Six Hot Single Dads. Lynne Marshall

makeup—still beautiful, but in an entirely different way than he was used to. “You’re up. Is there coffee?”

      “Sorry. Just tea.”

      She frowned, making her chin wrinkly, which was surprisingly cute. “You have got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to function?”

      Reaching past her, he opened the cabinet where he kept the tea bags. He set one of the boxes on the counter then filled the kettle with water. “There’s plenty of caffeine in English breakfast tea.”

      “Wait a minute.” She pointed at him, shaking her finger while he turned on the stove burner. “I know you drink coffee. I’ve seen you come up to the apartment with a to-go cup.”

      “I do drink it, but I don’t make it. Never learned how.” He got out a mug for her as she leaned against the kitchen counter, resting one of her bare feet on top of the other. Her legs were almost more tempting now than they’d been the night of the premiere. He knew everything her legs led to. “So, what’s on the schedule today?” he asked, consulting his watch, distracting himself.

      She folded her arms across her chest, causing the nightshirt to hitch up and the side vent to split open, revealing an edge of some sort of pale purple temptation. “I have a million things to do. I already talked to the insurance company. They’re sending an adjuster over this afternoon. I heard from the fire marshal, and he already has one of his men working over there. I can fetch my stuff anytime I want. Suffice it to say, I won’t be going into the office today. Which is fine. I need a break.”

      “Do you want me to go with you across the hall to get a few of your things? I know you weren’t up to it last night, but you can’t live in my pajamas all day long.” If you did, I might be forced to take the day off, too.

      “No. It’s fine. Lieutenant Williams is going to be here in an hour. I’ll wait and go in with him.”

      Great. I’ll leave her with a handsome, strapping fireman. “Ah, well, then. I guess I’ll just get off to the office. Martha, the housekeeper, will be by later this morning to clean and prepare dinner.”

      * * *

      Dread nagged Ashley as she looked at her phone. She didn’t like the idea of burdening her mother with anything, especially bad news. In fact, she took it as her personal charge to bring only good news. They renewed my show for another season. I’m sending more money. She hadn’t even shared the news about James dumping her until she’d flown home for Thanksgiving last year, and cracked the instant she saw her mom. Considering the fact that a story about Ashley’s fire was in the newspaper and making the rounds online that morning, she didn’t have a choice. It was time to be the bearer of bad tidings.

      Her mom answered on the third ring. “Hey, baby girl.”

      “Hi, Mama.”

      “It’s nearly nine thirty. It’s not like you to call me from work.”

      Ashley’s eyes drifted shut. Her mother’s warm, syrupy drawl brought her to tears, but she had to choke them back. She had to be strong, just like she’d been with Marcus last night. She wasn’t about to burden her mom unnecessarily. “I’m not at work. I’m taking the day off.”

      “What happened? You never miss work.”

      And to think she’d worried that crying would rat her out. Her mother knew something was amiss just because her workaholic daughter wasn’t in the office. “Something happened with my apartment, but I really, really don’t want you to worry.” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word. She couldn’t force herself to say fire.

      “Not something with that neighbor of yours, is it? I thought you two were dating.”

      Crap. She hadn’t bargained on her mom knowing about that. “Did you see that in the papers?”

      “One of your brothers emailed me a link. I figured you’d call me and tell me what was going on when you were ready for me to know.”

      “We aren’t really dating. It’s complicated.” Beyond complicated. “We were in a position to help each other’s businesses. And we’re trying to be friends, but we argue a fair amount. He doesn’t like my contractor. I don’t really know what’s going on between us, to be honest.”

      “You’re rambling, darling. And you still haven’t told me what happened with your apartment.”

      Ashley took in a deep breath. “There was a fire.”

      “Oh no.” There was such finality to her mother’s words. “Are you okay? You weren’t hurt, were you?”

      “I’m fine. Really. Actually, my neighbor Marcus was the one who discovered the fire. He put it out and everything. Before the fire department arrived.”

      “Please tell me you weren’t home.”

      “I wasn’t. I was at work.”

      Her mother exhaled deeply. “I have never been so thankful for that crazy job of yours. Are you going to be okay? Do you need to come home for a few days? Let me feed you and you can sleep in and we’ll have our girl time.”

      Ashley smiled. Just a few minutes of talking to her mom had lowered her stress level dramatically. “I would love to do that, but I have to stay and deal with the fire marshal and the insurance company and find a new contractor.”

      “Okay, honey. I know you’re busy. I just want you to know that we’re here for you. Always. I’m sure that the fire was a scary thing, considering everything that happened when you were a girl, but you need to recognize that good things come out of bad, too.”

      “What good came out of that fire? It was all bad.”

      “Actually, a lot of good things happened. It made your father quit smoking. Another decade or two of that and we probably would have lost him to a stroke long before now. Plus, your dad and I weren’t doing that well at the time. Running the farm was hard, and it was driving a wedge between us.”

      “It was?” Ashley sat back against the headboard. “You never told me that.”

      “You were ten years old. And that was between your father and me. Some things have to stay between a husband and a wife. Nobody else needs to know. Regardless, the fire brought us closer. We realized how much we needed each other. It made the financial problems that came after it much easier to handle.”

      “I think of that time as being so hard.”

      “It was incredibly hard. But your father got me through it. That’s what love does, darling. It makes all of the bad tolerable. You should know that better than anyone. You go to work and find a lot of people true love.”

      “Not that I’m actually able to find it for myself. That would make too much sense, wouldn’t it? For the woman who searches for love all day to actually find it for herself?”

      “So tell me what the situation is with you and Marcus.”

      If only her mother knew what a long conversation this could end up being. “There is no situation. I mean, I liked him a lot at first, but then I thought he didn’t like me.”

      “And now?”

      “Now, I don’t really know what to think. He has a very complicated life. I’m just not sure I’m up for that. He’s had a hard time, went through a really painful divorce and is trying to raise his daughter on his own. I’m starting to see why he can come across as a jerk. He closes himself off to everything.”

      “Just like you do.”

      For a moment, Ashley wasn’t sure of what she’d heard her mother say. “What? I don’t do that at all. You know me. I’ll talk about anything.”

      “Maybe when it comes to other people. You close doors when you don’t like what you see. You’ve done that since you were a little girl. If something bad happened, you just learned to ignore it. You were always better at helping other