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  Jeb came even closer, the warmth of his breath ghosting over her temples. “With good reason,” he admitted sagely. “Everyone was ticked off at me.” He paused, lifting an eyebrow. “My parents still haven’t forgiven me.”

  Which hadn’t been the worst of it, Cady recalled. “Avalynne’s parents sued you for the expense of the wedding.” He had owed them almost fifty thousand dollars!

  For a moment, Jeb went very still. Then he shrugged, offhand as ever. “They felt justified.”

  What a mess that had been, she mused. She adapted an equally nonchalant posture. “So you paid.”

  He shrugged again. “It seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do under the circumstances.”

  Determined not to put herself in an emotionally vulnerable position with him, Cady observed with a slight twinge of jealousy, “And yet you and Avalynne Stone remain close.”

  Jeb exhaled, looking irritated again. “I don’t know why that’s so surprising to everyone,” he groused. “She and I have been friends our whole lives.”

  Still…

  Cady’s feminine instincts were on full alert. “Most women wouldn’t forgive being embarrassed and humiliated in front of the entire town,” she pointed out, wishing she wasn’t so physically attracted to Jeb.

  He studied her, as if trying to decide how much further he wanted this discussion to go.

  She flushed under his intense scrutiny. It was disconcerting having him trying to figure out what was on her mind and in her heart, too.

  “Avalynne Stone is not like most women,” he said finally.

  “Clearly,” Cady stated, relieved to have the conversation going forward once again.

  “Has she shown any signs of settling down yet—in any regard?” Cady asked curiously.

  Jeb exhaled with a weariness that seemed to come straight from his soul. He knew full well Avalynne’s rootlessness was blamed on him. “She likes to travel.”

  An understatement, if Cady had ever heard one. “I guess so, since she’s backpacked and sailed around the world—what, three times now?—trying to ‘find herself’.”

  “She’s an artist. She goes wherever she can find the inspiration she needs to paint,” Jeb said brusquely. “And why does any of this matter to you?”

  Because, Cady thought to herself, this was the one thing about Jeb McCabe that had never made sense to her, the one thing that stood between the two of them becoming really close. Until she knew why he’d abruptly behaved so dishonorably, she would never really understand him.

  And for reasons she chose not to analyze, she wanted to know Jeb as completely as it was possible to know another human being.

  Stubbornly allowing her motivation to remain as mysterious as his, she said offhandedly, “I guess I’m just insatiably curious.”

  And left it at that.

  Jeb surveyed her a moment longer, an indefinable emotion flickering in his eyes. Finally, he relented. “Okay, if you win, I’ll tell you everything Avalynne and I said to each other that day in the church.”

  He angled a thumb at his chest. “But if I win, you have to not only promise never to bring up the Avalynne Stone incident again, but help me figure out a way to put the whole fiasco behind me once and for all.”

  His proposal was tantalizing in its intimacy. Still, Cady found herself getting defensive. “You make it sound like I bring it up all the time,” she said. “I don’t.”

  “Of course not.” The corners of Jeb’s lips slanted downward. “You and everyone else I know just can’t help thinking about it every time Avalynne comes to town to visit her folks, or when the topic of weddings, broken engagements or embarrassing life incidents comes up.” He paused, shook his head. “It’s always there, Cady. The memory of what should have happened and didn’t.”

  She couldn’t say she was sad that Jeb and Avalynne hadn’t married. Although the two had made a handsome couple, she’d never thought they belonged together, long term.

  Everyone else, however, had.

  She shrugged and held out a hand to seal the deal. The warmth of his clasp had her pulse racing.

  “All right, if I lose, I’ll stop asking, and I’ll help you get your reputation with the ladies back. So that if you ever do change your mind,” Cady teased, “and decide to pick a woman and settle down, it won’t be as the heartbreaker you’ve been deemed for the last ten years.”

  “DO MOM AND DAD KNOW you’re planning on playing house with Cady and her three nephews for the next two weeks?” Emily asked Jeb several hours later.

