by Sharon Swan
Amanda got in and waited for him to come around to the driver’s side. While he reached in and tossed his hat on the back seat, she made a promise to herself to put all thoughts of that kiss straight out of her mind. She had more important things to think about.
“We need to decide on a strategy for this upcoming meeting,” she told him as he revved the engine.
“I seem to remember mentioning that all you had to do was follow my lead,” he countered, pulling out on the road.
She blew out a breath. “Easy enough for you to say, but where are you going?”
“To find a restaurant that looks salad friendly.”
Her teeth clenched of their own accord. “I mean what tack do you intend to take when we get to Family Services?”
He tapped a finger on the steering wheel. “I plan to act like a newlywed—a real one.”
And what exactly did that mean? she wondered. As one method occurred to her, she narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a steely stare. “No more kissing.”
He shot her a look. “I wouldn’t think of it. Although,” he added as he went back to studying the road, “I’ve been told I’m not bad at it.”
She didn’t doubt that for a minute. The truth was, he was darn good at it. She wasn’t an inexperienced woman. She’d been kissed plenty of times. During her years in Seattle, she’d dated several men and had very nearly become engaged to one of them. But something had held her back. For all that reason had said her suitor wasn’t only a considerate lover but excellent husband and father material, as well, her less reasonable side had contended that he just wasn’t Mr. Right. And for all that she’d enjoyed his kisses, she had to admit that he’d never kissed her as the man currently seated beside her had. No one had ever kissed her quite like that.
And here she was, Amanda realized, thinking about it when she’d vowed not to. Once more, she shoved it straight out of her mind. “Now make sure you keep it out,” she told herself under her breath.
“Did you say something?” Dev asked.
“Nothing much.” She rested her head against the back of the seat. “Let’s just get lunch over with so we can head off to our meeting.” Her stomach tightened at the thought of how important the next few hours were—for her and her sisters and brothers.
“Relax,” Dev advised, as though he’d sensed how her nerves were threatening to take over. “We’ll get through it and come out fine on the other end.”
Amanda wanted to believe that, badly. Nevertheless, doubts continued to dog her. He didn’t know—not nearly as well as she did, at any rate—that one of the people they’d be meeting with would be no pushover.
“I RECOGNIZE THE NAME, of course,” Haynes Mc-Fadden said. The supervisor pursed his thin lips. “I dare say that in recent months most everyone in Pine Run has heard about the Main Street Millionaires.”
Dev leaned back in a visitor’s chair and propped his Stetson on an upraised knee. So the almost relentless media coverage that had gone on for weeks had turned out to do some good after all, he thought. He didn’t have to convince anyone that he had a fat bank balance. “Then I’m sure you know that my wife and I—” he aimed a sidelong glance at Amanda, who sat next to him with her hands folded in her lap “—will have no problem giving the kids everything they need.”
“Don’t you own a saloon?” the fourth person in the room asked.
He looked toward where Louise Pearson stood next to her boss’s desk. “I do.”
He’d already latched on to the fact that if anyone had to be convinced of anything, it was this woman. Impressive was the best word he could come up with to describe her. Even dressed in a simple suit shaded a plain brown, she made an impact. It was, he decided, the way she had of looking at someone as if she could see clear down to their bones.
“Does that provide the right environment in which to raise four young children?” Again her question was blunt and to the point.
In contrast, Dev kept his tone mild. “They’d be living in a brand-new house that’s nowhere near the bar. A big enough house, too, that each of them could have their own room.”
“Well, I suppose a five-bedroom home would be fairly large,” the supervisor allowed, his own voice politely calm.
“Actually there are six,” Dev said. “We’d have a guest room, as well.”
It didn’t bother him that that was less than the truth. As far as he was concerned, it was nobody’s business except his and Amanda’s where they slept. What did bother him was the knowledge that it probably wouldn’t be so easy for him to sleep under the same roof with her. Not after he’d had a taste of that silky soft mouth. It had been a mistake. Some parts of him might not think so, but his brain knew better.
The supervisor made some notes on a sheet of paper. “The housing situation can be verified, of course, but I don’t feel that will be a problem. You clearly have the resources required to care for a large family. And you,” he added, shifting his gaze to Amanda, “obviously care about your half siblings and want the best for them. I think Mrs. Pearson and I would both agree on that point.”
The social worker dipped her head in a short nod. “That became apparent during the meeting with the children.”
“I fell head over heels for them that day,” Amanda admitted. “And I think they began to like me, too.”
“I have to concede to having little doubt on both subjects.” Louise’s eagle-eyed gaze snapped back to Dev. “But I do have some questions about a few other things.”
Why doesn’t that surprise me? he reflected to himself even as he offered her a slow-as-molasses grin that had been known to win him success with the female half of the population. “Ask away,” he invited.
Unfortunately his target didn’t look in the least phased by his effort. “It seems to me,” she said, “that this marriage happened rather quickly.”
“It was an impulse,” Dev agreed. “Once I proposed and Amanda said yes, I just couldn’t wait.”
