Sinful (8 page)

She studied Frank, who was dressed in jeans and western boots. “Do you have any experience breaking horses?”

“Yes, ma’am. I mean, Eve. I grew up on a ranch
in Montana. I’m not any kind of horse whisperer, but I know my way around a horse.”

Eve liked the look of the man, and the fact that he’d sounded confident without bragging, but she also wanted to make sure her animals were safe. “Would you mind if I work with you at first?”

Frank grinned. “I’d like that just fine.”

Eve turned back in time to see a funny look cross Connor’s face. Her gaze shifted to a middle-aged woman headed straight toward them. She looked out of place dressed in a tailored gray pantsuit with a feminine bow hanging down the front of her powder-blue blouse. When the woman stopped behind Connor, Eve smiled at her and said, “I’m Eve. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“No, I don’t believe we have,” the matronly woman said.

The moment she spoke, Connor whipped around, lifting his feet over the bench and nearly bumping into the woman, who took a quick step to the side. He rose and steadied her as he gathered Sawyer up like a sack of clothes under his arm. “Mrs. Stack. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Obviously. Otherwise, you would have made it clear to me where you were going to be. I had to find out from your father that you’re not living either in the home you shared with your wife nor at the ranch with your father, that you’ve taken your children to live somewhere else entirely. Somewhere I’ve never seen. Somewhere I haven’t vetted.”

The visitor was obviously trying to control her temper, but not doing a very good job of it. It only took Eve a moment to figure out who she was. The
social worker. One of the conditions of Connor’s custody of his children was that he would be subject to visits from a social worker who would monitor the children’s welfare, at least for a while. It seemed Connor had gotten off on the wrong foot with Mrs. Stack.

“I didn’t think it would matter where the children and I lived, so long as it was similar to the other two locations,” Connor said, keeping his voice even.

“Are you going to continue to hold that child upside down?” she asked.

Connor shifted the two-year-old so he was upright. From the smile on Sawyer’s face, he hadn’t minded being held like a football under his father’s arm. “My home here has everything the other two homes have,” Connor argued.

“And something else they do not,” Mrs. Stack said, eyeing the collection of men sitting at tables in the lodge. “Why are your children eating breakfast here instead of in the house? Who are these men?”

“Veterans,” Connor said. “Mostly soldiers who’ve fought in Afghanistan.”

Eve saw the alarm on Mrs. Stack’s face as she asked, “What are they doing here?”

“Resting and relaxing. And working,” he added, when the look on Mrs. Stack’s face turned vinegary.

“Working at what?” she asked suspiciously.

“They’re going to be taming a band of wild mustangs for me,” Eve volunteered.

That answer seemed to satisfy Mrs. Stack. But she didn’t let Connor completely off the hook. “I’ll want to monitor this situation closely,” she said, nodding her chin in the direction of the vets. “And I want to
see the children’s bedrooms and the rest of the house, immediately.”

“Of course,” Connor said.

Eve rose. “I’ll take care of busing the dishes while you show Mrs. Stack around. Then I’ll bring Brooke to the house.”

They’d only taken two steps when Mrs. Stack turned back to Eve and asked, “Who are you, exactly?”

“My name is Eve Grayhawk. I’m here to help take care of the children.”

“Where are you staying?”

“I have a bedroom in the house.”

“Are you married, Ms. Grayhawk?”

Eve couldn’t imagine why Mrs. Stack would need that information, but she answered, “No, I’m not.”

Mrs. Stack turned to confront Connor. “You have a single, young,
unrelated
woman living in the house with you and your children?”

Connor blurted, “Eve’s my fiancée.”

C
ONNOR HAD NO
idea why he’d lied to the social worker. Lots of folks hired a live-in nanny and many of them were young, single women. Mrs. Stack had just seemed so outraged that he’d panicked. He couldn’t lose his children, not when he’d just gotten them back. A millisecond after he told the lie, Connor realized he should have said Eve was helping out because she was the children’s godmother. Too late now.

“I didn’t realize you were engaged,” Mrs. Stack said as she looked from Connor to Eve.

Connor glanced sideways at Eve. Would she let the lie stand? If not, would he be in even worse trouble if he had to backtrack and tell Mrs. Stack the truth?

“Connor just proposed,” Eve said, embellishing his lie. “I haven’t even had time to tell my family yet.”