  Beginning to regret his decision to stop by the Daybreak Café to pick up a day’s worth of meals to go, Jeb regarded his little sister—the proprietress of the establishment—with a great deal more patience than he felt. “It’s a bet, Emily.”

  She scooped fruit salad, bursting with summer melon, peaches and berries, into takeout containers. “A bet that will have you sleeping under the same roof as her for the next two weeks!”

  Jeb pushed away the image of Cady in her pajamas. So she was sexy as all get-out, and mysterious in all the ways that drew him in. The two of them were just friends.

  He fitted the lids on the fruit salad containers with more care than necessary. “Are you saying I won’t be able to restrain myself?”

  Emily spooned macaroni and cheese into a foil pan, then tossed him a knowing look. “Are you saying you aren’t physically attracted to her? Because from what I’ve seen—” she made an impish face “—there are definitely sparks between you two.”

  Jeb thought about Cady’s soft hair and softer skin.

  “Sparks of friendship…” he allowed, reminding himself sternly that this was a road Cady had decided a long time ago not to venture down.

  “Or something more.”

  Jeb didn’t indulge in wishful thinking. Especially when it could end up breaking his heart.

  He put the containers into sacks. “We’re going to have three chaperones, remember?”

  Emily scoffed and planted a hand on the side of her head as if she’d just had a lightbulb moment. “You’re right. I’m sure there will be zero opportunity to get romantic.”

  He mimed a playful swat to her arm. “Enough, Emily.”

  She merely grinned, as if she knew something he didn’t.

  And maybe his baby sis did, Jeb thought as he drove back out to Suki and Hermann’s place. Fifteen months prior, the feisty and irrepressible Emily had hooked up with an equally independent horse whisperer. Their obviously feigned flirtation soon turned into the real thing. The love they found had tamed their wild hearts. They’d since married and settled blissfully into a life together. And made it all look a lot easier than watching over three little kids.

  Who were all at this very moment, standing in the front yard. Little Micah had his head tilted skyward and was screaming at the top of his lungs. Finn and Dalton, his towheaded older brothers, stood beside him, also looking up, their hands pressed over their ears.

  Where was Cady? Jeb wondered uneasily as he climbed out of his pickup.

  And then he saw her, bare-legged and barefoot, halfway up a huge live oak tree.

  She had changed since he had last seen her, and was now clad in a pair of trim khaki shorts and a figure-hugging pink T-shirt. Her golden-brown hair had been up swept haphazardly and was pinned on top of her head.

  With one foot on the trunk some ten feet in the air, another braced on a limb, she was studying the far branches when Jeb strode over and scooped Micah into his arms.

  “Hush now,” Jeb told the shrieking child, who was so astounded by his arrival that he did momentarily stop sobbing.

  Jeb frowned at Cady. “What the…uh, what are you doing up there?” he demanded, censoring himself just in time.

  She huffed and looked down at him. “Rescuing Curious George and yellow blankie,” she said.

  Jeb followed her gaze.

  Sure enough, both were caught on a branch.

  The culprits who had somehow managed to throw the beloved objects u
p there, lingered guiltily beside their baby brother.

  “Cady, come down from there,” Jeb ordered. “I’ll do it.”

  She wrinkled her brow, insulted. “No way.”

  He continued patting Micah on the back. “It’s dangerous, Cady!”

  “If you don’t know what you’re doing, I agree, it would be,” she said glibly. “As it happens, however, I am an expert tree climber. Always have been, always will be.”

  This was not the example to be setting for those boys, Jeb thought, or an argument to be held in front of them. “Cady…”

  Ignoring his entreaty, she held on to the trunk with her right arm and reached out with her left, her fingers coming just short of her goal. Scowling, she straightened and tried again, this time using her foot.

  The three boys stared upward, clearly mesmerized by their aunt’s derring-do.

  “Cady,” Jeb warned again, “I mean it….”

  Ignoring him, she held the trunk with both arms, shifted her weight on the limb and tried again, with her other foot extended. This time she made contact. A nudge, then another, and both Curious George and yellow blankie fluttered through the leaves to the ground.

