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Jolie glanced over her shoulder and saw that he stared at her suitcase. “Oh, no. I’m staying. My suitcase is there because you didn’t bother to tell me which room is mine.”
She couldn’t leave.
Not just because she didn’t have any money.
Griff Price needed her, whether he realized it or not. And for a lot more than changing his son’s diapers. His expression told her how badly he thought he needed her, and he didn’t know the half of it.
No one had ever needed Jolie before, not like this.
She would stay, not for him, but for the precious little boy asleep in her arms. She hadn’t missed the fact he hadn’t taken even a moment to ask after his child.
“We need to talk.” She suspected before long he would regret he hadn’t taken her back to town tonight.
Griff let out a sigh as he watched the stubborn set of Jolie Carleton’s sweet little chin. Still fighting his headache, he thought sourly, was there a phrase he hated more than we need to talk?
He eyed the beautiful, frazzled-looking woman standing there holding his nephew. In the few hours since he had met her he had tried to forget what a fine-looking woman she was.
Griff eyed the set of her jaw and knew before the words were out of his mouth he would regret asking. “About what?”
Her lovely mouth dropped open as if he had asked an astounding question. She caught herself gaping at him and closed her jaw with a snap of perfect white teeth.
Taking a deep breath, she glanced down at Riley, then hissed at Griff. “About your responsibilities, Mr. Price.”
Well, he had a million of those, that was for sure. “What responsibilities would those be?”
Her pale fine skin flushed. “This baby!”
She was no longer trying to keep her voice down. Riley jerked awake, his head coming off her shoulder.
Griff didn’t want to talk about his nephew. Not tonight. If she had just kept her voice down, Riley would still be asleep.
He skewered her with a look designed to intimidate. “Wrong, Ms. Carleton. I hired you to take care of Riley. He’s your responsibility.”
Griff turned away from the dumbfounded look on her face, crossed through the house to the stairs and picked up her bag.
He didn’t want to explain anything. Talking about the baby would lead to talking about his wife and his brother. That was a subject he didn’t plan to cover, especially with a stranger.
He needed some aspirin and a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow would be another too-full day. He’d still be out on the range tonight if the moon hadn’t set.
As he got to the top of the stairs he heard her determined footsteps just behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and held back another sigh as he watched her march up the stairs.
She looked like a woman with a mission. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she hadn’t liked his answer.
That scowl he had used on her downstairs worked on his hired hands but didn’t seem to phase Jolie Carleton.
Save me from crusading females, Griff thought as he put her suitcase just inside the door of the bedroom next to the baby’s room. He straightened up and braced himself for another round.
She sailed past him without a word, stepped into Riley’s room and closed the door firmly behind her.
Surprised to find, in spite of his headache, he was a little disappointed she hadn’t faced him down again, he stood and stared at the closed door.
He had no intention of telling her about Deirdre or Jake, but he had enjoyed the flush on her cheeks and the flash of anger that ruffled her composed exterior.
In the diner she had come across as cool and collected. With all that temper simmering below the surface, she might prove to be more passionate than he had first supposed.
Standing out in the hall, he heard her walking back and forth across the bare wood floor, murmuring to Riley.
Griff continued to stare at the closed door as he wondered what it would be like to peel the fragile silk of her blouse off and see all that fine pale skin turn rosy with arousal. His body reacted to the thought, and he smiled.
This just might turn out to be an interesting couple of weeks.
He could hear her through the door, still muttering to the baby. Griff rubbed his hand over the tired muscles of his neck. He was pretty sure the discussion regarding his responsibilities wasn’t over.
When a woman said she wanted to talk to a man, it meant she talked until she got the man to agree.
Tired as he was, he found himself looking forward to tomorrow night.
Chapter Three
After spending less than twenty-four hours with Riley, Jolie was concerned about the little guy. Maybe he was coming down with something, but he was too quiet.
She needed to talk to Griff tonight. It was already well past dark and Griff Price had not returned to the house. He had left before she’d awakened this morning. Now Riley was almost ready for bed, so that meant a whole day with no contact between father and son.
She suspected Griff was staying away so he wouldn’t have to talk to her.
It was her fault. She should have stayed calm last night instead of closing the door in his face, but she had been so angry she would have said things he wasn’t ready to hear.
He thought the baby was her responsibility. His announcement had told her a lot. Could he actually think he didn’t need to have contact with his son at this point in the child’s life? That a temporary baby-sitter could take the place of both parents?
Into a bowl she put fresh greens from the garden outside the mudroom and glanced down at Riley, who sat quietly on an old towel in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Although Riley watched her all the time, he didn’t make sounds or smile. Jolie knew his eyesight and hearing were okay, she had given him some basic tests and he had responded by following her movements and turning to sounds.
She put the greens aside and took two wooden spoons out of a crock by the stove, placing them on the towel beside the baby.
“Pick them up, Riley. They’re for you. It’s okay to touch them.” She smiled at him, encouraging him with a nod of her head.
Riley looked at the spoons, then back up at her. He didn’t reach for the utensils, just continued to watch her.
She waited for a few moments, and when he didn’t move, she found a set of metal measuring spoons in a drawer, gave them a shake so they all clanked together, then laid them beside the other spoons.
“Don’t they make a fun noise?” she cooed, and bent over him, giving them another shake. “Take them.”
As she dangled the spoons, his gaze lingered for a moment longer on them, then returned to her face. This time she noticed his fingers opened and closed, but he still didn’t reach out.
She laid them down on the towel beside him. “When you’re ready, you pick them up.”
