I’ve said yes.”

Daniel’s mouth went slack. “You? You’re kidding.”

Should she be insulted? She answered tartly, “I am completely serious. The kids know me, I love them dearly and I’m happy to step in.”

He pinned her with that too-pale stare. “It’s just not right.”

“Of course it’s right. Lillie was my sister in all the ways that matter. Jake and Frannie need me right now. I know you and I aren’t best friends, but you’ve got to have someone you can depend on. That would be me.”

“You make it sound like I’ve got something against you, Keely. I don’t.”

She didn’t believe him. But how he felt about her wasn’t the point. Jake and Frannie were what mattered. Yes, he could probably hire yet another nanny from the service he used. But the kids deserved consistency and someone who loved them.

“Great.” She plastered on a giant smile. “Daniel, It’s going to be fine, I promise you. Better me than yet another stranger.”

His brow wrinkled to match the turned-down corners of his mouth. “You’re busy. You’ve got that gallery to run and those quilt things you make.”

Quilt things? Seriously?

Keely was a successful fabric artist as well as the proud owner of her own gallery, Sand & Sea, down in the historic district of their small Oregon town of Valentine Bay. And whatever Daniel chose to call textile arts, he did have a point. Taking care of Jake and Frannie on top of everything else she had going on would be a challenge.

She would manage, though. Gretchen had asked her to help. No way would she let Auntie G down.

“I’m here and I’m willing,” she said. “The kids need me and they know me.” She raced on before he could start objecting again. “Honestly, I have a plan and it’s a good one. This house has seven bedrooms and only four people live here now—including the twins.”

After his parents died, Daniel and Lillie had raised his seven surviving siblings right there in the Bravo family home. All the Bravo siblings had moved out now, though. Except for Grace. A junior at Reed College in Portland, Grace still came home for school breaks and between semesters. She had the only downstairs bedroom, an add-on off the kitchen.

Keely forged on. “I can take one empty upstairs room for a bedroom and one for my temporary studio—specifically, the two rooms directly across the hall from the twins’ playroom and bedroom. It’s perfect. And most nights, once you’re here to take over, I’ll probably just go home.” She had a cute little cottage two blocks from the beach, not far from her gallery. “But if you need me, I can stay over. With a studio set up here, I can work on my own projects whenever I get a spare moment or two. I have good people working at Sand & Sea, trustworthy people who will pick up the slack for me.”

He leaned back against the counter, crossed his big arms over his soft flannel shirt and considered. “I don’t know. I should talk to my sisters first, see how much they can pitch in.”

Besides Grace, who would be leaving for Portland day-after-tomorrow, there were Aislinn, Harper and Hailey. Aislinn worked for a lawyer in town. She couldn’t just take off indefinitely to watch her niece and nephew. As for Harper and Hailey, who’d been born just ten months apart, they were both seniors at U of O down in Eugene and wouldn’t be back home until after their graduation at the end of the semester.

And what was it with men? Why did they automatically turn to their sisters and mothers-in-law in a childcare emergency? Daniel had three brothers living nearby. Keely almost hit the snark button and asked him why he didn’t mention asking Matthias, Connor or Liam if they could pitch in, too?

But she had a goal here. Antagonizing Daniel would not aid her cause. “Well, of course everyone will help out, fill in when they can. But why make your sisters scramble when I’m willing to take on the main part of the job?”

“It just seems like a lot to ask.”

“But, see, that’s just it. You’re not asking. I’m offering.”

“More like insisting,” he muttered.

“Oh, yes, I am.” She put on a big smile, just to show him that he couldn’t annoy her no matter how hard he tried. “And I’m prepared to start taking care of Frannie and Jake right away. I’ll move my stuff in tomorrow, and I’ll take over with the kids on Sunday when Grace leaves to go back to school.”

He scowled down at his thick wool socks with the red reinforced heels and toes. Daniel always left his work boots at the door. “There’s still Gretchen to think about. If you’re busy with the kids, who’s going to be looking after her until she can get around without crutches again?” Keely’s uncle, Cletus Snow, had died five years ago. Auntie G lived alone now.

“She’s managing all right, and I will be checking in on her. And that’s not all. She’s called my mom.”

One burnished eyebrow lifted toward his thick dark gold hair as Daniel slanted her a skeptical glance. “What’s Ingrid got to do with anything?”

It was an excellent question. Ingrid Ostergard and Gretchen Snow were as different as two women could be and still share the same genes. Round and rosy Gretchen loved home, children and family. Ingrid, slim and sharp as a blade at fifty, was a rock musician who’d lived just about all her adult life out of her famous purple tour bus. Ingrid had never married. She claimed she had no idea who Keely’s father was. Twenty years younger than Gretchen, Keely’s mother was hardly the type to run to her big sister’s rescue.

Keely said, “Mom’s decided to change things up in her life. She’s coming home to stay and moving in with Aunt Gretchen.”

Daniel stared at her in sheer disbelief. “What about the band?”

Pomegranate Dream had had one big hit back in the nineties. Since then, all the original members except Ingrid had dropped out and been replaced, most of them two or three times over. “My mother pretty much is the band. And she says she’s done with touring. She’s talking about opening a bar here in town, with live music on the weekends.”

He just shook his head. “Your mother and Gretchen living together? How long do you think that’s going to last?”

“There have been odder odd couples.”

“Keely, come on. Those two never got along.”

She picked up the bottle of scotch and poured them each another drink. “How ’bout we think positive?” She raised her glass. “To my new job taking care of your adorable children—and to my mom and your mother-in-law making it work.”

He grabbed his glass. “I would insist on paying you the going rate.” He looked as grim and grouchy as ever, but at least he’d essentially accepted her offer.

“Daniel, we’re family. You don’t have to—”

“Stop arguing.” He narrowed those silvery eyes at her. “It’s only fair.”

Was it? Didn’t really matter. If he had to put her on salary in order to agree to accept her help, so be it. “Go ahead then. Pay me the big bucks.”

“I will.” He named a figure.

“Done.”

He tapped his glass to hers. “Here’s to you, Keely. Thank you.” He really did look relieved. “You’re a lifesaver.” And then something truly rare happened. Daniel Bravo almost smiled.

Well, it was more of a twitch on the left side of his mouth, really. That twitch caused a warm little tug in the center of her chest. The man needed to learn how to smile again, he really did. Yes, he’d caused Lillie pain and Keely resented him for it.

But Lillie, diagnosed with lupus back in her teens, had craved the one thing that was most dangerous for her. She’d paid for her children with her life and left her husband on his own to raise the sweet babies she just had to have.

Life wasn’t fair, Keely thought. At least there should be smiles in it. There should be joy wherever a person could find it. Jake and Frannie needed a dad who could smile now and then.

“What are you looking at?” Daniel demanded, all traces of that tiny twitch of a smile long gone.

