His Little Secret. Maureen Child

could agree with Penny on. She was worried that he would disappoint his children—and so was he.

      “How you doin’ with all of it?”

      “I’m all right.” And not interested in talking about this. Even with a cousin. “Really appreciate you moving on the roof this fast.”

      “Not a problem. Anything for a King.” Rafe shot a look at the roof on Penny’s cottage and frowned. “That roof’s in sad shape.”

      Hell, most of the house was in sad shape. He knew Penny loved it, but he had to wonder if the real reason she was living there was because it didn’t cost her anything. The rooms were too small and the twins were going to outgrow it soon. There was no room for them to play and with only one bathroom, things were going to get ugly at some point.

      And why was he suddenly thinking about things like that? When did he ever do future planning or worry about yard size or whether a roof was going to make it through another winter? What the hell was happening to him?

      Scowling to himself, he muttered, “Check for termites too, will ya? I’ve got a feeling this place is a buffet lunch for the damn things.”

      “Okay, I’ll get the ladder off the truck, do an inspection, then come find you.”

      “Like I said, I appreciate this.” Colt took another sip of his coffee and tried to put aside the disturbing Suburban Dad thoughts.

      Rafe grinned. “What’s family for?” He handed over the box of cookies. “Here. Take these in to Penny. I’ll see you both in a bit.”

      “Okay. How soon can you get started on the work?”

      “Typical King,” Rafe mused. “Why were we all born impatient?”

      “Just lucky, I guess.” Colt shrugged.

      Nodding, Rafe said, “Let me take a look and some measurements. Check for termite damage. Once we’ve got that I can lay out the plan for you. But I can have a crew here by Monday if that’s what you want.”

      “The quicker the better.” He couldn’t leave until he knew that Penny and the kids were going to be safe and as comfortable in this tiny dollhouse as it was possible to be. And he knew that with Rafe and his brothers’ company on the job, the work would not only be done fast, but well.

      With King Construction handling the work, he could assure Penny everything would be taken care of the right way. As for Rafe—he and his brothers ran such a successful construction and contracting business that they seldom had to go out on calls themselves. But the Kings were always there for family, so it didn’t surprise Colt at all that Rafe had shown up personally.

      So, if the Kings were always there for family and he was planning on getting out of his kids’ lives as fast as possible, just what kind of King did that make him?