Desperate Intentions. Carla Cassidy

hours later she sat on the edge of Katie’s bed to tuck her in for the night. “No sneaking into your brother’s room in the middle of the night,” she said, and swiped a strand of long dark hair away from Katie’s face.

      “But what if I wake up in the middle of the night and I think maybe he’s having a nightmare?” Katie’s gray eyes darkened. “I don’t ever want Sammy to be scared.”

      “And I appreciate you looking after Sammy so well. But your brother will call to me if he has a nightmare and gets scared,” Eliza said, “and all princesses need to stay in bed and get their rest through the night.”

      “And I am a princess,” Katie replied firmly.

      “Absolutely, you’re my little special princess.” Eliza leaned over and kissed her daughter on the cheek. “Good night, sweetheart.”

      “Night, Mommy.”

      Eliza rose from the bed and turned out the overhead light, then walked across the hall into Sammy’s bedroom. His twin bed was pushed against one wall and his dresser was against another. There was nothing on the floor to impede him in his world of darkness.

      He knew how many steps to the bathroom and how many to the top of the stairs. She had wanted to put his bedroom downstairs, but he’d insisted he wanted to be up here where his sister’s room was. He was such an amazing little guy, and she was blessed to be his mother.

      Sammy never complained about any nightmares. Eliza had a feeling Katie sometimes had bad dreams and went into her brother’s bedroom for comfort.

      She sat on the edge of his bed and he smiled. “Are you ready for sweet dreams?” she asked.

      “As long as the mice stay quiet.”

      “We’re going to take care of those noisy, pesky mice very soon,” she replied. “In the meantime I want you to have sweet dreams and I’ll see you in the morning. It’s Saturday so you can sleep in if you want.”

      “I think I might want to,” he replied.

      She kissed him and then with final good-nights said, she left his room and headed for her own.

      This big old house still didn’t feel like home to her, but it would just take more time. At least Sammy had adapted easily, and initially that had been her biggest concern. As she changed into her nightgown, her thoughts filled with Troy Anderson.

      Lordy, but the man was hot and he’d seemed to be genuinely nice. He’d been especially good with Sammy, not talking to him like he was stupid or raising his voice like Sammy was deaf as well as blind.

      She got into bed and shut off her light. It had been nice to have a man to share a meal and pleasant conversation. Still, it didn’t matter whether he had given her dancing butterflies or not. She’d felt those same kind of dancing butterflies when she’d first met Blake and that had certainly ended badly.

      She released a deep sigh and hoped the mice would stay silent tonight.

      * * *

      TROY PARKED HIS work truck in the driveway and released a weary sigh. Even though it was just a little after three, it had been a long day.

      Two of his men hadn’t shown up for work that morning. Thankfully the jobs had been residential mows and trimming, so Troy had taken care of them himself. But this was the third time the two had missed an early Saturday morning job and now he needed to decide if they needed to be let go.

      Troy always hated firing anyone, but he did expect his employees to be dependable. Thankfully the men were young and unmarried, so at least Troy didn’t have to worry about them having families they were supporting.

      He got out of his truck and glanced next door. Instantly a bit of adrenaline filled him as he thought of Eliza. There was no question he found her intensely physically attractive. He’d also found her charming and nice, but he hadn’t missed a few times when her beautiful gray eyes darkened with emotions that had intrigued him. He was also impressed by her strength. It must be tough to be a single mother of two young kids, especially with one of them being blind.

      He’d said he’d plant the peony bush, and he was vaguely surprised to realize the idea of seeing Eliza again today swept a pleasant warmth through him. He should plant it right now before he took a shower and cleaned up. But first what he wanted to do before anything else was go inside and get a tall glass of something cold to drink.

      He walked into his hallway of gleaming wood floors. He’d bought the big three-story house a year and a half ago. It had needed a ton of work, but he’d been looking for a new start and the remodeling had been a project he’d desperately needed to take his mind away from the torment of his past.

      He’d stripped floors and painted walls. He’d updated the bathrooms and had all the windows replaced. He’d considered every dollar he spent and all his sweat and hard work a good investment. And the work had definitely kept him from losing his mind.

      The kitchen had been updated with all the bells and whistles. As he headed toward the refrigerator he glanced out the back window...and froze.

      The two kids, Katie and Sammy, were in his yard and standing over the place where he’d buried the gun. What the hell? What were they doing in his yard, in that place? Thirst forgotten, he ran toward the back door.

      He unlocked it and flung it open, and at the same time Eliza appeared, running toward her children. “Katie! Sammy! What on earth are you doing over here?” She flashed him an apologetic glance and then glared at her children once again. “You both know the rules. You are never, ever to leave the house without telling me. And you especially should not be over here in Mr. Anderson’s yard. What were the two of you thinking?”

      “We just wanted to have a funeral for the dead cat,” Katie said, her lower lip trembling ominously as she looked first at her mother and then at Troy.

      “We’re sorry, Mommy,” Sammy said. “We thought it would be good to have a cat funeral.”

      For the first time Troy realized Katie was wearing what appeared to be a black dress that belonged to her mother and Sammy wore some kind of a black curtain draped over his shoulders. Katie held a small bouquet of plastic flowers and Sammy held a cardboard sign that read RIP Cat.

      Jeez, the kids wanted to have a funeral for the cat that didn’t exist. What damned can of worms had he opened with his lie about the cat? He frowned thoughtfully. Maybe by allowing them to do this, they’d forget they saw him bury anything out here.

      “It’s all right,” Troy said to Eliza. “Every dead cat should have a funeral.”

      Eliza looked charmingly flustered. Her cheeks were flushed as she blew a strand of hair off her face. The grateful look she gave him warmed him.

      “Okay, you can have a funeral, but when we get home there are going to be consequences for you breaking the rules,” she said to her children. “And you can thank Mr. Anderson for not chasing you out of his yard with a broom.”

      “Thank you, Mr. Anderson,” Katie said with a sweet smile that suddenly reminded him of Annie.

      For a brief moment a deep, rich pain ripped through his very soul. Thankfully at that moment Katie instructed them all to close their eyes. He squeezed his eyelids closed and tried to will away the memories that attempted to assault him.

      He’d spent the last three years of his life trying not to remember, because remembering had the power to cast him to his knees in the very depths of hell. He drew several long, deep breaths and managed to snap himself out of the past.

      “We come together to say goodbye to Cat,” Katie began.

      “We decided that Cat was a good name since we didn’t know his real name,” Sammy added. “Mr. Anderson, was Cat a boy or a girl?”

      “A boy,” Troy replied.

      “We all pray for boy Cat to go straight to heaven where the trees are made of catnip and cats are