Keely realized she’d been staring at Daniel’s mouth for way too long. She blinked and gave an embarrassed little cough into her hand. “Just, um, thinking that you ought to smile more often.”

He made a growly sound, something midway between a scoff and a snort. “Don’t start on me, Keely. You’ll give me a bad feeling about this deal we just made.”

It was right on the tip of her tongue to come back with something snippy. Do not get into it with him, she reminded herself yet again. They would be living in the same house at least some of the time, and they needed to get along. Instead of a sharp retort, she gave him a crisp nod. “Fair enough.”

Claws clicking gently across the floor, Lillie’s sweet basset hound, Maisey Fae, waddled in from the family room. The dog stopped at Keely’s feet and gazed up at her longingly through mournful brown eyes.

“Aww. How you doin’, Maisey?” She knelt to give the dog a nice scratch under her jowly chin. “Where’s my sugar?” She pursed her lips, and Maisey swiped at her face with that long, pink tongue.

When Keely rose again, Daniel was holding out a house key. “I’ll give you a check tomorrow to cover the first week.”

“Thanks. I’ll be here nice and early with my car full of clothes, equipment and art supplies.”

“I can’t wait,” he said with zero inflection as she headed for the front door. “What time?”

“Eight,” she said over her shoulder.

“I’ll come over and help.”

“No need.” She waved without turning. “I’ve got this.”

* * *

The next morning, as Keely was hauling her prized Bernina 1015 sewing machine out to her Subaru in the drizzling rain, Daniel pulled up at the end of her front walk in his Supercrew long-bed pickup.

He emerged from behind the wheel, his dark gold hair kind of scrambled looking, his face rough with beard scruff, wearing a heavy waffle-weave Henley, old jeans and the usual big boots.

“I told you I can handle this,” she reminded him as he took the sewing machine from her.

“You’re welcome. Happy to help,” he said, and for a split second she imagined a spark of wry humor in those ice-blue eyes.

She remembered her manners. “Thank you—and be careful with that,” she warned. “Those aren’t easy to find anymore, and they cost a fortune.” She swiped at the mist of raindrops on her forehead, then stood with her hands on her hips watching his every move as he set the machine carefully in the back seat of his truck. When he shut the door again, she asked, “So Grace has the kids?”

“Yeah, they’re with Grace. Let’s get the rest.” He headed up the walk, his long strides carrying him to the front porch of her shingled cottage in just a few steps.

She hustled to catch up. “You want some coffee? I can make some.”

“I had two cups with breakfast. Let’s get this done.”

* * *

Half an hour later, all her equipment, including her spare Bernina—a 1008 model—a raft of art and sketching supplies and the giant pegboard loaded with industrial-sized spools of thread in just about every color known to man, was either in the rear seat of his crew cab or tucked in the long bed beneath the camper shell. He’d loaded up her two collapsible worktables, too, and the smaller table she liked to keep beside her easel. That left only her suitcase to go in the Subaru. She’d figured it would take three trips to get everything up to the Bravo house. Thanks to Daniel, they would get it done in one.

“See you back at the house.” He climbed in his truck.

“Thank you. I mean that sincerely.”

With a quick wave, he started the engine and drove off.

She locked up and followed him, leaving the mist-shrouded streets of town to head up Rhinehart Hill into the tall trees and then along the winding driveway that led to the beautiful old Bravo house, with its deep front porch flanked by stone pillars.

Keely stopped behind Daniel’s truck in the turnaround in front of the house. She grabbed her biggest suitcase and hauled it inside and up the curving staircase to the room she planned to use for sleeping whenever she stayed over.

He emerged from the other room to meet her as she headed back down. “I’m putting your sewing stuff in the white room.” He shot a thumb back over his shoulder. “You’re using it for work, right?”

“How’d you guess?”

“It has better light than the other one. You want me to get the bed and dressers out of there?”

“I can use the dressers for storage, if that’s all right. Are they empty?”

“I think they’ve got a bunch of old clothes nobody wants in them. Just clear out the drawers, and I’ll take everything away.”

“Thanks.” Note to self: be nicer to Daniel. He really was a handy guy to have around when a girl needed to get stuff done. “And as for the bed, yes, please. I would like it gone.”

“I’ll have it out of there before dinnertime.” And off he went down the stairs to bring up the next load of her stuff.

She peeked into the kids’ bedroom and also the playroom before following him. Nobody there. Grace must have them downstairs somewhere.

Working together, they hauled everything up to her two rooms, bringing the big thread pegboard up last.

“You want this board mounted on the wall?” he asked.

“That would be terrific.”

“I’ll get to that tonight. Once we get the bed out, we can set things up pretty much like the room you were using at your place.”

It was exactly what she’d hoped to do, and she got a minor case of the warm fuzzies that he’d not only pitched in to help move her things, he’d also given real thought to making her as comfortable as possible in his house. “Totally works for me. Thanks.”

With the barest nod of acknowledgment, he pulled a folded scrap of paper from his pocket—a check. “First week’s pay.” She took it. “I need to go on up to Warrenton,” he said. Valentine Logging operated a log sorting and storage yard, deep water and barge cargo docks, and a log barking and chipping facility in nearby Warrenton at the mouth of the Columbia River. The company offices were there, too. “You planning to look in at the gallery today?”

“I am, yes. But I’ll be back in the afternoon, ready to take over with the kids.”

“No rush. Grace is here until tomorrow. She’ll watch them today and tonight so you can get settled in.”

That didn’t seem fair. Grace had spent her whole week helping with the kids. “I’m fine on my own with them.”

His regular frown got deeper. “Grace’ll be here. In case you need her.”

She considered the wisdom of arguing the point further. But his mouth was set and his eyes unwavering. Maybe not. “See you later then.”

With a grunt, he turned and went down the stairs.

* * *

From the docks in Warrenton, Daniel called a handyman he trusted to haul the bed from the white room down into the basement. He’d been feeling pretty desperate yesterday when Keely showed up to save his bacon on the childcare front.

True, her offer had seemed like a bad idea at first. He’d been afraid they wouldn’t get along. In the last years of Lillie’s life, as his marriage unraveled, Keely had never said a mean word to him directly. But he got the message in her disapproving glances and careful silences whenever he happened to be in the same room with her. She’d been firmly Team Lillie, no doubt about it. Still, for the twins’ sake, she’d stepped up to provide the care they needed.

It was important to do everything he could to make her happy in his house. He planned to be home for dinner and then to help her get everything just the way she wanted it.

But the day came and went. By late afternoon, he still needed to go through the stack of paperwork he hadn’t managed to get to during the week. After a short break to grab some takeout, he headed for the office, ending up by himself at his desk until after seven.

When he finally pulled his truck into the garage, he caught Grace, in tight jeans and full makeup, as she was coming down the stairs from the inside door. She flashed him a smile and tried to ease past him on the way to her car.

“Hold on.”

“Daniel.” She made his name into a serious complaint. “I have to go. I’m meeting Erin at—”

He caught her arm. “We need to talk.”

