Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

W arrick

I wasn't impulsive. I was a fixer.

No way in hell was I going to stand around and watch a single mom get tossed into the street. And this had nothing to do with finishing the project on Mom's house on time. This had everything to do with having an empty bedroom and no reason not to offer aid. Anyone—well, except for the Walter twins—would do the same.

Sadly, Em hadn't even answered me when I offered. Her mouth had dropped open and then she spun on her heels, marching back into my house without a single word in response. I trailed after her, but she evaded me, cleaning up for the day and barking instructions at Pip for tomorrow. Her mouth only quit running when she had Georgia inside her truck and she slammed her own door shut. She gave me a glare through the window and then off she went, back home to a rental she had limited days in.

"Fuck, that woman is stubborn," I said to Bessie when the truck was long gone. The damn cow just swung her tail back and forth as she stared at me. Speaking of stubborn females…

I spent the evening getting Colson's old room ready, clearing out all of Mom's crafting stuff and running a dust rag over every surface. Fresh sheets went on the double bed and I found a rollaway bed up in the attic that would do temporarily for Georgia. Mom and I would be having words about the state of the attic when she got back. I was fairly certain we could burn everything up there and no one would miss anything. Made me wonder at what age humans morphed into pack rats, keeping every memento and scrap of paper.

Based on the obstinate set of her jaw last night, Em wasn't ready to move in, but I was nothing if not optimistic. I was also strategic. Which was why I bought one of those plastic kiddie pools from the general store in downtown Blueball when I stopped to pick up dinner. Nothing a five-year-old liked more than farm animals and pool time during the hot summer days. I had a feeling the best way to get through to Emmerleigh was to go through Georgia.

Em and Pip showed up just after dawn the next day, the subcontractor towering over her boss. Pip kept up the bawdy singing and Em kept up the bellowing. They had opposite bodies but were the same person inside. Georgia pulled my attention away from the ladies by informing me that she could go back to school tomorrow if she didn't have the "head bugs." I set her on a kitchen stool relocated to the dining room and combed through her hair while Pip and Em made loud banging noises in the kitchen.

"Uh-oh," I said, zeroing in on her scalp. "Is that...?"

Georgia squealed and grabbed at her head.

"Oh, never mind." I combed to a new spot, chuckling.

"Wa-wy! You scared me!"

I kept combing until I'd checked her whole head like I had each day before. "You are officially head bug-free, Peaches. "

Georgia high-fived me and hopped down from the stool. "Let's feed the goat-dogs!"

And so it went all day. Georgia ran around from one spot of excitement to the next, and I chased after her. When my middle-aged body needed a moment of rest, I got the little one sitting at the table drawing while I headed for the couch pushed up against the far wall of the living room. I figured I could get in a ten-minute nap if the women weren't banging around. Instead, I found Em on the couch, thumbs flying over the screen of her cell phone.

"Firing subcontractors before they've even shown up for work?" I drawled, leaning my hip against the armrest of the couch.

Em's head shot up and she pressed a button to make the screen go blank. "No. That would require having anyone respond to my ads in the first place."

"Ah." I came around the arm and sat down on the plump cushions, heaving a sigh. "Never knew running after a miniature human could be so exhausting."

Em's mouth, the one I tried not to look at too closely because of the bow at the top, briefly marred by a scar, and the fact that her bottom lip was puffier than the top, tipped into a smile.

"No kids of your own, then?"

I shook my head. "Never fortunate enough to find the right person to share that responsibility with." When Em didn't answer, I pressed my point from the night before. "You know, you'd get this project finished in time and that bonus in your bank account if you weren't spending all your time looking for a new place to live."

Her ears went red and I knew I'd guessed right. Ears shouldn't be cute, but Em's were. Was this middle age? You quit looking at tits and ass and instead lusted over an earlobe? I was here for it. I'd bet good money there were things I could do to that ear to get it turning fire-engine red .

Em made a disgusted noise that pulled me out of my intense study of her ears.

"Just move in. I can help out with Georgia, you both can have a safe place to live, and you can work on this project without distraction. It's a win-win-win."

Em folded her arms across her chest, pressing perfect B-cups against the cotton fabric. Nope. Still a tits and ass man. "I can only afford what I'm currently paying for rent. And you're basically a stranger."

I held up a finger. "Untrue. We know each other's names and I've combed your daughter's hair for lice. We are not strangers."

She rolled her eyes and I had a flash of what Georgia would look like as a teenager. A pang of sadness hit me, startling me. I would miss her teenage years and all the ones in between. She wasn't mine to keep. Em opened her mouth to argue, because of course she did, but I beat her to it.

"It's only temporary. When you find a place, you can move out, but I'm not accepting rent. Think of this as a live-in house-remodel project."

Em sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. She wouldn't look at me. "Either nothing is available or they're out of my price range."