As Jolie returned to dinner preparation, the suspicion that something might be wrong emotionally with Riley tore at her heart.
She had no idea how to tell Griff that she suspected a problem. Her greatest apprehension was that Griff might not care. Could he be that detached from his own child? Or did he already suspect that something might be wrong, and he couldn’t accept a less than perfect child?
She wasn’t trained for this. She needed to take Riley to a pediatrician and get a professional opinion. Babies his age, normal babies, had only two speeds. Full tilt or sound asleep. They explored everything with insatiable curiosity.
Jolie’s hands stilled and she realized she had slipped back into her old way of thinking. There were things she could do, if she had the courage.
For instance, there were no toys in the house, no bright mobiles or wall hangings in his room to catch Riley’s interest.
When she stayed with her cousin’s children, sometimes it took an hour for her and the nanny to pick up their toys and games, even when the maid pitched in.
Perhaps Riley’s problem was a lack of stimulation in his environment. Most children formed an attachment to a special blanket or stuffed toy they had dragged around everywhere they went. He couldn’t do that because he didn’t have anything.
The only time she got any reaction from Riley was when she picked him up. Then he clung to her like a limpet on a rock at the shoreline. The feel of his little hands grabbing her almost broke her heart.
The back door slammed and Griff came into the kitchen through the mudroom.
Riley watched Griff come in, but showed no reaction.
At the other extreme, her pulse leaped at the sight of him. Annoyed at the purely physical reaction the man evoked in her, she smacked the metal bowl down on the counter harder than she had intended.
He glanced at her, an eyebrow raised in question. Then his eyes slid slowly over her apron, eyeing her as if she were wearing a lacy item from Victoria’s Secret instead of the ancient faded smock she’d found in a drawer.
Every nerve ending in her body seemed to tingle.
Flustered by his perusal and her reaction, she met his gaze. Courage, she thought, have courage.
She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her.
Her ex-fiancé used to do that to get her off a subject he didn’t care to pursue. But Charles had never been able to derail her with just a look.
Jolie shivered. Those blue eyes of his made her stomach do little flip-flops.
“Evening.” He held her eye for another disarming moment, then glanced down briefly at Riley before turning to the sink. He didn’t speak to his son.
“Good evening.” She kept her tone light and tried to keep her mind on the discussion she intended to have with him during dinner.
He had on a denim shirt that pulled across his shoulders as he reached to turn on the water. The color made his blue eyes even bluer. Deeply tanned skin made his hair looked gilded in the bright kitchen light.
In spite of how good he looked, Jolie didn’t miss the fact that lines of fatigue, so apparent yesterday, had deepened around his eyes and mouth.
Jolie watched the baby as Griff finished washing up. Riley displayed only a simple curiosity at the new person who had entered his presence. No smiles or squeals of happiness at seeing a familiar face, no anticipation of attention.
Griff had shown no interest in the child beyond a cursory glance.
They acted as if they were strangers.
Jolie felt a moment of panic. She wasn’t qualified to deal with this situation. How could she get Griff and Riley together?
Courage, she told herself sternly, you live with courage. You may not have the training for this, but you’re all they have to save them.
When she had vowed to have courage and do something outrageous every day, she had never considered taking on something as complicated as repairing the damaged relationship between a man and his son.
She had thought more along the lines of working up the nerve to get a tattoo in a place no one else would see.
The daunting task of fixing this parent-child relationship made the thought of decorating her hip with a small tattoo seem too trivial to think about.
But, she reminded herself, she was all this man and his son had. Jolie didn’t see Griff as the kind of person who would go looking for help.
She was pretty sure he didn’t know he needed help.
She was absolutely sure he wouldn’t want her help.
But, she told herself, you’ve dealt with your own father all these years. They didn’t come much more difficult than Richard Carleton.
The key here was for Griff to think that becoming more involved with Riley was really his idea. Jolie could be very underhanded if it meant a better life for the baby.
She plastered a smile on her mouth, turned and faced Griff as he rinsed the soap off his hands. “Dinner is almost ready.”
She didn’t miss his suspicious look.
Jolie lifted two plates out of the cupboard and set them on the counter.
He watched her for a moment, then said, “I have to make two calls, then I’m going back out.”
Concentrating his gaze on the towel, he acted as if the task of drying his hands required his full attention.
She wasn’t going to let him get away, not now, while she was having a hard time holding on to her resolve.
Forcing herself to adopt a reasonable tone, she phrased her response as a question. “You can take time to eat, can’t you?”
He stared at her while he seemed to consider his answer. “Will it be ready in ten minutes?” he asked in a wary voice.
“Yes.” She’d make sure of it. He was trying to put distance between them and she needed to get started on him.
She only had two weeks.
“Ring the bell.” He gestured to a round metal contraption with a pull chain set high on the kitchen wall.
Then he stepped around Riley as if the baby were a piece of furniture, and left the kitchen without sparing a word for his son.
Jolie stood staring at the empty door frame, unable to believe what had just happened. He hadn’t even taken a moment to pat his son on the head.
Griff Price had to be the most aggravating person she had ever encountered. It was as if he refused to have any more human contact than was absolutely necessary.
She suspected if she suggested they work out a series of signals with the bell so that they wouldn’t have to talk to each other he’d like the idea.
How could Riley thrive in this atmosphere? She scooped the baby off the floor and gave him a fierce hug as he nestled into her arms.
“Don’t worry,” she said into his curls, “I’m not leaving until he realizes how precious you are. And what you need,” she added, hoping keeping the promise wouldn’t take more courage than she possessed.