“But—”

“Come on.”

She let out a groan, but at least she followed him back into the house. “What? Can you please make it quick?”

“Let’s talk in my study.” She trudged along behind him to his home office off the foyer. Once they were both inside, he shut the door. “The kids and Keely?”

There was an eye roll. “Jake and Frannie are already in bed. Keely’s upstairs, putting her stuff away, fixing up her room and her workroom. She said it was fine for me to go.”

A hot spark of anger ignited in his gut. But when he got mad, Grace just got madder. He reminded himself to keep his cool. “The agreement was that you would give Keely a hand tonight, help her get comfortable, pitch in with the kids.” He kept his voice level. Reasonable.

Still, Grace’s eyes flashed blue fire. “The kids are in bed. Got it? And what agreement? You told me what to do as you were going out the door.”

“Grace, I—”

“No. Uh-uh. I talked to Keely. I asked her if she needed me. She said go, have fun.”

“Of course she would say that.”

Grace looked up at the ceiling and blew out a furious breath. “You know, some people go to Cancún for their spring break. Me, though? I come home and help your mother-in-law look after your kids. And then when she trips over Jake, it’s just me. Until Keely stepped up—which I totally appreciate. Keely’s about the best there is. But me, I’ve got one night. One night of my spring break to myself. A few hours with my friends, and then I’m on my way back to school.”

When she said it like that, he felt like an ogre. A litany of swear words scrolled through his brain. Playing stand-in dad to his own sisters and brothers should be more rewarding, shouldn’t it? How come so much of the job just plain sucked?

She’s the last one at home, he reminded himself. He was pretty much done with raising his siblings.

Too bad he still had a couple of decades ahead with his own kids.

“Come on, Grace. Don’t exaggerate. You’ve spent time with your friends this week.”

“Not much, I haven’t.”

“You went out last night, remember?”

Another giant sigh. More ceiling staring. “For like two hours.”

“I want you to stick around tonight in case she needs you.”

“But I promised Erin—”

He put up a hand. “You’re needed here. And that’s all I have to say about it.”

If looks could kill, he’d be seared to a cinder. He waited for the yelling to start, dreaded the angry words about to erupt from her mouth—I hate you, Daniel and Who died and made you king? and the worst one of all, You are not my father.

As if he didn’t know that. As if he’d asked for the thankless job of seeing that his brothers and sisters made it all the way to fully functioning adulthood without somehow crashing and burning in the process.

But this time, Grace surprised him. “Fine,” she said way too quietly. And then, shoulders back and head high, she marched to the door, yanked it wide and went out.

He winced as she slammed it behind her. And then, even with the door shut, he could hear her boots pound the floor with each step as she tramped through the downstairs to her room off the kitchen—and slammed that door, too.

Chapter Two

Daniel scrubbed both hands down his face. And then he stood stock-still, listening for cries from upstairs—Jake or Frannie, startled awake by Grace’s slamming and stomping. He didn’t breathe again for several seconds.

Finally, when he heard nothing but sweet silence, he stuck his head out the door and listened some more.

Still nothing.

By some minor miracle, Grace had failed to wake up the kids.

Daniel retreated into the study and quietly shut the door. He really ought to go straight upstairs to see how Keely was managing.

But Grace might still have angry words to hurl at him. He would check his email now, hide out for a few minutes. If Grace came flying back out of her room again loaded for bear, he didn’t want to be anywhere in her path.

* * *

Keely was in her bedroom, putting her clothes in the dresser when she heard a door slam downstairs, followed by the loud tapping of boots across hardwood floors.

Grace. Had to be. Keely tucked a stack of bras into the top drawer, quietly slid it shut—and winced as another downstairs door slammed.

Apparently Daniel had come in before Grace could escape.

Keely felt a stab of guilt. Daniel had made it abundantly clear he intended for his sister to stay home tonight. If Keely had only asked Grace to stick around, the confrontation that had so obviously just occurred downstairs could have been avoided.

But come on. Grace had a right to a little fun with her friends now and then. And Keely really didn’t need her tonight.

The question now: Should she leave bad enough alone and stay out of it?

Yeah, probably.

But what had just happened was partly her fault. At the very least, she could offer Grace a shoulder to cry on.

Still not sure she ought to be sticking her nose in, she tiptoed out into the hall, down the stairs, past the shut door to Daniel’s study and onward to the back of the house, into the hall off the kitchen. She tapped on Grace’s door.

After a minute, a teary voice called, “Go away, Daniel!”

Keely tapped again. “Grace, it’s me.”

Silence. Keely steeled herself to be told to get lost.

But then she heard footsteps in there. Grace opened the door with red-rimmed eyes and a nose to match.

Keely held out a tissue. “I come in peace.”

Grace took the tissue and wiped her nose. “Where is he?”

“Still in his study, I think.”

“Jake and Frannie?”

“Not a peep.”

Grace sniffed again. “Come in.” She stepped back. Keely entered and followed her to the bed where they sat down side by side.

Keely made her apology. “He told me this morning that he expected you to stay in. I should have warned you that he seemed kind of dug in about it.”

“He’s kind of dug in about everything.” Grace stuck out her chin. “You know it’s true.” Keely didn’t argue. Why should she? She agreed with Grace on that. “He treats me like I’m a borderline delinquent. I’m twenty-one years old, getting decent grades in school, doing a perfectly fine job of adulting, thank you so very much. I could just get up, get in my car and go.”

“But you won’t. Because you are sweet and helpful. You love your brother, and you want to get along with him. You know he’s got way too much on his plate, and so you try your best to be patient with him.”

Grace let out a reluctant snort of laughter. “Yeah, right.”

“I want to make a little speech now. It will probably annoy you, but I hope you’ll listen anyway.”

“Go for it.”

“When he was your age, he was married, working, fitting in college classes as best he could and raising you and your brothers and sisters—and probably getting zero nights out with his friends.”

Into the silence that followed, Grace shot her a surprised glance. “That’s it. That’s the speech?”

“That’s all.”

Grace seemed to consider. “I know you’re right. He hasn’t had it easy. But he still drives me crazy. I mean, does he have to be such a hard-ass all the time?”

Keely put her hand over Grace’s and gave it a pat. “I’ll go talk to him.”

Grace scoffed, “Like there aren’t a thousand ways that could go horribly wrong.”

“Trust me.”

“I do. It’s him that I’m worried about.”

* * *

Daniel was still holed up in his study, reluctant to venture out and possibly have to deal with his sister again when the tap came on the door.

Grace? Doubtful. Probably Keely. He didn’t really want to listen to whatever she had to say right at the moment either. Chances were she’d only come to give him a bad time about Grace.

There was another knock.

He gave in and called out, “It’s open.”