I spread my hands wide. "See? It's a sign. Move in, save up some cash, and the right place will appear." I leaned closer and observed the way her gaze darted to my mouth. "This offer comes with zero strings. I'm just a guy trying to do something nice for a cute kid and her mom, okay?"

I didn't mention that the mom was cute too. I had a feeling that would send Em running right out of here. After she blistered me with a loud verbal ass whooping, of course.

"Fine!" Em burst out, jumping to her feet. Her face was twisted into a frown. "Thank you!"

I had to roll my lips inward to keep from smiling. She was adorable when she was angry and grateful at the same time. It was pure entertainment watching her storm out of the room with her nose in the air while appreciating the way she filled out her jeans.

And then it hit me. I was going to have to see her every day and night, in jeans, pajamas, and probably other states of undress. I'd have to keep my eyeballs to myself. The last thing I wanted to do was make her uncomfortable. I meant what I said: my offer came without strings.

I never did get that nap, but seeing Georgia fly out of her house with an armful of stuffed animals and toss them in the bed of my truck was all it took to make me not care about a pesky little thing like sleep. I followed Em home after work today to help her start moving her things over to Mom's house. I'd had to assure her seventy billion times that my mother would not mind them moving in. Once she met Gigi, she'd see I told the truth. She'd probably adopt Georgia as hers the second she laid eyes on the blonde curls and the way she spoke with exclamations after every sentence.

"Georgia, honey, you have to put them in boxes," Em called out from the front door. I ambled up to the door, fascinated by the way Em's voice changed around her daughter. Gone was the general contractor bellow and in its place was a soft-hearted mother with all the patience in the world.

"What should I load first?" I asked her as Georgia flew by us again, her short legs eating up the ground as she ran back inside the house.

Em sighed but pointed to the corner of the small living room where five boxes sat. "I hadn't even broken down our original moving boxes yet, so that was a plus."

Anger stirred in my gut. I'd be giving the Walter twins a piece of my mind next time I saw them. While Em brought a box to Georgia's room before the little girl flung all her possessions in the back of my truck, I moved all five boxes outside.

A beat-up sedan pulled up her driveway on my last trip outside. A skinny teen boy got out of the car with a steaming box of pizza in his hands. Georgia saw him and squealed with excitement. I paid the guy and took the box from him. Em eyed me warily while Georgia danced around her feet.

"You didn't have to do that."

I shrugged. "Figured you both needed to be fed before you get to packing." It was a small miracle that Em didn't argue further. I noticed she got Georgia set up at the small kitchenette table with a plate and napkins, but didn't bother to take a slice for herself.

"Tell Mr. Warrick thank you," Em instructed Georgia.

She grinned up at me with a mouth full of cheesy goodness and red sauce smeared across her cheek. "Fwank oo, Wa-wy!"

I shot the girl a wink and turned to her mama. "Anything else I can take over tonight?"

Em was already shaking her head when we both heard another car in the driveway. The wary frown on her face had me tensing. Remembering the texts and phone calls her ex had been lobbing over, I didn't exactly trust an unexpected visitor.

"I got this," I snapped quietly, stepping in front of Em and opening the door.

Em, being as obstinate as Bessie, darted around me and closed the front door so Georgia couldn't see or hear what was going on. A plain-clothed male approached with a packet of papers in his hands. A sixth sense told me what was coming wasn't good. Em must have felt the same way because I felt her stiffen beside me.

"Emmerleigh Slaywright?" the man asked .

"Yes?" she answered just as businesslike.

He handed her the papers and she took them. "You've been served." Then the man turned around and headed back for his car.

"What the hell?" Em murmured, staring down at the packet in her hands. She tore it open and took out the stack. The paper began to quiver and more than anything I wanted to grab it out of her hands and fix whatever this was.

Em flipped to the second page and I watched her eyes dart across the page, her breaths coming faster the more she read.

"That motherfucker," she spat, finally glancing up at me.

"Tell me," I demanded.

If a person could vibrate with anger, Em was most certainly about to shake right out of her boots. "Cayden has petitioned the court to reinstate parental rights."

My brain whirled trying to slot all the pieces together. Cayden must be the ex. The same one who'd been harassing her. And if he was petitioning for parental rights, at some point he must have given up his rights as Georgia's parent, leaving Em to raise the girl all on her own.

Em looked back down at the papers, flipping through them so fast she couldn't possibly be reading everything. A level of protectiveness I didn't know I had in me came flooding through my veins. If Cayden had been standing right there, he would have been thrown off this property with his facial features rearranged for even thinking about disrupting that little girl's life five years after the fact.

Then a noise came from Em's mouth that I never would have expected from my tough-as-nails general contractor. A sob.

I reacted on instinct. I grabbed Em by the shoulders and pulled her into my body, her face buried in my chest. She'd push me away soon enough, but right now, the woman needed a hug.

And if she asked me to get a shotgun and a shovel to take care of her ex, I'd help her with that too.