“Mom, Hayden won’t move so we can see. Make him cut it out!”
Jenna closed her eyes and whispered a quick, fervent prayer for patience. She looked toward the closed kitchen door that led to the rest of the house and then back toward the small couch and love seat where her boys were sitting by the fireplace in their pajamas.
“Come on, guys. Hayden, quit teasing your brothers. You promised. I just need you all to sit quietly and watch Rudolph for a while, okay? And then Aunt Terri will be here to take you back to the house.”
“This is a baby show,” Hayden grumbled.
“What are you talking about? This is your favorite show!”
“No way. It’s totally stupid.”
She glared at her oldest. He was such a leader to the other boys. If they picked up his lead and refused to watch the DVD she had brought, she just might have a mutiny on her hands, which was the absolute last thing she needed when she still had a hundred things to do before breakfast in an hour.
When had her oldest son become too old to enjoy one of the classic Christmas specials? It was a tough age for a boy, she knew. He was ten and struggling to decide if he still wanted to be a boy or a preadolescent. Since his father’s death she had watched him as he tried to grow up faster than she thought he should.
She had desperately tried to avoid exactly this scenario—having to bring the children with her to Raven’s Nest while she prepared breakfast for Carson and his guests. She thought she had everything arranged and had planned to have her niece, Erin, sleep over so she could spend the morning with the children.
But when she returned to her house the night before, after that awkward encounter with Carson, Erin had apologetically informed her she forgot she had promised to cover a friend’s paper route and had to be home to take care of it.
She had hoped to be finished before Jenna had to leave for Raven’s Nest but Terri had called her and said the route was taking longer than they planned because of the snow. They expected to be done in the next hour.
She had to keep her fingers crossed and hope the holiday magic of Rudolph and his friends would keep the children preoccupied enough that they wouldn’t start ripping apart Carson’s house.
If not for Hayden, it just might work. Jolie was still sound asleep in one corner of the couch and the other two boys were at least moderately interested, though she could see the indecision in their eyes. If Hayden called it a baby show, neither Drew nor Kip would be caught dead watching it.
She considered her maternal grab bag of manipulation techniques and decided the fine art of diversion was a proven winner. “If you don’t want to watch the show, why don’t you come and help me?”
He opened his mouth to protest but then a crafty light entered his green eyes. “Will you pay me as much as you’re paying Erin to sit with us? She says she’s making a ton.”
She smiled. “I guess that depends on how much help you are. While I crack the eggs for the frittata, why don’t you come and peel these oranges so we can squeeze them for juice?”
He looked less than thrilled but apparently he decided the possibility of a little coin was more exciting than watching a baby show with his brothers.
It was actually quite enjoyable working beside him while the DVD played quietly in the background. She had discovered these small moments working one-on-one with her children provided an invaluable opportunity for conversation she would normally miss. With four children, she sometimes felt stretched thin when all of them were talking to her at once. She had learned to cherish any opportunity to interact with them individually—even when she was knee-deep in work making a gourmet breakfast for seven people.
For twenty minutes, she and Hayden talked about his favorite subject right now, football, and his favorite team, the Denver Broncos. The time flew past as they talked about passing percentages and wild card play-off slots and player trades. They talked about school and about his friends and his plans for the rest of Christmas vacation.
The time flew past and before she knew it, a quick check of the clock told her it was 7:10 a.m. and Carson’s guests were expecting breakfast in twenty minutes.
She just might make it, she thought as she poured the freshly squeezed juice into a crystal pitcher.
The door to the kitchen suddenly opened and her ridiculous heart skipped a beat when Carson appeared in Levi’s and an earth-toned sweater. His dark hair was damp and he was freshly shaved and all she could think about for one crazy moment was the stunning heat they had shared the day before.
“Mom, the orange juice is spilling!” Hayden exclaimed.
She looked down and realized she had just wasted a good cup or more of his hard work by letting the pitcher overflow. Juice dripped all over the countertop in a sticky orange mess.
She flushed and reached for the roll of paper towels. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“Is the coffee ready?” Carson asked.
“It should be.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his gaze, though she was painfully aware of him.
“Smells good in here.”
She suddenly remembered the scent of him, masculine and sexy, and ordered herself to stop. She would never stop blushing if she couldn’t manage to focus on breakfast.
“I was still shooting for seven-thirty for everything to be ready.” She forced her voice to be brisk and professional as she finished cleaning up the orange juice and turned her attention to the final thing on her list, the batch of currant muffins she had added to the menu at the last minute. “Does that time still work for you and your guests?”
“Everybody seems to be stirring. Frederick was getting in a swim a minute ago but he looked like he was just ready to get out. We were trying to head to the slopes in Jackson by eight-thirty.”
“I love to snowboard,” Hayden announced. “My dad used to take me before he died. I’m saving up to buy a new snowboard and I almost have enough.”
