LITMIR.BIZ

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could lock him in his room and feed him only gruel,” he muttered.

      She laughed. “He’s a teenage boy. I imagine he would figure out a way to sneak out and go for pizza.”

      He was quiet for a long moment. When she glanced over to gauge his expression and try to figure out what he was thinking about, she thought she detected a hint of color on his cheekbones.

      “Should I take him to buy condoms, just to be on the safe side?” he asked, without looking at her.

      The temperature between them seemed to heat up a dozen degrees and she knew it was not from the barbecue just a few feet away. She cleared her throat. “Maybe that’s a conversation you ought to have with his mother.”

      “I can’t discuss my nephew’s sex life with my sister while she’s in jail!”

      She supposed she ought to be flattered that he felt he could discuss such a delicate subject with her, but she couldn’t get past the trembling in her stomach just thinking about “Ross” and “condoms” in the same conversation.

      “I can’t tell you what to do,” she said. “You’re going to have to make that decision on your own. But I will say that if Josh were my son or in my care, it’s certainly a conversation I would have with him, especially if he’s becoming as serious with his girlfriend as you seem to believe.”

      He didn’t look very thrilled by the prospect, but he nodded. “I guess I’ll do that. Thanks for the advice. I can see why you make a good counselor. You’re very easy to talk to.”

      She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

      He gazed at her and she saw that heat flare in his eyes again. The world seemed to shiver to a stop and the night and the lovely gardens and the soft wind murmuring in the treetops seemed to disappear, leaving just the two of them alone with this powerful tug of attraction between them.

      He was inches from kissing her.

      Ross could feel the sweet warmth of her breath, could almost taste her on his mouth. He wanted her, with a fierce hunger that seemed to drive all common sense out of his head.

      He tried to hang on to all the reasons he shouldn’t kiss her. This was not supposed to be happening right now.

      His life was in total chaos, he had far too many people depending on him and the last thing he needed was to find himself tangled up with someone like Julie Osterman, someone soft and generous and entirely too sweet for a man like him.

      One kiss wouldn’t hurt anything, though. Only a tiny little taste. He leaned forward and heard a seductive little catch of her breath, felt the brush of her breast against his arm as she shifted slightly closer.

      His mouth was just a tantalizing inch away from hers when he suddenly heard the snick of the sliding door.

      “Ross?” Josh called out.

      Julie jerked away as if Ross had poked her with hot coals from the grill and the glider swayed crazily with the movement.

      “Over here,” Ross called.

      He didn’t like the way Josh skidded to a stop, his sizefourteen sneakers thudding against the tile patio, or the way his eyebrows climbed to find them sitting together so cozily on the glider.

      He also didn’t like the sudden speculative gleam in his nephew’s eyes.

      “Hi, Julie. I didn’t hear you come in.”

      She was breathing just a hair too quickly, Ross thought. “I only arrived a few moments ago. Your uncle and I were just…we were, um…”

      “Julie was helping me with the steaks. And speaking of which, I’d better turn them before they’re charred.”

      He definitely needed to get a grip on this attraction, he thought as he turned the steaks while Julie and Josh set the table out on the patio.

      She was a nice woman who was doing him a huge favor by helping him figure out how to handle sudden, unexpected fatherhood. It would be a poor way to repay her by indulging his own whims when he had nothing to offer her in return.

      “I think everything’s ready,” he said a few moments later.

      “We’re all set here,” Julie said from the table, where she sat talking quietly with Josh about school. They had set out candles, he saw, and Frannie’s nice china. It was a nice change from the paper plates he and Josh had been using while he was here.

      He went inside for the russet potatoes he had thrown in the oven earlier while they were waiting for her to arrive, and he put the tomato salad Julie had brought into a bowl.

      “Wow. I’m impressed,” Julie exclaimed as he set the foil packet containing her fish on her plate and opened it for her. The smell of tarragon and lemon escaped.

      “Better wait until you taste it before you say that,” he warned her.

      He knew only two ways to cook fish. Either battered and fried in tons of butter—something he tried not to do too often for obvious health reasons—or grilled in a packet with olive oil, lemon juice and a mix of easy spices.

      He knew he shouldn’t care so much what she thought but he still found it immensely gratifying when she closed her eyes with sheer delight at the first forkful. “Ross, this is delicious!”

      He was becoming like one of the teens she worked with, desperate for her approval. “Glad you like it. How’s the steak, Josh?”

      His nephew was still studying the two of them with entirely too much interest. “It’s good. Same as always.”

      “Nothing like family to deflate the old ego,” Ross said with a wry smile.

      “Sorry,” Josh amended. “What I meant to say is this is absolutely the best steak I have ever tasted. Every bite melts in my mouth. I think I could eat this every single day for the rest of my life. Is that better?”

      Julie laughed and it warmed Ross to see Josh flash her a quick grin before he turned back to his dinner. He didn’t know what it was about her, but when she was around, Josh seemed far more relaxed. More like the kid he used to be.

      “What are your plans after the summer?” she asked.

      Josh shrugged. “I’m not sure right now.”

      Ross looked up from dressing his potato and frowned. “What do you mean, you’re not sure? You’ve got an academic scholarship to A&M. It’s all you could talk about a few weeks ago.”

      His nephew looked down at his plate. “Yeah, well, things have changed a little since a few weeks ago.”

      “And in a few more weeks, this is all going to seem like a bad dream.”

      “Is it?” Josh asked quietly and the patio suddenly simmered with tension.

      “Yes. You’ll see. These ridiculous charges against your mom will be dropped and everything will be back to normal.”

      “My dad will still be dead.”

      He had no answer to that stark truth. “You’re not giving up a full-ride academic scholarship out of concern for your mother or some kind of misguided guilt over your dad’s death.”

      Josh’s color rose and he set his utensils down carefully on his plate. “It’s my scholarship, Uncle Ross. If I want to give it up, nobody else can stop me. You keep forgetting I’m not a kid anymore. I’ll be eighteen in a week, remember?”

      “I haven’t forgotten. But I also know that you have opportunities ahead of you and it would be a crime to waste those. I won’t let you do it.”

      “Good luck trying to stop me, if that’s what I decide to do,” Josh snapped.

      Ross opened his mouth to answer just as hotly but Josh’s cell phone suddenly bleated a sappy little tune he recognized as being the one Josh had programmed

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