Cody's face lit up.
Kevin looked thunderstruck. She really should have remembered to tell him that several of the families checking in yesterday had kids. She experienced a sudden, irrational hope that this somehow would make him change his mind about selling the place.
Cody hugged the football to his chest and looked uneasy.
"It's been nice playing with you, Mr. Tucker, but… uh… I have to go play with my friends now. If it's okay?" He edged away backward. "If you… can't find anybody else to play with, I guess-I guess I can come back later."
Kevin cleared his throat. "That's okay. You go on with your friends."
Cody was off like a shot with the three O'Brian boys following.
Kevin approached her slowly. He looked so disconcerted that Molly bit her lip to keep her smile within reasonable boundaries. "Roo'll play with you."
Roo whimpered and crawled under the gazebo.
She rose and walked to the bottom of the steps. "Okay, I'll play with you. But don't throw hard."
He shook his head in bewilderment. "Where did all these kids come from?"
"School's finally out. I told you they'd show up."
"But… how many are here?"
"The three O'Brian boys, and Cody has a baby sister. Two families have one teenage girl each."
He sank down on the step.
She held her amusement in check as she sat next to him. "You'll probably meet them all this afternoon. Tea in the gazebo will be a nice way to kick off a new week."
He didn't say anything, just gazed out at the Common.
She considered it a tribute to her maturity that only a small bubble of laughter escaped. "Sorry your playmate ran away."
He stubbed the heel of his sneaker in the grass. "I made a fool out of myself, didn't I?"
Her heart melted, and she rested her cheek against his shoulder. "Yes, but the world could use more fools like you. You're a very nice man."
He smiled down at her. She smiled back. And that's when it hit her.
This wasn't a crush at all. She'd fallen in love with him.
She was so horrified, she jerked away.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" She started to chatter to cover up her dismay. "There's another family. More children. Checking in today with… some kids. The Smiths. They didn't say how many-how many kids. Amy talked to them."
In love with Kevin Tucker! Please, not that! Hadn't she learned anything? She knew from her childhood how impossible it was to make someone love her, yet she'd once again fallen into that old, destructive pattern. What about all her dreams and hopes? What about her Great Love Story?
She felt like burying her head in her hands and crying. She wanted love, but he only wanted sex. He stirred beside her. She was glad of the distraction, and she followed the direction of his gaze across the Common. The O'Brian boys were chasing each other while they waited for Cody to change into his swim trunks. Two girls who looked as though they were about fourteen came walking up from the beach carrying a boom box. Kevin took in the kids, the boom box, the old trees, the sherbet-colored cottages.
"I can't believe this is the same place."
"It's not," she managed. "Things change." She cleared her throat and tried to block out her turmoil. "The woman you hired. Is she starting tomorrow?"
"She told me I had to fire Amy first."
"What? You can't! She's finishing all her work and doing everything you ask! Besides, that patronizing little twit's terrific with the guests." She shot up from the step. "I mean it, Kevin. You should make her cover up her hickeys, but you can't fire her."
He didn't respond.
Molly grew alarmed. "Kevin…"
"Relax, will you? Of course I'm not going to fire her. That's why that old biddy drove off in a huff."
"Thank God. What was her problem with Amy?"
"Apparently Amy and her daughter went to high school together and never got along. If her daughter's like her mother, I'm on Amy's side."
"You did the right thing."
"I guess. But this is a small town, and I've reached the end of a very short list. The college kids have all gone to work on Mackinac Island for the summer, and the kind of person I need to hire isn't interested in taking a job that's only going to last through September."
"That's your answer, then. Keep this place and make the job permanent."
"That's not going to happen, but I do have another idea." He stood and looked down at her, his eyes doing a sexy dance and his mouth curling in a smile. "Did I mention that you look real good naked?"
She shivered. "What idea?"
He spoke lower. "Do you have any animals on your panties today?"
"I forget."
"Then I guess I'll have to look."
"You will not!"
"Yeah? Who's gonna stop me?"
"You're lookin' at her, jock boy." She jumped from the top step and raced across the Common, glad for the excuse to run off her turmoil. But instead of heading toward the B &B, where the presence of the guests would keep her safe, she darted between the cottages and toward the woods where she'd be… unsafe.
Roo loved this new game and scampered after her, yipping with excitement. It occurred to her that Kevin might not be following, but she needn't have worried. He caught her at the edge of the path and pulled her into the woods.
"Stop it! Go away!" She slapped at his arm. "You promised you'd carry those card tables out to the gazebo."
"I'm not carrying anything until I see what's on your panties."
"It's Daphne, okay?"
"I'm supposed to believe you're wearing the same underpants you had on yesterday?"
"I have more than one pair."
"I think you're lying. I want to see for myself." He dragged her deeper into the pines. While Roo circled them barking, he reached for the snap on her shorts. "Quiet, Godzilla! There's some serious business going on here."
Roo obediently quieted.
She grabbed his wrists and pushed. "Get away."
"That's not what you were saying last night."
"Somebody'll see."
"I'll tell them a bee got you, and I'm taking out the stinger."
"Don't touch my stinger!" She grabbed for her shorts, but they were already heading for her knees. "Stop that!"
He peered down at her panties. "It's the badger. You lied to me."
"I wasn't paying attention when I got dressed."
"Hold still. I've just about found that stinger."
She heard herself sigh.
"Oh, yeah…" His body moved against hers. "There it is."
Half an hour later, just as they were emerging from the woods, a very familiar-looking Suburban came barreling around the Common. Kevin told himself it was just a coincidence as he watched it screech to a stop in front of the B &B, but then Roo barked and raced toward it.
Molly let out a squeal and began to run. The car doors opened, and a poodle that looked like Roo jumped out. Then came the kids. It seemed like a dozen, but it was only four, all of them Calebows who were rushing his not-so-estranged wife.
Dread pooled in the pit of his stomach. One thing he knew: Where there were Calebow kids, there were bound to be Calebow parents.
His steps slowed as the luscious blond owner of the Chicago Stars slithered from the driver's side of the car and her legendary husband emerged from the passenger side. The fact that Phoebe had been driving didn't surprise him. In this family, leadership seemed to shift back and forth according to circumstances. As he approached the car, he had an uneasy premonition neither of them would like the circumstances at Wind Lake.
What were those circumstances? For almost two weeks now he'd been acting crazed. Training camp was a little over a month away, but he was either laughing with Molly, getting mad at her, freezing her out, or seducing her. He hadn't watched any game film in days, and he wasn't working out enough. All he could think about was how much he loved being with her-this sassy, aggravating kid-woman who wasn't beautiful, silent, or undemanding, but a pain in the ass. And so much fun.
Why did she have to be Phoebe's sister? Why couldn't he have met her in a bar? He tried to imagine her in glitter eye shadow and a cellophane dress, but all he could see was the way she'd looked that morning in her underpants and his T-shirt. Her bare feet had been hooked over the rung of a chair, her pretty hair tousled around her face, and those wicked blue-gray eyes had shot trouble at him over the rim of a Peter Rabbit cup.