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“Believe me, I intend to find that out firsthand.” His lips pinched tightly.
His parenting style wasn’t her business, and she was probably overstepping the boundary of a bridesmaid to a best man, but—“Reese?”
“Yeah?” He stared at her, brows lowered. They’d gained the top of the rise and his attention honed in on the twins up ahead, laughing and playing as carefree as if nothing untoward had happened.
“I know they scared the daylights out of you this afternoon, but could you try not to let them see that?”
“Why not?” Reese demanded, his prominent cheekbones jutting sharply in the sunlight. “The twins should know their actions affect others.”
“You must teach them that, of course. But maybe not today.”
“Because?”
“Because they don’t realize how worried you were.” She saw his brow furrow and rushed to explain. “That’s a good thing, Reese. You don’t want to make them afraid of life. You don’t want them fussing about all the things that could have happened.”
“Brett already has nightmares,” he admitted, watching them. “And that talk about their mother—I never even imagined they’d been thinking about her.”
“Kids are funny that way. Sometimes they take forever to blurt out what’s on their minds,” Olivia said. “I’m not trying to tell you how to parent your sons, believe me. I’m just suggesting you might want to focus on the disobedience part of the experience.”
Reese studied her for a long time before he exhaled his pent-up breath. He bent his head to one side, then the other as if releasing his tension. Then he nodded.
“Thank you. Again. I needed that reminder.”
“You’re a good parent. The twins love you and you love them. That’s what matters.” She changed the subject. “Sara said you work at Weddings by Woodwards—legal counsel?”
“That’s better than the other names she used to call me.” He smiled good-naturedly. “I do work as legal counsel for the business, but I also serve on the board at the Byways Youth Center.”
“I’ve heard about it from Sara and some friends. Sounds like it has great potential.”
“If we could find a new director.” Reese grimaced. “We’ve been running shorthanded for a while.”
“I see.”
“Maybe it’s something you’d be interested in.”
Olivia changed the subject.
“The bridal couple is leaving. I don’t want to call Sara back and ruin everything. Maybe I should go home.”
“No.” Reese frowned as he pulled open the door. “Cade’s sister, Karen, will help us. You wait inside. I’ll go find her.”
He was as good as his word, returning a few minutes later with Karen, who didn’t ask any questions, but quickly provided a pale blue sundress and sandals, all the perfect size. Olivia showered, tied her hair back and dressed, feeling almost warm again as she stepped outside.
Reese leaned against the doorpost, watching the twins pet a pony. Brett now wore shorts and a T-shirt. The teenage girl stood beside Reese, talking to him.
“Thanks for lending me this. It’s still a bit damp.” Olivia handed him his jacket.
“We’ll let it hang here to dry,” he said, carelessly dropping the expensive jacket over the banister. “Olivia, this is Emily Kirsch. She babysits the twins for me sometimes. Emily, this is Olivia Hastings.”
“Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for getting Brett out of the water.” Emily clung to her hand, shaking it over and over. “I should have been watching more closely. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.” The girl risked a sideways glance at Reese. “It’s all my fault.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s harder to care for the twins here than at home. I know that. I also know you’ll watch them more carefully next time. You did fine, Em.” Reese patted her shoulder, smiled. “You’re the best babysitter they ever had. They love having you care for them.”
“I love them, too. Uh-oh.” Emily clapped a hand over her mouth as Brett tried to get the pony to eat the ball he was offering. “I better get them busy on a game. Nice to meet you, Miss Hastings.”
Miss. It still sounded strange to hear that.
“You, too,” Olivia said, but Emily had already left. “I’m surprised you remembered my name,” she teased Reese, remembering how he’d stumbled during an introduction earlier in the day.
He was good-looking in a dangerously rumpled kind of way. His profile reminded her of Prince William. One of the twins had left a grubby print on his shirtfront. The dab of red on his collar matched the red stain on Brady’s white pants. Reese’s sandy-brown hair was just an inch too long to be neat.
“Of course I remember your name.” He blinked innocently.
“You didn’t earlier.”
