Free Can't Buy Me Love by Molly O'Keefe

plan to reunite his family under one loving roof was going up in flames.
    “You know it would be so much easier if you’d have let me bring in the babies—”
    Tara shook her head, her stomach twisting into a knot. “Hard to work with screaming babies.”
    “I told you, they don’t scream. They’re very sweet. A little playpen in the corner—”
    “Anyway,” Tara interrupted, ignoring Edna’s disapproving gaze. She tore Edna’s check out of the book and handed it over with a bright smile. Putting a whole lot of “no more chitchat” behind it.
    “Thanks again.”
    Edna took the check and smiled as she counted the extra zero.
    “Until next time.” Edna folded up the check and tucked it into the front pocket of her hideous mom jeans.
    See
, Tara Jean thought,
money can buy anything—even Edna’s approval
.
    She cleaned up the last of the mess, sweeping up the leather scraps, putting away the mats and French knives. And when all was right in her kingdom, she locked up and headed into the ranch house to see what she’d missed.
    In the kitchen, Ruby was putting together a dinner tray for Lyle.
    “Applesauce and tomato soup?” Tara winced.
    “Don’t forget the pudding.” Ruby lifted a little snack cup.
    “Who could?”
    “He keeps asking for a steak.” Ruby folded a napkin and put it under the spoon she would use to feed him. “I’m tempted to give it to him,” she whispered. “Just to see him happy.”
    “A steak would probably kill him.” Tara took the tray from Ruby’s hands. “I’ll give him dinner. You have a rest.”
    Ruby smiled. “I promised Jacob I would watch
Iron Man
with him. I think he’s a little scared, and I love me some Robert Downey Jr.”
    Tara put the tray down on the table so hard the dishes rattled. “You do enough around here, Ruby. You don’t need to babysit that kid on top of it!” She shook her head. “I can’t believe the nerve of those two. Asking you—”
    “Please, honey.” Ruby put a hand on her ample hip. “When have you ever known me to do something I don’t want to do?”
    “Still—”
    “Stop.” Ruby patted Tara’s hand and Tara looked down at Ruby’s dark fingers, her blunt nails. She barely felt it. It was as if her skin was dead and had been for years. She heard fire victims were like that. They couldn’t feel anything through the scar tissue.
    Her past had built up enough scar tissue to keep every sensation at bay.
    Except for Luc. She felt him. Which was disturbing.
    She was glad he was leaving. Her skin could go back to sleep and she could resume the numbness that helped her wade through life.
    “I like the kid.” Ruby’s soft tones hid an iron core,forged from years of working for Lyle. “He’s very bright, and he’s been ill for so long.”
    “Ill?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    “Very,” Ruby whispered, channeling the dramatic Mexican soap operas she lived for. “In the hospital and everything.”
    Tara picked up the tray, reminding herself that she did not give a shit. At all. “Either way, you don’t have to babysit.”
    “What do you think I do all day?” A wicked twinkle gleamed in her eye. “Lyle is nothing but a big toddler.”
    “I won’t argue with that.” Tara headed up the back steps through the dark hallway toward the master bedroom.
    The door was cracked, and she knocked softly before pushing it open with her shoulder.
    “Dinner is served.” She tried to sound upbeat and not heartbroken by the sight of the big man laid so very low.
    How much longer
, she thought,
can he last?
Even in the two days she’d been hiding in the greenhouse, it looked as if he’d lost weight. His skin hung like crepe paper after a Fourth of July party.
    Lyle turned toward her, the oxygen mask absent from his face.
    “You’re looking better,” she lied, sliding the tray onto his bed.
    “Where have you been?” he panted.
    “Making the samples. Getting ready for the winter line.”
    “Good?”
    “Very. And