LITMIR.BIZ

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place for our animals, but we haven’t bought animals yet. We were gonna make a barn for the animals, too, but we ran out of room, so Aunt Mandy has gotta get another table. Just a little one, since we’re already using a bunch of space in here and this is where I like to play.”

      “I see.” Daniel did see. There was only one wall in Kaden’s room that wasn’t graced with family photos, and that wall instead housed bookshelves that were the width and height of the entire wall.

      And the shelves weren’t empty. On the contrary, they were filled with all kinds of books on parenting; raising little boys; building sandcastles; playing baseball; learning to ride a bicycle; how to safely catch and raise frogs, turtles and lizards, and every other subject that might be appealing to a woman trying to raise a four-year-old boy. The bottom two shelves were filled with books for said boy, great bedtime stories. Daniel was thrilled to see that several of those books were Bible stories. David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, Moses and the Ten Commandments.

      “Do you know where we can get the animals for the barn?” Kaden asked. “Aunt Mandy was going to take me to the store today after we went to the park, but then we ran out of gas. Do you know where to buy toy animals?”

      “I’m not sure.” Daniel assumed the Tiny Tots Treasure Box was still the place to go for toys on the square, but he wasn’t certain whether Mr. Feazell carried the kind of animals Kaden would want for his wilderness lodge.

      “That’s okay. Aunt Mandy will know.”

      “Well, if she doesn’t, I’m sure she’ll find out,” he said, still surprised at the amount of effort she was obviously putting into raising Kaden.

      A bell echoed through the home, and Kaden took off toward the stairs. “Customers,” he said. “Come on.”

      Daniel followed him as he barreled down the stairs, through the kitchen and then through the studio-lined hallway to reach the main store.

      “Oh, hey!” Kaden yelled.

      “Well, hello,” a woman’s voice said.

      Daniel caught up and rounded the corner to see Jessica Martin and her two children in the gallery. Her son stood by her side and her little girl slept sweetly on Jessica’s shoulder with her thumb hanging from her mouth.

      “Well, hey, Daniel. I asked Mandy earlier if you were back in town yet. I saw in the church bulletin on Sunday that you took the job as youth minister. Can’t tell you how excited Chad and I were to see that.”

      “Thanks. I’m pretty excited myself. Glad to be back home, especially with Kaden here.” He squeezed Kaden’s shoulders.

      Jessica glanced around the shop. “So, is Mandy here?”

      “No, we ran out of gas, and Uncle Daniel helped us, but now she’s getting the gas in the truck so she can come back here,” Kaden said, visibly trying to sound like the knowledgeable “big boy” in front of Nathan, who nodded as though he were the only one needing an explanation.

      “Well, I’m glad you were able to help.” Jessica opened her purse and pulled out a card. “I remembered after we left that I didn’t think to give Mandy my cell number. Since the photos are a surprise for Chad’s birthday, I wanted to drop by and give it to her. Can you pass this on to her?”

      “Sure,” Daniel said, taking the card.

      “You want to go see my log house?” Kaden asked Nathan. “Aunt Mandy got this book to show us how to make it. It’s called a wilderness lodge, cause if it was real, it’d be in the wilderness. That’s what Aunt Mandy said.”

      “Oh, that’s so nice of you to ask, Kaden,” Jessica said. “But I was about to head over to Scraps and Crafts to pick up a few things for the daycare. Maybe I can bring Nathan back sometime when he can play with you awhile, or maybe you could come over to our house and play sometime.”

      “Okay,” Kaden said, his disappointment evident.

      Jessica looked thoughtful. “You know, I’m going to be busy looking at things for the daycare, but Nathan will probably want to check out some of the toys she keeps at the back of the store. Would you like to come look at those with him?”

      “Do you think they have farm animals? I need some for my wilderness lodge,” Kaden said.

      “I don’t know, but you could check and see,” Jessica said.

      Kaden turned to Daniel. “Can I go? Please?”

      Daniel was taken aback at first that Kaden would ask his permission. He wasn’t his parent or guardian. But he wanted to be, very much. And he couldn’t deny that it felt good to have even a semblance of what that role would entail. “I think that’d be fine,” he said.

      “Cool!”

      “We’ll be back soon,” Jessica said. “Twenty minutes tops.”

      “Sounds great,” Daniel said, then caught Kaden’s attention before he headed out the door. “Hey, Kaden, come here a minute.”

      Kaden darted back to Daniel with a questioning gaze. “Yes, sir?”

      Have mercy, he was a sweet kid. “Here you go, in case you find some animals that will work for your lodge.” He withdrew his wallet and pulled out a five.

      “Wow, Uncle Daniel!” Kaden said, grinning. “Thanks!” Then he turned and joined Nathan near the door.

      “We won’t be long,” Jessica repeated. “I still have to cook supper.”

      “Take your time,” Daniel said, and moved to open the door so she could pass through with Lainey now softly snoring on her shoulder.

      He watched them walk away, started back through the shop and heard a commotion in the back that he could only assume was the store’s owner. Daniel calmly passed through the hall and beyond the two studios to the rear entrance behind the kitchen where, sure enough, Mandy threw her keys on a counter, dropped her purse and blew long dark bangs from her eyes. She looked up and announced, “I’m not leaving, Daniel.”

      Have mercy, she was even prettier when she was mad. “Well, fancy that, Mandy. Neither am I.”

      Chapter Four

      Mandy’s mind was made up, and there was nothing Daniel Brantley could do to change it. The entire drive from the gas station to the town square, Mia’s words kept reverberating through her mind.

      “Mandy, please, promise me. Take care of Kaden.” On that awful night in the emergency room before Mia’s last breath, Mandy had made that promise, and since that night she’d done exactly that, she had taken care of Kaden. Then, because of one bad day and an impulsive email, Daniel thought he could traipse back into town and take over, discount everything she’d done right because of one little thing she did wrong.

      Fixated on how bad a mistake it was to send that stupid email, Mandy had slammed the door, flung her keys and tossed her purse. Then she got that eerie sick feeling that someone was watching her, and she lost her breath. Then again, this was the same guy that had continually taken her breath away throughout middle school and high school. Back then it was because he was the most gorgeous guy she’d ever seen. Now it was because she was startled to find six feet of mostly muscled and quite magnificent male suddenly standing in the middle of her kitchen.

      But there he stood, piercing blue eyes, sandy hair that was never fixed but always looked absolutely perfect, strong cheekbones and a mouth that seemed to harbor a perpetual semi smirk each and every time he looked at Mandy. Unquestionably still the most attractive man ever. She’d known he was here with Kaden, so it shouldn’t have surprised her to run smack-dab into him when she entered the back of her home. But it did, and she had to concentrate to control her racing pulse.

      Why did the entire package of Daniel Brantley

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