place, under different…normal circumstances.
His timing was disastrous as always. Hell, she’d put him out on his ass and call the police if she knew why he was really here.
“Well, I’d better get this guy to bed. Thanks again for your help. Aren’t you glad you got the room with so much privacy?” she teased.
“Nothing like it,” he laughed. “Goodnight, Mrs. Burnett.”
“Please, after all this, call me Cally.”
“All right, Cally. I’m Marcus.” He reached out and shook her hand again.
He wasn’t expecting it, but when he touched her, a jolt of awareness shimmied up his fingertips and settled in the vicinity of his chest. He barely stopped himself from stepping back. He was surprised at the struggle he had making eye contact.
When he finally forced himself to look at her—wanting to see if she was affected in any way—she was glancing down at her son. He took a deep sip of air. The slice of normalcy was over. It was past time for him to leave.
Harris opened sleepy eyes. “Momma, rock more.”
“Okay, baby, but in your room.” She stood in the doorway with the child cradled in her arms. Once more, Marcus felt that unnamed longing well up inside his chest.
“See you in the morning, Marcus. Thanks again.”
“Goodnight, Cally.”
He cruised up the attic stairs to his room to hear the rocking chair creaking over the forgotten baby monitor. He stared at it a moment debating over whether to tote it back downstairs. Cally was singing to Harris.
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word. Momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.” He remembered how she looked with Harris draped across her shoulder, moonlight shining on her hair and the boy’s face.
Nope, he needed to stay far away from Cally Burnett tonight, or he might do something he’d regret. He was doing this job by the book, no matter what.
I’m saving my career. What else is there? Too keyed up to sleep but knowing he had to at least try, he slid into bed and turned off the light.
He was reaching to turn off the monitor when her voice stopped him. “If that mockingbird don’t sing, Momma’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.”
It was more than the wanting her physically; at least he was pretty sure it was. Hell, he was too tired to puzzle out the mess at this point.
Her voice rolled over him like an ocean wave and he exhaled as the muscles in his jaw began to unclench. He left the monitor on and stacked his hands behind his head. He’d turn it off when she finished the song. He closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep with Cally’s lullaby in his head.
Chapter Four
“And then, to top it all off, I left the monitor on in the attic room and Harris had another one of his nightmares.”
“Lord, Cally. How did that happen?” Luella was laughing along with her.
“Oh, I forgot to get it when Bay and I were working in there yesterday. Harris’s crying woke up Marcus and he came down to tell me.”
“Marcus, huh?”
Cally rolled her eyes. She knew as soon as the words left her lips that Luella would notice that first-name usage.
“Don’t get excited…”
Luella snorted. “Well apparently I’m the only one around here who does, and that’s just a sad thing.”
Cally ignored her pointed remark. She’d been throwing quite a few of those out there lately.
“Then what happened?” asked Luella.
“I got Harris up and rocked him in the kitchen.”
“Where was, um…Marcus?”
“He stayed down here to drink a cup of coffee and we talked.”
“Um-huh,” Luella smacked her gum.
“I couldn’t just send him away after he’d gotten out of bed to come tell me about Harris.”
“Um-huh.” Luella smacked her gum faster.
“So we drank some coffee while Harris calmed down.”
“Um-huh.”
“Luella, quit ‘um-huhing’ me.”
“Um, um, um.”
Cally laughed. “You’re impossible. Nothing happened.”
“More’s the pity. Honey, you need a man.”
“Luella, we just talked. Actually, I talked. And while I might need a man, I don’t think he should be one of my paying guests. Believe me, Mr. North got way more information than he wanted. He is an incredible listener.”
“Why, do tell? Exactly what did you two discuss?”
“Jamie mostly, and Harris.”
Luella stopped slicing the strawberries and stared at Cally.
“I know. It was kind of weird, I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone like that since Jamie died.” She checked the casserole and spoke over her shoulder. She didn’t want to meet Luella’s eyes. “Guess I’ve been too busy.”
Luella sighed and sliced fruit in silence. Cally wanted to bite her tongue. They’d discussed this before. She was surviving widowhood, thank you very much. She’d sold the farm. She was running the bed-and-breakfast. She was raising her son. She was fine.
She never again wanted to feel the powerlessness she had after Jamie’s death. And she didn’t need a man to complicate her life. No matter what Luella said.
Cally’d made the decision to raise Harris alone when she’d found out she was pregnant. The wall she’d built around her heart the day she got that stunning news had become her fortress. Six weeks after she’d buried her husband she’d needed armor to survive that wonderful, life-changing…crushing phone call from the doctor’s office.
Pregnant and alone, she would never have survived the mind-numbingly painful days that followed without her bulletproof shield intact. When Harris was born, the wall was a way to keep well-meaning busybodies out.
Taking that wall down would be like removing part of herself. She had let Bay and Luella in. They were family and part of her. And Kevin. Her darling, wonderful, gay best friend. Kevin was family, too.
But she’d kept her distance from everyone else since Jamie died—especially attractive, straight single men. She’d stayed behind the wall. It was safe there. Southern manners made it easy.
All you had to say was, “I’m doing