Louise crossed her arms over the front of her suit jacket. “It appears that she wasn’t expecting your proposal, since she made no mention of it when we last talked.”
“Uh-huh.” Dev issued a deep chuckle. “She was out-and-out stunned when I sprung it on her.” He slid another look at Amanda. “Isn’t that right…sweetheart?” Just go along with me, he told her with a silent stare.
Apparently getting the message, Amanda said, “I can honestly swear to being astonished.”
Certain that, at least, was the perfect truth, Dev returned his gaze to Louise and tried out another grin. “We’ve known each other for years, of course, and I knew she always had a soft spot in her heart for me—” he ignored the hasty cough that came from beside him “—but it wasn’t until a few months ago, after I hit it big in the lottery and started to take a good look at my life, that I realized my true feelings for her.”
Louise lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “But even then, you waited?”
“I had to.” Dev assumed an earnest expression. “I wanted to have a house built first—the biggest and best house I could manage. As soon as it was ready just days ago—which you can confirm with the contractor, if you like—I popped the question.”
Amanda shifted in her seat. God, he was good, was all she could think, even if he’d had her nearly choking with his comment about that soft spot in her heart for him. And, as strange as it seemed, the whole thing did sound reasonable as he’d described it, so reasonable she could almost believe it herself.
“Yes,” she said, unable to resist a comment of her own, “he dropped down on one knee and all but begged me to marry him.”
That won her another glance from the man at her side. The sudden glint in his gaze promised to get even for that whopper. “I didn’t have to beg too hard, though, did I, sweetheart?”
She ran her tongue around her teeth, knowing she’d been neatly trapped. “I suppose not.”
He turned his head to look straightforward and heaved a gusty sigh. “She’s crazy about me.”
>
The supervisor straightened his papers by tapping them on the desk. “Any more questions, Louise?”
The social worker shook her head. “I’ll admit I can’t find any flaws in that explanation. And since I can’t, I’m prepared to agree to having the necessary steps put in motion to place the children in the care of Mr. and Mrs. Devlin.”
Amanda let out a long breath. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said, and truly meant every word.
“This will, of course, still leave the children under the jurisdiction of this department,” the supervisor reminded her. “Formal adoption proceedings will have to be completed before you gain full custody.”
“I’ll ask Mr. Whipple if he can start working on that,” she told him, thinking that the elderly lawyer would probably be pleased as punch to take her on as a client. He knew how much she wanted the children. And now they were going to be hers! She wanted to jump up and hug everyone in the room, most especially the man who had married her in an effort to make this a reality.
No, don’t go that far, wisdom said. Better to offer your sunniest smile and keep your distance.
Amanda didn’t have to think twice about listening. Curving her lips widely, she rose and looked down at the man in question, not at all amazed when he returned her smile with what seemed to be a very satisfied one of his own. In complete charity with him for once, she wouldn’t even have objected to his seeming a bit smug. As far as she was concerned, he deserved it.
She knew who was really responsible for the fact that she was one happy woman at the moment, and it was the very person she’d once regarded as her own personal pain in the posterior. Dev Devlin.
“How soon can we take the kids back to Jester?” he asked as he got to his feet.
“Since our questions have been answered to our satisfaction, I’ll try to cut through the red tape,” the supervisor told him. “Not much more than a week would be my estimation.”
A week. Amanda could have struck up a dance at that news even as her practical side thought of the need to buy furniture for four more bedrooms. She was ready to pay for the extra expense out of her own pocket, but she imagined she’d be foiled in that regard. The new Devlin house was apparently at least partly furnished, and she had little doubt that its owner would insist on completing the job. That was where male pride came in, and she suspected he had his share.
Now that they’d be forced to spend time together, it would probably be wise to remember that in the coming days. She knew it could only be in the best interests of both of them to try to get along as well as they could, and the sooner they developed a friendlier relationship, the better—starting tonight.
Tonight. Amanda’s smile faded as her nerves threatened to reassert themselves at the thought that she would no longer be occupying the small, cozy home so familiar to her. As a married woman, she was headed into uncharted territory, where she’d be living in a strange house, and sleeping in a new bed.
But how close would she and her new groom be sleeping to each other? That’s what her nerves wanted to know.
AMANDA WAS STILL wondering about possible sleeping arrangements when she got her first good look at the Devlin house long after the sun had set. Even in the darkness, a silvery moon shining down joined forces with the soft glow of a nearby streetlamp to showcase a two-story frame home made of light pine. To Amanda, its rustic finish and modern design seemed a surprisingly good mix, one that featured plenty of wide windows below the steeply pitched shingled roof and a large front door lined on both sides with more gleaming glass.
Walking through that door, she found it was much the same inside, where bone-colored plastered walls with a rugged texture and bare of any decoration provided a backdrop for sturdy pine furniture built along contemporary lines.
“I’ll give you the nickel tour in a minute,” Dev said. His boot heels tapped on the polished wood floor as he led the way through the spacious living room toward a tall staircase set near the middle of the house. “We might as well get your suitcase stowed away first.”