Keely pushed the door wide and then hesitated on the threshold. She wore what she’d had on that morning—jeans rolled at the ankles, a black-and-white-striped shirt half-tucked-in and hanging off one shoulder, with high-tops on her feet. Her hair was naturally reddish blond, but she liked to change it up. Today, it fell in fog-frizzed brown waves to her shoulders. Her big, wide-set green eyes assessed him.

He leaned back in his swivel chair and cracked his neck to dispel some of the tension. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

She braced a shoulder in the doorway, stuck her hands in her pockets and crossed one high-top in front of the other. “I really did tell Grace I didn’t need her, and I urged her to go out and have a little fun.”

Women. They always knew how to gang up on a man. “All right.”

She pushed off the door and straightened her shoulders. “All right, she can go—or all right, you heard what I said and I should get lost?”

He stared at his dead wife’s cousin and reminded himself all over again that he was really grateful she’d come to look after his children, even if she did consider him to blame for all that had gone wrong between him and Lillie.

And maybe he was to blame.

When his parents had died suddenly on a second honeymoon in Thailand, he was eighteen. The most important thing then was to keep what was left of his family together. He’d stepped up to take care of his three surviving brothers and four sisters. Lillie, a year behind him in school, stepped right up with him. He and Lillie had been together—inseparable, really—for two years by then. They’d agreed to get married as soon as Lillie graduated high school.

A born nurturer just like her mother, Lillie was only too happy to take over as a second mom to his big brood of siblings. She always claimed that choosing a life with him and his ready-made family was the perfect solution for her. She could have the kids she longed for and not risk her health.

But as the years passed and his brothers and sisters grew up and moved out, her yearning for babies of their own only got stronger. He didn’t share that yearning. No way. An empty nest. That was what he’d looked forward to. He’d thought they might travel a little, get to know each other all over again...

“Daniel? You all right?” Keely was waiting for him to answer her last question.

He shook himself and put his regrets aside. “Sorry.” Grace. He needed to smooth things over with Grace. “You’re sure you don’t need her?”

“Positive.”

He got up. “I’ll go talk to her.”

* * *

Grace opened the door at his knock. “What now?”

“Grace, I’m sorry we got into it.”

“It’s all right,” she said flatly. He got the message. It was not all right. It was anything but.

“Listen, go ahead. Go meet Erin. Enjoy your last night home.”

She almost smiled. But she was still too pissed at him for that. “Thanks.”

Don’t stay out too late. He closed his mouth over the words. She was an adult after all. He had trouble sometimes remembering that. She’d been a sweet little six-year-old in pigtails with two missing front teeth when George and Marie Bravo decided they needed a romantic getaway in Thailand. They got there just in time for the tsunami that killed them. And Grace had had to grow up without them.

No, he wasn’t his baby sister’s father, but sometimes he felt like it. He liked it when she stayed home—and not only because she helped out with the kids. He wanted her safe, damn it, wanted all of them safe. Life was too dangerous. Anything could happen. He knew that from hard experience.

“Have a good time.” He pushed the words out of his unwilling mouth.

“I will,” she said obediently and then lifted her arms in a limp offer of a hug.

He gathered her close, but only for a moment. She pulled free quickly, and he left her to go offer Keely some help setting up the white room for her studio.

* * *

By a little after eleven, they had the thread pegboard hung and covered with giant spools. He’d put up some shelves for her, ones he’d found down in the basement. The shelves used to be in his brother Matthias’s room way back before Matt moved out. She had two worktables set up, one for sketching and one for her sewing machine. There was an easel in the corner and another, smaller table next to it piled with paint and brushes.

“This is looking good, Daniel. Thank you.”

“What else needs doing?”

“That’s it.” She hid a yawn behind her hand. “We are finished.”

“You sure?”

She pushed in the chair at her sewing table. “Yep.”

He felt the oddest reluctance to head for his own room. After Grace left for her night out, it had been pretty much a no-pressure evening. He’d felt useful, helping Keely get the room the way she wanted it. And besides that, it was kind of good just to hang with her. Kind of companionable.

He hadn’t had much of that, of companionship. Not for a long time. Not for a couple of years at least. Not since he’d found out that Lillie was pregnant.

And really, since before that, even. More like five years, since about the time Lillie started really pushing him to try for a baby of their own.

“Okay, what’d I say?” Keely asked.

“Huh? Nothing. Why?”

“You looked... I don’t know. Faraway. Unhappy.”

He tried for a laugh. It came out as more of a grunt. “I always look unhappy. Ask anyone who knows me.”

“Now, see. I want to say that’s not true. But, Daniel, it kind of is.”

He had the absolutely unacceptable urge to start talking about Lillie, about how angry he still was at her after all this time, for betting on her life. And losing.

What was the matter with him? To even consider spilling his guts about Lillie to Keely, of all people? That would be a bad idea of spectacular proportions.

Wouldn’t it? Why did he have this powerful feeling that Keely would understand?

Didn’t matter. He just wasn’t going there. No way.

And he needed to get out of there. Now.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “What can I say? Except, yeah, I’m a gloomy guy. And since you’re good to go here, I’ll see you in the morning.”

She didn’t reply for several seconds, just looked at him, kind of thoughtful and sad, both at once. A soft sigh escaped her. “All right then. Night.”

“Night—come on, Maisey. Let’s go.” The dog, stretched out by the window, got up and followed him from the room.

With Maisey trotting along behind, he went down the stairs to let her out before bed. He walked fast, too, just in case Keely got it in her head to try to stop him, to start asking questions he saw no win in answering.

* * *

Daniel got in bed around midnight. He had trouble sleeping until a little after two, when he heard Grace come in. Relieved that she was home safe, he finally drifted off.

He woke to the sound of one of the kids crying. Maisey was already out of her dog bed and sniffing at the door. She gave a worried little whine, urging him to hurry as he yanked on track pants and a frayed Go Beavers T-shirt. When he opened the door, she pushed out ahead of him, leading the way along the hallway to the twins’ bedroom.

The door stood open, dim light spilling out. Maisey went in first.

Keely was already there, Frannie in her arms. She was pacing the floor in the muted light from the little lamp on the green dresser. She turned when he entered, her hand on the back of Frannie’s head, stroking gently as Frannie sobbed against her shoulder.

He felt that familiar ache his chest, the one he got when one of his own was hurting. A quick glance at Jake’s crib showed him his boy was still asleep. That miracle wouldn’t last long. “Let me take her,” he whispered.

Keely kissed Frannie’s temple. “Here’s your daddy,” she murmured, keeping it low, probably hoping Jake wouldn’t wake up.

Yeah. Good luck with that.

Daniel held out his arms. With a sad little cry, Frannie twisted in Keely’s hold and fell toward him. “Da-Da!” she wailed. He caught her and gathered her in. She dropped her head against his chest. “Ow. Ow, ow, ow.”

Keely moved in close, the soft sleeve of her flannel pajama top brushing his arm. He got a faint whiff of sweetness—her shampoo? Her perfume? “Ear infection?” she whispered.

