A Will and a Wedding

Cassie eyed him suspiciously through her narrowed eyes. Regardless of what attire Jefferson Haddon III donned, she doubted if anyone would ever question his status as the lord of the manor. And that mildly beseeching tone didn’t suit him at all.

Expertly cut black hair lay close against his well-shaped head, the back just grazing the collar of his shirt. Broad forehead, long aristocratic nose and a wide mouth seemed chiseled into classically perfect proportions which screamed blueblood.

Jeff Haddon had the lanky, whipcord-strong type of body Cassie had always assumed belonged to cowboys, not playboys. His shoulders looked muscular and wide beneath the torn flannel, his hips narrow with long, long legs. He looked what he was, a rich business tycoon dressed in let’spretend-we’re-slumming clothes.

Right now his dark eyes beseeched her to understand. Grudgingly she accepted his apology even as she tugged her smaller hand from his. She hated having to tip her head so far back just to look at him and vowed to buy some four-inch heels to wear when he was around.

“I don’t think friendship is exactly what your aunt had in mind when she made up that will,” Cassie quipped, curious about the red stain that covered his pronounced cheekbones.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to pretend,” he retorted.

“Fine. Truce.” Cassie turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” His voice was an exact replica of two-year-old Mark’s and Cassie smiled at the sound of petulance.

“I thought perhaps you would prefer to be alone. This house is big enough to get lost in and failing that, I can go help in the kitchen,” she replied, moving toward the door.

His rumbly voice stopped her.

“Why don’t you have coffee with me instead?” he asked, holding out a slim hand toward the huge armchair that had always been Cassie’s favorite. “Mrs. Bennet just brought a fresh pot in,” he cajoled.

Cassie studied him for a few minutes, assessing his intent with all her senses on alert. Finally, she allowed herself to be guided to her seat. Her fingers closed around the mug of steaming coffee with pleasure. She sipped the rich dark brew slowly, closing her eyes in satisfaction.

“Don’t you just love coffee?” she murmured, inhaling the aroma that steamed off her cup. “I can never get enough.”

“I limit myself to three cups a day,” Jeff told her. “Too much caffeine is unhealthy.”

Cassie ignored him, rolling the hot liquid around on her tongue. “Nothing that tastes this good could be that unhealthy,” she countered, curling herself comfortably into the chair.

She watched him sit stiffly erect in the straight-backed chair. His silent appraisal unnerved her.

She could feel the tension building as electric currents snapped in the air between them. She had felt it before, that nervous awareness whenever he watched her.

Suddenly, she felt extremely conscious of that same, powerful attraction she had felt earlier today. It made her jittery. Cassie had plenty of contact with men in the course of her work, but they were colleagues, older than her, often balding with paunches.

And none had sent her pulse soaring or her heart thudding the way this man did. It was disconcerting. She tried to bury feelings she didn’t understand under a bluster of bravado.

“Coffee’s not a risk. It’s a necessity.” Her gaze fixed on his. The silence in the room yawned between them. Cassie searched her mind for trivial conversation that would break the current of magnetism drawing her into the dark depths of his eyes.

“Are you married?” she blurted out and then chided herself for her stupidity. When would she learn to control her tongue?

Jeff stared at her through narrow-slitted eyes, his mouth tight. “Obviously not, if my aunt is trying to marry the two of us off.” His answer was short and did not welcome further comments.

Cassie ignored that. “I just wondered what you would do with all this room if you did live here,” she pondered, glancing around the beautiful space. “It’s a home meant for a family.”

“What would you do?” His tone was razor sharp but Cassie ignored that, preferring to lose herself in a world of dreams. “Cassie?” His voice had softened and she dragged open her eyes to find his dark gaze resting on her in an assessing manner.

“I’d fill it with children,” she told him simply.

“Ah, you’re planning on getting married, then?” he asked shortly, dark eyes glittering.

Cassie sat up straight at that, untangling her feet from under her.

“Good grief, no.” She laughed. “I meant with foster kids.”

She was pretty sure her face gave away her thoughts. She’d never been much good at pretence and there was no point in trying to hide her plans for this house.

Not that it mattered now.

“There are so many kids who could really benefit from a few months here. Away from the pain and confusion that have left them wondering about their future. This is a place where they could feel safe and carefree.” She grinned up at him. “Sorry. When I get on my soapbox, I tend to start preaching.”

Jeff’s eyes raked over her curiously.

“But don’t you want your own children? I can’t imagine that you would waste all your efforts on someone else’s offspring. Don’t most women want to get married and have children?”

He was watching her again. His eyes were bright with what she privately termed his banker’s look, as if he were assessing her net occupational worth.

“Oh, but these are my children,” she exclaimed. “Every child that comes under my care has a special place in my heart.”

“You can’t possibly love them all,” he snorted derisively. “There’s no way anyone could have enough love for all the needy children of the world. Obviously even their parents can’t provide them with what they need.”

Cassie smiled sadly, her eyes glistening.

“I didn’t say all of them, just the ones I come into contact with.” Her small hands stretched out toward him in explanation. “And if I never have my own children, at least I will have the experience of loving these. But you know-” her green eyes twinkled across the room “-love isn’t something that you run out of. The more you give, the more it grows.”

It was a strange statement, he decided. And it proved that Cassandra Newton had no real grasp on reality. He sat quietly in the flickering firelight, lost in his own thoughts.

“It’s been my experience that there is never enough to go around,” he murmured finally, staring down at his toes. He let the silence stretch starkly between them uncomfortably before speaking again.

“What will you do now?” he asked, curious about her plans now that her access to the house would be denied. “How will you be able to look after all your children when you have to move?”

Jeff watched Cassie closely, noting the white lines of strain that etched themselves around her eyes and the thin line of her mouth as she considered his question.

“I don’t know. The younger ones won’t have as much difficulty finding a place. It’s David and Marie I’m really worried about. And all the other kids like them.”

“Why will it be so hard for them?” Jeff asked curiously. “Are they in trouble with the law or something?”

“That’s usually what everyone thinks.” Cassie smiled sadly. “They’ll take the younger ones because they’re cute and cuddly. But the teenagers always have a more difficult time.” She grinned at him, tongue in cheek.

“After all, how many adolescents do you know that are easy to get along with?” she queried. “Usually they’re already struggling to find out who they are. Fitting in to a strange home is just another problem added to an already staggering load.”

Jefferson thought about his own teenage years. They had been difficult, all right. And he’d had the advantage of knowing that there would be food and the same place for him to sleep every night.

As he sat watching her slender form, slim legs tucked beneath her, Jeff could see the enthusiasm and concern Cassie brought to her job. He considered his own idea once more. Somehow he doubted that the small spitfire in front of him would welcome his idea just yet. He decided to hold off for a while. Perhaps once they got to know each other, Cassie Newton would be more amenable to the plan that was floating half-formed in Jefferson’s busy mind.

Jeff made it his business to go out to Aunt Judith’s a number of times during the next weeks. He made more than two dozen trips over the next three weeks to the stately old home, and not all of them were to do with settling Judith’s estate.

He was drawn to the family atmosphere that prevailed but his curiosity was piqued by the small, green-eyed sprite who played board games sprawled on the floor, drank coffee incessantly and squealed in delight when the children tickled her. Oak Bluff was as comfortable for him now as it had been when Judith was alive. More so. Now he felt an insatiable interest in the inhabitants that he had never experienced with his aunt.