He pushed the memories away and pulled into the auto shop a few minutes after nine and spent the following hour with one of his mechanics, Stuart, assessing the damage to Marnie’s vehicle. It was mostly cosmetic, with the front lights on the driver’s side smashed and some damage to the suspension and radiator. He wrote an accurate quote, made a copy and spent another hour working on a car that had been in the shop for the last week. He really needed to find another qualified mechanic to help out, given how busy they’d gotten, so once he was back in his office, he wrote himself a note for Monday to place an advertisement for the position. He had two full-time mechanics on the books and a schoolkid who came in two afternoons a week, but it still wasn’t enough to keep him off the tools and in the office. He had a bookkeeper who worked every Tuesday morning to keep on top of invoicing and payroll, but Joss knew that to build the business even further he needed to spend time working on the business. Still, he’d come a long way in ten years. He owned his home outright, had three investment properties in town and money in the bank. Of course, he was a Culhane, but having his own legacy was important, and ranching had never been his thing. He could ride a horse as well as any of siblings and helped out at the ranch if he was needed, but after his family, cars were his great love.

  He left the shop around twelve and headed for the supermarket to pick up a few things and spotted his brother Jake in the produce section, pushing a shopping cart, his young son at his side. Jake was the second eldest, a former soldier who now ran a high-tech security firm with a friend from Sacramento. He’d married Abby Perkins a year or so earlier. Jake had only discovered he had a child when he returned to town following an accident that had almost killed their older brother, Mitch. Yeah, Jake and Abby had a complicated history, but they seemed to have worked things out—and Jake was certainly making up for lost time as a father.

  Joss had long suspected T.J. was his brother’s child, but had kept his suspicions to himself. A bad move, he realized now, since it was likely Jake would have returned to Cedar River years before if he’d known he’d fathered a son with his former girlfriend. But the past couldn’t be changed—Joss knew that better than most.

  “Hey, Uncle Joss!” T.J. announced as he approached.

  Joss shook Jake’s hand. “How’s things?”

  “Good. Abby’s working all afternoon and tonight, so we’re going to make nachos for dinner and watch football,” Jake said. “There’s some convention on at the hotel this weekend.”

  Abby was the head chef at the O’Sullivan’s Hotel. “Yeah, I heard,” Joss remarked.

  Jake nodded. “If you’re not busy you can bring the girls over, unless they’re with your in-laws this weekend.”

  “No, I kept them home,” he said and then explained about the weather, the callout he’d had the night before, Mrs. Floyd’s accident and his houseguest.

  “So, she’s staying with you?” Jake asked, clearly keeping an eye on his young son who was now a couple of feet away and hovering by a stand stacked with candy apples.

  “She stayed last night,” he emphasized.

  “And you said she’s your new tenant?”

  “Yeah,” Joss replied. “But she got into town a few days earlier than she’d expected and had a mix-up with the B and B she’d booked into. And of course there’s no room available at the hotel over the weekend.”

  “Is she staying tonight, too?”

  “I don’t know,” he said and shrugged. “It’s kind of an unusual situation. She’s going to be Clare’s teacher.”

  “So you said.”

  “Anyway, I should get—”

  Jake grinned. “Is she pretty?”

  Heat crawled uncharacteristically up his neck. “She’s not not pretty. Which is beside the point. Thanks for the invite but I’ll take a rain check.”

  “You could always ask Mitch and Tess to put her up in one of the cabins at the ranch,” Jake suggested.

  He was already regretting having said anything. “We’ll see.”

  “Or if you’re worried about having a not not pretty woman in your home and also not having a chaperone, she could come and stay with us,” his brother said, his grin widening. “Abby will be home by eight.”

  “I’m not worried about—” He stopped, realizing that Jake was dissing him and then looked around to make sure T.J. wasn’t in hearing distance. “You’re an ass.”

  “I’m your big brother, that’s my job. Anyway, if it gets too complicated the offer is there.”

  “The house she’s leased will be ready in a couple of days,” he said, almost to himself. “I can handle a couple of days. Besides, she’s not my type.”

  “She’s not?”

  “No,” he affirmed. “For one, she’s a college professor. And she talks too much.”

  “A woman who talks,” Jake teased. “Unbearable.”

  Joss expelled a sharp breath. “I meant that she’s—ah, hell... I’m not gonna get out of this without sounding like a jerk, so I’m not saying anything more. Catch you later.”

  He high-fived T.J. and then quickly got on with the grocery shopping, ignoring the heat lingering around his jawline as he pushed the shopping cart and picked out the things he needed. By the time he got home it was past two o’clock.

  And Marnie Jackson was curled up on the love seat on the porch, wrapped in a fluffy blanket, apparently fast asleep.

  * * *

  Marnie was caught in that place between dozing and sleep and having a lovely semi-dream. She was home, in her own bed, sleeping in late on the weekend, and she could hear someone mowing a lawn in the distance as the scent of fresh grass clung to the air. But it wasn’t a dream. She couldn’t actually hear the familiar sounds, catch the scents. And she wasn’t at home. She was in Cedar River. She was endeavoring to tie up the loose ends of her mother’s life.

