Page 14 of The Runaway Bride's Vow

Her presence was the last thing he needed. The frown on her face only stoked his irritation. She shouldn’t judge him. She knew nothing about him or his life. And… Maybe that was the problem.

He sighed and placed his hands on his waist. “As a matter of fact, it was necessary. She was sent home from preschool yesterday because she didn’t feel well.” When he saw Brooke’s eyes light up with understanding, he continued. “Even though she feels better today, she can’t go back to preschool for a few days and the babysitter is on vacation. I don’t make it a habit of bringing my daughter to work with me. And after not being able to work yesterday, I didn’t want to call off. There’s too much work to be done.”

The worry lines on Brooke’s face eased once he explained his situation. “It’s good to know this was a one-off instance. We’re on a tight schedule. When will your crew be showing up?”

“You’re looking at the crew.”

“What?” She blinked as she stared at him. “It’s just the two of you to do all of this work?”

Not wanting her to panic and call Clara to have him fired, he said, “I also have sub-contracted all of the exterior work.”

Before she could say more, her phone went off, playing “Little White Church.” She pulled the phone from her white and purple polka dotted purse. She held a finger up for him to wait a moment.

He didn’t have time for this. He checked on Kaylie and then went back to work. A few minutes passed. He paused and didn’t hear Brooke on the phone. He could only hope she’d left.

When he glanced around, he found Brooke sitting on one of the benches, typing on her phone. He went back to work. He regularly checked on Kaylie, who appeared to be enjoying herself. She’d gotten out her coloring book and crayons from her backpack. She could spend a couple of hours coloring. Something told him she was going to be an artist when she grew up.

He wanted to glance over at the other side of the chapel to see if Brooke was still there, but he resisted the temptation. He didn’t want her to think it mattered to him if she was there or not.

He continued to sand the trim work at the front of the chapel. When he glanced over at his daughter, he noticed Brooke was with her. He paused the sander to hear what they were saying.

“Do you like to color?” Brooke asked Kaylie.

His daughter nodded. She showed Brooke some of the pages in her coloring book. He noticed how his daughter sat up tall as Brooke praised her work, and Kaylie’s mouth lifted into a big smile.

“Wanna color too?” Kaylie held out a red crayon.

Brooke accepted the crayon as she settled on the floor. She slipped off her high heels and didn’t seem to mind that she was wearing nice dress clothes.

He continued to watch as the two of them discussed who should color what parts of the page. It was really hard to stay irritated with Brooke when she was able to make his daughter smile and laugh. Not feeling the need to interfere, he went back to work.

When he stopped at lunchtime, he couldn’t believe Brooke was still there and didn’t seem to have any interest in going anywhere. And his daughter was all smiles instead of complaining that she wanted to go home.

He approached them. He centered his attention on his daughter. “What have you been up to?”

Kaylie beamed a bright smile. “We colored. Want to see?”

A quick glance in Brooke’s direction revealed she was smiling too. As he took in her beautiful face, the words got trapped in the back of his throat. Maybe she wasn’t so bad—especially now that she wasn’t spilling coffee on him or hitting him with doors.

“Daddy?”

He swallowed hard and focused back on his daughter. “Oh, wow.” He stared at the colored picture of a puppy and a tree. “That’s really pretty. You did a really good job.”

“Brooke helped.”

He didn’t want to speak to Brooke, but his daughter had this expectant look on her face, and she wasn’t about to move on to another subject until he acknowledged Brooke’s contribution. He looked at Brooke. “You did a really good job too.”

“I didn’t do much. It was mostly your daughter.”

Was that a bit of a blush on her cheeks? He didn’t think it was possible for her to look even more beautiful, but she did. The thought caught him off guard. He thought she was beautiful? He supposed it was true, but it didn’t mean anything. Lots of women were beautiful…maybe not as gorgeous as Brooke when she smiled and her eyes sparkled.

He cleared his throat. “Kaylie, clean up your stuff, and we’ll go get some lunch.” He gestured for Brooke to follow him down the aisle a ways. “Thank you for spending time with Kaylie. You kept her from getting bored.”

Brooke shrugged off his words. “I didn’t do much. She’s a lot of fun to be around. And you looked like you could use the help.”

Why did she have to take a friendly moment and ruin it by implying that he couldn’t get his work done? It wasn’t the first time he’d had to balance his responsibilities, nor would be it be the last.

“I want you to know this arrangement is only temporary.” He turned to walk away.

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