Mrs. Stack raised a brow. “A Grayhawk marrying a Flynn? My, oh, my. Never thought I’d see the day.”

Connor felt his heart sink as they put on their jackets and headed back to the house with Mrs. Stack. He should have thought of a better lie. Or just told the truth. The shit was going to hit the fan when their respective families heard the news.

As Mrs. Stack stepped inside the house she took
an appraising look around the open living room and kitchen. Then she walked straight to the refrigerator and opened it.

Connor knew what she would find and rushed to say, “I haven’t stocked the refrigerator because I planned to have the children eat at the Main Lodge.”

“That will not do, Mr. Flynn. The children need a
home
, where they will eat and sleep. Speaking of which, where are the children’s bedrooms?”

“Why don’t you show Mrs. Stack where you sleep?” Connor said to his daughter.

“Okay.” Brooke ran down the hall toward Eve’s bedroom and disappeared inside.

Connor exchanged a look of dismay with Eve as he tried to intercept the social worker. “That’s actually Eve’s room,” he said as he gestured Mrs. Stack in another direction. “These rooms across the hall belong to the children.”

“Then why did Brooke go into Ms. Grayhawk’s room?”

Connor wasn’t sure what to say. What answer did the social worker want to hear? What answer would make her believe he was doing the best he could?

“Brooke and Sawyer ended up in my bed during the night,” Eve said with a smile that made it seem the most natural thing in the world for his children to abandon their beds for hers.

“Besides being Connor’s fiancée, I’m also the children’s godmother. Connor’s wife and I were best friends. Brooke and Sawyer know me well and came to my room when they woke up in an unfamiliar house.”

Mrs. Stack turned to Eve and asked, “Why haven’t I met you before now?”

“I’m a wildlife photographer, and I’ve been away fulfilling an assignment for
National Geographic
.”

Mrs. Stack’s narrow-eyed gaze shifted from Eve to Connor and back again. “And yet, a year after your best friend’s death you’re engaged to her husband?”

Eve ignored the inference of wrongdoing in Mrs. Stack’s question. “I love the children, and they need a mother.”

Connor realized there was nothing in Eve’s statement about loving
him
. Nevertheless, Mrs. Stack seemed satisfied with her answer. Which made no sense to Connor. Wouldn’t a marriage based on love be more stable? Then he thought of his brother Brian, who’d been desperately in love with his wife when they’d married. She’d cheated on him and then divorced him to be with her lover. Apparently, romantic love was no guarantee of forever after.

Connor shot a considering look in Eve’s direction. He wondered if she would seriously consider the sort of practical marital arrangement she’d described to the social worker. With his myriad responsibilities at Safe Haven, he wasn’t going to have many opportunities to meet a potential wife. A make-believe marriage, something to appease the social worker, might not be a bad idea.

He was in no hurry to fall in love again. He missed the closeness he’d had with his wife, but he knew that finding someone as special as Molly wouldn’t be easy. Brian’s marriage was proof of that, if he needed it. He was also aware that if Molly had lived they might have ended up at odds. He believed his sanctuary for
veterans needed the isolation of a place like Safe Haven. Molly had yearned to live in a more metropolitan area. He had no idea how they would have resolved such a potentially devastating conflict. Better to find someone, like Eve, who knew going in what he planned.

Connor wouldn’t have gambled a dime on his chances of convincing Eve to agree to a marriage of convenience before Matt Grayhawk had shown up. But she was about to be thrown out of her home, not to mention needing a place to keep her mustangs. Luckily for him, he had an ace in the hole: She loved his children and wanted to be a part of their lives.

Eve had taken Sawyer’s hand and the two of them had joined Brooke in Eve’s bedroom, with Connor and Mrs. Stack right behind them. Brooke was sitting cross-legged on the bed, and Eve sat down beside her settling Sawyer in her lap.

Connor had a sudden image of Eve’s long legs appearing from beneath the covers that morning and his brief glimpse of a pair of pink panties under her T-shirt. Eve’s breasts had looked pert beneath the thin cotton, the nipples erect. At the time, he’d wondered what it would feel like to hold the soft weight of them in his hands, to take one of the nipples in his mouth.

Connor swore as his body responded to the vivid images in his head. He hid his arousal behind the doorway and willed himself to think of worms and fish guts.

