“Will you move any of your furniture here?”
“No,” he answered emphatically. “Frankly, I don’t like this old house and would be happy to sell it and move to my place.”
“That wasn’t what Elnora wanted at all!” Juliana ex- claimed, horrified by his reply. “This is a gorgeous home.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the entrance hall, and she remembered his ranch-style home with its western flair, a far cry from this antebellum house with its antiques and ornate furniture. His gaze returned to her. “You want to live here, don’t you?”
“Yes. And Elnora expected us to stay here.”
“To keep Snooks happy,” he replied dryly. “That cat will be content anywhere you open a can of cat food. If it were my decision alone, I’d tear down Green Oaks and rebuild.”
“You wouldn’t!” Juliana was appalled, running her fin- gers along the fine-grained wood of the banister.
“No, I won’t because you don’t want to,” he replied ca- sually, and she narrowed her eyes.
“You promise you won’t do something like that without discussing it first.”
His eyebrows arched. “I’ll remember it’s your house, too.”
“I hope you remember that,” she said. “It just isn’t in you to give a direct answer when it involves committing yourself.”
His head swung around and he gave her a level look. “I’ll discuss doing anything to the house with you. Actually, the subject is moot since you feel so strongly about living here. Anyway, I’ll be moving back to my place at the end of the year. I won’t have to live here long.”
Chris and Josh came toward them as Cal and Juliana as- cended the stairs. “We can’t find Snookums, so we’re going outside now.”
“Stay in the yard, Chris, and keep up with Josh.”
Stopping on the stairs, Cal looked down as they closed the front door behind them. “You were good to take three boys to raise.”
“I promised my sister that I would if anything ever hap- pened to her. At the time, we didn’t think anything could possibly happen.”
They entered the elegantly decorated bedroom in the northwest corner of the house that had been Juliana’s room when she had lived with Elnora. Juliana glanced around and moved to the bed to touch it, thinking how her life had changed since she’d worked for Elnora.
“Memories?” he asked as he stood across the bed from her and looked at her.
“Yes.” She was suddenly aware of the intimacy of the moment, the bed between them. “The times I stayed here were the most carefree times of my life.”
“Was this your room? Your bed?”
“Yes,” she answered, wondering why the questions sounded so personal. She moved away, turning toward the door. As they walked from room to room, she had trouble concentrating on the house and planning the move. To her consternation, she was far more conscious of the man at her side and the gleaming diamond on her finger.
She paused in another bedroom with a high four-poster bed. “There are so many rooms. I’ll have to decide where to put everyone. I can’t imagine a boy anywhere in this house, much less three rowdy ones.” She heard a noise and no- ticed Quin seated on the floor near the fireplace with Snookums on his lap.
“Quinton!”
He placed his fingers on his lips. “He likes it quiet.”
The cat switched his tail, his eyes mere slits as he tilted his head back while Quin stroked him.
“So there’s Snookums,” Cal stated. “Looks as happy and spoiled as ever. Looks as if the cat won’t have any dis- ruption in his life.” Cal crossed the room and knelt close to Quin and the cat.
“You like cats?”
“Yes, sir. We used to have one, but it was taken by someone.”
“Do you have a pet?”
“Not right now.”
Juliana moved around the room, trying not to intrude on the conversation, yet curious. As she watched him quietly talking to Quin, her opinion of Cal Duncan underwent an- other subtle shift, one that she didn’t welcome. Don’t be Mr. Wonderful with the boys. Don’t become important to us.
“I have a golden retriever named Red. I’ll bring him to live here.”
“Will he hurt Snookums?”
“No, he won’t hurt anything. Do you and your brothers like to canoe?”
Quin shrugged. “I don’t know how.”
“Well, some Saturday morning I’ll teach you and your brothers to paddle a canoe and to fish. A creek runs across the grounds here and there’s a boat dock. I have a canoe.”
“Yes, sir,” Quin said softly.
Juliana felt a pang at Quin’s subdued answer. Ever since the loss of his parents, Quin had been quiet and with- drawn, as if he was afraid to really show his feelings about anything. If Cal had asked Josh or Chris the same ques- tion, he would have received a resoundingly enthusiastic answer.
Cal’s dark trousers pulled tautly over his long legs, and his coat touched the floor as he hunkered down near Quin. Snookums climbed off Quin’s lap and rubbed his chin on Cal, who stood up after a moment.
Moving to the next bedroom, Juliana tried to decide what rooms to give the boys. “You’re good with kids,” she said when Cal entered the room.
“He’s a nice kid. He’s charmed that fur-ball.”
“I don’t know where I’ll put the boys.”
“One solution might be the third floor. Make it a dor- mitory.”
She hadn’t given any thought to the third floor. “That’s a possibility.” She went back into the hall to the door that opened onto stairs. Once upon a time, the third floor was servants’ quarters, but had been long since abandoned.
Cal reached around her to open the door, and she en- tered a short windowless hallway and staircase to the third floor. She flipped the light switch and glanced up at the fix- ture. “No light.” She moved ahead, climbing the dusty steps. “Gladys must not clean up here any longer.” As they climbed, Juliana was half-turned, making comments to him. As she put her
