Free FATHER IN TRAINING by Susan Mallery

asked.
    "There are colored dots on all the boxes," Sandy said. "Come with me and I'll show you."
    She'd tacked a big poster up in the foyer. Different colored dots lined the left side of the white cardboard. Next to each dot was the place those boxes went. "Red dots go in the kitchen, pink is for Nichole, dark blue for Blake and so on."
    Al removed his Dodgers' baseball cap and grinned. "Well, I'll be."
    "There's more," Nichole said. She pointed. "Look there."
    Everyone looked up. A colored balloon floated from the doorway of each of the rooms. The color matched the dots on the chart.
    "We should be able to unload your furniture in less than two hours," Al said.
    "Great." Sandy was pleased. It had taken all day to load it. "Kids, you stay out of the men's way. I don't want you getting hurt. As soon as there are some boxes in your room, you can start unpacking."
    "Swell," Lindsay grumbled.
    "I'm here to help," Kyle said, falling into step with Al as the older man returned to the van. He paused by the door and turned back toward her. "I like the dots. I always said, given the chance, you could organize the world."
    Sandy grinned. "I know I could!"
    Two hours later, the van was gone, the furniture was in place and there were three hundred boxes to be unpacked. Sandy stood in the center of the foyer and wondered where on earth she was going to begin. She could hear the children in their rooms. Lindsay would get her things unpacked just fine, but Nichole and Blake would probably create bigger messes than they would fix. At least they were busy and not underfoot.
    Her personal stuff could wait. She'd marked a couple of boxes with linens for the family, so those could be opened immediately. Next, she would start on the kitchen things.
    Kyle came in the front door and walked over to stand in front of her. He had a couple of screwdrivers and a pair of pliers in his left hand. His white T-shirt advertised a local ice-cream store, his black shorts left far too much of his tanned legs bare to view. Telling herself he wasn't really that good-looking did nothing to calm her nerves. Usually, she could talk herself out of or into just about anything. It was how she'd stayed sane while Thomas was alive and acting like a child. She'd convinced herself that one day he would grow up. With the perfect vision of hindsight, she knew now that probably wouldn't have happened. But no matter how she tried, she couldn't seem to convince her hormones that Kyle wasn't worth getting excited about.
    "I thought I'd hook up the cable," he said, pointing toward the family room.
    "I appreciate the help, but I don't want you to think you have to be here. If it's your day off, you should be doing something you want to do."
    He held her gaze for a long time. Part of the reason she wanted him gone was that she felt a little guilty for throwing him out the last time he'd been here. She could have been a little nicer about the whole thing. He'd been wonderful to her and her kids. But she couldn't risk getting involved. Even a one-sided crush, much like Lindsay's, would upset things too much.
    He smiled slowly, exposing white teeth and making the skin by the outside corners of his eyes crinkle. Her heart fluttered foolishly. "I'm here because I want to be," he said. "Haven't you figured that out yet?"
    "Oh."
    Oh? Was that the best she could come up with? she asked herself. Why did he want to be here? Was he toying with her, lulling her into thinking he might, well, sort of find her slightly attractive, only to dump her at the first opportunity?
    She almost asked the question, then realized that perhaps she needed to work on her self-esteem first. Kyle had been nothing but sweet and friendly since they'd arrived. She was the one acting skittish. But why wouldn't she? She was a single mom with three kids. She had a tendency to be bossy and mouthy. She was working on her flaws but she was still far from being perfect. Or glamorous. So why was he being so nice to