“Well, we’ve already established I was focused on two small troublemakers. So my brain was occupied elsewhere.” He made a face when Brett began climbing up a tree and moved forward as if to stop him. He relaxed when Emily intervened. “If you had kids, you’d understand how easy it is to get sidetracked.”
If she had kids—
I was a wife and a mother once, her heart cried out. Until my family was stolen from me.
“What would you say to a hot cup of coffee and some wedding cake? Emily seems to think those two need their bellies filled. Again.”
“Someone actually cut that gorgeous cake?” Olivia walked beside him with the twins following.
His family greeted him with good-natured jeers and teasing. Reese responded in kind, though his attention never left the twins for more than a few minutes.
What would it be like to be part of a family again, to work with kids again, to find the connection that would make her part of something? Olivia longed to join humanity and replace the ever-present worry that held her back, prevented her from getting too close—lest some newspaper reporter figure out whom she’d been and run another story about her pitiful past.
Sara Woodward had been the first person Olivia had trusted in a very long time. And even Sara didn’t know the whole truth.
The jury was still out on trusting Reese.
Chapter Two
Two weeks later, Reese could only hope Olivia’s interest in touring Byways was genuine enough that she’d cut him some slack for being late for this meeting.
He’d done everything he could to interest her in the director’s position, from forwarding reams of accolades for past successes to ideas and possibilities that had been tossed around for the future. As chairman of the board of Byways, he wanted the place to live up to its potential of a refuge where kids could learn new things, find someone to talk to and have a safe place to hang out. Byways needed a director who could oversee everything and deal with questions the kids inevitably needed answers to.
Olivia had remained steadfastly noncommittal—until today when she’d finally agreed to tour the facility with him. Reese sincerely hoped she’d be impressed enough to agree to take the job as director, and soon. Lately he spent almost as much time here as at work, and the twins were not happy about his frequent absences.
Only Nelson’s car sat on the lot.
Olivia had given up and gone home and Reese didn’t blame her. He was half an hour late. This would have to be the day the twins’ nanny quit. He’d been stuck interviewing new candidates all afternoon. The last applicant had scared even him.
Good thing Granny Winnie wasn’t above a spot of babysitting when the need arose. If only the twins didn’t—
“You think I should work here, but you’re afraid to get out of your own car? Is that your excuse for being late?”
Reese snapped out of his reverie to see Olivia laughing down at him. She looked different today. Not because she was less elegant in her navy slacks and sleeveless white shirt with a navy jacket slung over one arm. It was her hair that caught his attention. Again.
It was as lovely as he remembered. Loose, flowing to her shoulders in a swath of blended honey and amber, it glistened with a hint of orange—no, cinnamon—enhancing the flawless perfection of her face.
“I like your hair,” he blurted out.
“Oh. Well. Thank you.” Olivia’s smile faltered as she lifted a hand to brush the long spiky bangs off her forehead.
Idiot!
Reese chided himself for embarrassing her as he climbed out of his car. Too bad he hadn’t concentrated on what he intended to say instead of her hair.
“So. Should we risk it and go inside?”
Her lighthearted comment killed his tension.
“Yes.” Reese locked his car then began telling the history of Byways. “An elderly man used to live here, a grouch who put up a big fence around the place to keep the neighborhood kids out. But his yard was the perfect place to play catch and the kids always found a way in. He began sitting at the window, watching them play. The laughter and voices cheered him up and he soon looked forward to their coming.”
“Charming, but is it true?”
“Oh, yes. So Mr. Mung changed from the old grouch he’d been. But suddenly the kids stopped coming. He couldn’t figure out why, but he knew he wanted them to come back. He missed the way they made him feel younger.”
“Why did they stop?” She matched her step to his.
“Some do-gooder built them a softball field.” Reese chuckled at her droll look. “Mung figured that if he took his broken fence down, the kids might come back. He was trying to remove it when one of the kids passed, a punk who had been troubling the neighborhood for years. They argued. Short version is Mung had a heart attack, the kid got him to hospital and while Mung was away, the kid and his punk friends took down the wrecked fence, mowed the yard and started meeting on the front lawn.”
“Nice.”
