Free On the Move by Pamela Britton Page B

a small hill near the outskirts of Statesville. Nothing but a couple dozen acres and a big red barn behind the two-bedroom house.
    He ran a hand through his hair, then turned away from the window. A few moments later, she knocked on the front door. He stood there for a moment contemplating what to do. He’d never felt so out of sorts. After his dad had made a wreck of his finances, he’d been careful to keep his secret destitution exactly that—a secret. And he’d succeeded, too. No one bothered him way out here, mostly because no one cared about Brandon Burke, ex-Indy driver.
    She knocked again.
    “Hang on,” he said, reminding himself he had nothing to worry about. If she made a comment about the way he lived, he’d tell her it was just temporary.
    “Where’s the nanny quarters?” she asked the moment the door opened.
    “Yeah, about the nanny quarters. Bad idea.”
    Her hair was loose today, no bun. She wore jeans, too.
    Vicky VanCleef looked good in jeans.
    “I couldn’t agree more, but Scott says I should go look at them, so let me go look.”
    “Why’d you tell Scott you didn’t want any time off?”
    She looked momentarily pained, but she hid her expression quickly. “Because I’m a big girl,” she said. “And no man’s going to chase me away from a job I worked hard to obtain.”
    Good for you, he almost said. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m glad you didn’t resign.”
    She looked even more pained. “It’s not. Now, if you could just point the way…?”
    “No need,” he said. “Just tell Scott you took a peek and the nanny quarters don’t suit. Frankly, it’s a dumb idea and I resent the fact that Scott thinks I need a live-in babysitter.”
    “I couldn’t agree more, about the dumb idea, but if there’s one thing I know about Scott, he’ll ask me a million questions about your place in order to convince himself I really did as he asked.”
    “I’ll just describe them to you. He’ll never know.”
    “Just let me go take a peek, that way I can look him in the eyes. Are the quarters above the barn? Is that where they are?” She turned away and headed in the barn’s direction.
    Brandon rushed after her. “Look, Vicky. I’ll call Scott. Tell him how much I resent the hell out of him sending you here.”
    “Fine, you do that.” She stopped suddenly, Brandon nearly crashing into her. “Is that where you want to put the boys’ ranch?” she asked, pointing to a low-slung valley out behind his barn. A long time ago the fencing that delineated the property line had been painted white, now it was a sort of muddy gray.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Not too far away from the main barn. Out in that meadow there between the trees.”
    “That’ll be nice.”
    “Yeah,” he said, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “It will.”
    “I really respect how humbly you live.”
    Oh, man…he wished she’d quit looking at him like that with compassion. He was starting to think she might actually like him and that troubled him greatly because the truth was, he’d begun to like her, too.
    “Yeah, well, it’s just temporary,” he said. “One day I’ll remodel the house.”
    “Yeah, but I bet you won’t tear it down.”
    “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m just going to add a second story, maybe some dormers. Turn it into more of a contemporary ranch house.”
    “That would look nice,” she said with a smile.
    She headed toward the barn again. “By the way, you can try and call Scott. But you know how it is, once he gets an idea, he’s like a dog with a bone…and he thinks the idea of me living with you is absolutely brilliant, even though we both know there’s not a chance in hell it’ll ever happen. But go ahead…call.” From her back pocket, she produced a phone which she flipped open.
    “No, that’s okay,” he said, because he suddenly realized that she was headed for his barn.
    His barn.
    “Here,” she said, handing him the phone. “It’s