Free Rumor Has It by Tami Hoag Page B

found pet names to be somehow demeaning or insulting. But coming from Nick it didn't sound that way at all. She felt closer to him, and that was definitely what she wanted.
    She tried to concentrate on painting, but it was difficult while sitting on Nick's shoulders with Nick hanging on to her ankles. More than once he let one hand wander up to her knee to tickle her there or snuck his fingers under the hem of her jeans to tickle her calf. She retaliated by squirming around until he got a crick in his neck and had to set her down.
    Working side by side with his new neighbors Nick told them about growing up working in the construction industry. As a teenager he had spent summers working for his father, a carpenter, and his uncle Guido, the bricklayer.
    “My old man found out early on I was better at hitting my thumb with the hammer than hittingthe nail. Everyone was a lot happier when I took up cooking.”
    “I know my wife will be glad,” Darrell said, wiping some paint from his hand on the leg of his overalls. “Zoe is wild for Italian food.”
    “What am I wild for?” Zoe asked, coming into the room with her two children trailing behind her.
    “His body,” Katie said teasingly. She ducked the rag Darrell tossed at her.
    “Dream on, darlin’,” Zoe said dryly, rolling her large dark eyes as she sent her husband a loving smile.
    Reese charged across the room to his father. “Let me paint, Daddy!”
    Little Charisse, the younger of the two Baylor children, ran after her brother, tears brimming in her eyes when she realized Daddy could only hold one of them up to help paint the wall. Without the slightest hesitation, Nick scooped her up.
    “Here you go, sweetheart. You can help me paint.”
    Charisse eyed him warily over her shoulder, then accepted the roller with both hands and wentto work, evidently satisfied this stranger was okay because he was working next to her daddy.
    “I don't know if that's wise, Nick,” Zoe said in a warning tone. Dressed for her shift at the hospital, she automatically stepped out of the range of splattering paint. “She'll get more paint on you than she will on the wall.”
    “That's okay.” Nick grinned. He tickled the little girl with his free hand. “We're doing just great, aren't we, honey?”
    Charisse shrieked in delight and smacked the paint- soaked roller against the wall, sending a shower of tiny blue specks into Nick's face. Only the children were painting as everyone else nearly doubled over laughing—everyone except Katie, who had become unusually quiet.
    He was unquestionably good with children. But that didn't have anything to do with the two of them, Katie told herself. She managed a smile as she reached out and wiped a smudge of paint from Charisse's pudgy cheek.
    “You're a good sport, Nick,” Zoe said, tossing him a clean rag to wipe the paint off. “You must really like children.”
    “What? Are you joking? I don't like kids, I love‘em,” he said, gently wrapping his big hand around Charisse's tiny ones to help her move the roller in the proper manner. “Someday I'll have a dozen.”
    “Now don't you go doing anything stupid. You hear me, Katie Marie?” Maggie called toward Katie's bedroom as she toed off her sneakers.
    Katie emerged in a pink jogging suit, her long dark hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. She took the jumbo plastic bottle of diet cola from her friend and headed for the kitchen with her wolfhound tagging along behind her.
    “I'm sure I don't know what you mean,” she said.
    Maggie scowled. She plunked a rented movie down on the VCR and went to the kitchen, stuffing her hands into the pockets of the long black cardigan she wore over an oversized yellow T-shirt. “I mean something stupid such as not seeing Nick anymore just because of a careless remark.”
    “I'm not doing that,” Katie said. She tossed a bag of popcorn into the microwave oven andpunched the appropriate buttons. She pulled a chew treat out of a drawer and gave