That was the first she had heard of that particular plan. Last she knew, Hayden was saving to go to a football camp at Idaho State in the summer.
“You’ve got helpers this morning.”
She gave Carson a quick look, trying to gauge his reaction to her children’s presence, but he only looked impassive and rather distant. “Yes. I didn’t have a choice. If you’ve got a problem with it, I’m more than willing to let you make your own currant muffins.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did I say I had a problem with it? I was simply making an observation.”
She hadn’t meant to sound so defensive or confrontational and she worked to moderate her tone.
“My niece is supposed to be tending them for me this morning but something came up and she can’t get here for another—” she glanced at the omnipresent clock on the river-rock fireplace “—fifteen minutes. They have promised they’d be on their best behavior until then and so far they’ve been great. We’ve been here nearly an hour and you didn’t even know they were here, did you?”
“I didn’t hear a sound,” he assured her as he moved to the coffeemaker and pulled a mug out of the cupboard above it.
He poured a cup but before he could take a sip, Jenna heard a squeaking kind of sound and looked down to see Jolie had awakened while she had been talking to Carson.
Her daughter stood next to her in her red footie pajamas, hanging on to Jenna’s pant leg with one hand as she rubbed her bleary eyes.
“Hi, baby.”
“Mama. Up.”
Jenna was elbow-deep in muffin batter. She looked helplessly down at her daughter. “Oh, honey, I can’t pick you up right now. Give me a minute, okay?”
“Mama! Up!” Jolie’s voice rose in pitch and intensity and her eyes started to brim with tears. She was such a cuddler when she just woke up and she wasn’t happy unless she’d been held for a few moments until she was ready to start the day.
“Do you want me to get her?” Hayden didn’t bother to mask the reluctance in his voice.
“No. Want Mama!” Jolie had that stubborn set to her jaw that Jenna recognized only too well, since she shared it with each of her three older brothers. She was just trying to figure out how she could possibly finish the muffins with one hand while holding her daughter in the other when Carson moved toward them.
“Here. Let me try.”
She stared in shock as Carson set down his coffee mug and scooped Jolie into his arms. Jenna waited for her daughter’s tantrum after finding herself confronted with a stranger. Though her eyes widened and she looked startled, she didn’t let out the wail Jenna had expected.
“Um, thanks,” she murmured, aware of a weird tightness in her chest as she saw him holding her little girl.
After another moment, Jolie apparently decided she didn’t mind her new position.
“Hi,” she beamed after a moment, putting out her most adorable vibe.
Now that he had offered to help, Carson looked as if he didn’t quite know what to do next with the squirming bundle of toddler. “Hi, yourself.”
Jolie patted his cheek. “Nice,” she declared.
Jenna knew she should be finishing breakfast but she couldn’t seem to look away from their interaction. She saw Carson blink a little at that, then he smiled back at Jolie, a heartbreak of a smile that made her forget everything she was doing.
“Thanks,” he answered. “You’re pretty nice, too.”
Oh, she was a goner.
Jenna could handle a kiss that curled her toes. She could protect herself against shared confidences in the quiet of a kitchen while a soft snowfall drifted down outside.
But she had absolutely no way to shield her heart from a man who could look so completely masculine and sexy—and so adorably flummoxed—holding one of her babies.
Talk about your crazy impulses.
He should have just turned around and walked out of the kitchen the moment this terrifying little creature wandered over to her mother, all big-eyed and soft and sleepy.
He didn’t know the first thing about kids, especially girl kids. Jenna’s older boys were one thing. They could at least carry on a basic conversation and were somewhat capable of rational thought. At least he assumed as much.
The little girl, though. She was something else entirely.
Her hair was messy, with blond curls sticking in every direction, and she just watched him out of those big, dark-lashed green eyes that were so much like her mother’s.
Just what was he supposed to do with her? She babbled something incomprehensible to him. He tried to interpret it so he could answer but she didn’t appear to need a response. She just giggled and continued babbling along.
Not sure what to do, he just pretended to follow her gibberish and occasionally made a benign comment as if he understood her.
“Is that right?” he said, which mostly just sent her off into more giggles.
Somewhere in the middle of the nonsensical conversation Carson forgot about feeling foolish. He forgot about his guests and about Jenna watching him out of those wary eyes while she fixed breakfast and about the call to Carrianne he was hoping to find time to squeeze in before they left for the Jackson Hole ski slopes.
All he could focus on was this curly-haired girl with the huge eyes and wide, toothy smile.
He carried her around the kitchen, pointing out different things to her that he had never paid much attention to. The colorful tile backsplash behind the oven, the sprayer on the sink faucet, the ice maker on the refrigerator. She seemed to find everything fascinating as she jabbered at him.
By the time Jenna opened the oven door several moments later and slid in the pan of muffins, little Jolie Wheeler had completely stolen his heart.
