one can,” he countered.
“Martha Stewart has a tutorial on it.”
He shook his head as they approached the entrance of the pediatric center, where a small crowd had gathered. “I’m not watching Martha Stewart.”
A flash of color caught his eye, and he noticed a woman pushing a double stroller toward the entrance. Two toddlers sat in the side-by-side seats, and one girl’s blanket had slipped off her lap. The corner of the fabric was tangled in the wheel and the girls’ frazzled-looking mother struggled to free it.
“There are Mom and Dad, with Steven and Dillon,” Stephanie told him, taking a step toward their family, who stood near the swath of ceremonial ribbon that stretched in front of the center’s entrance.
“Be there in a sec.”
Without waiting for an answer, Callum jogged toward the woman and her two charges.
“Can I help?” he asked, offering a smile to the toddlers, who were mirror images of each other. Twins. No wonder their mom seemed stressed. He remembered what a handful his triplet sisters had been at that age.
The woman, who knelt on the pavement in a bright blue dress, looked up at him. Callum promptly forgot his own name.
She was beyond beautiful…at least to him.
A lock of whiskey-hued hair fell across her cheek, and she tucked it behind her ear with a careless motion. Her features were conventional by most standards—a heart-shaped face, large brown eyes with thick lashes and creamy skin that turned an enchanting shade of pink as she met his gaze. Her mouth was full and her nose pert, but somehow everything came together to make her stunning. The sparkle in her gaze and the way her lips parted just a bit had him feeling like he’d been knocked in the head.
“It’s caught in the wheel,” she said, and it took him a moment to snap back to reality.
“Mama,” one of the girls whined, tugging on the other end of the blanket.
“We’ll get your blankie, Luna.” The woman patted her daughter’s leg. “This nice man is going to help.”
Nice man. Callum wasn’t sure he’d ever heard anyone describe him as “nice” but he’d take the compliment. He tried to remember the definition of the word while forcing himself to ignore the spark of attraction to a stranger who was probably some equally nice man’s wife.
He crouched down next to the twins’ mom and carefully extricated the fabric from the spokes of the wheel. It took only a minute and he heard an audible sigh of relief next to him once the blanket was free.
“Bankie,” the girl shouted as she tugged the pink-and-yellow-checked blanket into her lap.
“Mama,” her sister yelled like she wanted to be in on the action and then popped a pacifier into her mouth.
“Thank you,” the woman said as they both straightened.
Callum was about to introduce himself when she stumbled a step. Without thinking, he reached out a hand to steady her.
“Are you okay?”
She flashed a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I stood up too fast. I didn’t have time for breakfast today but managed two cups of coffee. Low blood sugar.”
Callum had to bite back an invitation to go get breakfast with him even as he surreptitiously glanced at her left hand. No wedding ring, which didn’t necessarily mean anything. Still, he could—
“Callum!”
He turned at the sound of his name. Steven waved at him from across the clusters of people gathered for the ceremony. Right. He was here for business, not to lose his head over a pretty woman.
His turn for an apologetic smile. “I have to go,” he said.
She nodded. “Thanks again.”
“You should eat something,” he told her, then forced himself to wave at the girls and turn away after his brother called to him again.
Odd how difficult it was to walk away from a perfect stranger.
“The pediatric center would just be a dream for this community without the work of Callum, Steven and Dillon Fortune and everyone at Fortune Brothers Construction.”
Becky Averill watched as Rambling Rose’s effervescent mayor, Ellie Hernandez, motioned for the brothers to join her in front of the blue ribbon. How was it possible that Becky’s stroller catastrophe hero was also the man she had to thank for her new job?
When the pediatric center officially opened a few days from now, she’d be the head nurse in the primary care department, reporting directly to Dr. Parker Green, who was heading up the entire center.
It was such a huge step up from her last position working part-time for an older family practice doctor who saw patients only a few days a week. In fact, it was Becky’s dream job, one that would provide a livable wage, great health benefits for her and her girls as well as on-site day care. She couldn’t believe how far she’d come from that horrible moment two years ago when a police officer had knocked on her door to relay the news that her husband had died in a car accident.
Becky had been only nine weeks pregnant when Rick died. They hadn’t even learned she was expecting twins yet. Everything about her pregnancy had become a blur after that, as if she’d been living in some kind of hazy fog that never lifted.
Of course, things had become crystal clear the moment she heard her baby’s first cry. Luna had been born two minutes before Sasha, but both babies filled Becky’s heart with a new kind of hope for a future.
Her parents had wanted her to move back to the suburbs of Houston, but she refused. She and Rick had chosen Rambling Rose together, and despite being essentially alone in the small community, she never doubted that she belonged there.
Her girls were sixteen months old now, and life as a single mother hadn’t exactly been a cakewalk. Rick’s small life insurance policy had covered funeral expenses and allowed her to make her mortgage payments each month, but there hadn’t been much left once she covered the essentials.
Not that she needed much for herself, but she wanted to give her daughters a good life. This job would go a long way toward her goal, but not if she messed it up by making a fool of herself before the center even opened.
Which was what she’d almost done with Callum Fortune. She hadn’t been lying about missing breakfast, but her light-headedness had more to do with her reaction to the handsome stranger who’d come to her rescue.
Between work and caring for her girls, Becky hadn’t even realized her heart could still flutter the way it did when Callum’s dark gaze met hers. Butterflies had danced across her stomach and she’d had a difficult time pulling air into her lungs. Most women probably had the same inclination toward Callum. He would have been a standout in a big city like Dallas or Houston, but in the tiny town of Rambling Rose he was like a Greek god come to life.
Even now, her heart stuttered as she watched him smile at Ellie. Then his gaze tracked to hers, as if he could feel her eyes on him. His expression didn’t change but there was something about the way he looked at her that made awareness prick along her skin. Dropping her gaze, she shoved a hand in the diaper bag that hung off the back of the stroller and pulled out a plastic container of dried cereal. The girls immediately perked up and she sprinkled a few oat bits into the stroller’s tray before shoving a handful into her mouth. She really did need to remember breakfast.
Certainly an empty stomach was to blame for her dizziness, not the way Callum made her feel.
They cut the ribbon and the crowd, made up mostly of new employees of the center, cheered.
Luna clapped her hands at the noise while Sasha’s chin trembled.
“It’s