  “My monkey and blankie!” Micah shouted gleefully.

  Jeb set the toddler down to retrieve them.

  Smiling triumphantly, Cady pulled herself back to the trunk and made her way carefully down it, her shorts riding up her long lissome thighs. When she was within reach, Jeb hooked his hands around her waist and swung her the rest of the way down to the ground.

  Her cheeks were bright pink with exertion as their gazes meshed. Just that swiftly, Jeb felt the zing of attraction he did not want to feel when they were under the same roof.

  Cady turned to the older boys. “All right, you two. Tell your little brother you’re sorry.”

  “We were just joking around,” Finn protested.

  “Yeah, trying to make George and blankie fly,” Dalton agreed.

  Cady looked down her nose in reproof. “If you want to do experiments like that, you do them with your own toys. Not his.”

  “How come?” Finn challenged, while Dalton pouted.

  “Because when you took his toys from him, you upset Micah and made him cry. And that’s not nice,” she scolded.

  Finn and Dalton regarded their younger brother with a mixture of scorn and regret.

  “Sorry,” they said in unison.

  Cady continued regarding them sternly. “It better not happen again. Got it?”

  They sighed once more. “Got it,” they grumbled.

  Micah sank onto the thick grass, his face buried in his blanket, his monkey in his arms.

  Admiring the way Cady had taken charge of the situation and restored order, Jeb said, “I brought some food from town. Maybe Finn and Dalton can help me bring it in.”

  “Good idea.” Cady slid her flip-flops on, picked up Micah and carried him and his treasures toward the house.

  “Why were you boys teasing your brother?” Jeb asked, picking up where she had left off.

  “I dunno.” Finn shrugged.

  “Because we like to?” Dalton guessed.

  “What do your mom and dad say when that happens?”

  “We get a time out,” Finn answered. “Are you going to give us a time out?”

  Jeb set a hand on a shoulder of each and guided them to his truck. “I’m going to put you to work instead.”

  Jeb gave both the boys a small bag to carry and brought the rest into the house. Cady was in the kitchen, cleaning up. Micah was sitting at the table, molding modeling clay into shapes. It was a sweet domestic scene, and Jeb found himself oddly touched. Cady was going to make a great mom.

  The only problem was, he wasn’t going to be a part of it. Not as he was today, he realized in regret.

  “Thanks for doing this,” she told him.

  Jeb forced himself to stop the wishful thinking. “No problem.”

  Finn and Dalton went over to the table and looked at Micah. “Can we play, too?”

  Cady and Jeb waited to see what Micah would do. His lower lip shot out petulantly as he looked up at his hopeful brothers. “Okay,” he said finally, and Finn and Dalton happily joined him.

  With peace restored, Cady glanced at her watch, then Jeb. “Do you want to bring the rest of your things in?”

  He tore his gaze away from her lips. This was no time to be thinking about kissing her. Maybe he should give her a way out of all this togetherness. Especially given the ardent direction of his thoughts…

  He frowned. “Do you have a place for me to sleep? Because if not, I could just leave late and come back early. You know, be here for everything important with the tykes.”

  Jeb had half expected his suggestion to be met with relief, now that she’d had time to think about how intimate a proposition residing under the same roof would be.

  Instead, Cady’s jaw dropped and her eyes blazed with indignation. “I can’t believe it. You’re already trying to get out of our bet!”

  Holding her gaze, he shook his head and lounged back against the counter. “No…I’m not.”

  She closed in on him, her cheeks a riot of color. “Yes, you are.”

  It was all Jeb could do not to take her in his arms. Undo that clip, run his hands through her lush hair, feeling it’s softness….

  He swallowed, pushing the urge away, then called upon his younger sister’s words. “I just don’t want you—or anyone else in the community—to think I’m in this to ‘play house’….”

  Because that would be the obvious assumption to make. That he and Cady were if not already sleeping together, then well on their way to a scandalous affair. And he didn’t want to see her reputation in Laramie reduced to the level of his.

  The activity at the kitchen table stopped. Three heads lifted and turned in their direction. “Who’s playing house?” Dalton piped up.