“She doesn’t usually take to anyone like that, especially men,” Jenna said and he wondered if he ought to be insulted by her baffled surprise. “She’s just not used to them, I guess, since she really only has interaction with her uncle Paul. I really thought she would be crying by now.”
“I guess that just proves not all females run away from me in a panic.”
She quickly looked at her boys, who were too busy watching the end of a holiday show to pay them any attention. When she shifted her gaze back to him, she was glaring, her expression clearly conveying that she thought him ill-mannered to mention the day before.
“I didn’t run away,” she muttered.
“What would you call it?” he asked, while Jolie was occupied suddenly banging a wooden spoon on the countertop.
“Mom, we can’t hear the song!” Drew complained and Jenna swiftly slid a silicone cutting board across the countertop to muffle the banging.
“Using a little common sense.”
He had promised himself after a sleepless night that he wouldn’t push her, that he would try his best to forget his attraction to her. He was a little astonished that he was finding that so difficult to do this morning, especially with all four of her children right there with them.
She looked fresh and lovely this morning, with all her blond hair tightly contained in a French braid. She hardly looked old enough to be the mother of this little one in his arms, forget about three active boys.
“Thanks for your help with her, but you really can give her to one of her brothers. They’re all a big help with her.”
“She’s fine for now, aren’t you, bug?”
The girl gave him that wide smile again. “Jolie bug.”
He grinned and looked up to find Jenna gazing at his mouth again.
His insides clenched and he suddenly wanted to shove all the children out of the kitchen and take their mother in his arms. He stared at her for a long moment that was only broken by a knock on the back door off the kitchen.
Jenna blinked a few times and he watched her swallow. Then she set down her spoon and hurried to answer the door.
A woman and a teenage girl who looked about fifteen stood in the doorway.
“Sorry we’re so late, Aunt Jenna. The papers were delivered to us late and they were huge and took us a long time to roll.”
“Lots of last-minute Christmas ads,” the woman added as she walked into the room. “So this is the castle kitchen. Swank.”
“And the lord of the manor,” Jenna muttered, gesturing toward Carson.
He stepped forward to greet them and he saw surprise flicker in the older woman’s eyes when she saw the little pajama-clad bundle in his arms.
“Hi.” He smiled. “Welcome to Raven’s Nest.”
“Carson McRaven, this is my sister-in-law, Terri Patterson, and my niece, Erin. Without their help you would be eating dry cereal and peanut butter sandwiches right now.”
The woman gave him a guarded look. “Hello,” she answered.
Jolie wasn’t nearly as restrained. “Auntie!” she exclaimed and clapped her hands in delight.
“Hi, pretty girl.” She held out her hands and Jolie lunged into them.
His arms felt curiously bereft without the little girl in them and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them.
Jenna watched Carson shove his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and she tried to decipher his odd expression.
On a different man, she might have thought him hesitant to relinquish the toddler. But that certainly couldn’t be true, she decided. The sooner Terri and Erin took the kids out of his hair, the better Carson would probably like it.
“Thanks again for watching the boys today,” Jenna said to Erin. “I know you have a million things to do before you leave for the cruise on Christmas Eve.”
“I don’t have anything else to do. I’m already packed,” Erin assured her with a grin. “I have been for two weeks. And with what you’re paying me, I’ll have even more money to spend in the duty-free stores onboard the ship.”
She smiled. Erin was a world-class shopper and often lamented the tragic fact that Pine Gulch didn’t have its own mall.
“I should be back at the house in a few hours and then I don’t have to be back at Raven’s Nest until early afternoon to start the dinner prep.”
“No problem,” Erin assured her. “Come on, you guys. We can watch the rest of the show at your house.”
“This TV is bigger,” Kip complained.
“Sorry, you’re just going to have to slum it at home,” Erin told him with a grin.
As she kissed each of her children goodbye, Jenna was aware of Carson still standing in the kitchen watching out of those blue eyes that seemed to miss nothing.
The next few moments were a flurry of activity—finding coats, grabbing the DVD, ushering everyone out the door.
“Be careful, the steps are a little icy.” Jenna offered one last warning, then closed the door behind her family.
Carson was still there, one hip leaning against the kitchen counter. He had picked up his coffee mug again and he sipped at the contents, which must surely be lukewarm by now.
“This really has been a hassle for you to help me, hasn’t it?” he said. “I don’t know if I fully realized the logistics of it all until right now, watching you herd them all out the door.”
“Yes,” she said without equivocating. “But you’re paying me extraordinarily well to compensate for any inconvenience.”
His mouth compressed a little. “That still doesn’t make it any easier for you. I suppose you’re glad you’re only committed to a few more meals. Dinner tonight and then breakfast in the morning and then everything can return to normal.”
“Right,” she murmured, though she couldn’t quite figure out why that prospect should depress her.