biggest weaknesses, inherited directly from her mother, was her habit of caring too quickly. She led with her emotions, and her first inclination was always to view people through rose-colored glasses.
For all she knew, Brooke would be better off with her grandparents. But Millie understood what it was like to have a father who only dropped in occasionally, always bearing toys or some other bribe for affection. Gifts couldn’t make up for the long absences, to a little girl feeling alone and deserted by someone she wanted so desperately to love her.
Brooke had already lost one parent. Millie had to help Jake see that he could be a father, that an imperfect parent who was a solid part of his daughter’s life was better than a fly-by-night dad.
She picked up the pad of paper and pen she’d found in one of the drawers and stepped forward to the kitchen table. “Let’s make a list of what needs to be done, the schedule for you and Brooke, and where I fit into everything.”
His blue eyes darkened and Millie suddenly had a clear picture of where she’d like to fit—pressed up against Jake’s lean frame. He was more than a foot taller than she, so she could imagine how safe she’d feel tucked along his side. She didn’t want to have this awareness of him—it felt new and unsettling, especially in the quiet of the evening. When Brooke was around, she was the focus of both their attention. Now Millie couldn’t help but notice every detail about Jake, from the fullness of his mouth to the broad stretch of his shoulders underneath his faded T-shirt.
She also saw the tiny lines of exhaustion bracketing the edges of his eyes. That evidence of his fatigue brought her back to the present. She wasn’t here because of her undeniable attraction to him as a man. Of course she had a reaction to him. Like Natalie said, all three of the Travers brothers were drop-dead gorgeous. Millie knew Olivia’s husband, Logan, and had met the middle brother, Josh, on her first visit to Crimson. But there was something about Jake that drew her to him in a way she’d never experienced before.
More than anything that reaffirmed her commitment to keeping their relationship strictly professional.
“Money,” she blurted.
He paused before lowering himself into the chair across from her. “Cutting right to the chase? I like it. We haven’t discussed your salary.”
“We should... I know you’ll pay me...and I want to help you... I probably should have asked yesterday but...”
“One thousand.”
“One thousand what?”
“Dollars. The majority of my rehabilitation will take place in the first month and a half, according to the doctors. By then, I’ll know if the nerve damage has healed enough for me to do surgery again. Brooke’s grandparents are coming out in two weeks, but I still want you full-time through the duration of my stay in Crimson.”
“One thousand dollars for six weeks of work?” Millie hadn’t made much working in preschools over the past couple of years, but her ability to live on a tight budget only went so far.
One side of his mouth quirked. “I’ll pay you one thousand dollars a week for six weeks. You’re staying at the house, so it’s like you’re on twenty-four-hour call. You’ll have no rent, and I’ll buy all the groceries.”
She felt her eyes widen. “I can’t accept so much money.”
“I don’t think that’s the right response,” he said with a laugh. “And I can’t cook. I buy the groceries, but you’re in charge of meals.” He patted his flat stomach. “I can’t handle another night of take-out pizza.”
“You’re a terrible negotiator,” Millie said. “No one starts with their best offer.”
His smile widened. “How do you know that’s my best offer?”
“Are you some sort of secret billionaire who can throw money around like it’s nothing?”
“I have plenty of savings and a great disability policy.” He leaned forward, the tips of his fingers brushing the back of her hand. “I believe you get what you pay for, and you’re worth what I’m offering.”
He was touching one tiny patch of her skin, but she felt the reverberation of it through her entire body. Before tonight, no one had ever thought she was worth much. She’d taken jobs in preschools and day-care centers because she liked being around kids. It had taken her years to believe she might actually have some talent for teaching. But when she’d tried to make a career of that, she’d made a mess of her college internship.
Millie knew she needed this job as much as Jake needed her. Not for the money, but because her self-confidence had been torn to shreds. She wanted to prove that she could make a difference.
For someone.
For this man.
“You won’t regret it,” she said softly, tapping her pen against the pad of paper. “Now let’s start that list.”
Jake jerked awake, pushing the covers aside as he scrambled from the bed. His heart raced as memories of the earth shaking while the hotel collapsed around him assaulted his mind. The intense pain that shot through his leg when he tried to put weight on his right foot brought him back to reality. He sank to the edge of the bed, bending forward with his hands on his knees, and took several breaths to clear his head.
Reliving those last moments of the aftershock had become a recurring nightmare. He and Stacy Smith, Millie’s mother, had never been in love—theirs was a relationship born from close proximity and convenience. But he’d cared about her and still couldn’t accept that he hadn’t been able to save her. Now a little girl—his daughter—was motherless.
For the hundredth time, he wished it would have been him instead. Sure, his brothers would have mourned him, but there was no one who needed him the way Brooke needed her mother. His daughter had been sad but accepting of her loss, a fact that only made Jake want to change the past even more, as impossible as that was. He was trying his best to honor Stacy’s request that he form a relationship with Brooke even though he continued to feel out of his element at every turn.
He glanced at the clock, then toward the window at the light peeking through the edge of the curtain. Normally his dreams woke him in the predawn hours and he’d lie awake with his guilt and panic until Brooke came in to start the morning. But if it was really close to eight, he’d slept over an hour longer than normal. Hoisting himself onto his feet, he grabbed a T-shirt from the dresser and made his way to the kitchen.
“Daddy!” Brooke called when she spotted him in the doorway that separated the back hall from the family room and kitchen. His heart twisted as she ran across the room, a plastic tiara askew on her head despite the fact that she still wore her polka-dot pajamas.
She grabbed his hand and tugged him through the family room, which was now shockingly clean compared to how it had looked the previous night.
“Me and Fairy Poppins cleaned,” Brooke said as if she could read his mind.
“Millie,” a voice called from behind the pantry door. “You know my name is Millie, Brookie-Cookie.”
His daughter