It didn’t escape Amanda’s notice that he handled the large piece of luggage as though it weighed nothing, which she knew was hardly the case, since she’d crammed it full in an effort to bring as many of her personal belongings as possible. Only a strong man could have managed it with ease, and this one seemed strong enough to have carried both it and his bride over the threshold with no trouble had he chosen to honor tradition.
Thankfully, he hadn’t.
Amanda followed as he turned right at the top of the staircase. “There are three bedrooms on one side of the stairs and three on the other,” he explained. “Yours is at the end of the hall here.”
It didn’t take Amanda long to conclude that the room he’d referred to as hers was the master bedroom. Its size alone told her that. Again, the furniture it held was modern in style, including a pine bed large enough for her to get lost in—if she were sleeping here. Which, she assured herself, she wasn’t.
“I’m not taking your bedroom,” she said in no uncertain terms. “This is your house, and you belong here.”
He set her suitcase down near a heavy dresser topped by a tall mirror and reached up to thumb back his wide-brimmed hat. “It makes more sense for you to stay here,” he said, gesturing toward a closed door at one end of the room. “That leads to the smallest bedroom, where the littlest of the kids can sleep. With you here, you can keep an ear out for her.”
She shook her head. “It may make sense, but it’s not right. You should have the master bedroom.”
“I don’t think so.” His jaw settled into a stubborn line. “The one at the other end of the house is the next biggest, and that’s plenty of space for me.”
“Not as I see it.”
“But it’s my turn to get my way,” he said, arching a brow.
That statement had her frowning in a heartbeat. She knew she’d lost, because she’d already agreed to go along with that plan for compromise, and she kept her word. But she didn’t have to like it. “Okay, I’ll stay here, but I’m saving my turn to use to good advantage.”
“Fine.” If that warning worried him, it didn’t show. “Why don’t you hang up your coat and we’ll go over the rest of the house?”
She hung her raincoat on an empty rack in a closet nearly the size of her old bedroom and poked her head into a connecting bath that turned out to be several sizes bigger than the one she was used to. It all but screamed for some color, with most everything in sight, including the thick towels, a sparkling white. Nevertheless, it was…dazzling.
“Good Lord,” she said, “you could hold a party in the tub alone.”
A low chuckle came from behind her. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
She turned and found that his blue eyes had taken on more than a hint of amusement. He was enjoying his newly acquired wealth, that was pretty plain. It came as little surprise, since from what she’d heard of the Devlin family, he’d grown up with few of the conveniences he could now readily afford. The irony of it was that, while she herself had grown up in a comfortably middle-class household, even a very happy one before her father had disappeared from her life, he seemed more at ease with the luxuries currently at his command.
Then again, Dev Devlin had had several months to get used to being a millionaire. She was still groping to take in the fact that she’d become the wife of one.
“I’m ready for the tour you mentioned,” she said with all the briskness she could muster.
“Right this way.” With that, he offered an oh-so-polite bow from the waist, displaying a smooth yet forceful command of his body soon duplicated by a large black cat that met them in the hallway.
“This is Rufus,” Dev said by way of introduction. “He used to mostly hang out in my room behind the saloon. Now he’s got a whole house to roam around in, and I never know where he’ll pop out from.”
Amanda bent and held a hand out, but Rufus kept his distance. “I suppose he’ll have to get c
omfortable with me.”
“Uh-huh.” Dev reached down to run his fingers over the cat’s back, which immediately produced a loud purr. “Don’t be surprised if it takes a while. He was mainly skin and bones when I came across him looking for a meal and doing his best to pry the lid off a garbage can a few summers back. Even after I began feeding him regularly, it took some time before he started cozying up to me.”
She straightened. “It certainly seems as though he’s eating well now.”
“There’s plenty meat on those bones,” Dev agreed. He gave the cat a last rub and gestured to an open doorway. “That’s the hall entrance to the smallest bedroom. Nothing in the room now, but we’ll fix that before the kids get here.”
After one look, Amanda had to judge it perfect for the littlest of the Bradley bunch. And the empty bedroom across the hall next to a second bath would fit another of the children, she decided as the tour continued. “As the eldest,” she said, “Liza seems protective of the younger children. I think she’d be more comfortable if she was as close to Betsy as possible.”
“I can’t say I’m all that familiar with kids, but I guess it makes sense,” Dev allowed as they headed for the other side of the center staircase, the cat leading the way.
“These bedrooms should suit the boys to a T,” Amanda told him after poking her head into the first two rooms they came to. Another bath came next, and then the last bedroom on the far end of the hall. His bedroom. She held back a sigh that might have spelled relief at the thought that at least their rooms were nowhere near each other.
His was furnished in much the same fashion as the master bedroom, she noted, glancing around while he took off his hat and suit jacket and tossed them on an overstuffed chair. Like the twin chairs in the biggest bedroom, plus the assortment of chairs and long sofa in the living room, it was covered in a natural-colored fabric framed by light wood. “For some reason,” she said, tucking her tongue in her cheek, “I’m beginning to suspect that you have a love affair with pine.”
