Hero In Disguise. Leona Karr

is six, and Richie is almost five. They’re very bright little boys.” She smiled. “Most of the time, they’re pretty easy to handle.”

      “Unfortunately, it may take a little time to track down any relatives who could take them, but I’ll put an investigator on it right away.” David had recovered from his initial shock, and his agile mind had begun to search for ways to handle the situation with impersonal dispatch. If things were exactly as she had told him, he didn’t have much choice but to get involved, temporarily at least.

      “I hope we can find someone soon. We need to get the boys settled as soon as possible.”

      “I know that Jolene’s parents passed away some years ago—and I know nothing about the father’s relatives,” he added with a hard edge in his tone, referring to the man Jolene had chosen to marry. “Did she make any mention of family while she was at the shelter?”

      “No, and I doubt that she would have been there with her children if she’d had any family to go to,” Melissa said. “I took the boys because there was no one else she could ask.”

      “I see, and you’re willing to keep them until some other arrangements have been made?” He used a professional lawyer tone, as if he were taking a deposition instead of handling a very personal matter. He did not want to meet the children that under different circumstances might have been his.

      “No, I’m afraid not. I’m not in any position to keep Eric and Richie at my place,” she said firmly. Where was a sign of compassion for the woman he had once intended to marry?

      “If it’s a matter of monetary compensation, I’m sure we can come to some satisfactory arrangement. I’m willing to assume the expenses of the children’s care while you have them.”

      “How generous of you,” she said with gravel in her voice. Obviously, his checkbook was as close as he intended to get to the sweet little boys who could use a caring man in their lives right now.

      “You should be compensated in some fashion for their care,” he said, well aware of the sarcasm in her tone. A flash of anger in her lovely blue eyes startled him. She looked ready to light into him. What was the matter? His offer seemed reasonable enough. Was she after more money than just expenses for keeping the boys? “Did you have some specific arrangement in mind?”

      “Although I would love to keep Eric and Richie, I can’t. And it isn’t a matter of compensation.” She didn’t want him to think she was trying to fleece him out of any money for keeping them. “I live in a studio basement apartment with a fold-down bed. We’ve been playing camping with sleeping bags. I’ve managed to keep Eric and Richie fairly entertained in the small space, but some other accommodations have to be made.” She eyed him frankly. “What kind of living space do you have?”

      He knew the question was rhetorical. From the thrust of her chin, he could tell that she already knew from reading the society pages that he lived in Denver’s fashionable Cherry Creek district in a spacious family home, which was his residence now that his parents had retired and moved to Florida. He decided to deliberately sidestep the inference that he had a home large enough to comfortably house the two boys.

      “Frankly, I’m not quite sure what Jolene expected me to do in this situation.” There was no way that he was going to become personally responsible for the care of Jolene’s two boys. He’d do his best to find a relative to take them, and he’d foot the bill for their care until then. That was it.

      “I think it’s pretty clear that she wanted you to look after them, Mr. Ardell.”

      “It’s David,” he said, brushing away her formality. “And I will do my best to get them placed.”

      Melissa looked at him with a warning in her large eyes. If he suggested they call Children’s Services to take the children, she was ready to challenge that decision. “We need to do what’s best for the children.”

      “Yes, of course, but we have to consider what would be better for them in the long run. Don’t we, Melissa?”

      “The long run,” she echoed in disbelief. “You and I have the responsibility of deciding what should happen to them right now, today. We have two little boys that have just lost their mother. Sadly enough, their lives have been in a state of upheaval almost since the day they were born.” What they need is someone to love and take care of them now!

      “What options do we have?” David didn’t like the feeling that she was personally attacking him. None of this was of his making. He sympathized with the homeless little boys and regretted that Jolene had made such a mess of her life, but the responsibility for the situation was not his. “My taking on the personal care of two youngsters is impossible.”

      “Surely you know a nice family with children who would take Eric and Richie until a relative can be located,” Melissa insisted, knowing she had lost the first round. He wasn’t going to get personally involved.

      “Honestly, I don’t.” He brushed back a forelock of dark blond hair and frowned. “My single life doesn’t include anyone close enough that I can call up and dump two strange kids on them. If you could just keep them temporarily—”

      “I told you I don’t have the space. I wish I did, but I don’t. This afternoon I had to leave Eric and Richie with my landlady, whose apartment is almost as small as mine.” She refrained from telling him that the past two weeks had been an almost impossible challenge—trying to meet her deadlines at the various magazines she wrote for, while cooped up in a basement apartment scarcely big enough for one adult, let alone two rambunctious little boys. She fell silent, waiting for him to decide what he was going to do about Jolene’s request—if anything.

      He was silent for a moment, then he asked, “And what about time?”

      She looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

      “Have you had the time to care for them?”

      “I’ve made the time,” she said flatly. “Since I’m a freelance writer, I can set my own work hours. That’s the only way I’ve been able to spend days at the park with the boys, and compose at night with my laptop computer on the kitchen table.”

      “I see.” He surprised her by suddenly getting up from his chair and easing down beside her on the couch. “Well, Melissa, we may have a solution, after all.”

      She caught a whiff of spicy men’s cologne as she steadied herself against his nearness. Careful, she warned herself. David Ardell’s ability to deftly manage people was evident in the disarming smile he gave her.

      “Let’s look at the problem this way. You have the time to care for the children but not the space. I have the space but no one to care for the children. Doesn’t the answer seem obvious?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

      “What are you suggesting?”

      “A businesslike solution. While I hire an investigator to find the boys’ relatives, you could move into my house temporarily to care for them.”

      “I couldn’t do that,” she said quickly. “Move in with you, like that. It wouldn’t be proper.”

      “You wouldn’t be moving in with me.” David was amused by the indignant spark in her eyes. Her reaction told him a great deal about her moral fiber, and he hastened to reassure her that his offer was strictly based on the children’s welfare. “This arrangement would have nothing to do with me, no more than if I hired you as a live-in nanny for the children. And I’m willing to do that, make it purely a business arrangement. Just consider it a temporary job until this thing is settled. You can still keep up your obligations at the magazines. I think it’s a perfect solution all around.”

      “I don’t know. It seems very…irregular.”

      He saw a flicker of indecision in her eyes. “You don’t have to be afraid that you’ll have to suffer my company,” he assured her. “I’m rarely at home. Believe me, we would scarcely see each other.”