“I’m sure the children will adjust quickly to their new surroundings,” Eve said as she brushed an errant lock of dark hair off Sawyer’s forehead. She pulled
Brooke close for a hug, and his daughter leaned close and laid her cheek against Eve’s arm.

“I can see the children are comfortable with you,” Mrs. Stack said. She turned to Connor and said briskly, “I want to see their bedrooms, and then I want to speak to the children alone.”

He ushered the social worker across the hall, showing her the rooms he’d prepared with such love and care for his children, awaiting her judgment. Mrs. Stack was thorough and she took her time. Eve and the children came to join him in the hall. Eventually he picked up Sawyer, who was rolling around on the hallway runner, impatient to be doing more than just standing around.

“The children’s rooms seem adequate,” Mrs. Stack announced after she’d examined them both. “I’d like to speak to the children now.”

Connor set Sawyer down as Eve gave both children a nudge and said, “Go with Mrs. Stack.”

The children disappeared into Brooke’s bedroom with the social worker while Connor paced the hall. He stopped in front of Eve and said, “What do you think she’s asking?”

“She wants to make sure the children are all right, Connor. And they are. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Easy for you to say,” he muttered.

A few minutes later the children reappeared, followed by Mrs. Stack.

“I see no problems here at the moment,” she announced. “But I will expect to see a better selection of healthy foods in the refrigerator the next time I come.”

Connor had picked up Sawyer and was congratulating
himself on his clever ruse regarding Eve’s presence when Mrs. Stack asked, “By the way, when is the wedding?”

Connor turned to stare at Eve with his mouth half open.

“We haven’t set a date,” Eve said, smiling at Mrs. Stack again. She took a step closer to Connor, slid her arm around his waist, and then pressed her body next to his from breast to hip as though she’d been doing it forever. Every part of him lit up as though she’d applied an electric charge. He slid his free arm around her waist and realized for the first time just how small it was. Brooke glued herself to Eve’s side so they presented a united family picture to Mrs. Stack.

Connor forced a smile onto his face as broad as Eve’s and said, “You’ll be the first to know.”

Mrs. Stack headed for the front door again, and Connor thought he might be home free, when she suddenly turned back. Fortunately, he hadn’t let go of Eve, and she was still pressed down his very-alive right side.

“I have one more question,” the social worker said. “What do your families think about this union?”

“Our families?” Connor repeated to give himself time to think of how to reply. If it happened, his father was going to blow a gasket. His brothers were going to think he was crazy, and he wasn’t so sure they’d be wrong. “The only two people whose opinions matter are Brooke and Sawyer,” he said. “I believe you’ve seen how they adore Eve.”

“Very good answer, Mr. Flynn,” Mrs. Stack said. “But it avoids the issue I raised, which is whether
your families will support you. I suggest you pursue the matter diligently between now and the next time I visit. I wouldn’t want the children to end up in a vise between two powerful men like King Grayhawk and Angus Flynn.”

“Are you saying their reaction to our wedding could influence whether I retain custody of my children?” Connor asked with alarm.

“In a word, yes.”

“That’s not fair!” Eve said. “Connor can’t control his father any more than I can control mine.”

“Precisely,” Mrs. Stack said. “So I suggest you both do your best to convince your fathers to forgo their animosity toward one another when it comes to your marriage.” Mrs. Stack opened the front door and said, “Till next time.”

“When will that be?” Connor asked.

Mrs. Stack smiled. “My visits are unannounced for a reason, Mr. Flynn.”

It aggravated him to be watched like a hawk when other parents could raise their children without someone looking over their shoulders. But if that was the price he had to pay, he was willing to pay it.

The instant the door closed behind Mrs. Stack, Eve said to Brooke, “Why don’t you take Sawyer to your room? I remember seeing a brand-new box of Legos in there. I’ll be in soon to see what you’ve made.”

Brooke took Sawyer’s hand and said, “Come on, Sawyer. Let’s go play.”

Eve waited until they disappeared into Brooke’s room, then planted her hands on her hips. “Are you
out of your mind? Why did you lie to Mrs. Stack? Why would you tell her we’re engaged?”

“She caught me off guard. It was the first thing that came to mind.”

Eve stomped across the living room and thumped herself down on the arm of the couch. “How are you going to fix this?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” He took the few steps necessary to stand in front of her. “How would you like to marry me?”