Free A Better Father (Harlequin Super Romance) by Kris Fletcher

enough
marshmallows for s’mores?”
    “We should have plenty. Thanks for checking.”
    “Just doing my job.” She grabbed the clipboard from the table
and flipped through the papers. “Hey, have you seen Sam around?”
    “Can’t say I have.” He tossed the towel over his shoulder.
“Course, can’t say I’ve been looking, either.”
    Sam gritted his teeth and eased deeper into the corner,
pressing himself against the cold stone of the fireplace. Libby laughed, soft
and low, and he held his breath so as not to miss whatever might come next.
    “Now, Cosmo, is that any way to talk about your new boss?”
    “Humph. Just because his name’s on the deed, it don’t mean he’s
the boss.”
    Sam was seized by a sudden urge to start handing out pink
slips.
    “Give the devil his due,” Libby said. “He’s doing everything I
tell him to do.”
    Libby was defending him?
    “There ya go,” Cosmo replied. “Y’ever hear tell of a boss who
lets someone else tell him what to do?”
    Well, hell. Sam was more than ready to turn that trend around.
Step one: tell Cosmo where to go.
    Libby laughed again, a bit more freely this time, which made
Sam’s jaw tighten with words that could never be said. “Be that as it may, if
you see him, would you please be a doll and tell him I’m heading into town
tonight? I’ll be back before the morning session.”
    “Sure thing. Got anything else for me to tell him?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Like if he doesn’t have the brains to stay away from you this
time around, he’s gonna wish he had?”
    Sam was too far away and the shadows were too deep to see if
Libby blushed or not, but he’d bet his Stanley Cup ring that her cheeks were
firing almost as red as her hair. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “I’ve been here a lot longer than you have, missy. There’s not
much that gets past me. I saw the way you two were that summer. Velcro. Myra
thought she was going to have to turn a hose on you sometimes.”
    Sam grinned to himself. And they thought they had been so
surreptitious.
    “I shared Sam’s cabin that year, you know. Saw him sneaking
back in that last night. Stupid fool was practically glowing.”
    “I really should go,” Libby said, and stepped toward the
door.
    Cosmo’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm. “Funny thing,” he
said. “You two were all over each other when it came time to say goodbye, but
not two weeks later, there you were in Myra’s office, hunting for a job instead
of going off to school, and turning all white and pinched whenever Sam’s name
came up.”
    Ah, damn. He’d known it had to have been hard on her. But it
was one thing to know that he’d hurt her, and a totally different thing to hear
Cosmo, of all people, lay it out so plainly.
    “Not much of one for sticking around after the fun, is he?”
    Cosmo’s question was quiet but still packed a punch—one that
went straight to Sam’s gut. Especially when Libby sighed softly and said, “It
doesn’t seem that way, does it?”
    It’s not what you think, Libby. There’s so
much you don’t know.
    He was halfway to his feet, ready to reveal himself and pull
her out of the room and tell her everything about then and now, but she picked
up her clipboard and pasted on a smile that he could see was fake, even from the
other side of the hall.
    “Listen,” she said, “this is way too depressing for such a
gorgeous night, okay? Let’s save it for another time.”
    “Like when?” Cosmo asked. “After Sam fires you?”
    “He can’t fire me. He needs me—well, someone with my
qualifications, and I happen to be the most convenient. I’m the one who’s
calling a halt.”
    “Huh. First Myra, then you. Place is going to the dogs.”
    Her smile was sad. “Thanks. Oh, I talked to Myra last night.
She said to say hi to you, and that she can’t eat meat loaf anymore because it
makes her miss you.”
    “Yeah? Well, if you talk to her again, tell her...”
    “What?”
    He waved her