Her Sister's Children. Roxanne Rustand

planning to stay,” she retorted. He stood there like a man in a TV commercial—muscled. sexy and altogether too appealing. Her sister had fallen for him almost overnight.

      He lifted one eyebrow. “A little far from your social circle, aren’t you?”

      “That’s not your concern.” Some of his old charisma surfaced in a lazy half smile and a teasing glint in his eyes, but she was not taken in. The flutter of her pulse came from tension, not a response to the dark and smoky tone of his voice.

      He glanced at the open reservation book on the desk, then gave her an incredulous look. “You’re managing this place?”

      “Yes.”

      “You won’t last”

      Exactly the sentiments of her ex-fiancé in New York, who had declared her incapable of raising three children and foolish for giving up her career. Of course, he’d been trying to protect his plan to become her father’s protégé and heir. Claire felt the heat of anger rising in her throat. “I’d like you to leave.”

      Logan shook his head. “I should have recognized the Worth family wit and warmth right away.” He walked to the door, hesitated, then dropped a business card on the desk. “Blood does tell.”

      “Out!”

      His mouth curved into a faint smile, but no flash of humor showed in his eyes. “You’ll be in serious country-club withdrawal by Thanksgiving. You’ll be dying to sell. Don’t bother with a real estate agent, just call me. You’ll save time and won’t get a better price.”

      As soon as he stepped outside, Claire shut the heavy oak door and rammed the dead bolt home, then moved to a window by the desk. After Logan’s gleaming black Explorer disappeared up the lane, she sank into the creaky swivel chair at the desk.

      The faint scent of sandalwood and leather lingered in the air, sending her thoughts flying back to the time when she had nurtured the world’s most intense, embarrassing crush on this man.

      As a teenager caught up in the throes of her first impossible romance, Claire had thought her older sister’s boyfriend represented masculine perfection—tall, witty and handsome enough to compete with any teen idol. She’d lived for glimpses of his slow, easy smiles, loved the way his eyes crinkled at the corners and deep dimples grooved his cheeks. He’d always ruffled her hair and teased her, treating her like a kid sister.

      Her lack of perception at the time still astounded her. Granted, she’d been an inexperienced young girl, but how had she missed seeing what the man was really like? In all her life, no one had ever fooled her so completely.

      Shoving a hand through her short-cropped hair, she started to sweep Logan’s business card off the desk and into the wastebasket, but his address caught her eye. She stared in disbelief. Matthews Architectural Associates, St. Paul, Minnesota. A local phone number and address had been written at the bottom. The address nearly matched that of Pine Cliff. Claire’s heart missed a beat.

      It was discomforting to know that one of her neighbors had a long-term grudge against her family, and a proven propensity for deceit.

      CHAPTER TWO

      “I DON’T like fish.”

      “Meat loaf. With baked potatoes?”

      “No.”

      “Hamburgers?” Claire stared at the thirteen-year-old tyrant standing in front of her, trying to ignore the snake looped casually around his arm. From the defiant gleam in Jason’s eye, she knew exactly why he held Igor—and why the creature managed to “escape” so often. Exasperated, she tried again. “Hot dogs?”

      Jason shot her a look of utter disdain. “Our nanny never gave us hot dogs. Mother’s orders.”

      Claire turned to the five-year-old twins, Annie and Lissa, who sat perched on matching stools at the breakfast counter like two wide-eyed owlets, silent and unblinking. “How about you girls?”

      They stared at her, fidgeted, then simultaneously shot pleading looks toward their brother, who scowled back.

      “Would you like to go out for pizza?” Claire cringed at her own desperate, pleading tone. The board members of Worth Electronics would die laughing if they could hear her now.

      “Yes!” The twins spoke as one, their eyes lighting up with delight. Neither risked even a glance at Jason, whose sullen expression spoke volumes about their defection.

      “Good.” Claire pinned Jason with a determined look. “I’m starved, aren’t you?”

      Reluctantly, Jason returned Igor to his cage, then followed Claire and the girls outside. She could hear his feet dragging through the crunchy gravel and his occasional, long-suffering sighs. He took the rear seat of the Windstar as always, where he slumped in stubborn silence.

      Buckling her seat belt, Claire looked over her shoulder. “Want to go exploring when we get back? We might see some deer.”

      Jason slid farther down in the seat and scowled. “I have homework,” he said flatly.

      “The first week of school?”

      “Lots of it. I’ll need to come straight—” he faltered over the word as if it tasted of vinegar “—home.”

      “What do you think, Annie and Lissa?”

      The little girls exchanged worried frowns. “Are there any bears?” Annie asked, wrapping a blond curl ever tighter around her finger. “Jason says there’s bears.”

      “I haven’t seen one,” Claire said, her voice firm. “And if we do, I’ll chase that old bear away. I hereby declare Pine Cliff off-limits to anything that has sharp teeth and growls.”

      “There are bears,” Jason muttered darkly. “Especially at night. I’ve heard them trying to get into the trash cans. And there are wolves, and foxes, and coyotes.”

      “All at Pine Cliff? The place is busier than I thought. They’ll have to start making reservations.” The twins rewarded her with tentative smiles. Jason didn’t.

      Driving down the long lane toward the highway, Claire resolved to make it through the fourth chapter of Parenting: The Challenge of a Lifetime before falling asleep tonight. There had to be some clue, some nugget of information in that book that would help her.

      “It must be hard, moving away from all of your old friends,” Claire ventured as she pulled to a stop at the junction of the resort entrance and the highway. “Want to invite someone up from Minneapolis, Jason?”

      “Who’d wanna come up here?”

      “Your best friends?”

      “Yeah, right.”

      Lissa leaned forward in the middle seat. “Mother doesn‘t—didn’t allow that. ’Cause we’re too noisy.”

      Claire’s hands stilled on the steering wheel. “Didn’t allow what, sweetie?”

      “Friends over. ’Cept when just the nanny was there.”

      The child sounded dead serious, but envisioning happy-go-lucky Brooke as a stern mother took more imagination than Claire could muster. She hid her surprise behind a teasing tone. “You guys aren’t noisy in the least. How about it, Jason, would you like to invite someone up for a weekend?”

      At the boy’s stubborn look of indifference, Claire sighed, waited for a semi to pass, then pulled out onto the road. How did one reach a troubled, grieving teenager? She’d made some progress with the twins, but Jason rejected every effort she made. Time heals, she reminded herself. I won’t give up on him.

      As she drove, she found herself watching the mailboxes along the highway. With luck, Logan’s would be much farther away than the scrawled address on his business card indicated. She breathed a sigh of relief as the numbers on