He felt the back of Frannie’s neck as she sobbed against his chest. “She seems kind of hot.”

“I thought so, too.”

“We should take her temperature.”

“I’ll get the thermometer.”

“It’s the one that says rectal on the case,” he advised over Frannie’s unhappy cries. Rectal. Story of his life. Rectal thermometers and never enough sleep—and did Keely know where to look? “Cabinet in the big bathroom,” he added. “On the left, second shelf. Just to be sure it’s sterile, clean it with alcohol and a little soap and water.”

“You got it.” She disappeared into the hallway. Really, she was a champ, that Keely.

About then, Jake woke up with a startled cry. “Da?”

“It’s okay, big guy.”

“Fa-Fa?” It was Jake’s name for his sister.

“She’s not feeling so good.”

Jake stood up in his crib. “Fa-Fa?” he called again.

Frannie answered, “Day!” She couldn’t make the j sound yet, and she tended to drop hard sounds at the ends of words, so the k got lost, too, and she called her twin Day. “Ow, ow, ow!”

“Shh.” Daniel soothed her. “It’s okay...” Gently, he laid his wailing daughter on the changing table. As she wiggled and whined, he took off her one-piece pajamas and her diaper. Meanwhile, Jake jumped up and down in his crib, calling out “Fa-Fa, Fa-Fa!” in frantic sympathy, followed by a bunch of nonsense words to which Frannie replied with nonsense of her own—well, maybe not nonsense to the two of them. They had their own language that only they understood.

Keely came back with the thermometer in one hand, a bottle of liquid Tylenol and a dosing syringe in the other. “We’ll probably need it,” she said, meaning the Tylenol. Chances were way too good she was right.

He held out his hand as Frannie continued to cry and squirm. Keely passed him the thermometer—and Jake let out a wail from his crib.

“I’ll get him,” she said. “Tylenol’s right here.” She set it on the shelf above the changing table and went to reassure Jake.

The thermometer registered 102 degrees. He put a fresh diaper on Frannie and dosed her with the Tylenol as Keely sat in the corner rocker, soothing the worried Jake.

Once he had Frannie back in her pajamas, he walked the floor with her until the Tylenol seemed to kick in. She went to sleep against his shoulder.

He kissed the top of her sweaty little head and glanced over to find Keely watching him.

She mouthed, Sleeping? At his nod, she nodded back, pointing at Jake, who was curled up against her, sound asleep, too.

It was only a few steps to Frannie’s crib. He carried her over there and slowly, gently, laid her down. She didn’t stir as he tucked the blanket in around her.

Across the room in the other crib, Keely was tucking Jake in, too. She turned off the lamp, and they tiptoed from the now-quiet room together.

“Psst. Maisey,” he whispered. The dog lurched to her feet and waddled out after them. Daniel closed the door. “Whew.”

Keely leaned back against the wall next to her bedroom and said hopefully, “Maybe they’ll sleep the rest of the night and Frannie will be all better in the morning.”

“Dreamer. And what rest of the night? It’s already morning, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Don’t go overboard looking on the bright side there, Daniel.” She glanced through the open door to her room and blew out her cheeks with a weary breath. “Sadly enough, though, you’re right. The clock by my bed says it’s almost five. Tonight is officially over.”

“Let’s hope we get lucky and they both sleep till, say, eight.”

“As if.” She laughed, a sort of whisper-laugh to go with their low, careful whisper of a conversation. The low light from the wall sconces struck red glints in her brown hair, and she looked sweet as a farm girl, barefoot in those flannel pajamas that were printed with ladybugs.

He thought of Grace suddenly, knew a stab of annoyance that kind of soured the companionable moment between him and Keely—and there it was again, that word: companionable. He’d felt companionable with his dead wife’s cousin twice in one night, and he didn’t know whether to feel good about that or not.

“What?” Keely asked. “Just say it.”

He went ahead and admitted what was bugging him. “Grace. She’s got one of the baby monitors in her room, so she had to hear what was happening. But she didn’t even come check to see if we needed her.”

“Yeah, she did. She came in the kids’ room before you. I knew she’d been out late and could use a little sleep, so I said I could handle it and sent her back to bed.”

He hung his head. “Go ahead. Say it. I’m a crap brother.”

Maisey chose that moment to get comfortable. She yawned hugely, stretched out on the floor and lowered her head to her paws with a soft doggy sigh.

Keely said, “You love Grace. She loves you. Ten years from now, you’ll wonder what you used to fight about.”

“Uh-uh. I’ll remember.”

“Maybe. But you’ll be totally over it.” Would he? He hoped so. She said, “When I was little, living with the band on my mother’s purple bus, I used to dream of a real house like this one, dream of having sisters and brothers. Family is hard, Daniel. But it’s worth it. And I think you know that it is.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “You’re right.”

Family was everything. But that didn’t stop him from fantasizing about totally non-family-related things. Partying till dawn, maybe. A game of poker that went on till all hours, with a keg on tap and all the guys smoking stinky cigars, telling politically incorrect jokes. A one-night stand with a gorgeous woman he’d never met before and would never see again, a woman who only wanted to use him for hot sex.

Now there was a big as if. He’d been with one woman in his life and was perfectly happy about that—until the past few years anyway. He just wasn’t the kind of guy who went to bed with women he hardly knew. The one time he’d tried that, six months ago, he’d realized at the last possible moment that sex with a stranger just wasn’t for him. His sudden change of heart had not endeared him to the lady in question.

And Keely was watching him again, a hint of a smile on her full mouth.

“I’m going to work on thinking positive,” he promised her, because she did have a point about his negative attitude.

She gave a whisper-chuckle. “Anything is possible.”

He clicked his tongue at Maisey and she dragged herself up on her stubby legs again. “Night, Keely.” He turned for his room at the end of the hall.

“Night, Daniel,” she whispered after him.

* * *

When Keely woke up it was ten after eight Sunday morning and no one was crying. She put on her vintage chenille robe over her pajamas and looked across the hall.

Both cribs were empty.

Downstairs in the kitchen, she found two smiling cherubs eating cut-up pancakes off their high chair trays and both Daniel and Grace at the breakfast table, neither one scowling.

Yes. Life was good on this beautiful, foggy-as-usual Sunday morning in Valentine Bay. She poured herself coffee.

Grace said, “I’m here till two, Keely, so if you need to run errands, go for it.”

“Keewee!” crowed Jake, pounding on his tray.

Keely stepped over and kissed his gooey cheek.

“Kiss, kiss, Keewee!” Frannie pounded her tray, too, and smacked her rosebud lips.

Keely kissed her as well, and then returned to the stove where a stack of pancakes waited. She put a couple of them on a plate. “Thanks, Grace. I’ll run by Sand & Sea and stop in to check on Aunt Gretchen.”