  “No one,” Cady said firmly, suddenly unable to meet Jeb’s gaze.

  Wrapping her hand around his elbow, she guided him down the hall toward the front of the house. As soon as they were safely out of earshot, she dropped her hand and looked up at him. “I know I don’t have to worry,” she said sincerely. “Because I know you’re not the kind of guy who would take advantage of this situation and try to get me into bed.”

  “IS OUR FRIEND JEB going to have a sleepover with you, Aunt Cady?” Finn asked as he climbed into the bathtub, along with his brothers.

  Thankful that Jeb had gone to the linen closet to get towels, and wasn’t there to see her blush, Cady poured shampoo on her palm and lathered it into the hair of all three boys. “No, honey, Jeb is going to be sleeping in the other guest room.”

  “How come?” Dalton played with the froth of bubbles floating on the water.

  She turned on the hand-sprayer and adjusted the temperature to lukewarm. “Because he needs his privacy.” And I need mine, to keep myself from conjuring up any romantic fantasies that will never, under any circumstances, come true. Just because Jeb is sexy as all get-out, just because I’ve had a secret crush on him for what seems forever, does not mean he will suddenly turn into the marrying kind.

  And with her set to adopt a child as soon as possible, Cady knew she only had room in her life for a serious-minded man who was ready to settle down.

  So like it or not, Jeb was definitely out of the running for anything more than friendship.

  As was she.

  Finn tipped his head back while she rinsed his hair. “Is Our Friend Jeb your boyfriend?” he asked curiously.

  Finished, Cady handed Finn a dry washcloth to blot his face. “No. He’s my friend.” Emphasis on the platonic.

  Dalton closed his eyes while Cady rinsed the soap from his hair, too. “Well, maybe he should be, because Momma told Daddy that you need to get a boyfriend so you won’t turn into an old maid.”

  Jeb chose that moment to walk back in, stack of towels in hand. He looked at Cady in abject sympathy and mouthed, “Nice.”

  S
he agreed.

  Although she was sure the sentiment expressed by her older sister was well-meant—and not for little ears.

  Suki and Hermann just wanted to see her happy.

  And to them, that meant married happily ever after, like they were.

  “What’s an old maid?” Micah sailed a toy boat across the water.

  Being careful not to get any water in his eyes, Cady rinsed his hair in turn. “A woman who never married before she got old.”

  “You are old, Aunt Cady,” Finn pointed out helpfully. “You’re going to be sixty-four on your birthday.”

  She winced at just the thought, while Jeb jumped in, and corrected, “That’s thirty-four, fellas, and gentlemen never discuss a lady’s age.”

  Dalton struggled to understand. “How come?” He climbed out of the tub, and his brothers followed suit.

  Jeb wrapped the oldest boy in the towel and watched as Cady did the same with her other nephews. “It’s not polite.”

  “How come?” Finn echoed.

  After Cady finished drying Micah and Finn, she got out the pajamas. “Because grown-ups don’t like to think about getting old.”

  “Why not?” Micah prodded, while he and his brothers got dressed for bed.

  Cady drained the water from the tub and hung up the damp towels. “It reminds them of all the things they haven’t gotten done that they want to.”

  “Okay, fellas, that’s enough questions for Aunt Cady,” Jeb said as he ran a comb through Dalton’s hair and then got to work on the other two boys.

  “Are you going to have a cake on your birthday, Aunt Cady?” Finn asked, clearly not getting the hint.

  She sighed and layered toothpaste on all three brushes. “Yes, I’ll have cake.”

  “Can we have some?” Dalton asked.

  “On my birthday, yes, you can.”

  Jeb handed out three small paper cups of water. “Rinse and spit, guys. Then time for bed.”

  “Are you going to read us stories?” Finn asked.

  Trying not to think how easily she and Jeb meshed in the mommy and daddy roles, Cady nodded. “Jeb is going to read to you two older boys, and then sit in your room with you until you fall asleep. And I’m going to read to Micah and rock him to sleep.”