A Pretend Groom by Michelle Major

Author:Michelle Major
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-05-14T15:55:46+00:00

Chapter 2

Nate herded the girls and the dog through the family room.

“Why can’t we stay with the lady?” Molly asked.

“Because I have work to do.”

“We can stay with her.”

“She has work to do, too,” he said, sliding the patio door open.

“Taking pictures?”

“Yes.” And he was happy to leave her on her own. It was one thing to stand with her in the living room, or almost any other room, while she made notes and took photographs. But eventually they would get to his bedroom, and the idea of going in there with her had brought on a mild state of panic.

“She has a pretty purse,” Molly said.

“Does she?” He shut the patio door behind them. He had only noticed her bag was huge. And stuffed full.

“It has cupcakes on it.”

“Does it?”

Martha pulled her thumb out of her mouth. “I yike cupcakes.”

“I know you like cupcakes. Why don’t you two go in the playhouse and have a look at the new dress-up clothes Aunt Britt dropped off this morning.” He’d asked Britt to bring them out here because the girls’ bedroom already looked like Toys “R” Us had tangled with a tornado. “Maybe she brought you some purses.”

His sister, a self-proclaimed clotheshorse, frequently cleared out her closet to make room for new things and bestowed the items she no longer wanted on her nieces. The girls loved it, but their bedroom, the family room and now the playhouse overflowed with toys and Britt’s cast-offs.

“Come on, Martha. Let’s see what she brung us.” Molly snagged the dog by the collar and tugged. “You, too, Gemmy.”

At the entrance to the playhouse, she let go of the Saint’s collar and skipped inside. Martha straggled in behind her, and Gemmy sprawled across the doorway, head resting on her paws.

After they were settled, Nate turned his attention to the rows of potted asters in his makeshift greenhouse and tried not to think about the beautiful woman with the ginormous cupcake purse who was discovering that he was not the world’s greatest housekeeper. How had he not remembered to put a reminder about this meeting in his calendar? If he had, he would have spent last evening tidying up instead of going over the final draft of his current research paper.

He measured the height of a plant and recorded the data in the spreadsheet on his laptop.

Kristi Callahan was stunning in a wholesome girl-next-door sort of way, with a lively swing to her blond ponytail and an engaging flash in her gray-green eyes. More green than gray. She smelled good, too.

His cell phone rang. After three rings, he tracked it to the end of the workbench, where it was hiding beneath a spare pair of gloves. His in-laws’ phone number was displayed on the screen. What now?

“Hello, Alice. How are you?”

“Nate, I was getting worried. I called the house but no one answered.”

Nate sighed. He and the kids could have been out for the afternoon or even just at the supermarket, and he refused to check in with her every time they left the house.

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