Sweet Home Colorado (The O'Malley Men) Read Online Free Page A

that.”
    He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Did I say
anything?”
    She grinned. That would doubtless
be very nice. She wondered what it would be like to have a young, virile man
like Jack make love to her. Instead of a selfish older man like Edward who was
also a lousy lover.
    Wondering what sort of lover Jack would be, now that he was a
man—not a fumbling teen—Grace felt her face heat.
    “Are you okay?” Jack asked. “You look flushed.”
    “I’m fine,” she said, working to recover her equilibrium. “But
can we negotiate? I’d very much like you to restore this house for me.”
    “Then you’ll have to help with it,” he said, and glanced
pointedly at her manicured nails.
    “You’ve got to be joking! You have a foreman, so I assume you
have a crew of workers. How would I be able to help?”
    “You can sweep up, run down to the hardware store for supplies.
Make lunch for the gang. Paint walls. Stuff like that.”
    “And my trip to Europe?”
    “You and I both know you just made that up.”
    Grace chewed her lip. Jack was pretty shrewd. “I’d like to go to Europe sometime.”
    “Then you can. When we’ve finished this project.”
    We. The word scared her, especially
in relation to Jack. They’d dated for two years but had only made love once—the
night before Jack headed off for the peace corps and she left for college. Jack
had excited her far more that fateful night than Edward ever did the entire time
they were married.
    And Jack had given her what Edward never could.
    Why they’d waited so long to make love, she had no idea. But
six weeks later, feeling as if she had a bad case of the flu but suspecting
worse in spite of their use of birth control, Grace had purchased a pregnancy
test.
    When it came back positive, Grace knew she had only two
options. Since the first went against her beliefs about preserving human life,
she started making inquiries about adoption. If she’d known Jack was in town,
Grace would never have come back to Spruce Lake. Her fear that he would discover
her secret was too great. She was sure her guilt was written all over her
face.
    “What’s up?” he asked. “Your face is flushed again.”
    To prevent Jack from asking any further questions she stuck out
her hand. “If I agree to your outrageous terms, do we have a deal?”
    What was she saying? She couldn’t get out of town fast enough
to prevent Jack from somehow discovering the truth, yet here she was agreeing to
stay and help. Then again, it wasn’t like she had anything else to do for the
next few months—so why not stay? She owed him that for making time in his
schedule and she really needed to have the house restored before it completely
fell to pieces. She couldn’t live with that sort of disgrace.
    And besides, how hard could it be watching Jack working under
the hot sun? Seeing him again, she couldn’t get rid of the notion they had
unfinished business. Business that had nothing to do with the child they shared,
but a whole lot to do with sex.
    She’d kept her secret safe this long. She could keep it to
herself a bit longer.
    Jack took her hand and held it. “Deal.”
    His hand felt warm and strong. Grace didn’t want to let it go.
Where was Jack when she’d broken down at the hospital the other day? She was
sure if she’d had his strong shoulders to lean on, she wouldn’t have had such a
public meltdown.

Chapter Three
    “Boss!”
    They jumped apart at Al’s shout.
    “I’m done with the estimate for the outside. I’ll leave the
rest to you, okay?” he said. “Maria’s giving me hell about getting home for
dinner with the kids tonight.”
    “Sure, sure,” Jack said. “Stop by Mrs. Carmichael’s and pick up
a big bunch of flowers for that wonderful wife of yours.” Jack drew his cell out
of his pocket. “I’ll call Mrs. C. She’ll be waiting outside her shop.”
    Al’s face broke into a wide smile. “I knew there was a reason I
worked for a slave driver like