  “Are you trying to catch pneumonia?”

  A deep voice thrust her quickly out of her drowse and she jackknifed up, grappling for the blanket she’d tucked around herself. She looked up and saw Joss standing on the top step, a couple of grocery bags in his hands. Snow stuck to his hair and boots and even with the grocery bags, in his jeans and sheepskin-lined coat, he looked wholly masculine.

  “Pneumonia?”

  “Sleeping outside is a sure way to get ill.”

  “Oh, I was only resting,” she assured him. “And I’ve only been out here for about fifteen minutes, so not long enough to—”

  “It’s snowing, and cold,” he remarked, cutting her off.

  “I know,” she said and sat up straight, noticing a small red SUV parked behind the Ranger in the driveway. “But it looked so pretty out here I just wanted to sit for a while. Sissy gave me a blanket and since they’re both in their rooms I thought I’d spend a little time outside getting acclimated to this weather.”

  “Getting a cold, more like,” he said and gestured her to return inside. “I take it you haven’t dealt with snow before?”

  She shook her head and got to her feet. “Only on television. I’m used to dry weather, so this is a huge change for me.”

  “Yeah,” he said and waited for her to walk inside before he crossed the threshold and closed the door, “and you shouldn’t take any risks.”

  “I won’t,” she said. “But it looked too good to resist.”

  “I bet you won’t be saying that once you’ve lived in Cedar River for a while.”

  “Are you always such a grouch?” she asked bluntly.

  He stopped midstride and looked down at her, the lack of space in the hallway suddenly making it seem ridiculously intimate. His cheeks were flushed and it made his eyes greener, if that were possible. “I’m not a grouch.”

  Marnie raised one brow slowly. “Could have fooled me.”

  “Actually,” he said quietly. “I’ve been told I’m charming.”

  She laughed loudly and headed for the kitchen, figuring that was where he was going with the grocery bags. She folded the blanket and placed it on the back of a chair and watched as he unpacked the bags.

  “Need some help?” she asked.

  He shook his head, took a sheet of paper from his inside jacket pocket and passed it to her. “Your estimate,” he explained. “The damage isn’t as bad as it could have been, considering.”

  Marnie looked over the page and nodded. “Seems reasonable. Thank you for doing that so quickly. I’ll contact my insurer and get things started. In the meantime, is there somewhere I can rent a car in town? I’ll need a vehicle to get back and forth from school.”

  He reached into his other pocket, extracted a small set of keys and pushed them across the countertop. “The car I drove home is the courtesy vehicle I keep at the shop. You can use that until yours is back on the road.”

  Marnie was stunned. “I couldn’t possibly.”

  “You say that a lot,” he remarked. “You need a car—I have a spare. And like you said, you need to be able to get to work. I need to make sure you can pay your rent, after all.”

  Marnie’s expression tightened. “I’ve already paid the security deposit and a month in advance, but can write you a check for the next three months right now if you like?”

  “There’s no need,” he replied and casually put the groceries away. Once he was done, he took off his jacket and hung the garment on a hook near the back door. “Did the girls have lunch while I was gone?”

  She nodded. “Sissy made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They were pretty good.”

  He made a face and then half smiled. “Did Clare talk your ear off?”

  “For a while,” she replied. “But Sissy made her settle down with a book on her iPad after lunch. It sounded like she has reading to catch up on for school.”

  He nodded. “Thanks for watching them.”

  “I didn’t do much.”

  “You didn’t have to,” he countered. “Sometimes just being in the room is enough when it comes to my kids. They like to do their own thing, but they like having company while they do it.”

  “Well, I was glad to help. But I guess I should be going.”

  “Did you find a hotel room?”

  Marnie met his gaze. “Not in town. But there’s a hotel in Rapid City that has a vacancy.”

  “That’s a forty-five-minute drive,” he remarked. “And...” He gestured to the snow falling again outside the window.

  She shrugged. “I know, but it’s—”

  “I could have the house ready for you by Tuesday, maybe even Monday afternoon if I can get the plumber out sooner,” he said, turning to her, hands on hips. The gesture broadened the width of his shoulders and made her giddy for a second.

  Stupid girl.

  “Oh, I didn’t think—”

  “I can work on the place tonight and tomorrow afternoon,” he said, cutting her off, “if you hang out here and stay with the girls. I don’t mind leaving them during the day for a few hours, but I never like leaving them in the evenings.”

  Did that mean she would stay another night? Or two? Or three? She didn’t think that was such a great idea—not when she was quickly discovering that she was ridiculously vulnerable to his broad shoulders and green eyes. Not that he had given her a second look—or even a first look. But she didn’t want to get busted ogling him again like she had been caught that morning over breakfast.

  “I’ll stay for a while,” she agreed. “But I can still drive to Rapid City tonight.”

  “Again, not a great idea,” he said. “You’re not experienced at driving in this kind of weather. If you really aren’t comfortable staying here, I can take you to my family’s ranch—there’s a guest cabin there that I’m pretty sure is vacant. Or, my brother Jake and his wife have a big house down by the river. I actually bumped into Jake at the supermarket this afternoon and he said you’d be welcome to stay there if you prefer.”