“They say guilt is a great motivator. Anyway, when he came home, Mung couldn’t keep up the yard without help. The kid noticed, got his friends to pitch in and pretty soon Mung’s place became their drop-in center. The kids began to tell him their stories and Mung showed them a new perspective. When he couldn’t help, he conned his neighbor, a counselor, into stopping by. The word spread.”
Reese paused to catch his breath, but Olivia was way ahead of him.
“So Mung left the kid the house, the kid called it Byways and found funding to keep it running as a youth center.” Olivia slid her fingers over the worn sign that sat at the bottom of the stairs. “That kid was you. I do love a happy ending.”
Reese studied her more intensely.
“You’ve been doing your homework, Miss Hastings.”
“I like to know what I’m getting into, Mr. Woodward.” She tossed him a cheeky grin then skipped up the stairs.
“And?” Reese followed, wondering where this was leading.
“I’ve done some checking. Byways has a great reputation as a safe place where kids can come to have fun, share and, with a little help, figure themselves out. So far I’m quite intrigued by this place.”
“Intrigued is good.” Reese followed her inside, trying to quell his fervent hope that she’d agree to take on the directorship and give him, its chairman, a breather.
A tall, lean man met them in the foyer.
“Olivia Hastings, this is Nelson Kirsch, Emily’s brother. Nelson is our activities director. Nelson, Miss Hastings is considering joining Byways.”
“Joining as what?” Nelson lifted one eyebrow in his inimitably imperious way.
Irritation pricked Reese at Nelson’s snarky tone, though he knew the reason for it. Nelson wanted to be offered the job as director, though he didn’t have the necessary credentials. But before Reese could say anything, Olivia thrust out her hand.
“As whatever I can be to help, Mr. Kirsch.” She waited for him shake. “I hope that won’t be a problem.”
“That remains to be seen, Miss Hastings.” Nelson shook her hand once, then quickly dropped it. “Excuse me. I’m putting the last few details in place for a day trip.”
“Certainly.” Olivia stepped back to allow him to pass. When he’d disappeared, she glanced at Reese. “The temperature seems to have dropped.”
“That’s just Nelson.”
“You mean he thaws out?”
“Truthfully? Not really. Ah, here’s Emily. Hi, Em.” Reese hugged her thin shoulders and frowned when she immediately tensed, then slipped away. “You okay?”
“Sure. How are the twins? Did Brett get sick from that dunking?”
“His sickness came on after he found out their punishment was to peel potatoes for a week.” Reese winked at Olivia. “Brett isn’t fond of the job and he gets testy when Brady outdoes him with the plastic peelers I bought. Peeling potatoes keeps them busy and gives both of them time to think about the error of their ways.”
“Potatoes.” Olivia chuckled. “That’s creative.”
“Mr. Woodward has lots of ideas.” Emily threw him a cheeky grin. “We mess up his house real bad sometimes when I look after the kids. He usually tricks me into helping clean up. But he never gets mad at me.”
“Do other people get mad at you, Emily?” Olivia asked softly. Something wasn’t quite right with Emily. She could sense it.
“Sometimes.” Emily cast a worried look over one shoulder. “I gotta go. We’re going fishing.”
“Don’t eat the worms if you don’t catch anything.”
“Yuck. That’d be a Brady thing.” She slipped out from under Reese’s hand as he tried to ruffle her hair and raced away, giggling.
“She’s the nicest kid and she’s great with the twins.”
“I can hear a ‘but’ in there.”
“I don’t know how to say it. Lately I sense she’s afraid of me. Maybe it’s because I’m so much bigger than her.” He caught Olivia staring at him. “You’re the child psychologist. What do you think?”
“Maybe you’re right.” Olivia’s noncommittal answer left a lot to be desired. She glanced around. “How often do they go on field trips?”
“Almost every day in the summer. Nelson has a schedule of things for them to do. I’m not sure why they need to go out all the time, but Nelson seems to feel it’s best and the kids do gain exposure to a lot of activities that they’d miss if they stayed here.”
“I hear another ‘but.’”
“It’s a nightmare getting all the permission slips accounted for. But I won’t risk a lawsuit.”
“Very wise. They guarantee no parent can claim ignorance.”
“That’s the plan.” Reese led her through the building.
