Free Claiming His Brother's Baby by Helen Lacey Page A

indifferent he was. No one to tell her he was the kind of man who preferred his own company and his horses to having real relationships. Cassie was seeing him without Doug’s bias and prejudice for the first time...and she liked him. A lot.
    “So, I guess you should stay tonight, too?”
    The intense way he was watching her made it impossible to look anywhere but into his eyes.
    “Do you want me to stay?”
    Cassie took a second and then nodded. “I think Oliver would like it.”
    So would I...
    “All right,” he said and watched her over the rim of his coffee mug. “I’ll return to Ruthie’s tomorrow.”
    “Thank you.”
    Silence stretched between them and Cassie waited for discomfiture to crawl across her skin. When it didn’t come she knew it was because she’d quickly become accustomed to Tanner’s company. Despite how attracted she was to him and despite how much she knew it could never go anywhere, he was easy to be around.
    He was, she realized, nothing like the man Doug had so often described.
    Instead of being a moody closed-off loner, he was friendly and generous and considerate. And he possessed a laid-back kind of charm she found increasingly difficult to overlook. In the kitchen, the garden or the nursery he did everything with such an easygoing confidence it was impossible to
not
be attracted to him.
    Admit it...you’re also thinking he’d be good in the bedroom...
    Cassie shook the thought away. It was stupid. She still loved Doug. And she was a single mother. A soon-to-be homeless single mother who didn’t have time to waste thinking about Tanner in that way. In any way, for that matter. But it had been such a long time since she’d thought about strong arms and a broad chest. And longer still since she’d thought about sex. With anyone.
    “Are you sure you’re feeling okay now?” he asked softly.
    “Positive,” she lied and managed a smile. “Soup and sleep therapy will work a treat tonight and I will be back to my usual self by tomorrow.”
    He nodded. “It’s getting late... You shouldn’t wear yourself out.”
    She was touched by his concern. But a part of her wondered if he wanted to shuffle her off to bed so they wouldn’t be alone. He had to know she was attracted to him. And she was pretty sure it was mutual. He obviously thought it a bad idea. Which of course it was.
    “So, what are your plans?” she asked. “I mean, once you’ve finishing saving the day here?”
    He grinned. “I didn’t realize that’s what I’d been doing.”
    “Sure you did,” she said and smiled a little.
    He shrugged again. “I have an appointment with Doug’s lawyer on Wednesday. After that I’m not sure. We’ll have to see what the lawyer says.”
    We...
    As if it was inclusive. As if it had something to do with her. As if...well, almost as if they were a couple.
    Cassie silently cursed her foolishness and ignored the flush rising over her collarbones at the thought of the idea. Two days together didn’t make them anything. “I know you said there was no hurry for me to start looking for a new place to live, but I can’t see the sense in putting it off. I could never afford to take on the mortgage here, so the sooner I accept the inevitable, the better.”
    *
    Tanner’s insides contracted. He hated hearing the disappointment and pain in her voice. This was her home. The home she’d made for her son. The home she’d known as a young girl when she’d moved in with her grandfather after her parents had been killed. It had to hurt her. He knew only too well what it was to lose the one place that had made him feel safe when he was a child. He wanted to make it right. But nothing he said would offer her consolation or comfort.
    “Like I said, we’ll wait and see what the lawyer has to say.”
    She shrugged as though it didn’t matter, but Tanner knew she was resigned to losing her home. And once again he silently cursed his brother. Doug should have provided for Cassie and his son.