He treats his employees and clients with respect, as if they really matter, and understands that real life sometimes has to come first. It would have been rude and ungrateful to turn down his invitation.”
“Are you sorry you came?”
“No.” She met his gaze. “Your family is wonderful and you’re lucky to have them.”
He thought of Travis and thought sometimes not so much. “If you say so.”
“I do.” Her voice was wistful. “I wish I’d had that kind of warmth and closeness growing up.”
Lily called her “aunt,” so she hadn’t been an only child. “But you have a sibling.”
“A sister. Mona left home as soon as she was old enough, so we weren’t that close.” Sadness filled her eyes. “She died almost a year ago. Now I feel guilty for not making more of an effort to stay in touch.”
“Lily is her daughter.” Obviously the little girl was adopted. Obviously now her aunt was her guardian.
“Mona and her husband, Bill, were college professors at NYU. They couldn’t have children, so they adopted Lily from China.”
“Not New York?” That got a small smile, as he’d hoped.
“There, too. I couldn’t believe it when I got the call that her parents were killed in a terrible accident. Hit by a taxi.”
“I’m sorry.” It was automatic, but he meant the words.
“Thank you.” She sighed. “It just occurred to me how odd that is. Thanking someone who feels sorry for you.”
“Not you,” he clarified. “I’m sorry you had to go through something so terrible. I can’t imagine losing one of my sisters or brothers. Even Travis.”
“He’s a teddy bear.”
“More like a pain in the neck. But I’m related to that pain in the neck.” He sat down on the bench beside her, not touching, but close enough to feel the heat from her body, smell the sweet scent of her skin. “I can’t imagine what it’d be like without him.”
“Cherish the closeness.” She rubbed her arms as if suddenly cold. “Now there’s no chance Mona and I can ever be that way.”
“But you’re Lily’s guardian. That has to count for something. You’re the one she trusted with her child.”
“I appreciate you saying that. It helps.”
“So, why didn’t you stay in New York?” He was curious to know everything about her and liked hearing her talk. The voice that was a little honey with a side of gravel scraped over his skin and scratched its way inside.
“For a lot of reasons. It’s expensive and there were sad memories for Lily everywhere.”
“Out of all the places you could’ve come, why Rust Creek?”
The look she gave him was wry. “I admit to reading Lissa Roarke’s blog, but I’m not here to find a man.” The tone was a little emphatic, a lot defensive. “I liked the community spirit. Everyone pulling together after the flood and during rebuilding. Lily lost so much and I thought it was important for her to feel a part of something bigger than just the two of us. Not so alone and maybe a little more secure.”
“She’s pretty lucky to have you.”
Rays from the setting sun brought out the red in her auburn hair and made her sad smile angelic. “That’s nice of you to say.”
“Not nice. Just the truth.”
“Still...”
She looked down and her long, silky hair fell forward, hiding her face. It took every ounce of willpower not to bury his fingers in all that softness and slide it back to see the beautiful curve of her cheek.
“Caleb, I didn’t mean to dump all that on you. Here I am going on and we hardly know each other.”
The devil of it was that the more he found out, the better he wanted to know her. “For what it’s worth, Lily is a great kid. She seems to be really well-adjusted.”
“Guess I must be doing something right.” She shrugged. “Starting with finding a job at your dad’s law firm.”
“Yeah, he’s okay.”
“Trust me. Not every boss would invite an employee home to dinner.” She smiled. “You have an extraordinary family and that’s something Mona and I didn’t have. It’s the model for what I’d like to give Lily.”
“Speaking of her...” Caleb stood abruptly. “We should probably go inside and check on her.”
She blinked up at him, then nodded. “Of course.”
That could have been more smoothly done but he was acting purely on survival instinct. And he was really doing her a favor. He’d enjoyed being with her and wasn’t ready for it to end, but staying wasn’t fair to her. She might not realize it yet, but a husband would be part of the family she wanted for her niece. That was significant and he wasn’t anyone’s idea of a significant other. He was the good-time guy who didn’t do serious.
Not even when a woman was as pretty and tempting as Mallory Franklin.
“Lily, maybe your book is at home.”
At five-fifteen on Monday Mallory picked her niece up from Country Kids Day Care. After a brutal day at work she was so ready to get home. They were buckled in the car and ready to head in that direction when the little girl had told her about the missing book.
“No, Aunt Mallory. I thought I left it at school, but it wasn’t there. The last time I remember seeing it was at your office.”
“I can look for it tomorrow.” She turned right out of the parking lot and headed north on Pine Street.
“But I want to read after dinner.”
“What about reading something else?”
“I have to finish it before I start another one.”
Of course. Mallory should have thought of that. She took a deep breath and pulled together the tattered edges of her patience. There were so many things she loved about being a single parent, but this wasn’t one of them.
“Okay,” she finally said. “I’ll stop there and we can run inside to take a look around.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie.”
When she stopped for a red light, Mallory glanced in the rearview mirror and the big smile on the little girl’s face tugged at her heart. Getting home required a series of left and right turns, basically a square that would take them to the bridge that crossed Rust Creek. The route took them close to the office and wasn’t that far out of her way. Definitely worth the minor detour to see Lily happy.
When the light changed, Mallory took Pine Street north and made a left onto Sawmill Street. One block down was a two-story wooden building with a western facade. The weathered sign on top said Dalton Law Office in bold black letters. She drove into the small paved parking lot and beside Ben’s car saw a four-door F-150 truck that she recognized. Just yesterday she’d seen it in front of her boss’s house, and since they all worked on the ranch, one of his sons was probably the owner.
Some rogue part of her brain acknowledged which of the Dalton men she was hoping for, but she chalked it up to a completely involuntary reaction.
“Let’s go find your book,” she said to Lily.
They walked into the reception area at the same time Caleb Dalton was coming through the doorway of the back office. Just