* * *

The gallery opened daily at eleven. Keely arrived at nine thirty. Her top clerk, Amanda, promoted temporarily to manager, joined her five minutes later. They went through the books and discussed the schedule. Sand & Sea was 3500 square feet of exhibit space on Manzanita Avenue, in the heart of Valentine Bay’s downtown historic district. With a focus on Oregon artists, Keely offered contemporary work in just about every form imaginable, from painting to printmaking, sculpture to woodworking. She displayed and sold artisan jewelry, furniture, textiles and photography.

Sand & Sea also hosted receptions and special events. Every month or so, she featured an individual artist or a group of artists in a themed joint show. The first Friday in April, she would hold an opening for a new group show with several top Pacific Northwest artists working in various mediums on the theme of the ever-changing sea. Everything was on schedule for that one so far. Amanda was knowledgeable, organized and more than competent, and they had almost three weeks until the opening. Keely needed to find help with Frannie and Jake for the opening-night reception party and the few days before it. But that should be doable, one way or another.

Feeling confident that Sand & Sea wouldn’t suffer while she focused on Daniel’s twins, she left the gallery at eleven thirty to check in on her aunt.

Gretchen still lived in the house she’d shared with her husband, the house where she’d raised her precious only child, Lillie. Keely considered the four-bedroom craftsman-style bungalow her childhood home, too.

Yes, she’d spent most of her growing-up years living on the tour bus. But now and then, Ingrid’s career would get a boost and the tour schedule would get crazy. Those were the times that Ingrid took Keely to Valentine Bay to live temporarily with Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Cletus. Keely loved when that happened. She was constantly begging her mother to let her live with the Snows full-time.

When Keely was fifteen, Ingrid finally gave in. Keely moved in with her cousin. At last, she got the settled-down life she’d always dreamed of in the seaside town she considered her true home.

Keely knocked on the green front door, but only to be considerate. She had a key and she used it, sticking her head in the door, calling, “It’s just me! Don’t get up!”

“I’m in the kitchen!” Gretchen called back.

Something smelled wonderful. Keely followed her nose to the back of the house. She found her aunt balanced on her good foot, one hand braced on the counter, as she pulled a tray of cookies from the oven.

Keely waited until Gretchen had set the tray on top of the stove and shut the oven door to scold, “You’re not supposed to be on that foot.”

“Sweetheart!” Gretchen turned and hopped toward her.

“You are impossible.” Keely caught her and hugged her, breathing in the familiar, beloved scents of vanilla and melted butter. Her aunt not only always smelled delicious, she was still pretty in a comfortable, homey sort of way, with smooth, pale skin and carefully styled hair she still had professionally colored to the exact Nordic blond it used to be when she was young.

Gretchen laughed. “You know you need cookies.”

Keely grabbed a chair from the table and spun it around. “Here. Sit.”

“Oh, don’t fuss.” Gretchen held on to Keely for balance as she lowered herself into the chair.

Keely tried to look stern. “You will stay in that chair. I mean it.”

Gretchen swept out a plump arm in the direction of the big mixing bowl on the counter. “I have two more cookie sheets to fill.”

“Stay where you are. I’ll do it.” She grabbed another chair and positioned it so that Gretchen could put her foot up. “There. Want coffee?”

“Please—and where are my babies?”

“At Daniel’s.” Keely filled a cup and set it on the table next to Gretchen. “Grace isn’t going back to Portland until this afternoon, so she’s watching them.”

“I miss them already.”

“I’ll bring them by during the week.”

“You’re a good girl. The best.”

Keely got to work dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet. “Looking after Frannie and Jake is no hardship. You know how I always wanted babies.” She’d been married once. A hot and charming driftwood artist, Roy Varner had come to town six years ago, before Keely opened Sand & Sea. Another local gallery had given him a show. Keely went to his opening. The attraction was instant and mutual. Roy swept her clean off her feet. They’d married within weeks of that first meeting. Roy traveled a lot to various art shows all over the west. Slowly Keely figured out that all the traveling wasn’t only about selling art. When he traveled, Roy behaved like a free man in every way. Including sleeping with other women. Keely had divorced him four years ago.

“Don’t you worry,” said Gretchen. “You’ve still got plenty of time. A good man and babies will be yours.”

Keely sent her aunt a fond glance over her shoulder. “Love you, Auntie G.”

“Love you more.”

“Heard from Mom?”

“Not since the other day.”

“So we still don’t know exactly when she’s coming?”

“Keely, I am managing just fine—and what about you? All settled in at Daniel’s?”

She considered mentioning Frannie’s earache. But the little girl had seemed fully recovered this morning, so why worry Gretchen? “It’s going great. And I’m all set up. I’ve got a bedroom across from the twins, and I’m using the room beside it as a work area—and you know, I’ve been thinking that we could get you some live-in help. Or you could move to Daniel’s temporarily.”

“I like my own house.”

“But—”

“Don’t start. I mean it. I’ve hired the boy next door to handle the yard. His sister will come in and clean when I need her. I’m having my groceries delivered. I’m used to doing things for myself, and I like my independence. Plus, in the Bravo house, all the bedrooms except Grace’s are upstairs. That’s not going to work with this foot.”

Keely scooped up another spoonful of dough. “I’ll call Mom, pin her down on when she’ll be here.”

“Don’t you dare. I will handle this. You’ve got enough to do, and you know it.”

“Auntie G, it’s just a phone call,” she said into the bowl of dough.

“Put down that spoon and look at me.”

Keely dropped the spoon back in the bowl and turned to face her aunt. “Yeah?”

“Your mother is coming, but she’ll be doing that in her own good time. That’s how she rolls and don’t we all know it.”

Keely stifled a laugh. “How she rolls?”

Gretchen’s blue eyes twinkled. “You know it’s true. Ingrid makes her own rules and sets her own schedule. Trying to change her at this late date? Never going to happen.”

Keely picked up a cooling cookie, took a bite and groaned in appreciation. “You shouldn’t be up making cookies. But these are so good.”

“I made lunch, too. It’s in the fridge. Don’t ruin your appetite.”

“No chance of that. Not when it’s your cooking—and were you on your feet to make the lunch?”

“Don’t nag, sweetheart. Nagging is not attractive.”

“What am I going to do with you?”

“Finish your cookie, get the rest of them in the oven—and then serve us both the amazing crab salad and crusty rolls I threw together.”

* * *

Keely got back to the Bravo house at a quarter of two, and Grace left for Portland a few minutes later. As usual, Daniel had stuff to do at the office. He promised to be back by dinnertime.

She stood on the porch, one twin on either side of her, waving as Daniel headed off down the driveway. The sun had made an afternoon appearance, so for a while she took the kids out back, where there was a big wooden playset that had been there for as long as she could remember. They played in the sandbox, slid down the slide and she swung them on the toddler-friendly swings.

Back inside, she gave them a snack and took them upstairs for diaper changes and nap time. They went down like little angels, reaching for kisses, settling right in and closing their eyes.

