Free The Beekeeper's Daughter (Harlequin Super Romance) by Janice Carter

troubling you,” she said. “Have you come to tell me you can’t work for me today, either?”
    “No…uh…I mean, I can work for you today and probably tomorrow but the thing is…”
    “What?” she asked, more sharply than she’d intended.
    “Annie, I’m real sorry but I just found out that I’m failing English and I have to have the course to get into the college I want to go to in Charlotte. My teacher said I can go to summer school and that starts next week. Mom and Dad are real pissed—sorry—ticked off at me and say I have to have no life but school until it’s over.”
    “And when will that be?”
    “It’s only for six weeks. End of July.”
    “But I really need you now, Danny. By the end of July my father will be back on his feet to help.”
    He blushed. “I don’t know what to say, except I’m sorry. Maybe you can find someone else from school.”
    “Well, since you’re here we might as well head out to the buckwheat field and check the hives there,” she muttered. “Why don’t you follow me in your dad’s truck? We can load both trucks at once and save some time. I’ve got a lot of spring honey coming in over the next few days.”
    “Like I said, I’m real sorry.”
    “It’s okay, Danny. Not your fault. At least, except for failing English. How did that happen?”
    “I dunno. I don’t like writing essays and stuff about poems and that. Kinda boring. And my teacher and I didn’t get along.”
    She’d heard echoes of that last sentence countless times over the past few years from students. But she wasn’t a teacher anymore, and he was simply her student in the beeyard.
    “Well, good luck with summer school. C’mon into the honey barn and try on my dad’s bee suit.”
    Danny’s eyes flashed. “Are we, like, gonna be in those white space suit thingies?”
    At least he was excited about it. “You bet. Complete with hats and netting.”
    While he was getting suited up, Annie’s mind raced, trying to think of someone—anyone—who might be available for even a week. It wasn’t until Danny had left, almost three hours later, that Annie came up with a name.
    She shied away from the idea at first but by the time she turned out her bedside lamp, she knew Will was a good possibility. She just wasn’t certain how good it would be for her, to have the attractive ex-firefighter in such close proximity.

CHAPTER SIX
    S HE COULD HAVE WAITED another day, Annie was thinking as she turned onto the gravel road leading to Rest Haven Campground. Danny had promised to keep working until she found someone else. But what if Will decided to leave the valley before she had a chance to offer him the temporary job?
    The irony of the situation hadn’t escaped her. When he was sitting in her kitchen just the day before yesterday, asking her about available work, she’d been afraid he’d been hinting for a job at the apiary. If she was worried about his take on her invitation to coffee yesterday, what was he going to think when she showed up offering him work after all?
    Annie blew air out her pursed lips. Too bad what he thought. She was desperate for help and he was an available, able-bodied man. That’s all that really mattered. As her truck curved past the office, Annie spotted Will’s van parked at the edge of the stream beyond the dirt road linking the campsites.
    She pulled up behind his van and waved her fingers at him, where he stood by a picnic table. He walked toward her, holding a spatula in his hand. Annie opened the door and jumped down to the grass.
    “This is a surprise,” he said. “I was just cooking some breakfast. Have you eaten yet?”
    “Cereal.”
    He gestured with the spatula to a small propane stove on the picnic table. “Feel up to bacon and eggs?”
    She hesitated, reluctant to make her visit seem like a social one. On the other hand, the food smelled delicious. “Sure.”
    “Great. Coffee’s in the thermos jug on the table.”
    “You’ve camped before, I