CHAPTER 12

Isaac shook his head. “Not a chance.”

I pouted and walked back into the kitchen. “I’m disowning any of you who do anything embarrassing. That goes double for you, Casey.”

Kara slapped me with her kitchen towel. “Come over here and wash the baby food off your face.”

“Mr. Isaac, why were you kissing Aunt Mal? Are you her boyfriend?”

I glared at Kara. “Do something!”

“What do you know about boyfriends?” Tyler turned a stern look on his daughter and shook his head. “You know nothing of boyfriends until you’re twenty-five. You hear me?”

“Dad, I’ve kissed a boy. I’m not a baby.”

“You didn’t kiss Ryan Miller, stupid. He was drowning and you tried to give him mouth-to-mouth.”

“Ryan Miller drowned?” Kara looked shocked. “When did this happen?”

“No, he wasn’t actually drowning. He was faking to trick Casey, and she fell for it.” Taylor yawned. “Is breakfast ready?”

“You kissed a boy?” Tyler handed a messy Hank off to Isaac and shook his head at his daughter. “No, no, no. No kissing boys.”

“What about Taylor? He can just kiss girls, but I can’t kiss boys?” Casey crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at her father. “That’s sexist.”

“He can’t kiss girls, either!” Tyler rubbed his head. “No one can kiss anyone. Except your mother and me. We can kiss.”

“What about Aunt Mal and Mr. Isaac?”

Isaac bounced Hank on his leg and grunted. “I think we get to kiss, too.”

“So, everyone gets to kiss except for us?” Casey let out an angry groan and stomped to the fridge and shoved her head inside. “This house can be so stupid sometimes! Where is my orange juice?”

I met Isaac’s eyes over the commotion of Kara and Tyler trying to get Casey to stop being a teenager before she was even a pre-teen. He grinned and shrugged. I couldn’t help grinning back.

Breakfast went like that. When it was finally over, I was almost giddy from all the looks I’d been sharing with Isaac, but I had a headache from listening to Casey and Taylor fight the entire time. Even Hank was starting to get fussy. His teeth were bothering him, and I’d left his teether out all night, so he didn’t have the cold to soothe him.

I held him in my arms and rocked him, even as he cried and rubbed at his teeth. I felt terrible for him. Nothing I tried to give him made a difference, and he was in full-on wailing before too long. I winced and searched through the freezer for something he could chew on. When the only thing I could find was a bag of peas, I got desperate and gave him a corner of the bag to chew on while I said goodbye to Isaac, who was probably officially regretting coming over.

Holding Hank and the peas, I found Isaac standing on the front porch, a smile on his face. He looked me over and shook his head. “You have your hands full.”

I nodded. “I’m surprised there’s not a comical trail of dust following you out of here right now.”

“Nah. This was fun. Reminds me of my house growing up.” He leaned in and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I’ve got work to do on the ranch, and you’re busy, but I’m not running. I’m coming back for another date soon.”

“Why would you want that?”

He just smiled and shrugged. “See you later, Mal.”

I watched him leave and looked down at Hank. “Maybe he’s crazy. Why else would he be interested in us? We’re kind of a mess.”

As if on cue, Hank made a straining face and graced me with a foul smell. I sighed and tried to remember how I’d ever felt sexy the night before.

*****************

Thenextmorning,I left Hank with Tyler while I headed to Steele Lumber to meet Blake Steele about the job in his offices. I’d worked in marketing in the city, but I was willing to start anywhere. I just wanted money coming in so I could keep building my savings. I’d need to buy my own house eventually. When Kara and Tyler didn’t need two extra bodies at their house, taking up space.

Kara had presented me moving in with them as me helping her with the twins and Tyler, but Tyler was doing so much better. And Kara was the strongest person I knew. She never needed anything. I suspected her framing it as me helping them was a ploy, but on the off chance that she did need my help, I was going to be there.

Saving for the future had been an obsession of mine since I was a kid, so free housing or not, I needed a job. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t in my field. I had my doubts about whether I’d ever find something local in my field. That was okay, though. I could eventually work virtually and make things happen through old connections. Everything would be fine.

Steele Lumber was a huge place on the side of town opposite Isaac’s ranch. A big dirt lot acted as parking, and beyond that, there were all kinds of buildings and things that I didn’t recognize. There was a constant drone of what I guessed was a saw, or saws, and the scent of wood hung pleasantly in the air. In front of everything stood a small house that had a Steele Lumber sign hanging in front of it.

Assuming that was where I needed to go, I let myself in and found myself in a hectic office. A teenager was in the middle of a pile of papers, her eyes wide as she spotted me. Her blue hair was standing on end and she had trouble getting her hands up to her earbuds to take them out.

“Hey!”

I smiled and waved. “Hey. I’m here for an interview with Blake.”

She sank into her pile, relief clear on her face. “Oh, thank god. I thought you were going to need something from me.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Are you okay? You need some help getting up? Or…climbing out?”

“Um. Actually. I’m just going to stay down here for now. I don’t like that desk. It’s got bad vibes from the other lady who works here. She’s gone for now, but that desk is haunted, I’m pretty sure.”

I nodded. “Got it. Haunted desk.”

“Hannah! James Ranier said he’s been trying to get through on the office line for two hours. Did you take the phone off the hook again?”

I turned to see who was coming out of the office and froze. Isaac. Frowning, I moved closer to him. “Hey! What are you doing here?”

His brow unfurrowed as he looked me over and a smile stretched his lips. “Working?”

“She’s here to interview for Vicki’s job. Please hire her and get rid of Vicki for good!”

Isaac sent an exasperated look at the teenager. “Hannah!”

“What? I mean it.”

“Come on, let’s go to my office.” He pointed me into the room he just came from. “Hannah, put the phone back on the hook.”

I stopped just inside the door and watched as he pulled it closed and turned to face me. I stepped into his chest, unable to stay away from him. Rubbing his chest, I breathed him in. Something was different. He smelled like cedar and leather. I looked his face over and frowned. “You cut your hair.”

His hands rested on my hips, and he shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak when I realized his lips were unscarred. There was also a spot of brown marring his right eye. He wasn’t Isaac.

“Oh, god!” I jerked away from him and held out my hands. “I am so sorry. You’re not Isaac. I thought you were. I’m so, so sorry.”

He laughed easily and rubbed his beard. He really was the spitting image of Isaac and Julian. The third triplet. His hair was shorter than Isaac’s, but they really were almost identical. “Hey, you didn’t hurt my feelings any. Blake.”

I was going to kill Kara. She’d known she was sending me into Isaac’s brother and hadn’t warned me. I’d just practically rubbed myself all over the man. “Mallory. Again, I am so sorry.”

He gestured to the chair across from his and sat down himself. “I take it you know my brother.”

I felt my cheeks flame and nodded. “Um, yes. I…I’m sorry. Can we just start over? This might go down in history as the most mortifying job interview ever and I just want to pretend it happened to someone else.”

Laughing easily, Blake nodded. “Sure. It’s nice to meet you, Mallory. Kara’s little sister. She said you worked in marketing.”

I nodded jerkily. “I did. For the past ten years.”

“You just recently got into town, yeah?”

I nodded. “I did.”

He leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Where’d you meet Isaac?”

I wanted the earth to open up and eat me. “Kara threw a party for my son. He turned one, but she threw him a party like he was turning twenty-one. She invited Isaac.”

“What’s his name?”

The question threw me and I stammered. “H-Hank. Hank Wesley.”