She got a full hour in her new studio, bent over her precious Bernina before Frannie started crying. When Keely went to check on her, she had a fever again.

* * *

That night, poor little Frannie didn’t sleep much. Neither did Keely or Daniel. Or Jake, for that matter. Frannie’s ear hurt, and nothing seemed to make it feel better.

The next day, one of the ladies from Gretchen’s church came by to watch Jake so that Keely could take Frannie to the pediatrician. Diagnosis: ear infection. Keely picked up the antibiotic and eardrop prescriptions on the way home.

Frannie had another bad night. All day Tuesday, she fussed and cried. Tuesday night, though, she only woke up crying twice.

“I think she’s better,” Keely whispered to Daniel when they tiptoed from the kids’ room for the second time that night.

“I hope so.” He had dark circles under his eyes. “We could all use a good night’s sleep.”

Wednesday morning, Frannie woke up smiling.

When Keely said, “I think you feel better, honey,” the little angel replied, “I fine, Keewee. I goo.”

And she really did seem fully recovered. After breakfast, Keely took both kids to see Gretchen, who still had no idea when Keely’s mom would be showing up. But Auntie G was all smiles to get to spend an afternoon with her beloved babies. She held them on her lap and sang the nursery songs she used to sing to Keely when she was little and staying with the Snows.

On Thursday, Jake got sick.

It was some weird flu bug. There was vomiting and a lot of mucus. Keely called the pediatrician, who suggested a humidifier, cool baths, cough medicine and Tylenol for fever. No need to bring Jake in, the doctor had said, unless his fever hit 104 or he wasn’t better within a week.

The next three nights were hell. Jake woke up crying and that woke Frannie. Keely and Daniel took turns looking in on them. The weekend went by somehow, not that Keely even cared what day it was. Making art with her sewing machine? Not even happening. And as for the original plan that she might go back and forth between the Bravo house and her cottage?

She never once made it home. In fact, she had to call a neighbor to water her plants.

She was exhausted, run ragged—and she found herself beginning to seriously admire Daniel. He worked all day and then stayed up with her all night to help with the kids. So what if he wasn’t the happiest dad on the planet? The man was dedicated to the well-being of his children. He mopped up vomit and changed diapers with the best of them.

By late Sunday, Jake had weathered the worst of it. He coughed less frequently and the mucus factory seemed to be shutting down. The sweet little guy was definitely on the mend. Sunday night, Keely actually slept straight through. The kids didn’t wake once, from bedtime until six the next morning.

Monday, Daniel woke her with a tap on her door.

“Ugh?” She blinked and yawned. “It’s open.”

He peeked in the door, looking almost rested for once. “Sorry to wake you.”

She yawned again. “It was bound to happen sometime. What’s up?”

“I’ll get them up and downstairs if you’ll start the breakfast.”

“Deal.”

She was at the stove when he came down with the little ones. She glanced over her shoulder to see him wiping Frannie’s streaming nose. They stared at each other across the gorgeous expanse of the soapstone island. “Oh, no,” she whispered, as though if she didn’t say it too loudly, Frannie wouldn’t be getting the bug Jake had just recovered from.

“No fever,” Daniel said. He didn’t add yet, but it seemed to her the unspoken word hung in the air between them.

By that afternoon, Frannie’s nose ran nonstop. By dinnertime, she’d thrown up twice and a persistent cough seemed to rattle her little bones. By then, she also had a fever. It hovered at around 101.

Keely and Daniel spent another night taking turns waking up to soothe a sick baby. Really, they were getting the nighttime nursing care down to a science, as though they had radar for whose turn it was. Keely barely stirred when it was his turn, and the master bedroom door remained shut when it was hers.

Once that night, she woke when it was his turn.

“This one’s mine,” he mumbled when she stuck her head out into the hall.

“Unh,” she replied and went back to bed.

On Wednesday, a week and a half into the endless string of illnesses the twins had been suffering, Daniel had a timber owner he had to go meet with. It was a small grove of Douglas firs ready to harvest, and Daniel would walk the grove with the landowner, explaining how Valentine Logging would maximize each tree to its full potential. The landowner wanted to meet at eight in the morning and Daniel wanted the contract, so at a quarter after seven he staggered out of the house, bleary-eyed, armed with a giant travel mug of coffee.

Keely spent the morning alone trying to keep her eye on Jake while doing what she could to ease poor Frannie’s misery. She dosed the little girl with over-the-counter meds, kept the humidifier running and gave Frannie cold-water sponge baths at regular intervals.

The day never seemed to end.

Finally, at around two in the afternoon, she got both kids down for a nap. To the soft hissing of the humidifier, she tiptoed from their room with Maisey at her heels. Across the hall, both of her doors were open. She cast a despairing glance toward her studio room. As if.

Right now, her beloved Bernina was the last thing she wanted to cuddle up with. The bed in the other room, though...

Nothing had ever looked so beautiful.

She dragged her tired body in there and fell gratefully across the mattress as Maisey flopped down on the rug right beside her. Blessed sleep settled over her.

She dreamed of walking the foggy beach not far from her back door—with Daniel of all people. They didn’t talk, just strolled along the wet sand, side by side but not touching, the waves sliding in, foaming around their bare feet.

“Keewee! Da-Da!”

“Wha—huh?” Keely shuddered, instantly wide-awake.

“Da-Da!” Frannie cried from the other room, followed by a long wail of sheer misery.

Keely shoved herself backward off the bed, raked her hair out of her eyes and hustled for the other room. Frannie was standing up in her crib, sobbing and coughing, snot running down her flushed little face.

“Oh, honey...”

“Keewee! Ow!”

Keely ran over and lifted the poor sweetheart into her arms. “Frannie. Oh, now. It’s okay...” She settled her on her shoulder.

At which point, Frannie threw up. It went down Keely’s back. That caused Frannie to wail all the louder.

“It’s okay. It’s all right,” Keely promised, though clearly it was anything but. Gently, she peeled the little girl off her shoulder. “Shh. Shh. Let me...”

It was as far as she got. Frannie hurled again, this time down Keely’s front. “Oh, bad!” Frannie wailed.

“No, no,” Keely promised her. “It’s not bad, honey. It’s okay.”

That was when Frannie threw up again, all over herself. She wailed even louder, “Keewee, I sowwy. I sowwy, sowwy, sowwy.”

From his crib, Jake cried, “Fa-Fa? Fa-Fa, oh, no!”

“She’s okay,” Keely promised and wished it were true. “Jakey, she’s going to be fine.”

Maisey appeared in the doorway to the hall. She moaned in sympathetic doggy distress.

Keely carried Frannie to the changing table and quickly got her out of her soiled clothes. “Jakey, we’ll be right back,” she promised the increasingly agitated little boy as she grabbed the little girl and a clean diaper. Holding both out and away from her vomit-soaked body, she stepped over Maisey and carried baby and diaper across the hall to her room, moving straight through to her bathroom, which had a traditional tub-and-shower combination.

