"It's not serious, Nellie. Jason just…" Cam hesitated, watching with fascination as people managed to push and shove their way around this huge woman who, just last spring, had been the tiniest thing he'd ever seen.
"He just what, Cameron?"
He winced at the use of his full name. Well, his brother had warned him she'd be ticked. "Okay, he fell off the barn roof-"
"What?"
"But it's only a sprained wrist. I swear it."
They looked at each other, brother and sister-in-law, and despite their equal concern for Jason, smiled. Then laughed. Jason was undoubtedly the clumsiest, most wonderful man alive. And they both loved him.
"How come Zach didn't come?"
Cameron grinned at that. His other brother had vowed to stay as far away from either Jason or Nellie as much as humanly possible. "He's afraid that growth you've got going there is contagious." He reached out to rub her belly fondly, taking it as a good sign when she didn't snap his hand off.
"Poor Jas. Only a sprain, huh?" Nellie sighed, relented, and finally moved to hug Cam. Her stomach hit him first, and he staggered slightly, before adjusting himself to accept her weight.
"Nice visit with your mother?" Cam pulled her to his side and they started to walk.
"Yeah, right. Cam, wait." Nellie slanted him an indecipherable look. "Actually, this works out better that Jas stayed home. You'll handle this better than he would, anyway."
"Handle what?"
Nellie glanced over her shoulder, then looked at him. "We're still looking for a housekeeper, right?"
She knew they were. They lived in an isolated area, the Circle C Ranch somewhere between too big to be small, and too small to be big. Even though both his brothers loved ranching, they struggled with the work. It didn't help that since the last housekeeper had left about six months ago, Nellie had been killing them all slowly and painfully with her horrid cooking and experimental casseroles. Or that no one wanted to clean the ranch house regularly because they all were exhausted from the long, hard days outside. Not to mention the house's sheer size. Now, with Nellie pregnant, Jason worried about her working too hard. "Don't tell me," Cam said cautiously. "You decided to take cooking lessons."
"No, something better." She pulled away from him and took his hands. "I've hired a housekeeper. I don't know how long she'll stay, but-"
"You hired us a housekeeper on the plane from Los Angeles?"
"I met her in LAX. My plane was late, and I'd gotten hungry-"
"There's a surprise- Oof." Cam rubbed his gut, which Nellie had just elbowed. "Go on."
"My arms were full. A million people were pushing and shoving and this woman was the only one who stopped to help me." Her eyes filled with sorrow. "Oh, Cam. You should have seen her, poor thing. She can't be any older than me, and she's so scared. I think she's running from someone, and I-"
"And you just wanted to help."
"Yes."
Cam understood perfectly. He and Nellie shared what the rest of the family called the "bleeding-heart syndrome." Both had a deep, burning desire to right wrongs, fix other people's lives and bring home strays. Cam lifted his head, shifting his gaze over the remaining passengers. He found her immediately. She stood rock still and apart, her shoulders squared, head high. He didn't see anything but her pale, proud, tear-ravaged face. She looked at him-straight at him-and when their eyes met, he felt a jolt.
Her eyes were electric blue. And even from far away, they were the widest, deepest eyes he'd ever seen. For the first time in too long, he felt a stirring of something he couldn't name. He swallowed hard against it.
"She's alone?" he asked in a low voice.
"All alone. And nowhere to go. Her name's Haley and all I know is she flew in from South America, but she's from the States. Somewhere."
As collectors of the needy, he knew neither he nor Nellie could care less if the young woman could cook or clean. All that mattered was that she needed them. But both of them knew from past experience that Zach and Jason weren't easy sells.
"She's wonderful," Nellie said quickly. "We bonded immediately."
Which, given Nellie's current temperament, said a lot. Besides, Cam trusted her instincts implicitly. "All right," he said, his gaze still locked on the woman.
"All right? Oh, Cam, just like that?" Impulsively, Nellie hugged him again, laughing in delight. "Sometimes I think I married the wrong Reeves."
"You know you did." He grinned.
She still held him close, the baby between them like a basketball. She batted her eyelashes at him. "Will you tell Jason about her?"
He laughed and shook her off. "No way."
"Please?"
Still looking at the woman, because strangely enough, he couldn't tear his eyes away, he asked, "You promise not to cook anymore?"
"I promise."
"Deal, then." He couldn't ask for more. "I'll tell Jason."
"And Zach," she clarified.
"Yeah, and Zach. But it's going to cost you." There would be hell to pay for this, he knew. Just last month, when he'd brought home the abused puppy, the one that even Jason couldn't doctor up, they'd spent three hundred dollars on surgery and veterinarian fees. Zach and Jason both had extracted a promise from him not to bring home anything else, but Cam would worry about that later.
With Nellie in tow, he threaded his way through the waning crowd and stopped before the woman.
"Hello." Cam flashed a quick, self-deprecating smile that hopefully signaled he was harmless. A tad too thin, he decided. He usually liked long hair on a woman, but her dark, short cut swung gently to her chin, suiting her narrow features. She had a pale, elegant face that at this moment was staring at him as if he were the one being interviewed. "I hear you'd like a job," he said to her.
She nodded-regally, he thought-giving him a queen-to-peasant look that had his smile spreading. Spunk. He liked that, too.
"You live on a ranch, far from town?" she asked, a flicker of a frown crossing her face.
"Pretty far from Colorado Springs," he admitted, sensing her unease, and again giving her that smile that said he couldn't hurt a fly. "The Circle C is north and slightly east, at the base of the mountains. It's an hour from here."
"Isolated?"
He grinned. "Isolated enough that Nellie has to talk to herself for company."
Nellie rolled her eyes. "There are some small towns out that way," she told Haley. "But nothing close to the size of Colorado Springs."
"Good." She straightened her already impossibly straight shoulders. "Yes, Mr. Reeves, I'd like a job."
He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do with a hoity-toity housekeeper, except enjoy looking at her. "My name's Cameron. Cam, if you'd like. That's what my friends call me."
"Thank you." She nodded, and though she was a good foot shorter than him, she managed to tilt her nose down at him. "Cameron. My name is Haley W-Williams."
God, he loved that voice instantly, all deep and husky as if she'd just woken up. A man could lose himself in a voice like that. But while her vocal cords screamed sex, nothing else about this woman did. Her shadowed eyes barely hid her exhaustion and something else that might have been fear. She hugged her purse close to her, and for the first time, he noticed that she didn't seem to be dressed properly for autumn in the Rockies. Her thin blouse tucked into trim-but-also-thin slacks wouldn't protect her once they went outside the terminal.
And since when did a homeless, down-on-her-luck housekeeper wear clothes that looked like they came from Saks Fifth Avenue?
"Let's go get our luggage," Nellie said.
"I have none," Haley said quietly, though her eyes were anything but calm.
Cam watched a hardness come into that electric-blue gaze. His mild curiosity leaped to avid stage. "Well, then," he said lightly, giving Nellie a look when she opened her mouth to express sympathy he instinctively knew Haley wouldn't appreciate, "we'll just get Nellie's then. Ladies? Shall we go?" He offered them each an arm, amused when Haley refused to take it. When he had Nellie's suitcase, he directed the women toward the exit.