she replied. “But if you catch a big old catfish then Mommy can fry it up for supper, and there’s nothing better than Mommy’s fried catfish.”
“I’m not going to catch much of anything if you keep talking. You’ll scare all the fish away.”
She giggled, a pleasant, childish sound. “Silly boy. Fish don’t have ears and you sound a little bit crabby.”
“I am just a little bit crabby,” he replied, hoping that would end the conversation and she’d go find somebody else to talk to.
“Well, you can just get happy in the same pants you got crabby in,” she exclaimed.
An unexpected burst of laughter escaped him, the sound rusty from lack of use. She grinned, pleased that she’d made him laugh.
“I’m Macy Marie Butler,” she continued. “And I’m a little princess. My mommy is a big princess, and you don’t have to be scared of monsters when we’re around.”
“And why is that?” Sam asked, despite his desire to be left alone.
“Monsters don’t have any power when there are princesses around.”
“Macy Marie!” Daniella’s voice drifted to them from the back porch.
“Uh-oh. I’m in big trouble now.” The little girl released a deep sigh. “Here she comes and she’s gonna yell at me. I might even get a time-out.”
Sam turned to see Daniella coming down the walk, the skirt swirling with each determined stride she took. When she reached them she gave her daughter a stern look. “Macy, go on and get to your room. You know you aren’t supposed to bother the guests.”
“She wasn’t bothering me,” Sam surprised himself by saying. “In fact, I was probably bothering her by asking so many questions about the fishing.”
Daniella eyed him dubiously, but Macy gave him a beatific grin. “And I was explaining to him about monsters and that you and I are princesses,” Macy added.
Daniella’s cheeks flushed with color, and once again Sam was struck with a tiny flicker of heat in the pit of his stomach. God, the woman had a smile that could sizzle an egg in a cold skillet.
“Yes, well, this little princess needs to get inside and clean her room,” she said, and gave Macy a pat on her bottom.
As Macy ran toward the house Daniella looked at Sam once again. “The princess thing—it started as a story to help with her nightmares of monsters.” She looked decidedly uncomfortable.
“So I guess that means you don’t want me to call you Your Highness,” Sam said. He began to wind in his fishing line.
“Definitely not,” she replied with a small laugh.
“Still, it’s nice to know you have the monster thing under control.”
“Thankfully in Bachelor Moon we don’t have to worry much about monsters. Can I bring you a glass of iced tea or something?” she asked, obviously eager to change the subject.
He shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He cast his line out closer to the shore where Macy had indicated he should be fishing.
“Again, I apologize for my daughter. She can be a bit of a handful.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” Sam assured her. “Besides, I’m sure she’s the apple of her daddy’s eyes.”
Her eyes darkened. “I divorced my husband a year ago. Enjoy the rest of the morning and we’ll see you inside for lunch.” She didn’t wait for a reply but instead turned on her heel and hurried back toward the house.
Sam watched her until she disappeared into the house, then turned back and stared out at the pond. The whole bed-and-breakfast thing was a pretty big operation for a single mother.
Of course, just because she wasn’t married didn’t mean she was all alone. A woman as gorgeous as Daniella Butler probably had any number of men willing to step up and help her in whatever way she needed.
Sam wouldn’t mind helping her if she needed a body to warm her bed. He definitely found her physically attractive, and it had been way too long since Sam had been with any woman.
Monsters. Sam didn’t worry much about the monsters he encountered in his work. What he worried about was the monster he feared slept deep in his soul, a monster that might awaken at any moment.
DANIELLA STOOD AT THE back door and stared at the back of her newest guest. Hot. The man was definitely hot, with his slightly shaggy black hair and intense blue eyes.
When he’d first gotten out of his car and had stretched, she’d watched from the door and admired the width of his broad shoulders, emphasized by his lean torso and long legs.
Even though she’d officially sworn off men years ago, that didn’t mean she couldn’t lust after a particularly handsome specimen when he was right under her roof.
She told herself the slight flush of heat she felt was from the corn bread cooking in the oven and not from speaking with Mr. Hunky Sam Connelly.
Thinking about her corn bread, she opened the oven door to check on it. Dinner this evening would be a traditional gumbo with corn bread. Lunch would be chicken salad croissants with potato salad and coleslaw. It would only be Sam for lunch. Her long-term guest, Matt Rader, was rarely here for the noon meal.
When Daniella had opened the bed-and-breakfast she’d decided to offer three meals to her guests. She loved to cook and adding the additional meals meant she could also make a little money on the food.
And money was always an issue, so she was pleased that for the next month she was pretty well booked solid for the weekends.
Johnny would be so proud. The words jumped unbidden into her mind. As always, thoughts of her ex-husband brought with them myriad emotions that ranged from anger, to grief, to an uneasy lack of closure that might always haunt her.
The knock on the back door shoved thoughts of Johnny right out of her head. Frank Mathis peered in through the screen, and she motioned him inside.
“That flower bed on the north side of the house is looking pretty dismal,” he said. “I thought I’d head into town and pick up a couple of new plants to add in. Is there anything you need from the stores?”
She smiled at Frank, who had been her right-hand man since she’d bought the place a little over five years ago. He could make a flower bloom as easily as he could fix the temperamental air conditioner. “No, I think I’m good until Sunday when Macy and I will do some grocery shopping, but let me get you some money for the new plants.”
Frank raised a hand to dismiss the offer. “I’ll take care of it. I still have some of the money left that you gave me to replace those shrubs in the front.”
“Thanks, Frank. And you might want to plan to eat dinner here tonight. I’m making gumbo.”
He patted the slight paunch at his middle. “You know I love your gumbo. I’ll definitely be here.”
As Frank