Shoving the shower curtain aside, Keely lowered the little girl into the tub. “Here. We’ll get you all cleaned up.”

“’Kay.” Frannie sniffed.

Keely turned on the water. Once she had it lukewarm, she grabbed a washcloth and rinsed Frannie off.

Frannie was quiet, sniffling a little, watching her through wide eyes, as Keely dried her off and carried her—held out and dangling—to her own bed, where she put on the diaper.

“You feel better now, honey?”

Frannie solemnly nodded, eyes wide and wet. Keely scooped her up again and put her in the playpen she kept set up in the corner for any time she needed to corral the kids in her room.

“Fa-Fa? Keewee?” Jake cried from the other room.

“Coming, Jakey. Just a minute!” Keely called back.

A plush pink squeaky kitten lay waiting in the playpen. Keely squeezed it and it meowed. Frannie took it and hugged it close.

“I’m just going to go into the bathroom to clean up. I’ll be right back. Okay, honey?”

For that, she got another somber nod from Frannie. Though still flushed, her eyes red and her nose running, Frannie did seem much calmer at least.

Thank God, the vomiting bout seemed to be through.

Jake called again, “Keewee?”

“Just another minute, Jakey. I’ll be there. I promise!” Peeling off her smelly shirt as she went, Keely darted for the bathroom. Standing on the bathroom rug by the tub, she wiggled free of her bra, kicked out of her shoes and shoved down both her jeans and panties at once.

“Keewee!” Jake shouted.

“Jakey, I’m right here! Just a minute!” she called, as she hopped around in a ridiculous circle, whipping off one sock and then the other. Flipping on the taps, switching the flow to the showerhead, she got in under the still-cold spray and yanked the curtain closed.

Three minutes, tops, she was in there. Jake called her name repeatedly. Once or twice, Frannie did, too. Keely got the mess off, rinsed in record time, flipped off the tap and shoved the shower curtain wide.

She’d stepped, dripping wet to the bath mat, and reached for her towel before she happened to glance through the open bathroom door to the bedroom.

Jake in his arms and Maisey at his feet, Daniel stood by the playpen staring at her with his mouth hanging open.

Chapter Three

Keely grabbed her towel, whipped it around her, stepped to the bathroom door and shoved it shut.

Only then did she sink to the toilet seat and hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. Never in her life had she been so embarrassed. Not even the day she wore white jeans on the tour bus and got her first period. Except for her and her mom, everyone on that bus was a guy. Keely just knew all those rockers had seen her shame—and okay, on second thought, that might have been worse.

But this was plenty bad.

The look on his face. Like someone had just dropped a safe on his head.

God. Daniel had seen her naked. That was so wrong. In all the ways that really counted, she was Lillie’s sister and a man ought never to see his wife’s sister naked.

Seriously. Would it have killed her to shut the damn bathroom door?

But she’d thought they were alone—just her, the kids and Maisey. She’d wanted to be able to hear them while she cleaned up, just in case...

Just in case, what? Come to think of it, she had no idea.

It’s not the end of the world, Keely. No one will die from this. Get over yourself.

Daniel tapped on the door. “Keely? You okay?”

“Fine! Really!” Her voice had the tinkling brightness of breaking glass. “We, uh, had a little accident.”

“But...you’re okay?”

Oh, hell, no. “Yes. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

He made a nervous throat-clearing sound. “I’ll just take the kids into the other room.”

“Great! Be there in a few.”

“Uh. Take your time.”

She started to call out something frantic and cheerful. “Righto!” or “Absolutely!” But she shut her mouth hard and folded her lips between her teeth so that not one more ludicrous word could escape.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, she found Daniel and the kids in the bedroom across the hall. He sat in the rocker, holding Frannie, who looked like a slightly flushed angel, all curled up in his arms, sucking peacefully on a baby bottle half-full of water. He’d dressed her in a cozy pair of pink pajamas.

Jake lay on the floor nearby, gumming a plastic teething pretzel, one plump arm thrown out across Maisey, who lay at his side. He took the pretzel from his mouth and gave her his most dazzling smile. “Keewee. Hi there.”

“Hey, honey.”

“Da-Da home.”

“Oh, yes, he is.”

Jake stuck the pretzel back in his mouth and chewed some more. Maisey nuzzled him, and he gave a lazy little giggle around the toy in his mouth.

The puddle of vomit on the rug was only a damp spot now, and the room smelled of the all-natural cleaner they used around the kids, a citrusy scent.

She made herself raise her gaze and look at Daniel. Those sea-glass eyes were waiting. She made herself speak. “You’re home early.”

“I was worried about Frannie and thought maybe you could use a break or at least another pair of hands.”

She forced a smile. “Thank you. I see you cleaned up the mess already.”

“Seemed like the least I could do.” Gently, he stroked Frannie’s fine gold hair, his rough hand big enough to cradle the whole of her little head. He pressed a kiss to her temple. “She’s cooler. I think the fever might have broken.”

“Wonderful.”

He rocked slowly, back and forth. In his arms, Frannie looked so peaceful. Safe. Content. “I am sorry.” His fine mouth twisted, and a hot flush swept up his thick neck. “For barging in on you. I should have knocked. But Jake was calling for you and for Frannie. I picked him up and he pointed at your room...”

Did they really need to talk it over?

Maybe. After all, it could be good, right? To be frank and open about it? They could clear the air, so to speak. “I left both doors open. It’s not your fault. Of course you came right in.” How red was her face? As red as his? Oh, God. “It’s not a big deal, Daniel.”

“You’re right,” he said and swallowed hard. “Not a big deal at all.”

And it wasn’t.

* * *

Oh, but it was.

For Daniel anyway.

Nothing had changed. But for every minute of the rest of that day, Lillie’s cousin was suddenly very much on his mind.

Not to mention wreaking havoc lower down.

His longtime sexual abstinence had never felt so painful. Could he be more inappropriate? All of a sudden, he was a man obsessed. Who did that? Who thought like that?

He needed to stop. Stop thinking of her, fantasizing about her, imagining what it might be like if they...

No. Uh-uh. That wasn’t going to happen. Ever. And it shouldn’t happen.

She was family. She was great with the kids. He no longer felt that she judged him for the troubles between him and Lillie during the last years of her life.

They were, well, friends now. Weren’t they? He counted on Keely, enjoyed talking to her. Liked having her around.

No way would he mess with that.

He wasn’t even considering messing with that.

Uh-uh.

He needed to focus on the positive and forget the smooth white curves of her shoulders shining wet from her shower, not think about those full, tempting breasts, her dusky pink nipples puckered and tight. He needed to block out the memory of that tiny, shining rivulet of water sliding down the center of her, filling her navel, spilling over and dribbling lower, into the water-beaded landing strip of red-brown hair that did nothing to cover the ripe swell of her mound.

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