“It’s nice when regular people move in,” Claire said. “People who want to make Hope’s Crossing their permanent home instead of just buying a place for a vacation spot or a tax write-off.”
“Isn’t it?” she murmured.
“I think so. We need new people, new blood,” Mary Ella said. “That’s the reason Harry and Jack are trying to build more affordable housing in that development they’re working on together west of town.”
Yes. New blood was important. She just didn’t want it to belong to Sam.
“Look, I hate to run after you went to so much trouble for us,” Mary Ella said, “but I told Angie I would help her pick out some curtains to go with the walls she just painted. She texted me when I was on the phone with Harry.”
“Absolutely. You’d better go.”
“What time is it?” Claire looked at the clock. “Oh, I can’t believe I stayed so long. The kids are with their father but I said I would pick them up about twenty minutes ago. I’m sorry!”
“Nothing to be sorry about. The kids come first. It’s completely understandable. I appreciate you both taking the time to come.”
After ushering them out to their cars with a package of leftovers each, she returned inside. Without the happy chatter, the house seemed to echo with silence, especially while Leo was busy taking a walk. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she had become to his company in just a few short weeks.
She only had a few moments of silence before she heard a bark outside and an instant later the doorbell. She grabbed her wallet and opened the door while digging out some change.
“How was your walk?” she started to say, but bobbled the last word when she discovered Ethan and Leo weren’t alone on the doorstep. The boy’s father stood behind them, big, dark, gorgeous.
This time the nerves in her stomach had wings tipped with feathers and it was all she could do not to shiver.
“Oh. Hi.”
“Hi, there.” He gave her a long look, that mouth that tasted so very lovely lifted in a half smile. “Apparently we’ve gone into the dog-walking business.”
“And a very valuable service it is, too. Were you a good boy, Leo? Were you?”
The dog slobbered all over her while she rubbed his scruff. When she looked up, she found Sam watching her with a sharp, hungry look in his eyes but he blinked it away so fast she wondered if she had imagined it.
“We walked to the corner and back and stayed away from the creek, just as I promised you,” Ethan said proudly.
“Excellent! Then I think you’ve earned two dollars.”
She handed them over and he couldn’t have looked more thrilled.
“Thanks,” he exclaimed. “Thanks a lot.”
“Don’t thank me. You earned them.”
“I was telling my dad you make the very best brownies I have ever tasted and that he should try one.” He paused, a crafty look in his eyes. “Maybe I could have another one, too, just to make sure. If you have any left, I mean.”
Sam cleared his throat, a faintly embarrassed look in his eyes. “That’s not why I came over,” he said. “You don’t have to give me brownies.”
“You’re in luck. I happen to have exactly two extra brownies and was looking for someone to take them off my hands.”
“We can do that, can’t we, Dad?”
“I’ve learned to never turn down brownies. Who knows when the chance for more might come along?”
She couldn’t resist raising an eyebrow. “Isn’t that true? For brownies and...so many other things.”
His eyes glazed, just a bit, and she hid her smile even as she tried to rein in the natural instinct to flirt with the man. She just couldn’t seem to help herself around him but she vowed to try harder.
She was supposed to be mad at him for not telling her he was moving to Hope’s Crossing or that he had a son. And she was, honestly. Anger and hurt and a whole host of other emotions seemed to clot together in a big ball inside her whenever she thought about Sam, but she also couldn’t help thinking the afternoon suddenly seemed much brighter.
He was a loving father who had been trying to protect his son. How could she be angry about that?
She ought to send them both on their way with the brownies, but she had all those leftovers and it didn’t seem very neighborly not to share.
“Are you guys hungry?”
“Yes,” Ethan declared. “We haven’t had anything to eat since lunchtime. Well, technically I had a brownie, but that’s it.”
“Then you are both in luck,” she said. “Come on back to the kitchen. My family was just here having a taste of things to come when the restaurant opens and I happen to have plenty of leftovers.”