  Jake Culhane? Who was married to Abby, the cousin she’d never met and who probably didn’t know she existed? It was a chance to connect more of the dots. But it felt wrong, like she was manipulating things too quickly, even though she was jumping inside at the idea of meeting the other woman.

  Marnie met his gaze. Yes, he was a little grouchy, and yes, he did seem to push the odd button or two when they had a conversation. But there was also something very honest about Joss Culhane that she couldn’t ignore. He didn’t make her feel threatened in any way. In fact, her reaction to him was quite the opposite.

  “I’ll stay here,” she said quietly. “If you’re sure you’re okay with it. I mean, you and Sissy and Clare are the only people I know in town. And in a way, I am responsible for you not having a sitter.”

  “You are?”

  “Well, if I hadn’t driven my car off the road and you hadn’t been called out to rescue me, Mrs. Floyd wouldn’t have been here and wouldn’t have sprained her ankle, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Marnie heard the humor in his voice and managed a tight smile. “Thank you for rescuing me, by the way.”

  “All part of the job.”

  “I know,” she said. “But I appreciate it. And thank you for being so accommodating.” She hesitated. “I’m not used to having to rely on other people.”

  He crossed his arms. “So, you’re an independent woman?”

  “I try to be,” she admitted. “I live alone, I change my own light bulbs, I swat my own spiders.”

  “No boyfriend?”

  “An ex,” she said. “Who I was well rid of.”

  “Is he the reason for the change of pace you said you wanted?”

  Marnie inhaled and half shrugged. “Partly. I also wanted to find myself.”

  “Were you lost?” he asked quietly, and suddenly there didn’t seem to be any other sounds in the room.

  She looked at him and saw no humor or judgment in his expression. “A little. My mom died eight months ago and it changed the way I viewed things. Changed me, I guess you could say.”

  “And your father?” he asked.

  “My parents divorced years ago, and my dad remarried,” she replied. “I still see him, but I was always much closer to my mom, so it was devastating when she died.”

  “Losing someone you love does change you,” he said quietly.

  Marnie’s throat tightened. Of course, he’d had firsthand experience. “I imagine you’d know that better than most.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. But it’s true what they say about time—it helps us heal.” His tone softened, ever so slightly.

  “I hope so,” she said, sighing. “Some days it’s all I can think about. How much I miss her, I mean. Other days, I do whatever I can to stop myself from thinking about it.”

  Something in his gaze flickered. “That’s grief. And perfectly natural.”

  She knew that, but she was surprised by how easily he’d picked up on it. “You’re a good listener.”

  He swallowed and she watched the way his throat moved. “I have two daughters, so it goes with the territory. So, I’m gonna head down to the house and finish up a few things. You can stay here and watch the snow some more. But from the living room window, okay?”

  Marnie grinned and felt herself melt a little. She knew it was foolish. Knew she was setting herself up for a big fall. Men like Joss Culhane didn’t spare glances, attention or anything else on ordinary women like herself. She wasn’t beautiful. She wasn’t worldly. She wasn’t sexy or flirtatious. She was essentially a geek to the core. Sure, she was smart and successful in her field. She was a good teacher. A good daughter. A loyal friend. But as she watched him leave, Marnie wished she was sexy and flirtatious, because maybe that would mean she would know how to hold his interest...even if it was just for a moment.

  She also knew she had to snap out of it and focus on why she’d come to Cedar River in the first place. It was for her mom. Her family. Not for romance or anything like that.

  And not to lust after the sexiest man she’d ever met, either!

  Chapter Four

  Joss worked at the house through the afternoon, repairing hinges on several cupboards in the kitchen, finishing off the tiling in the bathroom, and tried to ignore the niggling voice at the back of his mind telling him his motives weren’t only about getting the house ready for the new tenant. They were also about not spending any more time than necessary around Marnie Jackson.

  Dr. Jackson, he corrected himself. Smart. Sassy. Successful. Independent.

  Like he hoped his own girls would be, in fact, when they grew up.

  The niggling voice wanted to add the word attractive to the mix, but Joss pushed the thought aside. He didn’t want to get distracted by that kind of nonsense. He had too much going on in his life. Since discovering his father had resurfaced and wanted to reconnect, he knew he had a decision to make. The old man was sick—dying—and he wanted to make amends. But some things were too painful to forgive; and Joss had only bad memories from those years after his mother had died, when Billie-Jack had given up on being a parent and found his solace in booze. The truth was, Joss wasn’t keen to have that kind of drama in his life. Losing Lara had switched off something inside him and made him extra protective of what he did have—like his children. And they didn’t need to witness him having to deal with Billie-Jack if he decided to reconnect with his parent.

  His cell rang and he quickly answered the call. It was Mitch.

  “I hear you have a houseguest?”

  Joss sucked in a breath. “Jake’s been talking, has he?”

  Mitch chuckled. “Maybe. He said you think she’s pretty.”

  Joss scowled. “That’s not what I—” He stopped talking and sighed again, certain his brother was laughing on the other end of the call. “I’m not saying anything else about it. Or her. Now, did you want something?”