The Marriage Bargain. Stephanie Dees

There’s a change of clothes for each of them and Emma’s due for a bottle at six.”

      As he grasped the bags, she held on a second too long. “Cam. Take care of them—I’m trusting you.”

      “Should I send my résumé over for you to check out?”

      He was joking, but Jules tilted her head and smiled. “No, that’s okay. My brother Joe is the police chief here and I already had him run a background check on you.”

      Cam was still laughing as he opened the front door of his new home. He’d worried, a little, about whether Juliet was the right person to raise his nieces, when he’d met her the other night. He wasn’t worried about that now.

      She had grit. And there was nothing more he admired than a little grit.

      * * *

      Juliet tiptoed out of the nursery in Cam’s new house. It was ridiculous how perfect it was. Layers of white and pale gray and texture everywhere, from a faux fur throw on the floor to the bedside table made from a tree trunk. It was precious and both girls were sound asleep. She pulled the door almost closed and sagged against the wall next to it.

      What a night. If any sense of reaching for perfection had remained before this debacle, and she would’ve guaranteed that it didn’t, it was gone now.

      The ceiling had literally come crashing down.

      She shivered. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be warm again after being soaked to the skin for so long, but when she walked into the great room, Cam had a roaring fire going in the fireplace and a plate of food on a tray waiting for her.

      “I hope you’re okay with pad thai. It’s my go-to when I need a quick dinner.” He glanced up with a smile and her stomach did a crazy loop-de-loop.

      “It’s hot and I’m hungry. Thank you.” She sat on the edge of the hearth with her back to the fire and took a bite. “Cameron, this is so good. I guess you learned to make it in Thailand.”

      He laughed. “No, actually, Brooklyn. There’s a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has the best Thai food this side of the ocean and a little Thai grandma who took a starving kid under her wing.”

      After inhaling an entire plate of food, she put the tray down and leaned back into the warmth of the fire. “I’m starting to feel like a human again. Thank you.”

      “My pleasure.”

      “This house is great.” She wanted to be kind and act normal, but in her mind, she was reeling. The first blow had been the custody suit. One thing she’d had going for her was a stable home and business. Business was decent, but faltering without her daily presence.

      And now her home was in a shambles for who knew how long. She had to do something to keep the girls safe and with her, even if it meant doing something drastic. And drastic was definitely the word for the germ of an idea starting to form in her mind.

      “I like it even more than I thought I would,” Cam answered. “I spent all afternoon roaming through the house and the grounds and I still don’t think I’ve seen it all.”

      “You decided to stay because of the girls?” Her voice quivered and she hated it, but she had to know where he was coming from. She remembered the beautiful, perfect nursery down the hall.

      Was he doing all this so he could get custody, or did he have another motivation in mind?

      “Yes. I’m not sure I would’ve ever come back to Red Hill Springs if they weren’t here, but they are. And now, so am I.” His face softened as he mentioned the girls, but still, she needed to know he would fight for them.

      She tried to make the question light, but couldn’t pull it off. “Have you seen your mother since you’ve been in town?”

      The mention of his mom was like slamming into a wall of ice. He stopped smiling. “I wouldn’t say I have a mother. So, no. Why would you ask me that?”

      “She filed for custody of Emma and Eleanor. My lawyer brought me a copy of the paperwork this afternoon.”

      Cam shot to his feet and walked to the wide windows. She could see his reflection, muscles tensing as he fought for control. When he turned back, his face was calm. “Glory and Sam listed you as the guardian for the girls. She can’t get them. Right?”

      “Glory and Sam wanted the girls with me, yes, but the judge won’t grant me guardianship as long as there’s an open custody petition.”

      “Has she even seen them since the funeral?” He walked closer and his smooth grace reminded her of a caged tiger, pent-up energy and a hint of tightly leashed rage.

      “No. She’s been messed up for a long time. I’m not sure why she thinks she can raise two girls and I don’t know why the judge would believe it, but I’ve asked around. The judge we pulled is unpredictable and he favors biological family.”

      “There’s gotta be a reason. She doesn’t want to raise them. She didn’t want to be a mother to her own two children. There’s gotta be a reason she’s trying to get custody.” He sat beside her on the hearth, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from him.

      “They have life insurance money from Glory and Sam. Quite a bit of money, actually, that hasn’t been released yet. But when it is, it will go directly into a trust for the kids, for college.”

      His eyes narrowed on hers. “It will go into a trust automatically? Or that’s your plan for the money?”

      “Oh, I see your point. You think she wants custody so she can get the life insurance money? That’s...” She floundered, searching for the right word. “There’s not even a word for how despicable that is.”

      “Yeah, it is. Jules, what do you need? Do you need money for an attorney? Whatever it is, whatever it takes, we’ll keep them safe, I promise.” He put his hand on her shoulder and she closed her eyes, praying for guidance, praying that she wasn’t about to make a terrible mistake that would end in hurt for everyone.

      When she opened her eyes, they were direct on his. She took a deep breath. “I need a husband.”

      He laughed, but sobered when he realized she wasn’t joking. “Okay, you’re serious. I’m just not sure I’m following you.”

      Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t need just any husband. I need you. The judge we pulled for this case is all about biological family. And he prefers married couples over singles. If we got married...we would be both.”

      “Do you know how crazy this sounds?”

      “I do. I know.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “I’m not taking any chances with the safety of the girls. I can’t, Cam. I promised Glory.”

      “I want to protect them, too, but getting married? My family, if you want to call it that, was not like yours. My dad split when I was a baby. My stepdad beat me and threw me out of the house when I was a teenager. I’ve bounced around the world for the past fifteen years. Trust me when I say I’m not husband material.”

      She leaned forward, her eyes laser focused on his, her voice soft. “I know better than anyone what your family was like. When your stepdad decided he liked being drunk better than having a job, guess where Glory ate her meals? And guess where she stayed when he figured out that she was more fun as a punching bag than your mom, because if he hit her, both of them would cry?”

      Grief was etched on his face. “I didn’t know any of that, Jules. It wasn’t like that for her before they kicked me out.”

      “Glory thought you were the lucky one. Because you got away.”

      “I don’t know what to say.”

      “I know.” She took another deep breath and released it in a long pent-up stream. “None of that is your fault. But that is why I would do anything—absolutely anything—to protect them. You couldn’t protect