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“I just don’t get it, Brooke You like hi to pay you hed “So, what’s the deal? Do you think nanny work is below you? Is that it?”
She went silent, but her pained expression puzzled him Finally, she said, “Please don’t think that I’m compli for children is a high calling, an important job I’m just—I can’t I’m sorry”
All right, he wasn’t stupid He got theout with friends, do her own thing, shop Like Tara, she was young and wanted to have fun She didn’t want to be tied down to a kid
Gabe stepped on the gas pedal, feeling the Huraveled road
He should be relieved No need to get involved with another irresponsible woman, even as a nanny
Then why did he feel so disappointed?
Grandpa George’s home was a lovely old Victorian on Grosbeak just off Railroad Street, thewraparound porch, needing so over She’d simply shown up, confused and troubled over Gabe’s job offer and wondering how she was going to last in this town for a full year The ood indicator Arabella was at home
As she waited for soazed around at the home where she’d once spent holidays The house had been a status symbol to Grandpa, but Grandun to sour after Grandma’s death and then fell apart coe Jr and his brother, Vern, were killed Sowith little Lucy as AJ’s age when she drowned
Gabe had been disappointed in her refusal, she could tell, and she felt like an idiot for the way she’d babbled on and on with excuses He was likely thanking the Lord she’d refused The truth was, she wanted kids with everything in her, but she couldn’t take the chance Lucy’s death had shattered her faain
AJ’s bright, sh her mind She could easily fall in love with a child like him
“Lord, helpI can’t risk it”
She let out a gusty sigh and knocked at the door again
Theon the black clouds of despair Lucy was the late baby, the apple of her father’s eyes Brooke re why daddy never tossed her into the air or called her his little golden doll He’d loved Lucy best They all had, even Brooke most of the time
Nothing had been the same after her death Mama had fallen into a depression so deep no one could reach her She and Daddy had fought at first, laying bla in the dark alone Then they’d simply drifted apart, too et sos that were said that awful day of Lucy’s death and the other things whispered so no one thought she could hear But she’d known
Soic happen to their family
Teeth tight, she shook her head to dispel the thoughts She’d known this would happen if she returned to Clayton Hoould she live like this for a year?
She knocked again Why didn’t someone answer the door?
With deter else to think about Clayton House was lovely as always, but Arabella had added her crafty hand The double stain-glassed front doors, eht sunfloreaths, shot the afternoon light into dazzling colors The big porch where Brooke had once played chase with her cousins was adorned with pots of red geraniums, a small, patio-style table and a couple of chairs A child’s baby doll, dressed in a frilly pink dress and bonnet, lay in one of the chairs
The front door scraped open “Brooke! Come in”
Brooke followed Arabella into the spacious, fors irls sat around the coffee table playing tea party