“No.” She shook her head. “I’ll never be mad at you for putting your girls first.”

His eyes never left hers as he clearly wracked his brain, and she decided to help him. “You told me we needed to talk.”

“Yes. Because we do.”

“You told. You didn’t ask, you told.” He blinked and then closed his eyes and dropped his head to her shoulder, muttering something about his grandpa being right and an impending stroke.

She gripped his arms. “Your grandpa’s having a stroke?”

“No, I am.” He lifted his face. “I’m sorry. I’m bossy and demanding.”

“Because of the military?”

“Because of all the females in my life.”

“The females in your life are the best thing about you,” she said with a small smile she couldn’t seem to hold back.

“If you think that,” he murmured with a small smile of his own, “I need to get you back in bed.”

She laughed softly, but her amusement faded fast.

“Look,” he said, “let me revise my earlier statement. Can we please talk at your earliest convenience?”

“Wow. Did that hurt?”

He laughed, and dammit, he melted away the rest of her mad. “I wanted to thank you,” he said quietly.

“For the orgasms?”

His eyes darkened. “Most definitely, but that’s not what I was going to say. I wanted to thank you for putting up with us Capriottis. I know you think you’re out of your comfort zone here—”

“I don’t think, I know.”

“—but you’re a natural. You fit in, you care—”

“It’s a job.”

“You care,” he repeated softly, running a finger along her temple, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “You care deeply.”

“You’re thanking me for caring deeply?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t know how to take this. No one had ever accused her of such a thing before. And since her MO had been to not care at all, she was at a loss as to when exactly everyone had sneaked in under her radar and made themselves comfy and at home in her heart. She shook her head. “I don’t want your thanks.”

“So you don’t want my thanks, and you won’t let me pay you for your extra time that you spend with the girls. What can I do for you?”

“There’s no price,” she said. “Remember?”

“But say that I wanted there to be a price,” he said. “What would it be? Name it,” he whispered, his voice now filled with all sorts of naughty conjecture.

She barely caught her moan as he brushed his rough jaw to hers, taking her earlobe between his teeth and giving her a shiver. “We’re in the office,” she whispered. “Isn’t this what got us in trouble only a few hours ago?”

“We’re in contract negotiations,” he said. “Name your stipulations.”

She considered him. He was teasing and she liked that. A lot. And since she did, and because this really wasn’t the place or the time, she teased back. “Would I have to call you sir?”

The look that came into his eyes made her heart rate skyrocket and other parts of her body start to override her brain.

“You can call me sir anytime you want,” he said, his lips traveling up the curve of her jaw, his stubble prickling against her skin as he pressed a kiss to her ear. “But you won’t get any work done if you do.”

With a laugh, she pushed him away. “Speaking of work . . .”

“Okay, but later then,” he murmured, more of a promise than a statement.

“Later,” she agreed softly.

And then counted the minutes until she was done for the day. She made her way to her cottage, her mind skipping ahead. Her life had been a train in a dark tunnel for a very long time. But it was like she’d somehow changed course and now she could see a little bit of light.

She was smiling, she realized in surprise. Happy. It was such a shock, this unusual feeling coursing through her veins, that it didn’t register that someone was already inside her cottage.

She knew she’d locked it when she left that morning—force of habit—and the lights were off, but there was someone with a penlight going through her closet. She froze in the open doorway, then smacked the light switch so that she could see.

River was on her knees going through Lanie’s things.

Lanie was frozen to the spot in shock. “What are you doing?”

“It’s not what you think,” River said quickly, struggling to get to her feet.

“You sure? Because what I think is that you’re stealing from me.”

River closed her eyes.

Lanie stayed right where she was, a lead weight in her chest where her heart had been only a moment before. She actually felt glued to the floor. She couldn’t have moved toward River to save her own life. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Please,” River said, breathing like she’d just run a mile, bending over to catch her breath. “I’m not stealing.”

Lanie looked at what River held—the one and only thing she had of her grandma’s, a small gold diamond necklace. “Your hands seem to disagree with you.”

Chapter 18

It’s almost time to switch from my everyday anxiety to my fancy holiday anxiety.

River felt the panic clutch her so thoroughly that the baby in her belly rolled a slow somersault, leaving her winded enough that she had to put a hand on the wall for balance.

Lanie was patting herself down, clearly looking for her phone.

“No!” River cried. “Please don’t call the police. I can’t go to jail. I can’t have her born in jail.”

“I wasn’t going to call the police,” Lanie said. “I was going to call Cora—you look like you’re going into damn labor and more than you don’t want to have this baby in jail, I don’t want to deliver this baby.”

“I’m not in labor.”

Lanie sighed and came close enough to take River’s hand and guide her to the bed. “Sit.”

As soon as River sat, Lanie dropped her hand and stepped back, like she couldn’t stand to even look at her. The gesture made River’s heart hurt even worse because this was all her own fault.

Stupid. She was so stupid.

“Why were you stealing from me?” Lanie asked, arms crossed.

River opened her mouth, but then shut it again because what could she say? Nothing. She couldn’t tell the truth. No one would believe the truth. Hell, she hardly believed it herself.

“Hello,” Lanie said.

River looked into Lanie’s eyes. Behind the anger was pain. Pain River had caused. She had no real choice here, she realized, or at least not a choice that she wanted to face. Maybe if she’d opened up on her very first day and told Cora the truth about how she’d landed on their doorstep.

But she hadn’t.

And now she had to live with her lie. She’d taken the job because she’d seen an easy way in, only the joke was on her because she’d fallen for this place and everyone in it. She’d had it so good here that she’d become . . . happy.